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WWII: Hitler's Rise and Early Invasions

This document provides an overview of the key events leading up to and during the early stages of World War II, including: 1) Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 and annexation of Austria in 1938, enabled by the Western policy of appeasement. 2) The Munich Agreement of 1938 allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. 3) The Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 permitted Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, initiating World War II. 4) Germany's swift defeat of Poland was followed by victories over Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France in 1940 through the use of blitzkrieg warfare

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David Duez
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2K views39 pages

WWII: Hitler's Rise and Early Invasions

This document provides an overview of the key events leading up to and during the early stages of World War II, including: 1) Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 and annexation of Austria in 1938, enabled by the Western policy of appeasement. 2) The Munich Agreement of 1938 allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. 3) The Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 permitted Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, initiating World War II. 4) Germany's swift defeat of Poland was followed by victories over Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France in 1940 through the use of blitzkrieg warfare

Uploaded by

David Duez
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 26 – World War II “The War Begins”

World War II Memorial Washington, DC


World War II (Video 4 min)
Steps to War – Hitler Takes
The Industrial Rhine River Valley
• Hitler ignores the Versailles
Treaty
• Hitler knew the west would not
raise a hand to stop him, he was
right
• March 7, 1936 he took back
the Rhineland
• Appeasement – European
nations would satisfy
reasonable demands in
exchange for peace.
• Great Britain allowed Hitler to take
back the Rhineland
Nazi Soldiers Retake The Rhineland
Major Industrial Region along the Rhine River
March 13,1938
Hitler Defies Versailles Treaty and Marches into Austria – Video 1:00
“You have only to Appeasement
look at the map to
see that nothing
we could do could
possibly save
Czechoslovakia
from being overrun
by the Germans.”
- British PM Neville
Chamberlain, writing to his
sister in 1938.

The Rhineland

The world’s leaders


stood by and allowed
Hitler’s rise. This photo
shopped image
humorously shows a
rather dire situation.
Hitler grows in power.
Munich Conference – Height of Appeasement
• British, French, German and Italian representatives
• Reached an agreement to allow Hitler to have his demands
• Hitler got Sudetenland and the Czechs were
abandoned by the west.
• Neville Chamberlain – Prime Minister of
Britain claimed he had negotiated:
“Peace for our time”
The Happy War?

Crest of the
Sudetenland
Germany, France, England & Italy Sign Treaty – Video 2:00
From left to right, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini as they prepare Sudeten Woman Weeps as Hitler
to sign the Munich Agreement motorcade moves through her city.

“I will begin by saying what everybody else would like to ignore or forget… we have sustained a total and unmitigated
defeat… And I will say this, that I believe the Czechs, left to themselves… would have been able to make better terms than
they got. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude which has befallen Great Britain and France…
And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.” - Winston Churchill,
Parliamentary Debates, 1938

Angry Czechs experience Prime Minister Chamberlain's "peace".


Nazi-Soviet Pact Allows Hitler Invades Poland
• Hitler demanded the Polish port of Danzig
The map shows the beginning of World War II in
• Great Britain offered to protect Poland September 1939 in a wider European context.

• France & Britain tried to negotiate a deal with


Soviets to protect Poland
• August 23, 1939 Hitler and Stalin agree on a treaty:
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Stalin gets control of Eastern Poland
Sept. 1, 1939 Hitler invades Poland
Hitler Betrays Poland to Sign Friendship Treaty with Moscow (USSR) – Video 1:00
Sept 1, 1939 Hitler reviews troops in
Hitler Addresses Reichstag Warsaw, Poland. October 5,
“I do not want to be anything but the first soldier of the 1939
German Reich. I have once more put on the
uniform which was once most holy and precious
to me. I shall only take it off after victory or I shall
not live to see the end…
Just as I myself am ready to risk my life any time for
my people and for Germany, so I demand the same of
everyone else. But anyone who thinks that he can
oppose this national commandment, whether
directly or indirectly, will die!
Traitors can expect death!”
- From Nazism 1919-1935, A Documentary Reader
German Soldiers Enter Poland
September 1939
German Blitzkrieg 1940
German soldiers march through Warsaw, Poland.
German Blitzkrieg “lightning war”
using armored columns called
panzer divisions with air support
– Stuka dive-bomber planes first
– Then, Panzer Tanks = 300 per division
Sept.1939: In 4 weeks, Poland Surrenders, then…
April 1940: Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia
May 1940: Netherlands, Belgium and then France!

The classic characteristic of what is commonly known as "blitzkrieg" is a highly


mobile form of infantry and armor working in combined arms teams.
German Stuka dive-bombers
September 1, 1939 Hitler Invades Poland (Video 1:39)
Danish troops await a
German Invasion of
Denmark, 1940
Hitler Invades Norway and Denmark (video :40)
AXIS Powers – Pact of Steel
May 22, 1939
Alliance of Germany and
Kingdom of Italy
Axis Powers later add Japan
with the Tripartite Pact September 1940.
Battle of France, 1940 Hitler’s Troops Bear Down on Paris

German Troops in Paris, France 1940


Dunkirk – Triumph of man over machine (Video 2:20)
Battle of Dunkirk
Germans drive the Allies into the
sea.
Maginot Line –
French fortifications protecting from German invasion.
June 10, 1940 Mussolini Enters the War (Video 1:00)
Hitler Takes Continental Europe
• French sign an armistice on
June 22, 1940 with Germany.
• Britain was his last target to defeat
• US stands by under
isolationist policy
• FDR wanted to go to war, but did not have
public support
Hitler Gloats Over Victories – Video :40

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