Gleiwitz — Naujocks at the Transmitter
On 22 August 1939, at the Obersalzberg, Hitler informs his military chiefs: "The motive for triggering the war will be furnished by my services. Whether it is credible matters little — the victor will not be questioned on its truth." The false-flag operation under Polish colours is entrusted to (SD) and coordinated by (Gestapo).
The plan, called "Operation Himmler," provides for several simulated incidents on the German-Polish frontier during the night of 31 August - 1 September. The principal pivot: the Gleiwitz radio transmitter (Sender Gleiwitz) in Upper Silesia. The aim is to seize the station, stage a Polish attack, and leave "evidence" — the "Konserven," the Nazi code for Sachsenhausen prisoners executed and disguised post mortem in Polish uniforms.
The commando is commanded by SS-Sturmbannführer , twenty-eight, an operational of SD-Amt VI (foreign intelligence); six men accompany him. On the spot, an actual Polish prisoner, , a nationalist sympathiser arrested the previous day, is drugged and dropped to serve as the "Polish victim of the fighting." The tempo of the operation remains to be decided: a prolonged action to multiply the clues, a swift execution before any intervention, or abandonment if the technical conditions cannot guarantee a convincing broadcast?
How to execute the seizure of the transmitter to maximise the propaganda effect?
Naujocks opts for a short, brutal action (some fifteen minutes), recording the false appeal and then withdrawing before any intervention. On 31 August at 8 p.m. his commando neutralises the German operators of the Gleiwitz transmitter. Naujocks attempts to broadcast a Polish message at 8.11 p.m. — but the main microphone was wired to a local rather than to the Reich chain, so the appeal reaches only local listeners: "Uwaga! Tu Gliwice. Radiostacja znajduje sie w polskich rekach" ("Attention! This is Gliwice. The station is in Polish hands"). Honiok's body is left in front of the transmitter. Naujocks and his commando withdraw at 8.25 p.m. At 9 p.m. Nazi propaganda (Goebbels) broadcasts the incident throughout Germany and abroad as a "Polish attack on German territory." Hitler refers to it in his speech to the Reichstag on 1 September at 10 a.m. announcing the invasion: "Since 4.45 a.m., we are returning fire." The Gleiwitz incident is revealed after the war, chiefly by Naujocks's confessions at Nuremberg on 20 November 1945 (filmed testimony), then in his posthumous book Was geschah wirklich? (1960). Naujocks survives, deserts the SS in 1944, is imprisoned by the British, then released, and dies in Hamburg in 1966. Gleiwitz becomes the archetype of the false provocation, studied in every Western military school. The city becomes Polish in 1945 (Gliwice).
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