One of the Greatest Mysteries of the 20th Century. Gomberg’s Mysterious Map

From Zakazane Historie
Youtube channel
Premiered on 22 September 2023

English transcript:

0:00
Hello everyone!
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In my today’s video I will tell you about the mysterious Gomberg’s map.
0:09
You will find out what kind of map it was, in what political conditions
0:15
it was created and who was its author.
0:18
You will also learn the goals that guided its creation.
0:22
This is a topic that has been brought up many times in discussions
0:26
that took place after the premieres of my videos.
0:31
And that’s why I decided to take it.
0:34
And the Golden Patrons of the channel
0:37
are Mrs. Ewa Szemraj and Mr. Andrzej Maciejewski from Alaska,
0:42
as well Mr. Mariusz Igancy Godlewski.
0:51
KNOW THE TRUTH
0:54
One of the Greatest Mysteries of the 20th Century. Gomberg’s Mysterious Map
0:57
Many times in your comments on the most important events of the 20th century,
1:02
which I took up in my videos, there was a thread related to Gomberg’s map.
1:11
The name doesn’t tell us much.
1:14
Gomberg’s map is not mentioned in history textbooks
1:19
or even in historical studies on the 20th century, at least in Poland.
1:26
But this does not mean at all that the Gomberg map is a fiction
1:32
that was born in the minds of history seekers and sensationalists.
1:38
Gomberg’s map does exist,
1:42
although it has never been and still is not of interest to professional historians.
1:49
This is a pity, because this is a topic that has not yet been well researched.
1:56
Gomberg’s map can be found in the US Library of Congress
2:01
in the Geography and Map Division,
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where it is registered under the control number gm70005331 and
2:10
marked with the appropriate stamp of this library, dated March 31, 1942.
2:20
From the library catalogue, where you can find a description of Gomberg’s map,
2:26
we learn that it appeared in the USA in Philadelphia, PA at the beginning of 1942.
2:37
Its author was supposed to be a certain Maurice Gomberg,
2:41
who is supposed to own the copyright to it.
2:47
The map was precisely titled “Outline of Post-War New World Map”.
2:58
Its subtitle, in turn, speaks of a new world order
3:02
and is precisely “New World Moral Order”.
3:07
The most intriguing is under what circumstances
3:12
and why Gomberg’s map was created.
3:16
Let’s start with the fact that Gomberg’s map
3:20
was most likely created in the summer of 1941.
3:26
It was a unique moment in the history of the then ongoing war.
3:32
On June 22, 1941, the German Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union
3:40
and advanced deep into its territory, getting closer and closer to Moscow.
3:49
The leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, was in dire need of allies
3:55
who could come to his aid.
3:59
The United States was not yet a participant in the war.
4:04
Only a few months later, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
4:09
on December 7, 1941, the Americans were forced to become involved.
4:18
In any case, in the summer of 1941,
4:22
American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was aware
4:28
that sooner or later his country would have to get involved.
4:34
And already then he began to think about
4:38
how to drag the Soviet Union to the Allied camp.
4:44
It became even more obvious to him in the situation at the time.
4:51
Roosevelt also began to dream of becoming the world’s savior in this war.
4:59
After its end, to build a new world order
5:02
and set up a new international organization to guard this order.
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It was clear to him that this would make history forever.
5:18
And these dreams, after some time, became a political plan for him,
5:24
which he intended to implement.
5:27
The first step in the implementation of this plan was
5:30
the announcement in August 1941 by Roosevelt,
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together with the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, of the Atlantic Charter.
5:43
It was supposed to define new rules that were to apply in international politics.
5:50
A month later, the Soviets signed the Atlantic Charter
5:56
as full members of the allied coalition.
6:02
And this is exactly the situation in which the Gomberg map was created.
6:08
Except that Maurice Gomberg was not its author at all.
6:13
It is difficult to assume that an unknown watchmaker
6:17
drew a map of the new world order that was to exist after the war.
6:24
Typically, a map is the work of a professional cartographer
6:28
who has produced many other maps.
6:33
Meanwhile, Maurice Gomberg never had such achievements.
6:38
He was a modest Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe
6:42
who came to the United States and there he dabbled in watchmaking on a daily basis.
6:49
Gomberg also sympathized with the American communists,
6:54
although it is not entirely clear whether he was actually a member
6:59
of the Communist Party of the United States of America.
7:03
He passionately read the Yiddish daily Morgen Freiheit,
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which at that time was the mouthpiece of communism
7:13
and the interests of the Soviet Union in America.
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Due to Gomberg’s political sympathies,
7:20
the American FBI became interested in him after some time.
7:26
It is possible that Gomberg made contact with it and started close cooperation.
7:32
The secrets of this cooperation are probably hidden in the FBI archives.
7:39
There are many indications that Gomberg only lent his name to authorize the map,
7:46
for which he was to be paid for by transferring the copyright to it.
7:53
In this way, by the hand of Maurice Gomberg,
7:57
an unknown American watchmaker, and in addition sympathizing with the communists,
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a map of the new world that was supposed to exist
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after the end of World War II was created.
8:12
As I have already mentioned to you earlier,
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it was probably created immediately after Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union and
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after the announcement of the Atlantic Charter
8:23
and the anointing of the Soviets with members of the anti-Hitler coalition.
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Naturally, this map also had to take into account the interests of the Soviet Union,
8:37
especially in such a key issue as the division of the world.
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So what does Gomberg’s map represent?
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Let’s start with the fact that this map quite accurately depicts
8:51
the bipolar division of the world that was to take place after the war
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between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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American influence, according to Gomberg’s map, was to include
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Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and most of the Pacific and Atlantic islands.
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On Gomberg’s map we also see two federations: South American and African.
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We also see the United States of Europe and the United Republic of China.
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France and Great Britain were virtually stripped of
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most of their overseas colonies on Gomberg’s map,
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as a consolation, Gomberg left to the British only
9:42
Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua and New Guinea,
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which were to remain members of the British Commonwealth.
9:53
The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was to rule all of Central and Eastern Europe.
9:58
It was also to control Finland, Germany and Austria,
10:03
gain access to the Indian Ocean and control Iran with its rich oil deposits.
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It is also worth taking a look at Poland on Gomberg’s map.
10:20
Well, Poland on Gomberg’s map differs from the one
10:24
finally created after the end of the war.
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Poland is a Soviet republic.
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Nor is it shifted as far to the West as it eventually did.
10:40
Poland on Gomberg’s map is based on
10:43
the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic,
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East Prussia and has increased access to the Baltic Sea,
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more or less to Kołobrzeg and, of course, to Gdańsk.
10:57
According to Gomberg’s map, Lviv and Vilnius were to remain with Poland.
11:03
Poland also borders Hungary, Romania and Moldova,
11:09
which, like her, were also supposed to be Soviet republics.
11:15
In short, Poland on Gomberg’s map retains most of the Kresy,
11:20
but the price for this was to be its direct subordination to Moscow.
11:27
Equally interesting are the borders of our neighbors on Gomberg’s map.
11:33
It maintained the division of Czechoslovakia into two republics – Czech and Slovak.
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It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of 1942,
11:46
when Gomberg’s map was published,
11:48
Slovakia was formally an independent country,
11:52
although it fought alongside the Third Reich.
11:56
There is no doubt that the world on Gomberg’s map
12:01
was divided between the United States and the Soviet Union.
12:06
And there is no doubt that this division was a dream of both Roosevelt and Stalin
12:13
when Gomberg’s map was being created.
12:19
The question arises, however, why the division of the world from Gomberg’s map
12:24
was not finally implemented?
12:28
The answer to this question is not at all simple.
12:32
Perhaps the key reason why this did not happen
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was Roosevelt’s unbridled political ambitions
12:40
to create a new post-war order and Stalin’s concerns about them.
12:49
The latter, seeing the determination of the American president
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to design the world entirely in his own fashion,
12:58
may have changed his mind at some point.
13:03
Especially after Roosevelt died in April 1945
13:09
and the United Nations was established to oversee the new world order.
13:18
At this point, it is worth paying attention to the struggle of the Soviet Union
13:24
at the UN forum in order to have additional votes in the UN General Assembly
13:31
from the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet Republics.
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But despite the resistance of the Allies,
13:40
Stalin finally succeeded in achieving this goal.
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Let us imagine, however, that the Soviet dictator decided to obtain such subjectivity
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also for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and even Hungary,
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which, according to Gomberg’s map, were supposed to be Soviet republics,
14:01
and not, at least seemingly, sovereign states.
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It would be rather impossible.
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And that is why Roosevelt’s project stood in the way for Stalin.
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As a result, Stalin preferred to focus on the expansion of communism
14:21
in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and install
14:26
subordinate governments in them,
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rather than incorporating them directly into the Soviet Union.
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There are many indications that Gomberg’s map
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was intended as an attempt to probe American public opinion,
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which at the same time wanted to suggest
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that in order to maintain world peace in the future,
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only the United States and the Soviet Union are needed,
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which will build their spheres of influence.
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It is therefore very likely that the shape of our post-war borders,
15:06
as it happened in the case of the borders
15:08
of other Central and Eastern European countries,
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was the result of Stalin’s decision not to include the countries
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liberated by the Red Army directly into the Soviet Union.
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The consequence of this could also be that Stalin moved the border of the Soviet Union
15:30
as far west as possible, which for us meant the loss of Kresy.
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In any case, Gomberg’s map is still a mystery.
15:43
We are not aware of any source documents that would indicate that
15:48
there was a discussion between representatives of the American and Soviet sides
15:53
over the proposal to divide the world contained in Gomberg’s map.
16:00
Perhaps the American supporters of Stalin, headed by President Rosvelt,
16:08
at some point abandoned the idea
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of pushing through the project of dividing the world from Gomberg’s map.
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However, we do not know this for sure.
16:19
ONLY TRUTH IS INTERESTING
16:25
In my next video I will tell you about
16:28
the Ukrainian rebellion in the borderlands in September 1939.
16:35
You will find out what this rebellion actually looked like and who inspired it.
16:42
You will also learn what the consequences of this rebellion were for Poland.
16:47
I titled this film “The Ukrainian Rebellion in September 1939.”
16:55
I warmly invite you to watch it.
17:03
Thanks for the numerous comments on my videos and donations.
17:07
In a special way, I would like to thank the “Golden Patrons”,
17:11
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17:16
and Mr. Mariusz Ignacy Godlewski,
17:20
as well as “Silver Patrons” as well, including Mr.:
17:25
Dariusz Kwoka, Michał Rychwalski,
17:29
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17:38
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17:41
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17:44
and biosna.pl.
17:47
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17:52
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17:58
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18:08
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