--- title: Invasion of Poland, 1939: Color Photos From WWII's First Front description: Color pictures, made by Hitler's personal photographer, of a vanquished Poland in the fall of 1939 canonical: https://time.com/3486074/world-war-ii-erupts-color-photos-from-the-invasion-of-poland-1939/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T15:43:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:30.064Z og:title: Invasion of Poland, 1939: Color Photos From WWII's First Front og:description: Color pictures, made by Hitler's personal photographer, of a vanquished Poland in the fall of 1939 og:url: https://time.com/3486074/world-war-ii-erupts-color-photos-from-the-invasion-of-poland-1939/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt606fd6dc3c613380/69875fb22dce0100689dad2d/nazi-invasion-poland-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Captured Polish soldiers, 1939. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Invasion of Poland, 1939: Color Photos From WWII's First Front twitter:description: Color pictures, made by Hitler's personal photographer, of a vanquished Poland in the fall of 1939 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt606fd6dc3c613380/69875fb22dce0100689dad2d/nazi-invasion-poland-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # World War II Erupts: Color Photos From the Invasion of Poland, 1939 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 21, 2014 3:43 PM UTC  Captured Polish soldiers, 1939. Captured Polish soldiers, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 21, 2014 3:43 PM UTC On Sept. 1, 1939, one week after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact, more than a million German troops—along with 50,000 Slovakian soldiers—invaded Poland. Two weeks later, a half-million Russian troops attacked Poland from the east. After years of vague rumblings, explicit threats and open conjecture about the likelihood of a global conflict—in Europe, the Pacific and beyond—the Second World War had begun. The ostensible aim of Germany’s unprovoked assault, as publicly stated by Hitler and other prominent Nazi officials, was the pursuit of _lebensraum—_that is, territory deemed necessary for the expansion and survival of the Reich. But, of course, Hitler had no intention of ending his aggression at Poland’s borders, and instead was launching a full-blown war against all of Europe. (On Sept. 3, both England and France declared war on Germany—but not on the USSR.) The invasion—during which German troops, especially, drew virtually no distinction between civilians and military personnel and routinely attacked unarmed men, women and children—lasted just over a month. Caught between two massive, well-armed powers, the Polish army and its Air Force fought valiantly (contrary to legend, which has the Poles surrendering quickly, with barely a whimper). In the end, Poland’s soldiers and aviators, fighting on two fronts, were simply overwhelmed. In the weeks and months after the invasion, a German photographer named [Hugo Jaeger](http://life.time.com/hugo-jaeger/) traveled extensively throughout the vanquished country, making color pictures of the chaos and destruction that the five-week battle left in its wake. Here, on the 75th anniversary of the start of World War II, LIFE.com presents a series of Jaeger’s pictures from Poland: portraits of a country subjugated not by one enemy, but by several. In Jaeger’s photos, meanwhile, we see early, unsettling evidence of the violence, unprecedented in its scope, that would soon be visited upon scores of countries and countless people around the globe, from the streets of London and the forests of Belgium to the North African desert and the sun-scorched islands of the South Pacific.  Refugees near Warsaw during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. (Sign reads, 'Danger Zone -- Do Not Proceed.') Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Burned-out tank, Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Adolf Hitler (right) prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Post-invasion Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Unfinished Polish bombers, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish soldiers captured by Germans during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish soldiers and a Red Cross nurse captured during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Captured Polish soldiers, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German troops prepare for victory parade after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German victory parade in Warsaw after the invasion of Poland, 1939\. (Hitler is on platform, arm raised in Nazi salute.) Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Adolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Right to left, front row: Adjutant Wilhelm Brueckner, Luftwaffe fighter ace Adolf Galland, Gen. Albert Kesselring and Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz view the victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Head of the SS Heinrich Himmler (right), one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, speaks with an unidentified officer in Warsaw after German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw citizens buried their dead in parks and streets after the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Street scene following the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  German nationals prepare for repatriation during the invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish farmers and peasants flee German military during invasion of their country, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish women clean captured Polish guns in Modlin Fortress, north of Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jewish women and children in Gostynin, Poland, after the German invasion, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Polish refugees, Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Warsaw, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Modlin Fortress, Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene in post-invasion Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Poles stand beneath monument to Polish patriot, Jan Kiliński, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Sochaczew during the German invasion of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Danzig after the German conquest of Poland, 1939. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Flea market in post-invasion Warsaw Ghetto, 1940. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Near Warsaw, fall 1939; sign points to the battle front. 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