On 1 September 1939, Germany
invaded Poland under the false
pretext that the Poles had carried out a series of sabotage operations against
German targets near the border. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British
ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British
Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Canada (10 September), New Zealand (3
September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared war on Germany. However,
initially the alliance provided limited direct military support to Poland,
consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland. The
Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage
the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat
warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which was to later escalate into
the Battle of the Atlantic.
More information: WW2 People's War
The German
government led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust, the killing of approximately
6 million Jews, as well as 2.7 million ethnic Poles, and 4 million others who were deemed
"unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill,
Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's
Witnesses, and Romani) as part
of a programme of deliberate extermination. About 12 million, most of whom were
Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy as forced labourers.
More information: Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
The Catalan-French
border was witness of the Jewish exile. Thanks to the citizens of la Val d’Aran, els Pallars, l'Alt Urgell, la Cerdanya, el Ripollès, l'Alt Empordà and Andorra, thousands of people could save their lives and started new ones in other
countries.
It wasn’t an
exceptional case. This border was a route of exit during other conflicts: the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Cathar exile in the 13th century.
The adjustment of reality to the masses
and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope,
as much for thinking as for perception.
and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope,
as much for thinking as for perception.
Walter Benjamin
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