Скачать или смотреть The First Confirmed Civilian Casualty | The Death That Came Before the War

World War II is often defined by dates, invasions, and declarations.
But before armies crossed borders and before war was officially announced, the conflict had already claimed its first human life.

In this episode of The Firsts of World War II, we examine the first confirmed civilian casualty of the war — Franciszek Honiok, a Polish civilian killed on the night of August 31st, 1939, hours before the invasion of Poland.

Honiok was not a soldier.
He was not armed.
He was not involved in combat.

He was arrested, killed, and used as fabricated evidence during the Gleiwitz Incident, a staged attack on the Gleiwitz Radio Station designed to justify Germany’s invasion of Poland the following morning.

This episode explores:

Who Franciszek Honiok was, and why he was targeted

How the Gleiwitz Incident was constructed as propaganda

Why this death occurred before the first shots of the war

What it reveals about the role of civilians from the very beginning of World War II

This is not a story of battlefield tragedy.
It is a story of deliberate civilian death used as political justification.

The killing of Franciszek Honiok demonstrates a central truth of World War II:
civilians were not drawn into the war later — they were present from its first moment.

This episode concludes The Firsts of World War II, a sub-series within Moments Before, examining the earliest actions, decisions, and consequences that defined the conflict before the world fully understood it had begun.

All information presented in this episode is based on established historical research, archival documentation, and consensus among professional historians:

Encyclopaedia Britannica — Gleiwitz Incident
https://www.britannica.com/event/Glei...

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Nazi Propaganda and the Outbreak of War
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org

Polish Institute of National Remembrance — The Murder of Franciszek Honiok
https://ipn.gov.pl

Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War (Penguin Books)

Norman Davies, Europe at War 1939–1945 (Oxford University Press)

World War II
World War 2
First civilian casualty World War II
Franciszek Honiok
Gleiwitz Incident
Start of World War II
WWII civilian deaths
False flag operation WWII
How World War II began
Early World War II
WWII documentary
Historical documentary
Moments Before
The Firsts of World War II
Poland 1939
Nazi propaganda