DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPE IN THE 1930'S
THE EXPERIENCE OF WAR
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
30 Jan: Hitler beccomes chancellor of Germany.
27 April: Guernica; Hitler helps fascists in civil war in Spain.
13 March: Austria is annexed to the Reich. 5 Oct: Hitler invades Czechoslovakia. 9 Nov: Kristallnacht - anti-Jewish violence.
23 Aug: Hitler makes a non-aggression pact with Stalin. 1 Sept: German troops invade Poland. 3 Sept: Britain declares war on Germany.
10 May: Churchill becomes Prime Minister. 4 June: British soldiers evacuate Dunkirk. Aug - Oct: The Battle of Britain. 27 Sept: Japan joins the axis.
30 June: Hitler invades the USSR. 7 Dec: The Japanese attack the American fleet Pearl Harbor. The USA enters the war.
The axis suffers setbacks in Russia, Africa, Burma and the Pacific.
Pogroms in Warsaw. 8 Sept: Italy surrenders to the allies.
6 June: D-day. Allied forces land in Normandy.
4-12 Jan: Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Yalta to decide how Europe will be divided when Germany is defeated. 28 April: Mussolini is killed. 30 April: Allies march into Berlin: Hitler commits suicide. 8 May: VE (Victory in Europe ) day. Germany formally surrenders. 6 Aug: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 9 Aug: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. 14 Aug: Japan surrenders to the Allies.
13 Jan: First meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. 5 March: Churchill speaks of an " Iron curtain " across Europe.
Invaded by Mussolini, 1935. He compared himself to "the great Englishmen who made the British Empire".
Corrugated steel or concrete shelters were erected outside most homes. By mid-1939 80,000 shelters were being made weekly.
The joining of Austria to Germany, enforced by Hitler in 1938. It was supported by more than 99% of voters in Germany and Austria in a referendum, in which Jews were forbidden to vote.
See Japan
Annexed by Hitler in 1938 ( anschluss )
British fascists led by Oswald Mosley; their pre-war marches led to riots
German "lightning war" - the rapid advance made by the German forces in the early stages of the war.
"peace in our time" - the Munich agreement. British Prime Minister at the start of the war, but resigned after defeat in Norway and was replaced by Winston Churchill.
The great British wartime leader, and the man behind the " Grand Alliance " of Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union, which eventually defeated Hitler. Before the second world war, Churchill had shown his ability as a soldier, a writer and a politician during a long career; he had been a military hero during the Boer war, and as First Lord of the Admiralty he had strengthened the navy immediately before the First World War. He held high positions in both Liberal and Conservative governments, but by 1939 he was a Conservative who had fallen out with his party, and his warnings about the threat of German expansion were ignored. When the second world war broke out, he once again became first lord of the admiralty. He became Prime Minister in May 1940, after Chamberlain resigned. He was seen as the only person who could unite the nation, because of his clear commitment to defeat Hitler. As leader of a coalition government with massive emergency powers, he rallied the people with stirring speeches and tireless energy. When the USA entered the war, he persuaded president Roosevelt to concentrate on defeating Germany first, then Japan. 1946 " Iron Curtain " speech.
Germany's colonies in Africa were lost at the end of the first world war.
Auschwitz, Belsen-Bergen, Treblinka. Buchenwald opened 1937
A country which was created after the first world war, when Austria-Hungary was carved up. It contained some German speaking areas. Hitler wanted to reunite all the "German people" - including those in areas lost by Germany in 1919, and in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. At first he annexed the Sudetenland only, a narrow strip on the border of Czechoslovakia, but six months later he completed his conquest of the country.
A town in northern France, near the border with Belgium. It was the centre to which British forces retreated when the Germans overwhelmed France, and Belgium surrendered. On the 4th of June 1940 338,226 men of the British Expeditionary Force, together with many French and Belgians, were brought to safety in England by a fleet consisting mainly of small ships, including pleasure steamers and fishing boats. Many ships were lost to German attacks as they waited off the beach to collect the men.
= Abyssinia.
Vichy France.
An Italian political party founded by Mussolini in 1919. Spanish Fascists were aided by Hitler, Guernica, 1937.
1914-1918 A war which began when the Crown Prince Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Serbia. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia was drawn in as an ally of Serbia, Germany as an ally of Austria-Hungary, and France as an ally of Russia. When the Germans invaded Belgium, a country whose neutrality had been guaranteed by Britain, Britain too was drawn in. America joined when the passenger liner "Lusitania" was sunk by the Germans in 1915. The war cost almost ten million allied and enemy lives. The western front, in Belgium and France, was almost static for years. Both sides were well dug in in trenches, and each fired vast numbers of shells at the other, creating a landscape of devastation. The Germans had some success in the east, pushing the Russians back, but the war proved to be too costly to maintain, and the demoralised Germans, abandoned by their allies, surrendered in 1918 although no foreign soldiers had then set foot on German territory.
The " final solution " was the decision, taken by Hitler towards the end of 1941, to use genocide to solve the "Jewish question". Details were worked out at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. A few months later, poison gas chambers were being installed in extermination camps in Poland. See Holocaust.
Spanish leader of the Phalangist Fascist rebels; aided by Hitler; took control of Spain in 1939 and was immediately recognised by the British government, even before he had occupied Madrid, the capital.
Defeat in the first world war and the crippling reparations demanded in the treaty of Versailles led to economic chaos. Germany was unable to keep up the payments, and in 1923 France occupied the Ruhr area. This led to hyperinflation. Great depression began 1929, massive unemployment and social discontent allowed Hitler to rise to power. Expansionism led to war in 1939. German success 1939 - 1942. Overrun and occupied 1945. Divided after the war. The parts occupied by Russian forces became East Germany. Other parts became West Germany.
An area of a town to which Jews were confined.
The " Grand Alliance " was the alliance of Great Britain, the USA, and the Soviet Union, which eventually defeated Hitler's Germany. It was formed by the efforts of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who made agreements with President Roosevelt such as the Atlantic Charter of 1940, and who promised aid to the Russian people when they were attacked by Germany in 1941.
The capital of the Basque region of Spain, which was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1937, as part of Hitler's aid to Franco's fascists.
The first city to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on the 6th of August, 1945.
Iron Cross in WW1. Picture postcards Failed putsch 1923 Mein Kampf 1925 Appointed chancellor by a senile Hindenburg 1933; burning of Reichstag, followed by wave of terror. Night of long knives, 1934 Marriage to Eva Braun and Suicide at the end of the war.
Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann. Extermination camps, concentration camp s
See home guard, blitz, evacuee.
Originally called the Local Defence Volunteers; renamed in 1940. A citizen's army which was poorly armed but generally enthusiastic. Some armed themselves with spears and cutlasses from museums. They guarded key installations, releasing regular army units for more essential duties.
Churchill's 1946 speech.
Japanese success, 1937 - 1942 Bombed and then occupied Canton, China in 1938. See Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
See ghetto, pogrom, concentration camp, kristallnacht. All Jewish property in Germany was confisceted in 1938.
The location of the massacre of 6000 Polish officers by Soviet forces. The Soviet Union blamed Germany.
The 9th of November, 1938, was the worst night of looting and destruction by mobs, who attacked Jewish homes, looted businesses, burned synagogues, and beat thousands of Jews. The name " kristallnacht ", meaning "crystal night", refers to the smashing millions of marks worth of windows. Dr Goebbels, the Nazi minister of Propaganda, said that the attacks were spontaneous, but the indications were that they were organised by Nazis, there being many stormtroopers prominent in all the areas of violence. See pogrom.
Founded 1920 Replaced by UN in 1946.
A book ("my struggle") written by Adolf Hitler while he was in prison after the failed Munich beer hall putsch of 1923.
Gave the Sudetenland to Germany. Hailed as "peace for our time" by Chamberlain
Benito Mussolini founded the Italian Fascist party in 1919. He called himself "Il Duce" (the leader) and promised to smash Communism. He was made Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, after marching into Rome with 30,000 Blackshirts. Invaded Abyssinia ( Ethiopia ) 1935 Killed in 1945.
The city in Japan that was destroyed by the second atomic bomb
Hitler called his party the German National Socialist Party, " Nazi " for short.
The agreement between Mussolini and Hitler, signed in May 1939.
The American Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was caught in a surprise attack by the Japanese on the seventh of December 1941. 5 Battleships and 14 smaller ships were sunk or seriously damaged, and 200 aircraft were destroyed. More than 2400 people were killed.
A Russian word, meaning "destruction", applied to the violent attacks which took place against Jews. Hitler ordered several pogroms, during which all synagogues were destroyed, and nearly all Jewish shops and homes.
Invaded by Germans & Russians. Germany conquered western Poland in a fortnight,
German - Goebbels. "Most of the people have little intelligence, so propaganda must consist of a few points in a few simple words, repeated again and again until even the most stupid know them" - from " Mein Kampf ". British - posters giving such advice as "careless talk costs lives"
See Royal Air Force.
After the first world war, Germany was ordered to pay crippling reparations to the allied powers.
Hitler moved an army into the Rhineland in 1936, breaking the terms of the Versailles treaty.
Re-elected in 1936 Died 2 months after the ending of the Yalta conference, and before the ending of the war, so that his vice-president, Harrys Truman, had to decide whether to use the atomic bomb.
Trebled in size in two-year plan 1935-1937.
- see Soviet Union.
Made non-agression pact with Hitler Invaded Poland after Hitler Katyn Attacked by Hitler Joined Grand Alliance Led by Stalin Siege of Leningrad
Signed non-aggression pact with Hitler, 23 Aug 1939. Became military leader of USSR when Germany attacked in 1941. Attended allied war conferences at Yalta.
The stormtroopers were the Nazi street fighters who terrorised Germany in the years of Hitlers rise to power. They encouraged violent attacks on Jews and their property.
A part of Czechoslovakia, which contained many people of German descent. Hitler invaded and annexed it in 1938. It contained 20% of the population of Czechoslovakia, and was a vital part of that country. It was only a matter of time - 6 months - before the rest of Czechoslovakia fell.
1884 - 1972. Vice-president of the USA, who took over on the death of Theodore Roosevelt in April 1945, and was President for 8 years. He took the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The United States of America.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Reoublics: See Soviet Union.
The peace treaty signed in June 1919 which ended the first world war. The first half set up the League of Nations, and the rest set out the terms for Germany's surrender. Alsace-Lorraine to France Posen and the corridor to Poland Rhineland to be demilitarised. Colonies to allies Reparations payable to allies - ceased in 1932
Conference
© 1997 M.T.Gradwell, Ambition Data Services Ltd.
Design by Sunny-Website-Design-Studio.com