# war declaration on hitler??? why? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 6, 2000, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251 "2000-12-06T03:27:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Charley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/97f17d/32.png) [@Charley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charley)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/21 "2000-12-06T16:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*Is a Toad in the Hole just a really big Pig in a Blanket? \*\* Isn’t a Pig in a Blanket in **flaky pastry** rather than batter? If so, then, no, that’s a sausage roll. This baby is a meal, not a nibble. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/22 "2000-12-06T16:58:41Z")
After having had “Turd in the Hell” at a college cafeteria, nothing on earth will convince me to eat it again. Sausage rolls and Cornish pasties (Cornish pasties being one of the English dishes I will really miss when I go home) are a completely different kettle of fish. Let’s not talk about “faggots in gravy.” ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/23 "2000-12-06T17:02:25Z")
Ogre, I feel I can safely say that Toad in the Hole played little role in Hitler’s ascension. Toad in the hole consists of sausages baked in batter. It is especially good - as TomH mentions - when served with onion gravy. Hitlers mad scheming and megalomaniacal plans were caused not by this simple yet hearty meal, but by his circumcision (rants of JDT passim) I hope this clears this issue up once and for all. ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/24 "2000-12-06T17:05:49Z")
I still don’t understand why Hitler read “Frog And Toad Are Friends” to the Poles…is somebody going to explain this or is my head going to explode? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/25 "2000-12-06T17:16:56Z")
Well, monkeylucifer, the obvious explanation is that Hitler trained “frogmen,” which were codenamed “toads” (except in German, of course,) who also specialized in tunnel warfare. These crack troops were known as “toads in the hole,” and even the Gestapo were afraid of them. Hitler got the idea from eating the British dish, so the British declared war on him out of rage. “Onion gravy,” by the way, was German code for onion gravy. Yum. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nebuli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/0ea827/32.png) [@nebuli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nebuli)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/26 "2000-12-06T17:23:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Hitlers mad scheming and megalomaniacal plans were caused not by this simple yet hearty meal Is this yet another attempt to bash vegetarianism by pointing out Hitler did not eat meat?? ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/27 "2000-12-06T17:31:23Z")
As Charley said, pig in a blanket is more similar to what we call a sausage roll than to toad in the hole. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Duke_ > After having had “Turd in the Hell” at a college cafeteria, nothing on earth will convince me to eat it again. There are lots of things I would never eat again if my only exposure to them had been in a college cafteria. My college kitchen even managed to cock up baked potato on a regular basis, which takes some doing. Yorkshire pudding (the non-sausage constituent of toad in the hole) is notoriously variable and difficult to do well. If you see it on the menu in a decent restaurant, I’d give it another shot. Really, you’ll thank me. Since we’re on the subject, there’s a good online recipe [here](http://home.sprynet.com/~hotoff/toadhole.htm). I concur with their sausage recommendation as well. Try it, you might like it. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/28 "2000-12-06T17:37:18Z")
I’d just like to second Tom’s Yorkshire pudding assessment. When it’s good, it’s heavenly. When it’s bad, it’s very, very, very hideous. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/29 "2000-12-06T17:37:51Z")
Ah yes, the little known but very effective _Kroetenfallschirmjaegern_! They could have easily turned the tide at Omaha except Hitler tied them up in a futile hunt for the elusive Otter Resistance. They also had a severe attrition rate from motor-car accidents. ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/30 "2000-12-06T17:41:52Z")
No no no no no. You people are still pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. Any culinary historian worth his _blancmange_ knows that Hitler’s ascension was brought about by that most dreadful dish, Eels and Mash. Stop potzing about and get to the meat of the subject, would you? ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/31 "2000-12-06T20:20:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Jack Batty > > As an avid history buff, and no great fan of Adolph Hitler, I have been following this thread closely. Alot of differing opinions and statements have been bandied about. Being a seeker of truth and an eradicator of ignorance, I feel we need some clarification, to wit: > > Is a Toad in the Hole just a really big Pig in a Blanket? _wipes tears away from eyes_ I love you guys. No better way to pick up studying for a final on WW’s 1 and 2 than the Straight Dope. I can see it now: Question: What caused Hitler’s rise to power? Answer: Whetever it was, it WASN’T toads in the hole, or pigs in the blanket, whatever Goebbels said!!! ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/32 "2000-12-06T20:56:48Z")
The truth can now be told…Hitler said the haggis at the 1938 Burns Dinner was “_Gottverdammt_ chewy.” This diplomatic incident swelled into hostilities in 1939 after Nazi spies were caught sneaking a recipe for jellied eels out of England. There is also no such place as Poland. The entire nation is completely made up. Brief references to a _populus Polii_ appear in late Latin texts but remain controversial. Records indicate that a “Poland” was included as a joke by drunken League of Nations delegates on Lloyd George, who was planning a vacation to the Czech Baltic seaside at the time. Woodrow Wilson never realized this, and fought valiantly for recognition of independent Poland. The US Senate realized there was no Poland and blocked America’s passage into the League as a result. Broken, Wilson continued to support the non-existant nation until his death. After that, no one had the heart to further sully the great man’s reputation by insisting that Poland did not exist. Mapmakers made a funny saddle-shaped country and civiilized it with towns named after typewriter jams. A flag was designed by accident when an accountant at Rand McNally thought he saw an eagle in the ketchup and mayo on his sandwich. The Hormel corporation created a national dish, the “Polska kielbasa,” from a rejected formula for Spam. Polish jokes quickly gained vogue, as they were made at the expense of a non-existant ethnic group who could not be insulted and complain and spoil the jocular mood. “Poland” remained popular for a while, but the truth of its non-existence remained, and those in the know worried that the little country that couldn’t might yet prove embarassing. So, when Hitler had finally antagonized the British into action, they moved on behalf of Poland, figuring brave freedom fighters were a better call to arms than sheep guts. It was expected that the “country” would be so completely ravaged that no one would notice it never existed in the first place, or that the Russians would annex Poland and it would be forgotten. Neither happened; the Soviets were convinced that the “Poland is fake” information given to them after Stalingrad was a bourgeois ploy to place capitalist-controlled areas closer to the USSR. Stalin ordered a new Communist government installed in Poland when his generals took it, and the KGB carefully hid the truth to protect itself from the inevitable Politburo purge if “Poland” was exposed to the Russian public. In retaliation, the CIA began counterintelligence operations on behalf of the Polish people. It was not until 1978 that the CIA realized they were being bilked by their own agents. After firing them, the US spy agency created the “Solidarnosc” Union as proof of Eastern European dissatisfaction with and activism against Soviet rule. The KGB countered with a fake crackdown on the fake union, and the charade continued until the Soviet Union’s collapse. Worried that frail Russian confidence in the new government would collapse if the truth was revealed too suddenly, the United States continued to aid the now-democratic “Poland” as a courtesy to the new Russian democracy. Only now, as the loss of Chechnya and the submarine _Kursk_ have shredded what remained of Russians’ faith in their goverment, can the true story of Poland be revealed. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/33 "2000-12-06T21:24:33Z")
Cursing these sticky moderators who impose rules on those needing living room (including redundant threads) and refering to the locked thread. > [@](#): > > Black Bean Enchiladas A brief and yet tricky question. Where Black Bean enchiladas ever eaten in conjuction with Toads et al? And further, > [@](#): > > 1 cup red beans (red, black and/or pinto), soaked overnight Is it truly necessary to soak overnight. How long is overnight, in fact, and how might this reflect on Poland (or the Anschluss for that matter). And then I really am disturbe by this language: > [@](#): > > 1 large onion, chopped If in fact Enchilades might have been eaten in Poland, might not this vague language about large (which is how large?) provoked the whole concept of lebensraum? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/34 "2000-12-06T21:44:54Z")
Hitler was perceived (correctly) as the more serious threat to Britain and France. The treaties of mutual support with Poland were aimed directly at Germany. When the U.S.S.R. invaded Poland, the other declarations of war had already been proclaimed and the conquest ended too soon to let all the politicians figure out what to do about the Russian aggression. Regarding the German population of Poland: _Most_ people in Poland were _not_ (ethnic) German. The state of Prussia along the Baltic was certainly heavily Germanic, although by no means exclusively so. (It was a libelous claim that the Prussians were being “mistreated” by the Poles that Hitler used as an excuse to whip up pro-war sentiments within Germany and to rationalize his invasion of Poland to the rest of the world, but there was not on-going persecution–it was a fabrication.) Britain and France respected their treaaties with Poland and declared war because they recognized that having annexed Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, and other smaller plots of land, Hitler was obviously trying to nibble up all of central Europe. They felt they had to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and Poland was sufficiently large to justify their response. ---
**Author:** ![McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/35 "2000-12-06T21:59:19Z")
Don’t you GET IT? Chamberlain was CIRCUMCISED!!! Get it? How can you NOT expect a man to declare war after that sort of psychological trauma!!! ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/36 "2000-12-06T23:21:26Z")
don Jaime, you are one of the coolest people I have ever had the honour of reading their posts! Poland a non-existant country… _giggles_ Okay, I’ll stop posting admiring, non-contributive messages! ---
**Author:** ![nebuli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/0ea827/32.png) [@nebuli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nebuli)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/37 "2000-12-06T23:22:04Z")
> [@](#): > > A brief and yet tricky question. Where Black Bean enchiladas ever eaten in conjuction with Toads et al? > > And further, > > ## quote: > > 1 cup red beans (red, black and/or pinto), soaked overnight > > * * * > > Is it truly necessary to soak overnight. How long is overnight, in fact, and how might this reflect on Poland (or the Anschluss for that matter). Well, for the crew of the German battleship Tirpitz, stationed above The Artic Circle, at Cape North in the Barents Sea, overnight would have been approximately six months- a fact perhaps not wholly inconsequential in the ultimate defeat of _der Kriegsmarine_ ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/38 "2000-12-07T00:05:27Z")
Would anybody care for a nice Whim Wham with Riddle Bread? Hindle Wakes also takes my fancy. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/39 "2000-12-07T03:40:17Z")
How the HELL did Pat Buchanan find this message board, anyway? You know, that Steve, that Poland was torn into three parts in the 1700s by Catherine the Great? The biggest chunk went to Russia and the rest was taken by Prussia and Austria. My family came from Poland, and I still have family there, in fact, I may have some cousins who were there when Hitler took over. Maybe the fact that Hitler thought that the Slavs were inferior people who needed to be eliminated, much like the Jews, had something to do with it. (I believe Mussolini was the one who had more a problem with the Slavs). Also, Poland was given to Stalin as a buffer state to keep him from requesting part of Italy, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251/40 "2000-12-07T04:43:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Guinastasia: > \*My family came from Poland I still have relatives in Norway, Switzerland, and Denmark. I like lefse! Although technically you don’t wrap sausage in lefse, usually just sugar and jelly. I suppose you could wrap fish in lefse but I dont think I would like that as much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-declaration-on-hitler-why/44251.md?page=3)