IDs / Definitions• Mein Kampf• Nuremberg Laws 1935• Policy of Appeasement• Anschluss• lebensraum• Kristallnacht• Concentration Camp system• Munich Pact• 10-Year Non-Aggression Pact (Soviet Union and Germany)• Allied Powers / Axis Powers• Blitzkrieg• Stalingrad / El Alamein / D-Day• V-E Day / V-J Day
Questions and Imperatives
• How did Adolf Hitler deal with the Churches of Germany? The Jews? The Versailles Treaty?
• Discuss the step-by-step progress of Hitler taking over the nations of Europe.
• How did the Allied nations plan to deal with WWII?
• Can the force of ideas sustain a civilization under attack? (Class discussion)
January 30, 1933President Paul von Hindenburg names Nazi party Leader, Adolf Hitler the new Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler named Chancellor
• January 1933• Why• What followed– Burning of Reichstag– Enabling Act– Dachau
Dachau• First concentration camp established for
enemies of the Reich – outside Munich, open March 22, 1933
Hitler deals with the Churches
• Reich Concordat• German Christians• Confessing Church
Hitler deals with the Jews
• Hitler’s “war against the Jews”• April 1, 1933 boycott• Jews lose jobs• Jews limited in higher education• Jewish immigrants lose citizenship• Some Jews leave Germany
“War” against the Jews
• April 1, Boycott of all Jewish stores
War Against the Jews
• 1935 Nuremburg Laws• 1938 Kristallnacht• “War” moves beyond Germany– Disenfranchise– Dehumanize– Expropriation– Concentration– Annihilation
Nuremberg Laws
• The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor– prohibited marriages and extramarital intercourse between
"Jews” and "Germans" – Prohibited the employment of "German" females under
forty-five in Jewish households• The Reich Citizenship Law– those of German blood (Aryan) are German citizens– Not Aryan = state subjects– Not Aryan, cannot fly flag of the Reich
Mussolini in Italy• Mussolini sends troops to discourage Hitler
from annexing Austria in 1934• Mussolini was “active” in Europe, tried to tell
other European nations that he could not always be the one to
control problems (e.g. Hitler’s attempts to expand)
“Third Reich”
• 1934 is rather quiet for the Jews, think that Hitler cannot last, but
• Hindenburg dies in August and Hitler becomes the Führer, the leader, he names his new reign the “Third Reich”
1935• (1933-1935), about 1/10 of the Jews leave Germany, and
of those about 1/3 return because they find anti-Semitism strong in other countries– Loss of jobs– Persecution / murders– Nuremberg Laws
• March 1935, Hitler reimposes peacetime conscription throughout Germany, building up troops (against the Versailles Treaty), secret rearmament had been going on since 1933
• May, Jews excluded from the armed forces• July, pogrom in Berlin, Jews beaten and shops destroyed
Strange Bedfellows?• January 7, 1935, Mussolini and Laval sign French-Italian agreement in Rome,
French agreeing to give Italy a free hand in Ethiopia• Mussolini had colonial ambitions, Italy had been defeated by the Ethiopians
in 1890s and Mussolini wanted to conquer them• Ethiopian Emperor said if you don’t watch it, Europe will be next• G.B. not happy with the Fr-It agreement and when Italy moved on Ethiopia,
G.B. imposed economic sanctions and condemned Italy • by the end of the year, foreign ministers of G.B. and Fr suggested a
compromise such that Italy would receive 2/3 of Ethiopia• not well received and Mussolini decided Italy could stand alone against the
world, war took place in Ethiopia • Hitler supported Mussolini with supplies, at the same time making his own
moves• Mussolini appreciated Hitler’s help • Rome-Berlin Axis (Axis powers) - 1936
1936
• March, Hitler remilitarizes the Rhineland (against the Versailles Treaty)
• OLYMPICS IN GERMANY• November, Germany/Italy form a military
alliance and Germany/Japan sign a pact• she has to be good, look good to the outside
world; Jews can take a breath
1937• Buchenwald concentration camp opened,
again for those opposed to the Reich
1938• MARCH - the ANSCHLUSS• Hitler wanted the union (Anschluss) of Austria with Germany (failed in
1934)• Hitler pressure Chancellor Schuschnigg of Austria for union, but…• Hitler moves his troops to the border which causes Schuschnigg to
resign (Austrian Nazi to take his place as Chancellor - Seyss- Inquart)• German troops march into Austria greeted by cheering crowds (not the
Jews)• Great Britain at this point followed a policy of appeasement (P.M.
Chamberlain knew that the Austrian union was coming and accepted it)• Mussolini, who had kept Hitler from Austria in 1934 now congratulated
him (Mussolini realized the strength of the Third Reich and could not have opposed it anyway)
Jews of Austria
• What German Jews experienced in 5 years, Austrian Jews experienced in days
• In August, Adolf Eichmann established “Zentralstelle fuer juedische Auswanderung”
• Jews begin to emigrate
1938• SUDETENLAND:• Hitler wanted German speaking Sudetenland (3
million people) of Czechoslovakia• after the Anschluss, Sudetenland question again arose• France had a treaty with Czechoslovakia to help
protect her, but G.B. would not support France• threats and discussion went back and forth,
Czechoslovakia did not want to give up this region• September - discussions
Against the Versailles Treaty
• 1933-34: secretly rearming• 1935: remilitarizes the Rhineland• 1935: outwardly rearming• 1938-39 takes back land• POLICY OF APPEASEMENT
Munich Pact• P.M. Chamberlain did not want to provoke Hitler in to war
and was ready to appease again in the situation of the Sudetenland
• Munich Conference held in September attended by Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini, and Daladier...German would annex the Sudetenland and agreed to guarantee Czech borders
• Czechoslovakia had to comply• Chamberlain went back to G.B. proclaiming “peace in our
time”...thought he could trust Hitler, that Hitler was done...NO NO NO...but G.B. did begin to rearm (not quite that trusting)
1938
• NOVEMBER 9,10 – KRISTALLNACHT
Hitler takes the rest of Czechoslovakia – Early 1939
1939• CZECHOSLOVAKIA:• March, Czech president called to Germany and threatened by Hitler and
Goering• President Emil Hacha surrenders Czechoslovakia• G.B. does not now think so highly of Neville Chamberlain• Europe began to realize that Poland would be Hitler’s next target• Chamberlain assured the Poles that G.B.
and France would protect her • Hitler planned to attack Poland in
September• May, Hitler and Mussolini concluded a
military alliance, “Pact of Steel” named by Mussolini: each would come to the other’s aid in the event of war
Summer 1939
• RUSSIA:• Hitler did not want a two-front war• in August, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-
year non-aggression pact also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Treaty)
• Russian foreign minister Molotov and German foreign minister Ribbentrop
• It contained a secret protocol that divided Poland between the two nations
• IRONY??
German and Soviet Union sign 10-year non-aggression pact in August 1939
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/molotovpact.html
World War II Begins• September 1, Germany invades Poland• Blitzkrieg??• Britain and France declared war on Germany, September
3• Soviet forces attacked from the east on September 17• Poland taken in less than one month (surrender on
September 27), ceased to be an independent nation• Poland carved up between Soviet Union and Germany
(annexed), with a section set off as the Government General occupied by a Nazi government
Treatment of Jews
• before Poland even surrendered in the war, Jews were humiliated across Poland
• on the Jewish “Day of Atonement,” Jews were forced to dance, labor…some had their beards shaved off, were beaten, property destroyed
• story of Piotrkow, Poland: Jews forced to relieve themselves in the synagogue and clean up the mess with their prayer shawls and Holy Books
• height of harsh treatment on Jewish Holy days, but humiliation and ill-treatment throughout
Partitioning of Poland• In October (1939), Germany annexed Poland’s western and
northern region to the Third Reich• The Soviets took the eastern portions• The middle section, the heartland of Poland, which included the
cities of Krakow, Lublin, and the capital, Warsaw, became a German colony known as the Generalgouvernement
• Poland’s population in 1939 was about 33 million with 10 per cent Jews (3.3 million)
• 2 million of these Jews were now in Nazi occupied territories• Nazis soon begin deportations of Jews from Western and Northern
regions of Poland to the Generalgouvernement
1940-1941
• Germany into West Europe• England??• America??• Troops in North Africa• Attack on Soviet Union• Pearl Harbor
1942-1943-1944• Wannsee Conference• Germany thrown on the defensive• Stalingrad• El Alamein• Plans for D-Day• D-Day
1945• War is ending• Death marches back
toward Germany• 3 deaths in April 1945
– FDR died at his home in Georgia April 12– Mussolini and mistress killed while trying to flee April 28– Hitler committed suicide in Berlin bunker April 30
• V-E Day, May 7, 1945– Allied nations occupy Germany
• Allies plan to converge on Berlin together, but?????• Potsdam Conference
WWII ends!• April 1945
– FDR died at his home in Georgia April 12– Mussolini and mistress killed while trying to flee April 28– Hitler committed suicide in Berlin bunker April 30
• V-E Day, May 7, 1945– Allied nations occupy Germany
• V-J Day, August 15, 1945– Enola Gay, Hiroshima (“little boy”)and Nagasaki (“fat man”)– Death toll reached 140,000
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What should we learn from the regime
of “Hitler?”
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