this is the story of the greatest war of world history
it's the story of a terrible time an age when the most wicked evils were
perpetrated
74 million were to die
five and a half million Germans 21 million Chinese 21 million Russians six
million Jews and three and a half million Japanese the images of the past
send a message through time
a warning from the past lest we forget
March 1933 a new chancellor of germany is elected he does not seize power with
conspiracy
he uses no violence he is made Chancellor
according to the laws of German democracy
a democracy he is openly and truthfully promised to destroy he promises openly
and truthfully to end the unfinished business of world war one with blood
if need be he is a dolt Hitler
world war two was unfinished business without knowledge of the great European
war of 1914 - 19 18
we cannot comprehend the war that convulse the world from 39 to 45
even the fighting the tour across the remotest pacific islands and the densest
asian jungle cannot be understood the leaders of the world in 1939 were men
shaped by the First World War
Hitler it's in the ward firsthand as an infantryman in the trenches of the
Western Front and there were older man who had seen a generation of the young
lost consumed by an industrial war machine when these men took part in the
postwar cult of the war dead laying wreaths at monuments across the
continent they felt the presence of millions of souls standing behind them
to understand how and why war return to Europe in 1939 is to understand how and
why war came to europe in 1914 and how and why that conflict ended the cause of
war in 1914 was the simple problem of Germany of how the then new country of
Germany could be accepted as a great power by other much older powers France
Russia and Britain in a tangle of alliances a climate of aggressive
rivalry between these countries
burst into war world war one ended in a strange anti-climax
it's hard for us to remember that after a massive victory in the East ending in
abject Russian surrender and the conquest of vast lands Germany itself
collapse to defeat without being invaded
many Germans believed that their armies have been stabbed in the back
betrayed not defeated at all the fighting stops suddenly in 1918 with the
Armistice armistice is a word that means troops a temporary halt to fighting the
First World War was supposedly ended by the Versailles conference and treating a
summit of France Britain Italy in America met to decide on a system of
security that would guarantee peace in Europe Lennon's new revolutionary
government in the Soviet Union was not invited
Germany was summoned only to sign the resulting treaty the French demanded
that the treaty formerly blame germany for starting the war Britain saw the
warm or as a terrible mistake every line of the treaty followed from the supposed
German guilt
the guarantee of peace was to be the punishment and weakening of germany in
fact each line was a recipe for a future renewed war
germany lost territory in the East where huge areas have been one from soviet
russia these gains of what
in later years would be called leoben's rom living space were taken away and
used to create a new nation
: a high-minded a noble idea was that states should be decided by nationality
therefore the Polish had a country of their own rather than living as
minorities in germany or russia but in drawing the new map of Europe the
principle of nationality was forgotten at germany's expense
the new poland was given access to the sea and in the process millions of
Germans became a minority in Poland the new Czechoslovakia was to be given
defendable borders and included millions of Germans the Sudetenland Romans and a
minority of disaffected slow vachs
contrary to the basic principle of nationality german-speaking austria was
forbidden to unite with Germany less the two countries combined their strength
versus i created a Europe where Germany still a big powerful country was boarded
in the East bye week smaller countries countries with whom germany now had
scores to settle
the fighting had devastated huge areas of northern France and nearly bankrupted
the economies of both Britain and France the Versailles settlement insisted the
germany pay reparations huge sums were to be paid to pay off the debts of
France and Britain repaying money loaned by America the sums were unimaginably
large crippling the German economy Versailles imposed military humiliation
upon Germany insisting the rheinland that area of Germany adjacent to friends
be demilitarized the German army the largest in Europe was to be cut to
100,000 not enough to defend Germany let alone start a war the army was to have
no modern weapons tanks or aircraft that had revolutionized World War one
the German Navy was to have no u-boats Versailles established the league of
nations which would provide a forum in which international security could be
policed and aggression contained as the people of Europe more in the last
generation they lived in a continent with the tensions that had torn the
nations apart remained and upon which had been layered new resentments and new
grievances
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now the most powerful country in Europe remained with its strength
sighs industry economy and population intact and with a whole catalog of
further grievances and the success of Versailles as a system for peace and
security depended on German cooperation
if Germany refused to pay if she we armed if she moved troops into the
Rhineland the only option open to France and Britain was to restart the gas leak
horror of the Western Front to renew the war fought to end all wars
versailles was weakened from the start
the British thought the settlement unfair and unrealistic the French that
the punishment of Germany had not gone far enough that the only punishment of
German breach was war
total war made international relations a high whisk game made for a bold
individual gambler
what of the United States the power whose entry into the war in 1917 had
weighed the scales against germany the USA turned in upon itself concerning
itself with the nineteen twenties and all that decade means for American
history having entered into world affairs the United States turned its
back on Europe the Congress refusing to ratify the treaty refusing to join the
league
the oceanic distances separating the old from the new world seemed to provide
insurance from the problems of Europe
the map of Europe was now a map to war
the history determined and awaiting the minds and the Wills to act out the
script already as hitler took power in 1933 the system of reparations had
collapsed amidst the world economic crisis for 13 years reparations had been
a major issue keeping the war alive
Germany had lurched from financial disaster to disaster any individual
Germans money troubles the Great Inflation and the huge unemployment of
the 1920s were laid at the feet of Britain and friends
the Germans felt robbed the French swindled
but the Germans were trying not to pay the British SAR reparations as part of
the problem
feeling their abandonment would bring about a european economic recovery a run
on banks in the early nineteen thirties it cause the payments to be written off
and discredited the German government helping bring Hitler to power
the 13 years of fighting over money helped destroy the Versailles settlement
Britain came to regard everything the French said about Germany as bad sense
the French to feel disillusioned the story of the interwar years is
complicated and it's just too easy to see a plot by Hitler some system work
Hitler was a dreamer of great schemes but weather events followed his plan is
debatable plans and systems are imposed by history on offense which are random
on the actions of individuals that are spontaneous and improvised plans may
exist dreams may be drummed but the gap between idea and reality is large
Hitler presented the German people with one big idea
the destruction of what he called the slave treaty of versailles and to once
more
make Germany of power Hitler's policy from taking power in 1933 was a
succession of Acts each aligned by line deletion of Versailles
one of the great paradoxes of Hitler one of the many ways in which other
political leaders and the ordinary voter in all countries miss Reed Hitler and
Nazism was in believing that Hitler was like every other politician capable of
saying anything out of office but doing something very different when in real
power
Hitler was a politician of action and did just what he said he would do
he promised to abandon democracy he claimed that the enemy of strong
leadership and at the first opportunity proceeded to set about that very
destruction
one month after hitler took office the German parliament the Reichstag burnt to
the ground
it was arson the attack upon the center of German democracy is shrouded in
conspiracy theory the controversy is central to the history of Nazi Germany
the Nazis blamed Communists and claim the arson was the prelude to a communist
coup a plot to establish a Soviet Germany
indeed in the polarized and extreme politics of germany at that time that
was the goal of the Nazis Bolshevik enemies the alleged arsonist was marinus
van der Lou a young dutch communist arrested in the building that night
his voice is silent as he was tried condemned and executed
history will forever turnover and question the events of that night in
Berlin was Vanderloo be the Patsy of the Nazis who started the fire themselves to
create a crisis
they would then exploit was Van de loop the tool of a real communist plot who
was there no plot but an imagined plot that a paranoid Hitler thought real was
van der lube
the lone gunman responsible for the whole attack himself
history can only show with certainty the result of the fire the physical and the
political destruction of German democracy
the Nazis used the emergency to suspend parliamentary democracy and arrest and
imprison all communists and socialists opponents the office of Chancellor was
combined with that of President head of government became head of state
the armies swore personal loyalty to a dull Hitler and a parliamentary
democracy became a dictatorship
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they defensible ideas of Jewish responsibility for the war which seemed
eccentric when the Nazis were in opposition party were turned into real
action according to Hitler the Jews sought the destruction of the Aryan and
Nordic German peoples and it caused war between Britain and Germany Hitler
believed the Jews were using slab people via soffit communism to threaten the
German race
the result was persecution of Jewish people and businesses both formal and
informal that spread to all parts of german society the obvious yeah . always
capacity with body
he is lucky Hitler did as he promised he said he would end unemployment and did
so implementing policy that was a German New Deal a recovery program that was
every bit as successful as that a bruise felt in the USA money was pumped into
the economy through vast public works directly and indirectly creating jobs
raising the level of demand and productivity throughout Germany a
lasting image of the nineteen thirties is of Hitler and other Nazis proudly
opening auto bands futurist highway
of a new age it was a more ruthless new deal than Roosevelt's the destruction of
trades unions making the manipulation of the economy easier than in America
the great parades of Naxalism stupefying to the eye with a genuine expression of
a nation willingly gladly and gratefully marching symbolically and actually in
step with the will of one man already in 1933 the system of reparations had
collapsed
Hitler first made an attack upon the principle of disarmament Hitler's
predecessors in government had been party to a lengthy conference of
disarmament demanding revision of the treaty Hitler sensing France too weak to
do anything and Britain thinking the treaty unfair simply walked out of
discussions and ordered rearmament it was again
the French raged but as germany began to once more launch u-boats began openly to
develop tanks as the skies began to fill with the embryonic Luftwaffe nothing
happening
Hitler had challenged the British and French to fight the gamble paid off
nothing happened Hitler's simply left the League of Nations
and nothing happened
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in March 1935 Germany we claim the saarland yet another chapter verse I and
the post-war settlement unraveled the Tsar was a small but economically
important area of Germany adjacent to the French border and was seized by
friends at the end of World War one
the Versailles Treaty promised that after 15 years of french occupation the
population of the Tsar could vote to choose french rule German rule or
independence
it was now two years into Hitler's regime a nice our Lander know that union
with Germany meant joining an aggressive militaristic dictatorship that it would
be a democratic vote to end democracy the people of the sarwar as educated as
intelligent as any European people
the issues at stake were fully and openly debated the French made a strong
and attractive case for retention of their rule the voting was free and fair
internationally monitored
ninety-eight percent chose Germany chose net system
Jose Hitler
each and every European of those times played a greater or lesser part in the
coming of war
if the leading player on the stage of Europe was Hitler the supporting
character was Italian dictator benito mussolini mussolini and italy story may
be just as well explained as a desire for greatness
the Italian fascists came to power many years before the German Nazis for
reasons much the same
although on the victorious side in world war one
italy had felt cheated of the do and just spoils in the peace
Mussolini created fascism as a dynamic politics of the future and had abolished
democracy
Nats ism had borrowed many basic political and visual ideas from fascism
the central difference between the two leaders was the relationship
each had between actions and words
Mussolini boasted and brag talked of power but in reality
Italy was a weak country without the inherent strength
the wealth of resources and the industry to backup proud words
Mussolini felt himself the creator of fascism and senior to Hitler in later
years
muscley need confronted with Hitler successes was impelled to somehow put
his boasts into action
these policies of vanity and envy would desperately weekend the strategy of the
italian germinal lines in 1935 italy invaded the African country of Abyssinia
modern-day ethiopia and the only African state until then
independent a feudal monarchy ruled by a god-king haile selassie the two
countries had fought in the 19th century when italy had been defeated by an
African army
Mussolini wanted revenge
abyssinia had plans of imperial expansion of its own
conflicting with Italian interests spreading from Somalia
why did mussolini sent his forces into battle when he did it was not as if the
dictator needed a war to distract the Italian population from internal Italian
affairs
Mussolini was secure in power and enjoy the approval of the Italian people
it was not a war that Italy could particularly afford and Abyssinia was
not a colony worth having for its wealth
it was not that abyssinia was the target of a rival imperial power the world
recognize that the remote African kingdom was in Italy sphere of interest
there is probably no simpler answer than the vanity of Benito Mussolini thus did
one man's ego
determine the fate of the nation how is the invasion of Abyssinia a faraway
country of which Europeans new little a step on the path to war
the answer is in the damage the Abyssinian affair
wrought upon the League of Nations Abyssinia was a member of the League
selassie made a dignified appeal for help
the league debated action and imposed limited economic sanctions but stopped
short of the one sanction which even in the nineteen thirties was the most
damaging the cutting of oil supplies to Italy before any further action could be
taken the league was presented with the fait accompli of an Italian victory
Mussolini proclaim the Italian King the new emperor of Abyssinia Hitler watch
these events at a distance
germany although not a member of the League scrupulously observed the
sanctions against the Italians Hitler watch the inability to act to agree
action against aggression and decided on his next move
the reoccupation of the rheinland the treaty of versailles forbade germany
from placing troops opposite the French border on march seventh nineteen
thirty-six hitler ordered his army to cross the ride
it was a gamble
had France decided to go to war Germany had not yet built up its strength to
have any chance of resisting invasion
it was a gamble Hitler one france would not start a war alone
the British public would not countenance military action
the British did not think in terms of giving in to Hitler rather that the
Germans were simply justified
we taking full control of their own territory
the reoccupation of the Rhine land has been described as the real end of world
war one and it's aftermath after this time
germany ceased to right the wrongs of Versailles and moved to aggressive
expansion
from the perspective of generations later
it's hard to realize the novelty of Hitler's tactics in the international
politics of the nineteen thirties the whole ethos after world war one was
disarmament and arms control a world where politicians hit their strength
said they had less guns tanks and aircraft where nations hid the fact that
they were building larger ships in 1934 in the British Parliament there had been
angry exchanges between Prime Minister baldwin and maverick backbencher Winston
Churchill over the true size of the German air force
Churchill wildly and wrongly claimed that the Germans had a secret Air Force
already many times stronger than the RAF Hitler turned this world upside down and
claimed a greater strength and he had in a paranoid climate of alleged secret
forces
nobody ever suspected a country would overstated strength
in 1936 civil war broke out in Spain
in 1931 Spain an old-fashioned traditional country had become a
republic and a process of change and reform begun conservative spain was
alarmed by the changes and in 1936 the election of a government of Communists
and socialists caused elements of the army to break out in open rebellion
whether this revolt was part of a grand fascist conspiracy is doubtful
the Spanish generals were too aware of the country's long history as a great
power to be anybody's puppets rebel leader Francisco Franco was not a
fascist rather an old-fashioned conservative who valued patriotism and
religion
a man who looked to the values of the past rather than some revolutionary
future yet the Italians of the Germans supported Franco sending planes soldiers
and arms both desired to discredit democracy and used spain is a testing
ground for new weapons
neither was prepared to risk war over Spain
both were prepared to back down had Britain and friends opposed the fascist
intervention
neither of the democracies wanted to become involved both feared the war
would grow into a general European war once again
Hitler bluffed and the democracies backed away
savient Russia supported the republican government out of solidarity with the
Communists who increasingly came to dominate the direction of the republican
war and also out of a hard-nosed decision to create mayhem on the far
side of Europe distracting and dividing would be enemies
the war might have ended quickly with the feet of Franco's rebels have the
democracies supported legitimate government
it might have ended quickly had the strict neutrality britain and france in
Paul's been likewise observed by the fascists and communists as it was the
fighting dragged on for three more years three years of increasing brutality on
both sides
Franco's troops killing anyone have even the most liberal opinion a third of
Spain's clergy monks nuns and priests were killed for their faith by the
Republican
the Spanish Civil War has gained a special place in history to this day no
account seems capable of telling the story of Spain without partisan really
really fighting the battles the mythology of the International Brigade
the few thousands of young left-wing idealists from the democracies who
joined to fight fascism paints the war in a romantic light but spain
represented a conflict as isolated from Europe as the country itself
subsequent history shows Spain remaining resolute Lee neutral in the European war
if there was a Nazi plot Hitler gained little benefit
some of those young men who fought for the Republican cause were from the
United States of America as a nation was as resolute Lee neutral over the issue
of Spain is any other without the United States the history of world war two
would not be complete but America is the empty space upon the world stage of the
interwar period throughout the nineteen twenties and thirties America gaze
inward to its own complex society while American ideas have been responsible for
much of the idealism that permeated Versailles the Congress of the u.s.
refused to ratify the treaty America was to have nothing to do with the league
nothing to do with policing the system of security that the treaty created
America had vast problems of its own
dealing with the economic chaos of the great depression and the wall street
crash
it was chaos that affected industry and agricultural like causing mass
unemployment and huge internal movements of population
it was a time of civil unrest with mass protests before the White House
General Douglas MacArthur earned himself a different nation history as he
commanded u.s. troops to prepare to fire on US citizens
a bizarre side street of history is that in nineteen thirty many serious
strategic thinkers and military experts thought that if any major war were to
break out in the world in the next 10 years it would most likely be contested
between the United States and Great Britain
the isolationism of the US was traditional in a society to oceans away
from the west of the world in 1932 a new type of politics came to power in
America with the election of Democrat Franklin roose velt my friend like a
real and find that time in the New Deal American interests were ever more
closely focused on affairs at home and not across the seas
America was in fact to become the most deadly enemy of Hitler in the coming war
the underestimation of america was the Nazi dictators greatest mistake america
was held by Hitler to be a country of no threat racially week dominated by Jews
contaminated by its african american population the isolationism of the
United States was reflected in its military strength
the USA could threaten no nation in the nineteen thirties while Germany thought
the restricted 100,000 man army an insult the united states army was freely
kept by congress at around 135,000 weak forces meant the views of the USA even
had she chosen to speak would have been a little import in 1935 Congress
reinforced the wall against the world bypassing the neutrality acts these laws
with the products of a conspiracy theory that us arms manufacturers had
engineered America's entry to the first world war the new laws prevented us arms
sales to any nation at war
if Hitler paid little interest in the USA across another open the empire of
japan viewed America with envy and aggression the place of japan and china
in the build-up to the outbreak of war is often neglected on the other side of
the world great movements of people and ideas were unfolding acts perpetrated
involving astounding cruelty and inhumanity huge conspiracies and war
plans were forming in japan in 1926 a new emperor ascended the chrysanthemum
from Hirohito as was and remains the custom and name was chosen for the era
of the new monarchs rain
this was to be the show the era of illustrious peace
the coming years will bring anything back piece to the peoples of japan and
asia in the interwar years
Japan's miraculous transformation into a modern society seemed to be failing
there was economic depression high unemployment in rural poverty japan had
sided with the victorious powers in world war one yet gained little from the
peace
the abandonment of democracy by European states such as Italy and Germany seemed
to hint to some Japanese that they too should abandon the foreign ideas and
return to a traditional society expansion from the crowded japanese
islands islands that lack the resources needed to power a modern industrial
society seemed a way out of the problems of recession and unemployment Japan
I China covetously presenting European power is exploiting the wealth of the
region
japan came to be allied with the fascist powers but was not a fascist country
economic need and greed were integrated with a traditional mythology to create a
unique world view
japanese society at all levels between the wars became permeated with an
ideology of Japanese racial superiority the god Emperor giving the Japanese
raise the distinction over other people's would lost their link with the
divine this ideology saw a future war in which enlightened Japanese liberated the
less fortunate of Asia
and a war of world domination that would be fought against the United States as a
developed industrial country Japan shared in the industrialized nations
exploitation of China various treaties had allowed these countries concessions
of territory inside China with the right to stationed troops the British
territory of hong kong was the model from this presence Japan planned to
expand in 1931 japan had faked an attack by chinese troops upon japanese forces
in Manchuria in retaliation the army of japan invaded and conquered the Chinese
province renaming it manchu killed and installing a puppet government headed by
the last emperor of China Puyi
with this vindication of their aggressive expansionist policy
the military gained more power becoming the dominant force of Japanese policy
the invasion of manchuria is a major landmark on the timeline to war
it was the first blow in the death of a thousand cuts that was inflicted upon
the League of Nations a whole year after the Japanese completed their conquest
the league issued a report carefully and worthily written that condemned Japan's
action
nothing happened japan left the lead
this was a whole year before Hitler's rise to power
in November 1936 fearful of russian communist ambition in the Far East Japan
formed a pact with Germany and Italy the anti Collin turn packed directed against
communist expansion
this was not a relationship of great trust or shared ideology more of
expedience and fear of a common enemy
japan knew that Nats isms white supremacism could never be reconciled
with their own racial supremacy in 1937 full war broke out between China and
Japan the reason again a fake to attack by China upon japanese troops
the Chinese led by the aggressive chiang kai-shek fought back
the war was to be long and vicious from the very start in December 1937 the
Chinese capital of nanking fell as many as perhaps as one third of a million
chinese were killed in an orgy of murder rape torture and looting in 1937 one
half of the World War had already begun
chinese historians believe this was the start of World War two
Stalin's Russia seemed the exception in a Europe full of states that had some
grievance at the end of World War one
Russia's interest in international affairs was cautious and pragmatic
designed mainly to ensure no great coalition of capitalism was formed
against Bolshevism
this was the time of the mass industrialization of the soviet union of
the five-year plans these years were the years of the purges every Russian
including stammen living in paranoid terror
fearing the enemy at home and dreading betrayal denunciation imprisonment in a
labor camp or summary execution
millions were to die and disappear
of course in the despotic terror of Stalinism they are fearful dilemma for
the democracies which explains much of what has come to be called appeasement
immolating thirties who was worse
Hitler or Stalin to Western Europe Bolshevism seemed far the greater evil
and hit there at least a stern anti-communist
the actions of the politicians who wore suits the Democrats who faced Hitler of
the counterparts to Nazi aggression the mythic history of the war condemns them
as appeasers weekly giving into Hitler's lies the truth though is more complex as
soon as the versailles treaty was agreed because the victorious powers had no
sanction other than renewed war negotiation concession compromise
appeasement became the way of dealing with problems at the start of the
nineteen thirties British policy was in the hands of James Ramsey McDonald
Britain's first socialist prime minister and a man who had been an active
pacifist in the First World War
McDonald believe germany had fair grievances that deserved address his
successor from 1932 was stanley baldwin a placid uncharismatic man who refused
to be panicked by Hitler's aggression and thought the French hysterical and
paranoid if British policy was determined by men who thought Germany
deserve better treatment and who refused to get upset by Hitler French policy was
determined by more complex emotions
the French felt aggrieved and threatened by germany yet were paralyzed by a
cynical defeatism that prevented a positive action against Nazism
they refused to act without British help convinced war was coming but that
nothing positive could be done their view of the world came to be expressed
in spectacular physical form
the French were to devote incredible sums of money in the second half of the
nineteen thirties to the construction of the imaginal line
named after the french war minister who conceived the plan
the line was a complex of futuristic fortifications
The Lying ran from Switzerland to the luxembourg in belgian border and was
designed to deter German attack the great weakness of the line was that it
did not extend across all France as western border
it was thought in politic to extend the fort's against the Belgians are friendly
in neutral country nearly half a million French troops inhabited underground
cities of war
Manning huge ammunition stores deep armored bunkers with underground roads
and railways the rigidity of the imaginal line reflected the French
strategic mind people who gaze into the future too often only see their past and
France could not imagine a future war which did not begin with a German attack
in the West upon France
while building its wall in the West France made defensive alliances in the
east
but with what stage did friends make these defensive alliances Czechoslovakia
and Poland small countries week countries countries that had scores with
whom Hitler had grievance countries that had german minorities had German
territory
poland was notoriously unstable and aggressive with delusions of great power
and status
these alliances would be more likely to drag friends into a war as deter Germany
not all politicians in the democracies were appeasers in great britain Winston
Churchill constantly warned that Nats ism would in the end
bring a huge war
in Churchill story once again the history and mythology of the war grind
passed each other in lighting thirties Churchill was thought a dangerous
eccentric who by his constant calls for more arms was likely to bring about war
Churchill already had a long history in British politics and not a history
covered in glory as a cabinet minister in world war one
he was forced to resign over disastrously conceived campaigns which
had cost thousands of lives as peacetime Chancellor finance minister he had been
forced to resign over catastrophic miss handling of the economy causing economic
chaos
Churchill was in many ways hopelessly out of step in the nineteen thirties a
die-hard conservative
with a mind closed to new ideas
Churchill was trusted by almost no one thought a nun principal Mann a
politician who had changed parties cynically for personal gain that history
has vindicated Churchill makes it hard for us to realize that nineteen thirties
pretty feared him and saw the pragmatic common sense of the British government
prepared to deal with Hitler as the right way forward
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in May nineteen thirty-seven neville chamberlain became British Prime
Minister Chamberlain has a sad place in the history of the war
the wisdom of hindsight and the mythology of the war makes him our
chapitre the betrayer of small countries the mirror of weakness against Churchill
strength
if we are to judge this man let us ask ourselves would we in our turn
as people of reason and fairness not attempt everything possible to avoid the
recurrence of war
what we really follow the insane ravings of Churchill Chamberlain was a sharp
contrast to his predecessor Baldwin who placidly drifted through international
affairs
Chamberlain despite the appearance of a 19th century gentleman had a keen mind
was a competent administrator who really could achieve in government
he came to office determined to get things done to resolve rather than
ignore problems today
appeasement is a dirty word synonymous with insipid surrender in the nineteen
thirties
it was the problem not the enemy that was appeased
appeasement meant negotiation and compromise
Chamberlain was a determined and principled man who simply pursued what
everybody politician and citizens alike saw as the sensible way to do things
some historians see the German annexation of austria in 1938 as the
start of the countdown to World War two
all previous events being the undoing of the punishments laid upon germany at
Versailles the union of austria and germany the Angelus went beyond any
restitution and was aggressively expensive
Nats ism believed all German people should be members of the same state and
Hitler himself had been born
austrian
the Angeles would increase Germany's base of population and industrial
strength making further expansion possible it would be the first move in
pushing Germany's frontier to the east which Hitler believed Germany's destiny
hmm
the Austrian Nancy's we're in constant ferment and agitation against the
Austrian government there was a history of violence and assassination of
threatened and attempted crews in 1936 Austrian Chancellor shoe snake had made
what was ironically called a gentleman's agreement with Hitler concessions were
made to the Nazis yet the agitation continued two years later in February
1938 Hitler and she'll snake met again and it was agreed that a Nazi
sympathizer be made minister in charge of Austrian security the Austrian
government saw this as part of a gradual taking over of Austria and proposed a
vote on Angeles with the reoccupation of the Rhineland Hitler had left his
strength now german troops began to really mass on the Austrian border to
intervene to prevent chaos and anarchy in Austria for perhaps the first time in
history and international crisis was conducted over the telephone
just an egg and the Austrians who wish to retain independence tried to rally
support among the leaders of Europe in a series of phone calls they found no one
would support austria Britain and friends thought war not a price worth
paying
accurately sensing that most Austrian people were not opposed to angeles as
german troops entered austria
they were received with wild enthusiasm Hitler is a hero
austria was incorporated as part of the Third Reich
Hitler's plan had been to take control of Austria slowly by the same methods as
in germany by first using and then dissolving democracy creating a puppet
state as he received the adulation of the Austrian people as a whirlwind of
history gathered around Europe perhaps even Hitler thought that the pace of
time was accelerating towards a destiny that might not be in any man's total
control
next time on World War 2 the complete history
it's the turn of the state of Czechoslovakia to face the might of
Hitler's ambition and wrath in the defining moment of the nineteen thirties
neville chamberlain flies to munich to resolve the crisis the great powers of
Europe me to decide the fate of the small central european country
the checks wait outside to be told their fate
events that history judges betrayal as the definitive appeasement are lauded by
the peoples of the world
Chamberlain returns to London a hero
he promises peace in our time
too soon the climate of ecstatic relief and joy dissolves as its realized that
Hitler will not keep his word a grim realism ceases Europe as Britain and
France begin to rearm the eastern ambition and hunger of Hitler grows as
his gaze falls upon the remainder of czech lands the nation of Czechoslovakia
dissolves all over Europe there is a fatalistic certainty that war is coming
Poland is the subject of Hitler's mystical belief and territorial avarice
in a move which shocks the world Nats ism and soviet communism form an unholy
alliance that seals Poland's fate in mashed by alliances disguised as
protections France and Britain are committed to eight poet and war breaks
out
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