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Hitler's 1 September 1939 Reichstag speech is a speech made by Adolf Hitler at an Extraordinary Session of the German Reichstag on 1 September 1939, the day of the German invasion of Poland. The speech served as public declaration of war against Poland and thus of the commencement of World War II.
The first shots of the invasion had been fired at around 4:48 am of September 1, by the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. At 5:40 am Hitler issued a declaration to the armed forces: "The Polish state has refused the peaceful settlement of relations which I desired, and appealed to arms... In order to put an end to this lunacy I have no other choice than to meet force with force from now on." At 11:40 am, the German Supreme Command issued a proclamation to the troops , and this was followed later in the day by Hitler's speech to the Reichstag, meeting at the Kroll Opera House.
Although some statements in the speech were true, overall it was an "astonishing catalog of lies". Hitler misrepresented in detail the course of diplomatic events preceding the invasion:
I have also tried to solve the problem of Danzig, the Corridor, etc., by proposing a peaceful discussion... In my talks with Polish statesmen I discussed the ideas which you recognize from my last speech to the Reichstag... there is nothing more modest or loyal than these proposals... These proposals have been refused. Not only were they answered first with mobilization, but with increased terror and pressure against our German compatriots... Poland was not prepared to settle the Corridor question in a reasonable way... I made one more final effort to accept a proposal for mediation... For two whole days I sat with my Government and waited to see whether it was convenient for the Polish Government to send a plenipotentiary or not... Deputies, if the German Government and its Leader patiently endured such treatment Germany would deserve only to disappear from the political stage. But I am wrongly judged if my love of peace and my patience are mistaken for weakness or even cowardice... These proposals for mediation have failed...