From September 1st1939, to May 7th 1945 Hitler conquered with the German army invaded ten countries. He invaded Poland, Norway, Denmark, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Vichy France. All colonies not included. He took North Italy but did not conquer all of Italy as he tried to keep allied armies in Italy and Mussolini in power, and he attacked the Soviet Union, but failed in conquering it, instead ending in defeat.
Before The Invasions
In September 1938, Hitler demanded that German speakers in Czechoslovakia should be allowed to join his 'greate Germany'. War between Germany and Czechoslovakia seeme likely. Everything depended on the actions of Britain, France and the Soviet Unions.
British and French foreign policy 1938
PM Chamberlain was determined to avoid war. He made many trips around Europe in September 1938 attempting agreements
Chamberlain took lead and the French followed. The French also wished to avoid war at all costs. If they didn't go to war, then neither would the Soviet Union.
As a final attempt to avoid war, a conference in Munich was organised.
The Munich Conference
Chamberlain, Hitler, Daladier (French PM) and Mussolini (leader of Italy) all met in Munich to discuss Czechoslovakian. The Czechoslavokia government was not invited.
It was decided that Germany would occupy the Sudetenland withing 10 days and other parts of Czechslovakia would go to Poland and Hungary.
The French and British governments agreed. The Czechslovakia gogovernment was told to agree or face Germany alone.
Chamberlain was congratulated in Britain for avoiding war. Britain and Fracnce had given in to Hitler's demands, but in return Hitler had promised to not take over any more land.
Kristallnacht
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938, into the next day, has come to be known as Kristallnacht or The Night of Broken Glass.
The attack came afther Hershel Grnszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany.
On October 27, Grynszpan's family and over 15,000 other Jews, originally from Poland, had been expelled from Germany without warning. They were forcibly transported by train in boxcars then dumped at the Polished border.
For Adolf Hitler and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the shooting in Paris Provided an opportunity to incite Germans to 'rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews."
On November 9, mob violence broke out as the regular German police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children.
All over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas, Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents destroyed.Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply prevented the fire from spreading to the surrounding buildings.
About 25,000 Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps where they were often brutalized by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen to be beaten to death.
Comments