Flashback Friday: Paris, Lithuania & Tarnów 1940
June 14 was a banner day for the countries of France, Lithuania and Poland. Except for reading the words, we, today, have no clue what these people went through. ~Vic
[Source]
Paris started mobilizing for war in September 1939 when Nazi Germany, and their allied Soviet Union, according to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty, invaded Poland. […] the war seemed far away until May 10, 1940, when the Germans attacked France and quickly defeated the French army. The French government departed Paris on June 10 and the Germans occupied the city on June 14.
In the spring of 1939, war with Germany already seemed inevitable. On March 10, the city began to distribute gas masks to civilians and on March 19, signs were posted guiding Parisians to the nearest shelters. On August 31, anticipating bombardment, the French government began to evacuate 30,000 children out of the city […]. On September 1, news reached Paris that Germany had invaded Poland, and France, as expected, promptly declared war on Germany. […] in February 1940, ration cards for food were issued [..].
The French defense plan was purely passive, waiting for the Germans to attack. After eight months of relative calm, […] the Germans struck France on May 10, 1940, bypassing the Maginot Line and slipping through the Ardennes. On June 3, the Germans bombed Paris and its suburbs for the first time […]. On June 8, the sound of distant artillery fire could be heard in the capital. On 10 June, the French government fled Paris […]. On June 12, the French government, in Tours, declared Paris to be an open city [and] that there would be no resistance. At 5:30 in the morning of June 14, the first German advance guard entered the city […]. By the end of the afternoon, the Germans had hung a swastika flag at the Arc de Triomphe […].
According to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty, Lithuania agreed to allow Soviet military bases (marked in black stars) in exchange for a portion of the Vilnius Region (in orange).
[Source]
The Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania before midnight of June 14, 1940. The Soviets, using a formal pretext, demanded to allow an unspecified number of Soviet soldiers to enter the Lithuanian territory and to form a new pro-Soviet government […]. The ultimatum and subsequent incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union stemmed from the division of Eastern Europe into the German and Russian spheres of influence in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939. Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, fell into the Russian sphere. Despite the threat to the independence, Lithuanian authorities did little to plan for contingencies and were unprepared for the ultimatum. With Soviet troops already stationed in the country according to the Mutual Assistance Treaty, it was impossible to mount effective military resistance. On June 15, Lithuania unconditionally accepted the ultimatum and lost its independence.
[Source]
The first mass transport of prisoners by Nazi Germany to Auschwitz Concentration Camp was organized in occupied Poland on June 14, 1940, during World War II. The transport departed from the southern Polish city of Tarnów and, consisted of 728 Poles and 20 Polish Jews. They were dubbed ‘political prisoners’ and members of the Polish resistance. Most were Catholics, since the mass deportations of Jews had not yet begun. All were sent to Auschwitz by the German Security Police. They were transported there from a regular prison in Tarnów where they had been incarcerated as enemies of the Nazi regime. Numbers were tattooed on the prisoners’ arms in the order of their arrival […]. These inmates were assigned the numbers 31 through 758, with numbers 1 through 30 having been reserved for a group of German criminals who were brought to Auschwitz from Sachsenhausen on May 20 and became the first Auschwitz kapos.
Cosmic-Observation 
June 17, 2019 at 12:24 AM
What a mad world at that time. Germany was so built up at the time that they didn’t have a hard time doing what they wanted…until later.
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June 17, 2019 at 1:44 AM
I was shocked that these startling incidents happened…on the same day.
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June 17, 2019 at 9:33 AM
I had no clue it happened on the same day either. It’s hard to me to wrap my brain around all of this happening without resistance.
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June 17, 2019 at 2:01 PM
People don’t want war. It’s bloody awful. If you happen to survive it, you’re scarred by it for life. The only people I have ever seen that scream for war are the very ones that never participate in it. Case in point…have you noticed the “War with Iran” rhetoric lately? Oh, HELL NO. Bolton & Pompeo, both, need an ass whipping. I tell you what…Bolton…Pompeo…both of you…ditty-bop your OWN asses over there and fire the first shot.
These people are straight up nuts. This planet has seen too much war, already. ENOUGH.
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June 17, 2019 at 2:05 PM
If the politicians had to fight there would be no war. I never look at news but I just did…yep I see them wanting it.
With Vietnam some of the politicians who wanted it made damn sure their kids didn’t go.
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June 17, 2019 at 2:22 PM
ED ZACHARY! MFs! Sheesh…don’t even get me started…
They only reason I am painfully aware of what is going on (I’d rather be on a lake, on an island, on a mountain, on the ocean…hell, in a cave…) is because of Ken. He is a news junkie. *sigh*
There was a time when I *actually* believed that Iraq had WMDs. Then, I found out through the Chris Thomas material what we were actually over there for. There was an agenda at work and it didn’t have crap to do with WMDs or 9/11. Those were rallying cries and smoke screens. The truth is far more bizarre.
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June 17, 2019 at 2:38 PM
Yea with all of my video media at home…it’s basically 1978 in my living room…I shut the news out.
I didn’t know whether to believe it or not on the WMDs. I’m totally in the dark…just like your shroom pic lol. Sometimes not a bad place to be.
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June 17, 2019 at 2:54 PM
If you are interested in what CT has to say, I’ll email you what he wrote.
So, your living room…is that the 70s room with the green chair & guitars?
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June 17, 2019 at 3:17 PM
Yes email. Like I told you…I like to hear all sides.
No… just our regular living room. I have 12TB of tv shows, movies, battle of the network stars, commercials etc… I can be in the 70s at anytime. Good 70s and Bad 70s both… To be fair I have other eras also.
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June 17, 2019 at 3:47 PM
LOL! We are children of the 70s and teens of the 80s. We had a neat time growing up, pop-culture-wise.
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June 17, 2019 at 4:39 PM
Yes we did…and we actually talked to each other…what a concept compared to today…but it is a smaller world today
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