French declaration of war on Germany (1939)

• 1. Introduction

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  France declared war on Nazi Germany at 17:00 on the 3rd of September 1939, the moment its ultimatum to Berlin expired. The ultimatum had been issued the previous day. Two days before that, German forces had crossed into Poland at daybreak on the 1st of September. The United Kingdom had made its own declaration that same morning, hours before the French deadline fell. France was bound by a defensive treaty with Poland. But the statement it issued was not simply the language of treaty obligation. It was a speech, addressed to the women and men of France. Its longest passages turned inward, making a case for France's own conscience.

• 2. Germany's Refusal

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  Poland had become, in the declaration's words, "the victim of the most brutal and most cynical of aggressions." Its cities were being bombed. Its army, the declaration noted, was heroically resisting the invader. France placed the entire responsibility for this bloodshed on the Hitler Government. France and England had made, as the declaration put it, "countless efforts to safeguard peace." On the morning of September 3rd, they sent one more urgent message to Berlin. They asked the German Government to stop hostilities and open peaceful negotiations. Germany replied with a refusal. That refusal was part of a longer pattern. Germany had already declined to answer what the declaration called "all the men of goodwill" who had raised their voices for peace. The declaration drew a conclusion from this history. Germany desired the destruction of Poland, so as to dominate Europe quickly. Its ultimate aim, the declaration stated, was to enslave France. Against that picture of German ambition, the declaration set France's own account.

• 3. Honoring Our Word

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  "I am conscious of having worked unremittingly against the war until the last minute," the declaration stated. France's entry into the conflict was framed throughout as a forced response, not an act of aggression. The declaration put it plainly: "We are waging war because it has been thrust on us." The ground for action was both legal and moral. France was rising against what it called "the most frightful of tyrannies" and, in doing so, was "honoring our word." Those two motivations sat together: moral opposition to tyranny and fidelity to a commitment. What France fought to defend was named in three parts: "our soil, our homes, our liberties." The declaration closed this passage with a sentence of particular warmth, greeting "with emotion and affection" the young soldiers now going to war.

• 4. A Nation at Its Post

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  "Every one of us is at his post, on the soil of France," the declaration told the nation. That soil, the speech continued, was "that land of liberty where respect of human dignity finds one of its last refuges." The declaration called on the French to cooperate with "a profound feeling of union and brotherhood" for "the salvation of the country."

  The soldiers were promised "full confidence in their chiefs, who are worthy of those who have previously led France to victory." The task before them was named: "the sacred task which we ourselves did perform before them." The wider cause was cast in the grandest terms. "The cause of France is identical with that of Righteousness," the declaration stated. It was also "the cause of all peaceful and free nations." The declaration closed with two final assertions: a prediction that the cause "will be victorious," and two words in French: "Vive la France."