the radicalization of hitler’s foreign policy march 1936: remilitarization of the rhineland...

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

CountryNational Income

Percentage on Defense

USA 68 1.5%

British Empire 22 5.7%

France 10 9.1%

Germany 17 23.5%

Italy 6 14.5%

USSR 19 26.4%

Japan 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 Godesbergon 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 “Hitler-Stalin 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)