The Gleiwitz Radio Tower Incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a false flag operation by Nazi forces masquerading as Poles against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Germany on the eve of World War II in Europe. It was intended to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany in order to justify the subsequent invasion of Poland. The false flag attack was organized under orders from Reinhard Heydrich.
On the night of August 31, 1939, a small group of German operatives dressed in Polish uniforms seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish. The Germans' goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs.
The attackers mistakenly believed that the small building directly under the tower was the station from where the broadcasts originated. (The building is merely where the transmitter is located. The station itself was several miles away.) However they managed to find a backup channel used for broadcasting local weather information in emergencies, so they were still able to transmit their fake Polish message. German radio listeners heard the “Polish message” being broadcast and believed the German tower was being attacked by Poles.
To make the attack seem even more convincing, the Germans used human props to pass them off as Polish attackers. They murdered Franciszek Honiok, a 43-year-old unmarried German Catholic farmer, known for sympathizing with the Poles. He was arrested and dressed to look like a saboteur, then killed by lethal injection, given gunshot wounds, and left dead at the scene so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was subsequently presented as proof of the attack to the police and press.
In addition to Honiok, several prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were dressed in Polish uniforms, drugged, shot dead on the site, and had their faces smashed up to make identification impossible.
The false flag attack was successful. Germans believed that the German tower had been attacked by Poles and the very next day Hitler had the perfect excuse to declare war on Poland, thus sparking World War II.
On the night of August 31, 1939, a small group of German operatives dressed in Polish uniforms seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish. The Germans' goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs.
The attackers mistakenly believed that the small building directly under the tower was the station from where the broadcasts originated. (The building is merely where the transmitter is located. The station itself was several miles away.) However they managed to find a backup channel used for broadcasting local weather information in emergencies, so they were still able to transmit their fake Polish message. German radio listeners heard the “Polish message” being broadcast and believed the German tower was being attacked by Poles.
To make the attack seem even more convincing, the Germans used human props to pass them off as Polish attackers. They murdered Franciszek Honiok, a 43-year-old unmarried German Catholic farmer, known for sympathizing with the Poles. He was arrested and dressed to look like a saboteur, then killed by lethal injection, given gunshot wounds, and left dead at the scene so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was subsequently presented as proof of the attack to the police and press.
In addition to Honiok, several prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were dressed in Polish uniforms, drugged, shot dead on the site, and had their faces smashed up to make identification impossible.
The false flag attack was successful. Germans believed that the German tower had been attacked by Poles and the very next day Hitler had the perfect excuse to declare war on Poland, thus sparking World War II.