Historical story

The French, however, were ready to die for Gdańsk?

In September 1939, when the time of trial came, the French government forgot about its treaty obligations and did not support Poland in the fight against Hitler. To this day, it is believed that this French society - made up of apathetic and fearful people - did not want to "die for Gdańsk". In fact it did. And there is evidence for that.

A year before the war broke out, the IFOP (existing until today) was established in France - Institut Français d'Opinion Publique, i.e. the French Institute of Public Opinion. By September 1939, he managed to conduct several important polls. They shed some light on what ordinary French people, not the political elite, thought about the situation in Europe.

Let us begin with the Munich Conference (September 29-30, 1938). We are used to the vision of a relieved French celebrating President Daladier returning from Germany, who handed Czechoslovakia into the hands of the Nazis to buy some peace in Western Europe.

Indeed, the crowds in Paris cheered, but against the shameful agreement. At the same time, as many as 70% of respondents said that if Hitler made further demands, France and Great Britain should respond to them by force .

Jean Stoetzel. Father of French opinion polls and founder of the Institut Français d'Opinion Publique. Thanks to him, we know that the French were ready to die for Gdańsk ...

Let us add that these opinions were not embedded in a vacuum. Ordinary French people genuinely expected war. As Daniel Hucker recalls in his book Public Opinion and the End of Appeasement in Britain and France, in April 1939, 45% of respondents predicted that a European armed conflict would break out within months.

Another poll, in June 1939, brought even more surprising results. While the atmosphere on the continent was thickening and the war was literally hanging in the balance, the IFOP decided to check whether the French were ready to die for Gdańsk and whether they were sticking to their declaration from a few months ago (because Hitler had just made new demands!).

The fundamental question was: "Should France use military force to maintain Gdańsk's status to date?" . He gives the shocking results in his book "Poisoned Room" by Gregor Dallas. 76% of the respondents answered "yes" . Only 17% were against and 7% did not have an opinion.

In France, however, unlike in the United States, for example, the authorities did not attach any importance to opinion polls. The aforementioned Gregor Dallas commented:

Thus, in the last months leading up to the war, there was a gap between society and the politicians elected in 1936 ("Poisoned Room," p. 700).

Finally, it is worth adding that in Great Britain, polls were also carried out before the war, which - despite the alleged distancing and phlegmatic nature of the British! - yielded identical results. On the pages of "Public Opinion and the End of Appeasement ..." we read that 76% of respondents in the UK, interviewed by Gallup, agreed that their country should fight for Gdańsk (p. 236).

As can be seen, both in France and Great Britain, it was not the nations that decided to throw Poland to be eaten by Hitler. In both cases the politicians didn't want to get their hands dirty.