ABSTRACT
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, thus starting World War II. Immediately afterward, Great Britain and France issued their war decla-
rations, even though no significant war operations followed (the so-called “phony war”). Poland was occupied and defeated in three weeks. The Soviet Union occupied the eastern part of the country as had been stipulated in the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact; in June 1940 it also annexed the Baltic countries, as well as Bessarabia and the northern part of Bucovina, both Romanian territories.1
