HI 112Raffael ScheckColby College

A Survey of Modern Europe

6

Europe Between the Wars

The Paris Peace Conferences

Comparison 1815 to 1919 Goals of the victors:

– Democracy– National self-determination– Security for France (cordon

sanitaire)– Weakening Germany

(Treaty of Versailles, 1919)– League of Nations as a

peaceful mediating institution

Why did the Peace Order Not Work? Germany unreconciled Nationality problems in

Eastern Central Europe Withdrawal of U.S. Unsettled situation in

the Soviet Union

Germany and the Treaty of Versailles

Phases of the Postwar Period

1918-23 Instability. Threat of communistrevolution in East Central Europeand Germany. Russian civil war(1918-21). Small-scale wars.

1924-29 Relative stability. American loans toGermany (Dawes Plan). Beginningreconciliation. Stabilization ofGerman democracy (WeimarRepublic).

1929-33 Economic and political havoc. GreatDepression. Crisis of democracy.Hitler comes to power.

Revolutions and Unrest: Hungary under Béla Kun (1918-19)

A Personal Connection for Reconciliation: Briand and Stresemann

Treaty of Locarno, 1925

Great Depression and Mass Unemployment, 1929-33

The Rise of Totalitarianism

What is Totalitarianism?

Party - strong influence on state State - reaches into every area of life Army - high prestige Ideology - shapes state and society Propaganda - used unscrupulously Police Repression - largely outside of the

law Leadership Cult - adulation of charismatic

leader through state-controlled media Internal and external target groups of

aggression

Fascism’s Three Sources (according

to Scheck)

Crisis of Christian and humanitarian values and of liberal-democratic states based on these values

Deep-seated fear of communism and socialism

World War I experience: brutalization of politics; veneration of military order; stress on struggle; extreme nationalism

Italian Fascism

Mussolini Fascist Party, black shirt

paramilitary organization March on Rome, October

1922 Gradual consolidation of

power by 1926 Corporatism Lateran Accord, 1929

The Triumph of Hitler and National Socialism Anti-Semitic rabble-

rousing, 1919-1923 Beer Hall Putsch 1923 Organizing a mass

party, 1925-28 Sudden mass success

because of the Great Depression, 1930-33

The Rise of the KPD and NSDAP(in percent of the electorate)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1920 1924(I)

1924(II)

1928 1930 1932(I)

1932(II)

KPDNSDAP

Stalinism

Massive industrialization at gigantic human cost (five-year plans), 1929-1941

Extremely repressive police state The Great Purges, 1935-39 The Gulag Foreign policy: out of isolation into an

alliance first with the West (1935) and then Nazi Germany (1939)

The Road to World War II

Hitler’s Successes

Makes Germany strong and respected again Rearms Germany Wins an alliance with Italy (1936) Revises the Versailles peace order by

annexing Austria and the Sudetenland He achieves all of this WITHOUT war

Mussolini’s Foreign Policy

Initially: opposition to Nazi designs on Austria (1934) and efforts to contain Nazi Germany (Stresa Front, 1935)

Attack on Abyssinia (1935-36) Alliance with Germany (1936) and Japan

(1939) Involvement in Spanish Civil War (1936-

39)

German Foreign Policy 1933-38: Main Events

October 1933 Withdrawal from the League of Nations

March 1935 Reintroduction of the draft; air force buildup announced

April 1935 Stresa Conference (It, GB, Fr); Franco-Soviet Treaty

June 1935 Anglo-German naval agreement

March 1936 Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Summer 1936 Alliance Germany-Italy-Japan

March 1938 Anschluss: annexation of Austria

September 1938 Munich Conference: annexation of the Sudetenland

March 1939 Annexation of Czechoslovakia

What Made Hitler’s Foreign Policy Successes Possible?

General misunderstanding of Hitler’s ultimate aims (Lebensraum, racial policy)

Doubts about Versailles Disillusionment with postwar order “No more war” sentiment Global diversions for Britain (Japan, Italy,

U.S. competition)

Concentration Camp Flossenbürg

Axis Berlin-Rome

Italian Atrocities in Ethiopia

Spanish Civil War

Anschluß

Maginot Line

Munich Conference

Unemployment in Germany 1932-39

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

Unemployed (inthousands):Yearly averages

German Military Spending 1932-39

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

MilitaryExpenditure (inmillion marks)

World War II

Cause

Hitler wants war– Obsession with his own mortality– Exploitation of temporary advantage in terms

of rearmament

The Outbreak

Hitler-Stalin Pact (August 1939) dooms Poland and misleads Hitler to believe that France and Britain will not go to war

France and Britain do declare war but do not attack (Phony War)

Soviet Union takes its “share” of Poland

The Defeat of the Allies in the West, 1940

Reasons: German tactics and slowness of Franco-British response

Consequence: Germany in control of most of Continental Europe and able to attack the Soviet Union

Britain Stays in the War

Decision to keep fighting

Inconclusive air battle over Britain, 1940-41

The Attack on the Soviet Union

Hitler’s priority War of annihilation Tied to the Holocaust Too risky gamble

The Long Road to Axis Defeat

Soviet resilience U.S. entry into the war

after Pearl Harbor Axis defeats in Russia,

North Africa, the Atlantic

D-Day and final defeat of Germany

Consequences

Europe looses its predominant position

Utter destruction in many areas

50-65 million killed Soviet Union

dominates Eastern Europe

The Holocaust

Ideological Background and Context The Nazi vision of

races Racial hygiene

Stages of Radicalization

Segregation (1933-38)– Nürnberg laws 1935

Expulsion (1938-41)– Crystal Night 1938– Madagascar Plan 1940-41

Mass murder (1941-45)– Ghettos, gas vans, mass executions, death

camps, death marches

I: Segregation

The Nürnberg Laws, 1935

“Jews Unwanted”

II: Expulsion

Crystal Night, Nov. 1938

III: Mass Murder

The Wannsee Conference, 1942

Euthanasia

Ghettoization of Jews in Poland

The Ramp at Auschwitz (1942-45)

Open Discussion

Who was responsible? How many people knew?