Adolf Hitler – proclamation to the German Wehrmacht

Berlin, September 1, 1939

To the Wehrmacht!

The Polish State has rejected the peaceful regulation of neighborly relations I have striven for and has appealed to arms.

The Germans in Poland are being persecuted by bloody terror and are being driven from their homesteads. A series of frontier violations, of a nature not tolerable for a great power, proves that the Poles are no longer willing to respect the German Reich’s frontiers. To put an end to this lunacy, there remains no other recourse for me but to meet force with force.

The German Wehrmacht will conduct this struggle in the defense of the honor and the vital rights of the resurrected German Volk with adamant determination.

I expect that every soldier, in acknowledgment of the great and eternal German military tradition, will do his duty to the last.

Be aware, in each and every circumstance, that you are in fact the representatives of the National Socialist Greater Germany.

Long live our Volk and our Reich!

Berlin, September 1, 1939                                                                                                                                                                                                            Adolf Hitler