Transcript Hitler`s Drive to War, 1936-40

THE RADICALIZATION OF
HITLER’S FOREIGN POLICY
March 1936: Remilitarization of the Rhineland
1937/38: Purge of conservatives who urge caution
March 1938: Anschluss with Austria
September 1938: Sudeten Crisis and Munich Conference
November 9, 1938: Anti-Jewish riots in the
Reichskristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass
March 1939: Occupation of Prague
September 1, 1939: Invasion of Poland
May-June 1940: Conquest of France
June 1941: Invasion of the Soviet Union
CORE ARGUMENTS IN MEIN KAMPF
Hitler’s first task in office would be rearmament.
The goal of German foreign policy must be
Lebensraum, an agricultural hinterland in the East that
would make Germany self-sufficient in food production.
Germany’s most natural ally was Fascist Italy, now that
Mussolini had destroyed Marxism there.
Imperial Germany’s worst mistake was to stumble into a
two-front war.
Germany had no conflict of interest with Great Britain
and should offer to “guarantee” Britain’s overseas empire
in exchange for a free hand in Eastern Europe.
(But Speer asserts on p. 122 that “Politics, for Hitler, was
purely pragmatic.”)
German troops
cross the Rhine
Bridge in
Duesseldorf,
March 7, 1936
(France & Britain
did nothing)
German transport planes
arrive in Morocco to airlift
Francisco Franco and the
Army of Africa to
intervene in the Spanish
Civil War, July 1936
Luftwaffe pilots of the
Condor Legion, who
destroyed the Basque
city of Guernica on
April 26, 1937
NATIONAL INCOME IN 1937 (in billions of U.S. dollars)
AND THE PERCENTAGE SPENT ON DEFENSE
Country
USA
British Empire
France
Germany
Italy
USSR
Japan
National
Income
68
22
10
17
6
19
4
Percentage
on Defense
1.5%
5.7%
9.1%
23.5%
14.5%
26.4%
28.2%
In absolute terms, Germany spent 1.3 times as much as
France, Britain, and the USA combined….
THE HOSSBACH PROTOCOLL:
Minutes of a secret conference on November 10, 1937
Hitler told his top national security advisors that he
was resolved “to solve the question of Lebensraum” by
1943/45 at latest. He hoped that a solution might
come sooner, for example if France fell into civil war.
Arms spending must therefore be increased.
Foreign Minister Neurath, War Minister Blomberg, and
Army Commander-in-Chief General Fritsch all protested
that Germany must not risk war with France and Great
Britain. Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht, not
present, had long argued that arms spending must be
decreased to avoid inflation.
Within four months the protesters were all removed
from office. (Compare Speer, pp. 70, 103-07.)
Hitler greeted by
cheering throngs as
he enters Vienna,
March 14, 1938
Say “JA” to Adolf Hitler!
(referndum ballot of April
10, 1938
“One People, One Reich, One Leader!”
(Anschluss referendum campaign, April 1938)
Hitler & Mussolini
celebrate their
“Axis” in Rome,
May 1938
(see Speer, 109-10)
Charlie Chaplin as
Adenoid Hinkel
and Jack Oakie as
Benzino Napoloni:
The Great
Dictator (1940)
A cordial Hitler receives Neville Chamberlain
in Berchtesgaden, 15 September 1938, where they agreed in
principle on a plebiscite for Sudeten Germans
Hitler pushed his
luck at
Bad Godesberg
on September 22,
and a war crisis
loomed.
(See Speer,
110-11)
Mussolini offered to “mediate” between Hitler, Chamberlain,
and Edouard Daladier in Munich, 29 September 1938
The Implementation of the Munich Pact
ORIGINAL LEADERS OF THE CONSERVATIVE RESISTANCE
Carl Goerdeler (DNVP),
Mayor of Leipzig, 1930-36;
Reich Price Commissar,
1931-32, 1934-36
Colonel-General Ludwig
Beck, Army Chief of Staff,
who resigned in protest in
August 1938
The Synagogue in Siegen after
Reichskristallnacht, November 10, 1938
The New Synagogue of Berlin, November 10, 1938
(see Speer, 111-13)
GERMAN TROOPS
OCCUPY PRAGUE,
MARCH 15, 1939
The German press did
not seek to conceal the
rage of the Czechs
The Chamberlain cabinet issued an unconditional guarantee of
Polish independence on March 31, but no alliance was forged.
Did Hitler assume that Britain would back down again?
General Edmund
Ironside confers
inconclusively
with Field
Marshal Edward
Rydz-Smigly in
Warsaw,
July 18, 1939
Joachim von Ribbentrop and V.M. Molotov sign the “HitlerStalin Pact,” August 23, 1939 (see Speer, 161-68)
Hitler informs the Reichstag on September 1, 1939,
that Poland had attacked Germany the night before:
“Since 4:45 a.m. fire has been returned!”
A German armored division advances near Graudenz,
Poland, September 1939: Whole corps of armored &
mechanized divisions spear-headed the assault.
Poland’s brave cavalry troopers had no chance
The first Blitzkrieg: The German conquest of Poland
German expansion as of October 1939
“Case Yellow,” May 10, 1940: Germany lured the British Army
into Belgium, then attacked through the Argonne Forest
Calais after a
devastating
German air raid in
May 1940.
British POWs
captured at
Dunkirk after
380,000 French
and British
troops were
evacuated
Hitler arrives at Compiégne on June 21, 1940, to accept
French surrender in the same railway car in which the
armistice of November 11, 1918, had been signed.
Occupied
France,
following the
armistice
(“Vichy France”
in white)
Springtime for Hitler (June 23/24, 1940; Speer, 170-72)