The First Part
In 1933 Germany crushed Poland in a few weeks. The Polish campaign was followed by a six-month period in which little fighting took place. This period came to an end when Hitler occupied Norway and Denmark in April 1940. His aim was to safeguard the iron ore which was exported from Sweden to Germany through Norway. The fall of Norway was quickly followed by the fall of Holland, Belgium and France (May-June 1940). Next came the Luftwaffe’s bid to win control of the skies over Britain. The bid failed. German plans for the invasion of Britain were shelved. Hitler thoughts turned to Russia. He prepared the ground for an attack on Russia by tightening this grip forced to become Germany’s allies (August 1940-Frebruary 1941). Yugoslavia and Greece were invaded (April 1941). The attack in Russia (‘Operation Barbarossa’) was launched in June 1941. A huge area of western Russia fell to the Nazis in the first year of fighting. In early 1942 Hitler was at the height of his power.
Hitler’s early successes were based on a style of warfare known as ‘blitzkrieg’ (‘lightning war’). Planes and tanks were used in combination to punch holes in the enemy’s defenses: the infantry poured through the gaps that were created.
The Second Part
By 1941 Hitler had conquered a great deal of land. Now he had to hold it. This used many soldiers. Morover, Hitler had not defeated Britain and Britain had chosen to go on fighting. Hitler turned his attention to the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1941 he sent a huge army to invade the Soviet Union. At first the army was successful. In December 1941 Hitler declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. This was a fatal decision. The American economy was the powerful in the world. The strength of the United States soon began to tall. In 1943 Anglo-American forces crossed to Italy after defeating the Germans in North Africa. In June 1944 an Anglo-American army under Eisenhower landed in northern France.
By this time the Germans had been forced out of Russia. Their retreat followed defeat in two crucial battles in 1942-1943. One was the six-month battle for Stalingrad in which nearly 300000 Germans were either killed or taken prisoner. The other was the battle of Kursk (July 1043). Kursk was the greatest tank battle the world had seen.
Hitler hoped in 1939 that he could win the war without imposing heavy strains on Germany’s civilian population. He was frightened of popular discontent. In the first year of the war, therefore, there were still goods in German shops and food rationing was not too severe. Things changed when Germany’s armies got bogged down in Russia. Hitler accepted that strict control of Germany’s resources could be avoided. In 1942 he made Albert Speer Armaments Minister. Speer’s task was to organize the country for ‘total war’. It was at just the point that economic life was put under stricter control that Germany began to experience heavy British and American bombing raids. Between 1942 and 1945 German cities were bombed remorselessly.
From 1943 the Allies started to bomb German cities. Thousands and thousands of German people were killed in the bombing of cities such as Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin. The bombing did not break the Germans will to win. But the bombing and the losses of soldiers fighting the USSR made it more and more obvious that Germany was not winning the war. Soon some Germans began to doubt Hitler.
Hitler’s attitude to defeat
Hitler refused to think of defeat. He blamed everyone else for what had happened. He blamed the German people for being soft. He blamed the other German leaders. He blamed the army. And finally, of course, he blamed the Jews.
Bad Achievements
Treatment of Jews before the war
They suffered occasional outbreaks of organized violence such as Crystal Night
Later, concentration camps and extermination camps were set up.
The Persecution of Jews - Night of the Broken Glass
During the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Hitler started to persecute the Jews. In the night of 7th November 1938, two young Jews killed an official. Two days later, the Nazi held a demonstration in Germany. And a lot of houses that belonged to Jews were destroyed. The shops were robbed. Many Jews were killed. The broken glass was on the ground everywhere. It is called the 'Night of the Broken Glass'. 10th November, 20,000 Jews were arrested and brought to concentration camp. We will talk about how Nazi treated the Jews during the war later.
The Holocaust
The mass-murder of the Jews has become known as the Holocaust. The Nazis used two means of mass murder in Poland and eastern Europe
