With one of the articles of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, had ordered to determine whether the territory should be part of Germany or Poland, which states that the city of Gleiwitz, rich in coal mines, and Upper Silesia, with its a the lower class majority of ethnic Poles, while the middle and upper class were German Protestants (businessmen, landowners, factory workers, local government workers), the League of Nations ordered that the city must go through a series of votes whether or not they want to remain under German or Polish administration.
Upper Silesia was rich in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines, iron and steel mills. Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germany's annual production of coal, 81 percent of its zinc, and 34 percent of its lead. After World War I, during the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles, the German government claimed that without Upper Silesia it would not be able to meet its reparations obligations to the Allies.
With 2/3 of the population voting to remain in the Weimar Republic, the highly nationalistic Polish military junta quickly assembled an invasion force and took the city by force, while also invading the rest of Silesia. The Polish insurgents, who had been supported since 1919, also prevented paramilitary and police forces from stopping them. They also occupied various villages and looted and plundered German homes, killing the German families inside.
The Reichswehr, composed mainly of resistance fighters, and the Freikorps, composed of disbanded military corps, rushed to Silesia and planned to intercept the invasion force. They crushed various overstretched Polish insurgents and executed the most despicable of the surrendered militia.
Unfortunately, the League of Nations and its permanent members (Iris Orthodoxy, British Empire) vehemently opposed this and even said that the vote of the people was rigged. The government of the Weimar Republic, on the other hand, ordered to intercept and neutralize the Polish forces and push them back to their side of the border.
After a fierce back and forth, with heavy casualties on both sides (including civilians due to the urban fighting), the League of Nations ordered both sides to cease fire or the French and British administration peacekeepers (supervising the Polish Corridor) would intervene. Since it was still unknown which side would do so, German and Polish diplomats managed to cool the tensions and agreed to a ceasefire.
It took only 15 days to reach one thousand military casualties, another two thousand wounded or missing, and another five hundred civilian casualties (dead, wounded, missing), mainly in Breslau, Gleiwitz, and other towns and villages. In the end, it was decided to divide Upper Silesia into Polish and German territories. Poland (later Intermarium) received one third of Upper Silesia, while the Weimar Republic kept the remaining two thirds, but had to give up its rights to the coal mines, which were now in Polish possession.
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10th of February 1942
Silesia, Gleiwitz
abandoned factory complex
dilapidated industrial district
Time: 0900 hours
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In an abandoned factory, once owned by a German businessman, but left to decay after the Polish uprisings and its fall to the Polish side of Silesia, a meeting of the secret took place. Two sides, with different intentions and goals, met in this secluded district, left to the wilderness, slowly reclaimed by Mother Nature.
In this place, several worn-out men of ethnic Polish descent gathered to prepare for an uprising that many could only dream of. With the establishment of the Intermarium, many nationalist Poles felt betrayed, abandoned, and thrown under the bus. The Polish Republic, established in 1916 and officially recognized in 1919, changed its name, expanded its borders, and finally welcomed newer minorities into its population, be they Lithuanians, Germans, Slovaks, Belarussians, and many others.
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