Download german aggressions prior to wwii

GERMAN AGGRESSIONS PRIOR TO WWII
1. MAP OF GERMAN AGGRESSIONS 1936 – 1939
2. GERMANY MILITARIZES THE RHINELAND
3. GERMANY ANNEXES AUSTRIA
4.
MUNICH CONFERENCE BENEFITS GERMANY
5. GERMANY TAKES OVER CZECHOSLOVAKIA
NAZIS MARCH INTO THE RHINELAND
Hitler's next big move in the game of international diplomacy didn't occur until a year
later and it would be one of the biggest risks of his entire career. Beginning at dawn on
Saturday, March 7, 1936, three battalions of the German Army crossed the bridges over
the Rhine and entered into the industrial heartland of Germany known as the Rhineland.
This demilitarized area included all territory west of the Rhine River extending to the
French border as well as a portion east of the river including the cities of Cologne,
Düsseldorf and Bonn.
The whole world waited to see how the French and British would react. German troops
entering the Rhineland even had orders to scoot back across the Rhine bridges if the
French Army attacked. But in France, the politicians were simply unable to convince
their generals to act, and were also unable to get any British support for a military
response. So they did nothing. The French Army, with its one hundred divisions, never
budged against the 30,000 lightly armed German soldiers occupying the Rhineland, even
though France and Britain were both obligated to preserve the demilitarized zone by the
Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact of mutual assistance.
Nazis Take Austria
At dawn on Saturday, March 12, 1938, German soldiers in tanks and armored vehicles
roared across the German-Austrian border on schedule. They met no resistance and in
most places were welcomed like heroes. Many of Austria's seven million ethnic Germans
had longed to attach themselves to the rising star of Germany and its dynamic Führer, a
son of Austrian soil.
When news of the invasion reached Britain and France, they reacted just as they had
when Hitler occupied the Rhineland a few years earlier. They did nothing. In France,
internal political problems once again prevented any military response. England, now led
by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, had already indicated it would pursue a policy of
appeasement to preserve the peace. Making matters worse, Austria, proud and defiant in
its hour of need, never formally requested any outside assistance.
Hitler thus ordered a law drafted providing for immediate Anschluss (union) of Austria
with Germany. The next day, Sunday, March 13, the law was approved by the Austrian
government led by Seyss. The formal announcement was then made to the world. Austria
had ceased to exist. It was now a province of the German Reich.
NAZI GERMANY’S CONQUEST AT MUNICH 1938
After World War I, the democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia had been created by the
Western Allies out of the remnants of the old Hapsburg empire. But Czechoslovakia was
hampered from day one by serious conflict among its diverse ethnic groups including the
Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and over three million ethnic Germans.
The ethnic Germans lived in the western part of the country known as the Sudetenland,
an area now surrounded on three sides by Hitler's Army. Like the Austrian Germans,
they longed to attach themselves to the rising star of Hitler's Germany.
Britain and France, having agreed among themselves to give Hitler the Sudetenland, now
confronted the Czech government. On September 19, the British and French ambassadors
in Prague sternly advised the Czechs that they should give up all areas along the German
border where 50 percent of the population or more was German
The Munich conference took place inside a brand new Nazi building called the Führerbau
on September 29 and lasted into the early morning hours of the 30th. It was attended by
Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister, Edouard Daladier. Czech
representatives were also there but had to wait outside the meeting room because Hitler
refused to let them inside to participate.
At the conference, Mussolini said he had his own proposal which might help to resolve
things quickly. Unknown to Chamberlain and Daladier, that proposal had been supplied
to Mussolini by the Nazis and essentially contained the same demands as Hitler's
ultimatum. However, Chamberlain and Daladier accepted this proposal without hesitation
in their overwhelming desire to avoid bloodshed.
Just after 1 a.m. on September 30, the four leaders signed the Munich Agreement
allowing the German Army to occupy the Sudetenland beginning on October 1, to be
completed by October 10. About 1:30 a.m., the Czech representatives were informed of
the terms by Chamberlain and Daladier. They had no say in the matter and had no choice
but to comply.
Upon arriving back home in London, Chamberlain declared: "The settlement of the
Czechoslovakian problem which has now been achieved is in my view only the prelude
to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace
NAZIS TAKE CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Now, all that remained of shrunken Czechoslovakia were the two central provinces of
Bohemia and Moravia. At this point, Goebbels' propaganda machine went into high gear
spreading reports of alleged persecution of local Germans there by Czechs. Out of
convenience, or perhaps out of laziness, Goebbels' propaganda people used the same fake
newspaper stories they had printed six months earlier concerning the Czech "reign of
terror" in the Sudetenland.
President Hácha, bewildered by all that was happening to Czechoslovakia, sent a message
to Hitler asking for a face-to-face meeting to resolve the ongoing crisis. Hitler, of course,
agreed to see him as soon as possible.
Wednesday, March 15, the Czech president signed the document stating he had
"confidently placed the fate of the Czech people and country in the hands of the Führer of
the German Reich."
Two hours later, amid a late winter snowstorm, the German Army rolled into the first
non-Germanic territory to be taken by the Nazis.
"Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist!" Hitler announced to the German people later that
day, just before departing for Prague. That evening, Hitler made his long-awaited entry
into the grand old city at the head of ten vehicle convoy. But there were no cheering
crowds. The streets of Prague were deserted
British diplomats informed the Nazis that Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia was "a
complete repudiation of the Munich Agreement...devoid of any basis of legality." The
French also lodged a strong protest saying they "would not recognize the legality of the
German occupation."