Gleiwitz Incident

The Gleiwitz incident occurred on the evening of August 31, 1939, when SS operatives under the command of Heinrich Müller and Reinhard Heydrich staged an attack on the German radio station near the Polish border. The operation, codenamed "Operation Himmler," was designed to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, providing Adolf Hitler with a justification for the invasion of Poland.

SS men dressed in Polish military uniforms seized the radio station and broadcast an anti-German message in Polish, claiming that the time had come for conflict between Poland and Germany. To make the attack appear authentic, the SS brought a condemned German criminal, Franciszek Honiok, dressed him in a Polish uniform, shot him, and left his body at the scene as evidence of the supposed Polish raid.

The incident was one of several false flag operations conducted along the German-Polish border that night, all intended to demonstrate Polish "aggression" and provide Hitler with the casus belli he needed for military action. The Nazi propaganda machine immediately publicized the attacks, with German newspapers reporting Polish "provocations" against German territory.

Hitler referenced the Gleiwitz incident in his speech to the Reichstag on September 1, 1939, claiming that Poland had fired the first shots. The invasion began at dawn that same day, marking the start of World War II in Europe. The Gleiwitz incident was later exposed during the Nuremberg trials through testimony by SS officer Alfred Naujocks, who had participated in the operation and revealed its true nature as a Nazi deception.