Study Guide Holocaust and WW1 Flashcards
Weimar Republic – problems
- Were blamed by Germans for Germany’s defeat and postwar humiliation caused by the Versailles Treaty
- Political extremism on both sides
- Hyperinflation
- Printed more money to pay the expenses of the war, which made money lose its value highly
Treaty of Versailles – connect to Nazi Party Platform, Hitler’s aggression
- The Treaty of Versailles was very harsh against Germany; certain areas under German rule were lost and made into new countries, and Germany wanted to gain power back
- Hitler used Germany’s devastating defeat/embarrassment to fuel the Nazi Party
Timeline of Hitler’s aggression up to start of WWII
- 1933: Hitler increases military over the legal limit (ignores the treaty of versailles)
- 1936: Hitler moves his troops into the Rhineland
- 1938: Hitler annexes Austria
- 1939: Hitler invades and takes the rest of Czechoslovakia and invades Britain
Appeasement
Giving in to an aggressor to keep peace
Munich Agreement
- September 29, 1938
- Germany France, Britain and Italy - Czechs not invited
- An agreement allowing Hitler to gain control of a region of Czech (Sudetenland) as long as he stops seeking more territory
Neville Chamberlain
- British Prime Minister
- Signed the Munich agreement
- Greatly thought that peace would finally come because Hitler promised to stop and signed his name on the agreement (this was not the case and Hitler eventually went against the agreement)
Fascism: key elements
- Extreme nationalism
- Desire for the strongest nation possible / willing to do anything to achieve that
- Emphasized loyalty to the state and leader
- Promised to revive the economy, punish those responsible for hard times, and restore order and pride
- Believed that nations must struggle
- Similar to communism
- Ruled by dictators who only allowed their own political party
- Denied individual rights
- Supreme state
- No practice of democracy
Lebensraum
- The territory (“living space” as Hitler put it) that a state or nation believes is needed for its natural development, especially associated with Nazi Germany
- Hitler’s idea that the Nazi’s should elimate all non-Aryans in order to give the Aryan people “breathing room”
Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia
- 1935
* Italy invaded Ethiopia to get revenge from the Battle of Adowa
Fascist leader of Italy
Mussolini
Emperor of Japan
Hirohito
* Seen as a descendant of the sun god
League of Nations response to aggression
- Didn’t want to make matters worse, so stepped aside and continued to let Germany take over and gain power in hopes it would soon stop (appeasement)
- Didn’t want to get involved because they already had to deal with WW1 and they don’t want that to happen again
Problems facing Japan in this time period
- Parliamentary system weaknesses
- Put strict limits on the power of the prime minister and the cabinets
- Civilian leaders had little control over the armed forces
- Japanese blamed the government for the Great Depression effects
- Military leaders gained support and gained control over Japan
- Heavily invested in Manchuria (rich in iron and coal)
- Withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933
- Overpopulation
- Lacked natural resources
- Small country in terms of land area
- Large population to be fed
- Industrial revolution needed raw materials
Japanese aggression in the early 1900s
- 1895: Japan defeats China in the Sino-Japanese war and takes Taiwan
- 1905: Japan defeats Russia
- 1910: Japan defeats Korea
- 1931: Japan invades Manchuria
- 1937: Japan invades China and captures Nanjing
Hangman poem: main point, connect to Holocaust
It demonstrates the idea that those who don’t do anything to stop aggression are only letting the aggressor gain power; the hangman continued to hang more and more men because no one stepped in to stop him.
