''Why Die for Danzig?'' (french: Pourquoi mourir pour Dantzig?) is an

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

French

political slogan The following is a list of notable political slogans. Political slogan (listed alphabetically) A * Abki baar Modi Sarkar – Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign slogan for 2014 Indian Parliamentary Elections * ACT UP, Fight Back, Fight AIDS – ...

created on the eve of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Article

The phrase originated in the title of an article ("Mourir pour Dantzig?") by the French Neo-Socialist writer

Marcel Déat Marcel Déat (7 March 1894 – 5 January 1955) was a French politician. Initially a socialist and a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he led a breakaway group of right-wing ' Neosocialists' out of the SFIO in 193 ...

, published on May 4, 1939 in the Parisian newspaper ''

L'Œuvre ''L'Œuvre'' is the fourteenth novel in the '' Rougon-Macquart'' series by Émile Zola. It was first serialized in the periodical ''Gil Blas'' beginning in December 1885 before being published in novel form by Charpentier in 1886. The title, t ...

''. The article concerned one of the

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

ultimatum An ultimatum (; ) is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance (open loop). An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series o ...

s to the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

, regarding the demand to transfer control of the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...

(Gdańsk) to Germany. In the article, Déat argued in favor of

appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...

. He asserted that France had no interest in defending Poland, and that German Chancellor

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

would be satisfied after receiving the territory he (rightfully, according to Déat) demanded. He accused the Poles of warmongering and dragging Europe into a war. Déat argued that Frenchmen should not be called to die paying for irresponsible Polish politicking, and expressed doubts about whether Poland would be able to fight for any significant amount of time. "To fight alongside our Polish friends for the common defense of our territories, of our property, of our liberties," wrote Déat, "this is a perspective that one can courageously envisage, if it should contribute to maintaining the peace. But to die for Danzig, no!" (''"Mais mourir pour Dantzig, non !"'') "''Combattre aux côtés de nos amis polonais pour la défense commune de nos territoires, de nos biens, de nos libertés, c’est une perspective qu’on peut courageusement envisager, si elle doit contribuer au maintien de la paix. Mais mourir pour Dantzig, non !''" — Marcel Déat, "Mourir pour Dantzig", ''

'', 4 mai 1939, cited in French Wikipédia's article on

Impact

Opinions on the significance and the impact of the slogan differ. The article and several similar pieces were noticed by diplomats and government officials, French and foreign, and elicited

press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...

s from Prime Minister

Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II. Daladier was born in Carpentr ...

and Foreign Minister

Georges Bonnet Georges-Étienne Bonnet (22/23 July 1889 – 18 June 1973) was a French politician who served as foreign minister in 1938 and 1939 and was a leading figure in the Radical Party. Early life Bonnet was born in Bassillac, Dordogne, the son of ...

, who noted that this sentiment did not represent the majority views of either the French public and the French government, and reaffirmed their support for the Polish–French alliance. The slogan has been credited by

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

with demoralizing the French in 1940, but historian David Gordon argues that it was mostly marginalized by that time. Historian

Julian T. Jackson Julian Timothy Jackson (born 10 April 1954) is a British historian who is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. He is a professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London, he is one of the leading authorities ...

agrees, noting that while the slogan was taken up by some extremist groups, such as the British People's Party, for the most part at the time of being written it "fell largely on deaf ears". According to historian Karol Górski, Déat's article, and the resulting slogan, gained some popularity in France and abroad, and others list the groups among which it resonated, such as the French

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

and isolationists. It was however less popular among the general public;

Thomas Sowell Thomas Sowell (; born June 30, 1930) is an American author, economist, political commentator and academic who is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he becam ...

cites a French poll around that time showed that 76 per cent of the public was supportive of going to war over Danzig. This slogan was particularly negatively received in Poland, and entered the Polish language as the phrase "umierać za Gdańsk", used as a type of an

informal fallacy Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Falla ...

, describing an argument nobody should agree with. It still appears in Polish political discourse and appears as a reference recognized by general public as of 2012. A number of modern Polish sources cite this slogan arguing it was the dominant view shared by a majority of Frenchmen and even the British, claiming that the general mood of those countries was such that their citizens did not want to fight for their Polish ally. The phrase has also been occasionally used in modern French and English language political discourse. Back in 1939, the phrase was readily adopted by

Nazi German propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policie ...

, and used in French language broadcasts around the time of the

Phoney War The Phoney War (french: Drôle de guerre; german: Sitzkrieg) was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germ ...

. Following French defeat by Germany and the creation of the

Vichy regime Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

, Déat became an advocate of

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and a Nazi collaborator, going so far as to look for support in Nazi Germany for his fascist party, which was more radical than the Vichy regime.

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Impact

See also

References

Further reading