Mussolini also known as “Il Duce” (the leader). Mussolini preferred to be called this. Squadistri – armed bands of Fascist thugs – attacked their political enemies, destroyed private property, dismantled the printing presses of adversary groups, and generally terrorized both rural and urban populations. The Fascist experiment in Italy inspired observers throughout Europe to emulate it.
Hitler originally wanted to be an artist, but was denied admission at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Hitler believed in the stab-in-the-back legend: Germany had not lost the war (WW1), it had been defeated from within-or stabbed in the back by Jews, Communists, Socialists, and Liberals.
The Beer Hall Putsch was failed coup d'état. The Nazi party tried to copy the “March on Rome” which Mussolini used to come to power. So they made a “March on Berlin” to overthrow the Weimer Republic, but failed. Beer Hall was place where people go in the evenings to drink beer and engage in political debates. “Putsch” is German word for coup d'état. After failed coup d'état, Hitler learned he can succeed against the German republic only from within, by coming to power legally. Despised Democracy, Socialism, and Communism for their failures to maintain economy and stability. Fascism promised what democratic societies failed to deliver – a way out of the economic and political morass. Fascist rule – dictatorship by a charismatic leader – promised an escape from parliamentary chaos, party wrangling, and threat of communism.
Mein Kampf was published in 1925. It was very hard to read, weird, and was not a best seller. It only became a best seller after Hitler came to power. Mein Kampf combines elements of autobiography and political ideology of Nazism. Hitler stated the two evils of the world are Judaism and Communism, and they must be eradicated.
Hindenburg was President of Weimar Republic. His plan was to appoint Hitler to Chancellor in order to control him, like a puppet Chancellor. Hitler encouraged Hindenburg to sign Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending Civil liberties, so anyone who were considered opponents of Nazis were imprisoned, and suppressed publications that were not favorable to Nazis. Hindenburg died in 1934 due to old age. Hitler never created new elections for president, he was the sole leader now.
Fuhrer is German title meaning leader. First Reich was medieval German empire The Holy Roman Empire; the second Reich was the German Empire created by Bismarck in 1871. Anschluss was German name for political movement to unite all German speaking lands. Lebensraum: Hitler stated that superior nations had the right to expand into territories of inferior states. Rearmament: Hitler withdrew Germany from League of Nations in October 1933 and in 1935 announced that Germany was rearming. Secret rearmament had been under way for some time, including development of an air training center at Lipetsk, a gas warfare school at Torski, and a tank school at Kazan (all in the Soviet Union).
Nazi propaganda for Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program: "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too." The idea behind the T-4 Euthanasia Program was that the Aryan race should survive and not be contaminated. Anyone who was handicapped or mentally challenged were euthanized. The government will the not have to support them.
The plan was simple. Jews from countries occupied by Germany would be rounded up, packed like cattle into freight trains, and shipped to Poland, where extermination centers were built for this purpose. The worse was Auschwitz.
A German police officer shooting naked Jewish women and children who were still alive after a mass execution of Jews from the Mizocz ghetto in the Ukraine.
Deportation of Jewish children from Lodz Ghetto. Lodz is in Poland. Deportations from the Lodz Ghetto to the first extermination camp called Chelmno began in December 1941. Chelmno is in northern Poland.
Jewish women and girls gathered before their execution – Liepaja, 1941. (Liepaja is in Latvia).
Most western nations were appalled at the prospect of another war and were willing to pay almost any price to settle the crisis peacefully. Hitler proclaimed a union (or Anschluss ) between Austria, his native land, and Germany, his adopted one – thus fulfilling his longtime dream of uniting the German speaking peoples in one great nation. European leaders sought to avoid war and maintain peace through appeasement which recognized Hitler’s claims to former territory lost by Germany in the Versailles peace treaty that ended WW1. Hitler said “This is the last territorial claim I have to make in Europe.” Chamberlain strongly believed in the sanctity of contracts and could not accept that the leader of the most powerful state in Europe was a blackmailer and a liar. Chamberlain and Daladier (French Premier) were well received at home, the British Prime Minister reporting that he believed he had brought back “peace in our time.” The day after the Munich Agreement was signed, Hitler told his aides that he would annex the remainder of Czechoslovakia at the first opportunity.
Hitler summoned elderly Czech President Emile Hacha to Berlin. Commander of the Luftwaffe, Herman Goring, threatened the immediate destruction of Prague unless the remainder of Czechoslovakia becomes a Reich protectorate. German bombers, he alleged, were awaiting the order to take off. Hacha signed, and on that date, 15 March, Nazi troops occupied what remained of Czechoslovakia. Picture - Adolf Hitler inspects guard of honor as he enters Prague's Hradcany castle. Chamberlain’s reputation ruined due to invasion and his failure to maintain “peace for our time.” Invasion served to convince the British that they can no longer trust Hitler. On April 13, Britain and France extended guarantee to defend Greece and Romania.
Vyacheslav Molotov was Commissioner for Foreign Affairs to Stalin, Joachim von Ribbentrop was Hitler’s foreign minister who flew to Moscow to sign pact. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was other name for treaty. The Nazis and Soviets agreed to refrain from aggression against each other, in the full expectation that they could both commit aggression with impunity in other directions. Soviets stakes out their claim to the larger part of Poland, to Bessarabia, Estonia, and Latvia. Soviets later exchanged Poland for Lithuania. Treaty was to come into affect when Germany invaded Poland. Nazi Germany did not want to repeat the same mistakes from World War I by fighting a two-front war.
“ This nation will remain a neutral nation…” – Franklin Roosevelt. One senator declared, “To hell with Europe and the rest of those nations.” At this time, America did not really care for what's happening in Europe, it wasn’t their problem. Their excuse was that America was in the Great Depression. Americans believed World War I got them into this mess and it did not solve anything for Europe. Americans were dissatisfied with their involvement in European affairs; they believed they had been misled by wartime propaganda and that the arms manufacturers had drawn the nation into the war to assure themselves payments for sales to the Entente side. In the 1930’s, the United States adhered to rigid neutrality, and Congress passed legislation preventing the government from loaning money or selling arms to combatants in war.