Question 3: Was Adolf Hitler solely responsible for WW2 ?

Document 1 : Boston Evening Globe – 1939

Document 2 : Mein Kampf (1925) by Adolf Hitler :

“If the German people, in their historic

development, had possessed tribal unity like
other nations, the German Reich today would
be the master of the entire world.”

(Document 3 : British newspaper -

legend:

“Wonder how long the honeymoon will last ?”

Document 4 : Article from the Guardian :

Russia and Germany: non-aggression treaty to be signed – Ribbentrop flying to Moscow tomorrow - 22 August 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union have agreed to conclude a pact of non-aggression. The surprising
announcement was made in Berlin last night by the official German news agency. It was added
that Herr von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister, is flying to Moscow tomorrow to
complete the negotiations. Early this morning the Russian Tass Agency issued a similar
statement. The news was completely unexpected. There had been rumours in Berlin of a meeting,
but that was all.

Document 5 : German propaganda

Was Adolf Hitler solely responsible for WW2?

INTRO

- WW2 started on 1939 and ended in 1945

- WW1 (1914-18) had created instability in Europe
- This set the stage for another international conflict—World War II—which broke
out two decades later and would prove even more devastating.
- Germany was economically and politically unstable after WW1
- And Adolf Hitler rose to power within this context
- He was the leader of the Nazi Party
- He had the ambition the dominate the world, so…
- He rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan.
- Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939
- This drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the
beginning of World War II.
- WW2 involved France, Britain and the United States against Russia, Germany
and Italy
- Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land
and property around the globe than any previous war.
- Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered
in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s diabolical plan
- Assuming that Hitler was the sole responsible for the war is logical
- After all, he was a Nazi, he remilitarised his country and he was the one
declaring war to Poland to start with
- But we can wonder if other elements also played a role for WW2
- Hitler took power in a country in crisis, during the Great Recession that hit the
world in the 30s, with a population full of resentment following the WW1 and
the Versailles Treaty – in a global environment that saw the rise of extremism.

PART 1 – Hitler is the one responsible for WW2…

- Hitler was born in 1889 and died in April 1945 (by suicide)
- Hitler's rise to power traces to 1919, when he joined the German Workers' Party
that became the Nazi Party.
- With his oratorical skills and use of propaganda, he soon became its leader.
- On January 30, 1933, Hindenburg offered him the chancellorship of Germany.
His cabinet included few Nazis at that point.
- Once in power, Hitler established an absolute dictatorship.
- He was referred to as « the Führer » of Germany.
- He used violence to achieve his political objectives and recruited party members
willing to do the same
- Very quickly all non-Nazi parties, organizations, and labor unions ceased to
exist.
- The army leaders approved Hitler’s actions.
- the chancellorship and the presidency merged together which included the
supreme command of the armed forces of the Reich.
- Now officers and men took an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally.
- Economic recovery and a fast reduction in unemployment (coincident with world
recovery, but for which Hitler took credit) made the regime increasingly popular
- He was mostly interested in foreign policy.
 - As he had made clear in Mein Kampf, the reunion of the German peoples was his
major ambition.

- He was antisemite and identified the German nation with Aryan supremacy over
all other races (DOCUMENT 5)
- He put in place concentration camps and gazed Slavic, Romany and mostly
Jewish. This was called the ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’.
- Expansion was his goal to create a an even more powerful Germany.
- He started to re-arm the country and did not respect the conditions of the Treaty
of Versailles
- He invaded Poland in September 1939 and that clearly started the war
(DOCUMENT 1)
- So, Hitler is responsible for starting WW2… but let’s look at the context a little
closer

PART2 – …but the national and global contexts helped

- Let’s first look at the national context

- WW1 ended with the signature of the Versailles Treaty on 18 November 1919
- The terms of the treaty required that Germany pay financial reparations, disarm,
lose territory, and give up all of its overseas colonies.
- This let Germany in a terrible economical state (hyperinflation – the loss of the
value of the mark against the USD) and with an angry population.
- On top of that the treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany and filled them with
resentment
- When Hitler came to power, Germany was in a critical state.
- They were craving for a leader that could put them and their economical state
back into place.

- Now, let’s look at the global environment

- WW1 caused the downfall of four monarchies: Germany, Turkey, Austria-
Hungary, and Russia.
- Economic crisis on
- 1929 – global crash followed by the Great Depression which created high
unemployment
- Such events always facilitate the rise of extremists as people do not believe in
democracies anymore…
- The war made people more open to other ideologies, such as the Bolsheviks that
came to power in Russia and fascism that triumphed in Italy
- WW1 largely marked the end of colonialism, and the people became more
nationalistic
- Social life also changed: women had to run businesses while the men were at war
and labor laws started to be enforced due to mass production and mechanization.
People all wanted better living standards.
- So there was an eagerness for change.
- Also, after this interwar period was rather tense amongst EU countries
o The League of Nations (another product of Versailles) failed (the US did
not participate, Germany, Japan, Italy ultimately left…)
 o The Nazis re-armed Germany in spite of the Treaty of Versailles and
without any sanction or protest from France or UK
o Hitler reoccupied the Rhine region (which helped making him popular in
Germany) even though that was not allowed either by Versailles Treaty
o When Germany invaded the Sudetenland, no one really protested, in fear
of another war
o This led to the signature of the Munich Agreement without questions
about Hitler’s demands… which was surreal
o NEED TO ADD STUFF ABOUT THE DOC 3 and 4
- So when Hitler invaded Poland… one could think not much had been done to ensure this
and what was about to happen would not take place.

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that Hitler was the one who started and wanted this war. He was about terriroty
expansion and building a powerful Germany.
But this happened within a very specific context. The treaty of Versailles, the economic state of
Germany, the anger and revenge wanted by Germany upon the rest of Europe provided the right
environment for his rise in the country.
The international scene was tense and in crisis. And no one reacted when Hitler was taking steps
that were not allowed by the Treaty of Versailles by fear of creating another war.

The rise of Hitler did not happen overnight. But yet, it’s only when it was almost too late (with the
invasion of Poland) that France, Britain and the others decided to oppose…hence starting WW2.

One can wonder if this could happen again nowadays.

We see the rise of extremist parties in many countries within Europe. In France for example, with
Marine Le Pen – who did her best score ever at the last Presidential election.

Will we ever learn lessons from our past history?