This quote is clear of how manipulative Hitler himself is, how he himself says how easy it is to control people and make them do whatever he wants. If this was read and not underestimated in the time when Hitler came to power, he could have been easily stopped. Also if it was not for the treaty, Hitler would have never got the anger and fuel to come to power like he did, so maybe it could have been made less harsh on Germany? I would think that would definitely be a point where Hitler could have been stopped in coming to power for long since the war had started, already in 1919 when the treaty was written and signed.
While Hitler was serving time in prison, in 1923 Germany was facing problems. She owned France money for the reparations of the previous war (once again due to the treaty) which made it impossible for German people to live on the salary they got, unemployment was then high and more money was printed in an attempt to solve the problem, this only turned out in hyperinflation where money was worth nothing. Gustav Stresemann dealt with these problems once he came became the Chancellor of Germany. He also signed the Dawes Plan with Britain, France and USA saying that that Germany would start paying reparations and there after Germany was allowed to join the League of Nations, the French agreed to leave the Ruhr and the Americans said they would lend money to Germany so they would be able to repay the reparations. As the situation was presumed to become better for Germany and countries were beginning to view Germany in a more positive light, Stresemann died in 1929 and three weeks later, the Wall Street crash took place bringing with it great financial and economical problems to Germany. It was here in this extreme situation, Hitler and his extremist Nazi party said and promised people he was the one who could solve all these problems, make Germany great again, reminded the people of parts of the treaty that they would not like and promised that if he was elected, he would refuse to abide by many terms in the treaty. He realised that the more he promised, the more the people loved him and the more votes his party got. By 1932 the Nazi party were the single larges party, later in 1933 President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany in the belief that he would not last long enough. Hitler did, and once his party became the overall majority, he passed the Enabling Act which gave him the power to make laws. When Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler made himself der Führer and dictator of Germany. The worlds powers saw Hitler simply as another dictator promising his people things he couldn’t achieve, they could not possible have known at this time that Hitler would lead Germany to war as he came to power legally and did not do anything wrong. The people who voted for him had every right to do so for should they not vote for someone they thought could fulfil their greatest wishes and say he would make Germany whole again? They believed he could thanks to his excellent speeches. Once Hitler was in power, I cannot blame the people for not protesting against his extremist views because they would be punished or executed. It was maybe not wise of Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor of Germany and underestimate him, but I think that if he did not, Hitler would find another way to come to power as Hindenburg would soon die and Hitler was a true opportunist and a man who always achieved his goals.
Once Hitler was in power, he took Germany out of the League of Nations so that nobody has the power over him and then started to rearm and build up Germany’s forces in 1935, going against the Treaty of Versailles. He did not have the right to do that, but as other countries were beginning to have a positive view towards Germany, they thought that the treaty was just unfair on Germany and that it would be ok for Germany to have some of it’s dignity back by having a larger army. If any country would go against this and say Hitler has no right to break the treaty, I think the war would just have been delayed for Hitler would have secretly rearm in one way or another, although Hitler could have been stopped already here if the countries threatened him with war for if war was to breakout at that time, Hitler had no effective army and could have failed, but then again no country would want a war at that time because of the exhaustion of the previous war. In 1935 Britain signed an agreement with Hitler which said that Germany could build a navy up to one third of the size of Britain’s. This seems to suggest that Hitler now could legally build an army for Britain let them do it. This was known as the first step to war. Was it right for Britain to do so? From my opinion the British there let Hitler break the Treaty of Versailles and make him have no blame, but at that time many thought the treaty was too harsh on Germany so Britain was maybe being forgiving.
The second step was Hitler sending troops into the Rhineland in 1936, which made him go against the treaty one more time. He had ordered his troops to withdraw if they were challenged but they were not. Here, from my opinion, the war could have been delayed if any country effectively would complain, and there was a reason to complain for Hitler had not broken the Treaty of Versailles twice. The arguments here were that Rhineland was still German territory and Germany has the right to do whatever they wished with it, also countries felt once again that the treaty was harsh. The league of Nation could also do something against it for their minds were on Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia. If they would go against Hitler’s doing there, the war might have been delayed for I think Hitler would just patiently build up his army even more until Germany was ready to concentrate on taking back the Sudetenland and occupying some other German speaking countries for German living space or ‘liebinsraum’ as Hitler called it hence he would be ready for a European war which could let him have the complete power over all of Europe.
In 1938 Hitler had built up his army and tested his military tactics and men in the Spanish Civil War where he sent troops. This was the third step to war. Here the countries of Europe could have gone against him for Hitler had really nothing to do with the war, they did but that was not enough. I think that they could have tried to stop him from doing that completely for if war would then breakout, Hitler would not have a lot of land (which would make transportation easier and more control) neither would he have the Russian army out of the way. Hitler then took over Austria in the belief that German speaking people should come together into a ‘Greater Germany’. Here the League of Nations or any country could have gone against Hitler saying that was wrong for he broke the treaty once again and he just has no right to invade a country for a belief, but then again, Austria did no resistance and the Austrian people were happy when Hitler took over so why should the other countries get involved?
The fourth step was when Hitler in 1938 said that a area of German speaking people in Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland, should also be joined to Germany. Britain and France were pledged to defend Czechoslovakia if it objected so Hitler would cause a early outbreak of the war if he took over this land by force and Czechoslovakia did not approve it. British politicians argued here that force should be used to stop Hitler, and from my point of view, they should have been used, for this could either stop Hitler and then he would be completely stopped if he tried to build up his army even more for the surrounding countries would have noticed it and done something about it, or that would stop Hitler for the time being, but he would patiently build up his army and invaded Czechoslovakia anyway unleashing war, although this war would have been much better prepared for because other countries would have had time and they could very well know Hitler’s intentions. Then again it is very hard to say what could have happened. This from my opinion was definitely a point where Hitler could have been stopped. Neville Chamberlain who was the prime minister, made it impossible for forces to be used to stop Hitler because he favoured appeasement. He believed that if Hitler was given the Sudetenland he would be satisfied, would make no more demands and so war would be prevented. He signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler on 30 September 1938, giving Germany the Sudetenland and the Czechs were not allowed any say in the matter. Chamberlain’s life was in ruins when six months later Hitler had broken the Munich Agreement and taken the rest of Czehoslovakia. Was it right of Chamberlain to do so? I think not, Chamberlain only gave Hitler a opportunity to get a little closer to what he wants, but if he did not, would it actually stop Hitler or would the war come earlier? I think that here Hitler had the army he wanted and his faith in it, it would be very likely that by acting on Germany by force would make the war come about earlier and then if Britain, France or the Soviet Union joined on the side of Czechoslovakia, Germany would probably be badly defeated. So I think that if Chamberlain did not go for appeasement and if Hitler then invaded Czechoslovakia, there would be a early war, but Hitler would have been defeated easier than what had actually happened and so he would have been stopped. If Chamberlain did not sign that agreement, Germany would not be able to go any further without a war, which would from my opinion defeat them easily for France and Britain were to join sides with Czechoslovakia. Here is a quote from the biography of Winston Churchill written by Malcolm Thomson:
Chamberlain could not face the idea of war. Yet it could not have been
plainer that, unless a firm stand were made against Hitler, even at the
cost of fighting, all Europe would become controlled by the Nazis. (Child, 86)
This quote agrees on my views that if force was taken upon Hitler 1938 instead of appeasement, there could be a risk of an outbreak of a early war. The author also shows dislike to Chamberlain and suggests that diplomatic solutions would not work on stopping Hitler, only force, and I would agree. I also think that Britain and France should have acted already when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, that would once again make the war come about earlier but then Germany would not have Poland and no Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact so there would be a chance for the Soviet Union to get involved as that war would concern them too cause if Germany would defeat France and Britain, who would be next on their list? The Soviet Union.
The fifth and final step to war was in August 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to go to war and to split Poland between them for Poland had gained land from both Germany and Russia and that was in the interests of both nations. Hitler did this not because he liked the Soviet Union, in fact he hated it equally as much as the Jews, he only wanted to keep the Soviets out of the way for the time being. As Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Britain and France asked him to withdraw or they would declare war. Hitler ignored this request and so on 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. Hitler could not have been stopped here for war already bound to come about.
So was Winston Churchill right to say that Hitler and the war could have been stopped easily? Well taking the facts into consideration, the Treaty of Versailles gave Hitler anger and fuel so he could get come to power, without it, he would not have and would have been stopped for long ago, but did the people know what the treaty would have lead to at the time? I think not and people did not even know about Hitler at that time, so we can leave this one out. Mein Kampf had all of Hitler’s views in it, if the world leaders would have the knowledge of it and would not have underestimated Hitler and it, they would be able to stop Hitler at many point such as when he came to power, or when he was rearming, also when he wanted the Sudetenland. So that book could basically be the free ticket to stop the war. In my opinion, the people who voted for Hitler are not to blame, no one of them knew who he really was except for a man who promised them their pride, dignity and the greatness of Germany back until he came to power and it was too late for the punishments for going against him were harsh, should he have come to power? No, I think not, this was Hindenburg’s fault of underestimating Hitler and letting him become Chancellor, although I believe for the clever opportunist Hitler was, he would have found some other way to come to power. The major point where he could have been stopped is when Hitler wanted the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlain gave it to him. This was a major fault of Chamberlain for Hitler to get the land, get Czechoslovakia without any resistance of the other countries, sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and take over Poland, well prepared for war. Here was the best point where Hitler could easily have been stopped from my opinion, firstly the world leaders should have read Mein Kampf and then they would never have given Hitler the Sudetenland thus knowing his intentions, and secondly Britain and France must have stood against him when he wanted that land, and if he was to take it anyway (which I think would be very foolish of him as many of his people warned him that Germany could easily be defeated if any countries went upon him at that time) then there would be an early war, only this one would be less destructive and terrible World War Two because as I said before, once France and Britain would be in, the Soviet Union would be in as I would not think they would like the idea of Germany conquering these two nations. So yes I think that Winston Churchill was right in what he said to from my opinion, but I must say, it is easy for both him and me to criticize the war and how it may have been stopped, but during the time, I would think it would be very hard for times such as Hitler’s legal rise to power and especially Mein Kampf to be noticed and made assumptions of for was hard and boring to read, and who would know that Hitler would do the things he had done before it was to late? Europe and the league of nations had other things to deal with at that time, not just Hitler, Mussolini for example.
Bibliography
Child, John, Hodge T, Taylor D. Understanding History. Oxford Ltd: Heinaman Educational, 1993.
Simkin, John. Adolf Hitler. 1997. 25 Mar. 2003
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhitler.htm>.
Simkin, John. World War 2 Encyclopedia. 1997. 25 Mar. 2003
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk >.
Struggle for Peace. CD-ROM. Filmo. 1997
Mevissen. Germany Under Hitler. notes given in class.
Mevissen. Fascism. notes given in class.
Mevissen. Lessons in school.
