Transcript Part I: Fascism, Communism and World War Two

Fascism, Communism
and World War Two
The Rise of Fascism/Nazism
Italy:
1922: Mussolini comes to power in Italy
Sources of discontent include: depression, widespread
unemployment
Fascism: state management of the economy, curtailment of
democratic rights, severe constriction of unions (strikes
forbidden), censorship of the press: “national solidarity” under
a “strong leader”.
1935: invasion of Ethiopia
Italian
Fascist
Imagery
Germany:
Sources of discontent in the wake of World War One: Versailles
Peace Treaty (1919); War Guilt clauses: territorial concessions,
reparations, disarmament, loss of colonies; severe depression
and widespread unemployment, especially 1919-1925; French
occupation of the Ruhr Valley, 1923-24
1919 National Socialist German Workers’ Party formed, antiCommunist/anti-Semitic. Theory: Jews responsible for
Communism (as well as depression, unemployment,
capitalism, etc.)
1923: Hitler announces a revolution against the Weimar
Republic, stages an attack on the Bavarian (State) government,
and is arrested and imprisoned.
Germany II:
1932 Reichstag elections: number of Communists elected rises,
number of Nazis, declines
1933: Hitler appointed chancellor (prime minister) of German
Republic
Hitler calls for new elections; despite intimidation at the polls
wins 44%.
The Reichstag fire, set by Nazis, is blamed on Communists.
Hitler proclaims the Third Reich and assumes dictatorial powers
1935: Nuremberg laws, depriving Jews of German citizenship
and imposing extensive restrictions.
Reichstag fire
Germany III:
Germany repudiates clauses of Versailles Treaty requiring
disarmament. German army rebuilt.
1936: Germany re-occupies Rhineland
Italy and Germany establish Rome-Berlin Axis, which
Japan joins: Anti-Comintern Pact
Axis Powers
Mussolini and Hitler
Japanese and German
Ambassadors Sign Pact
Spain:
1936: Popular Front government elected (coalition of
republicans, Socialists, syndicalists, anarchists,
Communists)
General Francisco Franco stages coup, leading to Spanish
Civil War
Britain, France and US forbid shipment of war materials to
Spain
Germany and Italy send planes, arms, troops; the Soviet
Union sends arms, Communist parties in Europe and US
send volunteers (International Brigades)
Francisco
Franco
German Expansion, 1937-1938:
1937: Nazi agitation in Danzig, formerly Polish city (Gdansk),
leads to its incorporation into Germany; Japan invades China
1938:
March: Germany annexes Austria
September: Germany demands part of Czechoslovakia with
majority German population; British and French prime
ministers, William Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, meet in
Munich, accede to German demands and pressure
Czechoslovakia to yield to Hitler. The USSR is excluded and
Soviet protests are ignored.
November: Kristallnacht. Jewish shops and synagogues
attacked, 91 Jews killed, 25,000-30,000 arrested. Many
Communists and Socialists already in concentration camps.
Kristallnacht/
Night of Broken
Glass
Broken windows at
Jewish businesses
The burning of the synagogue
German Expansion, 1939:
1939:
March: Germany occupies Bohemia-Moravia, Czechmajority part of Czechoslovakia, and demands Polish
Corridor, northernmost part of Poland
August 23: Molotov-Ribbentrop (Nazi-Soviet) Pact, agreeing
to divide Poland
September 1: Germany attacks Poland. Western Poland
occupied by Germany, eastern Poland, by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union later occupies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
as well. In the German occupied areas the Jews are forced
into ghettos.
September 3: Britain and France declare war
Molotov Ribbentrop Pact
Signing the
Molotov
Ribbentrop
Pact
German Expansion, 1941:
June 22, 1941: Germany attacks the Soviet Union and
occupies its western territories, Ukraine and Byelorussia.
Some 20 million Soviets are killed, including virtually the
entire Jewish population of the Soviet Union, as well as that
of the rest of Europe. The Holocaust begins with the German
occupation of the Soviet Union; the Nazi policy of
exterminating Jews is then extended westward, to Central and
Western Europe. Others killed by the Germans, throughout
Europe, include Socialists, Communists, dissidents of all
kinds, Roma, homosexuals, the disabled.
Operation
Barbarossa
Germany in 1943
Overall I:
In the early 30s fascism looks attractive to many in the West:
Mussolini and Hitler are bringing order to societies wracked by
class conflicts, raising levels of employment, and creating
stable conditions for business. Many compare FDR’s early
measures to fascism – and for some this is not a criticism.
Fascism is admired because, in addition to imposing order, it
undercuts socialist and Communist movements.
Fascist-oriented currents emerge in the US in the depression
years: Father Coughlin, the Michigan “radio priest,” aligns
himself with European fascism and attacks FDR; Germany
tries to mobilize German-Americans for a fascist revolution in
the US. Anti-Semitism rises. But there is no basis, in the US,
for mobilizing a popular fascist movement.
Overall II:
After the 1935 Supreme Court decision invalidating the NIRA,
the US moves away from solutions resembling fascism (based
on an alliance between government and the corporations) and
towards solutions resembling social democracy (based on an
alliance between government and labor). But in both the US
and Germany, depression is ultimately overcome by preparation
for war, and war itself.
From 1935 on it becomes increasingly clear that fascism
involves territorial expansion and that Nazism, the dominant
version of fascism, involves extreme forms of racism. Fascist
movements grow throughout Europe. In the US enthusiasm for
fascism wanes, but isolationism is widespread; Communists are
virtually alone in organizing against the spread of fascism.
Overall III:
Europe is increasingly divided between those aligned with
Germany and those aligned with the Soviet Union. The
Spanish Civil War is a prelude to World War Two, and a
warning that fascism could win.