TRABAJO PRÁCTICO GRUPAL

Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28, Olga Cossettini

CARRERA: Traductorado Literario y Técnico – Científico en Inglés

AÑO: 1ro 3ra (2014)

MATERIA: ASPECTOS BÁSICOS DE LA CULTURA INGLESA Y

NORTEAMERICANA SIGLO XX (HISTORIA)

PROFESOR: Carlos Guagliano Waldegaray.

INTEGRANTES: María Virginia Abbet, Maria Inés Coviella, Iván Lauria, Florencia

Nardone y Magalí Acevedo.

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INDEX
The rise of dictators………………………………………………………………………. 3

Stalin and Russia..…………………………………………………………………………...3

Mussolini and Italy…………………………………………………………………………..6

The Rise of Hitler….……………………………………………………………………….11

Hitler’s Dictatorship………………………………………………………………………..15

Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War………………………………...19

The Second World War in Europe………………………………………………………23

The Second World War in the Far East…………………………………………………34

The USA attitude towards the war………………………………………………………37

Post-war consequences……………………………………………………………………40

Post-war conferences……………………………………………………………………..45

The United Nations……………………………………………………………………….49

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………51
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THE RISE OF DICTATORS

STALIN AND RUSSIA

LENIN’S SUCCESSOR
“Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated enormous power in
his hands. I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power wisely. On the other
hand, Comrade Trotsky… is probably the most able man in the Central Committee, but too
self-confident, too much attracted by administration.” Extract taken from Lenin’s ‘Political
Testament’, 1922.

Lenin died in January 1924. Beforehand, to Lenin, 1León Trotsky was clearly the one of the
Communist leaders able for being in charge. After Lenin’s death, however, the other
Communist leaders were afraid he of him – they thought he might become another
Napoleon. Gradually, Joseph Stalin emerged as leading figure. Stalin put his supporters into
key posts all over the country, whereas Trotsky did not think it necessary to make allies
among the other Communists. Moreover, they had different policies: while Trotsky wanted
to press on with “World Revolution”, Stalin wanted to establish “Socialism in one country”
first.

Trotsky lost support. Consequently, he was dismissed from all his posts in 1927, in addition
to being permanently exiled in 1927. Stalin removed all other leaders from key positions
and he found himself in complete control as General Secretary of the Communist Party.

By 1928, after the First World War and civil war, the industry had been set back. As
Russians had been given land in 1917, most of them were peasants. Some were doing well
under the 2New Economic Policy (NEP). Nonetheless, farms were small and their methods
old-fashioned. Hence Stalin wanted to modernise Russia in order to make it an advanced
industrial country, which also meant modern agriculture.

Stalin meant that Russia had been beaten by what he called “the jungle law of capitalism”.
He said, “Such is the law of exploiters, to beat the backward and weak”. He clearly meant
the advanced countries, such as France, which had beaten Russia due to its backwardness.
As a result, Stalin’s method of modernizing Russia was through a series of Five-Year
Plans.

1
Leon Trotsky: 1879–1940, Russian Communist revolutionary, one of the principal leaders in the
establishment of the USSR; his original name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein.
2
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was based around a tax called prodnalog, which was a tax on food. By
introducing a tax, Lenin was essentially admitting that he was taxing something people owned. Requisition
had forcibly taken food under War Communism. Prodnalog taxed people at a lower level than the level set for
requisition and allowed them to keep the rest of what they produced. Food that was left could be sold – hence,
the peasants had an incentive to grow as much as they could, knowing that they could keep what was not
taxed.
 4

Gosplan, a central planning office that made the plan, laid down production targets for each
industry to meet by the end of the five years. Then factory managers within their industry
had to calculate targets for every workshop, every shift and every worker. Production did
not change as the targets expected to, but they did increase enormously. These huge
changes in industry had to go hand in hand with changes in agricultural system: there
would have to be new cities, with more workers. Also, peasants would have to provide not
only food for the country, but also for export. Russia would then get foreign currency to
buy machines which were not available there.

Additionally, Stalin began putting collectivisation into practice as part of the Five-Year
Plan. In other words, he introduced the collective farms previously discussed but not
applied by Lenin, which combined all the small farms of all the peasants in a village into
one large unit. As fields would be larger, modern farming methods – such as machines and
fertilisers – can be used and the large unit would be run more efficiently. The most
common type of collective was the kohkhoz, which was worked by villagers who in return
were paid a share of the profits. They were also allowed to keep small plots of land of their
own, as well as a few animals.

By the same token, collectivisation had drawbacks. First, collectives were set up at great
speed. Second, it meant a great extension of state control and Communist Party control over
the life of every Russian peasant – for instance, each collective’s chairman was always a
Communist Party member. Also, the Five-Year Plan required certain crops to be grown in
certain quantities. Therefore each collective had to supply a certain amount (not a
percentage) of its crop to the state regardless of the harvest. This was called the First
Commandment by Stalin.

Accused of being “enemies of state” and of “disrupting the economy”, the kulaks, better-of
peasants who were even more opposed to collectivisation than the poor peasants, were
attacked by the Communist Party. Despite of the attempt of the Communist Party of putting
poor peasants against kulaks because of their high income, poor peasants objected to state
control of agriculture, whatever their feeling about the kulaks. Any peasant who openly
resisted the setting-up of the collective were either murdered or sent away to a labour camp.
Eventually, the kulaks “disappeared”.

In spite of resistance, collectivisation went ahead ruthlessly. Production of grain and meat
fell between 1928 and 1932. However, the First Commandment ordered a fixed quantity to
be handed over by each collective to the state. That was then a problem for peasants if there
was not enough food. As a result, famine spread soon throughout the Russian countryside.
To Stalin, agriculture had been brought under the control of the state, which could now play
its part in the modernisation of Russia.

The factories which were already there in 1928 had to expand their production a great deal.
In the south, the Donbass areas, and in Siberia, the Kuzbass and Magnitogorsk areas
became industrialised. New factories were built in the Caucasus, the East and Central Asia
as well. New cities, also, grew at lightning speed.
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In order to reach their targets, the Russian people were called upon to make superhuman
efforts because the targets were worked out and they had to be met. They worked long
hours and the rates of pay were low, although food prices were high. They were punished
not only if they were late, but also if they complained and because of bad workmanship –
even by completely unskilled worker. Women were also expected to work in factories.
Moreover, the Five-Year Plan concentrated on heavy industry, so very few consumer goods
were made. Consequently, not many items were found in the shops and housing was
cramped and poorly built. In addition, since skilled workers were in short supply, Stalin
offered huge wages to foreign workers, who came from Europe and USA because of
massive unemployment, to work on the new schemes.

STALIN’S DICTATORSHIP
The NKVD secret police (Cheka in Lenin’s time) remained. Lenin’s policies were to deal
with opposition, whereas Stalin’s were bound to bring opposition. In other words, anyone
who spoke out against the Plans, against Stalin personally, or who were kulak could be
arrested. Accordingly, these people were taken to a labour camp, where special industrial
projects were to be built, often in remote parts of the USSR. No wages were paid, and there
was not enough food, which meant that thousands died. These people, named Zeks, not only
worked in remote areas, but also they built the Moscow’s underground system.
All in all, the actions of the secret police meant that the rest of the people that was not
arrested yet were scared into doing as they were told by Stalin.

Stalin also used the NKVD against leading Communists – the series of murderers is best
known as the Stalin’s purges. He has reached the stage where he could not accept any
criticism, could not trust anyone and he could not even bear anyone else to be popular. For
instance, in December 1934, the popular Communist Party boss of Leningrad, Sergei Kirov,
was killed in a car “accident”, which was believed to be arranged by Stalin. One by one, the
old Bolsheviks were arrested. Some were shot, but some confessed to ridiculous charges
after torture in order to save themselves. After this, Stalin also turned on the army and the
Party.

When Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, Stalin used the same ruthlessness to defend his
country. The victory in 1945 was put down to the personal leadership of Stalin by the
Soviet propaganda machine. Stalin was considered a hero and his pictures were all over the
country: schools, office, station, factories. With this hero-ship on the one hand, and the
terror of the NKVD on the other, only people slavishly loyal to Stalin could survive.
Although the USSR was a Communist state, the dictatorship of Stalin was just as complete,
and in some ways even bloodier, than that of Hitler.
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MUSSOLINI AND ITALY

In 1919, following the First World War, democratic governments were set up in many
European countries. By 1939, democracy survived only in the countries of north-western
Europe. Gradually most European countries fell to dictators. The first to fall was Italy.
Benito Mussolini became ruler in Italy in 1922, only three years after the Treaty of
Versailles was signed. His dictatorship was used as a model by others including Adolf
Hitler.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

Italy was in turmoil in the years after the war and there were four main reasons for this:

Resentment over the war

Italy had come into the war in 1915 on the Allied side and, although Italy was smaller and
weaker than the other great powers, she had fought for three and a half years. The Italians
had been promised several pieces of land in Europe by the Allies but they were only given
a few of them: South Tyrol and Istria, Trentino and Trieste. As many Italians thought that
all deaths had been in vain, they looked for a stronger government which would stand up to
the more powerful states and argue Italy’s case.

The threat from Communism

Communism was strong in the industrial cities of northern Italy. There were many strikes in
1919 and 1020, and workers took over factories. The government seemed to be unable to
protect property, and landowners, industrialists and businessmen were becoming worried
about a Communist takeover.

Suspicion of parliamentary government

Italy had not had a democratic parliament for very long. In 1919 the principle of “one man
one vote” was established. There were many political parties and no one party found it easy
to win an overall majority. Therefore governments were weak and unstable, as well as
corrupt. People lost confidence in a system of government which seemed unable to deal
with Italy’s problems.

Economic crisis
Italy had great contrasts between North and South: there were modern cities and many
industries in the north while the south was backward, undeveloped and its peasants were
among the poorest people in Europe. After the war many factories had to close down or cut
down their workforces because there was no more need for weapons and machinery for
war. Consequently, unemployment rose to 10% and prices rose 500%. On the top of that,
many soldiers, returning from what it was believed a pointless war, had no jobs.

Mussolini, who was a wounded ex-soldier of the First World War, took advantage of these
factors to win support.
 7

“When I returned from the war, just like so many soldiers, I hated politics and politicians,
who, in my opinion, had betrayed the hopes of the soldiers, reducing Italy to a shameful
peace. Many at the same time even the most generous, tended towards Communist nihilism.
And certainly, in my opinion, without Mussolini, three quarters of the youth of Italy
returning from the trenches would have become Bolsheviks." Recollection of Air Marshal
Balbo, one of Mussolini’s ex-soldier followers, 1932.

Mussolini began his political life as a Socialist but when he declared himself in favour of
Italy joining the war, he was expelled. Then he began running his own newspaper Il
Popolod’Italiato state his case for joining the war. After the war, he founded his own
political party, the Fascist Party. He claimed that the Fascist Party would “make Italy
great” and win respect for the country among other nations. The Fascists were against
Communists, Liberals and, above all, democratic parliamentary government.

The symbol of the Fascist Party was the Fasces. This was the bundle of rods and an axe
carried before a judge in ancient Rome to show his power to punish. Fascists said they were
bound together like the rods and would punish Italy’s enemies.

For this purpose Mussolini recruited gangs of supporters, who wore black shirts and were
called Fasci di Combattimento (“fighting groups”) by him. Attacking Communist and
Socialist meeting, the Blackshirts beat up their enemies and many died. Middle-class
Italians often supported the Fascists and factory owners, businessmen and army officers
gave them money, weapons and training. To these sympathizers, the Fascists seemed the
only alternative to the Communists, since they had no faith in the government. Mussolini
built up support by holding meetings and parades of his well-drilled Blackshirts, but,
however, not many Fascists were elected in the election of 1921.

One of the opportunities Mussolini used to put Fascists forward as the party of order and
action was the March on Rome in 1922 when he called on his supporters to seize power.

“All Naples has teemed for the last twenty-four hours with Fascisti in smart black shirt and
sort of boy-scout kit. They were given a sympathetic welcome by the population which is
beginning to take pride in these youths who march about like soldiers,” published the Daily
Telegraph in October 1922. The Fascists clearly made a good impression on the Italians.
However, King Victor Emmanuel, who was afraid civil war would break out, asked
Mussolini to come from Milan to be Prime Minister.

MUSSOLINI IN POWER
Once Mussolini was in power, he was determined to turn Italy into a Fascist state. At first,
he had to move slowly because only three out of twelve cabinet posts were held by Fascists.
In 1923 he managed to pass a law which gave two-thirds of the seats in Parliament to the
party which received the most votes. During the election in 1924, Fascists violence was
common: they threatened opponents and bullied voters. Consequently, the Fascist Party
won a majority.
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After Fascists murdered a Socialist called Matteoti who had critized Mussolini, the party
leader made sure that Italy would become more and more a one-party dictatorship. All
parties and trade unions were abolished, and opponents were put in prison or sent into exile.
Moreover, Parliament’s members were not even elected, but appointed by Mussolini. The
voters were merely asked to approve the decisions made by the Fascist party and they were
so afraid of Fascist that they almost never opposed.

DICTATORSHIP
By 1925, Italy had become a totalitarian dictatorship, that is to say a state which totally
controls every aspect of the life of every citizen and where all power is in the hands of one
person. Everyone who opposed Mussolini politically had been removed from politics and
all opposition points of view from the media were abolished. The secret police – the OVRA
founded in 1927 – made sure of this.

Mussolini also extended his total control to young people. Therefore, schools texts were re-
written to emphasize the importance of Mussolini and to glorify the ideal of Italian unity
and strength. Children and young people joined Fascist organizations: “Sons of the She-
wolf” was for four to eight-year-olds, and Balilla for eight- to 14-year-olds. They also wore
black uniforms, marched and listened to propaganda about Mussolini and Fascism.

In addition, newspapers carried pictures and stories of Mussolini succeeding at all sorts of
activities. Political ideas were reduced to slogans: “Believe, obey, fight”, “Mussolini is
always right” and “One thing must be dear to you: the life of the Duce”. Also, Mussolini
encouraged people to have large families, so that Italy would have a larger population in
order to provide a larger army. Hence, men with several children had their taxes cut,
whereas unmarried men were heavily taxed.

ECONOMY
Mussolini organized the economic life of Italy as a “Corporate state”. Each trade had its
own corporation made up of representatives from the workers and employers, with a
president appointed by Mussolini. The corporations were given the power to fix wages and
prices and to settle disputes, but strikes were not allowed. By 1934 there were 22
corporations, which gave Mussolini and his party total control over the economic life of the
country.

However, Italy’s basic economic problems remained unsolved. The south remained
desperately poor and backward. There was still a great gulf between rich and poor, wages
were low and the standard of living of most Italians did not improve at all.

Perhaps the greatest achievements of the Fascist government were the public work schemes
that were carried out, like the draining of the Pontine Marshes for agriculture, the building
of motorways, the modernizing of the railway system and the erection of large public
buildings. It was clear that the aim of this was to squeeze the maximum amount of
propaganda of these projects.
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Mussolini controlled the whole country through the Fascist Grand Council and therefore
had tremendous power. Corruption was very wide-spread, in that many followers lied to
him about their achievements, and so Mussolini overestimated the progress Italy was
making. The Fascisti (Party officials) and the OVRA kept order, and no one dared to speak
out against Mussolini. For many Italians the order at home and the propaganda about Italy’s
progress was enough, whereas many other Italians left their country in disgust at the lack of
freedom and the violence shown by the Fascists.

MUSSOLINI AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Mussolini had to foster good relations with the Roman Catholic Church simply because,
regardless of his dictatorship, the Roman Catholic Church was such a powerful institution
in Italy. Since Italy had become one nation in 1870 the Pope had refused to recognize that
the Italian government had any authority over him. However, Mussolini came to terms with
the Pope. He agreed that the Pope should rule the Vatican as an independent state and that
the Roman Catholic faith should become the official state religion. Religious instruction
was to be made compulsory in all schools. In return the Pope agreed to recognize the Italian
government. Therefore the Lateran Treaty was signed.

FOREIGN POLICY
Mussolini’s main aim in his foreign policy was to raise Italy’s prestige in the eyes of the
world and impress the Italians with his own achievements.

In 1923 an Italian general was shot by bandits in a remote part of northern Greece, on the
border with Albania. Mussolini demanded a huge amount of money in compensation, and
he bombarded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu until the money was paid.

Another example of invasion carried out by Mussolini was the one to Ethiopia, one of the
few independent countries in Africa. The main reasons for this were Mussolini’s ideal of a
new “Roman empire” and a possible solution for Italy’s economic problems. In 1896, Italy
was defeated at the Battle of Adowa. In 1935, Mussolini’s troops invaded Ethiopia and
defeated the badly armed tribesmen of the backward country. By 1936, the war was over
and Ethiopia was in the new “Italian empire”. Britain and France were against Italy
invading Ethiopia and tried to stop him through the League of Nations. The result of their
opposition was to drive Mussolini closer to Hitler.

Allied with Hitler, Mussolini sent 60,000 troops to Spain to help the Falage (the Spanish
Fascists) under General Francisco Franco – a civil war had broken out between the Fascists
and the Republicans in that country in 1936 as well. This action brought Mussolini into
conflict with Britain and France again, as they were worried by Italy playing an active part
in the Mediterranean area, which was thought to be under French and British domination.
Thus Mussolini turned to Hitler for support: an agreement, the Rome-Berlin Axis, was
signed between them in 1936. He was sure that an alliance with Germany would lead to
Italy becoming more powerful throughout Europe.

Under Hitler’s influence, Mussolini, who was impressed by the Germany’s greater wealth
and resources, began to persecute Jews in Italy. In 1938, Germany occupied Austria in the
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Anschluss (forbidden by Versailles). Hitler did not forewarn Mussolini about what he was
going to do and this upset Mussolini’s belief that he was an equal partner. However,
Mussolini achieved real fame for the part he played in the Munich agreement of September
1938. He suggested the meeting with the major powers of Europe and the “Piece of Paper”
was signed which at the time seemed to everyone to guarantee European peace.

Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 angered Mussolini because it was clear
that Germany was carving out its own empire and Italy was not. To compensate for this,
Mussolini took over Albania on Good Friday 1939. Although to him, this was a sign of
Italy’s expanding power in Europe and a great propaganda for Italians, in reality Albania
had been under the influence of Italy for years and this was barely an Italian military
success.

In May 1939, the Germans and Italians cemented their friendship with the Pact of Steel.
This pact committed both countries to support the other if one of them became involved in
a war. However, Italy’s army was not prepared for the war planned by Hitler. Therefore,
Italy did not join in the Second World War at first. Mussolini waited until France was
reeling under the German invasion of 1940. Then he declared war on France and Britain.
This was the start of a war that was to be disastrous for Italy.

By the end of 1941, the British had driven the Italians out of all their African empire:
Libya, Somalia and Ethiopia. In 1943, British and American forces, after their victories in
North Africa, invaded Sicily. In 1943, British and American forces, after their new victories
in North Africa, invaded Sicily. Hitler had to prop up his ally with German forces and made
the Allied forces fight every inch of the way north up the Italian mainland. Mussolini was
very ill by then and was made to resign. He was kidnapped by German paratroopers and set
up as a puppet Italian ruler to continue the war. In 1945, while he was trying to flee to
Switzerland, he was captured by Italians fighting against Germany and shot him to death.
 11

THE RISE OF HITLER

During the First World War Adolf Hitler was a corporal in the German army. When the
fighting ended he was lying in hospital recovering from a gas attack. By 1933 Hitler was
Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany.

GERMANY 1919-1923
Germany was in turmoil in the years after the war. There were four reasons for this. They
are the background factors which Hitler was able to play on his rise to power.

Resentment over the war and the Treaty of Versailles

By 1918 the Allied naval blockade was working well. The German people were very short
of food and their morale was low, but they still did not know how bad the situation really
was. The Kaiser kept the news of all German defeats from the people and only German
victories were announced. As a result, it was a terrible shock to the Germans when 3General
Ludendorff asked for peace and the Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were another bitter blow for the German people. As
regards territory, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France (it had been seized from France
by Germany after the war of 1870) and the left bank of the Rhine in Germany was to be
occupied by the Allies. As regards colonies, Tanganyika was given to Britain, the
Cameroons to France, South-West Africa to South Africa and the Pacific islands to Japan.
All wartime guns and weapons were to be melted down as scrap metal; the German army
was to be cut down to 100,000 men and the navy was to be cut down to 36 ships. Germany
was not allowed to have an air force and it was also forbidden ever to make an alliance with
Austria again. Finally, by article 231 of the Treaty, Germany had to accept total blame for
the war; therefore it should pay reparations to the Allies to compensate them for their
losses.
Most Germans believed that Germany must be great again. Hitler was able to make good
use of their resentment.

The threat from Communism

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, many Communists believed that world revolutions
would follow. In the chaos in Germany from 1918 to 1919 the Communists did seem to be
about to take over. There were Communist revolutions in the naval base at Kiel, in Berlin
(the capital city) and in Munich. The German government which took over control of
Germany when the Kaiser abdicated sent the Freikorps (volunteer regiments) and they
crushed the Communists.
The Communist revolution in Germany failed but, however, many people feared them.
Hitler was able to take advantage of this fear to win support for himself, especially from
businessmen and from the middle classes.

Suspicion of parliamentary government

3
Erich Ludendorff was of Germany's senior army commanders in World War One. Ludendorff found fame
after German victories at Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes. Working with Paul von Hindenburg, he was
responsible for destroying Russia's army on the Eastern Front.
 12

The new democratic government met in the town of Weimar in 1919. For this reason the
government of Germany, until 1933, was called the Weimar Republic. Friedrich Ebert, who
was its first president, had to agree to the armistice of 1918 and sing the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919. Many German patriots, also Hitler, blamed the Weimar Republic for
what they thought to be these disasters and said that the politicians had ‘stabbed the army in
the back.’ On the other hand, the Communists also hated them for crushing their revolution.
Many Germans felt that the army and the upper classes were really the rightful rulers of
Germany. Therefore the Weimar Republic always seemed shaky.
There were several political parties in the Reichstag (Weimar parliament). Each of them
could form an overall majority by making coalition with another party. Many Germans
mistrusted parliamentary democracy, especially when things went wrong. By 1933, they
were ready to try a dictatorship.

Economic crisis
The German economy was in great difficulties after the war. The war itself had cost
Germany a great deal of money and unemployment was high, especially for the soldiers
returning from the war. The Versailles Treaty took away from Germany some important
industrial areas and it said Germans had to pay reparations to the Allies for damage and
cost of the war.
To make matters worse, Germany was also supposed to pay huge sums of money that the
British and the French had borrowed from the USA during the war. Germany could not
stand this and inflation reached incredibly high levels. The French were angry because the
Germans could not pay reparations, and in 1923 they sent troops into the industrial area of
the Ruhr in Germany, hoping to take goods from factories and mines. The workers there
went on strike in protest and, as a result, the value of the mark (the German currency) went
down until it became worthless.
Once again, many people blamed the Weimar government and many in this class supported
Hitler later.

THE NAZI PARTY

After the war Hitler decided to go into politics. In 1919 he joined the German Workers’
Party, which had very few members and almost no money. Soon he was in control of the
little group and changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party
(NSDAP, in German ‘Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei’) or Nazi for short. In
1920 he helped to launch the Nazi Party’s twenty-five point programme, which contained a
great mixture of ideas. Some of the points were nationalistic – aimed at making Germany
great again; some were socialistic – to help working people; some were anti-Semitic –
against immigrants, especially Jews. Most of the points were borrowed from other parties’
programmes.

Hitler’s own beliefs were much simpler. He believed that the German people belonged to a
superior race called the Aryans, and that they were the master-race, the herrenvolk. He was
against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and he believed Germany must be a great
country again, re-taking all that it had lost, by war if necessary. Hitler was bitterly anti-
communist, because Communism made class conflict more important than national
 13

conflict. Finally, he was “anti-Weimar”; he believed in dictatorship, and despised

democracy.

The new Nazi Party soon began to have followers, as its programme offered something for
everyone, but also because of the violence of his supporters. Hitler set up an armed,
uniformed and disciplined force within the Party: the Storm-troopers or SA, also known as
Brownshirts because of the uniforms they wore. They were directed to keep order at Party
meetings, but later they started to break up the meetings of opponents. In Hitler’s book
‘Mein Kampf’ (1925; ‘My Struggle’ in English), he described how the storm-troopers
attacked the hecklers. “Many of my supporters were being bandaged, others had to be
driven away, but we had remained masters of the situation”, he says.

During these years, many men who later became notorious Nazis joined the party. In 1923,
Hitler felt he had enough support and attempted to take over the government; he was
supported by the war here General Ludendorff and Nazi sympathisers. However, the police
did not join him and failed to gain enough support. He was arrested and spent nine months
in prison in Lansberg. In the meanwhile, he wrote his book ‘Mein Kampf’ and learnt that he
should win power legally next time.

THE STRESEMANN YEARS (1923-1930)

While Hitler was in prison, the German government managed to improve the situation in
the country. Gustav Stresemann was the Foreign Minister, who played an important role
since most of Germany’s problems were concerned with relations with other countries.

Being Chancellor, Stresemann introduced in 1923 a new currency, rentenmark, which

brought inflation under control. Then, in 1924 took place the Dawes Plan, which was
formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy
to some form of stability. The five nations represented on the Dawes Committee were USA,
UK, Italy, Belgium and France. The first major decision was that the Ruhr was to be
returned to the full control of the Germans and that French and Belgian troops would pull
out of the region as soon as was possible. Secondly, reparation payments were restructured
to make them more ‘German friendly’. In the first year of repayment after the Dawes Plan,
the maximum expected to be paid by the Allies was 1 billion marks. During this time, it
was hoped and expected that Germany’s economy would pick up. A third decision to come
out of the Dawes Plan was the restructuring of Weimar’s national bank, the Reichsbank,
which would be supervised by the Allies. Separate to the Dawes Plan, but vital in
reinvigorating Weimar’s economy, the Americans agreed to loan Weimar Germany large
sums of money that would be invested into the economy.

In 1925, Stresemann signed the Locarno Pact. France, Germany and Belgium agreed to
accept their borders as were stated in the Treaty of Versailles. France and Belgium
would never repeat an invasion of the Ruhr and Germany would never attack Belgium or
France again. Germany also accepted that the Rhineland must remain demilitarised. The
aim of the pact was to remove tension between the countries. The next year, Germany
joined the League of Nations; Germany was no longer an outcast.
 14

HITLER COMES TO POWER (1930-1933)

In October 1929, in USA took place the Wall Street Crash; USA was plunged into
Depression. As a result, American loans to Germany under the Dawes Plan stopped, and
soon the German economy was in trouble again. Nazis took advantage of all the despair and
confusion, and they promised full employment and a great Germany again. Moreover, they
put forward scapegoats for all Germany’s problems: Jews and Communists. Some rich
businessmen appealed to this and made large gifts to Nazi party funds.

Many Germans blamed the Weimar government for their defeat in 1918, the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles, the terrible inflation and now for its inability to deal with
unemployment. Even the Weimar politicians began to show their lack of faith in
democracy. The President, Hindenburg, began to use his power to bypass the Reichstag and
rule by presidential decree – a form of dictatorship. In addition, German Chancellors were
more interested in personal power than in the national interest.

Under these circumstances, in the 1930 elections there was a shift to the extremist parties –
the Communists and the Nazis – both of whom openly planned to overthrow the Weimar
democracy.

In 1932, Hitler gained more publicity by standing in the presidential elections. The Nazis
obtained 230 seats, and became the biggest single party in the Reichstag. Hitler could,
perhaps, have been stopped if the other parties had been united against him. However, some
of the right-wing parties hoped to join with the Nazis, while left-wing parties – Socialists
and Communists – would not work together. In fact, the Communists thought that the Nazis
would cause a revolution which would make the people see the Nazis for what they were
and then sweep the Communists into power.

Hitler was not yet ruler of Germany but the Weimar politicians feared that he might try to
seize power, so early in 1933 Chancellor von Papen – the leader of a group of right-wings
politicians – made an alliance with him. They persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as
Chancellor and von Papen as Vice-Chancellor. Von Papen believed that he could use the
Nazis’ popular support to increase his own power, but Hitler’s intentions were to win an
overall majority for the Nazis. In February 1933 he called for new elections. This time, the
Nazis still did not have an overall majority. However, the Nazis expelled the Communists
and joined with the Nationalists. This gave them 286 put of 560 seats. Hitler had gained
control of Germany at last.
 15

HILTER’S DICTATORSHIP
Hitler was determined to set up the ‘Thousand-Year Reich’ based on the ideas he had
written about in ‘Mein Kampf’. He had to put an end to democracy in Germany and make
himself dictator. He did this rapidly, ruthlessly, but legally.

His first step was The Enabling Act, whose formal title was ‘Law to Remedy the Distress of
People and Reich,’ and which he forced the Reichstag to pass. Hitler’s plans included the
abolition of other political parties with all political powers placed into his hands. Hitler was
helped in this by the Reichstag Fire, which put the government building out of use and for
the German Parliament to function it needed a suitable building to replace it. The Kroll
Opera House was used and it was a convenient choice, since it was small enough to make
any SA presence look very menacing if Reichstag members were not going to vote
accordingly.

The Enabling Act allowed the Cabinet to introduce legislation without it first going through
the Reichstag. Shortly after the bill became law (March 1933), Joseph Goebbels wrote that
Hitler now had full power to push Germany forward. He made no mention of the Cabinet.
In fact, there was no Cabinet input in the sense that a modern Cabinet would expect to
function. For example, Hitler had given the Centre Party his full guarantee that their power
would be protected if they supported the Enabling Act. On July 14th 1933, all political
parties other than the Nazi Party were banned on the orders of Hitler. It was generally
thought that it took just 24 hours to put into legislation something that Hitler had ordered.
The Enabling Act also protected the position of President. Such was Hitler’s power that
when Hindenburg died in August 1934, he simply merged the positions of Chancellor and
President and created the position of Fűhrer even though interfering with the position of the
President was not allowed even by the terms of the Enabling Act.

A dictatorship requires one person and one party to be in control of a nation and a climate
of fear. Therefore, Hitler became dictator of Germany and the Nazi party became the only
legal political party. Trade unions were abolished, local government was put in the hands of
Nazi party officials, and local elections were no longer held.

THE NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES

On the night of 29th June 1934, he ordered his 4SS killers to murder hundreds of SA leaders,
including Roehm and many other possible rivals.

Hitler still did not control the German army. It was suspicious of what he planned to do and
it was also worried about the Storm-troopers (SA). Ernst Roehm, the SA leader, wanted to
make the SA more powerful so that it would become a second German army. However,
Hitler did not support this because now he was safely in power he did not need these
violent bullies who embarrassed him. Therefore he chose between the SA and the army in
this violent way.
4
The SS (the Schutz Staffel in German) were black-shirted units that had been formed in 1926 as Hitler’s
personal body-guard. Heinrich Himmler was their leader, but all SS men swore a personal oath of loyalty to
Hitler.
 16

Soon after the Night of Long Knives, President Hindenburg died. Removing the positions
of President and of Chancellor, he created the position of Führer (Leader, in English).
Finally, the army swore an oath of loyalty to him as head of the German Reich.

LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY

Germany became a totalitarian state in which the Nazis sought to control totally every
aspect of the lives of every man, woman and child.

Propaganda
Propaganda – the act of persuasion - within Nazi Germany was taken to a new and
frequently perverse level. Hitler was very aware of the value of good propaganda and he
appointed Joseph Goebbels as Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. To
ensure success, Goebbels had to work with the SS and Gestapo (the state secret police) and
Albert Speer. As Minister of Enlightenment, Goebbels had two main tasks: to ensure
nobody in Germany could read or see anything that was hostile or damaging to the Nazi
Party; to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put across in the most persuasive manner
possible. In this way, books, plays, films and art were strictly censored; books by Jews and
anti-Nazis were taken from schools and libraries. Goebbels controlled the newspapers and
the radio; Nazis told Germans only of Hitler’s successes, who Germany’s enemies were and
how Hitler was dealing with them. In other words, the German people read and heard only
what the Nazis wanted them to read and hear.

Hitler despised the mass of people; he said their understanding of issues was so feeble that
they need only be fed simple slogans. One well-known slogan was ‘Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein
Führer‘ (which means ‚one state, one people, one leader‘ in English). This impression of
unity was reinforced by huge party rallies, where enormous flags, loud brass bands and
thousands of supporters adored their leader.

Women
Women in Nazi Germany were to have a very specific role: they should be good mothers
bringing up children at home while their husbands worked. Outside of certain specialist
fields, Hitler saw no reason why a woman should work. Education taught girls from the
earliest of years that this was the lifestyle they should have.

One of the earliest laws passed by Hitler once he came to power in 1933 was the Law for
the Encouragement of Marriage. This law stated that all newly married couples would get a
government loan of 1000 marks which was about 9 months average income. This loan was
not to be simply paid back. The birth of one child meant that 25% of the loan did not have
to be paid back. Two children meant that 50% of the loan need not be paid back. Four
children meant that the entire loan was cleared. The aim of the law was very simple - to
encourage newly weds to have as many children as they could.

Youth Movement
 17

The Hitler Youth was a logical extension of Hitler's belief that the future of Nazi Germany
was its children. The Hitler Youth was seen as being as important to a child as school was.
Nazis expected the children to be physically tough but totally obedient.

Movements for youngsters were part of German culture and the Hitler Youth had been
created in the 1920's. By 1933 its membership stood at 100,000. The Hitler Youth catered
for 6 to 9 year-olds – they could join the Pimpfen - and for 10 to 18 year-olds. As for the
last group there were separate organisations for boys and girls. The task of the boys section
was to prepare the boys for military service. For girls, the organisation prepared them for
motherhood. Also, they had to listen to propaganda lectures.

In school the curriculum was carefully controlled. All lessons had to transmit Nazi ideas
and teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’ Association. Pupils all had to read Mein Kampf
and were taught Nazi racist theories such as the superiority of the Germans and the
inferiority of non-Aryan races like the Jews.

Opposition
Opposition to Nazi rule within Germany did exist from 1933 to 1945. That opposition took
place at civilian, church and military levels. Any kind of opposition to the Nazi state was
considered to be treason. The Gestapo had the right to arrest people merely on suspicion
and they could even execute them without a trial. Neighbours spied on each other and
reported private conversations.

Thousands of Germans who did not accept Hitler’s dictatorship fled, many to Britain and
USA. Among them were famous writers, artists, musicians, scientists and doctors, who did
not want to live where there was so little freedom.

A few brave men stayed in Germany to oppose Hitler but one of this opposition to the
Nazis was successful. The most famous example of men who were willing to take on the
Nazi regime was the famous July Bomb Plot of 1944, in which Hitler was injured but not
killed. Claus von Stauffenburg was the man who actually set off the bomb at Hitler’s East
Prussian stronghold but there were many other men behind the plot. Many of these were in
the military. Even Field Marshal Rommel was implicated in this plot but was allowed to
commit suicide rather than face a very public and humiliating trial. Many others were not
offered such a choice and faced the ‘People’s Court’ charged with treason.

Economic life
In 1933, unemployment peaked at 6 million during the final days of the Weimar Republic.
In contrast, by 1937, after four years of Nazi rule, unemployment was under one million.

But was this true or did the Nazi propaganda persuaded the nation and Europe that they had
achieved something that other European nations had not during the time of economic
depression?

Firstly, women were no longer included in the statistics so any women who remained out of
work under the Nazi’s rule did not exist as far as the statistics were concerned. Secondly,
 18

the unemployed were given a very simple choice: do whatever work is given to you by the
government – with low wages and hours - or be classed as "work-shy" and put in a
concentration camp. Thirdly, Jews lost their citizenship in 1935 and as a result were not
included in unemployment figures even though many lost their employment at the start of
Hitler’s time in power. Finally, many young men were taken off of the unemployment
figure by expanding the German army, navy and air force and supplying them with
equipment. With these measures in place the unemployment figure had to fall drastically
and many saw the Nazi figures as nothing more than a book-keeping trick.

From 1935, Hitler was preparing for war. Directly against the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles, he ordered tanks, aeroplanes and ships to be built. This, of course, meant huge
contracts for the iron and steel industries, which prospered and provided jobs.

Persecution of the Jews

Hitler could now put his insane racial ideas into practice, blacks and gypsies in Germany
were attacked but the Jews took the full brunt. Hitler’s policy was to make life more and
more difficult for the Jews. At first, Jewish shops were boycotted, and Jews were forbidden
to inherit land and were also dismissed from work.

In 1935, he passed the Nuremberg Laws and the lost their right to be German citizens and
marriage between Jews and non-Jews was forbidden. It was after this law that the violence
against the Jew really openly started.

The campaign against the Jews reached a pre-war peak in 1938 with Krystalnacht - The
Night of the Broken Glass. In November 1938, a Jew murdered a German diplomat in Paris.
Hitler ordered a seven day campaign of terror against the Jews in Germany to be organised
by Himmler and the SS. On the 10th November, the campaign started. 10,000 shops owned
by Jews were destroyed and their contents stolen. Homes and synagogues were set on fire
and left to burn. On the top of that, the Jewish community was ordered to pay a one billion
mark fine to pay for their so-called ‘abominable crimes’ and they were even forced to scrub
the streets clean.

In 1939, the Gestapo began to round up Jews and sent them to concentration camps - such
as Auschwitz, Dechau, Belsen, Buchenwald and Treblinka - which were run by special
‘Death’s Head’ units of the SS. In 1941, Hitler began the policy called the ‘Final Solution’.
This was an attempt to kill all the Jews in Europe. Jews from Germany, Poland, France,
Holland, Czechoslovakia and Russia were transported to the concentration camps where
they were to be killed. At first, the plan was to shoot them but later, 20 th-century
industrialised methods were applied to extermination. It is estimated that six million Jews
had been killed by 1945, during the so-called Holocaust.
 19

GERMANY AND THE OUTBREAK OF THE SECOND WORLD

WAR
Once World War I was over, Europe seemed to begin an era of peace. A new world was
being built. The League of Nations, the treaties, the negotiations and hope to restart were
part of this process. However, peace was far from being achieved. Problems with still no
solution and new conflicts would threaten some European democratic institutions and their
most peaceful dreams.

Many were the reasons for the breakout of World War II and there are also different points
of view, the following items develop the steps that led to the Second World War:

● The Treaty of Versailles, which was signed in June 1919, imposed territorial, financial,
military and other general sanctions to Germany and meant humiliation to all Germans. Out
of this treaty was born The League of Nations; its main purpose was to avoid violence and
to promote diplomacy and freedom to all nations.

● The Locarno Treaties, signed in December 1925 in neutral Switzerland were the
acceptation of the clauses and conditions from the Treaty of Versailles, the acceptation of
France and Belgium of the borders stated and the promise to never repeat an invasion of the
Ruhr.

● The Kelleg-Briand Pact of 1928 was signed by 65 countries. They all agreed never to use
war again as a way of solving disputes.

● The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 affected economy all over the world and was
another factor that shattered Germany’s stability. It was an occasion for nationalist
politicians to rise and express their opinion against all the treaties signed.

● Japan invaded China’s eastern seaboard where natural resources could be taken from
Manchuria for the Japanese expansion. The reaction from The League of Nation to this
invasion was weak.

● Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. One of his first actions was
to leave The League that year; this decision gave a first impression of what he was aiming
to.

● Germany was on the alert as the neighbouring countries were opposing him, as most
countries in Europe were. Poland and Czechoslovakia, the weaker countries with German
minorities, were in alliance with France.

● Hitler’s plan to unite all Germans in one state would start by invading his birth-place,
Austria. In 1934 Hitler ordered Austrian Nazis to kill Dollfuss, Austrian Chancellor. This
attempt failed when Mussolini sent Italian troops to the Austrian border in order to prevent
conflict.
 20

● Invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. Also known as the Empire of Ethiopia, this northern part
of Africa fought in the Battle of Adowa and defeated Italy, who tried to conquer the empire
for the first time in 1896. In 1928 Italy signed a treaty of friendship with Haile Selassie.
(Italy had been given unimportant areas, such as Eritrea and Somaliland, when taking part
in Scramble for Africa). Mussolini, who was the new Prime Minister of Italy, had the desire
to take over Abyssinia. Therefore, he accused Abyssinians of aggression at an oasis and
sent troops to Eritrea and Somaliland. Due to that accusation, Abyssinians appealed to The
League of Nations, which took a long time to impose weak economic sanctions. This
demonstrated The League’s lack of determination and power. Later the Hoare-Laval Plan
came out; Italy was given two large areas and another one in the south for ‘Italian
businesses’ and Abyssinia kept the “Corridor of Camels.”

● Rearmament. By 1935, on the basis of the German foreign policy (as they felt the Treaty
of Versailles was too harsh) they had built up an air force (the Luftwaffe), had introduced
military service, were provided with the latest weapons and tanks, pocket battleships and
submarines. As a result of the Depression of 1930, armed forces and arm factories had been
strengthening. In conclusion, it could assumed that no real disarming had taken place. In
addition, the Anglo-German naval agreement allowed German navy to grow up to 35% of
the strength of British navy. Apart from this, opposing countries were another excuse for
Germany’s rearmament.

● The same year a meeting was held in Stresa, Britain, France and Italy attended to it. They
would discuss about the actions taken in Austria. Although Italy attended the meeting, his
unity with the other countries broke after Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. He had to look for
another ally. This invasion and the Spanish Civil War were the perfect distractions for
Hitler’s next plan.

● The Rhineland had been demilitarised, as requested in the Treaty of Versailles, but Hitler
was determined to march back into it. In 1936, even though the Rhineland was under
political control, soldiers and armed policemen were sent to cross into the zone.
Considering that Germany was still not strong enough to oppose France, Hitler warned that
troops should retreat out if any opposition was shown by France. The Allies’ reaction was
better than Hitler could have ever hoped; France was in the middle of an internal political
crisis so was not willing to take actions and Britain actually supported Nazi Germany since
some terms of Treaty of Versailles seemed unnecessary in the 1930’s.

● Hitler and Mussolini seemed to be closer. They both supported Franco in the Spanish
Civil War. In 1937 Italy left The League of Nations as Germany had previously done in
1933. As a result of their relationship the Rome-Berlin Axis was signed.
● Rearming in Germany continued. They seemed to be “catching up” with Britain and
France; therefore they also began to rearm.

● The Hossbach Conference was held at the Reich Chancellory in 1937; Hitler’s most
important members of the Cabinet were there. The main points to discuss were Germany’s
future. The day after the conference a memorandum was written, that document was later
used as evidence when judging Germany’s acts during the war.
 21

● Austria, until 1937, had been protected by Italy. Since Italy was closer to Germany, the
protection weakened. Seyss-Inquart, Minister of Interior, was an Austrian Nazi as were
many others; some of the orders he had received from Hitler were to stir up trouble while
Hitler’s “bullying” continued. Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg’s next decision was to
order a plebiscite to know whether Austrians wanted annexation. Hitler felt not sure about
plebiscite, for this reason, he threatened Schuschnigg to resign or he would invade Austria.
Once Schuschnigg and all his Cabinet resigned, Seyss-Inquart, the only one who stayed,
invited Hitler into government in 1938. In March of that year, Austria became part of the
German Greater Reich. Crowds cheering to Hitler’s appearance were surprising to
everyone.

● Czechoslovakia: crisis in 1938. There were various nationalities in Czechoslovakia, and

its German-speaking fringe (Sudetenland) was next Hitler’s target. He had already ordered
plans to stir up trouble and for the invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Sudeten Germans
Peoples Party was also receiving financial and verbal support from Germany. However
President Benes had a strong professional army and alliances with Britain, France and
Russia.

● Prime Minister Chamberlain’s next step was to adopt a policy of appeasement on order to
avoid a war, this was their worst fear. Chamberlain and Hitler first met to discuss about
giving Sudetenland to Germany, rewarding it was a German-speaking area and that it was a
reasonable demand from Hitler. At a second meeting between them Hitler threatened to go
to war and Chamberlain desperately called Mussolini for a meeting in Munich. There Italy,
France, Britain and Germany met and finally gave Sudetenland to Germany, what
consequently weakened Czechoslovakia. Despite the promises made, Hitler’s troops were
marching into the rest of Czechoslovakia six months later (March 1939).

● Stalin had tried to ally with Britain and France but they refused because of Communism
in the USSR. In spite of this Stalin signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler and in the
secret clauses of the Pact they agreed to divide Poland between them. In the view of this
alliance, war seemed inevitable since Britain and France were in alliance with Poland.

● In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and there is where they first used
Blitzkrieg. Britain and France gave an ultimatum to Germany or war would be declared. As
this warning was ignored and German troops were still in Poland, on September 3rd war was
declared and the first British troops were sent to France.

● Regarding the Pact between Russia and Germany, Japan renounced the Anti-Comintern
Pact. Afterwards Japan acceded to the Tripartite Pact that pledged Germany, Italy and
Japan and which was signed in September 1940.

By the beginning of the war there were clearly two fronts confronting each other.

Western front: The Allies

 22

The “big four” from this group were the United Kingdom, France (except during the
German occupation from 1940 to 1944), The Soviet Union (after its entry in June 1941)
and the United States (after its entry in December 1941.)

Other members during the war were Belgium, China, Denmark, South Africa, Poland,
Norway, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Australia, Canada and Greece. Most of them called
“wartime members,” as they belonged to the United Nations were requested to participate.
Their involvement was also natural and inevitable since they were under threat of invasion
or had been colonized by the big powers.

Eastern front: The Axis

The axis powers were led by Germany, Italy and Japan (the only Asian industrial power).
These countries allied to each other by signing the Tripartite Pact in which they agreed “to
assist one another with all political, economic and military means” when any of them was
to be attacked by “a power at present not involved in the European war or in the Sino-
Chinese conflict” (for instance the US or the Soviet Union.)

Other alliances were made during the war:

Hungary: signed the Tripartite Pact in November 1940. However, this central European
country was occupied by German troops in March 1944.
Romania: was invaded by Germany in October 1940 and signed the Tripartite Pact in
November of the same year. Later in August 1944 the USSR invaded Romania.
Bulgaria: signed the Tripartite Pact in March 1941. But in September 1944 was invaded by
the USSR and shortly after Bulgaria declared war on Germany.
 23

THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE

In the Second World War soldiers moved rapidly from place to place. The most important
fighting machines were two: tanks and aeroplanes. These two machines affected the way in
which the War was fought. Moreover, the country which had a good supply of tanks and
aeroplanes and knew how to make the best use of them would be bound to win.

At first this country was Germany. Blitzkrieg tactics were used with devastating effect by
the Germans from 1939 to 1941 (“Blitzkrieg” means “lightning war”). What they did was
to launch a surprise attack, move at very great speed and use overwhelming strength at
certain key positions.

The first move of the Blitzkrieg came from the air. Dive bombers would destroy important
positions: railway junctions, ammunition and petrol dumps, crossroads, bridges and
airfields. If possible, enemy aircraft would be destroyed on the ground. The bomber pilots
learned to strike with absolute accuracy. If there were any strategic key positions which
might be useful to the invaders, parachute troops would be dropped. They could capture
and hold an airfield or a bridge, for example, until the invading troops on the ground
reached them.

The invasion would be made up of fast-moving and well-armed columns of tanks. Behind
them would come the motorized infantry that is, soldiers transported by lorry or
motorcycle. The invading forces would drive deep into enemy territory, not along a broad
front, but in narrow columns. Each column would make for a target like a city, a port or an
industrial area. With their communications in chaos, the defenders would find it almost
impossible to organize defence in time. Within hours defeat would be unavoidable.

THE PHONEY WAR, SEPTEMBER 1939 TO APRIL 1940

Hitler had begun the war by invading Poland. The Russians invaded Poland from the east.
Poland was defeated in under a month. Polish territory was then divided between the USSR
and Germany.
After this actions, little happened in the west for several months. The bombing raids which
were expected to destroy British cities did not come. Mothers and children who had been
sent to the country from the cities began to drift home. There were naval engagements, such
as the Battle of the River Plate in which the German battleship Graf Spee was sunk.
German U-boats began to sink British shipping in the Atlantic. The British called this
period “the Phoney War” because nothing seemed to be happening.

In fact both sides were not ready for war. Hitler was not yet fully equipped to take on a
major war. The British were certainly not prepared, while the French were putting all their
faith in their massive defence system, known as the Maginot Line.

THE FALL OF WESTERN EUROPE, APRIL-JUNE 1940

The Norwegian campaign

 24

Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway. He had been shipping Swedish iron ore to Germany
along the coast of Norway, and he needed to protect this route, Iron was vital for the
manufacture of weapons. The British knew this and decided to mine the coastal waters of
Norway. On the same day as the British ships began laying their mines Hitler began to push
northwards.
The troops lacked aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, transport and training. There
were neither snow-shoes nor skis.

Winston Churchill becomes Primer Minister

Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister in the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940, answered
to people’s claim for peace and shared that feeling. He tried to avoid war by adopting an
attitude of appeasement to Hitler’s demands and threats but war turned inevitable, the
rearming program was accelerated and relations with France strengthened. Finally, in May
1940 the British Parliament turned against Chamberlain and he had to resign. Winston
Churchill immediately became Prime Minister and made it clear that he was ready for a
war.

France attacked
The Germans launched a Blitzkrieg attack against Holland, Belgium and France. It was a
great success. German tanks rolled fast across Holland and Belgium. Holland surrendered
within five days, and Belgium, eight days later.

Dunkirk
The British Expeditionary Force had been sent across the English Channel, but they and the
French, Dutch and Belgians all found it difficult to work together. The French were
completely taken by surprise by the attack through Belgium; the British troops were sent
back towards the Channel port of Dunkirk. Then, they sent hundreds of boats across the
Channel to take their soldiers off the beaches. The evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk
was called Operation Dynamo.

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, JULY-DECEMBER 1940

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we
shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall
fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Winston Churchill.

At this time Britain was the only country at war with Germany.

Hitler prepared plans for an invasion which he called Operation Sea-Lion. However, the 30
to 40 kilometers of English Channel separating his forces from England was a difficult
barrier to cross. Invasion boats were loaded with men and equipment. They were slow,
easily attacked from the air. That’s why the Luftwaffe had to be in control of the skies
above the Channel. The Battle of Britain was a battle between the Luftwaffe and the RAF
for this control of the air. The Luftwaffe was the German Air Force and the RAF was the
Royal Air Force of the British Armed Forces.
 25

The German Air Force utilized two types of planes: the fighter plane, called Messerschmitt,
and the bomber planes, such as the Junkers. Cannons, machine guns, and bombs were their
weapons.

On the other side, the British Armed Forces utilized the Spitfire fighter and the Hurricane
fighter, both with machine guns as weapons. The Spitfire was superb until it was damaged.
The Hurricane, though less graceful and slower than the Spitfire, was incredibly strong and
capable of taking many hits before it was taken out.

Throughout the battle, the Luftwaffe had more fighters and pilots than the RAF, so they
could afford heavier losses. The RAF did have two advantages, however. The Spitfire
fighter could be easily moved and deployed and was better armed than the Messerschmitt.
The RAF also had radar. This worked by sending out radio waves and recording the echo
effect when the waves bounced back off enemy aircraft. It could supply information on
aircraft 25 kilometers away. The RAF was, therefore, rarely caught on the ground.

On 23 August, German planes, lost in the dark, accidentally dropped some bombs on
London. Churchill ordered the first air raid on Berlin, which killed a number of German
civilians.

Hitler was furious and ordered the Luftwaffe to switch their targets from British airfields to
British cities. 13,000 tons of bombs were dropped on London and other cities.

EVENTS FROM JANUARY TO DECEMBER 1941

Invasion of Russia
In terms of numbers of soldiers involved, numbers of dead and the effect on the outcome of
the war, this was by far the most important campaign of all. Hitler detested the Russians as
Communists; he loathed them as Slavs, an “inferior race”.

Eastern Europe
Austria, most of Czechoslovakia and half of Poland had been taken into Germany in 1938
and 1939. In 1939-1940, the USSR had seized all of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, half of
Poland and parts of Finland and Romania.
Germany, Japan and Italy had signed a Tripartite Pact in September 1940. By early 1941,
Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had joined this Pact.
Hitler had a huge reservoir of men and industrial resources from which to launch his
invasion of Russia.

Italy enters the war

While German invasions and battles were successfully working as planned, Mussolini was
afraid of been left behind if he did not take actions so he declared war on Britain and
France. Despite not being well-prepared for war, Italy’s next step was to take over British
colonies in Africa. Shortly after Italian troops tried to invade Egypt and Ethiopia, the
British drove them back and at last surrendered to General Wavell; Italians were driven out
of Ethiopia and Haile Selassie was finally restored.
 26

Because of this, in early February of 1941 Hitler had to send troops to help Mussolini
instead of sending them for the invasion of Russia. After a year German troops commanded
by Erwin Rommel drove the British almost out of Egypt and were extremely close to the
Suez Canal and to the Arabian oil fields.

On the contrary of Hitler’s attempts to control Europe, Mussolini’s need for help weakened
German attacks. Later in 1941 when Mussolini tried to attack Greece, once again was
defeated, this time by Greek and British forces. Feared of British threats, Hitler rapidly
ordered German Blitzkrieg to run over Yugoslavia and to split it up. This enabled Italy to
occupy Greece, but soon resistance movements began to react.

Operation Barbarossa
The German attack on Russia, Operation Barbarossa, was launched in June 1941. The
Blitzkrieg advanced in three directions: in the north, to Leningrad, to cut off possible aid
from the Allies; in the centre, to Moscow, the centre of government and transport networks,
and in the south, to the grain-growing areas, the industrial Donbas region and the Soviet oil
fields beyond.

The war in the USSR was going to be different from war in other countries. This time,
German forces had to travel hundreds of kilometers away from Germany. Keeping the
front-line troops supplied became a problem. It was a difficult country for tank movement –
great forests, terrible roads, and bridges not strong enough to bear the weight of tanks. The
retreating Soviets were ordered by Stalin to leave nothing which the Germans could use.
They were not marching through busy towns and villages where food, petrol or places to
sleep were easily available. In Russia they were in huge open spaces.

Although the Soviet soldiers were not well equipped, they fought bravely. They put up the
stiffest resistance, and then removed all they could, mined the area and retreated again.
German forces almost reached their targets by November 1941, but the Soviets, with half
their country in ruins, had not surrendered. Then the Russian winter set in. Transport
became impossible. Petrol froze in the tanks. The German soldiers did not have sufficient
winter clothing and suffered agonies from frostbite.
Just before Christmas 1941, the Soviet Marshal Zhukov counter-attacked and drove the
Germans back from Moscow. The invading forces prepared heavily armed encampments
called “hedgehogs”, and dug in for the winter.

The war at sea

Another long fight was taking place in the cold Atlantic. It was the battle between German
U-boats (submarines) and British shipping. Britain had to bring in supplies by sea,
including food, essential war materials such as oil, and weapons. The merchant ships sailed
in groups, called convoys, each with naval escort. Convoys would assemble off the coast of
Canada and take a northerly route to Britain. Similar convoys were sent into the icy waters
north of Norway carrying supplies to the USSR. A U-boat group would attack a convoy
from all sides, making the job of the escort impossible.
 27

USA and Lend-Lease

In 1941, Roosevelt organized a scheme called “Lend-Lease”, by which Britain could
borrow or hire military equipment. Large numbers of ships and planes were sent to Britain.
In December 1941 the Japanese attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt
immediately declared war on Germany and Japan. The USA was now whole-heartedly on
Britain’s side.

The Battle of the Atlantic had gone well for Germany in 1941 and early 1942. When
America came into the war, however, things were not so easy for Germany. Convoys could
be more heavily protected. Aircraft were able to take off from America to guard convoys
and try to spot U-boats. Gradually, the U-boats began to be sunk in great numbers.

UK HOME FRONT

The People's War

There were still a million unemployed when the war broke out in the UK. In many areas,
men had not worked for most of the time since the end of WWI. Their families had had to
do on the dole, just enough to keep them from starving. Priestley said that it had to be a
"people's war" in order to be won. What did this mean? It went further than the WWI in
involving everybody.

It was a People's war because people were killed in their own homes in bombing raids.
Because people's everyday lives were disrupted as never before, by evacuation, by
shortages of food, by being ordered what to do by the government.

The morale of the nation was very important. If they have refused to join in the "People's
War", Britain would have been defeated. It enlarged democratic aspirations and produced
promises of a postwar welfare state.

Evacuation
When the war began in September 1939 the government knew that large cities would be the
target for German bombs and that casualties would be high. Government plans were made
to evacuate all children, pregnant mothers, mothers with young children and disabled
people from cities to rural areas. Children were evacuated if their parents agreed but in
some cases they did not have a choice. Also teachers and helpers were evacuated. Another
two million made their own arrangements, often going to the USA or Canada. Evacuation
was voluntary and the government expected more than 3 million people to take advantage
of the scheme. However, by the end of September 1939 only 1.5 million people had been
evacuated and most of those returned to their homes when there were no bombing raids.
When the Battle of Britain and the Blitz began in 1940, evacuation was re-introduced.

The children to be evacuated assembled in the school playground. They all wore name tags
and had to carry their gas mask as well as their belongings. After saying goodbye to their
parents they travelled by train or by coach to their destination where they met the people
who were to house them. Most of those evacuated had no idea what their life as an evacuee
 28

would be like nor when they would see their parents again. Evacuation contributed to the
call for change after the war.

The Blitz
Many houses were destroyed due to the German bombing of British cities in August 1940.

Home Guard
The Home Guard or Local Defense Volunteers (LDV) was formed in 1940 when there was
a real risk that Hitler might invade Britain. The men that served in the Home Guard were all
volunteers and were mostly those that were too old (over the age of 40) or too young (under
the age of 18) to serve in the forces. They became known as 'Dad's Army'.

The men were issued with a uniform and an armband with the letters LDV to show that
they were members of the Home Guard. Members of the public were asked to donate any
rifles, pistols or shotguns that they might have to provide the Home Guard with weapons.
Those that were not provided with weapons made makeshift weapons from pieces of pipe
or knives.

Most of the men had full time jobs and trained in the evenings. As well as preparing
themselves to be ready to fight off a German invasion, the Home Guard also guarded
buildings that had been bombed to prevent looting, helped to clear bomb damage, helped to
rescue those trapped after an air raid, guarded factories and airfields, captured German
airmen that had been shot down and set up roadblocks to check people's identity cards.

Belfast during the war

Belfast in Northern Ireland was a representative British city. It was a key industrial city
producing ships, tanks, aircraft, engineering works, arms, uniforms, parachutes and a host
of other industrial goods. The unemployment that had been so persistent in the 1930s
disappeared, and labour shortages appeared. As a key industrial city, Belfast became a
target for German bombing missions, but it was thinly defended; there were only 24 anti-
aircraft guns in the city for example. The Northern Ireland government under Richard
Dawson Bates (Minister for Home Affairs) had prepared too late, assuming that Belfast was
too distant. When Germany conquered France in spring 1940 it gained closer airfields. The
city's fire brigade was inadequate, there were no public air raid shelters as the Northern
Ireland government was reluctant to spend money on them and there were no searchlights
in the city, which made shooting down enemy bombers all the more difficult. After seeing
the Blitz in London in the autumn of 1940, the government began the construction of air
raid shelters. The Luftwaffe in early 1941, flew reconnaissance missions that identified the
docks and industrial areas to be targeted. Especially hard hit were the working class areas in
the north and east of the city where over a thousand were killed and hundreds were
seriously injured. Many people left the city afraid of future attacks. The bombing revealed
the terrible slum conditions. Apart from the numbers of dead, the Belfast blitz saw half of
the city's houses destroyed. The bombing raids continued until the invasion of Russia in the
summer of 1941. The American army arrived in 1942–44, setting up bases around Northern
Ireland, and spending freely.
 29

Sheltering
The government-built surface shelters were unpopular. They were cold, insanitary and not
very safe. Anderson shelters, made of two curved pieces of corrugated iron embedded in
the ground, were widely used. These shelters survived everything except a direct hit. Many
Londoners felt that the tube stations would be a good place for protection, and forced
London Transport to open them up for shelterers.

Rationing
From the beginning of the war, one of Hitler's tactics against Britain was to use submarines
to torpedo ships bringing supplies to Britain. This meant that imported goods were in short
supply. Sixty per cent of the food British people ate in peacetime came from abroad. Soon
after the war started there were shortages. Goods from Europe were not available; items
from Canada and the East had to run through the U-boat blockade. At first shortages meant
higher prices, which only the rich could pay. This was obviously unfair in a "people's war"
and rationing was introduced in January 1940. Everyone had a ration book with certain
number of "coupons" for essential items like meat, cheese, butter, eggs, tea and sugar.
Meals were boring, but they were nutritious and rationing was regarded as fair. Pregnant
mothers, nursing mothers and babies got extra rations and every schoolchild got one third
of a pint of milk at school.

Households were also encouraged to grow their own food. In addition, clothing, petrol,
leather and other such items were also rationed. Access to luxuries was severely restricted,
although there was also a significant black market. Many things were conserved to turn into
weapons later, such as fat for nitroglycerin production. People in the countryside were less
affected by rationing as they had greater access to locally sourced unrationed products than
people in metropolitan areas and were more able to grow their own.

This system was much improved by switching to a points system which allowed the
housewives to make choices based on their own priorities. Food rationing also permitted
the upgrading of the quality of the food available, and housewives approved. People were
especially pleased that rationing brought equality and a guarantee of a decent meal at an
affordable cost.

Women and the war

Women were also encouraged to join new activities such as farming, nursing, among
others. In December 1941 the British government calculated that two million workers were
needed. Unmarried women between 19 and 30 were first called up for work. On the other
hand, married women could volunteer as it was not compulsory. Soon, registered women
for employment were up to 51 and by 1945 60% of the workforce was women. Most of
them worked at the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary
Air Force), the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) or the WLA (Women’s Lands
Army).

For some of them, working and having a family was complicated and unpleasant. Women
were paid less than men and had less compensation for injuries. Some others experienced
 30

new activities and learnt new skills; they had their own money and felt free to do whatever
they wished for.

The bombing of Germany

Many cities suffered heavy bombing during the years 1942-1945. The Allies intended to
weaken the German war effort. It was a great deal of disorganization and chaos. Fire bombs
caused fire storms and whirlwinds of flame, impossible to control.
The German war in the East had lost them air supremacy in essential sections of Europe,
and they couldn’t reply to the English.

TURNING POINTS 1942-1943

North Africa
In the spring of 1942 the Soviets were still bearing the full force of the German attack.
They called upon the Allies to distract Germany by invading Europe and opening up a
“Second Front”. Churchill was keen to attack in North Africa, and persuaded Roosevelt that
this was a good idea. This plan was called Operation Torch. For the two years of 1942 and
1943, therefore, North Africa and the Mediterranean were the main battlefields for the
Allied troops.

The Battle of El Alamein

The North African campaign began with two-sided attack on the German forces in North
Africa. In the east, in Egypt, the British army was bringing together massive reinforcements
under a new commander, General Bernard Montgomery. In October 1942, he attacked
Rommel (German field marshal) at El Alamein. Montgomery chased Rommel westwards
towards Libya and Tunisia. This time, the British had the advantage of bigger forces.

The Germans had to divert all the men and supplies they could spare to the Russian front. A
shortage of oil was beginning to hold them back. Britain, in contrast, now had a rich new
ally in the USA.

Operation Torch
Meanwhile, in the west of North Africa, Operation Torch was launched. American and
British troops invaded Morocco and Algeria. The Allied forces advanced east towards
Tunis. Thousands of Germans were taken prisoner.

Italy invaded
Mussolini was dismissed by the Italian government. In a German commando raid he was
then captured and taken to north Italy. There, a puppet republic was formed with Mussolini
as its head, to continue the fight. The Allies were still well south of Rome, fighting a tough,
reorganized German defense.

These two years had been successful for the Allies. Churchill said: “before El Alamein, we
never had a victory; after El Alamein, we never had a defeat.” The Battle of the Atlantic
was turning against Germany too.
 31

The Russian Front 1942-1943

In the Soviet Union civilians and soldiers had to work together in a battlefront against
Germans, who held surrounding areas. The city of Leningrad, in the north, was under siege
and Russians attempt to free the city in September 1942 failed. Germans’ next step was to
take over Stalingrad where the main Soviet resistance was held; they aimed to get to
Moscow. Between late September and early October an intense fighting took place in the
toughest battlefield of the war.
In the winter 1942-1943 the Germans were weakened at Stalingrad and General von Paulus
asked Hitler for permission to surrender since his supply line had been cut off, but he
refused. This stubbornness shown by Hitler led to von Paulus surrender in February 1943
and to a great loss that could have been avoided. The Soviets’ advance stopped and soldiers
were regarded with amazement.

The Teheran Conference

The Teheran Conference was held in Iran between November 28th and December 1st 1943.
Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met to coordinate a military strategy against Germany and
Japan to invade Western Europe in 1944. Stalin would help Roosevelt against Japan once
Hitler was defeated and Russia was promise land at the expense of Poland. The British’s
and the Americans would carry an operation to invade France. However, what was
surprising about this meeting is that it was the first outline discussion of issues concerning
the post war era.

THE NORMANDY LANDINGS 1944

The Allied invaded France. The main invasion was launched on the beaches of Normandy.
It was a massive combined US and British operation, with the US General Eisenhower as
Supreme Commander and the British General Montgomery as his second-in-command.
Soldiers had been trained for months in advance, equipment prepared and assembled. A
prefabricated harbour, “Mulberry Harbour”, and a cross-Channel oil pipeline were built.

By the spring of 1944 all southern England had become a gigantic air base workshop,
storage depot and mobilization camp. American forces in Britain increased to over one and
a half million. While British and Canadian troops assembled in south-eastern England, the
Americans gathered in the western and south-western coast.

The invasion was successful. The Allies had freed most of France and Belgium. Their
advance began to slow down. They needed time to prepare for the final attack on Germany
itself.

The main German hope at this time was on their rocket-launched bombs, the V-1 (winged
fuel propelled flying bomb) and the V-2 (fuel propelled flying bomb that could leave the
Earth's atmosphere and re-enter at speeds that made it unstoppable). Several thousand
Londoners were killed and millions evacuated to the countryside. However, people did not
panic as Hitler had hoped.

The Battle of the Bulge

 32

In December 1944 Germans advanced in the Ardennes area (France), causing the Allies to
retreat. This was called the Battle of the Bulge because of its effect on the Allied front line.
However, the Germans’ lack of supplies and the strength of Allies air support brought the
advance to a halt early in 1945.

The Eastern Front

For the Eastern Front, things were not working as planned. Despite Hitler’s efforts, by 1944
the Allies overcame German resistance in Cassino, Italia (later evacuated) and soon entered
Rome and Florence. Further advances were made by the Soviets; in January 1944 the
Leningrad-Moscow rail line was re-opened to effectively end the siege of Leningrad.
The Germans were retreated out of Russia and into Poland. The same happened in most
southern and eastern zones of Europe. What is more, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania,
Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were occupied by Soviet troops. Because of this, many resistance
movements began to rise.

At the same time Japan ended resistances in eastern regions. In August 1944 Paris was
liberated by the Allies. By the end of 1944 Hitler feared the worse.

The Yalta Conference

On 4th February began the Yalta Conference in Crimea. That was the last time Roosevelt,
Churchill and Stalin would meet. They had already agreed to divide Germany into four
zones; three of them would be occupied and administered by the US, the Soviet Union and
Britain and the fourth one would be given to France. Moreover, German military industry
would be abolished or confiscated. The most criticised and discussed issue were the
boundaries in Eastern Europe as most of them were occupied by the Red Army.

The fall of Germany - 1945

Germany’s resistance was weakened by the massive air-raids on its cities. In the fire storms
100,000 people died. The cities were completely flattened. The German people realized that
defeat was now unavoidable.

The British and Canadians advanced into north Germany while the Americans pushed into
central and southern Germany and Austria. The Soviets pressed westwards, reaching Berlin
and beyond.

Adolf Hitler had retired to his deep underground bunker in Berlin. At the end of April, he
married Eva Braun and then they committed suicide together. The war in Europe ended on
7 May 1945.

Fifty-five million people were killed in the Second World War, three-quarters of them in
Europe. Half of them were civilians. Twenty-seven million Russians, seven million
Germans and 400,000 British lost their lives. While people were being killed in the
fighting, about 11 million were being executed in German concentration camps. Six million
of them were Jews.
 33

The victors of the war were the USA and the USSR. The new “Super Powers” held the
world in their hands.
 34

THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE FAR EAST

JAPANESE SUCCESSES 1937-1942
Japan’s generals had decided to solve the problems of the Depression of the 1930s in Japan
by seizing an empire. In 1931, they invaded Manchuria, a part of northern China. In 1937,
Japan invaded China.

The outbreak of war in Europe opened up great possibilities for the Japanese. The British,
French and Dutch empires in the Far East could not be defended while their European
homelands were under attack. The Japanese spoke of “freeing” the people of Asia from
white colonial rule. What they really wanted was the food and raw materials which Asia
could produce to boost Japanese industry: rice, coal, rubber, tin and oil. Only two countries
could stop them: the USSR and the USA. By June 1941, the USSR was fighting for its life
against the German invaders; only the USA was left.

Pearl Harbor
In mid-1941, President Roosevelt imposed a ban on all trade with Japan in iron, steel and
oil and froze all Japanese money in the USA. His aim was to force Japan to keep the peace.
The military leaders in Japan planned a secret and surprise attack to knock out the US
Pacific Fleet. They calculated that this would gain them a two-year period of supremacy at
sea during which they could seize all the territory they wanted in the Far East.

Late in 1941, 360 Japanese bombers took off from aircraft carriers and flew to Pearl
Harbor. The US fleet was caught completely unprepared.

Battleships and aircraft were damaged or destroyed; 2,403 people were killed. Fortunately,
part of the US fleet was at sea and so escaped. So did a large amount of the oil stored
onshore. Japan, had now taken on the most powerful country in the world, the USA.

Japanese advances
The Japanese took the US bases of Guam and Wake Island in the Pacific. They captured
Hong Kong from the British and moved into Malaya. The Dutch East Indies and the
Philippines were invaded early in 1942.

The Japanese attacked Singapore, crossing from Malaya. They took 80,000 prisoners of
war.

JAPAN 1942-1944
The Japanese empire was largely made up of islands, with thousands of miles of sea
between them. Control of the sea was, therefore, vital. However, battleships could easily be
sunk by aircraft flying from aircraft carriers. To control the sea, it was now necessary to
control the air. A naval war would now be fought from aircraft carriers, protected by other
warships.
 35

At the Battle of the Coral Sea the Japanese lost two carriers to America’s one. The Japanese
failed to capture the rest of New Guinea, from which they could have attacked Australia.
This was their first setback.

At the Battle of Midway four Japanese carriers were sunk. It was the turning point of the
war in the Pacific.

Allied counter-attack
The counter-attack on the Japanese positions was three-pronged. US Admiral Nimitz led
the attack westwards across the Pacific. He retook the important base of Guam. In the
south-west Pacific, General MacArthur began to fight his way north-westwards towards the
Philippines.

The third line of attack was launched by the British in Burma. The Japanese believed that
surrender was shameful and that it was much better to die fighting or even to commit
suicide than to be taken by the enemy.

The Japanese wore light uniforms, a singlet, cotton shorts, rubber-soled shoes. There was
no uniformity about either the colour or the form of their dress. This troubled the US troops
since the country through which the war was being fought was fairly thickly populated and
their men were never able to distinguish between friend and enemy.

The Japanese infantry were armed with tommy-guns or other light automatic weapons.
They were ideal for this close-range jungle fighting. They also made a great use of bicycles
that enabled their forward troops to progress at great speed.

Both MacArthur in the islands and General Slim in Burma found the Japanese fierce and
fanatical fighters.

JAPAN 1944-1945
After the Japanese attacked American Pearl Harbour they risked their chances to win the
war since the US was one of the greatest industries in the world. Americans would not
ignore any attack and would not doubt to enter the war.

In October 1944 the American MacArthur invaded the Philippines making the Japanese
throw what was left of their navy in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The loss of 170.000 Japanese
soldiers, four carriers and two battleships meant the ceased of their navy to exist.
By that moment, Japanese Kamikaze (people of ‘Divine Mind’) pilots would crush their
planes loaded with explosives on to American battleships and carriers to destroy them. This
was considered an honourable act and pilots were treated as heroes before committing
suicide. As a result, 34 US ships were sunk and 288 more were damaged.

In 1944 India was invaded by the Japanese. General Slim intervention in Imphal was the
beginning of the British efforts to stop the invasion to finally drive the Japanese back. Soon
the ‘Burma Road’ was opened; this was the only land route to China and meant that the US
 36

could get there through this route. On the contrary, the Chinese were not interested in this
fight and had other enemies to defeat (like the Chinese Communists).

Therefore, the USA launched attacks against the two islands where the Japanese air-raids
were. Fighting until surrender, the Japanese lost; in February 1945 Iwo Jima was taken and
in April Okinawa was taken too. The Japanese Emperor wanted peace but his generals were
ready to go on fighting. The Americans did not think the same and considered they were
losing too many lives.

There was a way to make the war finish quickly, as the American President Truman
wanted. Since 1942 many scientists, who were escaping from Nazi and Fascist dictatorship,
flew to the USA to work on Manhattan Project, to work on the atomic bomb. Years later,
on 16 July 1945, an atomic bomb was first successfully tested.

In July 1945, President Truman, Prime Minister Attlee (UK) and Stalin met at Potsdam,
Germany. In the Allied conference was agreed that if the Japanese did not surrendered, the
bomb would dropped; also that the USSR would enter the war in the east.
The Japanese seemed to ignore this warning. A month later, on 6 August, Colonel Tibetts
piloted the bomber to Hiroshima, the first city destroyed by the atomic bomb that lost
70.000 people. Soon, on 8 August, the USSR declared war on Japan. The second bomb was
dropped, this time on Nagasaki, leaving 40.000 deaths. Those were the only two bombs that
the US possessed, not knowing this, Japan surrendered on 14 August. General MacArthur
was in charge of signing the surrender terms.

All these actions were criticised afterwards, but there were many points of view as regards
how to end the war

In the near future, the USA and the USSR would soon recognise each other as a powerful
enemy.
 37

THE USA ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE WAR

THE TASK OF WINNING THE WAR
On December 7, 1941, the U.S. was thrust into World War II when Japan launched a
surprise attack on the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor. The following day, America
and Great Britain declared war on Japan. On December 10, Germany and Italy declared war
on the U.S.

During World War II, as an alternative to rationing, Americans planted “victory gardens,”
in which they grew their own food. By 1945, some 20 million such gardens were in use and
accounted for about 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in the U.S.

In the earliest days of America’s participation in the war, panic gripped the country. This
fear of attack translated into a ready acceptance by a majority of Americans of the need to
sacrifice in order to achieve victory. During the spring of 1942, a rationing program was
established that set limits on the amount of gas, food and clothing consumers could
purchase. Families were issued ration stamps that were used to buy their allotment of
everything from meat, sugar, fat, butter, vegetables and fruit to gas, tires, clothing and fuel
oil. The United States Office of War Information released posters in which Americans were
urged to “Do with less–so they’ll have enough”. Meanwhile, individuals and communities
conducted drives for the collection of scrap metal, aluminum cans and rubber, all of which
were recycled and used to produce armaments. Individuals purchased U.S. war bonds to
help pay for the high cost of armed conflict.

THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN WORKER

From the outset of the war, it was clear that enormous quantities of airplanes, tanks,
warships, rifles and other armaments would be essential to beating America’s aggressors.
U.S. workers played a vital role in the production of such war-related materials. Many of
these workers were women. Indeed, with tens of thousands of American men joining the
armed forces and heading into training and into battle, women began securing jobs as
welders, electricians and riveters in defense plants. Until that time, such positions had been
strictly for men only.
During the war years, the decrease in the availability of men in the work force also led to an
upsurge in the number of women holding non-war-related factory jobs.

THE PLIGHT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS

Not all American citizens were allowed to retain their independence during World War II.
Just over two months after Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945)
signed into law Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the removal from their
communities and the subsequent imprisonment of all Americans of Japanese descent who
resided on the West Coast.

World War II was the mightiest struggle humankind has ever seen. The United States
hoped to stay out. Drawing on its experience from World War I, Congress passed a series
of Neutrality Acts between 1935 and 1939, which were intended to prevent Americans.
 38

AMERICA PREPARES FOR WAR

After the war began in Europe in 1939, people in America were divided on whether their
countries should take part or stay out. Most Americans hoped the Allies would win, but
they also hoped to keep the United States out of war. The isolationists wanted the country
to stay out of the war at almost any cost. Another group, the interventionists, wanted the
United States to do all in its power to aid the Allies. Canada declared war on Germany
almost at once, while the United States shifted its policy from neutrality to preparedness. It
began to expand its armed forces, build defense plants, and give the Allies all-out aid short
of war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt called upon the United States to be "the great arsenal of
democracy," and supply war materials to the Allies through sale, lease, or loan. The Lend-
Lease bill became law on March 11, 1941. During the next four years, the U.S. sent more
than $50 billion worth of war material to the Allies.

Factories in the United States converted from civilian to war production with amazing
speed. The United States imposed a special excise tax on such luxury items as jewelry and
cosmetics. The government also set up a civil-defense system to protect the country from
attack. Many cities practiced "blackouts" in which cities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
dimmed their lights. Ordinarily, the glare from their lights made ships near the shore easy
targets for submarines.

The heads of government of China, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States
became known as the "Big Four." During the war, the Big Four leaders conferred several
times. Great Britain and the United States worked out the broad strategic outlines of the
war. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to concentrate on
Germany first, and then Japan. They considered Germany the greater and closer enemy.

The Allies fought to preserve their countries and stabilize Europe, as well as destroy
Nazism and establish democracy. The Soviet aim was to drive out the Nazis and emerge
strong enough to continue communization of the world.

Germany and its six allies were known as the Axis. The Allied and Axis countries circled
the globe in World War II. The Allies mobilized about 62 million men and women, while
the Axis mobilized about half that number.

The goal of the Axis powers was simple. Germany intended to build up a powerful empire
by occupying territory to the east and south.

PACIFIC THEATER
Allied strategy to end the war called for an invasion of Japan with the code name Operation
Olympic. Allied warships would continue to raid Japanese shipping and coastal areas, and
Allied bombers would increase their attacks. Air attacks had begun on June 15, 1944, from
bases in China.
 39

Throughout the summer of 1944, the U.S. 20th Air Force raided Japan, Formosa, and
Japanese-held Manchuria, about once a week. The Allies held such superiority in the air
that early in July 1945, General Carl Spaatz, commander of the U.S. Army Strategic Air
Forces in the Pacific, publicly announced in advance the names of cities to be bombed.

In July 1945, the heads of government in Britain, Soviet Union and the United States
conferred and were told that Japan was willing to negotiate a peace, but unwilling to accept
unconditional surrender. An ultimatum was issued, calling for unconditional surrender and
a just peace. When Japan ignored the ultimatum, the United States decided to use the
atomic bomb.

The atomic bomb helped to make an invasion of Japan unnecessary. On August 6, a B-29
called the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare, on the city of
Hiroshima. Three days later, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which killed at
least 40,000.

On August 10, the Japanese government asked the Allies if surrender meant that Emperor
Hirohito would have to give up his throne.

The Allies replied that the Japanese people would decide his fate. On August 14, the Allies
received a message from Japan accepting the surrender terms, and on September 2, aboard
the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Allies and Japan signed the surrender agreement.
President Harry S. Truman proclaimed September 2 as V-J Day (Victory over Japan).

Three years, eight months, and 22 days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, World War II
ended.
 40

POST-WAR CONSEQUENCES

World War II brought an end to the Depression everywhere. Industries had been ignited for
the production of arms and resources to equip fighting forces.

People on the home front built weapons, produced food and supplies, and bought war
bonds. Many historians believe that war production was the key to Allied victory. The
Allies not only mobilized more men and women in their armed forces, but also outproduced
the Axis in weapons and machinery.

Scientific inventions and discoveries also helped shorten the war. The United States
organized its scientific resources in the Office of Scientific Research and Development.
That government agency invented or improved such commodities as radar, rocket
launchers, jet engines, amphibious assault boats, long-range navigational aids, devices for
detecting submarines, and more.

Scientists also made it possible to produce large quantities of penicillin to fight a wide
range of diseases, as well as DDT to fight jungle diseases caused by insects.

The war solved some problems, but created many others. Germany had been the dominant
power on the European continent, while Japan had held that role in Asia. The Soviet Union
moved in quickly to replace Germany as the most powerful country in Europe and also
aimed at taking Japan`s place as the dominant power in Asia.

The Communists under Mao Zedong defeated the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and took over
mainland China by the fall of 1949. With China, France, and Great Britain devastated and
financially exhausted by the war, the United States and the Soviet Union became the two
major powers of the world.

In June 1941, nine European governments-in-exile joined with Great Britain and the
Commonwealth countries in signing the Inter-Allied Declaration, which called for nations
to cooperate and work for lasting peace.

In 1944, an idea emerged to create a post-war international organization. The United

Nations was born on October 24, 1945. Its first sessions were held the following January in
London.

World War II took the lives of more people than any other war in history. Eastern Europe
and East Asia suffered the heaviest losses. Germany and the Soviet Union, and the nations
that had been ground between them, may have lost as much as a tenth of their populations.
In 1944, President Roosevelt asked the War Department to devise a plan for bringing war
criminals to justice. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau proposed executing prominent
Nazi leaders at the time of capture and banishing others to far-off corners of the world,
while German POWs would be forced to rebuild Europe.
 41

Secretary of War Henry Stimson saw things differently, and proposed trying Nazi leaders in
court. Roosevelt chose the latter. In early October 1945, the four prosecuting nations — the
United States, Great Britain, France, and Soviet Union — issued an indictment against 24
men charged with the systematic murder of millions of people, and planning and carrying
out the war in Europe.

Twelve trials were conducted, involving more than a hundred defendants. In addition to the
individual indictments, three organizations were tried and found guilty. They were the SS,
the Gestapo, and the Corps of the Political Leaders of the Nazi Party. The Nuremberg War
Trials took place from 1945 to 1949.

The United States formally ended hostilities with Germany on October 19, 1951. West
Germany would accept neither the division of Germany nor East Germany`s frontiers.
Thus, Germany was the only Axis power that did not become a member of the United
Nations.

A cold war between the Soviets and the democracies ensued. In Asia, victory resulted in the
takeover of China and Manchuria by the People`s Republic of China, chaos in Southeast
Asia, and a division of Korea, with the Soviets in the North and American`s in the South.
Another war already lay on the horizon.

IMMEDIATE EFFECTS

Warsaw: Aftermath of war

At the end of the war, millions of people were homeless, the European economy had
collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure had been destroyed. The
Soviet Union, too, had been heavily affected. In response, in 1947, U.S. Secretary of State
George Marshall devised the "European Recovery Program", which became known as the
Marshall Plan. Under the plan, during 1948-1952 the United States government allocated
US$13 billion for the reconstruction of Western Europe.

United Kingdom
By the end of the war, the economy of the United Kingdom was exhausted. More than a
quarter of its national wealth had been spent. Until the introduction in 1941 of Lend-Lease
aid from the US, the UK had been spending its assets to purchase American equipment
including aircraft and ships. Lend-lease came just before its reserves were exhausted.

In spring 1945, the Labour Party withdrew from the wartime coalition government, forcing
a general election. Following a landslide victory, Labour held more than 60% of the seats in
the House of Commons and formed a new government on 26 July 1945 under Clement
Attlee.

Britain's war debt was described by some in the American administration as a "millstone
round the neck of the British economy". Although there were suggestions for an
international conference to tackle the issue, in August 1945 the U.S. announced
unexpectedly that the Lend-Lease programme was to end immediately.
 42

The abrupt withdrawal of American Lend Lease support to Britain on 2 September 1945
dealt a severe blow to the plans of the new government. It was only with the completion of
the Anglo-American loan by the United States to Great Britain on 15 July 1946 that some
measure of economic stability was restored. However, the loan was made primarily to
support British overseas expenditure in the immediate post-war years and not to implement
the Labour government's policies for domestic welfare reforms and the nationalization of
key industries.

Soviet Union
The Soviet Union suffered enormous losses in the war against Germany. The Soviet
population decreased by about 40 million during the war; of these, 8.7 million were combat
deaths. The 19 million non-combat deaths had a variety of causes: starvation in the siege of
Leningrad; conditions in German prisons and concentration camps; mass shootings of
civilians; harsh Labour in German industry; famine and disease; conditions in Soviet
camps; and service in German or German-controlled military units fighting the Soviet
Union. Soviet ex-POWs and civilians repatriated from abroad were suspected of having
been Nazi collaborators and were sent to force Labour camps after scrutiny by Soviet
intelligence, NKVD. Many ex-POWs and young civilians were also conscripted to serve in
the Red Army. Others worked in Labour battalions to rebuild infrastructure destroyed
during the war.

The economy had been devastated. Roughly a quarter of the Soviet Union's capital
resources were destroyed and industrial and agricultural output in 1945 fell far short of pre-
war levels. To help rebuild the country, the Soviet government obtained limited credits
from Britain and Sweden; it refused assistance offered by the United States under the
Marshall Plan. Instead, the Soviet Union compelled Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe to
supply machinery and raw materials. Germany and former Nazi satellites made reparations
to the Soviet Union. The reconstruction programme emphasized heavy industry to the
detriment of agriculture and consumer goods.

The immediate post-war period in Europe was dominated by the Soviet Union annexing, or
converting into Soviet Socialist Republics, all the countries captured by the Red Army
driving the German invaders out of central and Eastern Europe. New Soviet satellite states
rose in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and East Germany;
the last of these was created from the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. Yugoslavia
emerged as an independent Communist state allied but not aligned with the Soviet Union.
The Allies established the Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for Japan to
administer their occupation of that country while the establishment Allied Control Council,
administered occupied Germany. In accordance with the Potsdam Conference agreements,
the Soviet Union occupied and subsequently annexed the strategic island of Sakhalin.

Germany
Post-WWII occupation zones of Germany shown as annexed by Poland and the Soviet
Union, plus the Saar protectorate and divided Berlin. East Germany was formed by the
 43

Soviet Zone, while West Germany was formed by the American, British, and French zones
in 1949 and the Saar in 1957.

In the west, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. The Sudetenland reverted to

Czechoslovakia following the European Advisory Commission's decision to delimit
German territory to be the territory it held on December 31, 1937. Close to one quarter of
pre-war (1937) Germany was de facto annexed by the Allies. The remainder of Germany
was partitioned into four zones of occupation, coordinated by the Allied Control Council.
The Saar was detached and put in economic union with France in 1947. In 1949, the
Federal Republic of Germany was created out of the Western zones. The Soviet zone
became the German Democratic Republic.

Germany paid reparations to the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, mainly in
the form of dismantled factories, forced Labour, and coal. German standard of living was to
be reduced to its 1932 level. Beginning immediately after the German surrender and
continuing for the next two years, the U.S. and Britain pursued an "intellectual reparations"
programme to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in
Germany. In accordance with the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, reparations were also assessed
from the countries of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland.

U.S. policy in post-war Germany from April 1945 until July 1947 had been that no help
should be given to the Germans in rebuilding their nation, save for the minimum required to
mitigate starvation. The Allies' immediate post-war "industrial disarmament" plan for
Germany had been to destroy Germany's capability to wage war by complete or partial de-
industrialization. The first industrial plan for Germany, signed in 1946, required the
destruction of 1,500 manufacturing plants to lower German heavy industry output to
roughly 50% of its level. Dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951. By 1950,
equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants, and steel production capacity
had been reduced After lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Generals Lucius D. Clay
and George Marshall, the Truman administration accepted that economic recovery in
Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base on
which it had previously been dependent. In July 1947, President Truman rescinded on
"national security grounds" the directive that had ordered the U.S. occupation forces to
"take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany." A new directive
recognized that "an orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a
stable and productive Germany." From mid-1946 onwards Germany received U.S.
government aid through the GARIOA programme. From 1948 onwards West Germany also
became a minor beneficiary of the Marshall Plan. Volunteer organizations had initially
been forbidden to send food, but in early 1946 the Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to
Operate in Germany was founded. The prohibition against sending CARE Packages to
individuals in Germany was rescinded on 5 June 1946.

After the German surrender, the International Red Cross was prohibited from providing aid
such as food or visiting POW camps for Germans inside Germany. However, after making
approaches to the Allies in the autumn of 1945 it was allowed to investigate the camps in
 44

the UK and French occupation zones of Germany, as well as to provide relief to the
prisoners held there.

Italy
The 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy spelled the end of the Italian colonial empire, along
with other border revisions. The 1947 Paris Peace Treaties compelled Italy to pay
$360,000,000 in war reparations: $125,000,000 to Yugoslavia, $105,000,000 to Greece,
$100,000,000 to the Soviet Union, $25,000,000 to Ethiopia and $5,000,000 to Albania. In
the 1946 Italian constitutional referendum the Italian monarchy was abolished, having been
associated with the deprivations of the war and the Fascist rule.

Unlike in Germany and Japan, no war crimes tribunals were held against Italian military
and political leaders, though the Italian resistance summarily executed some of them (such
as Mussolini) at the end of the war.

Japan
After the war, the Allies rescinded Japanese pre-war annexations such as Manchuria, and
Korea became independent. The Philippines was returned to the United States. Burma,
Malaya & Singapore was returned to Britain and French Indo-China back to France. The
Dutch East Indies was to be handed back to the Dutch, but was resisted leading to the
Indonesian war for independence. At the Yalta Conference, U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt had secretly traded the Japanese Kurils and south Sakhalin to the Soviet Union in
return for Soviet entry in the war with Japan. The Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands,
provoking the Kuril Islands dispute, which is ongoing, as Russia continues to occupy the
islands.

Okinawa became a main U.S. staging point. The U.S. covered large areas of it with military
bases and continued to occupy it until 1972, years after the end of the occupation of the
main islands. To skirt the Geneva Convention, the Allies classified many Japanese soldiers
as Japanese Surrendered Personnel instead of POWs and used them as forced Labour until
1947. The UK, France, and the Netherlands conscripted some Japanese troops to fight
colonial resistances elsewhere in Asia. General Douglas MacArthur established the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The Allies collected reparations from
Japan.

To further remove Japan as a potential future military threat, the Far Eastern Commission
decided to de-industrialize Japan, with the goal of reducing Japanese standard of living to
what prevailed between 1930 and 1934. In the end, the de-industrialization program in
Japan was implemented to a lesser degree than the one in Germany. Japan received
emergency aid from GARIOA, as did Germany. In early 1946, the Licensed Agencies for
Relief in Asia were formed and permitted to supply Japanese with food and clothes. In
April 1948 the Johnston Committee Report recommended that the economy of Japan
should be reconstructed due to the high cost to U.S. taxpayers of continuous emergency aid.
Survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as hibakusha, were
ostracized by Japanese society. Japan provided no special assistance to these people until
1952.
 45

POST-WAR CONFERENCES
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm
Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. (In some
older documents it is also referred to as the Berlin Conference of the Three Heads of
Government of the USSR, USA and UK) Participants were the Soviet Union, the United
Kingdom and the United States. The three powers were represented by Communist Party
General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, and, later, Clement
Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman.

Stalin, Churchill, and Truman—as well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill
while awaiting the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then replaced Churchill as
Prime Minister after the Labour Party's defeat of the Conservatives—gathered to decide
how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to
unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on 8 May (V-E Day). The goals of the
conference also included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and
countering the effects of the war.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONGST THE LEADERS

The Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe

By July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist take-over, refugees were fleeing
from these countries. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland. He insisted that
his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks and
believed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence.

Britain had a new Prime Minister

The results of the British election became known during the conference. As a result of the
Labour Party victory over the Conservative Party the leadership changed hands.
Consequently, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee assumed leadership following
Winston Churchill, whose Soviet policy since the early 1940s had differed considerably
from former US President Roosevelt's, with Churchill believing Stalin to be a "devil"-like
tyrant leading a vile system.

America had a new President, and the war was ending

President Roosevelt died on 12 April 1945, and Vice-President Harry Truman assumed the
presidency; his succession saw VE Day (Victory in Europe) within a month and VJ Day
(Victory in Japan) on the horizon. During the war and in the name of Allied unity,
Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in
part of Europe. He explained that "I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man"
and reasoned "I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from
him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a
world of democracy and peace."
 46

While inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the allied progress of
the war. George Lenczowski notes "despite the contrast between his relatively modest
background and the international glamour of his aristocratic predecessor, [Truman] had the
courage and resolution to reverse the policy that appeared to him naive and dangerous",
which was "in contrast to the immediate, often ad hoc moves and solutions dictated by the
demands of the war". With the end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with
a new challenge, the nature of the relationship between the two emerging superpowers.

Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, and
he became increasingly suspicious of Soviet intentions under Stalin. Truman and his
advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which was
incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February.
In addition, it was at the Potsdam Conference that Truman became aware of possible
complications elsewhere, when Stalin objected to Churchill's proposal for an early Allied
withdrawal from Iran, ahead of the schedule agreed at the Tehran Conference. However,
the Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in
person.

POTSDAM AGREEMENTS
At the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following
actions. All other issues were to be answered by the final peace conference to be called as
soon as possible.

Indochina
Allied Chiefs of Staff at the Potsdam Conference decided to temporarily partition Vietnam
at the 17th parallel (just south of Da Nang) for the purposes of operational convenience.
It was agreed that British forces would take the surrender of Japanese forces in Saigon for
the southern half of Indochina, whilst Japanese troops in the northern half would surrender
to the Chinese.

Germany
• Issuance of a statement of aims of the occupation of Germany by the Allies:
demilitarization, denazification, democratization, decentralization and decartelization.

• Division of Germany and Austria respectively into four occupation zones (earlier
agreed in principle at Yalta), and the similar division of each capital, Berlin and Vienna,
into four zones.

• Agreement on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.

• Reversion of all German annexations in Europe, including Sudetenland, Alsace-

Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland

• Germany's eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder-Neisse line,

effectively reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to its 1937 borders.
The territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and
 47

two thirds of Pomerania. These areas were mainly agricultural, with the exception of Upper
Silesia which was the second largest centre of German heavy industry.

• "Orderly and humane" expulsions of the German populations remaining beyond the
new eastern borders of Germany; from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but not
Yugoslavia.

• Agreement on war reparations to the Soviet Union from their zone of occupation in
Germany. It was also agreed that 10% of the industrial capacity of the western zones
unnecessary for the German peace economy should be transferred to the Soviet Union
within 2 years. Stalin proposed and it was accepted that Poland was to be excluded from
division of German compensation to be later granted 15% of compensation given to Soviet
Union.

• Ensuring that German standards of living did not exceed the European average. The
types and amounts of industry to dismantle to achieve this was to be determined later (see
The industrial plans for Germany).

• Destruction of German industrial war-potential through the destruction or control of

all industry with military potential. To this end, all civilian shipyards and aircraft factories
were to be dismantled or otherwise destroyed. All production capacity associated with war-
potential, such as metals, chemical, machinery etc. were to be reduced to a minimum level
which was later determined by the Allied Control Commission. Manufacturing capacity
thus made "surplus" was to be dismantled as reparations or otherwise destroyed. All
research and international trade was to be controlled. The economy was to be decentralized
(decartelization). The economy was also to be reorganized with primary emphasis on
agriculture and peaceful domestic industries. In early 1946 agreement was reached on the
details of the latter: Germany was to be converted into an agricultural and light industry
economy. German exports were to be coal, beer, toys, textiles, etc. — to take the place of
the heavy industrial products which formed most of Germany's pre-war exports.

Poland
 A Provisional Government of National Unity recognized by all three powers should
be created (known as the Lublin Poles). When the Big Three recognized the Soviet
controlled government, it meant, in effect, the end of recognition for the existing
Polish government-in-exile (known as the London Poles).

 Poles who were serving in the British Army should be free to return to Poland, with
no security upon their return to the communist country guaranteed.

 The provisional western border should be the Oder-Neisse line, defined by the Oder
and Neisse rivers. Parts of East Prussia and the former Free City of Danzig should
be under Polish administration. However the final delimitation of the western
frontier of Poland should await the peace settlement (which would take place at the
Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in 1990.)
 48

 The Soviet Union declared it would settle the reparation claims of Poland from its
own share of the overall reparation payments.

POTSDAM DECLARATION
In addition to the Potsdam Agreement, on 26 July, Churchill, Truman, and Chiang Kai-
shek, Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China (the Soviet Union was not at war
with Japan) issued the Potsdam Declaration which outlined the terms of surrender for Japan
during World War II in Asia.

AFTERMATH
Truman had mentioned an unspecified "powerful new weapon" to Stalin during the
conference. Towards the end of the conference, Japan was given an ultimatum to surrender
(in the name of the United States, Great Britain and China) or meet "prompt and utter
destruction", which did not mention the new bomb. Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki was to
maintain silence (mokusatsu, which was interpreted as a declaration that the Empire of
Japan should ignore the ultimatum). Therefore the atomic bombs were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The justification was that
both cities were legitimate military targets, to end the war swiftly, and preserve American
lives; however, the timing of Aug 6 and Aug 9, suggests that Truman did not want Stalin,
who was set to invade China Aug 15 to remove Japanese occupation, involved in the terms
of Japan's surrender.
In addition to annexing several occupied countries as (or into) Soviet Socialist Republics,
other countries were converted into Soviet Satellite states within the Eastern Bloc, such as
the People's Republic of Poland, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the People's Republic
of Hungary, the Czechoslovak Republic, the People's Republic of Romania, the People's
Republic of Albania, and later East Germany from the Soviet zone of German occupation.
 49

THE UNITED NATIONS

ORIGINS
In the Second World War, Roosevelt and Churchill drew up the Atlantic Charter as the
basis of their war aims. They put forward the “Four Freedoms” as their reasons for fighting:
freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, freedom of religion. These
ideals became their foundation for a better world after the war.

Roosevelt and Churchill proposed setting up an international peace-keeping organization.

The “Four Freedoms” became the Charter of the United Nations. This was signed at San
Francisco in 1945. There were 51 member countries at the beginning. There are now 193
members.

ORGANIZATION OF THE UN
The UN Charter comprises a preamble and 19 chapters divided into 111 articles. The
Charter sets forth the purposes of the United Nations as: the maintenance of international
peace and security, the development of friendly relations between states, and the
achievement of cooperation in solving international economic, social, cultural, and
humanitarian problems. It expresses a strong hope for the equality of all people and the
expansion of basic freedoms.

The principal organs of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council,
the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of
Justice, and the Secretariat.

The General Assembly is where all member nations meet. Speeches are made on any issue,
and each country has one vote. All other parts of the UN are responsible to the General
Assembly.

All UN administrative functions are handled by the Secretariat, with the secretary general at
its head. The secretary general has authority to bring situations to the attention of various
UN organs, has position as an impartial party in effecting conciliation, and has power to
"perform such functions as are entrusted to him" by other UN organs.

The International Court of Justice is the UN's principal judicial organ. Based in The Hague,
Netherlands, the Court pursues two primary objectives: 1) settling legal disputes submitted
by states in accordance with international law, and 2) advising on legal questions brought
by authorized international organs and agencies. It consists of 15 judges elected to 9-year
terms by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council during
independent sittings. The Court rules in accordance with international treaties, conventions,
international custom, and general principles of law.

The Economic and Social Council is composed of 54 members elected by the General
Assembly to three-year terms. It works under the authority of the General Assembly and
seeks to promote progress in terms of higher standards of living, full employment, and
economic and social viability; it also seeks solutions to international socioeconomic, health,
 50

and other problems through international and cultural cooperation. Finally, it advocates for
the universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.
The Trusteeship Council was originally established as a main organ of the UN and was
entrusted with the administration of territories placed under the trusteeship system. The
Trusteeship Council suspended operations on Nov. 1, 1994, after the October independence
of Palau, the last UN territory. In a May 1994 resolution, the Council amended its rules of
procedure, agreeing to meet only as occasion required (by its decision or by request of a
majority of its own General Assembly/Security Council members) rather than annually. It
is comprised of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Now that the aims of
the trusteeship system have been fulfilled, however, its functions and powers have been
lying dormant.

The Security Council is the active part of the UN. Its members meet regularly to deal with
crises as they happen and recommend action. The USA, USSR, Britain, France and China
are permanent members. Other countries also serve on the Security Council, but the five
permanent members have a veto – that is, any one of them can stop the Security Council
acting. The Security Council could settle disputes in three ways: by offering to help in an
argument; by imposing economic sanctions, such as a boycott, on a country which was in
the wrong; or raising an army to give help to a country which had been unfairly attacked.

U.N. AID AGENCIES

The aid agencies carry out important work in the needy areas of the world. For instance, the
UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) looks after the refugees
who have suffered from the many wars that have taken place since 1945. The ILO
(International Labour Organization) tries to protect workers all over the world. It also
teaches people skills to enable them to support themselves. The FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization) advises on all aspects of agriculture and leads international efforts to defeat
hunger. The WHO (World Health Organization) is concerned with international public
health and trains people in fighting disease. UNICEF (United Nations International
Children’s Emergency Fund) works for all aspects of the health and welfare of children.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank act as bankers to poorer countries.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) deals with
education and attempts to bring the people of the world into a closer understanding of one
another.
 51

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