There are many animations on each slide.Please do not “click” the remote until 1 ½ seconds passes.There are no multiple choice questions in this presentation, as is my usually methodology, but I am working on it.I am also working on a slide Ppt presentation of WW 2.Coming soon to Ppt near you.

“The greatest and most unforgettable time of my earthly existence.”

Battle of Vimy Ridge

Hitler was a despatch runner carrying messages from regiment to battalion

and company commanders in the front line, exposed him to

considerable danger.In MeinKampf, Hitler omits to

mention that he was a despatch runner.

Why omit that information?

a. He didn’t want anyone to know he was in the war.

b. He wanted to be known as a fighter not a messenger.

c. He considered it of no importance.

d. He would lie to his followers, saying he was in the infantry.

Still, it was a dangerous job, with three of the

eight runners losing their lives at Vimy Ridge.

Hitler was wounded by a shell fragment during the fighting in the

Fromelles sector, 1916. He was appalled by the cynicism of many of his

fellow patients and also by the low morale of the civilian population.

He ascribed these phenomenon to the sinister influence of the Jews, who seemed to him to occupying

all the clerical positions in the army.

Hitler returned to the front, the Ypres salient, 1916, where he was wounded in a British

mustard gas attack near Wervick on the night of October 13-14. He and his comrades were

temporarily blinded and stumbled out of harm’s way. A week later he was transferred to a

military hospital outside Stettin. The war was over for Hitler.

The abdication of the Kaiser, the new Socialist government, and the

Armistice.

Hitler’s reaction.“I could stand it no longer. It became impossible for me to sit still one minute more. Again everything went black before my eyes….I dug my burning head into my blanket and pillow. …So all had been in vain…Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the fatherland?”

11am, November 11th, 1918

Hitler’s experience at the front would become part of his “plan”; his shrapnel wounds; his confrontation with mustard gas; the Armistice signed while the troops were still in Belgium; the government run by socialists.

These experiences traumatized Hitler and reinforced his obsessions which formed the basis of his perception of the world- principally his hatred of Socialism and the Jews.

Give over the coal mines in the Saar.Demilitarize the RhinelandAllow French troops into the Rhineland.Not conscript men for the military.Maintain an army under 100,000 men.Give over all of your foreign colonies.Not be allowed to join the League of Nations.Pay reparations to the victors of 400 million Francs.

You Will…

Hitler in Munich 1919 through....

The situation in Munich, BavariaThe people are suffering from…………….

Exhaustion and war-weariness.Government experiments with Socialism.Growth of communist party.Rebellions and assassinations. Counter-revolutionary violence.Spreading fear of the Bolsheviks.

Munich was placed under military rule to halt the violence.

Hitler worked for the army and attended the lectures of

Gottfried Feder at

Munich University.

Lecture notes:

Hitler’s learning

German nationalism.Economics.

The impact of the Treaty of Versailles.

Anti-Bolshevik instruction.Evils of Jewish, profit-taking,

capitalist businesses.

Note: Anti-Semitism prevailed at this time in Bavaria and

Germany.

Join all ethnic Germans

living in Austria,

Czechoslovakia, and

Poland;

to be done by force.

Against the Jews,

remove their citizenship`

Against the war profiteers.

Hitler’s message at every NAZI PARTY meeting was……..

The war is over, live with it.The Treaty

of

Versailles

was a

Crime

aka. the

In the charge of Ernst Rohm, they would police all meetings.

1922Hitler had gained the leadership of the Nazi Party-NSDAP-German Socialist Workers’

Party. They were a growing political organization in Bavaria but with little influence elsewhere in Germany.

The SA-Stormtroopers under Ernst Rohm protected the Nazi Party gatherings. They were well armed and violent.

The Bavarian government supported the Weimar Republic in Berlin, established by the Treaty of Versailles. They were well aware of the Nazi Party threats.

The German Army in Munich, Bavaria, were well aware of the threat of the local Nazi Party.

The Nazi Party was about to undergo a transformation.It was to become the “Fuhrer’s” Party, in which the Fuhrer’s word was law, subject to rubber-stamp approval by the membership.

In the 1920s

Rudolph Hess:Hermann Goring: Julius Streicher:

Lesser known devotees:Ernst HanfstaenglMax von RichterDietrich Eckart:Max AmannUlrich Graef

Ernst Rohm:

French troops occupy the Rhineland Jan, 1923

Hitler called a mass meeting: Major points

Not to join the government against the French incursion.Against Bavarian Parliamentary democracy.Against Marxism in Bavaria.Against internationalism.Blame upon the Jews for causing Germany to be held to ransom by

the French.Support the Nationalist Right movement.

The Bavarian government was in chaos and indecision.

The Communists in Bavarian were agitated.The Bavarian government army was aggravated.

Violence expected

Groups in conflict: Hitler's right wing Nazi party; his opposition, the left wing; Bavarian government; Munich police; German army; local communist parties.

Violence erupted!

Hitler pushed his way through the crowd accompanied by two stormtroopers brandishing pistols. He climb on to a chair, drew a Browning pistol and fired a shot into the ceiling.

Hitler’s fingerprints were all over the failed putsch;the plans for the march on Berlin;the para military arm of the NSDAP was disbanded by the new

government of Bavaria and its army.

Hitler’s trial was held in Munich, March 1924.

Fate?!? The judge was a supporter of Hitler.

General Ludendorff was part of the putsch plan,

supporting Hitler.

Hitler was allowed by the judge to speak as long as he

wanted, continually spouting his Nazi beliefs.

The trial was published nationally and Hitler became a media

personality and known throughout Germany.

Hitler and most of his associates in leadership were sentenced

to five years in prison.

THE TRIALDestruction of property, robbery, looting, shooting of policemen, initiating

violence and mayhem of all kinds; but the most serious charge was that of an attempted overthrow of the Bavarian government.

The violent Putsch failed

“My Struggle”

The book was a rehash of what Hitler had said in countless speeches, interspersed with vainglorious accounts of episodes in his life.

“It contained a veritable chaos of banalities, schoolboy reminiscences, subjective judgements and personal hatred.” Otto Strasser, who worked on the draft.

The book revealed his thinking at this stage in his career. He did not significantly change his world view, which was startling in its simplicity.

Lebensraum: living space for ethnic Germans.The Jews are responsible for all the ills in Germany.Eliminate the Jews.Eliminate the communists.The Treaty of Versailles was a crime.I will lead you out of your depression.Socialism is the solution to our economic problems.Capitalism is not the solution.The current government, the Weimar Republic, must be eliminated.

To Whom Will You Turn Now?

The world wide depression overwhelmed Europe. World trade was devastated.

The fragile democracy, the Weimar Republic, did not know how to help the people.

The German people yearned for authoritarian leadership.

Hitler’s promises, promises made every time he spoke, would now attract many.

Those who were suffering turned to the Nazis.

Hitler gained the support of captains of industry, industrial magnates.

To the military, the Nazis promised rearmament.To business, the Nazis promised to crush the communists.To the unemployed, the Nazis promised work.To the middle class, the Nazis promised to eliminate the Jews

and robber barons.To all Germans, The Nazis promised the revival of greatness

for Germany.

The Nazis continue to gain votes and gain seats, but still not a majority, in the parliament in Berlin.

The opposing political parties were in disarray and lacked unity.The Nazi’s SA troops continually caused riots and fighting when any political party

would have an organized march, but especially the communists.

Von Papen, former chancellor, now the vice-chancellor and still in Hindenburg’s government, suggests making Hitler chancellor, and surround him with conservatives and Hindenburg supporters. “That is how we can control him and his Nazis”

1933

“This accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in your grave for what you have done.”

General Ludendorff

Torchlight Procession of SA and SS paramilitary units

January 1933

The SA thugs were looking for trouble for anyone who stood

against the Nazis.

Lit by a communist

Hitler, Goring, and Goebbels agreed: the Communist pests must be crushed with an iron fist.

Frenzied orders: full police alert, wholesale use of firearms, and the mass arrest of Socialists and Communists.

Hindenburg signed a law suspending civil rights: freedom of speech and association, of the press, and of the privacy of postal and telephone communications.

The law became a charter for the Third Reich, and in the hysterical mood of the time was widely welcomed throughout Germany. The views of many: the decree had finally got the center of the German disease, the ulcer which had for years poisoned and infected the German blood, Bolshevism, the deadly enemy of Germany.

The SA had been responsible for most of the violence and disorder in the year of five elections (1932). Now with four and a half million strong, they had too much power for Hitler to live with.

The Plot:Himmler concocted an

imaginary conspiracy that Rohm and his SA were planning a putsch against Hitler.

Rohm was arrested, then murdered. His captains were all arrested and imprisoned.There followed :

executions

executions

executions

executionsThe SA no longer exist

Adolph Hitler is now the sole and undisputedhead of the German Reich

The facts:the horrifying violence which was stalking Germany was not

perpetrated by scheming Communists against a helpless civilian population but by the SA and the SS against the defenseless Jews and German left.

SS: Hitler’s personal armed bodyguard.

SA: The Stormtroopers had gained too much power so Hitler had their commander, Ernst Rohm assassinated. The SA would now be folded into the SS.

Reich army: with the destruction of the Reichstag the army came under Hitler’s control.

Communists: no longer a factor being killed or placed in prison.

Opposing parties: to be outlawed when Hitler became President/Chancellor/Fuhrer.

Hindenburg: upon his death Hitler becomes President/Chancellor/Fuhrer.

Hitler re-arms Germany with the aim of undoing the Treaty of Versailles and uniting all the German peoples. Military conscription is introduced.

1935

Versailles Treaty

Germany was "forbidden to maintain or construct any fortification

on either bank. If a violation "in any manner whatsoever shall be

regarded as committing a hostile act...and as calculated to disturb

the peace of the world".[

The Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, sent his army into the Rhineland.

The reaction of the world:Letters of objectionLetters of objectionLetters of objection

Hitler’s three foreign policy goals:1. The military restrictions imposed by

the Treaty of Versailles were to be lifted.2. Germany was to be restored to its

rightful place as the strongest European power.

3. “Greater Germany” was to be created to include German-speaking Austria, the Czech Sudetenland and the territories lost after WW 1.

Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was against Hitler’s move into Austria.

He was assassinated by Austrian Nazis.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler said, “one blood demands one Reich.”

Hitler, outraged, just as much as ordered Schuschnigg to relent- Hitler marched into unopposed.

Chronologyof

German culture saw the carrying of an umbrella as a sign of weakness.

They saw that weakness in Prime Minister Chamberlain.

Germany

A move into the Sudetenland would be fraught with danger.

France had a treaty with Czechoslovakia to support in the event of aggression.

Britain was allied with France.

The Soviet union had an agreement with Czechoslovakia.

Armed conflict with Czechoslovakia risked another European conflict.

General

Brauchitsch

Brauchitsch commanded the German army facing Czechoslovakia.

Chief of the General Staff, General Ludwig Beck

The military leadership, led by Beck, took a collective stand against initiating a war with Czechoslovakia. Beck sent the message to Brauchitsch at the “gates” of Sudetenland.

Hitler faced down the generals on August 15 telling them of his absolute determination to smash the Czechs.He warned them that, despite all advice to the contrary, he had been proved right in the past. The generals remained silent.

Czechoslovakia offered a greater prize than Austria to Hitler.

Hitler decided to move quickly.

Three million ethnic Germans lived in the Sudetenland.This was the pretext for demanding that they be brought home to the Reich.

He encouraged the local Nazi leader, Konrad Henlein, to campaign for greater autonomy for the Sudeten Germans.

Every time the Czech gov’t reps offered concessions, Henlein came back for more. He would not be satisfied.

Konrad Henlein

NOTE: recall the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s demands on Serbia prior to WW 1.

Czechoslovakia had a

stronger army than Germany!Prime Minister

Edvard Benes

prepared for war.

The outbreak of war would mean catastrophe for the German army.

Prime Minister

Neville

Chamberlain

He believed he could deal with Hitler. He thought therein must lurk a man of reason,and this creature could

be coaxed and negotiated with rather than going to war.

Shuttle Diplomacy: Chamberlain would fly to Berchtesgaden and meet with Hitler.September 15, 1938.

Hitler increased his demands.

Chamberlain pressed on, persuading himself that Hitler was speaking the truth in desiring no more than “racial unity” with the Sudeten Germans.

The British, supported by the French, pressed the Czechs into ceding the Sudetenland to Germany.

Italy’s Mussolini stepped forward, appealing to Hitler to postpone a mobilization and accept a negotiated settlement. Hitler reluctantly accepted the settlement, when he fervently wanted a war and the complete destruction of Czechoslovakia.

The British, Chamberlain, and the French agreed to German annexation of the Sudetenland with Hitler’s word that he would,

September, 1938

It was clear that Hitler would make more demands.

Munich

Conference

A four-power conference was held. Attending were the Germans, British, French and Italians- but not the Czechs!

The Czechs would have no say in the mutilation of their country.

The goal was to avoid war.

Chamberlain got what he wanted, a promise from the Fuhrer Adolph Hitler.

“Peace in

our times.”

Chamberlain had “given” Hitler the Sudetenland and now……..all of Czechoslovakia.Hitler had won without firing a shot.

Chamberlain was given a hero’s welcome in London.

Peace had been secured, but probably temporarily and only at the expense of sacrificing the Czechs.

On the night of March 14,15, 1939, Hitler received Emil Hacha at the Chancellery in Berlin.

The elderly, frail Hacha, president of Czechoslovakia since the previous November, was kept waiting until the small hours of the 15th.

Finally being called before Hitler, Hacha was brutally harangued in frontof intimidating ranks of Nazi military.

Hitler ranted and raved.

German troops were on the march and would cross the border at 6am.

To avoid bloodshed Hacha must call Prague immediately. Goering threatened to use his Luftwaffe to destroy the historic city of Prague.

Hacha called Prague and gave the order to his army to stand down.

Czechoslovakia had

been swallowed whole.

There are few salutes.There are no flowers.There is no cheering.

Hitler will now invade Poland and Poland will fight backSeptember 1939.

Note: a PowerPoint presentation of WW 2 in Europe is in the works.