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119-693: In the Wołyń Voivodeship in eastern Poland , the German minority is oppressed by the Polish majority. The physician Dr. Thomas does not have any hospital available and his daughter Marie, who teaches at a German school, and needs an important operation, watches when her school is seized by Polish authorities and demolished by an angry mob. Dr. Thomas protests to the mayor, noting the constitutionally guaranteed minority rights ; however his protest falls on deaf ears. Marie and her fiancé, Dr. Fritz Mutius, drive to

238-494: A British-Polish alliance led to a restructuring of strategy towards Moscow. Alfred Rosenberg wrote that he had spoken to Hermann Göring of the potential pact with the Soviet Union: "When Germany's life is at stake, even a temporary alliance with Moscow must be contemplated". Sometime in early May 1939 at Berghof , Ribbentrop showed Hitler a film of Stalin viewing his military in a recent parade. Hitler became intrigued with

357-548: A definition of "indirect aggression" became one of the sticking points between the parties, and by mid-July, the tripartite political negotiations effectively stalled while the parties agreed to start negotiations on a military agreement, which the Soviets insisted had to be reached at the same time as any political agreement. One day before the military negotiations began, the Soviet Politburo pessimistically expected

476-518: A dozen high schools, employing 4,500 teachers. The new projects in towns and cities – which were virtually abandoned by the imperial powers – included city halls and magistrates, post offices, state police buildings, financial institutions, hospitals, and health clinics. In 1928 the Lwów railway line via Stojanów was inaugurated. The roads were being paved on a massive scale. Around 1925 telephone and telegraph lines were built, connecting post offices across

595-451: A dozen-fold increase in wheat production between 1922/23 and 1936/37. By 1937, the voivodeship was home to 760 factories, employing 16,555 workers. Mining, forestry, and food production provided employment for 14,206 persons. Workers laid-off from industrial plants were also the most likely to start new businesses. In terms of ethnic composition among new business owners, 72,6% were Jewish, 24% Ukrainian, and 23% Polish. The province went through

714-511: A dramatic decline in German–Soviet trade. Imports of Soviet goods to Germany fell to 223 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ in 1934 by the more isolationist Stalinist regime asserting power and by the abandonment of postwar Treaty of Versailles military controls, both of which decreased Germany's reliance on Soviet imports. In 1935 Germany, after a previous German–Polish declaration of non-aggression , through Hermann Goring proposed

833-506: A flurry of suggestions and counterplans on a potential political and military agreement. Informal consultations started in April, but the main negotiations began only in May. Meanwhile, throughout early 1939, Germany had secretly hinted to Soviet diplomats that it could offer better terms for a political agreement than could Britain and France. The Soviet Union, which feared Western powers and

952-534: A limousine operated by the NKVD to travel to Red Square . The limousine arrived close to Stalin's office and was greeted by Alexander Poskrebyshev , the chief of Stalin's personal chancellery. The Germans were led up a flight of stairs to a room with lavish furnishings. Stalin and Molotov greeted the visitors, much to the Nazis' surprise. It was well known that Stalin avoided meeting foreign visitors, and so his presence at

1071-572: A major public scandal. The film's rights are held by Taurus Film GmbH. The Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force 's report on the film stated that the film was meant "to show that Germany had no choice but to save the German minority from persecution by declaring war on the Poles" and "to give the main figures an opportunity for making Nazi speeches". Wo%C5%82y%C5%84 Voivodeship (1921%E2%80%931939) Wołyń Voivodeship or Wołyń Province

1190-813: A military alliance with Poland against the Soviet Union, but this was rejected. In 1936, Germany and Fascist Italy supported the Spanish Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War , but the Soviets supported the Spanish Republic . Thus, the Spanish Civil War became a proxy war between Germany and the Soviet Union. In 1936, Germany and Japan entered the Anti-Comintern Pact . and they were joined

1309-578: A program of electrification of Volhynia. By spring of 1939, a 30,000 volt power plant was built in Krzemieniec , which provided light and electricity for towns and villages five counties. Other power plants were not completed, due to the Invasion of Poland . The annual Volhynian Trade Fair (1929–1938), which took place in Równe, was regarded as one of the most important regional fairs of Poland. In 1939,

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1428-423: A recession in 1938/39. The tensions between Jewish and Ukrainian shopkeepers increased greatly after the introduction of cooperative stores, which undermined Jewish-run private enterprises. The Jewish business owners were chased out of some 3,000 Ukrainian villages by 1929, with the emerging Ukrainian drive toward economic self-sustainability via cooperatives accompanying their new political aspirations. The situation

1547-492: A secret German–Soviet pact. On 23 August, a ten-year non-aggression pact was signed with provisions that included consultation, arbitration if either party disagreed, neutrality if either went to war against a third power and no membership of a group "which is directly or indirectly aimed at the other". The article "On Soviet–German Relations" in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia of 21 August 1939, stated: Following completion of

1666-505: A single pro-Soviet candidate listed for many positions, and the resulting people's assemblies immediately requesting admission into the Soviet Union, which was granted. (The Soviets annexed the whole of Lithuania, including the Šešupė area, which had been earmarked for Germany.) Finally, on 26 June, four days after the armistice between France and Nazi Germany , the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum that demanded Bessarabia and unexpectedly Northern Bukovina from Romania. Two days later,

1785-685: A top attribute as "political and artistical particularly valuable". Homecoming was approved by the censors on 26 August 1941, and shown at the Venice Film Festival on 10 October. It premiered in Berlin on 23 October. It received the rare honor "Film of the Nation" in Nazi Germany, bestowed on films considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the national cause. It earned 4,900,000 ℛℳ (equivalent to $ 21,036,001 in 2021) at

1904-516: A two-front war, which changed the strategic situation from that in World War I, and that Britain should accept his demands on Poland. On 25 August, Hitler was surprised when Britain joined a defense pact with Poland . Hitler postponed his plans for an invasion of Poland on 26 August to 1 September. In accordance with the defence pact, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland from

2023-614: A year later by Italy , despite Italy having previously signed the Italo-Soviet Pact . On 31 March 1939, Britain extended a guarantee to Poland that "if any action clearly threatened Polish independence, and if the Poles felt it vital to resist such action by force, Britain would come to their aid". Hitler was furious since that meant that the British were committed to political interests in Europe and that his land grabs such as

2142-515: Is one common element in the ideology of Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union: opposition to the capitalist democracies" or that "it seems to us rather unnatural that a socialist state would stand on the side of the western democracies". At the same time, British, French, and Soviet negotiators scheduled three-party talks on military matters to occur in Moscow in August 1939 that aimed to define what

2261-598: Is part of the Odessa Oblast , which is also now in Ukraine. The pact was terminated on 22 June 1941, when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union, in pursuit of the ideological goal of Lebensraum . The Anglo-Soviet Agreement succeeded it. After the war, Ribbentrop was convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials and executed. Molotov died in 1986. The outcome of World War I

2380-537: The 1920 major Polish counter-offensive . The newly re-established sovereign Poland created Wołyń Voivodeship as one of the 16 main administrative divisions of the country. One of the biggest achievements of the regional government in Volhynia during the interwar period was the development of modern infrastructure. Around 1,000 school buildings were constructed from scratch, with considerable amount of state funds. In total, some 2,000 elementary schools opened and over

2499-581: The City of London [British financiers] and the English shopkeepers." The agreement stunned the world. John Gunther , in Moscow in August 1939, recalled how the news of the 19 August commercial agreement surprised journalists and diplomats, who hoped for world peace. They did not expect the 21 August announcement of the non-aggression pact: "Nothing more unbelievable could be imagined. Astonishment and skepticism turned quickly to consternation and alarm". The news

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2618-522: The Horyń , and the Słucz . The Wołyń Voivodeship was created formally on 19 February 1921. It was initially divided into the counties of Dubno , Horochow , Kowel , Krzemieniec , Luboml , Łuck , Ostróg , Równe and Włodzimierz Wołyński . On 1 January 1925 the gminas of Zdołbunów and Zdołbica of Równe county and gminas of Buderaż and Mizocz of Dubno one were passed to one of Ostróg. Center of Ostróg one

2737-483: The Invasion of Poland the German villagers meet secretly in a barn, in order to hear Hitler 's speech of 1 September 1939 before the Reichstag , they are discovered, arrested and imprisoned. Marie keeps up their spirits with the promise that they will escape, that Germans are deeply concerned about them, and that they will be able to return home and hear neither Yiddish nor Polish, but only German. They are abused by

2856-710: The Karelia and Salla regions in Finland were annexed by the Soviet Union following the Winter War . The Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Romania ( Bessarabia , Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region ) followed. Stalin's invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, since it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence that had been agreed with the Axis. The territories of Poland annexed by

2975-678: The Katyn massacre , 22,000 members of the military as well as intellectuals were executed, labelled "nationalists and counterrevolutionaries" or kept at camps and prisons in western Ukraine and Belarus . In mid-June 1940, while international attention focused on the German invasion of France , Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania , Estonia and Latvia . State administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, who deported or killed 34,250 Latvians, 75,000 Lithuanians and almost 60,000 Estonians. Elections took place, with

3094-608: The Lebensraum for the German people, and declared that only the soil, not the people, could be Germanized. This did not mean a total extermination of all people there, as Eastern Europe was regarded as having people of Aryan/Nordic descent, particularly among their leaders. Germanisation began with the classification of people suitable as defined on the Nazi Volksliste , and treated according to their categorisation. Those unfit for Germanisation were to be expelled from

3213-803: The Lublin Voivodeship to the west, the Polesie Voivodeship to the north, and the Lwów and Tarnopol Voivodeships to the south. Initially, the Voivodeship’s area in the new Poland was 30,276 square kilometres. On 16 December 1930, Sarny County, comprising 5,478 km² of land, was transferred from Polesie Voivodeship to the Wołyń Voivodeship. As a result, the total area of the Wołyń Voivodeship increased to 35,754 km², making it Poland's second largest province. The landscape

3332-468: The Munich Agreement that followed the conference agreed to a German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia in late 1938, but in early 1939 it had been completely dissolved. The policy of appeasement toward Germany was conducted by the governments of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier . The policy immediately raised the question of whether

3451-481: The New York Times reported Japanese anger and French communist surprise over the pact. The same day, however, Tolischus filed a story that noted Nazi troops on the move near Gleiwitz (now Gliwice ), which led to the false flag Gleiwitz incident on 31 August 1939. On 28 August 1939, the New York Times was still reporting on fears of a Gleiwitz raid. On 29 August 1939, the New York Times reported that

3570-596: The New York Times reported a Soviet buildup on its Western frontiers by moving 200,000 troops from the Far East . On 22 August, one day after talks broke down with France and Britain, Moscow revealed that Ribbentrop would visit Stalin the next day. The Soviets were still negotiating with the British and the French missions in Moscow. With the Western nations unwilling to accede to Soviet demands, Stalin instead entered

3689-627: The Red Army invaded Finland, launching the Winter War with the aim of annexing Finland into the Soviet Union. The Soviets formed the Finnish Democratic Republic to govern Finland after Soviet conquest. The leader of the Leningrad Military District, Andrei Zhdanov , commissioned a celebratory piece from Dmitri Shostakovich , Suite on Finnish Themes , to be performed as the marching bands of

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3808-540: The Sejm and the courts. With time, some 190 Orthodox churches were destroyed or disassembled (many of them already abandoned), and 150 more were transformed into Roman Catholic churches. Such actions were condemned by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky , who claimed that these acts would "destroy in the souls of our non-united Orthodox brothers

3927-613: The Supreme Soviet had failed on its first day of convening to act on the pact. The same day, the New York Times also reported from Montreal , Canada, that American Professor Samuel N. Harper of the University of Chicago had stated publicly his belief that "the Russo-German non-aggression pact conceals an agreement whereby Russia and Germany may have planned spheres of influence for Eastern Europe". On 30 August 1939,

4046-681: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union approved the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin , stating concern for ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians in Poland, ordered the Soviet invasion of Poland . After a short war ending in military defeat for Poland, Germany and the Soviet Union drew up a new border between them on formerly Polish territory in the supplementary protocol of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty . In March 1940, parts of

4165-818: The Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact , was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , with a secret protocol establishing Soviet and German spheres of influence across Northern Europe. The pact was signed in Moscow on 24 August 1939 (backdated 23 August 1939) by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop . The treaty

4284-687: The Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919. They were a result of several cross-national conflicts including Polish–Ukrainian War (November 1918 – July 1919) and the Greater Poland Uprising (December 1918 – February 1919). The borders of the republic were extended to the East as the result of the Polish–Soviet War (May – October 1920), resulting from Semyon Budyonny 's August 1920 military foray into former Russian Poland as far as Warsaw . The Soviets withdrew in panic during

4403-424: The antisemitic Nazis associated ethnic Jews with both communism and financial capitalism , both of which they opposed . Nazi theory held that Slavs in the Soviet Union were being ruled by " Jewish Bolshevik " masters. Hitler had spoken of an inevitable battle for the acquisition of land for Germany in the east. The resulting manifestation of German anti-Bolshevism and an increase in Soviet foreign debts caused

4522-780: The successor state to the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The territories annexed from Romania were also integrated into the Soviet Union (such as the Moldavian SSR , or oblasts of the Ukrainian SSR ). The core of Bessarabia now forms Moldova . Northern Bessarabia , Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region now form the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. Southern Bessarabia

4641-542: The Allies . The province's Polish population was forcibly resettled westward; and the province's territory was incorporated into the Soviet Union's Ukrainian SSR . Since 1991 it has been divided between sovereign Ukraine's Rivne and Volyn Oblasts . After a century of foreign rule , the Second Polish Republic was reborn in the aftermath of World War I . The borders of the republic were ratified by

4760-833: The East—and allowed independence. Similar support therefore was fomented with the use of film to depict Baltic and Volga Germans as persecuted by the Bolshevists, such as the films Frisians in Peril , Flüchtlinge , and The Red Terror . Gustav Ucicky and Gerhard Menzel were inspired to make Homecoming after receiving accounts of Volhynian Germans coming to Germany from Soviet- occupied Poland . Ucicky and Menzel previously made Refugees . Production started in September 1940, and cost 4.02 million ℛℳ (equivalent to $ 17,258,107 in 2021). The indoor shots ran from 2 January to

4879-483: The German collapse, a multinational Allied-led army intervened in the civil war (1917–1922). On 16 April 1922, the German Weimar Republic and the Soviet Union agreed to the Treaty of Rapallo in which they renounced territorial and financial claims against each other. Each party also pledged neutrality in the event of an attack against the other with the Treaty of Berlin (1926) . Trade between

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4998-642: The Nazi emissaries stepped off the plane, a Soviet military band played " Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles ". The Nazi arrival was well planned, with all aesthetics in order. The classic hammer and sickle was propped up next to the swastika of the Nazi flag that had been used in a local film studio for Soviet propaganda films. After stepping off the plane and shaking hands, Ribbentrop and Gustav Hilger along with German ambassador Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg and Stalin's chief bodyguard, Nikolai Vlasik , entered

5117-519: The Nazis themselves against minorities. Similar treatment was given to anti- Serbian propaganda, in Menschen im Sturm . Baltic Germans were also to be settled into this land. The secret supplementary protocol to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact included a resettlement plan by which approximately 60,000 ethnic Germans were resettled into the Reich. Nazi propaganda included using scare tactics about

5236-415: The Polish government feared that if the Red Army entered Polish territory, it would never leave. On 19 August, the 1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement was finally signed. On 21 August, the Soviets suspended the tripartite military talks and cited other reasons. The same day, Stalin received assurances that Germany would approve secret protocols to the proposed non-aggression pact that would place

5355-513: The Red Army would be parading through Helsinki. After Finnish defenses surprisingly held out for over three months and inflicted stiff losses on Soviet forces, under the command of Semyon Timoshenko , the Soviets settled for an interim peace . Finland ceded parts of Karelia and Salla (9% of Finnish territory), which resulted in approximately 422,000 Karelians (12% of Finland's population) losing their homes. Soviet official casualty counts in

5474-414: The Romanians acceded to the Soviet demands, and the Soviets occupied the territories. The Hertsa region was initially not requested by the Soviets but was later occupied by force after the Romanians had agreed to the initial Soviet demands. The subsequent waves of deportations began in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina . At the end of October 1939, Germany enacted the death penalty for disobedience to

5593-534: The Soviet Union following the 1939 Soviet invasion east of the Curzon line remained in the Soviet Union after the war and are now in Ukraine and Belarus . Vilnius was given to Lithuania. Only Podlaskie and a small part of Galicia east of the San River , around Przemyśl , were returned to Poland . Of all the other territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939–1940, those detached from Finland (Western Karelia , Petsamo ), Estonia ( Estonian Ingria and Petseri County ) and Latvia ( Abrene ) remain part of Russia,

5712-441: The Soviet Union also needed to secure the frontier in the Soviet–Japanese Border Wars . On 17 September, the Red Army invaded Poland , violating the 1932 Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact , and occupied the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. That was followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. Polish troops already fighting much stronger German forces on its west desperately tried to delay

5831-416: The Soviet Union and German Reich issued a joint declaration in which they declared: After the Government of the German Reich and the Government of the USSR have, by means of the treaty signed today, definitively settled the problems arising from the collapse of the Polish state and have thereby created a sure foundation for lasting peace in the region, they mutually express their conviction that it would serve

5950-401: The Soviet Union as "inevitable". Concerns over the possible existence of a secret protocol were expressed first by the intelligence organizations of the Baltic states only days after the pact was signed. Speculation grew stronger when Soviet negotiators referred to its content during the negotiations for military bases in those countries (see occupation of the Baltic States ). The day after

6069-430: The Soviet Union could avoid being next on Hitler's list. The Soviet leadership believed that the West wanted to encourage German aggression in the East and to stay neutral in a war initiated by Germany in the hope that Germany and the Soviet Union would wear each other out and put an end to both regimes. For Germany, an autarkic economic approach and an alliance with Britain were impossible and so closer relations with

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6188-417: The Soviet Union to obtain raw materials became necessary. Besides economic reasons, an expected British blockade during a war would also create massive shortages for Germany in a number of key raw materials. After the Munich Agreement, the resulting increase in German military supply needs and Soviet demands for military machinery made talks between the two countries occur from late 1938 to March 1939. Also,

6307-405: The Soviet Union, and led to tens of thousands leaving . After racial evaluation, they were divided into groups: A, Altreich , who were to be settled in Germany and allowed neither farms nor business (to allow for closer watch), S Sonderfall , who were used as forced labor, and O Ost-Falle , the best classification, to be settled in the Eastern Wall— the occupied regions , to protect German from

6426-408: The Soviet Union. According to the protocol, Lithuania would be granted its historical capital, Vilnius , which was part of Poland during the interwar period . Another clause stipulated that Germany would not interfere with the Soviet Union's actions towards Bessarabia , which was then part of Romania . As a result, Bessarabia as well as the Northern Bukovina and Hertsa regions were occupied by

6545-436: The Soviet Union. The protocol also recognized the interest of Lithuania in the Vilnius region . In the west, rumoured existence of the Secret Protocol was proven only when it was made public during the Nuremberg trials . A week after signing the pact, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland . On 17 September, one day after a Soviet–Japanese ceasefire came into effect after the Battles of Khalkhin Gol , and one day after

6664-417: The Soviet invasion of the Polish Kresy , the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was modified by the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation , allotting Germany a larger part of Poland and transferring Lithuania, with the exception of the left bank of the River Scheschupe , the "Lithuanian Strip", from the envisioned German sphere to the Soviet sphere. On 28 September 1939,

6783-408: The Soviet radio station at Minsk , allegedly "for urgent aeronautical experiments". Hitler declared at Danzig: Poland never will rise again in the form of the Versailles treaty . That is guaranteed not only by Germany , but also   ... Russia . In the opinion of Robert Service , Stalin did not move instantly but was waiting to see whether the Germans would halt within the agreed area, and

6902-441: The Soviets and integrated into the Soviet Union. At the signing, Ribbentrop and Stalin enjoyed warm conversations, exchanged toasts and further addressed the prior hostilities between the countries in the 1930s. They characterised Britain as always attempting to disrupt Soviet–German relations and stated that the Anti-Comintern Pact was aimed not at the Soviet Union but actually at Western democracies and "frightened principally

7021-485: The Soviet–German trade and credit agreement, there has arisen the question of improving political links between Germany and the USSR. There was also a secret protocol to the pact, which was revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945 although hints about its provisions had been leaked much earlier, so as to influence Lithuania. According to the protocol, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland were divided into German and Soviet " spheres of influence ". In

7140-448: The Voivodeship’s area with considerable ease. They met with the invading Germans along the Curzon Line and held a joint victory parade . Wołyń Voivodeship was overrun by the Wehrmacht in July 1941 during the German attack on the Soviet positions in eastern Poland. The draconian restrictions on Polish Jews were imposed in August 1941. The Lutsk Ghetto was set up in the capital by the German occupation authorities, and sealed from

7259-569: The Volhynian population were still illiterate, compared with the national average of 23.1% for the whole of Poland (by early 1939, illiteracy in Volhynia was further reduced to 45%). In order to fight illiteracy, Volhynian authorities organized a network of the so-called moving libraries , which in 1939 consisted of 300 vehicles and 25,000 volumes. The percentage of pupils in Ukrainian–language–only schools fell from 2.5% in 1929/1930 to 1.2% in 1934/35. Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki , in its 1935 April Constitution of Poland (Chapter 1), redefined

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7378-493: The agreement would specify on the reaction of the three powers to a German attack. The tripartite military talks , started in mid-August, hit a sticking point on the passage of Soviet troops through Poland if Germans attacked, and the parties waited as British and French officials overseas pressured Polish officials to agree to such terms. Polish officials refused to allow Soviet troops into Polish territory if Germany attacked; Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck pointed out that

7497-465: The area were Eastern Orthodox Christian (69.8%), Roman Catholic (15.7%) as well Judaism by the Jews (10%), Protestantism (2.6%) and the Islamic faith by the Tatars . With respect to the Orthodox Ukrainian population in eastern Poland, the Polish government initially issued a decree defending the rights of the Orthodox minorities. In practice, this often failed, as the Catholics, also eager to strengthen their position, had official representation in

7616-592: The areas marked out for German settlement ; those who resisted Germanization were to be sent to concentration camps or executed. To foment support, Nazi propaganda presented the annexation as necessary to protect the German minorities there. Alleged massacres of Germans, such as Bloody Sunday were used in such propaganda, and Homecoming drew on such attempts although allowing the Volksdeutsche characters depicted to survive. The introduction explicitly states that hundreds of thousands of Germans in Poland suffered likewise. Many terror tactics depicted were those used by

7735-420: The box office resulting in a loss of 423,000 ℛℳ (equivalent to $ 1,815,965 in 2021). The film grossed 4.9 million Reichsmark . Nevertheless, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in his diary referred to Wessely's performance in the prison scene as "the best ever filmed". After the end of World War II the Allies banned any showing of the film. Director Ucicky was also banned from working, although this ban

7854-411: The capture of Warsaw. Consequently, Polish forces could not mount significant resistance against the Soviets. On 18 September, The New York Times published an editorial arguing that "Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism is red fascism ...The world will now understand that the only real 'ideological' issue is one between democracy, liberty and peace on the one hand and despotism , terror and war on

7973-428: The case of German aggression. The Soviets proposed to consider that a political turn towards Germany by the Baltic states would constitute an "indirect aggression" towards the Soviet Union. Britain opposed such proposals because they feared the Soviets' proposed language would justify a Soviet intervention in Finland and the Baltic states or push those countries to seek closer relations with Germany. The discussion of

8092-436: The checkpoint. Casting for the minor parts played by Jewish and Polish actors was done by Igo Sym , who during the filming was shot in his Warsaw apartment by members of the Polish Union of Armed Struggle resistance movement. After the war, the Polish performers were punished (ranging from official reprimand to prison sentence) for collaboration in an anti-Polish propaganda undertaking. Hitler intended Poland to serve as

8211-495: The city of Vilnius and its environs. On 8 October 1939, a new Nazi-Soviet agreement was reached by an exchange of letters between Vyacheslav Molotov and the German ambassador. The Baltic states of Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania were given no choice but to sign a so-called "Pact of Defence and Mutual Assistance", which permitted the Soviet Union to station troops in them. After the Baltic states had been forced to accept treaties, Stalin turned his sights on Finland and

8330-402: The coming negotiations to go nowhere and formally decided to consider German proposals seriously. The military negotiations began on 12 August in Moscow, with a British delegation headed by the retired admiral Sir Reginald Drax , French delegation headed by General Aimé Doumenc and the Soviet delegation headed by Kliment Voroshilov , the commissar of defence, and Boris Shaposhnikov , chief of

8449-525: The concept of state as home to all faiths and cultures (as opposed to a Polish "nation"), thus reducing the political impact, among others, of Ukrainian nationalism . Senators representing the German and Ukrainian minorities voted in Senat against the new changes, which were nevertheless passed on 16 January 1935. 50°44′41″N 25°19′13″E  /  50.744814°N 25.320212°E  / 50.744814; 25.320212 Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , officially

8568-506: The dangers of an agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany. The contrasting attitudes partly explain why the Soviets have often been charged with playing a double game in 1939 of carrying on open negotiations for an alliance with Britain and France but secretly considering propositions from Germany. By the end of May, drafts had been formally presented. In mid-June, the main tripartite negotiations started. Discussions were focused on potential guarantees to Central and Eastern Europe in

8687-440: The entire voivodeship area, making possible also the wider distribution of the press. On 17 September 1939, following German invasion of western Poland in accordance with the secret protocol of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland . As the bulk of Polish Army was concentrated in the west fighting Nazi Germany , the Red Army met with limited resistance and their troops quickly moved westward, invading

8806-473: The fact that England and France are responsible for the continuation of the war, whereupon, in case of the continuation of the war, the Governments of Germany and of the USSR shall engage in mutual consultations with regard to necessary measures. On 3 October, Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg , the German ambassador in Moscow, informed Joachim Ribbentrop that the Soviet government was willing to cede

8925-422: The fair was planned to take place on September 15–25. Prior to 1917 illiteracy was rife in Volhynia. The Russian Empire maintained only 14 secondary schools in the entire province. Under the restored Polish republic, the number of public schools greatly increased: by 1930, there were already 1,371 schools, growing in numbers to 1,934 by 1938. Illiteracy lingered and according to the 1931 census, as much as 47.8% of

9044-470: The general staff. Without written credentials, Drax was not authorised to guarantee anything to the Soviet Union and had been instructed by the British government to prolong the discussions as long as possible and to avoid answering the question of whether Poland would agree to permit Soviet troops to enter the country if the Germans invaded. From April to July, Soviet and German officials made statements on

9163-515: The half of Poland east of the Vistula River as well as Latvia , Estonia , Finland and Bessarabia in the Soviet sphere of influence. That night, Stalin replied that the Soviets were willing to sign the pact and that he would receive Ribbentrop on 23 August. On 25 August 1939, the New York Times ran a front-page story by Otto D. Tolischus , "Nazi Talks Secret", whose subtitle included "Soviet and Reich Agree on East". On 26 August 1939,

9282-417: The idea of allying with the Soviets and Ribbentrop recalled Hitler saying that Stalin "looked like a man he could do business with". Ribbentrop was then given the nod to pursue negotiations with Moscow. Hitler's fierce anti-Soviet rhetoric was one of the reasons that Britain and France decided that Soviet participation in the 1938 Munich Conference on Czechoslovakia would be both dangerous and useless. In

9401-400: The importance of the fact that they had opposed and fought the Germans in various ways for a decade prior to signing the pact. Molotov tried to reassure the Germans of his good intentions by commenting to journalists that "fascism is a matter of taste". For its part, Germany also did a public volte-face regarding its virulent opposition to the Soviet Union, but Hitler still viewed an attack on

9520-483: The independence of Poland, Belgium, Romania, Greece and Turkey. On 6 April, Poland and Britain agreed to formalise the guarantee as a military alliance , pending negotiations. On 28 April, Hitler denounced the 1934 German–Polish declaration of non-aggression and the 1935 Anglo–German Naval Agreement . In mid-March 1939, attempting to contain Hitler's expansionism, the Soviet Union, Britain and France started to trade

9639-449: The latter city. Stalin had decided in August that he was going to liquidate the Polish state, and a German–Soviet meeting in September addressed the future structure of the "Polish region". Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of Sovietisation of the newly acquired areas. The Soviets organised staged elections, the result of which was to become a legitimisation of the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland. Eleven days after

9758-532: The meeting showed how seriously that the Soviets were taking the negotiations. In late July and early August 1939, Soviet and German officials agreed on most of the details of a planned economic agreement and specifically addressed a potential political agreement, which the Soviets stated could come only after an economic agreement. The German presence in the Soviet capital during negotiations can be regarded as rather tense. German pilot Hans Baur recalled that Soviet secret police followed every move. Their job

9877-882: The middle of July 1941 in the Wien-Film studios at the Rosenhügel in Liesing , at Sievering Studios and the Schönbrunn Palace gardens in Vienna . The external shots took place between February and June 1941 in Polish Chorzele and Ortelsburg ( Szczytno ) in East Prussia . The picture was submitted to censorship at the Film Review Office on 26 August 1941, it was G-rated and received

9996-515: The north, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere. Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political rearrangement": the areas east of the Pisa , Narew , Vistula , and San rivers would go to the Soviet Union, and Germany would occupy the west. Lithuania, which was adjacent to East Prussia , was assigned to the German sphere of influence, but a second secret protocol, agreed to in September 1939, reassigned Lithuania to

10115-499: The now-famous front-page picture of Molotov signing the treaty with a smiling Stalin looking on. The same day, German diplomat Hans von Herwarth , whose grandmother was Jewish, informed Italian diplomat Guido Relli and American chargé d'affaires Charles Bohlen of the secret protocol on the vital interests in the countries' allotted "spheres of influence" but failed to reveal the annexation rights for "territorial and political rearrangement". The agreement's public terms so exceeded

10234-555: The other." On 21 September, Marshal of the Soviet Union Voroshilov , German military attaché General Köstring , and other officers signed a formal agreement in Moscow co-ordinating military movements in Poland, including the "purging" of saboteurs and the Red Army assisting with destruction of the "enemy". Joint German–Soviet parades were held in Lviv and Brest-Litovsk , and the countries' military commanders met in

10353-619: The outside in December 1941 with the provision of only starvation food rations. The Ghetto population was about 20,000 people. During a four-day period in mid August 1942 about 17,000 Jews were rounded up by Orpo and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police , and taken in lorries along with women and children to the Górka Połonka forest. They were shot in waves into the prepared trenches. In the years of 1942–1944 Volhynia

10472-478: The pact was signed, the Franco-British military delegation urgently requested a meeting with Soviet military negotiator Kliment Voroshilov . On 25 August, Voroshilov told them that "in view of the changed political situation, no useful purpose can be served in continuing the conversation". The same day, Hitler told the British ambassador to Berlin that the pact with the Soviets prevented Germany from facing

10591-412: The possibility of "capitalist encirclements", had little hope either of preventing war and wanted nothing less than an ironclad military alliance with France and Britain to provide guaranteed support for a two-pronged attack on Germany. Stalin's adherence to the collective security line was thus purely conditional. Britain and France believed that war could still be avoided and that since the Soviet Union

10710-429: The potential for the beginning of political negotiations, but no actual negotiations took place. "The Soviet Union had wanted good relations with Germany for years and was happy to see that feeling finally reciprocated", wrote the historian Gerhard L. Weinberg . The ensuing discussion of a potential political deal between Germany and the Soviet Union had to be channeled into the framework of economic negotiations between

10829-450: The prison guards, but escape through an underground cellar and, scarcely avoiding a massacre, are saved by invading Wehrmacht soldiers. The German escapees ready for their resettlement into the "homeland", while widowed Ludwig Launhardt asks for Marie's hand. At the end of the film the German trek crosses the border into the Reich . The conclusion shows an enormous picture of Hitler set up at

10948-480: The province. According to historian Professor Czesław Partacz (Historian and Lecturer at the Koszalinkiej Politechnic) the true figure of massacred Poles was between 134,000 and 150,000. Ukrainians who opposed the attacks on Poles were themselves targeted with similar aggression. The Wołyń voivodeship was located at the south-eastern corner of Poland, bordering the Soviet Union to the east,

11067-546: The provincial capital, in order to put their protest to the Voivode (governor), but they are not even received there either. Deciding to stay in the capital in order to call on the court the next day, that evening they go to the cinema. They are accompanied there by her friend Karl Michalek, who has been pressed into service by the Polish Army . When they refuse to sing the Polish national anthem Mazurek Dąbrowskiego with

11186-468: The rest of the audience, Fritz gets grievously hurt by the furious Polish crowd. Marie tries to take her betrothed to a hospital, but he is refused admission and succumbs to his injuries. Back home, the acts of violence against the German minority continue to increase: Marie's father too becomes the victim of a Polish attack and is blinded as a result; the wife of innkeeper Ludwig Launhardt, Martha, dies after being struck by stones thrown by Poles. When during

11305-423: The table below: The Wołyń Voivodeship was located in the so-called Poland "B" . The bulk of its population, especially the rural areas, was poor. Forest covered 23.7% of the province (as of 1937). Decades of Russian imperial rule had left Volhynia in a state of economic catalepsy , but the agricultural output following the rebirth of Poland quickly grew. The introduction of modern farming practices brought about

11424-541: The takeover of Czechoslovakia would no longer be taken lightly. His response to the political checkmate would later be heard at a rally in Wilhelmshaven : "No power on earth would be able to break German might, and if the Western Allies thought Germany would stand by while they marshalled their ' satellite states ' to act in their interests, then they were sorely mistaken". Ultimately, Hitler's discontent with

11543-480: The terms of an ordinary non-aggression treaty—requiring that both parties consult with each other, and not aid a third party attacking either—that Gunther heard a joke that Stalin had joined the anti-Comintern pact. Time Magazine repeatedly referred to the Pact as the "Communazi Pact" and its participants as "communazis" until April 1941. Soviet propaganda and representatives went to great lengths to minimize

11662-551: The third Soviet five-year plan required new infusions of technology and industrial equipment. German war planners had estimated serious shortfalls of raw materials if Germany entered a war without the Soviet supply. On 31 March 1939, in response to Germany's defiance of the Munich Agreement and the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , Britain pledged its support and that of France to guarantee

11781-418: The true interest of all peoples to put an end to the state of war existing at present between Germany on the one side and England and France on the other. Both Governments will, therefore, direct their common efforts, jointly with other friendly powers if the occasion arises, toward attaining this goal as soon as possible. Should, however, the efforts of the two Governments remain fruitless, this would demonstrate

11900-649: The two countries , since close military and diplomatic connections that existed before the mid-1930s had been largely severed. In May, Stalin replaced his foreign minister from 1930 to 1939, Maxim Litvinov , who had advocated rapprochement with the West and was also Jewish , with Vyacheslav Molotov to allow the Soviet Union more latitude in discussions with more parties, instead of only Britain and France. On 23 August 1939, two Focke-Wulf Condors , containing German diplomats, officials, and photographers (about 20 in each plane), headed by Ribbentrop, descended into Moscow. As

12019-518: The two countries had fallen sharply after World War I, but trade agreements signed in the mid-1920s helped to increase trade to 433 million  ℛ︁ℳ︁ per year by 1927. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Nazi Party 's rise to power increased tensions between Germany and the Soviet Union, along with other countries with ethnic Slavs , who were considered " Untermenschen " (subhuman) according to Nazi racial ideology . Moreover,

12138-610: The very thought of any possible reunion." The land reform designed to favour the Poles in mostly Ukrainian populated Volhynia , the agricultural territory where the land question was especially severe, created alienation from the Polish state of even the Orthodox Volhynian population who tended to be much less radical than the Greek Catholic Galicians. The results of the 1931 census (questions about mother tongue and about religion) are presented in

12257-406: The war exceeded 200,000 although Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev later claimed that the casualties may have been one million. Around that time, after several Gestapo–NKVD conferences , Soviet NKVD officers also conducted lengthy interrogations of 300,000 Polish POWs in camps that were a selection process to determine who would be killed. On 5 March 1940, in what would later be known as

12376-414: The west. Within a few days, Germany began conducting massacres of Polish and Jewish civilians and POWs, which took place in over 30 towns and villages in the first month of the German occupation. The Luftwaffe also took part by strafing fleeing civilian refugees on roads and by carrying out a bombing campaign. The Soviet Union assisted German air forces by allowing them to use signals broadcast by

12495-431: Was an administrative region of interwar Poland (1918–1939) with an area of 35,754 km², 22 cities, and provincial capital in Łuck . The province was divided into 11 counties ( powiaty ). The area comprised part of the historical region of Volhynia . At the end of World War II , at the insistence of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union during the 1943 Tehran Conference , Poland's borders were redrawn by

12614-666: Was confident that its capitulation could be attained without great effort. The Soviets demanded territories on the Karelian Isthmus , the islands of the Gulf of Finland and a military base near the Finnish capital, Helsinki , which Finland rejected. The Soviets staged the shelling of Mainila on 26 November and used it as a pretext to withdraw from the Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact . On 30 November,

12733-597: Was disastrous for both the German and the Russian empires. The Russian Civil War broke out in late 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution and Vladimir Lenin , the first leader of the new Soviet Russia , recognised the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Moreover, facing a German military advance, Lenin and Trotsky were forced to agree to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , which ceded many western Russian territories to Germany. After

12852-636: Was flat and hilly for the most part. In the north, there was a flat strip of land called Volhynian Polesie , which extended some 200 kilometres from the Southern Bug river to the Polish-Soviet border. The landscape in the south was more hilly, especially in the extreme south-east corner around the historical town of Krzemieniec , in the Gologory mountains. The province's main rivers were the Styr ,

12971-698: Was inhabited by 1,437,569 people, and the population density was 47.5 persons per km . By 1931 the population had grown to 2,085,600, and the density to 58 persons per km . According to the Polish census of 1931 , the Ukrainian language was spoken by 1,418,324 inhabitants (68.0 %), Polish by 346,640 (16.6 %), Yiddish by 174,157 (8.3 %), Hebrew by 31,388 (1.5 %), German by 46,883 (2.2 %), Czech by 30,977 (1.5 %), Russian by 23,387 (1.1 %), Ruthenian by 8,548 (0.4 %), and Belarusian by 2,417 (0.1 %). The primary religions practised in

13090-542: Was met with utter shock and surprise by government leaders and media worldwide, most of whom were aware of only the British–French–Soviet negotiations, which had taken place for months; by Germany's allies, notably Japan; by the Comintern and foreign Communist parties; and Jewish communities all around the world. On 24 August, Pravda and Izvestia carried news of the pact's public portions, complete with

13209-416: Was moved to Zdołbunów and was renamed as Zdołbunów one. Also gminas of Bereźne , Derażne , Kostopol, Ludwipol , Stepań and Stydyń were detached from county of Równe and one of Kostopol was formed. At same arrangements Majków gmina of Ostróg was passed to Równe one, Beresteczko gmina of Dubno one was passed to Horochow one, Ołyka gmina of Dubno one was passed to Łuck one, Radziwiłłów gmina of Krzemieniec

13328-453: Was much better among the ethnic Czechs and Germans, whose farms were highly efficient. The railway network was thin, with only a few hubs, the most important at Kowel , with lesser ones at Zdołbunów , Równe and Włodzimierz . The total length of railways within the voivodeship was 1,211 km – just 3.4 km per 100 square kilometres. This was the result of decades of Russian exploitative economics . In 1938, Polish government began

13447-826: Was passed to Dubno one. The capital, Łuck, had a population of around 35,600 (as of 1931). Other important centers of the Voivodeship were: Równe (in 1931 pop. 42,000), Kowel (pop. 29,100), Włodzimierz Wołyński (pop. 26,000), Krzemieniec (pop. 22,000), Dubno (pop. 15,300), Ostróg (pop. 13,400) and Zdołbunów (pop. 10,200). The capital of the Wołyń Voivodeship was Lutsk , Volhynia (now in Ukraine ). It consisted of 11 powiats ( counties ), 22 larger towns, 103 villages and literally thousands of smaller communities and khutors ( Polish : futory, kolonie ), with clusters of farms unable to offer any form of resistance against future military attacks. In 1921 Wołyń Province

13566-606: Was so weakened by the Great Purge that it could not be a main military participant. Many military sources were at variance with the last point, especially after the Soviet victories over the Japanese Kwantung Army in the Manchuria. France was more anxious to find an agreement with the Soviet Union than Britain was. As a continental power, France was more willing to make concessions and more fearful of

13685-591: Was subject to genocide , conducted by paramilitary groups associated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), in particular, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). These forces engaged in summary executions and massacres of the Polish population, along with the destruction of settlements. The razing of towns and villages would continue until August 1944. Władysław and Ewa Siemaszko estimate that around 60,000 Poles were massacred in

13804-542: Was the culmination of negotiations around the 1938–1939 deal discussions , after tripartite discussions with the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France had broken down, and committed neither government would aid or ally itself with an enemy of the other, for the next 10 years. Under the Secret Protocol, Poland was to be shared, while Lithuania , Latvia , Estonia , Finland and Bessarabia went to

13923-491: Was the thanks he got for having done his best for us to get him into prison. We knew perfectly well it was forbidden to take tips." In early August, Germany and the Soviet Union worked out the last details of their economic deal and started to discuss a political agreement. Both countries' diplomats explained to each other the reasons for the hostility in their foreign policy in the 1930s and found common ground in both countries' anticapitalism with Karl Schnurre stating: "there

14042-413: Was to inform authorities when he left his residence and where he was headed. Baur's guide informed him: "Another car would tack itself onto us and follow us fifty or so yards in the rear, and wherever we went and whatever we did, the secret police would be on our heels." Baur also recalled trying to tip his Russian driver, which led to a harsh exchange of words: "He was furious. He wanted to know whether this

14161-611: Was waived by Austria in July 1947, whereafter he resorted to the Heimatfilm genre. Paula Wessely and her husband Attila Hörbiger became the acclaimed dream couple of the Vienna Burgtheater ensemble. The Austrian author and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek stated that Homecoming is “the worst propaganda feature of the Nazis ever”. She utilized some text fragments in her 1985 play Burgtheater. Posse mit Gesang , causing

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