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This may be surprising to some given Hitler’s well known stance towards Poland but I’ll provide a little more context to this rare photograph…
The head of Poland Józef Piłsudski died on May 12, 1935. His funeral was made few days later in Warsaw. But in Berlin there was a service for Piłsudski ordered by Adolf Hitler. In the picture you can see Adolf Hilter during the service for Piłsudski and a symbolic coffin with a Polish flag and eagle. This was the only time that Führer attended a Catholic mass as a leader of the German Reich and probably one of the last times when he was even in a church.
Hitler held Marshal Piłsudski in a special regard for his profound leadership of Poland in its formative days directly following the end of the Great War. Particularly guiding his people through the turbulent invasion of Bolshevik forces from the east in which Poland stood against inconceivable odds yet came out victorious in the defense of their nation.
Even though Hitler had special sympathy to Piłsudski, he didn’t go to his funeral in Warsaw, instead sending Reich foreign minister von Ribbentrop in his place. In 1939 when the Germans took the city of Krakau, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to assign an honor guard to protect and watch over Piłsudski’s tomb. After the invasion of Poland, the Führer stated that things could have been different if old Pilsudski was still alive…
