The Polish army defended itself bravely. Battle of the Bzura River

On the morning of September 1, 1939, the words of Zbigniew Swietochowski sounded on the airwaves of Polish Radio, informing listeners that Germany had invaded Poland. The heroic battles of Polish soldiers and civilians against the overwhelming forces of the German army remain symbols of that September.

The battles on the Bzura River, near Wizna, the defense of, among others, went down in history: Gdansk Post Office, Westerplatte, Hel, or Warsaw. Also the hope for help from Great Britain and France. Polish authorities were interned in Romania, and 17 days after the outbreak of war with Germany came the Soviet Union's aggression against Poland.

Thus, after the meeting of the two armies at Brest-on-the-Bug, Poland became the prey of two totalitarianisms, as confirmed by the Soviet-German protocol on the demarcation line between the armies of the two aggressors on September 20. On September 28, when Warsaw capitulated, and on October 2, Hel, the Polish exile authorities were established in France, initially with headquarters in Paris, then in Angers.

On October 5, in the Polish capital, Adolf Hitler received the parade of German troops, and soon issued an order to create a “General Government for the occupied Polish areas” from the lands not incorporated into the Reich.

In the areas occupied by both the Germans and the Soviets, brutal repressions against the population began. The Germans arrested the commissioner of civilian defense of Warsaw, Stefan Starzynski, imprisoned in concentration camps professors from Cracow, among others, and the Soviets imprisoned officers and non-commissioned officers of the Polish Army in Kozielsk, Starobielsk, Ostashkov. At the same time, the underground army was being born.
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Prof. Andrzej Nowak (historian, publicist, sovietologist, author of the book series “History of Poland”) / The outbreak of World War II (Living History/ One) 25.05.2019