Gene Lapelle: It's General Manager Gene LaPell, and today is your chance to help make radio history. Next week, we'll kick off our annual pledge drive, and as the world's last remaining radio station, it's more important now than ever that our listeners help us survive [00:01:00] what some of you are calling the streaming apocalypse. 

With programs like Movie Asylum with Dirk Scherckler, The Robot Radio Hour, Slam Poetry, Tea Time, or Dispatches from the Moon, we bring your programming from all over the universe from our humble little station here in Port Bonnet. So tune in next week for more details. Up next, it's The Medium with Gia Rencone. 

So keep it locked on WFYZ 103. 1 FM. 

Station ID: WFYZ Port Bonnet. 

Gia Rencone: This is The Medium on WFYZ, Port Bonnet, North Carolina, where we talk about [00:02:00] art, culture, media, and everything in between. I'm Gia Rancone. And this week marks the first of a six part series called Our Beloved Medium, with each story featuring a significant event that played out over the radio airwaves. In part one, we'll hear from WFYZ reporter Stuart Barefoot about some bizarre events at the German Polish border in 1939. 

As after the break, stay with us. 

Patty Sassler: Patting you from the UK, it's Patti Sassler, host of Slam Poetry Tea Time. Be sure to catch us live every Tuesday at 3pm Eastern Standard Time, only on WFYZ, the world's last radio station. 

Gia Rencone: And now, on to part one of the series Our Beloved Medium, Hearts [00:03:00] and Minds.  

Stuart: Here's a fact that I never knew until recently. The first casualty of World War II wasn't a soldier or a head of state. It was a 43 year old farmer named Franciszek Hojnjak. It was August 30th, 1939, and Hojnjak was just minding his own business, working on his farm in a little German town called Polomia. 

Then seemingly out of nowhere, he was approached by seven gun wielding men, forced into a car and whisked away. Those seven men were Nazi agents, and Hojnjak was about to play a crucial role in a chain of events. that would set off the most catastrophic man made disaster in human history. Within 24 hours, he'd be dead, shot through the head, and lying on the steps of a German radio station wearing a Polish military uniform. 

Now, if that all seems really convoluted, it's because it is. [00:04:00] My name is Stuart, and this is Our Beloved Medium, an incomplete and unofficial love letter to radio. 

Hitler's SS (movie audio): Poland. 

Take a good look. In a few days it will have ceased to exist. The Fuhrer's already given the final orders. 

Stuart: Jim Goddard's 1985 film, Hitler's SS, has one of the few pop culture depictions of one of the strangest events of World War II.  

Hitler's SS (movie audio): However, in the interests of world opinion, it will be a good [00:05:00] thing if the Poles are shown to be guilty of extreme provocation. We have therefore arranged for a number of incidents, there in Gleiwitz, for instance. 

On the night before the outbreak of war, our radio station will be attacked and captured by a detachment of the Nazis. They will broadcast some inflammatory propaganda and then retreat back again across the border. Or so at least it will appear.  

 I take it these marauding Poles will, in fact, be people of our own? 

Hitler's SS (movie audio): 150 SS officers in Polish uniform, one or two capable of broadcasting in Polish, of course.  

 150? Isn't there a danger that some of them will eventually talk?  

Stuart: . That's called a false flag, and it was a trick that the Nazis had used before. If you don't know about it, take a moment to look up the Reichstag fire, and then come back here. 

So, as Hitler prepared for his unprovoked invasion of Poland, he wanted to create another event that would rally the public to support him and his cause, while convincing the rest of the [00:06:00] world that Poland, not Germany, were the aggressors. So he asked two of his henchmen, Reinhard Heydrich, a high ranking SS officer, and Heinrich Muller, chief of the Gestapo, to come up with a plan, and boy, did they hatch quite the scheme. 

As far as I know, there's not any actual recording archived anywhere  

Michael Trapani: of that, is there? It's funny that you say that. I, when I was producing the show, I looked for I mean, you think radio, this is a podcast. What a great opportunity to bring some back some of the original audio, because all that's got to exist, right? 

That's Michael Trapani,  

Stuart: the creator of a podcast called how to start a war. If you haven't heard it, it's this really cool genre bending series. That chronicles some of the events leading up to World War II.  

Michael Trapani: Radio, at the time, just was not recorded. Those were entirely different mediums. It was a different concept to record something. 

It wasn't a [00:07:00] given that something was recorded when it was broadcast. Even things like the BBC, when I looked at the BBC archive, because they had radio, you know, famously, uh, and they just, you know, Didn't have a lot and they even have a statement about it talking about how they just really didn't record back then It just sort of went out into the airwaves and it was there and then it was gone  

Stuart: So what we do know about this plan comes mostly through testimony taken during the Nuremberg trials After Germany lost the war, many of the Nazis were rounded up and put on trial for their crimes against humanity. 

An SS officer named Alfred Neujachs was not one of them, but he did give sworn testimony to investigators, and it was his first hand account that shed some light on this. 

Alfred Naujocks: On or about the 10th of August 1939, the chief of the SIPO and SD, Heydrich, personally ordered me [00:08:00] to simulate an attack on the radio station near Gleiwitz, near the Polish border, and to make it appear that the attacking force consisted of Poles. Heidrich said, Actual proof of these attacks of the Poles is needed for the foreign press as well as German propaganda purposes. 

I was directed to go to Gleiwitz with five or six SD men and wait there until I received a code word from Heidrich indicating that the attack should take place. My instructions were to seize the radio station and to hold it long enough to permit a Polish speaking German, who would be at my disposal, to broadcast a speech in Polish. 

Heydrich told me that this speech should state that the time had come for the conflict between the Germans and the Poles, and that the Poles should get together and strike down any Germans from whom they met the resistance. Heiderich also told me at this time that he [00:09:00] expected an attack on Poland by Germany in a few days. 

Stuart: I asked my friend Jimmy to record parts of the transcripts from Noyak's interviews. So he was beside himself when I asked him to play this bizarre human being.  

Michael Trapani: So, Noyak's is a fascinating character. He studied to be an engineer, did really well in school, was a relatively intelligent person. When the Nazi party was rising in post war Germany. 

He got sucked into the, you know, the mayhem of the time. He joined the SS and fought communists in the streets in Germany. And so he very much became a a fanatic and got pulled into that political environment of the moment. He was very effective and skilled in his ability to be violent. [00:10:00] He was not like a brawler. 

He was more of a surgical kind of violent person. And he rose through the ranks and started to get the types of assignments that were just more deadly. Uh, he became regularly tapped for assassination missions. So think of him as the almost quintessential black coded SS officer. That you might imagine in your head, or maybe in your nightmares. 

Uh, he was just a, a highly effective espionage agent.  

Stuart: For  

Michael Trapani: instance,  

Stuart: in 1935, he was tasked with tracking down a group of anti Nazi activists operating a radio station in Czechoslovakia. They'd been broadcasting messages the Nazis didn't like, using an underground radio station. Like, this thing was literally underground. 

I think it was under a restaurant or something like that. They were able to do so because a radio engineer named Rudolf Formis had built [00:11:00] a transmitter that allowed members of a group called the Black Front to spread their anti Nazi messages. Which was bad news for the Nazis. Czechoslovakia was a strategic country for Hitler. 

He wanted to bring back the old German Empire, and he needed to annex the area in order to do so. With that being the case, Nazis couldn't have dissent broadcasted all over the airways, so Heydrich ordered the hit on Formis. and tapped Neuhochz to do it. He was also instructed to destroy the transmitter. 

Neuhochz succeeded in the first part, but not the second. In any case, Hitler would eventually annex Czechoslovakia, and he planned to do so again with Poland in 1939. But first, he needed a pretense to justify it. And once again, Neuhochz was the man for the job.  

Alfred Naujocks: I went to Gleiwitz and waited there a fortnight. 

Then I requested permission of Heinrich to return to Berlin, but was told to stay in [00:12:00] Gleiwitz. Between the 25th and 31st of August, I went to see Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, who was then nearby at Alpen. In my presence, Müller discussed with a man named Melhorn plans for another border incident, in which it should be made to appear that Polish soldiers were attacking German troops. 

Germans in the approximate strength of a company were to be used. Muller stated that he had 12 or 13 condemned criminals who were to be dressed in Polish uniforms and left dead on the ground at the scene of the incident to show that they had been killed while attacking. For this purpose, they were to be given fatal injections by a doctor employed by Heydrich. 

Then, they were also to be given gunshot wounds. After the assault, members of the press and other persons were to be taken to the spot of the incident. [00:13:00] A police report was subsequently to be prepared. Muller told me that he had an order from Heydrich to make one of those criminals available to me for the action at Gleiwitz. 

The codename in which he referred to these criminals was canned goods.  

Stuart: So the plan to dress prisoners up in Polish military uniforms, attack a German radio station, and then blame it on Poland, was the brainchild of Muller and Heydrich. And the logic here isn't exactly airtight, even if the attack on the radio station were real. 

And well, you just heard Jimmy, I mean, Alfred Neuhochs, say that it was all just a ruse. Invading an entire country because of a minor skirmish at a radio station? It seemed to be a disproportionate response. Nevertheless, Hitler wanted Poland and he wanted people to think that it was done in self-defense. 

Michael Trapani: This was a really tense moment where [00:14:00] obviously days away from the war actually breaking out, but was leading up to this moment was really years of a drumbeat of actual conquest that was taking place by Germany. by hitler's regime at the time. He had an axed Austria famously without firing a shot, but it was done through a lot of what was effectively a coup over the phone. 

Uh, some folks that he embedded into the regime. There's a, there's a whole episode on that that I cover. Then he went for Czechoslovakia and in particular the Sudeten region, which is the most fortified, the most valuable section of Czechoslovakia that prior to the end of World War I was part of Germany. 

And he sort of demanded that quote unquote back to Germany. And that was done and [00:15:00] solidified through the Munich Agreement. It's basically blessed by the great democracies of Europe at the time, France, Britain, uh, moderated by Italy, even though he was secretly partnering with Hitler on the side, you know, Italy and Mussolini specifically. 

Once that full conquest of Czechoslovakia was completed again, both without engaging in a full scale war, the next target was Poland.  

Stuart: But why a radio station? If you're gonna stage an attack, why not set the Reichstag on fire again? Or maybe assassinate some lower level officers or politicians that you don't really care about and then just say that Poland did it. 

Let's back up a few years and try to understand how the radio medium had changed how people communicated. That's next.[00:16:00]  

Robot radio Hour: Robot Radio Hour. Every Saturday at midnight. It's radio made by robots for humans and robots. Only on WFYZ. 

Andrew Lapin: Yeah, so radio is still a relatively new technology in the mid twenties. When Cogman gets his start, you know, the technology for it had only Sort of hit the public space just a couple years prior, but it was a very quick adoption. And before you knew it, a significant portion of American households had a radio and it was the start of that tradition of the family sitting around the radio and listening to an entertainment show or listening to the news. 

It totally upended American life. And [00:17:00] so, of course, there were people, as there always is with new technology, there were people, you know, ready and willing to try and take advantage of it. And so, in its early days, radio was so poorly regulated that you could just start, you know, putting together a signal. 

And, uh, and, and, and trying to find influence and so you saw a lot of like charlatans and hucksters, you know, kind of out there trying to spin, you know, miracle cures for whatever, um, that was a popular site on the radio in addition to kind of the more professionally produced entertainment programs and news programs. 

But Coughlin was certainly the first to sort of recognize that radio could be an intensely personality driven medium and that people would tune in to listen to him, even if they weren't Catholic, even if they weren't interested in the sermons, because maybe they liked his personality and his voice and the strength of his, the strength of his opinions and the persona that he was creating on the public stage, that became something that radio uniquely enabled, um, for his rise. 

Stuart: Andrew Lapin is a reporter with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the creator, host, and co producer of the Tablet Studios podcast, [00:18:00] Radioactive, The Father Coghlan Story.  

Andrew Lapin: So the podcast is an eight part, um, historical miniseries, um, co produced by myself, Tablet Studios, and Exploring Hate out of WNET, um, and the show explores the rise and fall of Father Charles Coghlan. 

Who was an American mass media demagogue active during the Great Depression and in the years leading up to World War Two. Uh, so the show explores how Father Coughlin, um, used and sort of piggybacked off of the growing medium of radio in order to spread, uh, at first his, his sermons, um, to the American public, and then gradually turned to spreading anti Semitic and fascist propaganda. 

Uh, and became, uh, essentially America's leading, uh, fascist propagandist during the years in which fascism was an increasingly popular mindset in the United States. [00:19:00]  

Stuart: Kind of like Gleiwitz, Father Coughlin isn't talked about all that much anymore. But during his heyday He was the premier media pundit of his time, bar none, and it's all thanks to radio. 

Andrew Lapin: So Coughlin was a priest, uh, as the name implies, he was a Catholic priest, and so he grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, um, and, uh, came out of seminary, uh, a sort of a bright young star, he was a very theatrical presence, he had a real gift for, um, oratory and was a very highly sought after young priest, um, heading into, heading into the priesthood. 

And, um, at the time it was 1926, um, Detroit just across the river from Windsor, which was where Father Coughlin became ordained, um, and, um, Detroit was a boom town led of course, by the antisemitic car mogul, Henry Ford. Um, a lot of people were moving to Detroit. And so there was an opportunity for the diocese [00:20:00] of Detroit to grow its presence. 

And so they recruited, uh, they recruited father Coughlin to come and, and start his own parish. And then he had the brilliant idea to grow his influence and his finances. Um, by, uh, doing a radio version of his sermons so that he could reach beyond the mere limits of, of the walls of his church.  

Stuart: Which is all well and good. 

But by the 1930s, as he became disillusioned with President Roosevelt's New Deal policies, his radio sermons began sounding less like sermons and More like something else.  

Andrew Lapin: Uh, Coghlan certainly was captivated by what Hitler was doing, although certainly he, uh, later he would, he would disavow and claim that he never supported Hitler and all that. 

But, you know, he was cribbing Nazi propaganda for his newsletters. Uh, he was parroting almost exactly the kinds of things. That the Nazis were [00:21:00] saying he was justifying Nazi attacks like Kristallnacht, you know, by saying the Jews had it coming. Um, Kagan, ideologically is very much in lined with the Nazis at the time and supported this extremist group called the Christian front, which would later turn out to have a lot of Nazi connections on its own. 

And so he could, he could say later because Hitler became this sort of. You know, obviously shorthand for like a very bad dude you didn't want to be associated with, like, you know, Coughlin, you know, might later have tried to repair his reputation by claiming that, but, but the record shows that, uh, you know, someone of his beliefs at that time, even in America, uh, we don't like to think about this, but even in America, Hitler had his supporters and his defenders and Father Coughlin was certainly one of them. 

Stuart: And this was going out to millions and millions of listeners at a time when there was a growing interest in fascism in America.  

Andrew Lapin: Correct. He absolutely had national prominence, um, at the height of his popularity in the mid 1930s. So this is kind of right before he's going full on anti Semite. Um, you know, the best estimates of his listenership at the time were [00:22:00] that between 30 and 40 million Americans were listening to him weekly. 

So that's about a quarter of the country at the time. Far more than the news, the combined audiences for every, you know, TV news channel today that we can think of. So it was a much less fragmented time in the media and Coughlin's, a figure like Coughlin could command much more influence. And the fact that he's not really talked about that much today would seem to, would lead people to believe that he was little more than a sort of sideshow. 

You know, this sort of weird figure who was screaming Nazi things while wearing a priest's collar for this brief moment in history. And then he sort of faded away. Okay. But, uh, in, in fact, as I, as I argue in the podcast, uh, you know, Father Coughlin had tremendous influence on American society and on the American media. 

Stuart: He was also pretty savvy. He would try to mask his anti Semitism with false equivocations like this.  

Father Cahrles Coughlin (archived audio): In asking the Gentiles of America to oppose the Gentiles of the Nazi party in Germany, Jews are not seeking anything that is unreasonable. [00:23:00] On the other hand, When the Gentiles of America ask the Jews in this country to oppose the Jews in Russia, in Spain, and elsewhere, who are supporting communism to our detriment, and to the detriment of the Christians living abroad, we are asking nothing unreasonable. 

Oh, there comes a time in the life of every individual, as well as in the life of every nation, when righteousness and justice will prevail. Must take precedence over the bonds of race and blood. Tolerance then becomes a heinous vice when it tolerates the theology of atheism, the patriotism of internationalism, and the justice of religious persecution. 

No matter then what Ties of blood and common parentage bind the God fearing Jews in New York with the atheistic Jews in Moscow. Those ties must be [00:24:00] severed for God, for country, and for the preservation of the teeming masses of Jews in America who have been victimized by the silence of their leaders and the propaganda of the press. 

Stuart: And if this sounds like a dog whistle to you, You're probably not alone. His broadcast arguably helped inspire others to take up arms. Like in 1939, when a Nazi rally was held at Madison Square Garden, complete with a banner of George Washington and a big sign that said America First. In attendance was a group known as the Christian Front, who were supposedly inspired by Coughlin. 

They began openly harassing Jews and even planning to overthrow the U. S. government. And unlike the Reichstag fire, this was not a false flag.  

Andrew Lapin: They were, they were completely serious, uh, the Christian Front. was, uh, very seriously committed to trying to overthrow the U. S. government and, and very seriously had, [00:25:00] uh, connections to Nazis. 

And Father Coughlin openly aided and supported this group, both in its rise and also in its continued really terroristic activities, uh, even as they were being put on trial for, Um, and being tried with trying to overthrow the United States through, you know, a violent uprising, uh, Father Coughlin continued to defend them and say that the media had them all wrong. 

So, uh, absolutely there was, there were direct links to the most nefarious forces in, in society at that time. And if. You know, if more people had listened to, well, you know, we don't want to do hypotheticals, but, but certainly, uh, you don't want to give a figure like Father Coughlin too much power and, and influence because you see what happens. 

Stuart: Coughlin's vision never fully took root in America. The Christian front plot fell through when the government infiltrated their ranks, and 17 of their members were arrested and tried for sedition. They were never convicted, and the government [00:26:00] eventually dropped its case. That was the beginning of the end for Coghlan's time in the limelight. 

Eventually, the Catholic Church gave him an ultimatum. Either he give up his radio show, or lose his priesthood. Surprisingly, he chose the church, and would eventually fade away from the national spotlight. But he laid the groundwork that many pundits and politicians use to this day.  

Andrew Lapin: There's a lot of power in radical populism for sure. 

I think one of the lessons of Father Coghlan's story is that It wasn't just isolated to his time period in his particular moment in history that the reason why he became so popular and why figures continue to become popular to remind us of him is that these are sort of tried and true principles of demagoguery that that there are there's a formula to follow in order to. 

When people to your side, when you've been rejected by the mainstream. And it's good for us as viewers, as audiences, as like consumers of content in this [00:27:00] endless stream of content that we live in. It's good for us to be aware of how those tactics work so that we can better prepare ourselves, uh, to, to defend ourselves against them and use our critical thinking skills. 

Stuart: If nothing else, it illustrates that as a medium, radio was powerful. It could win the hearts and minds of millions of people and could be a springboard for direct action. Maybe it could even be used to start a war. 

Gia Rencone: This is a Medium on WFYZ Port Bonnet, North Carolina, the world's last remaining radio station. If you're just now joining us, this week is the first of a six part installment called Our Beloved Medium. We're following WFYZ reporter Stuart Barefoot as he tells six stories about the [00:28:00] world of radio. Part two will be next week as Stuart takes us to the Pacific Northwest, where an urban legend was born over the radio airwaves. 

Now, some of you have sent us messages expressing concern about Opus and their lawyers. We feel confident their cease and desist letters will never hold in a court of law. You know that whole First Amendment thing? Anyway, we'll keep you updated on any developments concerning Opus or their founder, Morris Watts. 

But for now, back to Part One of Our Beloved Medium. 

Stuart: Let's pick the story back up with Michael Trapani.  

Michael Trapani: The invasion had a date attached to it. In fact, the original date was earlier than when it actually happened. [00:29:00] The date ended up being September 1st when the invasion began, but it was supposed to be, it was supposed to be before then in, in late August. 

And the plan to invade was made first, and then an event was created to manufacture that kind of consent.  

Stuart: Okay, so we're back in 1939 at the German Polish border, and Hitler is hell bent on annexing Poland. He's got his troops ready to go. The tanks, guns, and planes are all on standby. But the last step is to stage the attack on the radio station. 

This operation fell under the purview of Heydrich, who I mentioned earlier. He was a high ranking SS officer and noted psychopath.  

Michael Trapani: It's impossible to describe the level of evil, the single person that this man was. He was responsible for a lot of the holocaust elements that became more [00:30:00] prominent as the war started and went on. 

But Heydrich Uh, recruited Noyaks for this particular mission, saw the skill that this, this man had and put him in charge of this mission. And as you said, to, to go out to Gleiwitz, which was near the border. And wait for, uh, an assignment.  

Alfred Naujocks: The incident in glitz in which I participated was carried out on the evening preceding the German attack on Poland. 

As I recall, VO broke out on the 1st of September, 1939. At noon on the 31st of August, I've received by telephone from ish the code word for the attack, which was to take place at eight o'clock that evening. In order to carry out this attack, report to Muller for canned goods. I did this and gave Muller instructions to deliver the man near the radio station.[00:31:00]  

Stuart: The man he's referring to was Franczyszek Choyniak, that farmer that I mentioned earlier. Choyniak's involuntary involvement in this affair wasn't exactly random. At times he had campaigned for Polish sovereignty. And it's likely that the Nazis had a file on him. So, from their perspective, he probably seemed like the perfect scapegoat. 

Michael Trapani: A separate detachment arrested Hornok, and they arrested him because this man, who, this random farmer, um, who was of Polish descent, he had immigrated from Poland to Germany. And he had a history of protesting against the Nazi party. He was politically active, but he was just really just a politically active guy. 

Maybe an above average active person, uh, that participated in anti Nazi protests. And of [00:32:00] Polish origin. But he had lived in Germany for many years. And he was arrested. by another SS detachment. He was brought to a local office, and he wasn't booked and put in a jail cell. He was put into a broom closet. 

And it became very clear, based on the testimony that we have, that his arrest was meant to be false. hidden. And as we know, the Nazi regime was a very effective record keepers and they kept records of everyone and they didn't want to keep a record of this man's arrest. So they arrested him, kept him in a broom closet, detained, And, and that's where NOIOX was waiting for the signal in Gleiwitz. 

And that's when the operation began. However, things didn't go exactly according to the plan. Interestingly, the [00:33:00] broadcast that they had planned, they wanted it to go out across Germany, they wanted to break into an emergency channel. And at the time, the, there was a malfunction or they weren't able to do it in this way, where it really only went to a much smaller. 

It didn't go out to the full country. And so, in addition to Noyak's testimony, there also were sort of eyewitness testimonies of people that heard the broadcast in the region, but it didn't really go much further outside of it. It was reprinted everywhere by the propaganda machine, but, uh, as far as the broadcast itself, it didn't break into everyone in Germany's, like, household. 

Stuart: And like Michael said earlier, there's no recording of it, but he did recreate a version of it in his podcast. In the episode Catastrophe, Michael dramatizes the chaotic scene based on transcripts of testimonies. [00:34:00]  

HTSAW: Then, the only Polish speaking member of Noyaks commandos stepped up to the microphone and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. 

As he cleared his throat, Noyaks pulled out his pistol and began firing into the air. ATTENTION! 

ATTENTION! This is Gleiwitz. This station is in Polish hands.  

Stuart: So the broadcast didn't really go out as they'd hoped, and it didn't seem to convince anyone outside of Germany that the invasion of Poland was justified. And inside of Germany, nobody was prepared for what came next.  

Michael Trapani: Many Germans who lived in Germany at the time, especially those in the major cities, would often say that when the invasion of Poland took place, [00:35:00] there was a general shock. 

And in the same way that Austria and Czechoslovakia were encircled and annexed without war, they believed that would happen again in some small way. If there was going to be some type of annexation of Poland, they didn't think it would be triggered by an actual war, but it was. But what Hitler wanted was not World War II. 

He wanted a regional Bilateral war between Germany and Poland that others would stay out of  

Stuart: yeah I think it's it's really interesting and it's not something I realized until I heard your podcast for the first time I always just kind of thought of Hitler as this crazy warmonger, which he is But, I, I guess, I hate to use the word practical, but there was that side of him that knew Germany was not ready for war. 

And the scene you [00:36:00] depict so brilliantly in that ninth episode, I mean this, this guy's shitting bricks when he gets that memo. Um, from, from England basically saying like, we're going to fulfill, you know, our, our, our duty or obligation. We've got a treaty with Poland and we're going to uphold our end of it. 

Michael Trapani: Yeah. The two to three days following the invasion are some of the most fascinating in modern history. When you think about, you know, in the history books or maybe when you, when you learned about this in school, it's Germany invades Poland and World War II begins, right? It's when, when you think about the response that needs to come, right? 

It's not a, it's not a world war until, uh, more than two countries, uh, in different parts of the, of the world get involved. And when the German Polish war, which only lasted for say, two years. Two [00:37:00] days before it became World War II, that transition from Germany invading Poland and then the allies, England and France, scrambling to respond. 

And effectively fulfill their obligations to Poland, uh, by declaring war on Germany and taking that step was a lot more chaotic and complicated than, you know, Neville Chamberlain reads the newspaper, sees that Germany invaded Poland and then goes ahead and declares war. It was a lot of coordination. It was a lot of, um, mistakes and miscommunications between England and France. 

When you think about it, But that united front was just as important to Germany, uh, was just as important, excuse me, to the allies as, as just declaring war at all. Because once war is declared on Germany, France is the one who's on the continent. They're going to be the first target for [00:38:00] Germany to attack. 

And they're really going to take the brunt of any sort of response that Germany might make to their war declaration. And so England was pushing France to say, Hey, we gotta, we gotta do this now. We can't wait anymore. We can't wait hours. Uh, and Chamberlain was getting a lot of heat from parliament at the time, bipartisan saying, Hey, like, this is like, this is not, Okay, we need to do this right now. 

And when France wanted to wait another day He wanted a way I think of the French government Chamberlain's government reached out to the French government said we need to declare war by noon tomorrow If we if they don't agree to pull back the Germans don't agree to pull back France said well Why don't we give them the ultimatum tomorrow at noon and then wait another 24 hours for them to respond to it? 

And the British government's response was, we will not [00:39:00] be in government afternoon tomorrow. So we're either going to do it alone, or you can do it with us at the same time, because the parliament will vote us out of office if we do not go right now. And that's what the government did. What England did, they ended up delivering a joint statement with France to the, um, to the German government. 

Um, it was delivered to, uh, uh, it was requested to be delivered directly to Hitler, um, uh, directly to the foreign minister of Hitler. I should say the foreign minister said he wasn't available because I don't know, flaked out a little bit. It ended up being delivered to the person who was available at the time, which was Hitler's top aide and his translator, and it was a statement that effectively said, as a result of your activity, you know, we put a request for you [00:40:00] to pull back your invasion of Poland as of this time. 

Um, we have received no response, and as a result, we will fulfill our obligations and a state of war exists between us, uh, England and Germany. And a few hours later, France delivered the exact same message. And that's when World War II officially began.  

Stuart: Of course, we all know how it ended. Hitler completely miscalculated what the Allies would do. 

And 70 million people, including Hitler's, their lives. 

The Gleiwitz incident has a weird legacy, I think. It's unlikely that in and of itself, it really changed history. Hitler was probably gonna invade Poland no matter what. But we'll leave that part up to the historians to figure out. For me, it's a mystery. It's that radio was seen as such a crucial medium. 

Michael Trapani: When you think about FDR, [00:41:00] another pioneer person of power that used the medium, it really gives that contrast of how powerful a channel it could be for good. And the best example, it was really actually the first major fireside chat that FDR gave. Which was, when he came into power, uh, when he was elected president, you gotta think about what was happening at the time. 

It's 1930s, 1933, FDR was just elected, and the United States is in the throes of the largest economic catastrophe. in global history, period. There's never been anything like this. The economy of the world had never been so connected and so high before it had come down and people were dying. People were starving in the United States, which was an extremely wealthy country. 

Even at the time, people [00:42:00] were committing suicide and they were homeless, just a, just an incredible level of destitution. And what was starting to happen is. Uh, where people were keeping their money was banks as, as people do keep their money in banks. And what's starting to happen was what's known as a bank run. 

And for those of you that followed the Silicon Valley bank, uh, event that happened earlier in the year, you know what that is, which is basically everybody panics that they're The bank that they have their money in is about to collapse. And so they all start withdrawing their money up until the point where the bank no longer has enough funds to pay the people back the money that's theirs. 

And the problem with the bank run in the great depression was that was happening to every bank in America. So the banking system was collapsing because everyone was freaking out [00:43:00] that their money was not safe. And. Roosevelt gets elected in the midst of this. And because you're in the middle of the Great Depression and inflation is going up and companies are collapsing and banks are going under. 

And the Federal Reserve at the time was broken up into, it wasn't a Federal Reserve back then, it was broken up into like the New York Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Chicago. They, they were Uh, regional reserves and they just were not acting fast enough. They underestimated the impact of the bank runs, uh, led to the collapse. 

And so these bank runs were happening and FDR went to his staff, went to his economists and all of the people that he got together between his election and the inauguration and said, what's going on? We need to understand what's actually happening so that we can fix it. And all of his advisors told him. 

The banks themselves [00:44:00] are okay. It's actually not a problem with the banks. The problem is that people are withdrawing their money from the banks. And if people just stopped withdrawing their money from the banks, we could stabilize the situation and start to fix it. And so what did FDR do? He got onto the radio. 

He broadcast to the entire country. Here's what's happening. And he literally explained everything I just explained. He said the problem is that there is not enough money to be given to you at this moment. But that doesn't mean your money doesn't exist. It means that people just need to stop withdrawing their money from the banks. 

The banking system will hold if you all promise to stop trying to take your money out of it on Monday. And if you all do that, I promise things will stabilize. And he explained what you should expect, [00:45:00] he explained what is to be expected of them, and he explained what he was going to do about it once everybody agreed. 

To not withdraw their money, the situation gets stable, and the changes that they would make to the banking system to prevent this from happening in the future. So it's a great example of the opposite approach of how the medium, the communication medium of radio can be used For good. And it was one of the most incredible moments in communication history or history of, of US presidents, of using that channel for good. 

It was, it was really incredible.  

FDR (archived audio): After all, there is an element in the readjustment of our financial systems more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith. 

You must not be stampeded [00:46:00] by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system, and it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem, my friend. Your problem no less than it is mine. Together, we We cannot fail. 

Gia Rencone: This has been The Medium on WFYZ. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of Our Beloved Medium, where we go into the Pacific Northwest in the late 1900s, where we hear an urban legend unfold in real time.  

Art Bell: You would swear on all that is sacred to you that what you have told us is the absolute, unadulterated truth. 

That this is my hole and this is the truth about it. 

Gia Rencone: Keep it tuned to WFYZ. Up next is [00:47:00] Movie Asylum with Dirk Scherchler. 

Stuart: So there it is. That's episode one. The rest of the series will come sometime in the summer or fall of 2025. In the meantime, follow us at ourbelovedmedium. com. You can sign up for our newsletter and follow us behind the scenes while we make this series. Okay. Bye for now.