World War II
World War 2 commenced in 1939 when Germany attacked Poland. Having witnessed the overrun, Britain and France declared war against Germany as their response. However, declaration of the two states was weak and Germany made a launching of their second initiative by invading Denmark and Norway. France, Belgium and Netherlands were also attacked and all these nations were conquered swiftly (Weinberg, 1996). Germany made a genocide of six million European Jews among other deaths that were made which was accompanied by a massive loss of property and peace distortion. This war brought the era of nuclear weapons. It also brought the advent of cold war and the decolonization of the third world countries.
The treaty of Versailles tried to bring thing in order by trying to paralyze Germany’s strength. The treaty demanded that Germany should pay for the loss and damages that had occurred. It also put some military restrictions which were to limit the attacks of the Germans. The Germans were angry due to the fact that the Versailles treaty affected both the economy and the national pride for Germany. In response, Germany attacked Europe and the scandals continued (Weinberg, 1996).
When Hitler got hold of Germany, his aim was to dominate the whole of Europe. He felt that he had all the potential he needed to expand his territory and therefore he initiated the plan. First he started using threats of violence to the neighboring countries. Germany had also recognized the inviolability of Treaty of Locarno in 1925 and therefore Hitler repudiated the treaty they were to make with France and Belgium. This brought censure to Britain and France but they never intervened for that. Hitler’s target was to win Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland which had been separated from Germany after the reconstruction of the European map of World War 1. He started his foreign policy which succeeded brilliantly because of his popularity (Weinberg, 1996). By 1938, all the plans had been achieved without violence. The justification of his moves was lebensraum which meant a living space. He claimed that his people needed a place to live and get food for the German people.
Hitler’s demand for more territorial space was brought to discussion with Chamberlain where they used to meet in a secret mountain. Chamberlain agreed to let go Sudetenland in exchange for Germany and this was made successfully without a gunshot when the Germany troops occupied Sudetenland. Britain had thought that this agreement would prevent the war but instead it was only a delay. Czechoslovakia was soon occupied by the Germany troops and Poland was to be the next in line. In 1940, Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill took over. He was known to be a bitter critic of appeasement and therefore all his actions vilified appeasement.
The ending of the war was brought by various turning points such as the battle of the U.S with Midway, inversion of France and Italy and the bomb blasts in Japan. The war came to a close when Axis power surrendered unconditionally (Weinberg, 1996).
Between 1941 and 1945, Jews who had resided in Europe were systematically murdered with the mass genocide of six million Jews being the largest. The Nazi regime comprised of every arm of German’s government and all were involved in the genocide. Jews and other religious and political groups were oppressed including the Soviet citizens, Romans homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witness and other mentally and physically challenged persons (Weinberg, 1996). The killing and oppression of the minority and ethnic groups was a command from Nazi and so individual soldiers had to obey the commands. Therefore the individual soldiers were not accountable for these crimes they had committed.
Reference
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Weinberg, G. (1996). Germany, Hitler and World War II: Essays in modern German and world history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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