Download The Path to War

The Path to War
Hitler’s Germany and its path
towards World War II
The Ascension of Hitler
► Hitler
wrote in Mein Kampf: “The army was never
defeated in 1918. Germany was stabbed in the
back by traitors at home and betrayed by the
Allies. Most of the woes of Germany were caused
by the Jews, who had manipulated finances to the
ruin of Germany and who could never be loyal to
Germany or to any other government. Germany
had to become strong again. The country must be
cleansed of traitors, and the Versailles Treaty must
be scrapped!”
The Ascension of Hitler
► Nazi
rallies were masterpieces of political display.
► Hitler mesmerized crowds with his frenzied tirades.
► Hitler viewed the masses merely as tools, and he
was actually contemptuous of them.
► In Mein Kampf Hitler wrote:
“…the intelligence of the great masses is small. As a
result, all effective propaganda must be limited to a
few points…
► Many believe that most political campaigns since the
1930’s have been influenced by this Nazi style.
The Ascension of Hitler
► Hitler
became German
chancellor in January
1933. With that, the
Third Reich was born.
(The First Reich, or empire,
was begun by Charlemagne
in 800 and abolished by
Napoleon in 1806, the
Second Reich began in 1871
with German unification and
ended in 1918).
► Hitler
claimed the Third
Reich would last 1000
years.
The Ascension of Hitler
► Through
the Enabling Act
(March, 1933), Hitler
became dictator. He
stripped the Reichstag of
any real power.
► He dissolved opposition
parties; outlawed labor
unions; censored the press;
suspended civil liberties.
► He threw out laws not
beneficial to Nazism.
The Ascension of Hitler
► In
1933, the Nazis
established labor camps
and concentration
camps.
► The first camp was at
Dachau, near Munich.
► These camps were
initially for political
enemies (like
Socialists/Communists,
and later for Jews and
homosexuals, etc.)
The Ascension of Hitler
► Hitler
proclaimed himself
der Fuhrer (the leader)
and immediately required
all members of the armed
forces to take an oath of
loyalty (the Blood Oath),
not to Germany or the
German Constitution, but
to Hitler himself.
► The Nazis hired over
100,000 informers to
report anyone (even
parents) suspected of
disloyalty.
The Ascension of Hitler
Hitler’s (and Germany’s) Anti-Semitism
to Hitler, Germans were Aryans
(which means “noble” in Sanskrit) and were
the “master race” or “super race.” All
others, particularly Jews and Slavs, were
inferior. Jews were to be eliminated and
Slavs were to be made into slaves.
► According
► Hitler
said “Nature is cruel…so we may be
cruel, too…I have a right to remove millions
of an inferior race that breeds like vermin.”
Hitler’s (and Germany’s) Anti-Semitism
► Looking
for scapegoats to blame for
Germany’s problems, Hitler consistently
blamed the Jews.
► In the mid-1930’s, Germany’s Jewish
population represented less than 1% of the
total population (about 500,000 people).
► In 1935, Hitler began to eliminate Jews
from German national life with the
Nuremberg Laws.
The Nuremberg Race Laws
► Known
as the Reich Citizenship Law and the
Law for the Protection of German Blood and
Honor.
► These deprived Jews of most civil liberties. It
was the beginning of the German tactic of
isolating them from the rest of the population.
► There was a national boycott of Jewish
businesses.
► Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat nonJews and Jewish lawyers were not allowed to
advise clients.
The Nuremberg Race Laws
► Jewish
children
were barred from
German schools.
► Books written by
Jewish authors
were banned and/or
burned.
► Intermarriage was
prohibited.
Kristallnacht
► In
October, 1938 a 17 year-old shot and
killed a German embassy official in Paris.
► The teenager was reacting to his parents’
harassment and humiliation from the
Nuremberg Laws.
► The Nazis retaliated on the night of
November 9, 1938, when violence against
Jews (a pogrom) broke out across Germany
and Austria. This was called Kristallnacht,
(the night of the broken glass).
Kristallnacht
► Over
1,000 synagogues were burned or
destroyed, 7,000 Jewish business were
trashed and looted, over 350 Jewish people
were killed and several hundred wounded,
and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools,
and homes were looted.
► The next day, 30,000 Jewish men were
arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Kristallnacht
► Jewish
businesses could
not reopen unless they
were managed by nonJews.
► New curfews were
placed on Jews.
► Any person identified as
being Jewish now had
to wear the yellow Star
of David.
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
The Third Reich was organizing for War
► The
Nazis molded the minds of German
citizens through a program that glorified
war. Textbooks were rewritten.
► Hitler began massive preparations for the
expansion of Germany (“lebensraum”),
which included food rationing laws
(designed to make Germany self-sufficient
in the event of war).
► These laws regulated the amount of food
each person could have and where they
could buy it.
The Third Reich was organizing for War
►Germany
was also short of raw
materials so laws were set up so
nothing was wasted.
►Shopkeepers
were allowed a specified
amount of wrapping paper; households
were to save empty toothpaste tubes,
waste animal fats, and paper (to be
recycled into useful items for warfare).
The Third Reich was organizing for War
►Economic
revival through “pump priming”
(stimulating the economy through public
works programs) built popular support for
the Nazis.
►From
building tanks and airplanes (thus
violating the ToV) to farm production and
the Autobahn, unemployment went from
over 6M in 1932 to 1.6M in 1936 (nearly a
75% decrease).
The Third Reich was organizing for War
► The
Autobahn
highway system was
built to permit the rapid
movement of troops
around the country (but
built under the guise of
getting thousands of
unemployed men
working).
The Third Reich was organizing for War
Germany and Geopolitics
► Geopolitics
is the study of government and
its policies as affected by physical geography.
► Created in Germany in the 1920’s,
geopolitics initially stated that the country
that controlled eastern Europe would be able
to control the “Heartland,” the area
extending from southwestern Russia to
Mongolia. Command of the Heartland
would lead to control of the World-Island,
consisting of Europe, Africa, and Asia (roughly
2/3’s of Earth).
Germany and Geopolitics
► Picture
of World Island
Germany and Geopolitics
► Hitler
believed that under German control,
eastern Europe, with its vast mineral and
agricultural resources, would become a great
industrial region.
► This would enable Germany to control the
Heartland. By controlling the Heartland, vital
industries could be moved to remote regions,
beyond the range of attack. The result would
be world domination by Germany.
► Geopolitics was a major factor leading Hitler
into Eastern Europe and then Russia.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Hitler
had Germany withdraw from the League
of Nations in 1933.
► In March 1935, Hitler denounced the Treaty of
Versailles and announced he was rearming
Germany (on the grounds that other nations
had failed to disarm in accordance with the
Treaty). He quickly took the army from
100,000 troops to nearly 600,000.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Having
correctly assessed the spinelessness
of Britain and France, in March 1936 Hitler
sent German troops into the demilitarized
Rhineland, totally violating the Treaty of
Versailles.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Only
a token force of three German
battalions (a battalion is between 300-1200
soldiers) actually entered the Rhineland,
and they were under strict orders from their
nervous generals to withdraw at once if the
French responded to this breach of the
treaty with military force.
► The German generals knew that the much
larger French army could crush their army
at this time, and believed that Hitler was
taking a dangerous gamble.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► The
British were obliged under the Treaty of
Locarno (1925) to provide France with
military support in such a situation, but when
asked by France for that support, the British
government refused to honor its treaty
obligation.
► Despite having thirty army divisions at the
border in readiness to cross and disperse the
three German battalions, the French lost their
nerve in the absence of support from Britain.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Hitler’s
successful
challenge of the hated
Treaty of Versailles
increased his popularity
in Germany.
► The western democracies
denounced his moves but
took no real action.
► France and Britain did not
want a war with Hitler.
Entering the Rhineland
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Many
in Britain thought Hitler’s moves were
justified since they thought Versailles was too
harsh on Germany. “Why should not Hitler
have the right to fortify his own territory? If
this demand can be satisfied, Germany will
likely become a good neighbor.”
► What do think might have happened if Britain
honored its obligation to France and France
forced the Germans out of the Rhineland?
Germany Defied the Democracies
► If
France had acted firmly in what would have
been little more than a police action, and
Britain had fulfilled its treaty obligations to
France, the German troops would certainly
have been instantly withdrawn, and Hitler's
prestige would have been dealt a deadly blow
from which it might never have recovered.
► The last opportunity to bring Hitler into
compliance, and halt the rise of a militarized,
aggressive Germany without risk of a serious
war, had been thrown away by weak
politicians.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► The
western democracies adopted the
policy of appeasement, giving into the
demands of an aggressor in order to keep
the peace.
► In both Britain and France, many saw Hitler
as a defense against a more insidious evil-the spread of Soviet Communism.
Germany Defied the Democracies
►The
Great Depression also sapped the
energies of the democracies.
►Finally,
widespread pacifism and lasting
disgust from World War I pushed many
governments to seek peace at any
price.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► In
1936, Hitler and
Mussolini sent in
troops and supplies
to help the Fascists
take over Spain.
► This brought
Mussolini and Hitler
closer together and in
October 1936, the
Rome-Berlin Axis was
announced.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► One
month later, Japan was added to the
Axis as the three signed the Anti-Comintern
Pact (promising to unite against
Communism).
► By the end of 1936, Hitler was convinced
that no one would stand up to his
aggression.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► In
1938, Hitler annexed Austria (the
Anschluss) creating a union between the
two largest German speaking countries.
► Hitler forced the Austrian chancellor to
appoint Nazi’s to key government posts and
when the chancellor refused other
demands, Hitler sent in the German army to
“preserve order,” essentially taking over the
country.
► The western democracies again took no
action.
German Troops enter Austria
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Hitler’s
next victim was
Czechoslovakia. In 1938,
Czechoslovakia was one of
the two remaining
democracies in eastern
Europe (the other was
Finland). About three
million Germans lived in
the western
Czechoslovakian region
known as Sudetenland,
and Hitler claimed that
area.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► In
September 1938 at the Munich Conference,
Britain and France again chose appeasement.
Hitler assured Britain and France that if the
Sudetenland was given to him without a fight, he
had no future plans for expansion.
Germany Defied the Democracies
► Returning
from the Munich
Conference, the British PM,
Neville Chamberlain,
told the crowd in London
he had achieved “peace
for our time.” In the
House of Commons, he
declared that the Munich
Pact had “saved
Czechoslovakia from
destruction and Europe
from Armageddon.”
Germany Defied the Democracies
► In
response to
Chamberlain,
Winston Churchill
said “They had to
choose between
war and dishonor.
They chose
dishonor; they will
have war.”
Germany Defied the Democracies
► As
Churchill predicted, Munich did not bring
peace. Less than six months later (March
1939), Hitler had gobbled up the rest of
Czechoslovakia. The western democracies
finally realized that appeasement failed.
► Britain and France now promised to protect
Poland, the next likely target of Hitler’s
expansion.
► Britain and France also finally began
programs of preparedness, but it was too
little too late.
Hitler and Stalin
► In
August 1939,
Hitler stunned the
world by
announcing a nonaggression pact
with his great
enemy—Josef
Stalin.
► Publicly the NaziSoviet Pact bound
Hitler and Stalin to
peaceful relations.
Hitler and Stalin
► Secretly
the two agreed: 1) not to fight if the
other went to war, and 2) to divide up Poland
and other parts of Eastern Europe between
them.
► The Pact was not based on friendship or
respect but need. Hitler wanted to protect his
eastern flank from a Russian attack when
Germany would be at war with Poland. It gave
Stalin some time to build up Soviet military
strength.
► Soon Germany would betray the agreement.
Hitler and Stalin