History 5: Lecture 24
World War II and the Holocaust
Introduction
• World War II greatest conflict in human history: over 55 million
people were killed or wounded. Weapons of mass destruction used for
first time opening up possibility of end of all civilization.
• End of 400 years of European primary >age of superpowers
• Destruction of Fascism and Nazism leaving two ideologies:
Communism vs. Liberal Democracy
I Causes
• Thirty Years War thesis: two world wars= one long conflict;
not persuasive argument since real effort made in 1920s to achieve
international peace and cooperation.
• Versailles Treaty and efforts at stabilization in 1920s: victors
divided; USA withdraws from Europe and League of Nations; criticisms
of peace treaties; reparations poison relations; Germany secretly
rearms
• World economic crisis (Great Depression) 1929-1932>destabilizes
international system: protectionism and beggar my neighbor policies;
mass unemployment polarizes domestic policies, promoting far right
and far left movements –Nazism in Germany; liberal democracy
weakened ; fears of collapse of capitalism; European civil wars- Austria
1934; Spain, 1936-39
• Nazi and Fascist challenge: Hitler/ Mussolini pursue expansionist
foreign policies aimed at destruction of peace settlement / restoration
of Germany as top European power: Germany openly rearms 1935; Hitler
violates Versailles treaty Rhineland occupation 1936; Mussolini invades
Ethiopia 1935.
• Appeasement: Britain and France adopt conciliation and search
for European four-power settlement (excluding Soviet Union). Solution
is part of the problem because encourages Hitler and Mussolini to
believe that they can get all they want. Only a handful of prominent
critics of appeasement, notably Winston Churchill who advocates alliance
with France and Soviet Union against Germany. (Thursday’s movie
The Wilderness Years) tells Churchill’s story
• Hitler’s decision for war: international crisis, 1936-39:Germany,
Italy and Soviet Union intervene in Spanish Civil War ; international
volunteers includes US Lincoln Brigade>risk of European war; Hitler
annexes Austria 1938; German-Czech crisis; Britain, France, Germany
and Italy sign the Munich Pact (Sept 1938) dismembering Czechoslovakia
; Hitler plans only limited war against Poland in September 1939 but
gets involved in a general war with Britain and France by mix of miscalculation
and risk-taking.
II Course of the war, 1939-1945
• European phase, 1939-41: fall of Poland Sept 1939; fall of
Denmark / Norway April 1940; fall of France, Netherlands and Belgium
June 1940; Britain undefeated- Battle of Britain, Aug-Oct 1940
• Russia: 1941-2; Blitzkrieg (lightning war) to attrition.
• Global war: USA and Japan, Dec 1941; Germany declares war
on USA, Dec 11 1941.Turning points: El Alamein Oct 1942; Stalingrad
Feb 1943;Allied invasions of Italy 1943, Normandy June 1944; Berlin
falls May 4 1945; Atom bomb, Hiroshima and Nagasaki Aug 1945; Japan
surrenders Sept 2 1945.
III “The Final Solution”, 1942-45
• 6 milion of 9 million Jews killed; 5 million other undesirables.
Sole surviving record of top-level Nazi planning Wannsee conference
record, 20 Jan 1942 (Tuesday 29 April movie “The conspiracy”)
• How? Debate between intentionalists (stressing Hitler’s
initiative / planning Mein Kampf onwards) vs. functionalists (“cumulative
radicalization” concept”). Both views can be reconciled;
Ian Kershaw’s concept of “working towards the Fuhrer”;
German policy 1933-41 evolutionary, designed to pressure Jews into
emigration; Nuremberg Laws 1935; Kristallnacht Nov 1938 (night of
broken glass). Why emigration strategy dropped? Few countries will
admit Jews and only in small numbers. Conquest of Poland and large
areas of European Russia bringing most of European Jews under German
control offers opportunity for slave labor and destruction.
• Why? Daniel Goldhagen thesis: most Germans fanatically anti-Semitic
>willing executioners. Not convincing: many non-Germans involved
in final solution; anti-Semitism endemic in Europe and USA yet does
not result in genocide. Zygmunt Bauman thesis more plausible: Holocaust
product of modern drive (Enlightenment project) to a fully designed,
fully controlled world. Stalin and Hitler’s victims killed because
do not fit scheme of perfect society; war = convergence of forces
of modernity normally kept apart: e.g. powerful centralized state,
large efficient bureaucracy, wartime emergency, intense anti-Semitic
doctrine.
Conclusion
• Impact of war on Europe > decolonisation>integration
• WWII leaves key questions for 21st century: behavior of modern
centralized state requires constant monitoring; how should internal
community respond to rogue states? Have soldiers and citizens the
right and duty to challenge evil or potentially evil orders/policies/programs?
Today's movie: "The Wilderness Years"
BBC docudrama The Wilderness Years. So called because
in the years 1929-1939 Winston Churchill was out of office. Indeed,
many believed his career was finished.He was considered brilliant
but erratic, a rogue elephant, suspect for his switching of party
allegiances from Liberal to Conservative , for his personal attack
on Labour leader Ramsey MacDonald ("The Boneless Wonder"),
and for his vehement opposition to self-government for India.In 1936
his misplaced loyalty to King Edward VIII in the abdication crisis
made him unpopular. Many dismissed him as a warmonger. But his speeches
in parliament carried authority because they were informed by precise
inside intelligence on British military weakness and German air force
strength. He called for rearmament and resistance to Nazi Germany
and criticized appeasement of Hitler. In the end, when Hitler's invasion
of Poland vindicated him he was the only leading politician untainted
by the disastrous appeasement policies of the Baldwin and Chamberlain
governments. The years in the wilderness had led to the top of the
mountain.On the outbreak of war in September 1939 premier Neville
Chamberlain in response to popular demand put him in charge of the
navy; in May 1940 he became premier and war leader until 1945.