Nazi Germany

Background

• Weimar Republic Weakness:
  

  • Post–WWI Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed harsh reparations, territorial losses, and military restrictions.

  • Economic crises (hyperinflation 1920s, Great Depression 1930s) fueled discontent.

• Rise of Hitler & the Nazi Party:
  

  • Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933.

  • Established a totalitarian state: suppression of opposition, propaganda, control of media, Gestapo (secret police).

• Nazi Ideology:
  

  • Nationalism, racial purity (anti-Semitism, Aryan supremacy), and lebensraum (“living space” for expansion).

Germany in WWII

• Aggression Before the War:
  

  • 1936: Remilitarized the Rhineland.

  • 1938: Annexed Austria (Anschluss).

  • 1938: Took Sudetenland (Munich Agreement), then occupied rest of Czechoslovakia.

• War Begins:
  

  • September 1, 1939: Invasion of Poland → Britain & France declare war.

• Military Success (1939–1941):
  

  • Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) tactics = fast-moving tanks, aircraft, and infantry.

  • Conquered Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France (1940).

  • Battle of Britain (1940): First major German defeat (Royal Air Force held out).

  • June 1941: Operation Barbarossa (invasion of USSR) — initial success but stalled.

The Holocaust

• Anti-Jewish Policies: Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of rights.

• Final Solution: Genocide against Jews, Roma, disabled, and others.

• Concentration & Death Camps: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, etc.

• Estimated 6 million Jews murdered, plus millions of others.

Turning Points

• 1941: U.S. enters war after Pearl Harbor (Germany declares war on U.S.).

• 1942–1943: Defeats in North Africa and Stalingrad mark Axis decline.

• 1944: D-Day (Allied invasion of Normandy) → opened Western Front.

• 1945: Soviet advance from the east, Allies from the west.

Germany’s Defeat

• April 1945: Soviet troops enter Berlin.

• April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide in his bunker.

• May 8, 1945 (V-E Day): Germany surrenders unconditionally.