The Beginning

Summary

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World War II with Tom Hanks

Episode 1: The Beginning
Date: May 26, 2026
Host: The HISTORY Channel | Back Pocket Studios | Audacy

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Episode Overview

In the premiere episode, “The Beginning,” Tom Hanks and a chorus of historians, journalists, and survivors recount the outbreak of World War II, starting with Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The episode deftly traces the roots of the conflict back to the aftermath of World War I, explores the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, dissects the rise of the Nazi Party, and captures the devastating first weeks of the war as Poland is invaded by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Throughout, the podcast centers the human cost and ideological currents behind the opening stages of the most destructive war in history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The War’s Unthinkable Scale & Human Costs

• The episode opens with reflections on the enduring trauma of World War II, labeled simply as “the War” by a generation for whom it defined existence. (01:09)
• Over 65 million people were killed—most of them civilians—as the war left no corner of the globe untouched.
• Quote: “Often just a bunch of kids who served with honor and bravery to liberate enslaved peoples and preserve human dignity. In doing so, they saved that which is most precious and valued by us all. Freedom.” (01:09, Narrator)

2. The Invasion of Poland: The Spark that Ignited the World

• September 1, 1939: German forces storm Poland at dawn, deploying 1.5 million men, 1300 planes, and 2,750 tanks in the first demonstration of blitzkrieg ("lightning war") tactics. (03:03–04:09)
• Quote: “All of a sudden, people were waking up to the sound of tanks rumbling through town, not really knowing what was happening.” (04:33, Military Expert)
• The invasion quickly overwhelms Polish defenses, despite their size and determination. (13:05)
• Quote: “The Poles fought hard... the classic stereotype that they just rode horses at tanks is absurd.” (28:43, Military Expert & Historian)

3. The Seeds of War: Treaty of Versailles and German Humiliation

• The Treaty of Versailles is rigorously dissected as the catalyst of long-standing German resentment, economic collapse, and political chaos. (06:31–07:25)
• Germany was stripped of significant territory and resources, fueling nationalist anger.
• Quote: “Germany, its military exhausted and its people near starvation, had lost. And now they would pay the price of defeat.” (06:31, Narrator)
• Adolf Hitler, a “young Austrian corporal” at the end of WWI, refuses to accept the outcome and quickly becomes involved in the emerging Nazi party. (07:25–08:31)

4. Hitler’s Rise and the Failure of Democracy

• The episode traces Hitler’s evolution from failed coup leader to charismatic political orator and ultimately dictator. (08:31–10:34)
• Economic devastation (hyperinflation, mass unemployment) and fears of communism allow Hitler to seize the presidency and transform Germany into a totalitarian state. (09:00–10:34)
• Quote: “He’s become the German leader, the Fuhrer.” (10:34, Military Historian)

5. Appeasement and the Road to War

• Britain and France’s policy of appeasement is examined, especially their concessions at Munich in 1938. (11:23)
• Quote: “The British had said, fine, we’ll just dismantle an entire country to keep you happy.” (11:23, World War II Expert)
• Hitler calculates that the West lacks the will to resist further aggression.

6. Lightning War and the Collapse of Poland

• The German military’s shocking operational superiority is detailed, alongside Polish efforts to resist and the subsequent brutality inflicted on civilians through targeted air raids. (13:05–14:24)
• Quote: “20% of the city is destroyed in one way or another, and about 18,000 people are injured or killed in these bombardments.” (40:22, Military Expert)

7. Western Paralysis and the “Long War” Strategy

• Britain and France honor their pledges to Poland by declaring war on Germany but mount no immediate military intervention. (14:35–15:05; 29:00)
• They adopt a strategy of attrition, leaving Poland to its fate while rationalizing their actions as part of a longer game. (29:14)
• Quote: “Poland is essentially cast to the four winds.” (29:30, British Politician)

8. War of Annihilation: Nazi Ideology and Atrocity

• The podcast emphasizes Hitler’s racial worldview—obsessed with Aryan supremacy—leading to targeted violence against Jews and Poles from the very start of the war. The SS and Einsatzgruppen are introduced as tools of terror and genocide. (21:37–27:02)
• Quote: “The Einsatzgruppen are specifically set up to go into towns, villages, and other areas of Poland to kill civilians. That’s their only job.” (25:49, Military Expert)
• Early pogroms and public executions are graphically described, showing the Nazi intention to use war as a means for racial ‘cleansing’. (27:02–28:10)

9. Soviet Invasion and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

• On September 17, 1939, Stalin invades eastern Poland, following a secret protocol of the non-aggression pact with Hitler. (31:46–34:16)
• The destruction is now total: Polish elites are executed or deported by the Soviets, further sealing Poland’s doom. (35:20)
• Quote: “All of these people are to be secretly executed, shot in the back of the head.” (35:32, World War II Expert)

10. The Fall and Destruction of Warsaw

• Warsaw, battered by relentless bombardment (especially by Goering’s Luftwaffe and the infamous Stuka dive bombers), is encircled, starved, and burned to the ground. (39:17–40:22)
• Quote: “It is the largest incendiary bombing that the world has ever seen... Those who crawl out when the bombardment is over, there’s no water. There’s nothing to feed them.” (40:03, Eyewitness/Survivor)

11. The West’s Dilemma, Roosevelt and Churchill

• As Poland is overrun, Churchill is brought into the cabinet and receives a secret communication from President Roosevelt, suggesting the U.S. may eventually be compelled to intercede. (41:42–42:22)
• Quote: “Churchill has this reputation of being a fighter. It’s really telling that Roosevelt seeks him out rather than Chamberlain at this critical juncture at the beginning of the Second World War.” (41:57, Political Analyst)
• Roosevelt senses the larger struggle between freedom and dictatorship, setting the stage for future U.S. involvement.

12. Hitler’s Triumph and Larger Ambitions

• Hitler surveys the ruins of Warsaw, proclaiming its devastation as the “real meaning of war,” while his plans for further conquests to the west are foreshadowed. (42:58–43:14)
• The curtain falls on a Europe plunged into darkness—a conflict truly just beginning.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the universal experience of WWII:
  “When they talked about it, they simply called it the War.” (01:09, Narrator)

• On Blitzkrieg:
  “You’re going to see waves of trucks and mechanized and motorized vehicles. It looks a bit like a science fiction novel ... and suddenly, in 1939, the future is now.” (04:54, Military Historian)

• On Versailles’ consequences:
  “The Treaty of Versailles ... turns the entire German merchant marine over to the Allies ... imposes reparations.” (07:01, Military Historian)

• On Hitler’s rise:
  “He attends a meeting of a small group which will become the National Socialist German Workers, or Nazi Party. He finds something attractive. This is a party of grievance…” (08:31, Military Historian)

• On appeasement:
  “The British had said, fine, we’ll just dismantle an entire country to keep you happy.” (11:23, World War II Expert)

• On Nazi racial ideology:
  “Hitler’s whole worldview ... is a biological struggle, warfare between different races.” (21:47, Military Expert)

• On the pact with Stalin:
  “The revelation of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact causes mayhem in the Western capitals... In fact, it makes it virtually a certainty that such a war will break out.” (34:16, Political Analyst)

• On the destruction of Warsaw:
  “Gering levels Warsaw with no regard for civilian casualties. They screw thousands of pounds of high explosive and incendiary bombs ... and they reduce it to rubble.” (39:46, German Historian)

• On American response:
  “Most Americans … 90% of Americans say, absolutely not. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt ... understands what is at stake in Germany.” (16:24, American Historian)

• On the grim reality at the end:
  “In less than a month, a major European nation has been removed from the map ... and it’s only the beginning, as Hitler looks to the west.” (43:14, Narrator)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction & personal reflections: 01:09–02:53
• September 1, 1939 — War begins: 03:03–05:17
• Hitler’s ambitions and speech: 05:43–06:10
• Treaty of Versailles to Nazi rise: 06:31–10:34
• Hitler’s expansionist policy: 10:56–12:29
• Blitzkrieg and Polish resistance: 13:05–15:21
• Western reluctance and declaration: 14:02–15:05, 29:00
• Nazi-Soviet pact and Soviet invasion: 31:46–36:06
• Siege and fall of Warsaw: 39:17–41:42
• Roosevelt-Churchill communications: 41:42–42:22
• Aftermath and Hitler’s ominous plans: 42:58–43:14

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Tone and Style

Reflecting Tom Hanks’ signature narration—direct, contemplative, and empathetic—the episode blends clear exposition with emotional heft. The voices of historians add rigor while survivor and firsthand accounts evoke the terror, confusion, and uncertainty of this historical moment.

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Conclusion

“The Beginning” lays a formidable foundation for the series: expertly dramatizing not only the facts and strategies behind the first month of World War II, but also emphasizing the human cost and ideological fervor that propelled acts of both resistance and atrocity. By the end, listeners are left with a clear sense of the war’s total impact and the global darkness into which the world was plunged—a darkness that, as Tom Hanks notes, was only just beginning to fall.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

The History Channel Original Podcast.

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When I was a kid, every adult I knew shared one thing in common. A gap in their lives when everything appeared uncertain and time itself seemed to stand still. When they talked about it, they simply called it the War. For six dark years, the world was on fire. Cities were demolished and whole, whole populations threatened. When would the war end? No one knew. How would it end? No one knew life was in stasis. The war is now a part of our culture, portrayed in movies and on television and novels and history books. The Allies usually defeat the enemy and save the world. But the grim reality of the war is almost impossible to comprehend. Over 65 million people are killed, the majority civilians. Everyone fought some version of the war, beginning with the mothers and fathers who sent their children overseas, not knowing when or if they would ever see them again. And of course, the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Often just a bunch of kids who served with honor and bravery to liberate enslaved peoples and preserve human dignity. In doing so, they saved that which is most precious and valued by us all. Freedom. The Second World War is the largest event in human history. No part of the globe is unaffected. World War II changed everything for all of us.

[Tom Hanks]

This is World War II with Tom Hanks, episode one. The beginning.

[Narrator]

Sometimes the most monumental events begin without fanfare before the world wakes. And so it is on the 1st of September, 1939, as dawn breaks over a sleeping city on the Baltic Sea, that the bloodiest conflict in all history begins.

[News Reporter]

This is the national program from London. Germany has invaded Poland. Heavy outbreaks of fighting along the German Polish frontier.

[Tom Hanks]

As a German soldier, I enter this war with a strong heart. From now on, bombs will be met by bombs. Adolf Hitler.

[Narrator]

In just a matter of hours, a million and A half men, 1300 planes and 2,750 tanks cross the Polish border at lightning speed.

[Historian]

September 1, 1939. A storm breaks over Poland.

[Military Expert]

The Germans are racing through with tanks, then with artillery, following up with the infantry and accompanied by the Luftwaffe. And all of a sudden, people were waking up to the sound of tanks rumbling through the town, not really knowing what was happening.

[Military Historian]

You're going to see waves of trucks and mechanized and motorized vehicles. It looks a bit like a science fiction novel, like all those novels written in the 20s and 30s about what the war of the future would look like. And suddenly, in 1939, the future is now.

[Narrator]

At 11am, Hitler arrives at a Berlin opera house where he's gathered the Reichstag.

[News Reporter]

The employers greets the fuel who has just arrived to address the Reichstag, which has been called an extraordinary session.

[Military Historian]

This is the moment Hitler's been waiting for all his life. He's been the leader of the Nazi party since 1921. He came to power in 33. He rearms the country in 35. And since then, it's been prepare, prepare, prepare. But Hitler wants a war.

[News Reporter]

My chance is bleeding.

[Tom Hanks]

My entire life belongs from this moment on to my people. I want nothing else now than to be the first soldier of the German Reich.

[Narrator]

The invasion follows months of diplomatic tension over a strip of land known as the Polish Corridor, Land that had once been part of Germany, but it was ceded to Poland to give her access to the sea after the First World

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[Narrator]

Twenty years earlier, global leaders gathered in the French city of Versailles to sign the historic treaty ending that war. After four years of brutal fighting, an alliance led by Britain and France and supported by the United States emerged victorious. Germany, its military exhausted and its people near starvation, had lost. And now they would pay the price of defeat.

[Military Historian]

The Treaty of Versailles takes territories away from Germany. It strips Germany of populations and raw materials, turns the entire German merchant marine over to the Allies. It imposes reparations on the Germans.

[Political Analyst]

The Allies were attempting to limit the future power of Germany. The effects of the First World War were so grave, they were so catastrophic that no one wanted to see a repeat of that.

[Narrator]

One young Austrian corporal fighting for the German army is Adolf Hitler. Like many, he is shocked by the way the war ends.

[German Historian]

Your average German was Surprised by the news of the armistice because it happened so suddenly. The army was still in the field and there was a sense that we haven't been invaded and thoroughly beaten.

[Eyewitness/Survivor]

It was personally a tragedy for Hitler. He heard the news of the armistice when he was still ill from injuries sustained in battle. He did not process the end of the war well. He did not accept the defeat of Germany.

[Narrator]

Surviving soldiers come home angry and confused.

[Military Historian]

Frankly, the response of many of them is disillusionment. Four years at the front, I managed to dodge all those bullets and now I came home and this is what I fought for.

[Military Expert]

When Hitler comes back from the war, he learns to talk to former soldiers who are now disgruntled and begins to feel the fact that he's actually quite a good speaker.

[Military Historian]

He attends a meeting of a small group which will become the National Socialist German Workers, or Nazi Party. He finds something attractive. This is a party of grievance, talking about how Germany could be transformed and Germany could be made powerful again in 1921. Hitler's talent for public speaking makes him the leader of this tiny party.

[Narrator]

Hitler's first move is an attempted coup against the Bavarian state government in Munich. But it fails and he's arrested for treason. At his trial, the judge allows Hitler to publicly share his movement's grievances against war guilt, reparation and communism. In jail, he publishes his memoir, Mein Kampf, or My Struggle with Hitler's Notoriety. Nazi party membership grows as Germany's Weimar Republic moves through the unstable twenties. The economy is burdened by heavy war reparations. In 1923, the cost of one loaf of bread rockets from 3 marks to 80 billion. The years that follow are unstable, chaotic. Hitler's Nazi party fuels racial hatred against Jews and fears about communism. Then, just as the economy is recovering, the Great Depression throws 6 million Germans out of work.

[German Historian]

People in Germany are confused, bewildered, unhappy. And so there's a real opening for a leader who will speak all these lines perfectly and talk about how I'm going to bring the Germans back together.

[Narrator]

In the 1932 elections, Germany is deeply divided. But President von Hindenburg, backed by conservative businessmen, appoints Hitler Chancellor to run the government at the beginning of 1933.

[Military Historian]

In 1934, Hitler Hitler declares that he will now continue to be Chancellor and take over the role of the president as well. He's transformed what was a democracy in Germany into a one party and a one man dictatorship. He's become the German leader, the Fuhrer.

[Narrator]

His first promise as Fuhrer is to reclaim the land Germany lost at Versailles. He seizes the Rhineland, Austria and the Sudetenland, German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia. By 1938. Just four years later, he's reshaped the map of Europe. Desperate to avoid another war, Britain and France allow Hitler to expand his empire.

[World War II Expert]

In 1938, at Munich, Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister and the French actually made a deal with Hitler. What he wanted was the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. The British had said, fine, we'll just dismantle a entire country to keep you happy.

[Narrator]

But when Hitler turns to Poland, the West finally takes a stand. The Poles have already endured centuries of foreign rule. The country regains its independence as part of the Versailles Treaty. But its new Borders now include 20,000 square miles of what had been German land. In summer 1939, the British and the French sign a guarantee with the Poles promising military assistance if the Germans invade.

[Military Historian]

Hitler speaking to his officers, they're asking questions. Well, what is the attitude of the west going to be if you attack Poland? And he snorted. Don't worry, he said. I've seen my opponents at Munich, they're little worms.

[Narrator]

Hitler doesn't believe the west has the will to go to war, so he moves across the border ready to invade with the full force of the Nazi Wehrmacht. In the first 24 hours of the invasion, the Germans take out railroads, bridges and airfields. The destruction paves the way for their army to advance deep into Poland.

[Military Expert]

The Poles have a modern army. It's the fifth largest army in the world and it's equipped with modern tanks, with all sorts of artillery and armored trains. But Hitler has been putting almost all his resources into equipping the military. The Poles were outgunned by the Germans who had three to one tanks and five to one airplanes. So there's no question that the Germans were a superior force.

[Narrator]

Despite those odds, the Poles are determined to defend their country. Everyone had to help.

[News Reporter]

And soldiers conscripted civilians on the streets

[Narrator]

putting them to work.

[News Reporter]

I saw one man who was stopped six times on his way home with

[Narrator]

a loaf of bread. The Poles remain resilient, But the question is what will Britain and France do?

[News Reporter]

Here, as ever in critical days is seen the coming and going of the leaders of the country.

[German Historian]

The British and French had an alliance with the Poles. They have to defend Poland, but they're not militarily prepared to do so and they're not mentally prepared to do so. The home fronts in Britain and France are dead set against war.

[Narrator]

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tells parliament he's considering issuing an ultimatum. But many feel he's backtracking on his promise to Poland.

[British Politician]

This is a profound injury to British honor that if we don't act and declare war, no other country will ever trust a treaty with Britain ever again.

[Narrator]

Britain delivers an ultimatum to Berlin on the morning of September 3, 1939. Hitler has until 11am to withdraw his forces. It's ignored.

[News Reporter]

This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note. And consequently, this country is at war with Germany.

[Narrator]

In cities across Britain, air raid sirens signal a strange new era, and millions of gas masks are sent to British homes. Across the Atlantic. America is just emerging from the Great Depression and not prepared for war. The peacetime army is small, and neutrality laws make it nearly impossible to aid the Allies. In the White House, the press gathers for one of President Roosevelt's fireside chats.

[News Reporter]

I have said not once but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. I say that again and again. I hope the United States will keep out of this, and I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your government will be directed toward that end.

[American Historian]

Most Americans, when they're asked, should the United states get involved? 90% of Americans say, absolutely not. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he's watching what's happening in Europe very closely. The question is about freedom and democracy. He understands what is at stake in Germany.

[Narrator]

Hitler is surprised when Britain and France declare war.

[British Politician]

When the British declaration of war is made, Hitler receives it in silence. And for a couple of moments, he stares at his foreign minister, Ribbentrop. And then, with a quite vicious tone to his voice, he says, what now?

[Narrator]

Despite the British and French declaration, Hitler continued his master plan for Poland and sends in the Luftwaffe. Hitler's air force is led by a trusted member of his inner circle, Field Marshal Hermann Goering.

[German Historian]

Goering's a German celebrity. World War I, he was the head of the Flying Circus, the Fliegenden Circus, this elite group of fighter pilots. And so he's well known in Germany. He's very handsome, very charismatic guy. But there's also a very dark side to Goering. He feels deeply embittered by the way the war ended. And he falls under Hitler's spell. And he's able to get huge appropriations from Hitler for Luftwaffe procurement.

[Narrator]

Goering's elite pilots are young and have spent thousands of hours in training. From the cockpits of heavy bombers, they drop explosives, but it's the precision dive bombers that wreak the most terror.

[Military Historian]

The Sturzkampflugzeug. The Stuka, as it's usually Abbreviated, you know, it's not a particularly swift craft, but they dive at an almost 90 degree angle and literally drop a bomb in your lap. And there's even a bit of a psy war here as well as they're coming down on you. There's a siren screaming.

[Eyewitness/Survivor]

In Poland. There are pilots flying at low altitude who can see women and children fleeing the roads, who actually target them deliberately. Polish civilians experience modern war in an unbelievably horrifying way. They see people killed, they see bodies all around them. It's a nightmare.

[Narrator]

Poland is being destroyed. It is not clear when or even if Britain and France can send forces to help.

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[Narrator]

On day three, Adolf Hitler boards his heavily armored private train, the America. He named it after his admiration for the way America settled. A vast continent now traveling towards Poland. He looks out on the territory he means to conquer. Land stretching deep into Eastern Europe. Lebensraum. Living space for his new German empire. This is his and Germany's destiny.

[Military Historian]

Hitler talks about a thousand year Reich. Its borders would stretch from the Atlantic in the west to Scandinavia in the north and the Mediterranean in the south. Poland and the lands to the east play a special role in Hitler's foreign policy plans. They're wide open spaces. Farmland as far as the eye could see.

[Narrator]

In order to achieve this vast empire, Germans must clear out the people living there in a remorseless race war.

[Military Expert]

Adolf Hitler's whole worldview is based on a kind of Neo Darwinism in which every single act is a Biological struggle, warfare between different races. He believes that the Aryan race, the Germans, is the superior race on the planet. It's destined to rule Europe and indeed the world.

[Narrator]

Until now, Hitler's main target has been Germany's Jewish population. Under his orders, they lost their status as citizens, had their wealth and property seized and many were forced into exile.

[Holocaust Expert]

Hitler believes that humanity is locked in this existential battle between Aryans, as he describes them, and Jews. And Jews are supposedly responsible for all of society's and the world's ills.

[American Historian]

So who is responsible for the German loss in World War I? Jewish people. Who is responsible for economic inequality? Jewish people. They control media, newspapers, all the businesses. The reason you are poor is because they are hoarding money.

[Holocaust Expert]

What the Nazis are seeking to do at this stage is to make life so unpleasant, so difficult for Jewish people within the Reich that they want to leave.

[Narrator]

Hitler also wants to remove the Slavs of Eastern Europe, including the people of Poland. Day four. Hitler reaches the Polish for where he holds a photo opportunity with his troops.

[Military Expert]

He makes himself very visible, goes to the front and he's greeted by these thousands and thousands of people. They're all vying with one another to get close to Adolf Hitler.

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[Military Historian]

These German soldiers marching on Poland believe in Germany's destiny, that they will be the creators of the great new Germany.

[Historian]

This is the first action they've had militarily since the black day of the German army in 1918. And it is an average infantryman from the First World War who's leading it. So this is redemption. Twenty years after what never should have happened, happened.

[Narrator]

Shadowing his invading forces is another wing of the Nazi regime, the protection squadron. In German, the Schutzstaffel or ss. They were Hitler's personal bodyguards as he rose to power. But under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, they become a paramilitary outfit at the heart of the regime.

[Holocaust Expert]

Himmler is somebody who has a sadistic streak. He's quite meek, he's not particularly assuming. He's certainly not very physically impressive. But he's somebody who's got a burning desire to achieve things. He gets drawn into the Nazi loop and then over a period of time, he eventually takes control of the ss.

[Military Expert]

Himmler has developed the SS from a small kind of a bodyguard unit that's supposed to really protect Hitler into a vast militarized force in Poland.

[Narrator]

The SS units fan out across the newly occupied territory, as does a special wing of the ss, the Einsatzgruppen mobile death squad squads. In September 1939, during the invasion of Poland, the Nazi Einsatzgruppen are under orders to neutralize any opposition.

[Military Expert]

The Einsatzgruppen are specifically set up to go into towns, villages and other areas of Poland to kill civilians. That's their only job. Professors, landowners, politicians, newspaper editors, these sorts of people. They were targeted and killed because these were the people who identified as possibly leading some sort of resistance against the German forces. And this is something that the Poles could not have known yet on those first days of the invasion that this wasn't just going to be a military invasion, but this was also going to be a war of annihilation.

[World War II Expert]

For Hitler. This is a chance not just to destroy Poland, but to clear Poland, to crush the Polish people who are Slavs, and Slavs in the Nazi ideology are Untermenschen under humans. But it's more than that. There are also Jews in Poland.

[Narrator]

For centuries, Poland has been home to millions of Europe's Jews who fled there to avoid religious persecution.

[World War II Expert]

The Jews originally settled there because it was the freest kingdom in Europe. Now they found themselves in a terrifying, murderous trap.

[Holocaust Expert]

The SS drag Orthodox Jewish men out into the streets and they desecrate their clothes and their hair. They smash up synagogues. They are seeking to amplify the terror that they've sought to develop within the Reich towards Jews within Poland.

[Narrator]

These acts of brutality escalate into public executions. In the town of Konskier, on September 12, German troops order local Jews to the town square to dig the grave of a German soldier.

[British Politician]

This rather humiliating forced grave digging exercise quickly descends into a pogrom. Jews are shot. They try and run away from the scene. They're quickly apprehended and in total, 22 Jews are killed. On that day, this was happening across Poland, the brutal mass murder of innocent civilians.

[Narrator]

Nine days into the invasion, Britain and France continue to mobilize their forces. Civilians are being killed in the streets, but the army isn't defeated. With their capital city Warsaw now the target, two Polish armies stage a counterattack to the west of the city. Polish cavalry and reconnaissance tanks drive German forces back 12 and a half miles in the Battle of the Bazura River.

[Military Historian]

You know, all too often the Polish campaign has talked about Osmond kind of pushover, but the Poles fought hard.

[Military Expert]

The classic stereotype of the Poles is that they're all on their horses with sabers drawn, riding toward tanks who are just shooting them down. This is absurd. The Poles were very sophisticated, very finely

[Military Historian]

trained soldiers, extremely brave.

[Narrator]

As Poles fight under German bombardment, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Edouard Daladier meet for a supreme war council and reach a grave decision.

[Political Analyst]

Daladier and Chamberlain agree to leave Poland to its fate. They also adopt formally what they call the long war strategy, the idea that they have superior resources to Germany and that over time those resources will come to bear in the Allies favor.

[British Politician]

Although the statement that is given to the world's press is one of wholehearted support, Poland is essentially cast to the four winds.

[Narrator]

There is one British politician who has always wanted to take a more aggressive position against the Nazis. Appointed to the new war cabinet is Hitler's most vocal critic in the West. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Throughout the 1930s, Churchill had spoken up with concern about German rearmament, about the failure to take effective measures to enforce the Versailles Treaty. It's clear now that Germany couldn't be trusted as a diplomatic partner.

[Narrator]

Two weeks into the invasion, the Poles seem abandoned and their counteroffensive is collapsing. The German 3rd, 8th and 10th armies encircle Warsaw. The capital is a city of palaces, churches and opera houses, the heart of the Polish nation. But now Warsaw is in ruins and under siege.

[Military Expert]

Bombs were falling and everybody was trying to help get people out of the rubble. When your roof is burning, when your children are in hospital because they've been bombed, I mean, these are shocking moments.

[Narrator]

American photographer and cameraman Julian Bryan is in Poland's capital filming suffering and defiance. He pleads for Poland.

[News Reporter]

President Roosevelt and the people of America listen to my story. America must act.

[Narrator]

It must help as help is called for. There is an army preparing to sweep in. They're not coming from the west, but from the east.

[World War II Expert]

On 17 September, Joseph Stalin calls the German ambassador to the Kremlin and says, we're going to invade eastern Poland.

[Narrator]

Poland's fate isn't sealed just by the Nazis. The communists of Soviet Russia also sense opportunity and so does their all powerful master.

[World War II Expert]

Stalin is one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of the 20th century. From the very beginning of the Russian Revolution in 1917, he's been part of the tiny clique that's been running Russia and has emerged as the dominant leader of the whole Soviet Union. The inner circle called him K. The Marvel, the boss. But in public he was the vocht, the leader. But he was a tough man, a morbid man, a mysterious man.

[Carvana Advertiser]

He learned the hard way in the Russian Civil War that you Operate ruthlessly. You sacrifice, you attack. You show no quarter to your enemies. Stalin saw the world in geopolitical terms. He recognized that this the Soviet Union couldn't survive. Isolated, surrounded by adversaries, he had to

[World War II Expert]

play the poker game of diplomacy and war and the players with the Western democracies led by England and France and the dictatorships. His great fear was that the two sides would gang up against him and destroy the Soviet Union. And all of his decisions came from this fear.

[Narrator]

In August 1939, just one week before Germany invades Poland, Joseph Stalin shocked the world when he signed a non aggression pact with Adolf Hitler.

[World War II Expert]

The revelation of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact causes mayhem in the Western capitals. It changes everything. It's a complete shock. For the last sort of five years, the two dictatorships, Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, had been pouring excrement over each other. In the media. They had been calling each other every name under the sun. And for each, the other was the quintessential enemy of everything they believed. And now suddenly there's thawing. And the next thing you know, Ribbentrop is flying to Moscow

[Political Analyst]

in August 1939. By signing a pact with Hitler, Stalin helps to ensure that the Second World War will break out. In fact, it makes it virtually a certainty that such a war will break out.

[Narrator]

The pact promises a decade of non aggression between the two regimes. But there's another secret protocol which carves up Eastern Europe, sharing the land between them. First up is Poland.

[German Historian]

Neither the Germans nor the Soviets wanted Poland to exist. They both saw it as an affront. Poland had historically been a province of the Russian Empire, and the Soviets want that back. It's a buffer against this stronger Germany that's emerging.

[Political Analyst]

The division of Polish territory favored the Soviets, who got more territory than the Germans did. So it's actually the Soviet invasion of Eastern Europe, Poland, that decides the fate of Poland.

[Narrator]

The Red army pours into Poland's eastern provinces. They too carry orders to eradicate Polish leaders and culture.

[World War II Expert]

When the Red army goes into Eastern Poland, they are accompanied inevitably by the secret police, the nkvd. And they arrest all these people. Writers, diplomats, aristocrats, army officers. Some of them are killed instantly, some of them are deported. And a large number of them, between 20 and 30,000, are stowed in camps near the Katyn Woods. All of these people are to be secretly executed, shot in the back of the head.

[Narrator]

On September 22, 1939, in the town of Brest Litovsk, Nazi and Soviet generals gather to watch a parade of both armies.

[British Politician]

There's this free mingling of German and Soviet forces. The two sides are sort of mixing, sharing cigarettes, sharing anecdotes, and they even develop almost a slang between them. Germanski Bolsheviki together strong.

[Historian]

If you're a Polish person, to see these two people that have always been dangerous on both sides of you working together, to see that Poland once again disappears, you had to feel like there's no help close by.

[Narrator]

As Poland burns and her enemies celebrate, one city resists

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[News Reporter]

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[Narrator]

Despite weeks of assault, Warsaw has not yet surrendered. Surviving Polish troops rush to the capital, where 300,000 soldiers and civilians hold the city. To break the resistance, Goering orders the largest air raid ever seen.

[German Historian]

Gering levels Warsaw with no regard for civilian casualties. They screw thousands of pounds of high explosive and incendiary bombs fire bombs over Warsaw and they reduce it to rubble.

[Eyewitness/Survivor]

It is the largest incendiary bombing that the world has ever seen. Air raids last for the entirety of the day. People are trapped in their basements, they're trapped in courtyards, they're trapped in stairwells. Those who crawl out when the bombardment is over, there's no water. There's nothing to feed them.

[Military Expert]

20% of the city is destroyed in one way or another, and about 18,000 people are injured or killed in these bombardments. And the city finally has to surrender.

[Tom Hanks]

Hello? Hello? Can you hear us? We are broadcasting the last Polish radio communication. German troops have entered Warsaw. Long live Poland.

[Narrator]

In London, Winston Churchill warns his country that this is just the beginning.

[News Reporter]

Poland had been overrun by two of the great powers which held her in bondage for 150 years, but were unable to quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The heroic defense of Warsaw shows that the soldier of Poland is indestructible. The British empire and the French republic have been at war with Nazi Germany for a month. Tonight, directions have been given by the government to prepare for a war of at least three years.

[Narrator]

But Churchill has received a signal of hope. A few weeks earlier, President Roosevelt sent him a note congratulating him on his new role in the war cabinet and opening up a secret line of communication.

[Political Analyst]

Once Germany invades Poland, Roosevelt infers that this war is going to be sizable in its scope and that the United States is probably going to need to intervene at some point. Churchill has this reputation of being a fighter. It's really telling that Roosevelt seeks him out rather than Chamberlain at this critical juncture at the beginning of the second world war.

[American Historian]

So there's this relationship that develops between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. There's an understanding on the part of Roosevelt that there is someone in the leadership of Great Britain who understands what's at stake and just how dangerous this moment is. It's not simply about the German invasion of Poland. They're two men who are united in their belief that Adolf Hitler is perhaps the most dangerous man on the planet.

[Narrator]

After the surrender, Hitler travels to Warsaw to survey the ruins. He points at the utter destruction and tells the officers who are with him this is the real meaning of war.

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In less than a month, a major European nation has been removed from the map. It will be engulfed in darkness for most of the next six years. And it's only the beginning, as Hitler looks to the west.

[Tom Hanks]

World War 2 with Tom Hanks is produced by Nootopia Ltd. A E Factual Studios, Playtone Productions, and Back Pocket Studios in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd. Additional voicing provided by Mr. Jeremy Reagan from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler for Playtone. Executive producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producer is Ben Dickstein.