Wwii01-Web

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  1. Hitler’s March to War
  2. From foot-soldier to F ü hrer
    • Hitler’s rise from corporal to Fuhrer was remarkable
      • Sixteen years (1917-1933) separate these two pictures
      • Hitler’s rise is unprecedented in history
      • From defeated and demoralized corporal to one of the most powerful men on the planet
      • Key Question: How far was Hitler responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War?
  3. Hitler’s Plans
    • Hitler’s plans were not secret
      • Mein Kampf , written in 1924, outlined his three main objectives
    • 1) Abolish the Treaty of Versailles!
      • Called (G) signers ‘The November Criminals’
      • Some terms already not enforced (reparations payments ended w/ Great Depression)
    • 2) Expand German Territory!
      • H wanted all (G) lands <WWI returned, Austria joined to (G), and German minorities in other countries included in a new, Greater Germany
      • Carve out empire in East for ‘Lebensraum’
    • 3) Defeat Communism!
      • Hated & despised Bolsheviks, believing they helped defeat (G) in WWI & wanted to control (G) & the world
  4. Hitler’s Actions: Timeline Invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia Invaded Poland 1939 Took over Austria Took over the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia 1938 Tried out (G)’s new weapons in the Spanish Civil War Made anti-Communist alliance w/ Italy 1937 Reintroduced conscription Sent troops into Rhineland Made anti-Communist alliance w/ Japan 1936 Held massive rearmament rally in (G) 1935 Tried to take over Austria but Mussolini prevented him 1934 Took (G) out of League of Nations Began rearming (G) 1933 ACTION DATE WAR!
  5. Hitler’s Actions
    • Timeline makes it appear as if Hitler planned WWII step by step
    • Accepted view by historians until 1960
    • 1960s: (E) historian AJP Taylor disagreed
      • H gambler, not planner
      • H took logical next step to see what he could get away w/ w/o going to war w/ (E) & (F)
      • H bold and kept his nerve
      • Allies gave in in each crisis
      • Allied behavior emboldened H to go for more
    • According to Taylor, Allies are to blame for letting H get away with so much
    • Both interpretations are defensible
    • Expect an essay prompt on this issue
  6. Focus Task: Hitler & the Treaty of Versailles
    • Draw up a table like this one to show some of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that affected Germany
    • As you work through your notes fill out the columns of the ‘Versailles Chart’
    The Polish Corridor given to Poland Sudetenland taken into the new state of Czechoslovakia Germany forbidden to unite w/ Austria The Rhineland to be a demilitarized zone Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited The response from Britain & France The reasons he gave for his actions What Hitler did & when Terms of the Treaty of Versailles
  7.  
  8. Rearmament
    • 1933:
      • 1000s of unemployed drafted into army
      • Reduced unemployment & built military
      • Claimed only reason to rearm was because other nations had not disarmed
      • Withdrew from L of N (Like Japan earlier)
    • 1934:
      • L of N disarmament conference fails
      • L of N members not willing to disarm
      • Members used military to reduce unemployment, not willing to change
    • 1935:
      • Massive ‘Proclamation of Freedom to Rearm Rally’
  9. Rearmament
    • 1936:
      • H reintroduces conscription
    • Rearmament popular w/ Germans
      • Nazi support increased dramatically
      • Pride restored to nation
      • Humiliation of T of V partially erased
    • Britain helped dismantle Versailles
      • 1935: signed agreement allowing (G) a navy 35% as large of (E) navy (violation!!!)
      • (E) believed restrictions on (G) in T of V too strict, (G) not able to defend itself
      • (E) feared Central Europe was too weak to face growing Soviet power
      • (F) really hacked off, but what could they do?
  10. Proportion of German spending that went to armaments, 1935-1940
  11. German armed forces in 1932 and 1939 1932 1939 1932 1939 1932 1939 Warships Aircraft Soldiers
    • Fill out the first row of your ‘Versailles Chart’
    • What factors allowed Hitler to get away with rearming Germany?
    (30) (95) (36) (8,250) (100,000) (950,000)
  12. The Saar plebiscite
    • (G)’s Saar region run by L of N since 1919
      • 1935: L of N held promised plebiscite for Saar residents whether to stay under L of N control or return to (G) control
      • > 90% voted for return to (G)
      • Entirely legal, w/in terms of T of V
      • Overwhelming success & morale boost for H
  13. Remilitarization of the Rhineland
    • Rhineland a key industrial region
      • Coal, steel, iron center (needed for rearmament)
    • March 1936: Hitler’s first major risk
      • Ordered troops moved into Rhineland
      • Direct violation of T of V
      • Direct violation of Locarno Treaties (1925)
    • If Allies responded H would be humiliated
      • Probable loss of power / military coup
    • Why did Hitler do it?
      • (F) & (R) just signed mutual defense pact
      • H claimed (G) was under threat from (F) & (R)
      • H knew (E) felt T of V too harsh
      • (E) would probably not intervene
  14. Remilitarization of the Rhineland
    • Would (F) let him get away with it?
      • (G)’s army no match for French army
      • H gave orders for army to retreat in (F) sent troops in to oppose (G) troops
    • Hitler’s gamble paid handsomely
      • L of N dealing w/ Mussolini’s Abyssinian Crisis (if you don’t know, look it up in your reading)
      • L of N condemned move but did nothing
      • (F) divided because of elections (no candidate wanted to be remembered as the man who took France back into war)
      • Allies did not know how weak (G) army was
      • (F) would not act w/o (E)’s support
  15. Rhineland in Context
  16. The new Germany buries the ghost of Versailles. In 1936 Hitler violated one of the major provisions of the treaty by entering the demilitarized Rhineland. Source Otto Flecher in Brennessel, 1936
  17. The Spanish Civil War
    • 1936: Civil War!
      • Republican government & Pro-government Communist forces fought right-wing (Fascist) rebels General Francisco Franco
      • H saw war as opportunity to fight communism & give troops combat experience
    • 1937: Guernica!
      • (G) ‘Condor Legion’ (Luftwaffe) purposely targeted civilians to demoralize enemy
      • After bombers passed fighters strafed survivors with machine guns and cannon
      • L of N looked on w/o interfering
  18. The Anti-Comintern Pact, 1936-7
    • Hitler found he had friends
      • Mussolini also heavily involved in Spanish Civil War
      • Japan despised communism & Soviet power in Asia
      • 1936: (G) & (J) sign anti-Comintern pact
      • 1937: (I) joined pact
      • ‘ Comintern meant Stalin’s ‘Communist International’ organization which promoted world-wide communism
      • (G) (I) (J) united against Soviet Union
      • New alliance called ‘Axis’ alliance. The name stuck
  19. Anschluss with Austria, 1938
    • Hitler’s homeland, Austria
      • Mainly ethnic Germans
      • Many supported anschluss
      • H failed in 1934 because Mussolini opposed
      • H succeeded in 1938 (Mussolini now ally)
    • Strong Nazi Party in Austria
      • H had (A) Nazis riot & protest, demanding anschluss
      • H pressured (A) Chancellor Schuschnigg to agree to anschluss
      • Schuschnigg asked for (E) & (F) help, got no support
      • March 1938: Schuschnigg ordered plebiscite but H, fearing loss, sent troops in
      • Under watchful eye of (G) army anschluss plebiscite was 99.75% in favor (har har har)
    • (E) Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain believed (A) & (G) should be united
  20. Fin
  21. PSDs on Hitler’s March to War
    • Any account of the origins and course of the Second World War must give Hitler the leading part. Without him a major war in the early 1940s between all the world’s great powers was unthinkable.
      • British historian Professor Richard Overy, writing in 1996
      • Is Professor Overy correct in his assessment?
    • We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
      • From Hitler’s Mein Kampf , 1923-24
    • We turn our eyes towards the lands of the east … When we speak of new territory in Europe today, we must principally think of Russia and the border states subject to her. Destiny itself seems to wish to point the way for us here. Colonization of the eastern frontiers is of extreme importance. It will be the duty of Germany’s foreign policy to provide large spaces for the nourishment and settlement of the growing population of Germany.
      • From Hitler’s Mein Kampf
  22. PSDs on Hitler’s March to War
    • We must not forget that the Bolsheviks are blood-stained. That they overran a great state [Russia], and in a fury of massacre wiped out millions of their most intelligent fellow-countrymen and now for ten years have been conducting the most tyrannous regime of all time. We must not forget that many of them belong to a race which combines a rare mixture of bestial cruelty and vast skill in lies, and considers itself specially called now to gather the whole world under its bloody oppression. The menace which Russia suffered under is one which perpetually hangs over Germany. Germany is the next great objective of Bolshevism. All our strength is needed to raise up our nation once more and rescue it from the embrace of the international python … The first essential is the expulsion of the Marxist poison form the body of our nation.
      • From Hitler’s Mein Kampf
    • I am convinced that Hitler does not want war … what the Germans are after is a strong army which will enable them to deal with Russia
      • British politician Lord Lothian, January 1935
  23. PSDs on Hitler’s March to War
    • At that time we had no army worth mentioning … If the French had taken any action we would have been easily defeated; our resistance would have been over in a few days. And the Luftwaffe [air force] we had then was ridiculous – a few Junkers 52s (transport planes) from Lufthansa and not even enough bombs for them …
      • Hitler looks back on his gamble over the Rhineland some years after the event
    • Hitler has got away with it. France is not marching. No wonder the face of G ö ring and Blomberg [Nazi leaders] were all smiles. Oh, the stupidity (or is it paralysis?) of the French. I leant today that the German troops had orders to beat a hasty retreat if the French army opposed them in any way.
      • Written by William Shirer in 1936. He was an American journalist in Germany during the 1930s. He was a critic of the Nazi regime and had to flee Germany in 1940.
    • What do the above sources disagree about? Why might they disagree about it?
    • Fill out row 2 of your Versailles Chart.
    • Would you regard the reoccupation of the Rhineland as a success for Hitler or a failure for the French and English? Explain

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