Operation Himmler
World War II was started with a false flag operation by the Nazis.
Called Operation Himmler, it consisted of a score of actions
designed to create the appearance that Poland
was engaging in aggression against Germany.
One such action was the Gleiwitz Incident of August 31, 1939,
in which German operatives led by Alfred Naujocks
seized the radio station at Gleiwitz
in order to broadcast messages in Polish urging Poles in Silesia
to attack Germans.
The goal was to make it appear that Polish saboteurs
were attempting to foment aggression against Germans.
To make the fraud more convincing, a Polish prisoner of the Gestapo,
Franciszek Honiok, was dressed in a Polish uniform and killed,
then presented to the press as proof that the attack was the work
of Polish saboteurs.
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The code name was "Operation Himler".
The SS Gestapo would stage a fake attack on the German radio station
at Gleiwitz, near the Polish border,
using condemned concentration camp prisoners outfitted in Polish Army uniforms.
Thus Poland would be blamed for attacking Germany.
A young SS secret-service, Alfred Naujocks, deserted to the Americans
and at Nuremburg [Trial] made a number of sworn affidavits:
On or about August 10, 1939, the chief of the SD, Heydrich, personally
ordered me to simulate an attack on the radio station near Gleiwitz near
the Polish border and to make it appear the attacking force consisted of Poles.
Heydrich said: "Practical proof is needed for for these attacks on the Poles
for the foreign press as well as for German propaganda."
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The attack, also known "Operation Canned Goods",
consisted of a total of 21 fake terror attacks along the border
on that same night.
The Himmler Operation may have remained a secret
if not for the Nuremberg trials.
The operation's leader, Alfred Naujocks,
who had truned himself over to the Allied forces in November of 1944,
was put on trial as a possible war criminal.
He presented to the trial a written afidavit
in which he declared that he had directed the attack on the radio station
under orders from Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Müller.
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page last modified: 2010-12-18
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