I wonder how many people know these days what the Danzig Corridor was.
How many kids in school in Germany actually learn about it usw.
The fact remains though that its place in the history of the 20th century is extremely significant. The city of Danzig (now Gdansk, a completely Polish city) was left by the Treaty of Versailles as part of Germany, while it was surrounded by Polish territory. The Poles apparently wanted to end the anomaly by taking the city over by peaceful means. Hitler's Nazis refused to hear of it, and eventually it led to the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War.
What led up to this invasion though was the full purpose usage of Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine. There is propaganda based upon truth and fact. There is propaganda based on hearsay. And then there is propaganda based upon blatant lying.
In the case of the Danzig corridor, the last of these was definitely the case. The American historian, William Manchester, gathered together the following series of fabrications from the Goebbels propaganda machine (I quote from the website ww2db.com without permission, I hope that that is not a problem):
"In Karlsruhe the daily paper carried the headline 'WARSAW THREATENS BOMBARDMENT OF DANZIG - UNBELIEVABLE AGITATION ON THE POLISH ARCHMADNESS!' 'POLEN, GIB ACHT!' ('POLAND, LOOK OUT!') warned the Berliner Arbeiterzeitung; 'ANSWER TO POLAND, THE RUNNER-AMOK (AMOKLÄUFER) AGAINST PEACE AND RIGHT IN EUROPE!' On Saturday, August 26, the Zwölf-Uhr Blatt reported: 'THIS PLAYING WITH FIRE GOING TOO FAR - THREE GERMAN PASSENGER PLANES SHOT AT BY POLES - IN CORRIDOR MANY GERMAN FARMHOUSES IN FLAMES!' The banner headline in the Berliner Arbeiterzeitung that day read, 'COMPLETE CHAOS IN POLAND - GERMAN FAMILIES FLEE - POLISH SOLDIERS PUSH TO EDGE OF GERMAN BORDER!' Goebbels saved his masterpiece for the Sunday Völkischer Beobachter: 'ALL OF POLAND IN A WAR FEVER! 1.5 MILLION MEN MOBILIZED! UNINTERRUPTED TROOP TRANSPORT TOWARD FRONTIER! CHAOS IN UPPER SILESIA!'"
Blatant mistruths, rousing the fear and animosity of the people, and justifying an unjustifiable invasion. The stronger party pretending to be the weaker party, the offender appearing to be the offended usw.
Now check out the latest Rick Santorum video on the Internet about what will happen if Obama is re-elected. Iran becomes Poland, the weak quivering USA has to face the almighty Iranians, and everyone is afraid. Except for the fact that the video is based at best upon hearsay, and at worst blatant mistruths. The most overriding piece of nonsense concerns Iran's missile capability. As things stand the furthest their longest term missile can fly is just about to the edge of Eastern Europe. The capacity to build one that will fly over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean simply does not exist!
Fear-mongering for the sake of it. Fear-mongering to justify an unnecessary invasion by the stronger power against the weaker power. And to appeal to the ignorant to cast votes for his completely absurd agenda.
Not that I like the Iranian regime, as anyone who reads this blog knows! But an unjustifiable war (see Iraq) morally damages the perpetrator. If you want to hold the moral high ground, you do not indulge yourself with unnecessary invasions.
And I doubt whether Mr Santorum's supporters will understand this, but the damage to the reputation of the US caused by the Iraq war took some time to mend. In 2003, people in 41 countries were asked who was a greater danger to world peace, Saddam Hussein or George W. Bush. In 37 of those countries the clear answer was Bush, and 2 of the others had a near dead-heat.
It is curious that anyone could show sympathy to Saddam, any more than they could to the mullahs in Teheran. But Santorum's approach to this situation is exactly the right one to attract the sort of sympathy that Iran does not deserve!
I would suggest (when he ends up losing his campaign), he goes back and looks at the lessons of history, the use of dubious propaganda, and events like those involving the Danzig Corridor.
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