Gleiwitz Incident

The Gleiwitz incident was a staged attack by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany (since 1945: Gliwice, Poland) on the eve of World War II in Europe.

This provocation was the best-known of several actions in Operation Himmler, a Nazi Germany SS project to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, which would be used to justify the subsequent invasion of Poland.

On the 31st day of August, 1939 at 20.00 hrs the German radio station in Gleiwitz / Gliwice was burst into by a couple of armed members of the SS-troops in civil clothes. They were commanded by SS-Sturmbannfilhrer Alfred Naujocks, appointed by SS-Gruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, the commanding officer of the Head Reich Safety Office, acting upon Hitler?s direct order. This operation was top-secret. Only a password was determined, which was to be given by Heydrich to Naujocks on telephone: "Grossmutter gestorben".