PowerPoint Show by Andrew

In August of 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty. One week later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. The first attack of the war took place on September 1, 1939, as German aircraft bombarded the Polish town of Wielun, killing nearly 1,200.

Within days, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and began mobilizing their armies and preparing their civilians. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Polish forces surrendered in early October after losing some 65,000 troops and many thousands of civilians.

Soviet premier Josef Stalin (second from right), smiles while Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (seated), signs the non-aggression pact with German Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Moscow, on August 23, 1939.

View of an undamaged Polish city from the cockpit of a German bomber in September, 1939.

Aerial view of bombs exploding during a German bombing run over Poland in September of 1939.

Polish soldiers and a red cross nurse near Warsaw. 1939

German soldiers in Westerplatte Peninsula near Gdansk after it was surrendered on September 7, 1939. Fewer than 200 Polish soldiers held off the Germans for seven days.

Polish farmers and peasants flee from the German military. September 1939

Britain's King George VI broadcasts to the British nation on the first evening of the war, on September 3, 1939, in London.

Two tanks of the SS- Adolf Hitler Division cross the Bzura River during the German invasion of Poland in September of 1939.

Soldiers of the Adolf Hitler Division, resting in a ditch alongside a road on the way to Pabianice, during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

A ten-year-old Polish girl over her sister's body. She was killed by German machine-gun fire while picking potatoes in a field outside Warsaw, Poland, in September of 1939.

German advance guards and scouts are shown in a Polish town that has been under fire during the Nazi invasion of Poland, September 1939.

Several civilian prisoners of war, with arms raised, walk along a road during the German invasion of Poland.

Captured Polish soldiers September 28, 1939

The scene of devastation seen on Ordynacka Street in Warsaw. The carcass of a dead horse lies in the street

Refugees near Warsaw during the 1939 German invasion of Poland.

Near Warsaw in October 1939.

German soldiers, taken prisoner by the Polish army during the Nazi invasion, are shown while they were held captive in Warsaw, on October 2, 1939.

Adolf Hitler consults a survey map with his general staff including Heinrich Himmler (left) and Martin Bormann (right) at an undisclosed location in 1939.

Adolf Hitler (right) prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939.

A young Polish boy returns to what was his home and squats among the ruins during a pause in the German air raids on Warsaw in September of 1939.

German victory parade in Warsaw after the invasion. 1939

Adolf Hitler salutes parading troops of the German Wehrmacht in Warsaw, Poland, on October 5, 1939 after the German invasion.

Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler (right), speaks with an unidentified officer in Warsaw after German invasion of Poland.

Warsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion.

Jewish women and children in Gostynin, Poland after the invasion.

Near Modlin Fortress 1939.

Flea-Market in post invasion Warsaw Ghetto, 1940