Poland 1939: How Hitler and Stalin Split a Country in 5 Weeks

Poland 1939: how Hitler and Stalin split a country of 35 million people in just 36 days. This animated map documentary follows the invasion of Poland, the campaign that opened the Second World War, from a secret line drawn in Moscow to the last surrender at Kock. Britain and France had guaranteed Polish independence, but on 23 August 1939 Ribbentrop and Molotov signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe along the Narew, Vistula and San rivers. After the staged Gleiwitz incident, German bombers struck Wieluń and the Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on Westerplatte. We trace the cavalry myth at Krojanty and Mokra, the "Polish Thermopylae" at Wizna, the Bzura counteroffensive, the Saar Offensive that never came, and the siege of Warsaw. Then, on 17 September, the Red Army crossed the eastern frontier, wrecking the Romanian Bridgehead plan and turning a lost war into a partition, from the German-Soviet parade at Brest-Litovsk to the occupation that led to Katyn. 0:00 A Line on a Secret Map 1:14 Trapped by Geography 2:30 The Secret Deal in Moscow 5:37 Germany's Invasion Machine 8:16 Fake Attack, Real Bombs 11:01 The Cavalry Myth Exposed 15:32 Wizna and Warsaw Surrounded 18:17 Last Gamble at the Bzura 23:20 Stalin Strikes from the East 30:44 The Price of Partition Sources: Avalon Project, Secret Additional Protocol (23 Aug 1939): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/a... Avalon Project, German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty (28 Sep 1939): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/g... US Office of the Historian, FRUS 1939 vol. I, telegram from Warsaw (30 Aug 1939): https://history.state.gov/historicaldocume... Chamberlain's guarantee to Poland, House of Commons (31 Mar 1939): https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/pre-war... Resolution of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies (24 Dec 1989): https://histdoc.net/history/1989-12-24%20R... ENRS, "Bombing of Wieluń – Polish Guernica": https://enrs.eu/article/bombing-of-wielun-... Britannica, "Invasion of Poland": https://www.britannica.com/print/article/2... HistoryOfWar.org, "Campaign in Poland 1939": https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/camp... Warfare History Network, "Polish Cavalry Myth Debunked": https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/polish-c... Wilson Center, "Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre": https://wilsoncenter.org/event/commemorati... Invasion of Poland (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_... Soviet invasion of Poland (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invas... Maps: drawn by Wars in Ink · base data Natural Earth (public domain) · terrain AWS Terrain Tiles · Illustrations: original artwork created for this channel (AI-assisted) · Archival art: historical photographs via Wikimedia Commons · Music: YouTube Audio Library Image credits: IPPA photographer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) #history #documentary #ww2