- Józef Lipski
Józef Lipski (1894-1958). Polish diplomat and Ambassador to
Nazi Germany , 1934 to 1939. Lipski played a key role inforeign policy ofSecond Polish Republic . Lipski trained as a lawyer, and joined thePolish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1925.One of his first assignments in 1934 was the work on the
German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact .Feigue Cieplinski , " [http://www.binghamton.edu/history/resources/bjoh/PolesAndJews.htm Poles and Jews: the Quest for Self-Determination, 1919-1934] ," "Binghamton Journal of History", fall 2002, last accessed2 June 2006 .]Lipski met with German Foreign Minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop atBerchtesgaden ,Hitler 's mountain retreat, on 24 October 1938. Ribbentrop demanded that Poland agrees to German annexation ofFree City of Danzig ; Lipski refused [Richard Overy, "The Road to War", MacMillan London: 1989] . According toAJP Taylor AJP Taylor, "The Origins of the Second World War", London: 1961] , just days before theGerman invasion of Poland , Lipski refused to get out of bed, despite the urging of British diplomats, to meet with von Ribbentrop to hear Germany's latest demands of Poland. The anecdote illustrates the attitude ofJózef Beck towards Hitler's tactic of making demands and raising the stakes: Poland would not play that game. Under British pressure to negotiate a solution to the Danzig crisis, Lipski eventually phoned to ask for an interview with Ribbentrop on 31 August 1939, but upon learning that Lipski would be present only as an ambassador, rather than as aplenipotentiary , the meeting was refused. Poland was invaded the next day. According to Taylor, the Germans were aware of Lipski's limited negotiating authority.During the
Second World War , Lipski fought as a volunteer (Polish 1st Grenadiers Division in France) and later joined the General Staff ofPolish Armed Forces in the West . In 1951 Lipski moved to the USA and represented thePolish Government in Exile .ee also
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Polish corridor Further reading
*"Diplomat in Berlin, 1933-1939: Papers and Memoirs of Jozef Lipski, Ambassador of Poland", by Jozef Lipski, edited by Waclaw Jedrzejewicz. Columbia University Press, New York 1968.
References
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