World War II why? Jana Musilová musilova@ped.muni.cz Bibliography •Brenner, H.: The Girls of Room 28 HB. New York 2009. •Frank, A.: The Diary of a Young Girl. Amsterdam 1947. •- https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/diary/publication-diary/ •Hobsbawm, E.: The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991. London 1994. •- https://files.libcom.org/files/Eric%20Hobsbawm%20-%20Age%20Of%20Extremes%20-%201914-1991.pdf •Mogulof, M.: Foiled!: Hitler's Jewish Olympian: The Helene Mayer Story. Oakland 2002. •Overy, R. J.: War and economy in the Third Reich. Oxford 2002. •Overy, R. J.: The nazi economic recovery 1932-1938. Cambridge 2003. •Weitz, J.: Hitler's Banker. Little Brown & Co., 1997. •Weitz, E. D.: Weimar Germany. Promise and tragedy. Princeton 2007. •https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Second-World-War-History/book-series/WWII... Origin of WWII •1. Results of Versailles Peace Treaty: 1918 - 1933 •2. Uneasy peace: 1933 – 1935 •3. Crisis 1935-1938 •4. Road to war 1938 Obsah obrázku text, mapa, atlas Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://www.theworldwar.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/germany-lost-territory-map-large.jpg Obsah obrázku text, mapa, atlas Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: Eubank, Keith: The Origins of World War II. New York 2004, p. 35. Obsah obrázku mapa, text, atlas Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: http://www.kriegsopfer.org/Geschichte/Deutschland/Deutschland_9a.jpg Obsah obrázku mapa, text, atlas, diagram Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/classes/33d/projects/1920s/CarlosVersaillesMap650pxw.png Germany and Paris Peace Conference •Versailles Peace Treaty – “take it or leave it“ – signed 28. 6. 1919 •Shock for German delegation: Republic; winner or loser; Versailles Peace Treaty – “Diktat“ •1921 - Reparation Commission presented the final bill in an ultimatum to Germany - 132 billion gold marks ($33 billion) plus interest, establishing a complicated schedule of payments extending over an undefined period Obsah obrázku oblečení, osoba, boty, muž Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/peace/treaties-signed Germany lost •G. lost 13.5 % of its territory under the terms of the treaty. •Close to seven million German citizens were placed under the jurisdiction of a foreign nation: •- France: took Alsace and Lorraine and the German coal mines in the Saar Region for fifteen years. The Saar region was a highly industrialized region •- Poland: the state of Poland was recreated. Poland took most of West Prussia and much of the Posen province. Upper Silesia was ceded to Poland, but later returned to Germany under a plebiscite. The Polish Corridor was made of land that belonged to Germany before WW; •- Belgium: Small areas of Eupen, Malmèdy, Moresńet, St. Vith; •- Denmark: Northern Schelswig was ceded to Denmark under article 27 of treaty; •- Czechoslovakia: border area near Troppau (Opava); •- The League of Nations took control of the free city of Danzig and the allies took control of the Rhineland for fifteen years. •- The Rhineland was demilitarized under article 180 of the Versailles Treaty (the industrial heart of Germany and the source of its military power). •- Germany also lost its colonies and large merchant vessels. • Versailles Treaty War Guilt Clause Obsah obrázku text, Písmo, papír, kniha Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/treaty-of-versailles German Reich (Wiemar Republic 1919-1933) •Proclamation of the Republic 9. 11. 1918 – dramatic situation •Constitution: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/nur01840 • • Obsah obrázku oblečení, ulice, osoba, boty Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://daily.jstor.org/when-germany-called-its-soldiers-hysterical/ Obsah obrázku černobílá, Lidská tvář, interiér, osoba Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://syria.fes.de/about/friedrich-ebert Friedrich Ebert Obsah obrázku Lidská tvář, portrét, Čelo, snímek obrazovky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ggbain.31169/ Philipp Scheidemann Culture of Wiemar Republic •During its so-called 'Golden Age' Weimar experienced a flourishing culture, in Berlin especially, that saw developments in architecture, art and the cinema •This expression of culture was greatly helped by the ending of censorship in the new republic •Berlin was a melting pot of intellectual development •WR became associated with two areas in particular: science (Max Plank and Albert Einstein), philosophy (Martin Heidegger) •The most influential visual arts movement - Bauhaus School, Walter Gropius; Weimar Academy of Arts and the Weimar School of Arts and Crafts, into what was called the Bauhaus, or “house of building,” a name derived by inverting the German word Hausbau, “building of a house •Fine art: Dada and New Objectivity •Music: •- Modern classical - composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Kurt Weill and Alan Berg composed classical pieces and operas •- Jazz, cabaret • Culture of Wiemar Republic •Film: •- The most prominent film directors of the time were Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau •- The most famous films of the period were The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922 – based on the Dracula story), Phantom (1922), The Last Laugh (1924) and Metropolis (1927) Problems of German Republic •Spartacus League - Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht •Spartacist uprising – January 1919 – 15. 1. 1919 - uprising was suppressed •19. 1. 1919 – under the provisional revolutionary government, a National Assembly was elected which adopted the constitution and continued thereafter to act as the ordinary legislative body – majority Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) •April 1919 – Bavarian Soviet Republic •Preparation of the Constitution – in Wiemar (Thuringia); finished: July 1919 and proclaimed 11. 8. 1919 Crisis 1920-1933 •Growing propaganda - blame for the Treaty of Versailles fell on the socialists and democrats – and growing power of the radicals •Freikorps - private paramilitary groups (appeared 12/1918 in the wake of Germany’s defeat in WWI; ex-soldiers, unemployed youth, and other discontents and led by ex-officers ; involved in several political assassinations: e. g. 1922 - Walther Rathenau •General election 1920: coalition of Socialists, Democrats, and Center retained its control (reduced majority); Left, consisting of Independent Socialists and Communists, was very much strengthened, as was also the Right composed of the German People's Party (the old National Liberals) and the German National Party (Conservatives) •1922 – Genoa Conference; Russo-German Treaty of Rapallo - https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/rapallo_001.asp; 1926 – Treaty of Berlin - https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/berlin_001.asp • Obsah obrázku text, mapa, atlas Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: Roosevelt, N.: The Ruhr Occupation. Foreign Affairs , Oct. 1925, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Oct. 1925), pp. 112-122. Avaible: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20028426.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A18e5f18585911a6e6ba0200986a7bdfd &ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1. Downloaded: 22. 9. 2023. Crisis 1920-1933 •Inflation – hyperinflation (money printing) – (1923-1925) - Ruhr Occupation (coal and coke) by France and Belgium – passive resistence •1923 - Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch) •Financial recovery 1924: Allied agreed on the end of the Rurh Occupation and more realistic repayment plan (Dawes Plan) •Gustav Stresemann – chancellor and minister of foreign affairs •- Pact of Locarno 1925 – agreements: Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy: guaranteed western frontier; 1936 A. Hitler broke this pact •- League of Nation – 1926 •- 1929 – Young Plan – campaigne against • Rise of Adolf Hitler •10/ 1918 – A. Hitler was hospitalized in Pasewalk, Pomerania •A. Hitler learned of Germany’s the armistice 11. 11. 1918 from a pastor, and—by his own account—on receiving this news he suffered a second bout of blindness •5/1919 - A. Hitler worked for the information office of the military; his tasks were gathering intelligence on political movements potentially hostile to the Bavarian authorities and tending to the “political education” of the troops to counter alleged Bolshevik influences •9/1919 A. Hitler first identified Jews as a so-called race that served as the “driving force” of Communist revolution in Bavaria • • Adolf Hitler and German Labor Party •9/1919 - related to his intelligence gathering function, A. Hitler and two colleagues attended meeting of the German Labor Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei/DAP)-race-based organization •Within a month A. Hitler joined the DAP •His discharge from the army came through on 31. 3. 1920 •Due to his speaking abilities, charisma, and tireless energy A. Hitler quickly rose into the DAP leadership ranks •2/1920 – A. Hitler contributed to the development and announcement of a DAP Programme – main aim: national unity based on so-called racial criteria; expansion of the nation’s territory; revocation of the Treaty of Versailles; exclusion of Jews from citizenship and all occupations and professions requiring citizenship; halting non-German immigration Adolf Hitler and NSDAP •3/1920 - DAP changed its name to National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei/NSDAP) •A. Hitler - combining his considerable oratory capabilities with an unusual ability to read audience mood, both in individuals and large groups, established himself as absolute Leader of the NSDAP by 1921 •1921 – E. Röhm established a closely affiliated paramilitary force known as the Assault Detachments (Sturmabteilungen/SA), known as “storm troopers” •1925 – SS (Schutzstaffel, or Protection Squads) originally established as Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit; It would later become both the elite guard of the Nazi Reich and Hitler’s executive force prepared to carry out all security-related duties, without regard for legal restraint •Several conditions facilitated the dramatic growth of NSDAP – e. g.: violent political confrontation between paramilitary formations and political movements on both the right and the left; outrage in Germany at the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923; the emerging inflationary crisis of 1923 • Beer Hall Putsch in Munich •Using as justification chaos created by the occupation of the Ruhr, the inflationary spiral, and Communist agitation in central Germany, A. Hitler pushed his reluctant conservative partners into agreeing to a march to overthrow the Weimar Republic •At noon on 9. 11. – A. Hitler and H. Göring, and other Nazi leaders, accompanied by former Field Marshall Erich von Ludendorff, marched at the head of 2,000 Nazis and other right-wing activists and paramilitaries towards the headquarters of the commander of troops stationed in Bavaria in munich •Police opened fire - effectively suppressed the Beer Hall Putsch • Obsah obrázku budova, venku, černobílá, obloha Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/beer-hall-putsch?parent=en%2F11449 Adolf Hitler and prison •After the failed putsch - German authorities banned the Nazi Party and its formations and arrested many of the leaders (Hitler, Ludendorff, Röhm, Wilhelm Frick) on charges of high treason •Though convicting him of high treason, the Munich court handed down the lowest possible sentence: five years, of which Hitler served nine months in relative comfort at Landsberg prison, where he worked on his first volume Mein Kampf (1925) •A. Hitler wrote the second volume of Mein Kampf (1926) •1925–1929 – NSDAP did not do well- Germany grew economically and progressed to democracy Major changes •Constant electioneering between 1930 and 1933 swelled the membership of the NSDAP to 129,563 in 9/1930 and 450,000 in summer 1932 •Intrigues among President Paul von Hindenburg’s inner circle of advisors and failure to govern against the background of the worsening economic depression toppled the Brüning government – 5/1932 •6/1932 – Paul von Hindenburg appointed Franz von Papen Chancellor •Franz von Papen secured Hitler’s promise to tolerate his government by lifting a recent ban on the SA and SS; even while deploring it, von Papen used the consequent acceleration of street violence on 20 July to overthrow the democratically elected Prussian State Government by emergency decree, replacing it with an unelected administration (e. g. A: Hitler would use eight months later to eliminate autonomy in the state governments) Adolf Hitler as Chancellor •A. Hitler overcame personal, political, and legal issues that threatened his leadership of the NSDAP and his viability as a German leader in 1930-1932 •7/1932 - elections were an extraordinary triumph for A. Hitler - NSDAP captured 37.3% of the vote •A. Hitler’s rejection of the Vice-Chancellorship and von Hindenburg’s refusal to appoint the Nazi leader Chancellor, these electoral results shattered von Papen’s illusion of forming a governing majority •Inability to govern, increasing economic collapse and political isolation, and a parliamentary vote of no-confidence (backed by both Nazis and Communists) in September 1932 forced von Papen to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections for 6 November •Nazi party only 33.1 % (most of the lost voters migrated to the Communists - 16.9%) and the German National People’s Party (8.3%) and President continued refusal to appoint A. Hitler Chancellor, and bankruptcy in NSDAP finances, indicating that the NSDAP may have peaked in the share of the electorate that his appeal could elicit •1/1933 - representatives of Papen and Hitler agreed on a new government with Hitler as Chancellor, von Papen as Vice Chancellor, and Nazi leader Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior, cabinet positions would go to German Nationalist People’s Party politicians or non-affiliated “experts “ Adolf Hitler as Chancellor: end of democracy •Great Depression (1929) - American investors immediately began withdrawing their loans •Unemployment; poverty… •3/1930 - collapse of the government coalition •Deepest crisis winter 1931-32 •30. 1. 1933 – Adolf Hitler – Chancellor – legal way - Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler; head of a coalition government (Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei/DNVP) •2/1933 - Reichstag Fire Decree – suspended individual rights and due process of law: permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications; gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments •The decree was a key step in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship - Germany became a police state in which citizens enjoyed no guaranteed basic rights and the SS, the elite guard of the Nazi state, wielded increasing authority through its control over the police •- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/asset/e749f1f5-c7ba-4ff3-b49c-ff6b49995ffe.mp4 •Conservative forces assumed they would be able to “contain” the NSDAP, but this soon proved to be a fatal mistake - “emergency decrees” of 4. a 28. 2. 1933, following the Reichstag fire, suspended basic constitutional rights •Decrees made it possible to further consolidate power while maintaining the appearance of legality • Adolf Hitler as Chancellor: end of democracy •3/1933 - Dachau Camp - SS establishes its first concentration camp to incarcerate political opponents •Against the backdrop of a campaign of intimidation and obstruction of the political opposition, the Reichstag elections of 5. 3. 1933 could no longer be considered democratic; NSDAP 44 % •Enabling Act of 23. 3. 1933 made the parliament irrelevant – government was empowered to make laws •4/1933 - Nazi leadership stages an economic boycott targeting Jewish-owned businesses and the offices of Jewish professionals - boycott was presented to the German people as both a reprisal and an act of revenge for the bad international press against Germany since the appoitment of Nazi Chancellor (lasted only one day) •4/1933 - Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service - excludes Jews and other political opponents of the Nazis from all civil service positions (law initially exempts those who had worked in the civil service since August 1, 1914, those who were veterans of World War I, or those with a father or son killed in action in World War I) •4/1933 - Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities, which dramatically limits the number of Jewish students attending public schools •A. Hitler´s rearming of Germany, begun in 1933, was made public in March 1935 when he announced the creation of an air force and the reintroduction of general military conscription to provide the manpower for 36 new divisions in the army • Adolf Hitler as Chancellor: end of democracy •Centralization of state administration •14. 7. 1933 Law Against the Formation of Parties •7/1933 - Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” - mandating the forced sterilization of certain individuals with physical and mental disabilities (involuntary sterilization of people with physical and mental disabilities or mental illness, Roma, “asocial elements,” and Afro-Germans) •20. 7. 1933 Reichskonkordat •10/1933 - Editors Law - forbids non-“Aryans” to work in journalism •6/1934 – A. Hitler ordered a violent purge of the top leadership of the Nazi Party paramilitary formation SA •2. 8. 1934 - Death of President Paul von Hindenburg - With the support of the German armed forces, Hitler becomes President of Germany •Later that month A. Hitler became the absolute dictator of Germany; there are no legal or constitutional limits to his authority • • • Adolf Hitler •6/1935 - German Ministry of Justice revises Paragraphs 175 and 175a of the German criminal code with the intent of: -1) expanding the range of criminal offenses to encompass any contact between men, either physical or in form of word or gesture, that could be construed as sexual; -2) strengthening penalties for all violations of the revised law. The revision facilitates the systematic persecution of men accused of homosexuality and provides police with broader means for prosecuting them. •9/1935 - German parliament (Reichstag) passes the Nuremberg Race Laws: two pieces of legislation -1) the Reich Citizenship Law -2) the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor Nuremberg Race Laws •These laws institutionalized many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology and provided the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany •Did not identify a “Jew” as someone with particular religious convictions but instead as someone with three or four Jewish grandparents •Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism or who had not done so for many years found themselves still subject to legal persecution under these laws •Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity could be defined as Jews •https://www.annefrank.org/en/timeline/55/the-nuremberg-race-laws/ Jews •Less than 1 % of the population •Exodus of Jewish and left-wing artists and intellectuals began in 1933 •1933 - rush to de-Judaize arts started (e.g. Otto Klemperer and Brno Walter) •4/1933 - one-day boycott of Jewish businesses throughout Germany •Early April 1933 - first major set of anti-Jewish legislation expels most Jews from civil service jobs, some professions, limits number of Jews in schools and universities •10/1933 - Germany withdraws from League of Nations, begins rearmament •9/1935 - Nuremberg laws deprive Jews of German citizenship and forbid sexual relations and marriage between Jews and non-Jews Jews •9/1941 - probable date of decision to implement Final Solution, the systematic extermination of Jews throughout occupied Europe. •11/ 1941 - start of gassings of Polish Jews •1/ 1942 - Wannsee Conference in Berlin – detail plan of Final Solution •Early 1942 - Operation Reinhard - death camps opened at Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka •4/1942 - Auschwitz, earlier used as concentration camp for Polish and Russian prisoners, expanded to function as death camp for Jews; Final Solution is now in full operation • • • Adolf Hitler •12/1935 - Nazi regime sought to racially reshape German society- part of it Lebensborn programme - encouraged so-called “Aryan” Germans deemed “hereditarily healthy” to have children •6/1936 - Formation of the Center for Research on Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology (persecution of Romani people) •6/1936 - Decree on “Combating the Gypsy Plague” •7/1936 - Marzahn Camp for Roma and Sinti Established • • Source: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/holocaust/1933-1938/marzahn-camp-for-roma- and-sinti-established Adolf Hitler and Olympic Games •8/1936 - Olympic Games Open in Berlin -propaganda success for the Nazi government, as German officials made every effort to portray Germany as a respectable member of the international community •They removed anti-Jewish signs from public display and restrained anti-Jewish activities •In response to pressure from foreign Olympic delegations, Germany also included one part-Jew, the fencer Helene Mayer, on its Olympic team •For the duration of the games, Nazi officials also ordered that foreign visitors should not be subjected to the criminal penalties of Paragraph 175, a German statute that criminalized sexual relations between men •African American athletes who competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin won 14 medals •Temporary easing of measures against Jews so that visitors will have impression of peaceful and prosperous country •https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4clb83HBeU • Adolf Hitler •By 1936 A. Hitler was spending a lot on rearmament, and H. Göring prepared: Four-Year Plan to prepare the German economy for war •7/1937 - Buchenwald Concentration Camp Opens - most of the early inmates were political prisoners •11/1937 - Antisemitic Exhibition Opens in Munich - exhibition depicted stereotypical images of Jews to illustrate charges of a Jewish world conspiracy against Germany and links between Judaism and communism; more than 400,000 people •11/1937 – A. Hitler gathered his general staff and admonished them to be prepared for war in the east no later than 1942 or 1943 •8/1938 - Law on Alteration of Family and Personal Names - requires German Jews bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin to adopt an additional name: “Israel” for men and “Sara” for women; all German Jews would have their passports marked with a ‘J’ •11/ 1938 – Kristallnacht - anti-Jewish pogroms throughout Greater Germany; rioters destroyed hundreds of synagogues, many of them burned in full view of firefighters and the German public and looted more than 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses and other commercial establishments •1/1939 - Reichstag Speech – A. Hitler annouced to the German public and the world that the outbreak of war would mean the end of European Jewry—the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe •8/1939 - beginning of euthanasia program in Germany, in which severely handicapped and mentally ill children and adults are gassed to death • • • On the international stage •7/1933 – Concordat: the Holy See and German Reich as “an eternal league…“; 1st recognition of Nazi Germany on international level •10/ 1933 – Nazi Germany left League of Nation - ostensible reason was the refusal of the Western powers to acquiesce in Germany's demands for military parit (https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_11598/?r=0.024,0.25,0.937,0.66,0) •3/1934 – Roma Protocols - international agreements concluded between the governments of Austria, Hungary and Italy •1/1934 – Nazi Germany signer 10-year nonaggression pact with Poland •7/1934 – A. Hitler encouraged the Nazi Party in Austria to attempt an overthrow of the government of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss •- https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/battle-for-the-catholic-past-in-germany-19451980/battles-o ver-the-reichskonkordat-19451957/8C4AFA43E3CA6A069D23E6296EE4BCC9 •6/1935 - Anglo-German Naval Agreement •3/1936 - German forces into the demilitarized Rhineland, “Versailles was dead“ On the international stage •11/1936 - Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan; 11/1937 - Italy, Germany, and Japan ostensibly directed against the Communist International •7/1936-1/1939: Spanish Civil War. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany send troops and support to Franco forces; France and Britain remain neutral •3/1938 - German Annexation of Austria and incorporation of Austria into the German Reich in what is known as the Anschluss •5/1938 - Anti-Jewish Laws in Hungary •7/1938 - Delegates from 32 countries and representatives from refugee aid organizations attend the Evian Conference; discussed options for settling Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany as immigrants elsewhere in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia (https://www.jstor.org/stable/30011106?seq=5) • On the international stage •9/1938 - Munich crisis - http://chartae-antiquae.cz/en/atlas/166#1 •12/1938 - First Kindertransport (destination: Great Britain) •2/1939 - Wagner-Rogers Bill: Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Representative Edith Rogers of Massachusetts introduce a bill to permit the entry of 20,000 refugee children, ages 14; failure •5/1939 - St. Louis sailed to Cuba and returned to Europe •8/1939 - German-Soviet Pact: 2 parts: public and secret; public: non-aggression pact; secret: USSR and Nazi Germany: spheres of influence in eastern Europe: Estonia, Latvia, and Bessarabia - Soviet sphere; division of Poland along the line of the Narev, Vistula, and San rivers; 1941 Operation Barbarossa •- https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/m-rpact.html •9/1939 – Invasion of Poland; Great Britain and France declared War • • • • Obsah obrázku přeprava, plavidlo, venku, obloha Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://digital.kenyon.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=bulmash Obsah obrázku mapa, text, atlas, diagram Popis byl vytvořen automaticky Source: https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/m-rpact.html From Yalta to Malta •2/1945 – Yalta Conference •12/1989 Malta Summmit •