Franciszek Honiok: The First Victim of World War II

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I'm getting ready to release the next book in my series called The Bloodlands, which means I'm doing a whole bunch of research again (mostly on WWII). I figured it was time to dust this fledgling blog off and post some of my research here. 

Recently I ran across something called The Gleiwitz Incident, which is also considered the incident that started World War II. For a war that had such a profound impact on the world, it seems a bit odd to me that it isn't common knowledge.

This specific incident is hugely influential for an incident that takes place in An Elegy for Hope. It's tragic and awful, and I think it's really sad that more people don't know about Franciszek Honiok, and what happened.

So, what is it? Let me tell you. Click on the links in my text for more information. Scroll to the end for further reading.

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First of all, to understand why any of what happened happened, you've got to understand why Poland was such a big deal to Hitler. 



You see, back during the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ended up losing a bunch of territory. Part of the territory they lost became what was known as Poland. Hitler saw this as a huge, huge offense against the German people, and he wanted that territory back. Of course, this caused problems. Some Polish people were ethnic Germans, some weren't. Some wanted to be part of Germany, some didn't. Poland had its own government, and they certainly wanted to remain their own people. So, long before anything else in World War II happened, Poland was already fraught with strife and protests, arrests, and a lot of tension. 

In March of 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, explaining to everyone that he was, basically, just trying to return German lands to the German people. Logically, the next step was Poland. As this article from Time Magazine says, 

“Hitler had proven, by tearing up the Munich agreement and invading Czechoslovakia in March of that year, that he could not be trusted and that he had to be stopped,” Bouverie says. By falsely claiming that he only wanted to fix damage done to Germany from World War I and restore German lands to German people, Hitler had previously been able to convince his counterparts—already wary of war—to hold off. “Both of these claims are proven as lies when he invades Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and the British government realizes that he is intent upon wider European conquest—possibly domination.”

So basically Poland was up there watching what was happening to their neighbors in Czechoslovakia, and getting really nervous. Tensions were high. The populous was divided along many lines. Hitler was like, "I want my land back from Poland" and Poland was like, "No." And things sort of went from there. 

This brings us to September, 1939. Hitler decided a while ago that he has to invade Poland, but he can't just go in there, guns blazing. He needs a reason, something that allows him to say, "Look, I'm not the bad guy here..." After what happened in Czechoslovakia, the world is watching him. France and England, specifically, have told him if he pulls any funny business, it's war and Hitler knows he has to be careful. So, how do you invade a country without getting the rest of the world riled up? You figure out a justification for it. 

The contested lands in Poland had once been part of Germany, so there were a lot of ethnic Germans over there in Poland now, and Hitler and his dudes (Specifically Himmler and Heydrich) came up with this idea. "Hey," one of these repugnant pukes said, "How about we sort of stir the pot a bit. What if we send some dudes in and dress them to look Polish and... you know... show how the German people are victims of Polish aggression. This will justify any invasion. Then we aren't the aggressors. We're protecting our people!" 

So, Operation Himmler (also known as Operation Konserve or Operation Canned Goods) was born. The plan itself was created by Himmler, and overseen by Heydrich, which is why it was called "Operation Himmler". 

The operation started in 1939 with propaganda planted by Hitler which addressed supposed Polish aggression against ethnic Germans. If you read any history, you know how effective propaganda is to stir things up and sell people your line.

The operation itself was originally planned for August 26, but due to diplomatic reasons, it was put off until August 31-September 1. 

The operations themselves were mostly carried out in German border towns, most of which lay within Polish borders today, but in 1939, towns like Gleiwitz were right there on the border, and thus, perfect for false flag operations like this. Essentially, German soldiers, (mostly SS and SD) would dress in Polish uniforms, and vandalize, scare the locals with gunshots, and retreat, and leave behind bodies in Polish uniforms (here). 

The bodies, mostly, were prisoners taken from concentrations camps who had been killed by lethal injection. They were left for dead, and shot from behind to make it look like they were killed during the incident. They were called "konserve" or "canned goods" which became the nickname for this operation.

According to Wikipedia, there were numerous staged incidents, a list of which follow: 

The Gleiwitz Incident



In 1930, the Gleiwitz Radio Station was known for being a powerful tool for the dissemination of German propaganda. It also rested in one of those border towns I mentioned above. Now, it's well within the boundary of Poland, but back in 1939, it was on the edge of everything, and important due to that. 

On August 30, 1939, German SS officers arrested a man named Franciszek Honiok. Honiok was an ethnic Pole living in Germany. As HistoryNet says: 

Honiok had most likely been selected for his grim role from a file in Gestapo headquarters, far away on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin. If anything, he was rather too well qualified. Born in Upper Silesia in 1896, he had fought on the Polish side during the Silesian Uprisings that followed World War I. After a brief spell living in Poland, he returned to Germany in 1925, where he was forced to fight deportation back to Poland—a case he successfully pursued all the way to the League of Nations in Geneva. Though his firebrand days may have been over by 1939, Honiok was still well known in his German home village of Hohenlieben—about 10 miles north of Gleiwitz—as a staunch advocate of the Polish cause.

On August 30, 1939, Honiok was arrested by the Gestapo. Kept in a file room overnight, he was given food and water. Then, the following day, he was moved to a police station in Gleiwitz. He was kept off all paperwork, showing that likely the Nazis wanted him to be untraceable. 

Meanwhile, Alfred Naujocks, and seven SS men were waiting word for action. Naujocks was a 27 year old up and comer in the SS. He knew he had an important mission. This strike he was in charge of was the one that would give Hitler all the room he needed to declare war on Poland. Historynet (above linked article) says Naujocks was described as an "intelligent gangster". When, on August 31, he got the call from Heydrich saying, "Grandmother has died" he knew it was time to act. He and his seven men mobilized. 

Naujocks


So, on the night of August 31, 1939, Naujocks and his seven men mobilized. This was their moment. This was the incident that would justify Hitler's war on Poland. 

Into the radio station they went. 

The Gleiwitz Radio Station had a microphone that could be used to interrupt radio signals in the surrounding area. This was to be used in case of an emergency. Naujocks and his crew couldn't figure out how to hook the microphone up, so he hauled the staff of the radio station up at gunpoint, forcing them all to try to hook it up until one finally did it and put out the call "Attention! This is Gliwice. The broadcasting station is in Polish Hands." The message was supposed to be sent by the (fictional, I believe) political group called the Polish Freedom Committee. Supposedly, this was meant to be a call to arms, telling the Polish people in Germany to rise up, subvert and make life hell for Germans and Germany authority. Then, the Polish army would come and liberate them. "But for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, only the first nine words were broadcast—and those only to the district of Gleiwitz itself. The remainder was lost in a cacophony of static." (Historynet)

[Honiok] had been arrested the previous day by the Gestapo and dressed to look like a saboteur, then killed by lethal injection and given gunshot wounds. Honiok was left dead at the scene so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was then presented to the police and press as proof of the attack. Several prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were drugged, shot dead on the site and their faces disfigured to make identification impossible. (here, also, some sources say he was not killed by lethal injection but was still unconscious when he was delivered to Naujocks, and then killed via gunshot to the head.)

Around 8pm, Honiok was delivered to the radio station and deposited near the back door. Someone shot him in the head. Apparently later, when Naujocks was on trial, he claimed he never knew who the guy was, had no idea how he got there, didn't even know his name. However, the body was all the evidence that Hitler needed to invade. He was proof of Polish aggression against Germans, and he was the excuse needed to start off World War II. In Germany, the press had been prepared, and in the morning headlines about what had happened began to churn out. Already, troops were moving. World War II had begun, and Honiok was its first victim. On September 1, 1939, Case White was launched and by the time most Germans were reading the newspaper, Hitler had already began his invasion.



Naujocks went on to become a sort of James Bond-like character working under Heydrich. At the end of the war, he surrendered himself to US troops. He eventually died nothing more than a footnote in history. According to Historynet, he left behind a biography with an Austrian journalist, the first line of which read, "I am the man who started the war."

Now, the radio station is a museum in Gliwice, Poland. 




Further reading: 

The Man Who Started World War II

How a False Flag Operation Started World War II: The Gleiwitz Incident

Gleiwitz Incident: Wikipedia

Franciszek Honiok: Wikipedia

The Invasion of Poland Wasn't Hitler's First Aggression. Here's Why That Move Marked The Start of World War II: Time Magazine

Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II by Roger Moorhouse


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