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What were Hitler’s early
successes?
(1933 – 1941)
The Aftermath of World War I left
Germany Weak and Humiliated
Germany to pay war reparations to France and Britain ($$)
Germany to accept blame for war.
In 1923, in an effort to publicize the
ideas of the Nazi political party,
Adolf Hitler wrote a book…
Hitler’s Goals
(as outlined in “Mein Kampf”)
1. Abolish the Treaty of Versailles
2. Unify ethnic Germans into “Greater Germany”
3. Persecute/Destroy Jews, Gypsies/
Roma, and social outcasts
4. Living Space for Germans (“Liebensraum”)
5. Destroy Communism
1933
Hitler’s Action:
• Withdraw from the League of Nations
• Stop paying reparations
Allied Response:
Condemn Hitler. Do nothing.
1935
Hitler’s Action: Re-armament
(autobahn)
(100,000 man Army allowed under the Versailles Treaty becomes the
officer corps for the new million-man German Army)
1935
Allied Response to Hitler’s Rearmament:
modernize military, condemn Hitler
Sopwith Camel
Hawker Hurricane
Dreadnaught
Battleship
1936 Rome-Berlin Axis formed
• Hitler and Mussolini agree to an alliance.
They will defend each other and help other
fascists come to power (i.e. Franco)
Allied Response: Alarmed but no action.
1936 – 1939
Spanish Civil War
• Hitler’s Action:
Supply Franco’s fascists
with weapons to win the
war. Use war to test new
weapons and tactics.
Fascism: A government led by a dictator with
complete power and control over industry
and commerce.
-Forcible suppression of opposition
-Emphasis on aggressive nationalism
and often racism.
General
Francisco Franco
Spanish Civil War
Hitler’s “Condor Legion” commits Nazi
Germany’s first mass atrocity by carpetbombing civilians in Guernica, Spain.
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Spanish Civil War:
“Guernica” by Pablo Picasso, 1937
What was the Allied Response to Spanish
Civil War?
Strongly condemn the fascists.
Hitler, Mussolini:
We condemn
you!
Pierre Flandin,
Stanley Balwin,
French Foreign Secretary
British Prime Minister
1936
Hitler re-occupies the Rhineland
(This area had been demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty)
1936
Hitler re-occupies the Rhineland
Using your bicycle
troops, I want you to
re-occupy the
Rhineland. If the
French decide to fight,
run away!
Right away,
Mein
Fuhrer!
General Von Fritsch
1936
We can’t fight
them without
you! Besides,
we are having
an election
and cannot
upset our
people by
provoking war
with Germany.
Allied Response to
Reoccupation of Rhineland:
Pierre Flandin, French
Foreign Secretary
Lets send a stern
The Nazis
letter
to the League
reoccupation
of of
Nations
that condemns
the Rhineland
has
Hitler!
violated
the treaty
of Versailles!
What are you
going to do about
it?
Stanley Balwin, British
Prime Minister
March 1938
Hitler’s Action:
Anschluss: Unification of Germany and Austria
March 1938
Allied Response to
German/Austrian unification:
“If the Austrians want it, let
it happen. We can’t stop
Hitler short of going to war.”
Sept-October 1938
Hitler’s Action: After making demands, he
Conquers Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia
Allied Response, Sept-Oct 1938 to
Hitler’s Demand:
Appeasement
We will give you
what you want
this time, but DO
NOT take any
more territory or
next time we
WILL go to war!
What is
“Appeasement”?
(Giving in to someone
to calm them down.)
I promise!
(The September 1938
Munich Conference is
famous for the Allies lack
of resolve.)
Sept-Oct 1938
Chamberlain returns home and proclaims:
“There will be peace in our time!”
-- Neville Chamberlain
What is
“Appeasement”?
(Giving in to someone
to calm them down.)
Appeasement
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9axJTzj0VU
March 1939
Hitler’s Action: Occupy all of
Czechoslovakia
That’s it! Do it
ONE MORE
TIME and we’ll
fight! We really
mean it this time!
(also in March 1939)
Negotiates a secret peace deal with
Stalin to divide Poland between
Germany and the Soviet Union
(“Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Treaty”)
This pact appeases Russia by giving them land.
It also clears Hitler from fighting a two-front war if
the British and French decide to fight.
Appeasement Lesson
September 1939
Germany and Soviet Union invades Poland
World War II begins.
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“Blitzkreig”
Blitzkreig is a tactic that combines
armored units (tanks), motorized troops,
and air power to achieve victory at
lightning speed
1940
German blitzkreig conquers
Denmark and Norway
1940
German blitzkreig conquers
France, Holland and Belgium in
under six weeks
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1940
In an effort to capture oil, Fascist
armies invade Romania and North
Africa
General Erwin Rommel,
the “Desert Fox” of the
Afrika Corps
1940
• Germans bomb
London and other
British cities during the
Blitz
• Germans plan to
invade England but
are turned back by the
British Air Force in the
Battle of Britain
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Winston Churchill
“The gratitude of every home in our island,
in our Empire, and indeed throughout the
world except in the abodes of the guilty goes
out to the British airmen who, undaunted by
odds, unweakened by their constant
challenge and mortal danger, are turning the
tide of world war by their prowess and their
devotion. Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.”
The Bombing of Coventry
If you were a British
commander, would
you keep the secret
and let the people of
Coventry suffer the
surprise attack, or
would you warn them
and lose a strong
advantage over the
enemy?
World War II in Europe
Battle of the Atlantic
• German U-boats (submarines) try to cut
off Britain.
• Blockade broken by armed convoys
crossing the Atlantic from US to Britain.
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1941
• Germans blitz through
Yugoslavia and
Greece
1935 – 1941
Nazi Victories
Rhineland
Spanish Civil War
Austria
Sudetenland
Czechoslovakia
Poland
Denmark
Norway
Holland
Belgium
France
Libya
Egypt
Romania
Yugoslavia
Greece
Where was next?
Hitler’s Goals
1. Abolish the Treaty of Versailles
2. Unify all Germans in Greater Germany
3. Persecute/Destroy Jews, Roma, and
social outcasts
?
4. Living Space for
Germans
5. Destroy Communism
Summer 1941
He invades the Soviet Union…
It will be his biggest mistake of the war.
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“Operation Barbarossa”
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