Shaping of the Modern World

 

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Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Section 16: World War II and the End of Empire

Introduction: This Week's Goals

[I will still be altering this -- but you can go ahead and do the reading and projects.]

Text

Multimedia

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Outline

The Age of Anxiety - Post War Malaise and Responses

A. We backtrack a little from Russia to see effects of World War I on Europe. Today we are looking at-

  • The so-called "Age of Anxiety"
  • Problems of interwar years - the Depression
  • One solution - Mussolini
  • Next class we will be looking a Germany in particular. Read details about individual countries in textbook.

II. History's Revenge?

Recall overall view of the course - how European political, industrial/technological dominace gave Europe power over the Globe. I suggested that this might be caused by the divisions that kept Europe an innovative ferment.

NOW we see the flip side of division - After 1914 Europe begins to lose its position of power, although this is not entirely apparent until after 1945. The USA is most powerful economic power after 1914, but for the time being abdicates its role.

Also in the background, and not covered by this course you have the growth of non-European national movements, which often built on western ideologies and local cultures.

  • Japan
  • China - Sun Yat Sen and Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong)
  • India - Gandhi
  • the Near East - Arab Nationalism

III. Post-War Malaise - The Age of Anxiety

A. Introduction

Paul Valery (1871-1945) speaking in 1920s about the "crisis of the mind". (french poet and critic).

The storm has died away, and still we are restless, uneasy, as if the storm were about to break. Almost all the affairs of men remain in a terrible uncertainty. We think of what has disappeared, and we are almost destroyed by what has been destroyed; we do not know what will be born, and we fear the future, not without reason... Doubt and disorder are in us and with us. There is no thinking man who can hope to dominate this anxiety, to escape from this impression of darkness.

B. Why the Malaise? - The Experience of the War

1. Expectations of war not met. Modelled on 19th Century wars - quick and glorious.

2. Casualties

Numbers killed

  • 750,000 in UK
  • 1,385,000 in France
  • 1,808,000 in Germany

More were killed in the `flu after, but these were all young men. A whole generation was lost to the war. There were also millions of non-fatal casualties - the sight of wounded veterans was common.

Severe shortage of men - there were millions of women who never got married, whose sweethearts died at war.

3. Age of Anxiety

It seemed that after the war that there was one crisis after another - lasted at least unitil the 1950s. Some would say we never got out of it.

Recall Woodrow Wilson's call for "normalcy".

C. The Moral Effects of the War

1. The ideal of Progress of Humanity was hard to maintain, when civilised nations had committed such barbarities - mustard gas, trench warfare.

2. Experience of War made many question the value of the society they lived in. How could it have happened?

3. Religion - very many people gave up on a God who could allow the War to happen. On the other hand, many intellectuals, for the first time since the Enlightenment, returned to God. "Reason" was no longer enough, and the ideal of progress was dead.

Karl Barth (1886-1968) - major protestant theologian - he rejected attempts to prove God, and said Faith is purely a matter of grace.

Graham Greene "One began to believe in heaven because one believed in hell".

D. The Cultural Effects of the War

1. Introduction

EMPHASISE the profundity of the effect of war on Europe. Unlike US experience of War, even WWII, which was a good war, more like Vietnam, which was seen as pointless.  WWI however, had actually taken place in the heartland.

2. Literature

a. Novels - Alienation

Franx Kafka (1883-1924) - The Trial - extreme alienation - even more so in The Metamorphosis.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941): novels as series of inner monologues.

b. Poetry - Images of Age

Wilfred Owen - "Dulce et Decorum Est"

TS Eliot (1888-1965)

  • The WasteLand (1922)
  • The Hollow Men (1925)
  • Gerontion (1920)

WH Auden - Model citizen

3. Music - Atonality

  • Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)- The Rite of Spring - caused riots by its emotional intensity.
  • Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) - abandoned traditional harmony and tonality.

4. Art - Looks for a deeper meaning than reality.

Modernism - constant experimentation because the old forms were not good enough to express angst. No more happy impressionism - change had begun before 1914. Now profound attempts to look beneath the surface

  • -Cubism - Braque and Picasso.
  • -non-representational art after 1910
  • -Dadaism - post war - attacked all standards
  • -surrealism - inspired by Freudianism - Sal. Dali

5. Some People Had Fun

  • NOT Everything was unhappy for everybody. EMPHASISE.
  • Hollywood, Radio Entertainment, Chaplin et al. But it was a way of escaping from the hard world of everyday life.
  • Rising standard of living for many people. (despite economic problems).

E. Decline of Reason

Uncertainty in Modern Intellectual Thought

a. Builds on some pre-War trends - popularisation of Freudianism - only after 1918 did his ideas become well known.

b. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) - believed Western Civ. lost its creativity. Christianity glorified weakness. Reason, democracy and progress had out paced passion and emotion.

c. Ludwig Wittgenstein  - Logical Positivism

  • Philosophy is only the logical clarification of thoughts.
  • Rejected concerns of most philosophy God, morals, freedom.
  • Used the "verification principle"
  • Philosophy cannot give any answers

d. Existentialism - existence is its own meaning.

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) - Idea of immediate experience and intuition are as important as rational and scientific thought for understanding reality. A response to post war malaise, but such ideas have a political counterpart.

e. History - Oswald Spengler: The Decline of the West 1918

f. Physics - Heisenberg's Uncertainity Principle - emphasises decline of Newtonian physics.

2. Politics

The general malaise effecting positive beliefs in art and thought, and the the distressed state of many Europeans left 19th Century Liberalism floundering. Many came to reject what they saw as the heritage of the French Revolution.

New Parties sprang up in all European countries offering a way out. This way spurned Reason, and individual problems and invest all your hope in the collective - Nationalism. Psychological aspect: blaming somebody else for problems [Anti-Semitism, Anti-Bolshevism]. We are going to look at one of these new parties today, the Fascists in Italy.

IV. Economic Depression

The psychological and sociological effects of the war were not the only problems effecting society after the First War. There were also very real economic problems.

A. Political discontent after the War

Wilson's vision of Europe did not happen

  • In New states - in Eastern Europe a series of right wing royal dictatorships came into being. eg King Zog of Albania.
  • In Britain - stagnation
  • France - obsessesed with getting back at Germany

B. Cause of Economic Problems

Reparations and War debts -A burden of the War

  • Reparations from Germany.
  • Debts owed by UK and France to USA.

USA objected to reparations, but would not give up debts to it. Led to a flow of capital from Germany to the US. Also led to problems of all international trade being affected by non-trade flows of money.

2. Trade Barriers

There was an agricultural price collapse, as farmers were underpaid for their produce. Led to a drop in production. Nations imposed trade barriers which made things worse.

3. Lack of Economic Leadership

There was no real attempt to control the depression. It was only later that Keynes comes up with the idea of spending a country out of Depression.

Liberalism was dead in economics in Europe. The war had made governments direct production, and the mixed economy (explain) was here to stay.

C. The Twenties

  • Boom in USA. Supported by shady stock market dealings.
  • Britain and France muddle along. No boom
  • Inflation in Germany in 1923 [distinguish from Depression]
    • Rhineland Occupation Jan 1923
    • Government reponse - a paid strike
    • hyper-inflation - wipes out debts and savings upsets middle class.

D. The Depression

The 20s had not been happy but the so-called Great Depression only begins in 1929.

1. Stockmarket Crash in US -no more credit in Europe.

2. Decline in production - unemployment - decline in consumption - decline in production - vicious circle.

3. Unemployment becomes massive. In UK never less than 10%. Extreme poverty in some areas.

E. Solutions

  • National market in GB. Off Gold Std. Trade Barriers
  • France - did not suffer as badly, but had weak leadership.
  • New Deal in US.
  • Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin: all had highly directed industrial growth.
  • No real solution until the War.

V. An Italian Solution: Mussolini and Fascism

A. Distinctions

  • Conservative Authoritarianism - elite power and often run by old power elites.
  • Modern Totalitarianism - tends to be based on mass parties and "new: dictators.
    • Totalitarianism of the LEFT - Stalinism
    • Totalitarianism of the RIGHT - certainly Nazism, possibly Fascism.

Note however, that Stalinism was a perversion of socialism, which is firmly in the western tradition, and so is capable of reform based on its own principles.

Fascism and Nazism are more pathological - based on a mishmash of bad science and group fantasy, mixed with brutality.

B. Italy After the War

  • Unhappy about Italia Irredenta/Fiume.
  • Unhappy about not being a Great Power.
  • Problems with Liberal Democracy: seen as/was corrupt.
  • Appeals to middle class of extreme right solutions.
  • Especially a party which claimed the party system itself was destroying national honour.

C. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

Socialist Origins - edited a socialist Newspaper Avanti.

Mussolini - basically an opportunist. At first he saw hope in appealing to workers but then he saw more advantage in the middle class.

3. The Fascists

  • word from fasces
  • Fasci di Combattino founded 1919 in Milan, by veterans (often a conservative force.)
  • Black Shirts
  • Growing Support - emphasise

D. The Fascists Take Power - Two Stages

Stage 1

  • Labour Problems - Attack on Socialists
  • Fascists in Local Government. Black Shirt Brutality.
  • The March on Rome October 1922 (stage 1)
  • Victor Emmanuel III's (1900-46) capitulation.
  • Mussolini as Prime Minister - even though a minority in parliament.
  • Murder of Matteotti.
  • Actually less brutal once in power.

2. Second Stage

  • Consolidation of Power 1924-1926 (stage 2)
  • New election law 1924. largest party over 25% gets 2/3 of seats in parliament.

E. Fascist Ideology

  • The nation above the individual.
  • Action over thought.
  • The Corporate State/Corporativism.

F. Fascist Government

  • Praised Abroad - "he made the trains run on time"
  • Grand Gestures
    • Architecture in Rome
    • Milan Railway station
  • Internal Corruption
  • Economics: corporatism but unions restrained.
  • Attacks on Dissidents see Carlo Levi : Christo S'fermato a Eboli
  • Dealings with the Church - Lateran Treaty 1929. Did Church Approve of Fascism?

7. Was Fascist Italy a Totalitarian State?

Yes

  • Corporatism
  • Party organisation shadowed Government
  • Mussolini always claimed to be Totalitarian

No - Always other power centres

  • The Monarchy
  • The Church
  • Capitalist structure
  • The Mafia

G. Foreign Policy - Dealing With Germany

  • Abyssinia 1936
  • Differences with Nazism: little anti-semitism in Italy.
  • Mussolini gave in to Hitler all down the line.

The Rise of the Nazi Party

Today: the collapse of a liberal democratic and its takeover by the Nazis. The rise to power of Hitler in Germany. The question is why this happened.

II. Politics in Germany - the Weimar Republic

A. The War and its effects - Myth of the stab in the back - The Treaty of Versailles 1919 - signed by SDP.

B. 1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and went to live in Holland.

C. Revolution in Germany 1918. But split between Leninist KPD and SDP.

Another Revolt - Spartacist Revolt Dec 1918-Jan 1919. Crushed by Freiskorps - demobbed vets.

In election in 1919 SDP won. Opposed on the right by those who said they lost the war, and on the left by the KPD, who called the "Social Fascists".

D. The Weimar Republic

1. Name because constitution was written there in 1919.

  • A weak president
  • A powerful Chancellor, responsible to the Reichstag.
  • A Democratic system.
  • Civil liberties ensured.

2. Politics.

Proportional representation - led to problems with minor parties and no one party majority.

SDP and Center parties.

Attempted coups - Knapp Putsch in 1920.

3. Treaty of Versailles, War Guilt and Reparations

May 1921 set at 123 Billion gold marks.

4. Occupation of the Rhineland Jan 1923 by Raymond Poincare 1860-1934, the nationalist French PM. The French were depending on reparations. The Weimar government responds by paying for gen. strike in the Ruhr.

5. Inflation in 1923

  • 1914 $1 = 4.2M
  • 1921 $1 = 64M
  • 1923/Nov $1 = 800million M

Destroys middle class savings. Important in explaining the turn to extreme solutions. There were extreme problems.

6. Gustav Stressman 1879-1929 - re-established the currency.

1924 - Dawes plan. Beginning of recovery by 1927.

7. Weimar Culture

  • Cabaret - Christopher Isherwood
  • Intense cultural freedom in the 1920s.
  • Sexual revolution - some claim it was connected with the inflation and loss of money to give diaries. Also there were far more women than men.
  • Women's Movement
  • Gay rights movement - Dr. Magnus Hirshfeld.
  • Artistic innovation - Bauhaus
  • German academicism
  • Martin Heidigger

8. The Response of the Middle Class

  • Define: civil servants, teachers, shopkeepers. Had been loyal to the old Empire.
  • Other groups in society were organised: labour. the old Junkers, the Army. It was the middle class who felt weak and insecure.
  • Shame at the loss of the War - they were looking for someone to blame.
  • Financially ruined due to inflation and uncertainty.
  • Were worried by what was happening in Russia.
  • They did not like or trust the republic, and abhorred the sleaze.
  • Bring in the "age of anxiety ideas" - people were losing it.

III. The Nazis - Origins

National Socialist German Workers Party [NSDAP] Grows rapidly from about 1920

IV. Adolph Hitler 1888-1945

A. Austrian - son of a minor customs official.

Born in Linz, Austria. One historian, Alan Bullock, claims Hitler's real father was called Schickelgruber: Hitler was his stepfathers name. Others note that his mother worked for the Rothschilds. Such comments show subtle snobism and ant-semitism.

B. A failed painter. Painted postcards and was a day labourer.

1908 went to live in Vienna. [became obsessed with whipped cream/schlag!]

C. Fought in the German Army as an NCO.

D. After the war, he moved to Munich and formed the German Workers Party, which in 1920 takes the name NSDAP: it made the workers party a nationalist party. Hitler was not in fact a German citizen until 1932!

V. Early Nazi Programme - The 25 Points 1920

Combines extreme nationalism, racism and some socialist concepts. [Not in order below.]

  • Unification of Greater Germany (Austria + Germany)
  • Land + expansion
  • Anti-Versailles - abrogation of the Treaty.
  • Land and territory - lebensraum.
  • Only a "member of the race" can be a citizen.
  • Anti-Semitism - No Jew can be a member of the race.
  • Anti-foreigner - only citizens can live in Germany.
  • No immigration - ref. to Jews fleeing pograms in Eastern Europe..
  • Everyone must work.
  • Abolition of unearned income - "no rent-slavery".
  • Nationalisation of industry
  • Divison of profits
  • Extension of old age welfare.
  • Land reform
  • Death to all criminals
  • German law, not Roman law (anti- French Rev.)
  • Education to teach "the German Way"
  • Education of gifted children
  • Protection of mother and child by outlawing child labour.
  • Encouraging gymnastics and swimming
  • Formation a national army.
  • Duty of the state to provide for its volk.
  • Duty of individuals to the state

Note here the use of the word "socialist" - it means here that all were to be subordinated to the state, NOT worker control.

From 1920 Nazis use a black flag and a reverse swastika.

VI. Munich Putsch 1923

A. After the period of massive inflation: the aim was to overthrow the Weimar government. Nov. 9th, 1923

B. General Ludendorff (Spring Offensive etc.) helped. But it failed nonetheless.

C. Hitler was tired and sent to prison for a few months. But he got lots of publicity.

D. The Party still remained small until 1929.

VII. Hitler's Ideas - Mein Kampf

A. Influence of Vienna: Nationalism, anti-semitism of the Christian Social Party, + anti-marxism

B. Nationalism - the Volk - the glories of the German race.

C. Anti-Semitism

  • Christian anti-semitism was long standing.
  • Social Darwinism - allows "racial" anti-semitism.

3. Vienna.

Karl Lueger mayor in late 1900's.

This was the place were Hitler contracted the disease of anti-semitism.But it was not only HItler who was infected.

4. Psychological explanation - scapegoating.

D. The Fuhrer - the "Leader Principal" as a political ideal.

E. Hitler's aim was German domination of Europe.

F. Economics: He was opposed to free trade and capitalism, although in fact he worked with capitalism, and even compared to Mussolini toned down this aspect once in power

G. Essentially Hitler was uneducated, but thought he was an expert in everthing from economics to army tactics. He wasn't, but for 12 years he was able to dominate and terrorise Europe.

VIII. The Nazis Rise to Power 1923-1933

A. Factors

  • The Depression of the 30s, followed the different economic problems of the 1920's.
  • The Party attracted lower middle class and young people.
  • The Weimar Governments economic poicies intensified the economic crisis. The SDP left power, and let other weaker parties in rather than reduce welfare.
  • KPD and SDP would not work together to block the Nazis.
  • Article 48 was added to the constitution - allowing rule by presidential decree.
  • Unemployment continued to rise: 2.25 million to 6 million from 1930-1932.

B. Sturmabteilung - SA - Storm Troopers - Brown Shirts

Lead by Ernst Roehm. they terrorised opponents, the SDP and KPD. SA was 100,000 by 1930.

C. Propaganda in the 1920s and 1930s.

Herman Goebbels was very skilful at this.

  • Volkischer Beobachter
  • Hitler's speeches
  • Rallys: Nuremburg: Discuss psychology of these rallies.
  • Uniforms
  • Music - eg Wagner, the Horst Wessel Song

D. The Party was not just Hitler

  • 1928 - 12 seats, KPD 54
  • 1930 - 107 seats, KPD 77
  • 1932 July - 230 seats, 37.5% of vote
  • 1932 Nov. - 196 seats, 33.1% of vote

E. Franz von Papen, Chancellor May 31st 1932. He drew the Nazis into government.

F. By Nov, 1932 Nazis were largest party in the Reichstag, but not an absolute majority.

G. Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933 by Paul von Hindenburg, due to the rivalry between traditional conservatives.

IX. Where did Nazi support come from?

  • Lower middle class: Nazis addressed directly their concerns.
  • Farmers.
  • Austria and the South.
  • Germans outside Germany.
  • NOT workers
  • NOT Berlin.

G. Big business was not as important in Nazi support as was once thought. [and Marxists wanted to believe.]

H. The Nazis promised, and delivered, and economic recovery through public spending.

I. To some extant they reduced traditional class distinctions.

X. Consolidating Power

Nazis get into power legally.

A. Possible Opposition

  • The Army
  • The Church
  • Other Parties: Communists, SDP.

B. Reichstag Fire, Feb 27, 1933, by a mentally-ill Dutch communist.

C. The Enabling Act March 1933

Under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution - an anti-communist rule allowing dicatatorial powers if the state was "threatened".

The Act was passed July 14th 1933. All other parties were abolished. The act gave Hitler dictatorial power - the Weimar Constitution was in fact never revoked.

D. Hitler takes all legal authority, especially after Hindenburg dies on Aug 2, 1933

E. Opposition and alternatives were crushed. Party opposition removed - Ernst Roehm murdered in June 1934.

XI. Life in Nazi Germany

A. Totalitarian Nature of the State

No independent Sectors. All groups had to disband or affiliate with the Party - incuding the Church. [Neo-paganism]

B. The Church

  • German Christians
  • The Confessing Church
    • Dietrich Boenhoffer: The Cost of Discipleship
  • The Catholic Church
    • Concordat
    • Opposition from some priests and bishops
    • Mit Brennende Sorge

C. Book Bonfires.

Schools were politicised.

Universities were a major sector of society to go over to the Nazis. [Recent studies show over 50% of einsatzgruppen had Ph.Ds.]

D. Women: "Kinder, Kirche, Kuche"

Women's function as child-bearers was stressed. Opposed to abortion, but only for German women.

E. Youth - "Strength Through JOY": Hitler Youth.

Breeding experiments to make a "superman/ubermensch. " SS men mate with selected German women.

F. The Economy

  • Total control, but no nationalisation.
  • Work - Unions abolished- strikes illegal 1933.
  • Goverment spending creates work, e.g. on autobahns and on war build-up.

The economy was relatively successful for many Germans.

XII. Terror

A. Political Opponents Attacked

1. Police - SS - Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) [Schutzstaffel]

2. Gestapo

B. ContraGenics

1. Jews

NB Holocaust only after 1942

Nuremburg 1935 Laws vs Jews

  • Anyone with one Jewish grandparent was a Jew for Nazis, regardless of current beliefs.
  • Intermarriage forbidden. etc.

Systematic Persecution begins

  • Krystalnacht, Nov 1938 - 1000 synagogues destroyed. Anti-Semitism becomes more radical from 1938. By then it was impossible to get out.

2. People with Disabilities: The disabled were killed, but the Churches protested and stopped it.

3. Concentration camps: Communists, Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals

XIII. Other European Fascist Parties

What was going on in Germany and Austrai was to some extent repeated throughout Europe.

  • Austria
  • Hungary - Iron Cross
  • France - Action Francaise
  • Belgium - French and Flemish Nazi parties
  • Eastern Europe
  • England - British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosely
  • Scotland - Protestant Action

The Course of the War in Europe

A. So far we have looked at the Rise of the Nazi Party, and at what policies the followed in Germany, and the areas which came under their control. Now we are backtracking a little to look at the actual conflict which brought them to power in Europe, and eventually led to their defeat.

B. It is important to note the worldwide nature of WWII. It was composed of several wars.

  • Germany vs. Britain and France and then the USA
  • Germany vs. The Soviet Union
  • Japan vs. China
  • Japan vs. Britain
  • Japan vs. USA

[Do not have time in this course to go into the details of the rise of Japan and the reasons for its power. We have mentioned its industrialisation in the 19th C. and its defeat of Russia in 1905]

C. In the overall theme of this course this marks the end of the European Era in world history.

II. Nazi External Agression

A. Hitler's Goals

1. Much of Policy was in his hands. [NOTE: recent research has suggested that Germany was less under Hitler' tight control, than under a sort of modern feudal regime with a number of strongmen excercising power in their own realm.]

3. Goal was expansion for the German Volk - seen as superior and destined to rule.

AJP Taylor suggests that Hitler only wanted expanded borders, and Germany to be a Great Power. Hitler was an opportunist, but you cannot eliminate the psychosis from his ideas. He does not necessarily seem to have required as part of his masterplan the conquest of Britain for instance, but he did want Lebensraum in the slavic areas of the Ukraine and Poland.

4. Idea of Lebensraum

  • No Jews.
  • Slavs as servile workers.
  • Expanding German race in the area.
  • Agriculturalist mythology in what was in fact an industrial state. [re. Kagan p 968]

5. Germany was the power wanting to overturn the status quo.

B. Early Actions

1. Opposition to Versailles Treaty

-demilitaristion of the Rhineland

-Disarmament of Germany

2. Oct 1933 - Withdrew from League of Nations

Mar 1935 - Renounced Disarmament

  • - UK and France do not intervene
  • - UK even agrees to let him build a fleet to 35% of the Royal Navy

3. Background - Oct 1935 - Italy attached Ethiopia

  • -no effective international response
  • -showed weakness of the League

4. Italy, Germany and Japan formed an Alliance.

- By Nov 1, 1936 - Mussolini speaks of an AXIS.

- Japanese treated as "honorary aryans."

5. Rhineland - March 7 1936 - Demilitarised Zone Occupied

-This removed the security of France.

France was divided internally. At this stage it was in fact powerful enough to have destroyed German power. -Military thinking emphasises defence - The Maginot Line - (does not cover Belgium).

British Policy of Appeasement - Why?

  • Public Opinion
  • Hatred of idea of another war - memories of 1914-18 still strong.
  • Feeling Germany had been badly dealt with in Treaty of Versailles and that Germany had real grievances.

C. Spanish Civil War 1936-39

  • Provided a training ground
  • Franco not a facist.

D. Austria - Anschluss March 12 1938

  • 1934 - Nazis try to sieze power in Austria blocked by Mussolini, not yet allied to Hitler
  • 1938 - Nazis try again. Plebiscite for March 13 1938 but Hitler marches in March 12th 1938
  • Approval of most Austrians [The Sound of Music is a whitewash.]

E. Demand for Sudentenland May 1938 - Czechoslovakia threatened by Union of Germany and Austria.

F. Munich Sept 15-29 1938

"Peace with honour. I believe it is peace in our Time"

Neville Chamberlain, British PM. Committed to Appeasement. Allowed Germany to have Sudetenland. French and British threatened the Czechs.

G. Occupation of Sudetenland and then all of Czechoslavakia by March 15 1939

H. Some have argued against idea appeasement bought time, But:

  • Appeasers did not claim this at the time.
  • If British and French had attacked, while Czechs fought in the East they might have succeeded. Some German officer opposed to Hitlers high risk policies.
  • A war in October 1938 would have not given Hitler a neutrality re Russia, nor the resources of Eastern Europe.
  • The exclusion of USSR from Munich prevented any alliance with Stalin.
  • Churchill opposed it.

I. Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact August 23d 1939

Russians fearful West meant to let them bear the burden of a war. Rightly it seems. The Pact included secret provisons - i.e. divided Poland between Russia and Germany, and it allowed USSR to take Baltic States and Bessarabia. Why did Stalin to it? - to get territory or to gain time?

J. Poland was next Target

  • German Propaganda begins March 1939
  • Chamberlain announces a guarantee March 31. Supported by UK public this time.
  • Attack on Poland - Sept 1 1939 - Leads into War

III. Outbreak - 1939

A. Britain and France go to War - Sept 3, 1939

Everyone expected it to be totally destructive, opposite to optimism of 1914. Important in postwar recovery.

B. Blitzkreig

Speed and Force - Key to early German Success

  • Keen to avoid trench stalemate of WW1.
  • Poland divided between Soviet Union and Germany.
  • Soviets invaded from East Sept 17 1939.
  • Soviets also Take Baltic States 1940.
  • Finland resisted.

3. The Phoney War in West Sept 1939-Spring 1940

Britain rearmed.

  • April 1940 - Denmark & Norway
  • May 1940 - Holland and Belgium
  • May 1940 - The Fall of France
  • By July 1940 all of Continental Europe ruled by Nazis

Dunkirk June 1940 "Our finest Hour" - 200,000 UK and 100,000 French were brought over to UK.

2. In June France asked for armistice.

Led by Field Marshal Henri Philippe Petain. N. France German. South ruled from Vichy. Collaborated with Germans. Aim was to preserve as much autonomy as possible.

Charles de Gaulle - fled to UK. Organised the French National Committe for Liberation/Free French.

IV. Britain Alone

A. Winston Spencer Churchill 1874-1965

  • Become PM in in May 1940. From a great British family - his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) had stopped Louis XIV.
  • Churchill had spent 1930s warning about Hitler. No chance UK would allow one power to dominate Europe. Hitler had hoped Britain would settle with him. For a year USA was still dominated by isolationism.

B. The Battle of Britain

  • August 1940, Germans began attacking airfields, but in revenge for UK attacks on German cities. London was attacked every for 2 months. 15,000 killed
  • Air Battle - possible since airfields were working.
  • RAF vs. Luftwaffe: Twice as many German planes destroyed.

Why Victory?

  • Govt had been arming since Munich 1938.
  • Airfields functioning.
  • Radar and communications.

Loss of this was first major defeat for Hitler. He could not invade Britain.

C. The Blitz - Aerial Bombardment

Aim was the break morale. Did not succeed.

D. The Home Front

  • The Home Guard
  • Evacuation of Children
  • Rationing
  • Propaganda
  • National Unity

E. U-Boats and the Enigma Code - Alan Turing.

F. Roosevelt and Lend-Lease in 1940 and 1941

V. Russia Attacked - Operation Barbarossa - June 22 1941

A. Aim had been to start in May, but the Italian attack on Greece and Egypt diverted German resources as Mussolini failed. Troops sent to Africa and the Balkans. This delayed Operation Barbarossa for six weeks.

B. German Advances and Russian Tactics

The Ukraine was taken - for Lebensraum.

Nazis get as far as Leningrad and Moscow by Dec 1941.

C. Suffering of the Soviet People.

  • Despite early warnings Stalin was surprised at attack. USSR lost 2.5 mil of its 4 mil troops. Of 15,000 planes, only 700 left. Moscow - could have been taken, but Hitler diverted resources south.
  • Leningrad - 2.5 million died.
  • The main bloodletting was on the Eastern Front, as in 1914-18 - Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union

VI. Pearl Harbour, 7th Dec 1941

A. Japan in the East

Extreme Nationalism + East Asia Economic Zone. Japanese had been expanding since 1931 - Manchuria.

1939 - Japan allied with Hitler and Italy, but this was really a separate war. Japan was supported by many Asians as an Asian state against western imperialism.

B. Japanese Atrocities - on the Chinese, on POWs

C. American Efforts for Peace.

US did not stop supplies of oil until Japan attacked Indochina in July 1941.

Then Japan had to conquer Indonesian Oil-fields.

D. The Attack - Pearl Harbour 1941 Dec 7

Japan led by Gen. Hideki Tojo (1885-1948) attack was while negotiations were going on. But note that the Japanese were aware that the talks were about to fail. Japan had to attack quickly, as it could not hope to win anything but a quick war.

E. America joins the War

Vital Power of US - Industrial Might - 35% of world industrial production in USA. The American economy was untouched by devastation that was occuring elsewhere.

F. US Success from 1942

  • 1942 - Coral Sea Battle
  • 1942 - Spring - Battle of Midway - stopped Jap advance.

The Allies decided to concentrate on Europe.

VII. The Grand Alliance - 26 Nations vs Hitler and Japan

  • Aim was to defeat Germany first, then Japan. Unconditional surrender was required.
  • Military decisions came first - ie Allies made allowances to Russia, in order to win the war, no matter what might happen after.

C. Power of Allies

  • -USA - Industry and National Unity
  • -UK - Drew on Empire resources, position, and mobilised its own economy.
  • -USSR- Industrial Capacity - moved the the East + the heroic determination of the people.

VIII. The Eastern Front - Stalingrad

A. The Russian Winter (Again) - by 1942 the War was turning B. German goal in the south was Caspian oil fields

Stalingrad Feb 1943 - the Turning Point, and the greatest landbattle in history. Russians lost more men in this battle than the US did in the whole war.

IX. Other Fronts

A. North Africa

  • Rommel - the Afrika Corps
  • Bernard Montgomery - and the Eigth Army [Lili Marlene]
  • Dwight Eisenhower Nov 1942 - Lands in Morocco.
  • El Alamein - 1942 - opened Italy to the Allies

B. Italian Invasion

  • Sicily July-Aug 1943
  • Italy Surrendered 1943 - but Germans siezed Rome and fighting continues. But this diverted German resources.

C. Burma - British Empire in Asia fight Japan. (had some support in India).

X. Social Effects of the War in Britain and the US

A. Effects on Men

  • Put into a situation of restricted freedom in the army.
  • Move away from home.

B. Women go to Work

  • Have more personal freedom than ever before.
  • Become effective heads of households.
  • Hold responsible jobs.

C. Lesbians and Gay Men

  • Join armed forces.
  • Meet each other in port cities.
  • Benefit from general wartime loosening of moral rules.
  • Homosexuals meet together in large numbers in US army, and in the Navy - leads to San Francisco as gay center.

D. Loosening of "morals".

  • Time of war - idea of live for today.
  • Women have more sexual freedom in army

E. Nutrition

Rationing means that the British never ate so well. Every one ate their ration and this was in effect better food than they had ever had. Little sugar, little meat, but ample calories and protein.

F. Expansion of the US economy

  • No physical damage to US.
  • Booming production for war fuels the economy.

XI. June 1944 Normandy

A. Allies begin Strategic bombing of Germany - 1943

Day and Night attacks on Germany.

  • US went for precision bombing - got better as time went by. They did real damage.
  • UK for "area-bombing" - aim was terror and morale breaking.  This does not seem to have had any useful effect.  Dresden in Feb 1945 was particularly savage, fire storms.

B. Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) Leader of Allies

C. Britain Becomes a troop camp.

Story about US segregation -separate Black and White Regiments

British lack of racism at the time -US films on the problem - British would not let whites displace blacks from seats on the bushes. A omment from one Cornwall housewife (obviously not with a good command of geography) - "I like these Americans, but I can't stand the white fellows they brought with them"].

D. D-Day - June 6 1940 Landing in Normandy

  • Aim was to establish a beachhead.
  • Mid August - southern France also invaded.
  • Battle of the Bulge Dec 1944 - Germany's last gasp.
  • Rhine Crossed in March 7 1945 (at Remagen).

E. Liberation of France

  • General Charles de Gaulle and the Free French

F. German Surrender - by the army this time

  • Reims - May 7 1945
  • Berlin - May 8 1945

XII. Germany Falls

A. Why?

1. Unravelling of Nazi Power

Von Staffebburg - attack on Hitlers life, by conservatives wanting an empire.

2. Other Powers were basically stronger.

3. Founding of SS - Fanatics who in last months challenged the Reich.

4. German use of resources for Holocaust in wartime.

B. Hitler Commits Suicide May 1 1945.  Last commands lead to destruction of Berlin. He'll go to Hell

C. A real break in European History

XIII. War in Pacific - How to defeat Japan

The Atomic Bomb - the start of the modern period in many respects. In science and politics.  In this class we are going to look at the ending of the war in the Pacific and the use of the atomic bomb.

II. The War with Japan

Japan in the East

Extreme Nationalism + East Asia Economic Zone. Japanese had been expanding since 1931 - Manchuria.

1939 - Japan allied itself with Hitler and Italy, but this was really a separate war. Japan was supported by many Asians as as Asian state against western imperialism.

B. The Attack - Pearl Harbour 1941 Dec 7

Japan led by Gen. Hideki Tojo (1885-1948) attack was while negotiations were going on.

C. Japanese Atrocities - not wiped out by the bomb.

  • On the Chinese
  • On POWs - Bataan Death March in the Phillipines
  • On British POWs in Burma

[This happened on both sides. eg a friend's father recalls shooting Japanese POWS in Burma]

D. US Success from 1942

  • 1942 - Coral Sea Battle
  • 1942 - Spring - Battle of Midway - stopped Jap advance.

Allies concentrated in Europe

E. War in the Pacific - How to defeat Japan

Once Germany was defeated, attention turned to Japan. The longer the war went on the less chance Japan had of succeeding against US industry and resources.

F. Island Hopping from 1943

By June 1944, the US had reached the Mariana Islands - which could be used as a base from which to bomb Japan. The Japanese showed incredible resistence - eg. at Iwo Jima (1945). Late in the war, Kamikaze attacks were used. It was calculated, in the light of Japanese resistence that a frontal attack on Japan might cost a 30,000, possibly a million, US casulties.

G. But this is not the whole story. By 1945 it was clear Japan was going to loose

  • There were Japanese government reports in 1945 showing the total destruction of the economy, as well as a bad rice harvest that year. Acorns were being eaten as food and fuel was being made out of pine trees.
  • Parts of Japanese government were trying to surrender for two months before the bomb.
  • But the Japanese insisted that whatever happened they must retain the Emperor. The US would not accept this condition - it insisted on unconditional surrender. Also it is possible that the allies did not believe that Japan would surrender.
  • [An argument is often made with reference to Japanese treachery at Pearl Harbour. But, what nation, including the US, is not treacherous at diplomatic events - eg. UK and US sell out of Poland at Yalta.]
  • The Japanese military clique did want to fight to the end. (Toland, Rising Sun p. 741). Planes were collected for a suicidal defence - by lat June they had collected 10,000 planes and 2,350,000 troops, and given civilians bows and arrows amongst other weapons. (Toland, p. 756)
  • But, other elements in Japan, including the Emperor, were willing to surrender from June 1945. There were negotiations via the USSR for surrender from June 1945. They were supported by the Emperor. (Toland, p. 747)

III. The Bomb

A. American Industrial and Scientific Might

Vital Power of US - Industrial Might [35% of world industrial production in USA-American Economy untouched by devastation that was occuring elsewhere.

B. The Manhattan Project

1. There was a fear amongst some scientists that the Nazis were developing an atomic bomb. In fact they were working in the wrong direction.

2. Einstein's Letter to Roosevelt. In August 1939, he warned of the dangers of a German Bomb.

3. The Manhattan Project was set up from Spring 1943.

4. Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi.

The Staff was made up of exiles from Hitler's Europe.

5. Cost of the project was $2 Billion. 60,000 people worked on the project. Only the USA could afford this sort of money, and had these resources.

6. The Feelings of the Scientists Involved. After Hitler was defeated, some no longer felt there was a need to go on with the bomb. The US military kept it going.

Szilard got together a petition of 56, asking that Japan be warned about the bomb. Others did, Americans, support the bomb's use.

7. Four Bombs were made.

  • Plutonium - exploded at Trinity - Fat Man
  • Little Boy - Uranium - destined for Hiroshima.
  • Fat Man - Plutonium - destined for Nagaskai
  • One other

At the end of the war, the US's nuclear arsenal was just one bomb.

C. The Strategy of Area Bombing

1. Europe

  • 1941 - Germans bomb UK. Coventry totally destoyed.
  • 1943 - the Allies begin strategic bombing of Germany. There were day and night attacks.
  • August 1943 - 50,000 killed in Hamburg.
  • February 1945 - 155,000 killed in Dresden.

At the time FDR, after the Nazi's attacked Poland, said

"The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centers of population...has profoundly  shocked the conscience of humanity...I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every government to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event and under no circumstances undertake bombardment from the air of civilian populations."[Vandahaar, p. 17]

But, the Allies decided in 1943 to bomb Germany.

The UK leader was known as Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris.

The USA went for precison bombing - and got better as time went by. They did real damage.

The UK went for "area-bombing" - the aim was terror and morale-breaking. This does not seem to have had any useful effect. Dresden in Feb, 1945, when it was clear how the war was going, resulted in huge losses, and a fire-storm [explain].

2. Japan

Mass area-bombing was possible once Saipan was reached in 1944. Japan was bombed mercilessly.

  • Tokyo - March 9/10 1945 - 333 B-29s 140,000 died, 34.2 sq. miles destroyed (Toland, p. 744)
  • Nagoya- March 10/11 1945 - 313 B-29s napalmed it
  • Tokyo - May 23 and 35 - 562 B-39 bombers. 16.8 sq. miles destroyed. There was a firestorm. By this stage anti-aircraft guns were not working.
  • Yokohama - May 29, 1945 - 517 B-29s  85% of the city destroyed.
  • Osaka and Kobe recieved similar treatment.

In all 2 million buildings were destroyed, about 1/3 of building in Japan. 13 million were homeless. [Makes talk of suicide defense suspect.]

D. Trinity - July 16th 1945

Had been known as Jornada del Muerte [Journey of Death] in Spanish. First explosion of an atomic bomb. It was unexpectedly powerful. Used a plutonium Bomb - Fat Man.

E. Truman and Potsdam

1. Harry S. Truman, President from April 12, 1945

2. Potsdam, July 1945

Truman heard about the bomb at Potsdam. Truman was "immensely pleased" according to Churchill.

F. The Decison to Bomb

1. Moral

Truman felt that the bomb was no worse than conventional area bombing - speech at Columbia University in 1959. It was he said "a powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness." Also it would make the USSR more manageable in Europe.

2. Military

The fear of enormous casualties from a frontal attack was real. BUT:

  • Admiral William Leahy - thought the bomb was used because so much money had been spent.
  • General Henry "Hap" Arnold - claimed that it was unnecessary as conventional bombing would end the war.
  • General Dwight Eisenhower, sadi that the US should avoid world condemnation, and that "it was no longer a mandatory measure to save American lives."

3. The Enola Gay

Flew from Tinian, 1,500 miles from Japan. The plane was named after the pilot's mother. The chaplain blessed it before it set off: "May the men who fly this night be kept safe in thy care, and may they be retruned safely to us." No mention of the thousands to be killed.

G. Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945, 8.15am, 9000 lb bomb, 45 second descent.

Hiroshima had not been bombed before: one aim of bombing it was to see the effects of a bomb on a virgin area. A Uranium bomb was used, and exploded at 32,000 feet. There had been an all-clear 45 minutes earlier, so this bombing was totally unexpected. At least 78,000 men, women and children were killed out of a population of 200,000. This included 6,000 young children on their way to school, and 20 US airmen in POW camps.

H. Nagasakai Aug 9, 1945

This was flown early due to weather conditions. It was also flown before Japan had had time to react to Hiroshima. One possible aim was to show the USSR that there was more than one bomb.

A plutonium bomb was used here. Another Fat Man. [Oppenheimer had met the art student son of a friend, and persuaded the military not to bomb Kyoto as it was so beautiful...]

Nagasaki was the most Christian city of Japan - 100s had been martyred there in the 16th century. Fr. Pedro Arupe S.J., recent head of the Jesuits was there at time. 30,000 people killed.

I. B-29 raids continued after the A-bombs, inluding a 1000 B-29 raid on August 14, as the commander, General Carl Spaatz wanted "as big a finale as posible."

J. Physical Effects of Bombing

  • Blast - Shadow effects of light. -on stone, -on people
  • Fire - main cause was not heat from the bomb, but by flames caused by falling houses and buildings igniting gas and electricty - it was after all breakfast time. Fire storm in Hiroshima, but not Nagaskai.
  • Radiation - By this we mean the gamma rays from the blast. There was very little left in the ground. The city did not become radioactive. [Present bombs are much bigger and would cause this effect.]
  • Area destroyed - 4.2 sq. miles in Hiroshima.

K. Effects on People

  • Blast kills many: some just evaporate. With others it melts away their skin or eyes.
  • Many dies in conventional ways: trapped by falling masonry, burnt to death.
  • Radiation Sickness - 3 weeks later:  Hair falls out, Blood cell count declines.
  • Hospitals were destroyed: Most doctors killed, Most nurses killed
  • Most people just did not realise what had happened. Some people went round helping others, Many went into shock.

IV. Japanese Surrender

USSR enters the war against Japan, Aug 9, 1945. It advances through China and takes North Korea. [This would not have happened if Japan had been allowed to surrender earlier, and there would have been no Korean war, or American casulties there.]

Kagan says the Japanese Cabinet was still unwilling to surrender. In fact the majority was prepared to surrender, but not the PM. Hirohito [Showa] brought about the surrender. He broadcast to the peopl for the first time. [Most could not understand the court dialect of Japanese he used.]

Surrender was on August 14th 1945.

There was one condition - the Emperor could be kept. [This had been offered before the bombs.] Truman agreed to this condition. General MacArthur in Charge. Peace was signed on the Missouri, Sept 2, 1945.

D. Trials were held for Japanese War Criminals after war.

V. The Atomic Bomb - The Start of the Modern Age?

The Bomb - another major war would end civilisation - this knowledge is always there in the background in a way never known to other ages.

  • USSR - has about 20,000 various A- and H- bombs,
  • USA - has about 30,000

The Bomb is also the start of Big Science, and advance in technology most characterise our period. Also possession of the bomb and the resources to make it has altered the nature of political power. Present world politics depend on it.

VI. Class Discussion of the Bombing of Hiroshima

The Effects of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasakai (Washington DC: US Govt Printing Office, 1946)

  • 1. What are the arguments for dropping the bomb?
  • 2. What are the arguments against its use - look at moral and military/strategic arguments. Be prepared to argue both sides of the issue?

The Holocaust

The Holocaust/The Shoah [explain words] - Distinguishes Germany from any other fascist State.

Film - "Genocide", Part 20 of The World at War

II. Genocide in the Past

  • Caesar - on the Celts
  • Mongols - on Iran 13th Century
  • Amerindians
    • 16th century: small-pox deliberately spread (?) 16 million to 1 million in a century. Possibly more.
    • 19th century: US attempts to wipe out Plains Indians. [Frank Baum, in year before he wrote Wizard of Oz, called for it.]
  • Turks and Armenians 1910: -c. I million killed
  • Stalin and the Peasents 1930's ; -c. 10 million
  • Japaneses in China and Korea
  • Communists in China

H. Uniqueness of Holocaust

  • Attempt to wipe out an entire people.
  • Perpetrated by a highly civilised modern country
  • Done for ideological reasons
  • The extreme brutality
  • The mechanical nature of the killing

III. Nazis and Contragenics

Concentration Camps - 1933 - Dachau

Triangles: Show Diagram

The Disabled were killed - Church stopped it 1930s

Concept of misnaming people to make them less than human. -idea from the Church in the Middle ages [the rouelle of IV Lateran].

IV. Politicals, Communists, Dissidents

V. The War against the Christians

  • Dissident RC priests
  • Jehovahs Witnesses [emphasise - an ignored group][ref. contemporary US attacks on them for refusing tosay pledge allegiance]

VI. The War against Homosexuals

  • Gay Rights Movement in Germany before the War, led by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld.
  • 1932 onwards - arrests and deportations. Less intense after war started.

VII. The War against the Gypsies

Little written - perhaps 250,000 killed - another attempt to wipe out an entire people.

VIII. The War Against the Slavs

  • Nazis opposed to abortion - but not for Poles.
  • Himmler planned to eliminate 30 Million Slavs, perhaps 6 million were killed. The rest to be kept as slaves.

 

Web Exercise

Locate on the web a "holocaust denial" or "revisionist" site. [You can do this though Yahoo or via the related pages at the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Two to look for are Radio Islam and the "Institute for Historica Rersearch."]

Explain what sort of arguments these web sites make. Why are they making the arguments.

The locate one of the web sites whch document the Holocaust.  Especially look at Nizkor.  Describe at least two different responses to Holocaut deniers. Which approach do you think works best, and why?

Finally, try to find out how Holocaust deniers are treated in France, Germany and Canada [Look up news reports in Press indices such as Lexis/Nexis (which is free on school computers).] What works best - the US or French/German way of dealing with the deniers.

Discussion Questions

What was the attraction of fascism in Italy and Germany? How did Italian and German fascism differ?

What seemed to be the failures of the western democracies in the 1930s?

Could Germany have won World War II?

What were the moral issues involved in using the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima?

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 6/2/1999