Download How does a country or leader in a country start a war

The Holocaust: What it is, how it happened, and why.
Genocide: total annihilation of a race or ethnic group.
(Greek) genos: race, nation, tribe
(Latin) cide: killing
(Greek) Holocaust: Burnt whole
At least 6 million Jews were killed and 5 million others classified as undesirables.
How?
How does a country or leader in a country start a war?
Hermann Goering
"Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want
to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in
one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in
England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag
the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country
to danger. It works the same in any country."
by:
Hermann Goering
(1893-1946) Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime
Minister of Prussia and, as Hitler's designated successor, the second man in the Third
Reich. [Göring]
Date:
April 18, 1946
Source:
Nuremberg Diary (Farrar, Straus & Co 1947), by Gustave Gilbert (an Allied
appointed psychologist), who visited daily with Goering and his cronies in their cells,
afterwards making notes and ultimately writing the book about these conversations
How did the end of WWI lead to the beginning of WWII?
The Treaty of Versailles, 1919
-Germany stripped of about 13% of pre-war territory and all pre-war over-seas
possessions.
-The Ruhr (Germany’s industrial heartland) was to be occupied by allied troops.
-Germany’s military size was also drastically reduced.
-Germany was also ordered to pay for the devastation of WWI in annual payments to the
various countries around it.
Hitler:
On 1/30/1933, he was named Chancellor of Germany, this was due to:
1) Manipulated the desire to reunite German speaking peoples and national spirit.
2) Immediately implementing policies to rid the state of “undesirables,” especially
Jews.
First acts of Nazi Government (1933):
-Take away civil rights from those unacceptable to Nazis. (Supposedly temporary, but
never restored.)
-Force retirement of “Non-Aryan” civil servants.
-Prohibit more than 1.5% non-Aryan in public schools and universities.
-1st concentration camp set up at Dachau. Inmates are 200 Communists.
-Books contrary to Nazi beliefs are burned in public. Intellectuals, writers, artists,
university professors are attacked. Labor unions, socialist journals, and newspapers are
suppressed.
1934:
Hitler combines “chancellor” and “president” positions to become “Fuhrer,” or leader of
Germany.
1935:
Jews in Germany are deprived of citizenship and other rights. The process of
“Aryanization” included forbidding intermarriage and intimate liaisons between Jews and
non-Jews. Some of these laws applied to Gypsies, handicapped, and Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Many are sent to concentration camps.
1936-1937
Olympics in Berlin. All signs banning Jews from public places are removed. (Historical
side-note: U.S. Af-Am. Jesse Owens won four gold medals.)
“Aryan standards” forced on Germany:
-German hospitals couldn’t have Jewish doctors.
-Gypsies were “dealt with” by a special German gov’t institution.
-A systematic campaign against Catholic priests, dignitaries, and monks charged w/
illegal money transfers and hiding non-Aryans.
-Heinrich Himmler, Chief of German Police, declared, “homosexuals must be eliminated
as a danger to the German race.”
Existing camps were filled and new ones had to be built.
1938
Refugees began to leave Germany. Between ’36-mid ’38, 300,000 refugees sought
asylum. Publicly, Europe and America decried the assault upon humanity, but at the
Evian Conference in ’38, only the Dominican Republic increased its immigration quota
(out of the 31 in attendance.)
Europe placated Hitler.
-March 1938 Hitler incorporated Austria
-September 1938, Nazis took the Sudetenland territory of Czechoslovakia.
Britain and France rationalized averting open warfare, giving tacit approval of the
reunification of German speaking peoples. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great
Britain declared in Sept. ’38, there would be, “peace in our time.”
November 1938 The Night of Pograms, the destruction of Jewish businesses, homes,
synagogues throughout the Third Reich. About 30,000 Jews were arrested in two days
and shipped to concentration camps.
1939
January 30th, Hitler’s 6th anniversary, he addressed the Nazi Reichstag:
“Today, I will be a prophet again: If international finance Jewry within Europe and
abroad should succeed once more in plunging the peoples into a world war, then the
consequences will be the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe.”
Hitler promised the destruction of all Jews in Europe. New laws were enacted:
-All Jews carry middle name of Sara or Israel.
-Jews forced to wear the armband w/ star of David.
-Jewish dentists, vets, pharmacists lost licenses.
-Tenant protection for Jews was revoked.
Also:
-Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested throughout Germany.
-5000 Austrian Gypsies were sent to concentration camps.
-In the Fall, Hitler declared that all sick should be granted a merciful death. Killing
centers were opened and about 70,000 people in asylums, 3000 children in reform
schools and 20,000 in camps, and all Jewish inmates in psychiatric and rehabilitation
institutions.
Internationally, there was 8 months of diplomacy while Germany took over Slovakia,
remaining parts of Czechoslovkia, parts of Lithuania and demanded the return of Danzig.
Meanwhile, they also demanded a highway be built through Poland.
France and Britain realized that they were in danger. Germany secured a non-aggression
pact w/ U.S.S.R. and set sights on Poland. Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
1940
Nazis begin deporting German Jews to Poland.
Jews are forced into ghettos.
Germany conquers one nation after another in Western Europe including the Netherlands,
Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
With Germany's backing, Hungary annexes parts of Romania, including Sighet and other
towns in northern Transylvania.
1941
Germany attacks Soviet Union.
Throughout Europe, Jews are forced into ghettos and internment camps.
Mobile killing units begin the systematic slaughter of Jews. In two days, one of those
units was responsible for the murder of 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at Babi Yar- the largest
single massacre of the Holocaust.
Hungary deports 17,000 foriegn and stateless Jews. While several thousand are used as
slave labor, the Nazis massacre the rest.
The first death camp at Chelmno in Poland begins operations.
Germany declares war on the US right after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
1942
Nazi officials reveal the "Final Solution"-- the plan to kill all European Jews-- to their
bureaucracy.
Five more death camps begin operation, including Auschwitz-Birkenau
By March, about 20 to 25% of the Jews who would die in the holocaust have already
perished.
Ghettos are emptied as thousands of Jews are shipped to death camps.
The US, Britain, and Soviet Union acknowledge the German's systematic murder of the
Jews of Europe.
1943
February: About 80 to 85% of the Jews who would die have already perished.
April: Jews in Poland's Warsaw Ghetto strike back in the face of new rounds of
deportation-- it takes the Nazis nearly a month to stop the uprising.
1944
March: Hitler occupies Hungary; by June, the Germans are deporting 12,000 Hungarian
Jews a day to Auschwitz.
1945
January: As the Russian army pushes west, the Nazis begin evacuating death camps,
including Auschwitz.
April: American forces liberate the prisoners in Buchenwald.
May: WWII ends in Europe with Hitler's defeat.
The Holocaust is over; about 1/3 of all Jews in the world are murdered and the survivors
are homeless.
1946
An International Military Tribunal created by Britain, France, U.S., the Soviet Union tries
Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nuremburg.