1939 GERMAN PROPAGANDA FILM LIBERATION OF FREE CITY OF DANZIG & INVASION OF POLAND WWII XD13414

The film begins with images of the Free City of Danzig (1;08) and a title card that explains that “German Danzig“ had been cut off from the “motherland“ and made a free state by the dictate of the Treaty of Versailles. At 1:37 a card indicates that “under the protection of the English, Poland’s threats became increasingly intolerable“. It is followed by images of German soldiers putting up barbed wire and fortifying the border. At 2:25, a title card discusses the “ambush“ of a family man, police officer and member of the S.A. Joseph Wessel, and his funeral is shown on 28 August 1939. At 3:09 “defenseless“ German civilians are seen evacuating from Danzig as refugees. At 4:06 their houses are burned and livestock killed. The next card at 4:53 indicates that “even German territory“ was not spared. Scenes in the city of Beuthen (now Bytom, Poland) at 5:08 show bomb damage. At 5:27 a sign indicates the presence of an unexploded shell. At 5:56 a civilian shows off his shattered house. At 6:24 a title card mention