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Operation Himmler, also calledOperation Konserve, consisted of a group of 1939false flag undertakings planned byNazi Germany to give the appearance ofPolish aggression against Germany. The Germans then used propaganda reports of the events to justify theirinvasion of Poland, which started on 1 September 1939. Operation Himmler included the Germans staging false attacks on themselves—directed at innocent people, such as civilians andconcentration camp prisoners. The operation arguably became the first act of theSecond World War inEurope.[1]
Prior to the 1939 invasion, German newspapers and politicians likeAdolf Hitler carried out a national and internationalpropaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of organizing or tolerating violentethnic cleansing ofethnic Germans living in Poland.[2][3]
The plan, named after its originator,Heinrich Himmler,[1] was supervised byReinhard Heydrich[4] and managed[5] byHeinrich Müller.[1][4] The goal of thisfalse flag project was to create the appearance ofPolish aggression against Germany, which could be used tojustify theGerman invasion of Poland. Hitler also might have hoped to confuse Poland's allies, theUnited Kingdom andFrance, into delaying or stopping their declaration of war on Germany.[6]
The operations were mostly carried out on 31 August.[7] The operation, as well as the main German offensive, was originally scheduled for 26 August; the shifting diplomatic situation resulted in delay until 31 August and 1 September. The operations were carried out by agents of theSS[7] and theSD.[8] The German troops, dressed in Polish uniforms, would storm various border buildings, scare the locals with inaccurate shots, carry out acts of vandalism, retreat and leave behind dead bodies in Polish uniforms.[8]The bodies were really prisoners fromconcentration camps who were dressed in Polish uniforms, killed bylethal injection, shot for appearances and left behind. They were described in plans asKonserve: canned goods, which also led to the informal name of the operation,Operation Konserve.[1][7][9][10]
There were several separate operations, including staged attacks on the following:
On the night of 31 August a small group of German operatives, dressed in Polish uniforms and led byAlfred Naujocks, seized the Gleiwitz radio station and broadcast a shortanti-German message inPolish (sources vary on the content of the message). Several prisoners (most likely from theDachau concentration camp) and a local Polish-Silesian activist (arrested a day earlier) were left dead on the scene in Polish uniforms.[9][12]
In his1 September speech to the Reichstag announcing war, Hitler cited the 21 border incidents as justification for Germany's "defensive" action against Poland:
I can no longer find any willingness on the part of the Polish Government to conduct serious negotiations with us. These proposals for mediation have failed because in the meanwhile there, first of all, came as an answer to the sudden Polish general mobilization, followed by more Polish atrocities. These were again repeated last night. Recently in one night, there were as many as twenty-one frontier incidents: last night there were fourteen, of which three were quite serious. I have, therefore, resolved to speak to Poland in the same language that Poland for months past has used toward us...This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory. Since 5:45 a. m., we have been returning the fire... I will continue this struggle, no matter against whom, until the safety of the Reich and its rights are secured[2]
By mid-1939, thousands of PolishVolksdeutsche had been secretly prepared for sabotage and guerrilla warfare by theBreslau (Wrocław) office of theAbwehr. Their activities were meant to provoke anti-German reprisals that could be claimed as provocations.[13]
The German agents indeed co-operated with the German forces during the invasion of Poland, which led to some reprisals that were highly exaggerated by the German propaganda.[13][14][15] One of the most notable cases of such a scenario was reportedly carried out duringBydgoszcz Bloody Sunday. An instruction issued by the Ministry of Propaganda stated that the press
must show news on the barbarism of Poles in Bromberg. The expression "bloody sunday" must enter as a permanent term in the dictionary and circumnavigate the globe. For that reason, this term must be continuously underlined.[16]
The operation convinced very little international opinion about the German claims.[6]
31. On 1 September, the day of the beginning of the battle against Poland, Hitler's speech in the Reichstag gave the instructions for the press, especially as to the ticklish problem of the attitude of the Western powers.(what displays as page 188 on bottom of page is page 193/1125 of this PDF)
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