ABSTRACT
A few soldiers neared the checkpoint. They ignored the warnings from the sentries to halt. Instead, they approached and opened fire. The defenders had no recourse but to defend themselves by returning fire, killing a few of the attackers. When the shooting ceased and the assailants withdrew, German infantrymen advanced to look over the Polish soldiers they had killed. A few hours later, German motorized columns were advancing into Poland to defend the Reich from the clearly pending Polish attack. Had the heroes defending Germany looked closely at the soldiers they had killed, they would have noticed an important curiosity. These men were Germans in Polish uniforms. The “attack” they had just withstood was no more than a Nazi ploy to saddle Poland with the responsibility of starting a war by using German prisoners to stage a border incident. On this shaky ground, Adolph Hitler would initiate World War II, telling the world that Germany had a right to defend itself from aggression. It would be a preemptive strike directed at Poland. Only after the war ended would the extent of Nazi duplicity be clear. Not only was the Polish attack on Germany a Nazi fabrication, but the right of Germany to wage this war in the name of selfdefense would rest on a different understanding of preemption altogether.
