Hitler was planning to invade Poland and this pact meant that he need not worry about the USSR reacting aggressively from the east. By taking western Poland, he would gain the strategically important port city of Danzig (modern Gdansk) and reclaim the ‘Polish Corridor’ and a lot of former German territory.
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.
LITHUANIA Kaunas Gdansk THIRD REICH Bydgoszcz Poznan Warsaw Lodz Wroclaw
General Government Lublin
Kielce Katowice Krakow Lviv SLOVAKIA Vienna
Area to be incorporated into Germany
Bratislava AUSTRIA
Area to be occupied by Germany
Budapest
Area to be incorporated into the Soviet Union
Area to be incorporated into Slovakia
The division of Poland agreed under the Nazi–Soviet Pact CHECKPOINT!
1. Who attended the Munich Conference? Why did it take place? 2. What was agreed there? 3. What was the result of the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia? 4. What did Hitler and Stalin agree in the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact? 5. How did World War II begin?
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I can explain the Munich Conference, its consequences and the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.
TIME TO GO BACK I CAN MOVE FORWARD Ternopil Stanislaviv
SOVIET RUSSIA Lutsk
Bialystok Pinsk Konigsberg East Prussia Navahrudak Wilnius Minsk
Go to page 148 of your Sources and Skills Book for an evidence task on the Nazi–Soviet Pact.
