![]() ![]() This was not actually the case, but Hitler used it as an excuse to place German troops along the Czech border.ĭuring this situation, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew to meet Hitler at his private mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden in an attempt to resolve the crisis. Hitler claimed that 300 Sudeten Germans had been killed. Sudeten Germans began protests and provoked violence from the Czech police. ![]() In September 1938 he turned his attention to the three million Germans living in part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. When Adolf Hitler came to power, he wanted to unite all Germans into one nation. As a result of this, three million Germans found themselves now living in part of Czechoslovakia. In 1987 Pope John Paul II chose Westerplatte for a meeting with young people.After the First World War, the map of Europe was re-drawn and several new countries were formed. During the peaceful ‘Solidarity’ revolution in 1980, the cross which had been removed by the Communists was brought back. Visiting heads of state and official delegations were often invited to Westerplatte, and mass military swearing-in ceremonies were held on its grounds. Westerplatte thus became a national monument for the Poles. Five years later, in an emotional ceremony, Major Sucharski’s ashes were buried at the Westerplatte cemetery. A monument to the ‘Defenders of the Polish Coast’ was erected in 1966. At first the Communist authorities disliked this spontaneous veneration of pre-communist heroism, but since the late fifties they embraced it as useful propaganda for the People’s Republic. Then they ran out of ammunition and their commander, Major Sucharski, was forced to surrender.Īfter the War, surviving defenders of the Depot placed a cross on the peninsula and created a small cemetery. For seven days the defenders held out against overwhelming odds. The small Polish garrison fiercely defended the Depot against infantry assaults and heavy bombardments by the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, Stuka dive bombers and land-based artillery. When the Germans invaded Poland on the morning of 1 September 1939, the Depot was their first objective and the attack is therefore considered to be the beginning of the Second World War. The Military Transit Depot on Westerplatte was constructed in 1924 to enable Poland, that regained independence as a result of the First World War, to trans-ship military supplies within the Free City of Gdańsk. ![]()
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