This photo gets posted every time the molotov-ribbentrop pact comes up, and i mean it does a decent job at illustrating the point that the pact wasn't some isolated, unique act of evil from the USSR, but the problem is it contains blatant misinformation, tons of typos, just generally does not seem well prepared.
- There is no "1938 German-British Non-Aggression Pact", there never was one. It is likely just referring to the munich agreement, where the british, french, italian and german governments agreed to pressure czechoslovakia to surrender their border regions to nazi germany under the guise of the ethnic german majority there. Which is arguably way worse than a non aggression pact, but still important to get the facts right.
- There is no "1939 German-Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact", this one is especially disingenuous because what this is likely referring to is an ultimatum presented to lithuania by the nazis, where they were basically like "ok give us this region of your country or we will invade you and bomb your capital". It is beyond fucked up to present this as an equivalent to a mutual agreement.
- Including countries like Italy, Japan and Romania in this list is completely counter to the point trying to be made, considering those were ALLIES of germany. Like why is the pact of steel included in this?
What MĂźller reveals is the extent of common ground in Polish/German relations up to 1939. As MĂźller points out, Polish historiography today interprets this period as âa policy of maintaining an equilibrium between Hitler and Stalinâ (p. 75), which MĂźller insists from German and Japanese sources is very far from the case.
Indeed, Polish foreign policy conveyed the impression that an accommodation with Nazi Germany, framed by a common anti-Soviet alliance, was seriously pursued by Warsaw. Ultimately, the Polish government faltered at the price of making territorial concessions to Hitler and the fear of surrendering its independent foreign policy in Eastern Europe.
Yet, as a testament to the development of German/Polish relations, MĂźller also notes the willingness of both sides to deal with their so-called âJewish problemâ. The Polish ambassador to Berlin, Jozef Lipski, even promised Hitler âa nice monument in Warsawâ (p. 101) if a method could be found to force Polandâs large Jewish population to emigrate.
[Enemy in the East. Hitlerâs Secret Plans to Invade the Soviet Union in1939](https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/132/554/194/2849465)
Nazi Germany tried to get Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, which at the time stylized and advertised itself as [a "defensive alliance"](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v07p1/d451) in very similar ways as [a certain modern military alliance](https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2003/06/01/rethinking-nato/index.html) insists on, while bombing, invading, and occupying other countries very offensively.
Back in the 30s the plan was for the Anti-Comintern Pact to attack the Soviet Union in 1939, the Nazis wanted to get the Poles on board with this because to attack the Soviet Union they would have needed to go through Poland.
But having Poland be hostile in such a scenario would only complicate things, so they tried to get them on-board.