WORLD WAR II (1939–1945)
Key
People
Adolf Hitler -
Chancellor of Germany; pursued aggressive territorial expansion in the late 1930s
Neville Chamberlain -
British prime minister; adhered to policy of appeasement that allowed German
territorial annexations in 1938
Joachim von Ribbentrop -
German foreign minister; signed German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Germany
Under Hitler
In 1938, Germany was
a total dictatorship under the Nazi Party and ChancellorAdolf
Hitler. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I
had imposed strict disarmament terms on Germany, by the late 1930s, Hitler had
dropped all pretense of observing the terms of the treaty. He began not only to
rebuild his military rapidly, but also to speak openly of Germany’s need forlebensraum , or “living
space.”
Anschluss and
Appeasement
In March 1938, offering
little in the way of justification, Nazi troops took control Austria,
which put up no resistance. Hitler claimed that the annexation was supported by
his doctrine of Anschluss ,
or natural political unification of Germany and Austria. Though gravely
disturbed, Britain and France took no action. Shortly thereafter, Hitler
demanded that Czechoslovakia cede to Germany theSudetenland, a territory
along the German-Czech border. Hitler accused the Czechs of repressing the
large German population there and asserted that the territory rightly belonged
to Germany.
The September 1938 Munich
Conference was called to address the situation; ironically,
Czechoslovakia was not present. After several rounds of negotiation, and
despite their own treaties with Czechoslovakia, Britain and France agreed to
give in to Hitler’s demand, as long as he agreed not to seize any further
European territory. Hitler did sign an agreement to that effect, promising no
further invasions. After taking the Sudetenland, however, Hitler ignored
the agreement and proceeded to occupy most of western Czechoslovakia, along
with several other territories in eastern Europe. Britain and France again took
no action. This policy ofappeasement of Hitler’s demands, which was
advocated primarily by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain,
has been much criticized as paving the road to World War II.
The
Consequences of Appeasement
The decisions made by the
Allied nations leading up to World War II, as well as those of the first six
months or so after the war began, have dumbfounded historians ever since. The
appeasement of Hitler, in particular, has been so often held up as an example
of how not to deal
with a rising dictator that it has become a stereotype. However, although it
may be obvious in hindsight that Hitler should not have been appeased, the
actions of Prime Minister Chamberlain must be considered within the context of
the time. Europe was still recovering from World War I: many of the countries
of Europe were adjusting to new parliamentary governments, and the newly
created League of Nations was a new force in international
affairs. Few European leaders understood the full scope of Hitler’s intentions,
and a decision to go to war would have been hugely unpopular in countries, such
as Britain and France, that had been so devastated in World War I. Indeed, many
sincerely believed that the very concept of war had become obsolete.
The
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Several months after
Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland, on August 23, 1939, a fateful meeting occurred in
Moscow between German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and
Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Afterward, they
announced publicly that Germany and the USSR had signed the German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact to prevent hostilities between the two countries.
However, the ministers kept
secret the fact that, in addition to agreeing not to attack each other, Germany
and the USSR had also agreed to overrun the countries that lay between them.
Specifically, they agreed that Germany and the USSR would each take over one
half of Poland, with a further provision that the USSR would take over
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia without German interference.
The
German Invasion of Poland
Germany’s invasion of Poland came
quickly and with overwhelming force. The attack began on September 1, 1939, with heavy
air strikes followed by a rapidly advancing ground invasion. Hitler referred to
the strategy as blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The object of the
blitzkrieg strategy was to shock the opponent so severely that there would be
little resistance, allowing the country to be overrun quickly, with minimal
German losses.
The primary obstacle to the
German invasion force proved to be the Polish capital of Warsaw,
which did not surrender until September 27, after a prolonged siege. By this time, all of
western Poland was firmly under German control.
Atrocities
Against the Polish People
Although Germany’s invasion
of Poland is often cited as the definitive example of the blitzkrieg tactic,
not all historians share this view. Rather than rush straight to Warsaw and
topple the government, Germany’s forces moved relatively slowly, focusing much
of their energy on targets that were neither military nor political in nature.
They sought not just to destroy the Polish government but also to obliterate
the Polish people. In the first days and weeks of the war, both Jewish and
non-Jewish civilians were killed regardless of whether they resisted. Villages
and towns were burned, and fleeing survivors were ruthlessly chased down and
shot.
It was in this invasion
that the real nature of Hitler’s plan began to reveal itself. Although the
regular German army, the Wehrmacht, defeated the Polish military
within days of the initial invasion, a more sinister set of squadrons
followed—theTotenkopf, or “Death’s Head,” part of the
soon-to-be-infamous S.S. These squadrons immediately began
rounding up and killing Polish civilians. Larger groups of Jews were
singled out and herded into the central Warsaw ghetto where
they were slowly starved for the next two years. Smaller groups encountered
along the way were shot on the spot. Although Jews were particularly singled
out, the non-Jewish Polish peasantry was treated little better. Though these
atrocities would pale in comparison with what was to come, the initial weeks of
Hitler’s invasion were a gruesome demonstration of the German war machine’s
capabilities and intentions.
The
Soviet Invasion of Poland
Just two weeks after the
German invasion began, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east, on September 17, 1939. It took them
only two days to push far enough to meet German troops advancing from the west.
By this time, Germany had already taken most of Poland except for Warsaw, which
was under siege. Upon meeting the Russian troops, the Germans handed over large
numbers of prisoners and promptly pulled back to the line agreed upon in the
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Retreating Polish armies, unaware that the
USSR was part of Germany’s occupation plan, fled directly into Russian hands.
Allied
Declarations of War and the “Sitzkrieg”
Britain and France—which
were soon labeled the Allied Powers, just as they had been in World
War I—both declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, just two days after Germany began
its invasion of Poland. However, aside from basic defensive preparations,
neither country took significant action for several months. Rather, Britain
initiated a propaganda effort against Hitler by using its bombers to drop
millions of anti-Nazi leaflets over Germany. Among the British public, this
effort soon came to be known as the “confetti war.”
Germany likewise took
little action after the invasion of Poland was complete, aside from several
small naval attacks on Allied shipping vessels. This period of relative calm
has been sarcastically labeled the “Sitzkrieg,” or
sitting war—a play onblitzkrieg.
Rather than make an offensive move of their own, the Allies waited for the
expected German attack on Belgium and France. It
would not come for many months, until the late spring of 1940.
The
Russo-Finnish War
The one active hot spot
during this “Sitzkrieg” was Finland, which the USSR invaded on
November 30, 1939, with the
goal of seizing the eastern Finnish territory of Karelia. Though vastly
outnumbered and outgunned, the Finns fought back with determination and
innovation, even employing troops on bicycles and skis. The invasion, which was
expected to end quickly, instead lasted until March 13, 1940, when Finland
finally capitulated, ceding Karelia to the Soviet Union, along with the major
port of Viipuri (present-day Vyborg). Although Finland lost territory, the
victory cost the USSR more than 200,000 lives, more than twice the number that it
cost the Finns.
Denmark
and Norway
After months of inaction,
the first sign that Hitler was again on the move came in early April 1940. On April 9, German troops
simultaneously took Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and landed
on the coast of Norway. Denmark gave in almost immediately. In
Norway, although the capital at Oslo was quickly taken and a puppet government
set up, a strong resistance movement supported by Britain and France continued
to fight the Germans for two months. The combat was generally limited to the
less densely populated areas in the north of the country.
){kind=link}
Social Plugin