Chapter 28: Dictatorships and the Second World War

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Ch 28. Dictatorships and the Second World War 1919-1945

Authoritarian states
• Both conservative and radical dictatorships swept through ERP in 1920s and 1930s
o 2 types of dictatorships had similarities, but were diff
• Conservative authoritarian regimes
• Radical totalitarian dictatorships
o Communism and fascism
o Radical reconstruction of existing society

Conservative Authoritarianism and Radical Totalitarian Dictatorships
• Traditional form of antidemocratic gov in ER was conservative authoritarianism
o Relied on obedient bureaucracies to control society
o Liberals, democrats, socialists were jailed/exiled
o Limited in power and objectives
o Neither ability nor desire to control aspects of their subjects’ lives
o Limited demands to taxes, army recruits, and passive acceptance
o As long as ppl did not try to change system, they had considerable indep
• After WWI, authoritarianism revived, especially in lesser developed E ERP
• New kinds of radical dictatorship went further than conservative authoritarianism emerged in Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy and other countries
o Communist dictatorship ruled SU since RussRev
o Fascist dictators in Italy and Germany
• By start of WWII, fascists governments controlled Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Romania
• Communist and fascist political parties were well established in all major ERPN nations, where they ran for PLMT office as they challenged liberal democracy
• Totalitarianism: radical dictatorship that exercises “total claims” over the beliefs and behavior of its citizens by taking control of the economic, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of society
o Fascism vs Communism
• One party
• Used violent political repression and intense propaganda to gain complete power
• State tried to dominate economic, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of people’s lives
• Deviation from norm could become a crime\
• TTLNSM owed much to total war of WWI
o Required state govs to limit indiv liberties and intervene in economy to achieve victory
o Brutality of war eroded ideal of individual rights
o Value of one life seemed far less important than good of entire nation
o TTLN politicians were inspired by modern state at war
o Showed disregard for human life and greatly expanded the power of the state in pursuit of social control
• Communist and fascist dictatorships shared other characteristics
o Rejected PLMT gov and liberal values
• Classical liberalism wanted to limit power of state and protect individ liberties
o Believed liberal individualism undermined equality and unity
o Rejected democracy in favor of a one party political system ruled from the top
o Charismatic leader dominated TTLN state: Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler
• Created political parties of a new kind, dedicated to promoting idealized visions of collective harmony
• Used force and terror to intimidate and destroy political opponents and pursued policies of imperial expansion to exploit other lands
• Censored mass media and instituted propaganda campaigns meant to advance their goals
• TTLN govs engaged in massive projects of state controlled social engineering dedicated to replacing individualism with a unified “People” capable of exercising the collective will

Communism and Fascism
• COMM + FSM shared desire to revolutionize state and society
• Differences btw COMM and FSM
• COMM
o Lenin
o Society COMMS strove to create an international brotherhood of workers
• Class differences would disappear, resulting in a society free of capitalist inequality
o Aggressively intervened in all walks of life
o State used force to destroy upper and middle classes
o Nationalized private property, pushed rapid industrialization, and collectivized agriculture
o Late 1920s and 1930s: millions lost their livelihoods and lives
o New world around destruction of class differences
• Fascism
o Mussolini, Hitler
o Striving to build a new community on a national, not international level
o Glorified war and military
o Sought to destroy indep working class movements
o Nation was highest embodiment of the ppl, and powerful leader was supposedly the materialization of the ppl’s collective will
o Promised to improve lives of ordinary workers
o Intervened in economy, but did not try to level class differences and nationalize private property
o Ideal of community rooted in bonds of nationalism
o Society would ‘t be a battlefield of classes or individs, all strata and classes would work together to build a harmonious national community
o New national community grounded in racial homogeneity
• Eugenics: selective breeding of humans could improve general characteristics of a national population
• Legit means of social planning and improvement
• Inspired Nazi ideas of “race and space”
• Nazis pushed ideas to limit
o Believed that German nation had to be “purified” of outsider groups: Jews, Gypsies, gays, retarded ppl, who were unable to contribute to the nation’s “racial stock” needed to be eliminated/segregated
o Led to Holocaust, attempt to purge Germany and EPR of all Jews and other groups deemed “undesirable” by mass killings
• Soviets never attempted to destroy a group entirely
o COMMS denounced eugenics
• COMMS and FSCS were sworn enemies
o Clash of ideologies, in part responsible for loss of life in WWII
• Popular consensus
o Neither Hitler nor Stalin achieved the total control they sought
o Nor did they rule alone: help of large state bureaucracies and large numbers of ordinary ppl

Stalin’s Soviet Union
• Lenin established outlines of modern TTLNSM after BSV Rev
• Joseph Stalin finished the job
o Consolidated power and eliminated enemies in mid 1920s
o 1928: Undisputed leader of COMM Party, launched five year plan: the “Revolution from above” aimed at modernizing the SU and creating a new communist society with new attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity
• 1920 Five year plan and those that followed were extremely ambitious
o Beginning of attempt to transform Soviet society into a COMM state
o Ultimate goal to generate new attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity
o Means to do so: constant propaganda, enormous sacrifice by the ppl, harsh repression that included purges/executions, and rewards for those who followed
o In 1930s, SU became dynamic modern TTLN state

From Lenin to Stalin
• 1921: Lenin and BSVs won the civil war, but ruled a shattered and devastated land
o Farms in ruins, food exhausted
o Drought with war = famine
o Industrial production broken down
• Riots by peasants and workers, and open rebellion by previously pro-BSV sailors at Kronstadt
• Lenin changed course
o Repressed Kronstadt rebels, and replaced war communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP): which reestablished limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration
• BSVs had seized grain w /o payment
• Now peasants producers could sell surpluses in free markets, and private traders, and small handicraft manufacturers could reappear
• Heavy industry still in hands of national gov
• NEP was political and economic success
o Politically: necessary, temporary compromise with SU’s peasant majority
• Realized his gov was not strong enough to take land from peasants and turn them into state workers, Lenin made a deal with the only force capable of overtaking his gov
o Economically: Brought rapid economic recovery
• By 1926, industrial output surpassed, and agricultural production was almost equal to prewar levels
• Intense struggle for power began in inner circles of COMM party: Lenin didn’t choose successor when he died in 1924
o Stalin vs Trotsky
• Stalin
o Good organizer, poor speaker, no experience outside of Russia
• Trotsky
o Great/inspiring leader who planed takeover and created victorious Red Army
o Appeared to have all advantages in struggle to take power
• Stain won because he was more effective at gaining the all important support of the party, the only genuine source of power in the one party state
o Rose to general secretary of the party’s Central Committee in 1922, he used his office to win friends and allies with jobs and promises
o Better able to relate Marxian teaching to Soviet realities in the 1920s
• “Socialism in one country” that was more appealing to the maj of communists than was Trot’s doctrine of “permanent revolution”
• Stalin argued that Russian dominated SU had ability to build socialism on its own, while Trot maintained that socialism in the SU could succeed only if a socialist rev swept throughout ERP
• To many Russian COMMs, Trot’s views sold their country short and promised risky conflicts with capitalist countries
• Stalin’s willingness to break with the NEP and “build socialism” at home appealed to young militants in the party, who detested the capital appearing NEP

The Five-Year Plans
• Party congress of 1927: ratified Stalin’s consolidation of power, marked end of NEP and beginning of era of socialist five year plans
• First five year plan had staggering economic objectives
o Total industrial output was to increase by 250%
o Heavy industry was to grow even faster
o Agricultural production was slated to increase by 150%
o 1/5 of peasants in SU were scheduled to give up private plots and join socialist collective farms
o By 1930, economic and social change was sweeping the country
• Stalin unleashed his second revolution for many reasons
o Ideological considerations
• Stalin and his militant supporters were deploy committed to socialism as they understood it
• Feared a gradual restoration of capitalism, wished to promote the working classes, and were eager to abolish the NEP’s private traders, indep artisans, and property owning peasants
o Economic motivations
• Fragile economy recovery stalled in 1927 and 1928, and a new socialist offensive seemed necessary to ensure industrial and agricultural growth
• Economic development would allow the USSR to catch up with the West and overcome traditional Russian “backwardness’
“We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries> We must make this good distance in 10 years”
• Indep peasantry remained a major problem
o Peasants had wanted to own land, and they finally had it
o Sooner or later the peasants would embrace conservative capitalism and pose a threat to the regime
o At the same time, the mainly urban COMMs believed that the despised/feared “class enemy” in the villages could be squeezed to provide the enormous sums needed for all out industrialization
• To resolve issues, in 1929 Stalin ordered the collectivization of agriculture: forced consolidation of individ peasant farms into large, state controlled enterprises
o Peasants all over the SU were compelled to move off their small plots onto large, state run farms, where their tools, livestock, and produce would be held in common and central planners could control their work
• Increasingly repressive measures instituted by the state focused on the kulaks: class of well off peasants who had befitted the most from the market policies of the NEP
o Very small group, but were held up as great enemy of progress
o Stalin called for their “liquidation” and seizure of their land
o Stripped of land and livestock, many starved or were deported to forced labor camps for “reeducation”
• Forced collectivization of agriculture led to disaster
o Peasant resistance caused chaos in the countryside, and large numbers of farmers slaughtered animals and burned crops rather than turn them over
o 1929-1933: number of horses, cattle, sheep, and goats in SU decreased by half
o State controlled collective farms were not more productive
• Output of grain barely increased, and collectivized agriculture was unable to make any substantial financial contribution to Soviet industrial development
• Ukraine: drive against peasants turned into assault on all Ukrainians in general, who had sought indep from Soviet rule after WWI
o 1932: Stalin and associates set levels of grain deliveries for Ukrainian collective at excessively high levels, and refused to relax quotas even with starvation
o Man made famine in Ukraine
• Collectivization was a cruel but real victory for Stalinist ideologues
o Human cost staggering
o Millions died as direct result
o By end of 1938: 93% of peasant families had been herded onto collective farms, neutralizing them as a political threat
o Opposition of peasantry had forced supposedly all powerful state to make concessions
• Rights to limit family’s labor and to cultivate tiny family plots which provided food
• Family plots produced 22% of all agriculture
• Industrial side of 5YP was more successful
o Huge State Planning Commission, the “Gosplan” oversaw program by setting production goals and controlling deliveries of raw and finished materials
o Production bottlenecks and slowdowns often resulted
o Stalinist planning generally favored heavy industry over production of consumer goods, leading to shortages of basic necessities
o Despite problems, Soviet industry produced 4x as much in 1937 as it had in 1928
o No other major country had achieved such rapid industrial growth
• Forced industrial growth went hand in hand with urban development: more than 25 million ppl migrated to cities during 1930s
o Mostly peasants who left villages to become laborers in Russia’s growing industrial centers
• Steel was idol of Stalinist age
o SU needed heavy machinery for rapid development, and an industrial labor force was created almost overnight as peasant men and women began working in the huge steel mills and plants built across the country
o 1930-1932, indep trade unions lost most power
• Gov could assign workers to any job anywhere in the country, and an internal passport system ensured that individs could not move w/o permission of police
• When factory managers needed more hands, they called on ppl on collective farms, who sent them millions of peasants over the years
• Workers typically lived in deplorable conditions in hastily built industrial cities
• Also experienced some benefits of upward mobility
o “In old tsarist Russia, we weren’t even considered people. We couldn’t dream about education, or getting a job in a state enterprise…I have the right to a job, to education, to leisure”
o Some propaganda from state censored publication
o Enthusiasm was partly authentic
o Great industrialization drive, from 1928-1937 was an awe inspiring achievement purchased at enormous sacrifice on part of ordinary Soviet citizens
Life and Culture in Soviet Society
• Aim of Stalin’s 5YP was to create a new kind of society with a strong industrial economy and a powerful army
• Stalin and his helpers were good Marxian economic determinists
o Once everything was state owned, they believed, a socialist society composed of committed socialists would inevitable emerge
o Their utopian vision of a new humanity floundered, but they did build a new society whose broad outlines existed
• Life in society had both good and bad aspects
o Consumption was reduced to pay for investment, thus there was little improvement in the average standard of livings in the years before WWII
o Average nonfarm wage purchased only half as much in 1932 as it had in 1928
o After 1932, real wages grew slowly, but by 1937, workers could still buy only about 60% of what they had bought in 1928
o Collectivized peasants experienced great hardships
• Daily life was difficult in Stalin’s SU
o Many ppl lived primarily on black bread and wore old, shabby clothing
o Constant shortages, although heavily taxed vodka was always available
o Housing was a problem: millions moved into cities, but the gov built few new apartments
o Relatively lucky fam received one room for all its members and shared both a kitchen and a toilet with others on the floor
• Life was hard but not hopeless
o Idealism/ideology had a real appeal for many communists and ordinary citizens, who saw themselves building the world’s first socialist society while capitalism crumbled and degenerated into fascism
o Optimistic belief in the future of the SU attracted Westerners to SU
• Soviet workers did receive more social benefits
o Age old pensions, free medical services, free education, day cares
o Unemployment was practically unknown
o Possibility for personal advancement
• Keys to improving position were specialized skills and technical education
o Industrialization required massive numbers of trained experts, such as skilled workers, engineers, and plant managers
o Stalinist state broke with egalitarian policies of the 1920s and provided tremendous incentives to those who could serve its needs
o Paid unskilled worker masses and farmers low wages, but gave high salaries/privileges to growing technical and managerial elite
o Elite joined with political and artistic elites in new upper class, whose member were rich and powerful
• Radical transformation of Soviet society had profound impact on women’s lives
o Marxists had believed that capitalism and midd class husbands exploited women
RussRev proclaimed complete equality of rights for women
o 1920s: divorce and abortion made easily available, and women were urged to work outside home
o Stalin reversed trend: gov revoked many laws supporting women’s emancipation to strengthen traditional family and build up state’s population
• Lasting change for women involved work and education
o Peasant women continued to work on farms, and millions of women toiled in factories and in heavy construction
o Soviets opened higher education to women, who could now enter the ranks of the better paid specialists in industry and science
o Medicine became a woman’s profession
• Soviet society demanded sacrifices from women
o Maj of women had to work outside home
o Wages were so low that it was impossible for a family to live only on husband’s earnings
o Men continued to dominated best jobs
Rapid change and economic hardship led to broken families, creating physical and emotional strains for women
o Mobilization of women was striking characteristic of women
• Culture was politicized for propaganda and indoctrination purposes
o Party activists lectured workers in factories and peasants on collective farms
o Newspapers/films/radio recounted socialist achievements and capitalist plots
o 1930s: intellectuals were ordered by Stalin to become “engineers of human minds”
o Instructed to exalt the lives of ordinary workers and glorify Russian nationalism
o Russian history was rewritten so early tsars became worthy forerunners of Stalin
o Writers and artists could combine creativity and polit propaganda
• Stalin seldom appeared in public, but his presence was everywhere
o Portraits, statutes, books
o Gov persecuted religion and turned churches into “museums of atheism”
o State had earthly religion and high priest: Marxism-Leninism, and Stalin
Stalinist Terror and the Great Purges
• Mid 1930s: great offensive to build socialism and a new society culminated in police terror and massive purging of COMM Party
o First used by BSV to maintain power, terror as state policy was revived in the collectivization drive against the peasants
o Top members of party and gov publicly supported Stalin’s initiatives, but there was some grumbling
• Even Stalin’s wife complained about misery in Ukraine
• Stalin insulted her and she committed suicide
• Late 1934, Stalin’s #2 man, Sergei Kirov was mysteriously murdered
o Stalin probably ordered his murder, but he blamed it on “fascist agents” within the COMM party
o Stalin used this incident to launch a reign of terror that purged the party of supposed traitors and solidified his own control
• Murderous state sponsored repression picked up steam over the next 2 years
o The “great purge” of 1936-1938: series of spectacular public show trials in which false evidence, often gathered using torture, was used to incriminate party administrators and Red Army leaders
o August 1936: 16 “Old Bolsheviks”: prominent leaders in the party since the RussRev, confessed to contrived plots against Stalin – all were executed
o 1937: secret police arrested a mess of lesser party officials and newer members torturing them and extracting confessions for show trials
o Union officials, managers, army officials, citizens were accused to country revolutionary activities and struck down
o 8 mill were arrested, millions executed or never returns from prisons/labor camps
• Stalin and remaining party leadership recruited 1.5 million new members to take place of those purged
o More than half of COMM party had joined since purges, and experienced rapid social advance
o Often children of workers, they usually studied in new technical schools and proved capable of managing gov and large scale production
o Despite human costs, purges brought practical rewards to new generation of committed communists
• These youngsters had no recollection of Lenin and his ways
• Robots who only knew of Stalin
o Would serve Stalin effectively until his death in 1953
o Would govern SU until early 1980s
• Stalin’s mass purges remain baffling, most historians believed that those purged were innocent
o Highly publicized purges sent warning to ppl: no one was secure, everyone had to serve the party and its leader with redoubled devotion
o Some scholars argued that terror was part of a fully developed TTLN state, which must always fight real/imaginary enemies
• Long standing interpretation that puts blame on Stalin has been challenged
o Some say Stalin’s fears were exaggerated but real
• Many in the party and in general population shared his fears
• Bombarded with ideology and political slogans, the population responded energetically to Stalin’s directives
• Investigations and trials snowballed into mass hysteria, resulting in a modern witch hunt that claimed millions of lives
• Deluded Stalin found large numbers of willing collaborators for crime and achievement

Mussolini and Fascism in Italy
• MSL’s fascist movements and seizure of power in 1922 were important steps to rise of dictatorships in EPR between two world wars
• MSL began polit career as revolutionary socialist, but after WWI he turned against working class and sought support of conservatives
• MSL and supporters were first to call themselves “fascists” revolutionaries determined to create a new TTLN state based on extreme nationalism and militarism
• Did not succeed
o Dictatorship was brutal and theatrical, but included elements of conservative authoritarianism as well as dynamic TTLNSM
The Seizure of Power
• Early 20th c: Italy was a liberal state w/ civil rights and a constitutional monarchy
• Eve of WWI: PLMT regime granted UMS and Italy appeared to be growing towards democracy
• Serious problems
o Much of Italian population was still poor, and many peasants were more attached to their villages and local interests more than to the national state
o Papacy and devout Catholics, conservatives, and landowners remained strongly opposed to liberal institutions and to middle class lawyers and politicians who ran country for their own benefit
• Relations between church and state were often very tense
o Class differences were often extreme, leading to development of powerful revolutionary socialist movement
• Socialist Party gained leadership as early as 1912
• Opposed WWI from beginning
• War worsened political situation
o Having fought w/ Allies to gain territory, PLMT gov disappointed Italian nationalists with Italy’s modest gains at Versailles
o Workers and peasants felt cheated: to win their support during the war, the gov promised social and land reform, which was not delivered after war
• Unemployment and inflation soared after the war ended, creating mass hardship
o RussRev which promised ordinary workers a way out energized Italy’s revolutionary socialist movement
o Italian Socialist Party followed BSV example, and radical workers and peasants began occupying factories and seizing land in 1920
o Scared and mobilized property owning classes
o After war, pope lifted ban on participation by Catholics in Italian politics, and strong Catholic party emerged
o By 1921 revolutionary socialists, antiliberal conservatives, and anxious property owners were all opposed to liberal PLMTY gov
• In this situation, Benito Mussolini stepped in
o Began polit career as a Socialist Party leader and radical newspaper editor before WWI
o Urged that Italy join the Allies, and was expelled from Socialist Party
o After he came back from war, he began organizing bitter war veterans into a band of fascists, from the Italian word for “a union of forces”
• At first MSL’s program was a radical combination of nationalist and socialist demands: territorial expansion, benefits for workers, land reform for peasants
o Competed directly with Socialist Party and failed to get off ground
• MSL saw that is violent verbal assaults on rival Socialists won him growing support from conservatives and frightened middle classes, he shifted gears in 1920 and became a sworn enemy of socialism
• MSL and his private militia of Black shirts grew increasingly violent
o Band of fascist toughs roared off in trucks at night
o Beat up Socialist organizers
o Few were actually killed, but Socialist newspapers, union halls, and headquarters were destroyed and Black Shirts managed to push socialists out of city gov in n. Italy
• Fascism soon became a mass movement
o Skillful politician, MSL convinced his followers that they were not just opposing the “reds” but also making a revolution of their own, forging a strong, dynamic movement that would help the little ppl against established interests
• As gov collapsed in 1922 (largely because of Black Shirt chaos), MSL stepped forward as savior of order and property
o Struck a conservative not in his speeches and gained support of army leaders
o Demanded resignation of existing gov
• October 1922, band of armed fascists marched on Rome to threaten king and force him to appoint MSL prime minister of Italy
• Victor Immanuel Iii who had no love for old liberal politicians, asked MSL to take over gov and form a new cabinet
• After widespread violence and a threat of armed uprisings, MSL seized power using legal framework of Italian constitution

The Regime in Action
• MSL became prime minister n 1922, yet his long term political intentions weren’t clear until 1924
o Some radical Black Shirt supporters wished to immediately construct a revolutionary fascist state
o MSL’s ministers: old conservatives, moderates, even Socialists, and he moved cautiously to established control
• MSL promised a “return to order” an consolidated support among Italian elites
• Fooled by MSL’s apparent moderation, the Italian PLMT passed a new electoral law that gave 2/3 of the reps in the PLMT to the party that won the most votes
o Allowed Fascist Party and allies to win overwhelming maj in April 1924
o Shortly after, group of fascist extremes kidnapped and murdered Socialist politicians Giacomo Matteotti
o Outraged MSL’s opponents, and a group of prominent PLMTY leaders who demanded that MSL’s armed squads be dissolved and all violence be banned
• MSL didn’t order Matteotti’s murder, but took advantage of ensuing political crisis
o Hesitated, then charged forward
o Declared intent to “make the nation Fascist”, he imposed a series of repressive measures
• Gov ruled by decree, abolished freedom of press, and organized fixed elections
• Arrested political opponents
• Disbanded all indep labor unions
• Put dedicated Fascists in control of Italy’s schools
o “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”
• Italy’s one party dictatorship under MSL had unquestioned authority
• MSL’s Fascist Party drew support from broad sectors of population, in large because he was willing to compromise with traditional elites that controlled army, economy, and state
o Never tried to purge these groups or move against them
o Left big business to regulate itself, and called for no land reform
• MSL drew increasing support from Catholic Church
o Lateran Agreement of 1929: Recognized Vatican as a tiny indep state, and agreed to give church significant financial support
o Pope expressed satisfaction and urged Italians to support MSL’s gov
• Because he was forced to compromise with conservative elites, MSL never established complete TTLN control
• MSL’s gov proceeded w/ attempts to bring fascism to Italy
o Massive rallies and sporting events
o Creating fascist youth and women’s movements
o New welfare benefits
o Newspapers, radio, and film promoted MSL as powerful strongman who embodied highest qualities of Italian ppl
• MLS’s gov was opposed to liberal feminism and promoted traditional gender roles
o “New fascist man” was supposed to be a virile, patriotic warrior
o His wife was guardian of the home who raised children to support the values of the fascist state
• Some women found satisfaction in devotion to family, national service, and Italian “race”
• “We Italian women are always ready to sacrifice petty personal vanity and outward appearances to collaborate effectively”
• MSL gained popularity by manipulating popular pride in grand history of ancient Roman Empire
o “Resurrection of Roman-ness”
o Propagandists criticized liberalism and PLMTY gov as foreign imports that violated “Roman” traditions
• MSL matched aggressive rhetoric with military action
o Italian armies invaded African nation of Ethiopia in October 1935
o Won in 1936, and cemented ties with Nazi Germany, but shocked the international world
• Deeply influenced by Hitler’s example, MSL’s gov passed series of anti-Jewish racial laws in 1938
o Unpopular, and fascist gov did not aggressively persecute Jews until late WWII, when Italy was under Nazi control
• MSL did not establish truly ruthless police state
o Only 23 political prisoners condemned to death
• MSL’s fascist Italy was never totally TTLN

Hitler and Nazism in Germany
• Nazi Germany dictatorship was a product of Hitler’s tactical genius and Germany’s social and political situation
• National Socialism (Nazism) shared some characteristics with Italian Fascism, but Nazism was far more interventionist
• Under Hitler, Nazi dictatorship smashed or took over most indep organizations, established firm control over the German state and society, and violently persecuted the Jewish population
• Truly TTLN
• Based on racial aggression and territorial expansion, led to history’s most destructive war

The Roots of National Socialism
• National Socialism grew out of many developments, most influential: extreme nationalism and racism
o Captured mind of Adolf Hitler and he dominated Nazism until end of WWII
• Hitler
o Son of Austrian customs official
o Spent childhood in small towns in Austria
o Mediocre student: dropped out of high school at 14
o Moved to Vienna, exposed to extreme Austro-German nationalists who believed Germans were superior and natural rulers of c.ERP
o Advocated union w/Germany and violent expulsion of “inferior” ppls as means of maintaining German domination of the A-H empire
o Hitler early absorbed virulent anti-Semitism and hatred of Slavs
o Belief in crudest distortions of Social Darwinism, superiority of Germanic races, and inevitability of racial conflict
o Jews, he claimed directed an international conspiracy of finance capitalism and Marxian socialism against German culture, unity, and people
• Racist anti-Semitism became wildly popular on right wing of ERPN politics in decades surrounding WWI
o Rooted in centuries of Christian anti-Semitics
o Given pseudoscientific legitimacy by 19th c developments in biology and eugenics
o These ideas came to define Hitler’s worldview and would play an immense role in the ideology and actions of National Socialism
• Hitler greeted outbreak of WWI as a salvation
o Struggle and discipline of war gave life meaning
o Served as dispatch carrier on western front
o Germany’s loss shattered Hitler’s world – became convinced that Jews and Marxists had “stabbed Germany in the back”, and he vowed to fight on
• Late 1919: Hitler joined tiny extremist group in Much called German Workers’ Party
o Denounced Jews, Marxists, and democrats
o Promised a uniquely German national Socialism that would abolish injustices of capitalism and create a mighty “people’s community”
• 1921: Hitler gained absolute control of small but growing party, renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazis in 1920
• Hitler became master of mass propaganda and political showmanship
o Wild, histrionic speeches
o Attacked Versailles treaty, Jews, war profiteers, and Germany’s Weimar Republic
• Party membership multiplied 10x after 1922
• 1923: Weimar Republic seemed on verge of collapse, and Hitler, inspired by MSL, organized an armed uprising in Munich – Beer Hall Putsch
o Failure by poor planning
o Hitler arrested

Hitler’s Road to Power
• At trial, Hitler denounced Weimar Repub and gained enormous publicity
o Concluded that he had to come to power through electoral competition rather than armed rebellion
o Wrote Mein Kampf in prison term
• Laid out his basic ideas on “racial purification” and territorial expansion that would increasingly define National Socialism
• In Mein Kampf, Hitler claimed that Germans were a “master race’ that needed to defend its “pure blood” from groups he called “racial degenerates” (Jews, Slavs, others)
o German race was destined to grow, and needed Lebensraum (living space)
o Space could be found to Germany’s east, in c. ERP, which Hitler claimed was inhabited by the “subhuman” Slavs and Jews
o Portrayed sweeping vision of war and conquest in which the German master race would colonize and ultimately replaced “subhumans” across E.C. ERP
• Championed idea of leader-dictator or Fuhrer whose unlimited power would embody the ppl’s will and lead the German nation to victory
o Deadly combination of race and space
o Would propel Hitler’s Germany into WWII
• In years of prosperity and stability between 1924 and 1929, Hitler built up the Nazi Party
o By 1928, it had 100,000 members
o To appeal to middle class, Hitler de-emphasized anticapitalist elements of National Socialism and vowed to fight communism
o Nazis still remained small splinter group in 1928, when they received only 2.6% of popular vote in general elections and 12 seats in Reichstag
o Nazi deputies pursued legal strategy of using democracy to destroy democracy
• Great depression of 1929 brought ascent of national Socialism
o Promised German voters economic as well as political salvation
o Appeals for “national rebirth” appealed to a broad spectrum of voters, including middle and lower class groups (small business owners, office workers, artisans, peasants, skilled workers striving to be in middle class)
o Seized by panic as bankruptcies increased, unemployment soared, and communists made election gains, voters deserted conservative and moderate parties fo5 Nazis
o 1930: Nazis won 6.5 million votes and 107 seats in the Reichstag
o July 1932: 14.5 million votes, 38% of Reichstag, now largest party in Reichstag
• Breakdown of democratic gov helped Nazis seize power
o Unable to gain support of maj in Reichstag, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning dissolved the PLMT
o Convinced President, General Hindenburg to authorize rule by decree under Article 48 of constitution, allowing central gov to govern w/o consent of PLMT
o Bruning tried to overcome economic crisis by cutting back gov spending and ruthlessly forcing down prices and wages
o Conservative policies intensified Germany’s economic collapse and convinced many voters that the country’s republican leaders were stupid and corrupt, adding to Hitler’s appeal
• Division on left side also contributed to Nazi success
o Even though 2 left wing parties outnumbered Nazis in Reichstag, the COMMS refused to cooperate w/ Social Democrats
o German COMMS long competed w/ socialists for allegiance of working class
o In crisis of early 1930s, failed to resolve differences and mount an effective opposition to the Nazi takeover
• Hitler excelled in dirty backroom politics of decaying Weimar Republic
o 1932: Hitler gained support of conservative politicians and key leaders in the army and big business
o These ppl thought they could use Hitler for their won advantage, to resolve political crisis and also to get increased military spending, contracts, and tough measures against workers
o Accepted Hitler’s demand to be appointed chancellor in a coalition gov, reasoning that he could be used and controlled
o January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor by President Hindenburg

State and Society in Nazi Germany
• Hitler moved rapidly and skillfully to establish an unshakable dictatorship that would pursue the Nazi program of race and space
o First, Hitler and Nazi Party worked to consolidate power
• To maintain legal appearances, Hitler called for new elections
• 1933: Reichstag building was partly destroyed by fire
• Hitler blamed COMM Party, and convinced President Hindenburg to sign dictatorial emergency acts that abolished freedom of speech and assembly as well as most personal liberties
• Façade of democratic government was soon torn asunder
o Nazis won only 44% of elections, Hitler outlawed COMM Party and arrested its PLMT reps
o March 23, 1933: Nazis pushed through Reichstag the Enabling Act: gave Hitler absolute dictatorial power for four years
o Nazis moved on to smash or control all indep organizations
o Deceitful stress on legality, coupled with divide and conquer techniques, disarmed opposition until it was too late for effective resistance
• Germany became a one party Nazi state
o Elections were farces
o New regime took over gov bureaucracy intact, installing Nazis in top positions
o Created series of overlapping Nazi party organizations responsible solely to Hitler
o Systems of dual gov was riddled with rivalries, contradiction, and inefficiencies
o Nazi state was often disorganized and lacked unity that its propagandists claimed
o Fractured system suited Hitler and his purposes
o Lack of unity encouraged competition among state personnel, who worked to outdo each other to fulfill Hitler’s vaguely expressed goals
o Fuhrer played established bureaucracy against his personal party gov and maintained dictatorial control
• Once Nazis were firmly in control of gov, Hitler and arty turned attention to construction a National Socialist society defined by national unity and racial exclusion
o First, attacked political enemies: COMMS, Social Democrats, trade union leaders: forced out of jobs or arrested and taken to concentration camps
o Nazis outlawed strikes and abolished indep labor unions, which were replaced by Nazi controlled German labor Front
• Hitler purged Nazi Party of more extremist elements
o Nazi storm troopers (SA), the quasi-military band of 3 million toughs in brown shirts who’d beaten up Jews and fought communists now expected positions in the army
• Some talked of “second revolution” that would create equality among all Germans by sweeping away capitalist system
o Now that Nazis were in power, Hitler was eager to win support of traditional military and maintain social order
o Decided that leadership of SA had to be eliminated
o June 30, 1934, Hitler’s elite personal guard, the SS, arrested and shot 1,000 SA leaders and other political enemies w/o trial
o Afterwards, the SS grew rapidly
o Under leader Heinrich Himmler, the SS took over political police and concentration camp system
• Nazi Party instituted policy called “coordination” meant to force society to conform to National Socialist Ideology
o Professional ppl: doctors, layers, teachers, engineers saw previously indep organizations swallowed by Nazi associations
o Publishing houses under Nazi control
o Universities and writers brought into line
o Democratic, socialist, Jewish lit put on growing blacklists
o Burned books, modern art and architecture deemed “degenerate” were strictly prohibited
o Life became violently anti-intellectual
o By 1934 a brutal dictatorship characterized by frightening dynamism and obedience to Hitler was largely in place
• Acting on vision of racial purity, party began a many faced campaign against those they deemed incapable of making a positive contribution to the “master race”
o Persecuted undesirable groups based on reputed racial characteristics
o Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, handicapped, asocials who were targets of ostracism and state sponsored repression
• In the Nazi “racial state”, barbarism and race hatred were institutionalized with the force of science and law
o New university academies wrote studies that measured and defined racial differences
o Prejudice was presented in the guise of enlightened science, a means for creating a strong national race
o Ethical breakdown exemplified in series of sterilization laws, which led to forced sterilization of 400,000 “undesirable” citizens
• From beginning, German Jews were a special object of Nazi persecution
o By end of 1934, most Jewish lawyers/doctors/professors/civil servants/musicians had been banned from their professions
o 1935: Nuremberg laws classified being Jewish as having 3 or more Jewish grandparents
• Outlawed marriage and sexual relations between Jews and those defined as Germans
• Deprived Jews of all rights of citizenship
o Conversion to Christianity and abandonment of Jewish faith made no difference
• “Only be known by those of German blood”
• “Racial comrade”
• “Only one who is of German blood, no matter what religious faith”
• For maj of German citizens not targeted by these laws, the creation of a demonized outsider group contributed to feelings of national unity and support for Hitler regime
• Late 1938: Assault on Jews accelerated
o Well organized wave of violence: Kristallnacht (night of broken glass)
o Nazi gangs smashed windows, looted Jewish owned shops, destroyed homes/synagogues
o German Jews rounded up and made to pay for damage
o 3/5 Jews emigrated, sacrificing all of their property to leave Germany
o Some Germans opposed outrages, but most went along or looked the other way
o Lack of opposition reflected anti-Semitism to a degree, but revealed strong popular support enjoyed by Hitler’s government

Popular Support for National Socialism
• Why did ordinary Germans back this brutally repressive regime? Coercion and reward enlisted popular support
o Secret police and growing concentration camp persecuted political and “racial enemies”
o Yet for maj of German citizens who were not Jews, communists, etc., Hitler’s gov brought new opportunities
o The German “master race” benefited from Nazi ideologies of race and space
• Hitler promised the masses economic recovery, “work and bread”
o Large public works program to help pull Germany out of depression
o Work began on highways, offices, sports stadiums, public houses
o Created jobs and instilled pride in national recovery
o By 1938, unemployment fell by 2%
o 1932-1938: standard of living for average employed worker increased moderately
o Business profits rose sharply
• Persecution of Jews brought substantial benefits to ordinary Germs
o Jews forced out of jobs and homes, germs stepped in to take their place
o Aryanization (“Aryan master race” of pure German blood: Jews forced to sell businesses to “racially pure” Germans at rock bottom prices
o For millions of Aryans, rising of standard of living war tangible evidence that Nazi promises were more than show/propaganda
• Economic recovery accompanied by great wave of social and cultural innovation intended to construct Volkgemeinschaft: a ppl’s community for all racially pure Germans
o Mass organizations to spread Nazi ideology and enlist volunteers for Nazi cause
o Millions of Germans joined Hitler Youth, League of German Women, and German Labor Front
o Nazi Winter Relief charity drives handed out donations to needy
o Mass rallies brought together thousands of participants
o Reports on such events in Nazi controlled press brought message home to millions more
• Nazis made great attempts to control the private lives and leisure time of ordinary Germans
o State sponsored “Strength Through Joy” programs set up exercise classes, beautified workplaces, and took working-class Germs of free vacations
o Newly invented holidays encouraged Germs to celebrate the values of the racial state at home
o Gov promised prosperity and touted a glittering array of inexpensive and enticing ppl’s products
• Items such as Volkswagen intended to link individ desires for consumer goods to collective ideology of the ppl’s community
o Though such programs faltered as state turned resources toward rearmament for approaching war, they suggested to all that regime sincerely wished to improve German living standards
• Women played special role in Nazi state
o Promising to liberate women from women’s liberation” Nazi ideologues championed return to traditional family values
o Outlawed abortion, discouraged women from holding jobs or obtaining higher education, and glorified domesticity and motherhood
o Women cast as protectors of hearth and home
o Instructed to raise young boys and girls in accordance with Nazi ideals
o Later 1930s: facing labor shortages, Nazis reluctantly reversed course and encouraged women to enter labor force
o At same time, millions of women enrolled in Nazi mass organizations, which organized charity drives and other social programs, experienced a new sense of community in public activities
• Few historians think Hitler and Nazis brought about a real social revolution
o Yet Hitler’s rule corresponded to a time of economic growth, and Nazi propagandists continually triumphed the supposed accomplishments of regime
o Vision of ppl’s community, national pride of German recovery, and feelings of belonging created by acts of racial exclusion led many Germans to support regime
o Hitler remained popular with broad sections of population well into the war
• Not all Germs supported Hitler
o Number of German groups actively resisted him after 1933
• Opponents of Nazis never unified, accounting for lack of success
• Regime clamped down: thousands of polit enemies imprisoned, thousands executed
o In first years of Hitler’s rule, principle resisters were COMMS and Socialists in trade unions, groups smashed by expansion of SS system
o Second group of opponents arose in Catholic and Prot Churches
• Efforts primarily at preserving religious life, not overthrowing Hitler
o In 1938 and again during the war, a few high ranking army officers, who feared consequences of Hitler’s reckless aggression, plotted against him, but all were unsuccessful

Aggression and Appeasement
• Nazification of German society fulfilled only part of larger Nazi agenda
o Aggressively pursued policies meant to achieve territorial expansion for supposedly superior German race
• At first, Hitler carefully camouflaged his expansionist foreign policy
o Germany still militarily weak, and Hitler loudly proclaimed his peaceful intentions
o Germany’s withdrawal from LON in October 1933 indicated that Stresemann’s policy of peaceful cooperation was dead
o March 1935 Hitler openly proclaimed that Germany would no longer abide by disarmament clauses of TOV
o Established military draft and began to build up German army
• France, Italy, and Brit protested strongly and warned against future aggressive actions
• Emerging united front against Hitler quickly collapsed
o Brit adopted policy of appeasement: granted Hitler everything he could reasonably want in order to avoid war (Hitler wanted western Czechoslovakia)
• Dictated French policy
• Motivated by pacifism of population still horrified by memories of WWI
o As in Germany, many powerful conservatives in Brit underestimated Hitler
• Believed that Soviet COMM was the real danger and Hitler could be used to stop it
o Strong AntiCOMM feelings made alliance between Western Powers and Stalin unlikely
• Hitler suddenly marched armies into demilitarized Rhineland in March 1936, violating TOV and Locarno
o Brit refused to act
o France could do little w/o Brit support
o Emboldened, Hitler moved more aggressively in international affairs
o Enlisted powerful allies in Nazi cause
• Italy and Germany established Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936
• Japan, under rule of fascist dictatorship, joined Axis alliance
• At same time, Germany and Italy intervened in Spanish civil war, where their military helped General Francisco Franco’s revolutionary fascist movement defeat the democratically elected republican gov
o Republican Spain’s only aid came from SU
o Public opinion in Brit and France was hopelessly divided on whether to intervene
• Late 1937: Hitler moved forward with plans to crush Austria and Czechoslovakia as first step in drive for living space in the east
o By threatening Austria w/ invasion, Hitler forced Austrian chancellor to put local Nazis in control of gov in March 1938
o Next day, in Austrian Anschluss (annexation), German armies moved in unopposed, and Austria became two more provinces of Greater Germany
• Simultaneously, Hitler demanded that territories inhabited mostly by ethnic Germs in w. Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) be ceded to Nazi Germany
o Democratic Czechoslovakia was allied with France and SU and was prepared to defend itself
o Appeasement: Sept 1938: Brit prime minister Arthur Neville flew to Germ 3x in 14 days
• In these negotiations, Chamberlain and French agreed w/ Hitler that Germany should immediately take over the Sudetenland
• Chamberlain told cheering crowds he secured “peace for our time”
o Sold out by Western Powers, Czechoslovakia gave in
• Chamberlain’s peace was short lived
o March 1939, Hitler’s armies invaded and occupied rest of Czechoslovakia
• Effect on Western public opinion was electrifying: no possible rationale of self determination for Nazi aggression, since Hitler was seizing ethnic Czechs and Slovaks as captive ppls
o Hitler used question of German minorities in Danzig as pretext to control Poland
• Suddenly militant Chamberlain declared that Brit and France would fight if Hitler attacked his eastern neighbor
• Hitler did not take warnings seriously and pressed on
• August 1939: about face that stunned the world – Hitler and Stalin signed a so called nonaggression pact that paved road to war
o Each dictator promised to remain neuytral if the other became involved in open hostilities
o Secret protocol divided Poland and east-central ERP into German and Soviet zones
o Stalin agreed to pact because he remained distrustful of Western intentions and Hitler offered immediate territorial gain
• For Hitler, everything was set
o September 1, 1939: German armies and warplanes smashed into Poland from 3 sides
o Two days later, Brit and France declared war on Germany
• WWII had begun

The Second World War
• Nazi Germany’s unlimited ambition unleashed an apocalyptic cataclysm of world war
• Hitler’s armies conquered much of w and e ERP, establishing a vast empire of death and destruction based on Nazi ideas of race and space
• Japanese armies overran much of SE Asia and created their own racial empire
• Reckless aggression brought together a coalition of unlikely but powerful allies determined to halt fascism: Brit, US, and SU
o “Grand Alliance” decisively defeated Axis powers after decimating much of ERP and E.Asia
German Victories in Europe
• Planes, tanks, and trucks in blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” Hitler’s armies crushed Poland in 4 weeks
o SU quickly took eastern half of Poland and indep Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia
o French and Brit armies prepared defenses in west
• Spring of 1940: Nazi lightning war struck again
o After occupying Denmark, Norway, and Holland, German motorized columns broke into France through southern Belgium, split Franco-Brit forces, and trapped Brit army on French beaches of Dunkirk
o Brits withdrew troops but not equipment, and France was taken by Nazis
o July 1940: Hitler ruled practically all of western continental EPR
o Italy was an ally; Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria joined Axis powers; SU, Spain, and Sweden were friendly neutrals
o Only Brit, led by Winston Churchill remained unconquered
• To prepare for invasion of Brit, Germany sought to gain control of the air
o Battle of Brit; July 1940: 1,000 Germ planes a day attacked Brit airfields and key factories, dueling with Brits defenders in the sky
o Losses heavy on both sides
o Sept 1940: Hitler angrily turned from military objectives to indiscriminate bombing of Brit cities to break Brit morale
o Brit aircraft factories increased production, and bombed ppl of London dug in
o By October, Brit was beating Germany 3 to 1 in the air war, and the Battle of Brit was over
o Nazi war machine turned south and invaded and occupied Greece and Balkans
• Hitler now allowed his lifetime obsession of creating a vast eastern ERPN empire ruled by master race to dictate policy
o June 1941: Germ armies attacked SU along a vast front, breaking the Nazi-Soviet Pact
o By October Leningrad was practically surrounded, most of Ukraine conquered, and Moscow besieged
o Soviets did not collapse, and Germans in summer uniforms were beaten by the severe winter
o Stalled in Russia, Hitler and allies still ruled over a vast ERPN empire stretching from outskirts of Moscow to the English Channel
o Hitler, the Nazi leadership, and the loyal German army were positioned to greatly accelerate construction of their New Order in ERP
Europe Under Nazi Occupation
• Hitler’s New Order was based firmly on guiding principle of National Socialism: racial imperialism
o Occupied ppls were treated according to their place on the Nazi racial hierarchy
o All were subject to harsh policies dedicated to ethnic cleansing and plunder of resources for Nazi war effort
• New Order: Hitler’s program based on racial imperialism, which gave preferential treatment to Nordic ppls; the French, an “inferior” Latin ppl, occupied a middle position, and Slavs and Jews were treated harshly as “subhumans”
o Nordic ppls: Dutch, Norwegians, Danes, received preferential treatment
• Believed they were racially related to the Aryan master race
• Nazis established puppet govs of various kinds
• Nazis found collaborators willing to rule these states in accord w/ German needs
o France divided into 2 parts: German army occupied north, including Paris, SE remained nominally indep – Marshal Henri Petain formed a new French gov, the Vichy regime, that adopted many aspects of National Socialist ideology and willingly placed French Jews in hands of Nazis
• IN all conquered territories, Nazis used a variety of techniques to enrich Germans and support the war effort
o Occupied nations forced to pay costs of war and for occupation – price was high
o Nai administrators stole goods and money from local Jews, set currency exchange at favorable rates, and forced occupied ppls to accept worthless wartime scrip
o Soldiers encouraged to steal but also purchase goods at cheap exchange rates and send them home
• Flood of plunder reached Germany, which helped maintain high living standards and preserved popular morale well into the war
o Nazi victory placed national Jewish populations across EPR under German control, and eased the planning and implementation of the mass murder of EPRN Jews
• IN occupied territories in eastern front, German rule was ruthless and deadly
o From the start, Nazi leadership had cast the war in the east as a war of annihilation
o Now set out to build vast eastern colonial empire where Jews would be exterminated and Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians would be enslaved and forced to die out
o Ethnic German peasants would resettle resulting abandoned lands
• IN pursuit of such goals, large parts of w. Poland were incorporated into Germany
o Another part of Poland was set up as General Government and placed under rule of merciless civilian administration
• With support of military commanders, Germ policemen, and bureaucrats in occupied territories, Nazi administrators and Himmler’s elite SS corps now implemented a program of destruction and annihilation to create a “mass settlement space” for racially pure Germans
o Across eastern front, Nazi armies destroyed cities and factories, stole crops and farm animals, and subjected conquered ppls to forced starvation and mass murder
o Murderous sweep of Nazi occupation destroyed lives of millions, as example of Belarus
• 7/9 mill were still in country by 1944
• 3 million homeless
• In response to such atrocities, small but determined underground resistance groups fought back
o Hardly unified
o COMMS and Socialists often disagreed with more centrist or nationalist groups on long term goals and short term tactics
• Yugoslavia: COMM and royalist military resistance groups attacked Germs, but also each other
o Resistance still presented a real challenge to the Nazi new Order
• Poland, under the longest Germ occupation, had the most determined and well organized resistance
• Nazis closed all Polish universities and outlawed national newspapers, but Poles organized secret classes, and maintained thriving underground press
• Underground members of Polish Home Army passed intelligence about Germ operations to Allies and committed sabotage
• COMM groups in Poland attacked Nazis
• French resistance undertook similar actions, as did groups in Italy, Greece, Russia, and Netherlands
• German response was swift and deadly
o Nazi army and SS tortured captured resistance members and executed hostages in reprisal for attacks
o Germ army murdered male population of Czechoslovakia and France and leveled entire towns
• Nazi barbarism in pursuit of racial New Order occupied in ERP
The Holocaust
• Ultimate abomination of Nazi racism was condemnation of all EPRN Jews and other ppls considered racially inferior to extreme racial persecution and then annihilation in the Holocaust: great spasm of racially inspired mass murder that took place during WWII
• After taking power, Nazis began to use social, legal, and economic means to persecute Jews and other “undesirable” Jews
o Euthanasia
o As Germany began war, 70,000 ppl with physical and mental disabilities were forced to special hospitals/barracks/camps
• Deemed by Nazi administrators as “unworthy lives”, who might “pollute the German race”
• Murdered in cold blood
• Victims mostly ethnic Germs, but euthanasia campaign was stopped after church leaders and ordinary families spoke out
• Germ victory over Poland in 1939 brought 3 million Jews under Nazi control
o Jews living in Germ occupied territories were soon forced to move into centralized urban areas known as ghettos
o In walled off districts in cities large and small (ex. Warsaw and Lodz) hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews were forced to live in highly crowded and unsanitary conditions, w/o real work or adequate sustenance
o Over 500,000 ppl died in Nazi ghettos
• Racial violence reached new extremes when Germ war of annihilation against SU opened in 1941
o 3 military death squads known as Special Action Units (Einsatzgruppen) and other military groups followed the advancing German armies into central ERP
o Moved from town to town shooting Jews and other target populations
o Victims of mobile killing units were often forced to dig their own graves before being shot
o Murdered 2 million innocent civilians
• Late 1941: Hitler and Nazi leadership ordered SS to implement mass murder of all Jews in ERP
o “Final solution of the Jewish question”
o Germs set up industrialized killing machine that remains unparalleled
o SS established network fo concentration camps, industrial complexes, and RR transport liens to imprison and murder Jews and so called undesirables, and to exploit their labor before they died
o In occupied eastern territories, surviving residents of ghettos were loaded onto trains and taken to camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Over 1 million murdered in gas chambers
o Some few were put to work as expendable laborers
o Jews of Germ and then of occupied W and C ERP were likewise rounded up, put on trains, and sent to the camps
o Even after it was clear Germ would lose the war, the killing continued
• Murderous attack on ERPN Jews was ultimate monstrosity of Nazi racism and racial imperialism
o By 1945, Nazis had killed about 6 million Jews
o Who’s responsible?
• Hitler/Nazi leadership because ordinary Germs had little knowledge of extermination camps or were forced to participate by Nazi terror and totalitarian control
• Germs knew about and were at best indifferent at fate of “racial inferiors”
• What inspired those who actually worked in the killing machine, the “desk murderers” who sent trains and soldiers, shot Jews in forests, and guarded camps
o Some believe that extremists and widely shared anti-Semitism led ordinary Germs to become Hitler’s willing executioners
o Others say that heightened peer pressure, the desire to advance in the ranks, and the need to prove one’s strength under the brutal wartime violence turned average Germs into reluctant killers
• Conditioning of racist Nazi propaganda clearly played a role
o Whatever the motivation, numerous Germs were somehow prepared to join the SS ideologues and perpetrate crime: from mistreatment to arrest to mass murder
Japanese Empire and the War in the Pacific
• Racist war of annihilation in ERP was matched by racially inspired warfare in E. Asia
o In response to polit divisions and economic crisis, a fascist gov had taken control of Japan in 1930s
o As in Germ/Italy, Jap system was highly nationalistic and militaristic and was deeply committed to imperial expansion
• Japs shared extremist EPRN ideas about hierarchy, but thought the Asian races were far superior to western Aryans
o Anti-Western views voiced in speeches, schools, and newspapers
o Glorified warrior virtues of honor and sacrifice
o Proclaimed that Japan would liberate E. Asia from Western colonialists
• Japan soon acted on racial-imperial ambitions
o 1931: Jap armies invaded and occupied Manchuria, bordering NE Chine
o 1937: Japan invaded China itself
o 1940: Jap entered formal alliance w/ Italy and Germany to cement ties w/ fascist regimes of ERP
o Summer 1941: Jap armies occupied southern portions of French colony of Indo China
• Goal was to establish what Japs called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
o Under slogan “Asia for Asians”, propagandists maintained that Jap expansion was intended to liberate E. Asian ppl from the hated Western colonialists
o By promising to create a mutually advantageous union for long term development, the Japs tapped current of nationalist sentiment, and most local populations were glad to see the Western Powers go
• Co-Prosperity Sphere was a sham
o Real power remained in hands of Jap military commanders and their superiors in Tokyo
o Occupiers exploited local ppls for Japan’s wartime needs
o Japs often exhibited great cruelty toward civilian populations and prisoners of war, which aroused local populations against invaders
o Ability of Japs to defeat Western colonial powers set a powerful example for national liberation groups in E. Asia in years of decolonization that followed WWII
• Jap expansion in Pacific evoked a sharp response from US administration under President Roosevelt, and Japan came to believe war w/ US was inevitable
o Surprise attack on US fleet in Pearl Harbor in Hawaiian Islands
o December 78, 1941: Jap sank/crippled every Am battleship, by all aircraft carriers were at sea and escaped unharmed
o Brought Ams into war in ERP and Asia in spirit of anger and revenge
• As Ams mobilized for war, Jap armies overran more EPRN and Am colonies in SE Asia
o By May 1942 Jap controlled vast empire and was threatening Australia
o Ams pushed back and engaged Japs in series of hard fought naval battles
o July 1943: Ams and Australian allies opened successful island hopping campaign that slowly forced Jap out of its conquered territories
o War in pacific was extremely brutal and atrocities were committed on both sides
o Violence, mutual hatred, and dehumanizing racial stereotypes made fighting intensify as US moved toward Japan
The “Hinge of Fate”
• While Nazis/Japs built empires, Brit, Us, and SU joined together in a military pact Churchill called the Grand Alliance
o Chance more than choice
o Only Jap attack at Pearl Harbor brought isolationist US into war
o Brits and Ams were opponents of Soviet COMM, and disagreements between Soviets and capitalist powers sowed mutual distrust
o Stalin repeatedly urged Brit and US to open second front to relieve pressure on SU forces by attacking the Germ w. front, but Churchill and Roosevelt refused until Summer of 1944
o Despite such tensions, overriding goal of defeating the Axis powers brought together these reluctant allies
• To ease tensions, Grand Alliance agreed on a policy of “Europe first”
o Only after Hitler was defeated would the Allies mount an all out attack on Japan, the lesser threat
o Allies also agreed to concentrate on immediate military needs, postponing tough political questions about eventual peace settlement
o To further encourage mutual trust, Allies adopted principle of unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan
• Cemented Grand Alliance because it denied Hitler any hope of dividing his foes
• Also meant Soviet and Anglo-American armies would almost certainly be forced to invade and occupy all of Germany, and that Japan would fight to the bitter end
• Military resources of Grand Alliance were awesome
o US harnessed vast industrial base to wage global war
o 1943: Outproduced Germany, Italy, Japan, and rest of world combined
o Brit became an impregnable floating fortress, a gigantic frontline staging area for the decisive blow to the heart of Germany
o After determined push, SU’s military strength was so great that it could have defeated Germ w/o Western help
• Stalin drew on heroic resolve of Soviet ppl, esp those in the c. Russian heartland
• Broad based Russian nationalism, as opposed to narrow communist ideology, became a powerful unifying force in what the Soviet ppl called the Great Patriotic War of the Fatherland
• Combined might of Allies forced back Nazi New Order on all fronts
o N. Africa, heavy fighting between Brit and Axis forces resulted in significant German advances
o Battle of El Alamein in May 1942, Brit forces defeated Germ/Italian armies and halted Axis penetration of N. Africa
• Winston Churchill called this battle the “hinge of fate” that cemented Allied victory
o Shortly thereafter, the Anglo-American force landed in Morocco and Algeria
French possessions, which were under control of Petain’s Vichy gov, went over to the Allies
o Fearful of an Allied invasion across the Mediterranean, In Nov 1942, Germ forces occupied Vichy France, and the collaborationist French gov ceased to exist

• After driving Axis powers out of N. Africa in spring 1943, US and Brit forces invaded Sicily and then mainland Italy
o MSL overthrown in coup d’état and new Italian gov publicly accepted unconditional surrender
o Germs had anticipated such a move – Nazi armies invaded and seized control of n and c. Italy, and Germ paratroopers rescued MSL and put him at head of puppet gov
o Facing still German resistance, Allies battled their way up Italian peninsula
o Germs still held northern Italy, but were clearly on the defensive
• Spring 1943: Crucial Allied victories in sea and in air
o In first years, Germ submarines attacked N. Atlantic shipping, hampering Brit war effort
o New antisubmarine technologies favored Allies
o Soon, massive convoys of hundreds of ships were streaming across Atlantic, bringing troops and supplies from US to Brit
• Germ air force never recovered from defeat in Battle of Britain
o With almost unchallenged air superiority, the US and Brit now mounted massive bombing raids on Germ cities to maim industrial production and break civilian moral
o By war’s end, hardly a Germ city of any size remained untouched, and many lay in ruins
• Brit and US had made critical advances in western front, but Germ forces suffered worse defeats at hands of Red Army on e. front
o Germs captured major cities of Moscow and Leningrad in early winter 1941, but were forced back by determined Soviet counterattacks
o Germs mounted second and initially successful invasion of SU in summer of 1942, but the campaign was a disaster
o Downfall came at Battle of Stalingrad when in Nov 1942, Soviets surrounded and destroyed entire German Sixth Army of 300,000 men
• Jan 1943: only 123,000 soldiers left to surrender
• Hitler refused to allow a retreat, and suffered a catastrophic defeat
• For first time, Germ public opinion turned against war
• Summer 1943: Larger, better equipped Soviet armies took offensive and began to push Germ s back along entire eastern front

Allied Victory
• Balance of power was now clearly in Allied hands, yet fighting continued in EPR fro almost 2 years
o Germany: less fully mobilized for war than Brit in 1941, stepped up efforts
o Germ war industry, under Nazi minister of armaments, Albert Speer, put to work millions of prisoners of war and slave laborers from across occupied ERP
o Between 1942 and July 1944, Germ war production tripled despite heavy Anglo-American bombing
• German resistance against Hitler failed to halt fighting
o Unsuccessful attempt by conservative army leaders to assassinate Hitelr in July 1944 only brought increased repression by fanatic Nazis who’d taken over gob
o Disciplined by the regime, frightened by unconditional surrender, and territorized by Nazi propaganda that portrayed advancing Russian armies as Slavic beasts, Germs fought on with suicidal resolve
• June 6, 1944; Am and Brit forces under General Dwight Eisenhower landed on beaches of Normandy, France in history’s greatest naval invasion
o 100 days, more than 2 million men and ½ mill vehicles pushed inland and broke through Germ lines
Rejecting proposals to strike straight at Berlin, Eisenhower moved forward cautiously ion a broad front
o Not until 1945 did the Am troops cross the Rhine and enter Germ
o By spring 1945 the Allies had also pushed Germs out of Italina peninsula
o April 1945: MSL captured in n. Italy by anti-fascist COMM partisans and executed
• Soviets, who’d been advancing since 1943 reached outskirts of Warsaw by Aug 1944
o Anticipating Germ defeat, Polish underground Home Army ordered an uprising, so that the Poles might take the city on their own and establish indep from Soviets
o Warsaw Uprising was a miscalculation – citing military pressure, Red Army refused to enter city and allowed Germs to destroy Polish insurgents
o Only after Home Army surrender did Red Army continue
o Warsaw was decimated and mostly civilians lost their lives
• Over next 6 months, Soviets moved southward into Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia
• January 1945: Red Army crossed Poland into Germany, April 26, met Am forces on Elbe River
• Allies closed vise on Nazi Germany and overran ERP
• As Soviet forces fought their way into Berlin, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker and on May 8, remaining Germ commanders capitulated
• War in Pacific drew to a close
o In spite of repeated US victories, Jap troops had continued to fight with enormous courage and determination
o Am commanders believed the conquest of Japan might cause Am casualties and Jap lives
o Jap was almost helpless, its industry and wooden cities destroyed by intense Am bombing
o Yet Japs seemed determined to fight on, ready to die for a hopeless cause
• Aug 6 and 9, 1945: Am planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan
o Mass bombing ended the final nightmare – unprecedented human destruction
o Au 14, 1945: Jap announced surrender
o WWII had claimed lives of more than 50 million soldiers and civilians