Chapter 27: Dictatorships and the Second World War

Kristallnacht

- "Night of Broken Glass" - 1938 - Nazi gangs smashed windows, looted over 7,000 Jewish shops, destroyed homes, burned down 200 synagogues, and killed dozens of Jews - German Jews were then forced to pay for the damage - led to over 1/2 of the Jewish population leaving Germany

women in the Nazi state

- "liberating women from women's liberation" - Nazis championed a return to traditional family values - outlawed abortion, discouraged female employment/higher education, and glorified domesticity and motherhood - women were to be the protectors of the hearth and home and were instructed to raise children in accordance with Nazi ideals - in the late 1930s, the Nazis reversed policies and encouraged women to work due to labor shortages - millions of women enrolled in Nazi mass organizations

Stalin's rise to power

- 1922-1927 - first allied with Trotsky's enemies to crush him - then moved against all who might challenge his ascendency, including former allies - the Communist party congress in December 1927 condemned all deviation from the party line, which Stalin had formulated

Lateran Agreement

- 1929 - Mussolini recognized the Vatican as an independent state and agreed to give the Church significant financial support - the pope, in turn, supported Mussolini

National Socialism

- A movement and political party driven by extreme nationalism and racism, led by Adolf Hitler - its adherents ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945 and forced Europe into World War II

fascism

- A movement characterized by extreme, often expansionist nationalism, anti-socialism, a dynamic and violent leader, and glorification of war and the military

Five Year Plan

- A plan launched by Stalin in 1928, and termed the "revolution from above," - aimed at modernizing the Soviet Union and creating a new Communist society with new attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity - used propaganda, sacrifice from the people, harsh repression, and rewards for those who followed the party line

eugenics

- A pseudoscientific doctrine that maintains that the selective breeding of human beings can improve the general characteristics of a national population - helped inspire Nazi ideas about "race and space" and ultimately contributed to the Holocaust

totalitarianism

- A radical dictatorship that exercises "total claims" over the beliefs and behavior of its citizens by taking control of the economic, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of society - includes both communist and fascist dictatorships - established one-party states that used violent repression and propaganda to gain complete power

Grand Alliance v. Axis in Africa

- Allies forced back the Nazis on all fronts - at the Second Battle of El Alamein in fall of 1942, the British forces decisively defeated combined German and Italian armies an halted Axis penetration into North Africa ("hinge of fate"- Churchill) - an Anglo-American force landed in Morocco and Algeria, which were under the control of the French Vichy gov, and won the territories - German forces, fearful of an Allied invasion, occupied Vichy France in November 1942 and the gov ceased to exist

end of the war in Japan

- American planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 - On August 14, 2945, the Japanese announced their surrender - WWII was over

Adolf Hitler

- Austrian-born leader of the Nazi party - was exposed to extreme Austro-German nationalists in Vienna who believed Germans to be a superior people and the natural rulers of central Europe - they advocated the union of Austria and Germany and the violent expulsion of inferior peoples to maintain German domination of Central Europe - in Vienna, Hitler developed unshakeable belief in the crudest distortions of Social Darwinism, the superiority of the German races, and the inevitability of racial conflict - exposure to poor Eastern European Jews contributed to his anti-Semitic prejudice

the Breakdown of Democratic gov and the Rise of National Socialism

- Chancellor Heinrich Bruning tired to overcome economic crisis by cutting spending and ruthlessly lowering prices and wages - his conservative policies only worsened the situation, and many people lost faith in the country's republican leaders and turned to Hitler

Grand Alliance and its troubles

- Churchill's name for the alliance between GB, the US, and the USSR - unlikely alliance: US had only entered the was after Japan's surprise attack, and GB and the US were determined opponents of Soviet communism and the two groups greatly distrusted one another - Stalin repeatedly urged GB and the US to open a second front in France to relieve pressure on the Soviet forces, but Churchill and Roosevelt refused until the summer of 1944 - despite these disputes, the overall goal of defeating the Axis powers held the alliance together

anti-Semitism in Nazi Poland

- German victory over Poland brought 3 million Jews under Nazi control - Jews in German-occupied territories were soon forced into urban districts called ghettos - hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews lived in crowded and unsanitary conditions, without real work or adequate sustenance - over 500,000 people died in these circumstances

German occupation of Austria

- Hitler threatened Austria with invasion, forcing the nation to put local Nazis in control of the gov in March 1938 - The next day, German armies began the Anschluss (annexation), moving into Austria unopposed - Austria was divided into two provinces that constituted part of Greater Germany

New Order

- Hitler's program based on racial imperialism - gave preferential treatment to the Nordic peoples - the French, an "inferior" Latin people, occupied a middle position - Slavs and Jews were treated harshly as "subhumans" - all were subject to harsh policies of ethnic cleansing and the plunder of resources for the Nazi war effort

governments under Hitler

- In Holland, Norway, and Denmark, the Nazis established puppet govs - though many people hated the conquerors, the Nazis were able to find obedient collaborators to lead these regions - France was split into two parts: the German army occupied the north; the southeast remained somewhat independent, governed by WWI general Henri-Philippe Petain's Vichy gov, which adopted many Nazi ideas and willingly turned over French Jews to the Nazis

Hitler's expansion in 1941

- Invaded the Balkans and Greece after losing the Battle of Britain - broke his pact with Stalin in June 1941 and launched armies into the Soviet Union along a vast front - by October most of Ukraine had been conquered, Leningrad was surrounded, and Moscow was besieged - however, a harsh winter saved the Soviets, as it stopped the German invaders

D-day and Allied victories in central Europe

- June 6, 1944 - when American and British forced led by General Dwight Eisenhower landed on the beaches of Normandy, France - in a hundred days, more than 2 million men and almost 500,000 vehicles broke through the German lines and pushed inland - Eisenhower moved forward cautiously on a broad front - in March 1945, American troops crossed the Rhine and entered Germany - by the spring of 1945, the Allies finally forced the Germans out of the Italian peninsula - Mussolini was captured in northern Italy by communist partisans and executed

the Soviet Union at the end of the Russian Civil War

- Lenin and the Bolsheviks had won the civil war but ruled a shattered and devastated land - farms were in ruins, food supplies were exhausted, drought and the war created awful famine in southern Russia, and industrial production had completely broken down - peasants and workers rioted, as did previously pro-Bolshevik sailors at Kronstadt

Lenin's successorship

- Lenin died without naming a successor, causing an intense power struggle - the two main contenders were Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky - Stalin was a good organizer but a poor speaker and writer with very little political experience - Trotsky was a great, inspiring leader who planned the 1917 Bolshevik takeover and created the Red Army and seemed to have all the advantages - Stalin won because he was more effective at gaining the support of the Communist party and better able to relate Marxist teaching to Soviet realities in the 1920s

Germany's influence on Italy

- Mussolini pledged his support to Germany/Hitler in 1937 and passed a series of anti-Jewish racial laws in 1938 - the laws were unpopular, but Jews were forced out of public schools and dismissed from professional careers - extreme anti-Semitic persecution did not occur in Italy until late in WWII, when Italy was under Nazi control

the SA

- Nazi storm troopers or brown shirts who fought Communists and assaulted Jews before the Nazis took power - expected top positions in Hitler's army - some SA radicals even talked of a second revolution that would sweep away capitalism and create equality between all Germans (so communism lol) - Hitler, committed to social order, ordered his personal guard, the SS, to arrest and execute about 100 SA leaders

Italian invasion of Ethiopia

- October 1935 - Italians won in 1936 after some resistance from the poorly armed Ethiopians, and Mussolini could proclaim that Italy once again had its empire - the invasion shocked international opinion and created closer ties between Italy and Germany

beginning of WWII

- September 1, 1939 - Hitler's invasion of Poland from three sides - two days later, GB and France declared war on Germany - the first example of a blitzkrieg ("lightning war") - crushed Poland in 4 weeks - the Soviet Union quickly seized its promised territories

differences between communism and fascism

- Soviet Communists sought to create an international brotherhood of workers - in a communist utopia ruled by the working class, economic exploitation would disappear and society would be based on radical social equality - under Stalinism, the state aggressively intervened in all walks of life to pursue this social leveling - brute force destroyed the upper and middle classes, private property was nationalized, and rapid industrialization and collectivized agriculture were installed - fascist leaders claimed that they were striving to build a new community on a national (not international) level - fascists glorified war and the military, and were extreme nationalists and racists - the nation was the highest embodiment of the people and the powerful leader a materialization of the people's collective will - intervened in the economy, but did not try to level out class differences/nationalize private property/enterprise - presented a vision of a community bound together by nationalism, in which all social groups would work together to build a harmonious national community

reasons for the implementation of the five year plans

- Stalin and his militant supporters were deeply committed to their understanding of socialism and feared a gradual restoration of capitalism - wished to promote workers and were eager to abolish the NEP's private traders, independent artisans, and property-owning peasants - economic recovery stalled in 1927 and 1928 and a new offensive seemed necessary to ensure industrial and agricultural growth - economic development would allow the USSR to catch up with the west and overcome traditional Russian backwardness

Stalin v. Trotsky's political theory and how they contributed to Stalin's victory

- Stalin developed a theory of "socialism in one country" which argued that the Soviet Union could build socialism on its own - Trotsky held a doctrine of "permanent revolution" that argued that socialism in the Soviet Union would only succeed if socialist revolution swept through Europe - many Communists found Stalin's theory more appealing, as they believed Trotsky's sold their country short and promised conflict with capitalist countries - Stalin's willingness to break with the NEP and "build socialism" appealed to members of the party who despised the capitalistic elements of the NEP

assassination of Sergei Kirov

- Stalin's number two man mysteriously killed in 1934 - Stalin probably ordered his killing, but blamed it on fascist agents within the communist party - used the incident to launch a reign of terror that purged the Communist party of supposed traitors and solidified Stalin's control

appeasement and what motivated it

- The British policy toward Germany prior to World War II that aimed at granting Hitler whatever he wanted in order to avoid war - motivated largely by the pacifism of a population still horrified by WWI - many powerful British conservatives underestimated Hitler, believing Soviet Communism was the real threat and that Hitler could by used to stop it

kulaks

- The better-off peasants who were stripped of land and livestock under Stalin - generally not permitted to join collective farms - many of them starved or were deported to forced-labor camps for "re-education"

Collectivization of Agriculture

- The forcible consolidation of individual peasant farms into large state-controlled enterprises in the Soviet Union under Stalin - first ordered in 1929 - peasants were compelled to move off their small plots onto large state-run farms where all materials were held in common and central planners controlled all work - these repressive measures were first focused on the kulaks

Holocaust

- The systematic effort of the Nazi state to exterminate all European Jews and other groups deemed racially inferior during the Second World War - ultimate abomination of Nazi racism

anti-Semitism in Nazi-occupied USSR

- Three military death squads known as special task forces (Einsatzgruppen) and other military units followed the advancing German armies - they moved systematically from town to town, shooting Jews and other target populations - the German armed forces murdered 2 million civilians in this brutal way

agreements of the Grand Alliance

- a "Europe first" policy: only after Hitler was defeated would the Allies attack the Japanese, the lesser threat - to concentrate on immediate military needs, postponing tough political questions about eventual peace that would divide them - the principle of unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan that would prevent the powers from dividing the alliance - this principle also meant that Soviet and Anglo-American armies would have to invade and occupy all of Germany, and that Japan would fight till the bitter end

Italy in the early 1900s

- a constitutional monarchy that recognized the civil rights of the Italians and had a parliament elected by universal male suffrage - much of the Italian population was still poor - many peasants were more attached to their villages/local interests than the national state - the papacy, many Catholics, conservatives, and landowners remained strongly opposed to liberal institutions - Church and state relationships were often quite tense - extreme class differences lead to the development of a powerful revolutionary socialist movement

Italy established as fascist

- a group of fascist extremists kidnapped and murdered the leading socialist politician-- Giacomo Matteotti - a group of new parliamentary leaders demanded that Mussolini's armed squads be disbanded and all violence stopped - Mussolini took advantage of the political crisis, declaring his intention to make the nation fascist and enacting a series of repressive measures - the gov ruled by decree, abolished freedom of the press, and organized fixed elections - Mussolini arrested his political opponents, disbanded all labor unions, and put dedicated fascists in control of Italy's schools - by the end of 1926, Italy was a one-party dictatorship under Mussolini's unquestioned leadership

Jewish persecution

- a special target of Nazi persecution from the beginning - by 1934, most Jewish lawyers, doctors, professors, civil servants, ad musicians had been banned from their professions - in 1935 the Nuremberg Laws classified anyone with 3 or more Jewish grandparents as Jewish, outlawed marriage/sex between Jews and Germans, and deprived Jews of all rights of citizenship - conversion to Christianity made no difference-- the Jews were now considered a distinct race with blood tainted by their heritage

impact of the transformation of soviet society on women

- all gains under the previous communist gov were destroyed - Stalin's gov revoked many laws supporting women's emancipation in order to strengthen the traditional family and build up the state's population - at the same time, women saw lasting changes in education - the Soviets opened up higher education to women, who could now enter the ranks of specialists in industry and science - medicine practically became a women's profession - women had to work outside the home to supplement the low wages their husband received - men continued to dominate the best jobs - rapid change and economic hardship led to many broken families, creating further physical and emotional strains for women

Soviet victories in beginning in 1941

- although the Germans had almost captured the major cities of Moscow and Leningrad in early winter of 1941, they were forced back by determined Soviets - the Germans mounted a second, initially successful invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1942, but the campaign turned to disaster - the beginning of this downfall was the Battle of Stalingrad, when in November 1942 the Soviets surrounded and systematically destroyed the entire German army of 300,000 men - In January 1943, only 123,000 were left to surrender - for the first time, German public opinion turned decisively against the war - In summer 1943 the Soviet army took the offensive and began to push the Germans back along the eastern front

Benito Mussolini

- an Italian socialist and WWI vet - beginning in 1947, he organized other war vets into bands of fascists, from the Italian word for "a union of forces" - eventually became dictator of a fascist Italy

German resistance to Hitler in the later war and its impacts

- an unsuccessful attempt by conservative army leaders to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 only brought increased repression from the Nazis - closely disciplined, frightened by unconditional surrender, and terrorized by Nazi propaganda that portrayed the incoming Russian armies as Slavic beasts, the Germans fought on with suicidal resolve

Stalin's policy towards non-Russians

- argued for more centralized RUssian control of the ethnic regions - this view dominated the USSR until its breakup - the Soviet Republics were granted some cultural independence but no real political autonomy - no right to cede, and authority remained in Moscow with the Russian Communist Party - the Stalinists established a far-flung Communist empire on the imperial holdings of former tsars

benefits of Jewish persecution for the average German

- as Jews were forced to leave their jobs and sell their homes, Germans stepped in and took their places in a process known as Aryanization - standards of living rose for the Aryans, and despite the ethical price, they gained trust in Hitlers gov

War in the Pacific (Japan v. USA)

- as the Americans mobilized, the Japanese overran more European and American colonies in Southeast Asia - by May 1942, Japan controlled a vast empire and was threatening Australia - the Americans pushed back the Japanese in a series of brutal naval battles - in July 1943, the Americans and their Australian allies opened a successful island-hopping campaign that slowly forced the Japanese out of their conquered territories - extremely brutal warfare with atrocities committed on both sides as a result of spiraling violence, mutual hatred, and dehumanizing racial stereotypes

Mussolini's rise to power

- at first, his fascist party was a radical combination of nationalism and socialism that competed with the well-organized Socialist party and thus failed to takeoff - Mussolini switched gears, becoming a sworn enemy to socialism and attracting conservatives and frightened members of the middle-class - Mussolini and his Black Shirts destroyed Socialist newspapers, union halls, and local headquarters and pushed Socialists out of city govs in northern Italy - fascism soon became a mass movement with Mussolini as the savior of the old order and property - Mussolini demanded the resignation of the existing gov, and in October 1922, armed Fascist marched on Rome to threaten the king and force him to appoint Mussolini prime minister of Italy

Beer Hall Putsch

- attempted overthrow of the Weimar Republic led by Hitler and his Nazis in 1923 - inspired by Mussolini's victory in Italy - the coup failed, and Hitler was arrested, but National Socialism had been born

Conservative authoritarian regimes

- authoritarianism was the traditional form of antidemocratic gov in European history - leaders of these govs relied on obedient bureaucracies to control society - limited in power and objectives: did not control much of subjects' lives and did not want to - as long as they obeyed the system, people were granted considerable personal independence

anti-Semitism in post WWI Europe

- became wildly popular on the far right wing of European politics in the decades surrounding WWI - such irrational beliefs, rooted in centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, were given pseudoscientific legitimacy by 19th century developments in biology and eugenics

Marxist policies towards women (in Russia and in general)

- believed both capitalism and middle-class husbands exploited women - the Russian Rev of 1917 immediately proclaimed complete equality for women - in the 1920s, divorce and abortions were easily available and women were urged to work outside of the home

Hitler's view of WWI

- believed the struggle and discipline of war gave life meaning, and served for Germany - convinced that Jews and Marxists had stabbed Germany in the back, and that they had not actually lost

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

- believed they directed an international conspiracy of of finance capitalism and Marxist socialism against German culture, unity, and people - claimed that the Jews had stabbed Germany in the back during the first World War

Stalin's elitist policies

- broke with the egalitarian policies of the 1920s and provided tremendous incentives to those who could serve the gov - paid the numerous unskilled workers and collective farmers very low wages but offered high salaries and special privileges to its growing technical and managerial elite - this group joined with the political and artistic elites in a new upper class whose members grew rich and powerful ***ANTITHESIS OF COMMUNISM

damage and guilt of the Holocaust

- by 1945, the Nazis had killed about 6 million Jews and 5 million other Europeans, including many ethnic Poles and Russian POWs - some blame Hitler and the Nazi leadership, claiming that ordinary Germans had little knowledge of the extermination camps/were forced to participate by Nazi terror and totalitarian control - others conclude that far more Germans knew about and were at best indifferent to the fate of "racial inferiors"

Hitler's early expansionist policies

- camouflaged goals and declared peaceful intentions - when Germany withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933, Gustav Stresemann's policy of peaceful cooperation died - In March 1935, Hitler declared that Germany would no longer abide by the disarmament clauses of the Treaty f Versailles - he established a military draft and built up the army - France and GB protested and warned against future aggression

Mussolini's early regime

- cautious in order to establish control of the gov - at first, he promised a return to order and consolidate his support among the Italian elites - fooled by his apparent moderation, the Italian parliament passed a new electoral law that gave 2/3 representation in the parliament to the party that won the most votes - this change allowed the fascists to win an overwhelming majority in April 1924

Hitler's main ideas laid out in Mein Kampf

- claimed that Germans were a master race that needed to defend its pure blood from racial degenerates (Jews, Slavs) - the German race was destined to triumph and grow, and it needed Lebensraum (living space) - this space could be found to Germany's east once cleared of the 'subhuman' Jews and Slavs - Hitler outlines a vision of war and conquest in which the German master race would colonize east and central Europe and ultimately replace the 'subhumans' living there - championed the idea of a leader-dictator (Fuhrer) whose unlimited power would embody the people's will and lead the German nation to victory

Why did ordinary Germans back Hitler's oppressive regime?

- coercion and popular support for the racial state - using the secret police and the concentration camp system to inflict a reign of terror, the regime threatened all political and racial enemies - the majority of German citizens, who were neither Jews nor Communists, Hitler's gov brought new opportunities - the German "master race" benefited from Hitler's policies of superiority and expansion

communist v. fascist considerations on race

- communists sought to build a new world around the destruction of class differences - fascists sought to build a new national community grounded in racial homogeneity - fascists embraced the doctrine of eugenics, especially the Nazis - Nazis maintained that the German nation had to be purified of "unfit" groups, leading to the Holocaust - Soviets sometimes persecuted ethnic groups under the guise of class ideologies

effect of Jewish persecution on the average German

- creation of a demonized outsider group may have contributed to feelings of national unity and support for Hitler - us v. them mentality

Hitler and Czechoslovakia

- demanded that territories inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans in western Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) be ceded to Germany - Czechoslovakia was allied with France and the Soviet Union and prepared to fight, but policies of appeasement won the day - in negotiations, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and the French agreed that Hitler should immediately take the Sudetenland, believing they were acting in the interests of peace - without Western support, the Czechs were forced to give into HItler's demands - In March 1939, Hitler's armies invaded and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia - this time there was no justifying Hitler's aggression, since the areas he invaded were inhabited by ethnic Czechs and Slovaks, not Germans - Hitler tried to use German minorities in Danzig, Poland to conquer Poland, but GB and France declared they would attack if such actions were taken - Hitler did not take these warnings seriously

How did war in the Pacific continue after German surrender?

- despite repeated US victories through the summer of 1945, Japanese troops had fought on - American commanders believed the invasion and conquest of Japan might cost 1 million American lives and 10-20 million Japanese lives - Japan was already almost helpless, almost destroyed by American bombing - however, the Japanese were prepared to die for a hopeless cause

How did Hitler create a Nazi society defined by national unity and racial exclusion?

- eliminated political enemies by forcing communists, social democrats, and trade-union leaders out of their jobs, or arresting them and placing them in concentration camps - outlawed strikes and abolished labor unions, which were replaced by the Nazi-controlled German Labor Front - Hitler also purged the Nazi Party of extremists like the SA

division on the left and the rise of national socialism

- even though the communist and social democrat parties together outnumbered the Nazis in the Reichstag, the Communists refused to cooperate with the Social Democrats - these parties could not mount an effective defense to Nazi takeover

Hitler's politics that led to Nazi success

- excelled in the corrupt, backroom politics of the decaying Weimar Republic - gained the support of conservative politicians in 1932 who thought they could use Hitler to their own advantage, to resolve the political crisis, and to clamp down on leftists - they accepted Hitler's demand to be appointed chancellor in a coalition gov, believing that he could be used and controlled - On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor by President Hindenburg

Japanese expansion and the US

- expansion concerned President Franklin Roosevelt - Japan's leaders came to believe that war with the US was inevitable

problem of the independent peasantry to the Stalinists

- for centuries the peasants had wanted to own the land, and now they had it - Stalinists feared they would come to embrace conservative capitalism and thus pose a threat to the regime - the communists (mainly urban dwellers) believed that the "class enemies" in the villages could provide the enormous sums needed for total industrialization if forced - solution: collectivization

Hitler's trial and imprisonment

- gained enormous publicity for denouncing the Weimar Republic in his trial - dictated Mein Kampf (My Struggle) while in prison - the book laid out his basic ideas on racial purification and territorial expansion that would define National Socialism

Enabling Act

- gave Hitler dictatorial power for four years

religion in the USSR

- gov persecuted religious - churches were turned into museums of atheism

appeal of Mussolini's fascist government

- he was willing to compromise with the traditional elites that controlled the army, the economy, and the state - big business was left to regulate itself, and there was no land reform - Mussolini also drew increased support from the Catholic Church thanks to the Lateran Agreement

Japan's imperial/military pursuits

- in 1931, Japanese armies invaded and occupied Manchuria, a vast territory bordering northeastern China - in 1937, Japan brutally invaded China - seeking to cement ties with the fascist regimes of Europe, Japan entered a formal alliance with Italy and Germany in 1940 - in 1941, Japanese occupied southern portions of French Indochina (now Vietnam and Cambodia)

implementation of the Holocaust

- in late 1941, Hitler and the Nazi leadership ordered the SS to implement the mass murder of all Jews in Europe - "final solution to the Jewish question" - set up an unparalleled industrialized killing machine with an extensive network of concentration camps, industrial complexes, and railroad transport lines to imprison and murder Jews/undesirables and exploit their labor before they died -in the east, surviving residents of ghettos were loaded onto trains and taken to camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1 million people were killed in gas chambers - some were put to work as expendable laborers - the Jews of Germany and western and central Europe were also sent to the camps - even after it was clear that the Germans had lost the war, the killing continued

Germany and Italy in the Spanish Civil War

- intervened to support Francisco Franco's rebel fascists - the rebels were successful, defeating Spain's republican gov which was supported only by the Soviet Union - GB and France never intervened as public opinion was split on whether or not to take action

Hitler and the German Worker's Party

- joined the party in late 1919 - denounced Jews, Marxists, and democrats - promised a uniquely German National Socialism that would abolish the injustices of capitalism and create a mighty "people's community" - by 1921, Hitler had gained control of this small but growing party, which was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party or Nazis - Hitler became a master of mass propaganda and political showmanship

struggles of the common person in the USSR

- lack of housing: millions were moving into the cities, but the gov built few new apartments - constant shortages of goods since consumption was reduced to pay for investment - little improvement in the average standard of living before WWII - even by 1937 workers could only buy 1/3 of what they could buy in 1928 and less than they could buy in 1913

effects of collectivization

- large numbers of peasants opposed to the change and slaughtered their animals/burned their crops over giving them to state commissars - the output of grain barely increased under the first five-year plan - collectivized agriculture was unable to make any substantial financial contribution to Soviet industrial development in the first five-year plan

people's response to the purges

- many people shared in Stalin's paranoia of political turmoil - bombarded with ideology and propaganda, much of the population was fiercely loyal to Stalin's directives - investigations and trials eventually led to mass hysteria

Hitler's first expansions

- marched his armies into the demilitarized Rhineland in March 1936, brazenly violating the treaties of Versailles and Locarno - GB refused to act, and thus the French could not do anything either - emboldened, Hitler began forming alliances - established the Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936 with Italy - Japan, ruled by a fascist dictator, joined the axis alliance later in 1936

collectivization in the Ukraine

- more violent and rapid than in other Soviet territories - drive against peasants turned into a drive against Ukrainians in general, who had sought independence from the Soviets after WWI - Stalin and his associates viewed peasant resistance as an expression of unacceptable anti-Soviet nationalists - In 1932, the Communists set the level of grain deliveries at excessively high levels and refused to relax their quotas/send food relief when Ukrainian Soviet leaders reported starvation - the result: a terrible man-made famine in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that claimed 3-3.5 million lives

Hitler's early regime

- moved rapidly and skillfully to establish an unshakeable dictatorship that would pursue the Nazi program - to maintain appearances, Hitler called for new elections - In February 1933, in the middle of violent electoral campaigning, the Reichstag building was partially destroyed by fire - Hitler blamed the communists and convinced Hindenburg to sign emergency acts that abolished freedom of speech/assembly and most personal liberties

Nazi rule in Eastern Europe

- much more harsh and deadly than in the west - the war in the east was the be one of annihilation - the Nazis set out to build a vast colonial empire in which the Jews would be exterminated and the Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians would be enslaved and forced to die out - the German peasants would then resettle the abandoned lands, a "mass settlement space" - to achieve these goals, large parts of Western Poland were incorporated into Germany, and another part was placed under merciless civilian administration - Nazi administrators and Himmler's elite SS corps, supported by military commanders and German police and bureaucrats, implemented a program of destruction and annihilation to create the mass settlement space for racially pure Germans - Nazi armies destroyed cities and factories, stole crops and farm animals, and subjected conquered people to forced starvation and mass murder

groups that resisted Hitler in Germany

- never unified, and were therefore unsuccessful - the regime also clamped down on dissidents, imprisoning and executing political enemies - after communists and socialists were smashed by the SS, Catholics and Protestants began to resist - these groups were more concerned about the preservation of religious life than overthrowing Hitler - in 1938 and during the war, some high-ranking army officers plotted against Hitler, but they were never successful

Allied victories in the spring of 1943

- new antisubmarine technologies favored the Allies and allowed ships to travel safely across the Atlantic again, bringing much-needed supplies from the US to GB - with almost unchallenged air superiority, since the Germans never really recovered from the Battle of Britain, the US and GB now mounted massive bombing raids on German cities to maim industrial production and citizen morale

Germany's seizure of Europe

- occupied Denmark, Norway, and Holland in early 1940 through blitzkriegs - broke into France through southern Belgium, split the Franco-British forces, and trapped the entire British army on the beaches of Dunkirk - France was soon under Nazi control - by July 1940, Hitler ruled practically all of Europe: Italy was an ally; Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria joined the Axis powers; the Soviet Union, Spain, and Sweden were friendly neutrals; only the Balkans and Britain remained

Nazi techniques to enrich Germany and support the war effort in foreign lands

- occupied nations were forced to pay for the war and the occupations themselves - goods and money were stolen from Jews - currency exchanges were set at favorable rates - occupied peoples were forced to accept worthless wartime credit/scrips - Germany received many goods, keeping living standards and morale high - the Jews were firmly under Nazi control, contributing greatly to their mass murder by the Nazis

Hitler's bolstering of the Nazi party

- occurred during the years of relative prosperity and stability from 1924-1929 - the failed coup of 1923 convinced him that power had to come through electoral competition, not armed rebellion - to appeal to the middle class, Hitler de-emphasized the anti-capitalist elements of Nazism and vowed to fight communism - the Nazis only won 2.6% of the votes and 12 seats in the Reichstag in 1928, but used these positions to destroy democracy through democracy

reforms/benefits of communism

- old age pensions, free medical services, free education, and day care centers were available to socialist workers - unemployment was virtually unknown - opened real possibilities for personal advancement since rapid industrialization required massive numbers of skilled workers, engineers, and plant managers

racist Nazi campaigns

- persecuted 'undesirable' groups: Jews, Slavs, Roma and Sinti peoples, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and handicapped people - barbarism and hatred were institutionalized through science and law - the German society for Racial Research measured racial differences and presented prejudice as an enlightened science designed to craft a strong national race - sterilization laws led to the forced sterilization of 400,000 'undesirables'

Nazi "coordination"

- policy of forcing existing organizations to conform to the Nazi ideology - independent professional organizations and charity and civic institutions were replaced by Nazi associations - universities, publishers, and writers were forced to obey as well - democratic, socialist, and Jewish literature was put on blacklists, and these banned books were often publicly burned - 'degenerate' modern art/architecture were prohibited - life became increasingly anti-intellectual

conditions in 1930s Japan

- political divisions and economic crisis had led to a fascist takeover of Japan in the 1930s - the Japanese gov was highly nationalistic and militaristic, and deeply committed to imperial expansion - according to Japanese race theory, Asian races were far superior to Western ones - ultranationalists glorified the warrior virtues of honor and sacrifice and proclaimed that Japan would liberate East Asia from Western colonialists

urban life in the USSR

- rapid industrial growth led to urban development: more than 25 million people migrated to cities in the 1930s - workers usually lived in awful conditions in hastily built industrial cities - however, they experienced some of the benefits of upward mobility

NEP

- re-established limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry - peasant producers were allowed to sell surpluses in free markets and private traders and small handicraft manufacturers were allowed to reappear(compromise with capitalism) -heavy industry, railroads, and banks remained nationalized - political and economic success - compromise with the overwhelming peasant majority - Lenin realized that he could not turn the peasants into workers so he made a deal to avoid rebellion - brought economic recovery and by 1926 industrial output surpassed and agricultural production almost equaled, prewar levels

How was the Co-Prosperity Sphere a sham?

- real poser reamiend in Japanese hands - they exhibited great cruelty towards civilian populations and POWs, and exploited local peoples for Japan's wartime needs, leading to resistance

similarities between communism and fascism

- rejected parliamentary gov and liberal values - believed that the individualism of the liberals undermined equality and unity - rejected democracy in favor of one-party political systems - a charismatic leader dominated the state (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini) - created new kinds of political parties dedicated to idealized visions of collective harmony - used force/terror to intimidate/destroy political opponents - pursued policies of imperial expansion to exploit other lands - censored mass media and used propaganda - engaged in massive state-controlled social engineering projects dedicated to replacing individualism with a unified people capable of exercising the collective will

Lenin's reaction to rebellion in the Soviet Union

- repressed the Kronstadt rebels - in March 1921, replaced War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP)

appeal of communist idealism to USSR citizens and its effects

- saw themselves heroically building the world's first socialist society while capitalism crumbled into worldwide depression and degenerated into fascism in the West - optimism for the future - drew many disillusioned Westerners to communism in the 1930s

effects of the purges

- seriously weakened the USSR in economic, intellectual, and military terms - left Stalin in control of a vast new state apparatus - 1.5 new party members replaced purge victims and experienced the rewards of social advancement - these new members effectively served Stalin until his death and governed the USSR until the early 1990s

effect of Japanese expansion on Asia's future

- set a powerful example for national liberation groups in Asia - became important in the decolonization movement that followed WWII

publicizing fascism in Italy

- state engineered popular consent by staging massive rallies, creating fascist youth and women's movements, and providing new welfare benefits - newspapers, film, and radio promoted a "cult of the duce (leader)", portraying Mussolini as a powerful strongman who embodied the best of the people - manipulated popular pride in the grand history of the Roman empire

Stalinist economy

- steel was the idol bc the nation needed heavy machinery for rapid development - an industrial labor force was created overnight of peasant men and women working in steel mills - independent trade unions lost most of their power - the gov could assign workers to any job they wanted and an internal passport system guaranteed people could only move with permission

German response to resistance groups

- swift and deadly - the Nazi army and SS tortured captured resistance members and executed hostages in reprisal for attacks - the male populations of Lidice, Czechoslovakia and Oradour, France were murdered because of resistance activities

possible explanations for the great purge

- terror is a defining characteristic of the totalitarian state, which must always fight real or imaginary enemies - the purges were meant to send a warning: no one was secure, everyone had to serve the party and its leader with strict devotion - others claim that Stalin was solely responsible for the purges - he was fearful of active resistance and used terror to rid himself of enemies (whether they were real or not)

Lenin's policy towards non-Russians

- the Communists had inherited the vast multi ethnic territories of the Russian empire - Lenin argued that these territories be granted the right to self-determination, even if they chose to break from the Soviet Union - In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was organized, made up of four soviet republics: the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Ukraine, Belorussia, and a Transcaucasian republic, split into Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia - five Central Asian republics were established in the 1920s and 1930s

the Great Depression and Rise of National Socialism

- the Depression brought the party's ascent - Hitler began promising the people economic salvation, appealing for a "national rebirth" effectively - seized by panic and bankruptcies increased, unemployment skyrocketed, and Communists made election gains, voters deserted conservative/moderate parties for Nazism - by July 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag with 38% of the total votes

Pearl Harbor

- the Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian islands - on December 7, 1941, the Japanese sank or crippled every American battleship - by chance all the American aircraft carriers were at sea, escaping unharmed - brought the Americans into the was in a spirit of anger and revenge

construction of the Volksgemeinschaft (people's community)

- the Nazi party set up mass organizations to spread Nazi ideology and enlist volunteers for the Nazi cause - millions of Germans joined the Hitler youth, League of German Women, and the German Labor Front - mass rallies and Nazi-controlled press were meant to spread Nazi ideologies and popularity - the gov began producing a vast array of "people's products" like the Volkswagen (people's car) intended to link the individual desire for consumer goods to the collective ideology of the people's community - though these programs were not always consistent, they suggested to the ordinary person that the gov was working to increase living standards

economic recovery under Hitler

- the Nazi state launched a large public works program that pulled Germany out of Depression - work began on superhighways, offices, sports stadiums, and public housing, which created jobs and pride in national recovery - by 1938 unemployment had fallen to 2%, and workers were actually needed - from 1932-1938, the standard of living for the average worker increased moderately, but business profits soared

build up to the Holocaust

- the Nazis began using social, legal, and economic means to persecute the Jews and other "undesirables" immediately after taking power - 1938-1940, the persecution turned deadly - the Nazi euthanasia (mercy killing) campaign murdered 70,000 people with physical and mental disabilities, "unworthy lives" who might "pollute" the German race - important step towards genocide - the victims were mostly ethnic Germans and the euthanasia campaign was stopped after church leaders and ordinary families spoke out - the staff involved used what they learned through implementing the program in the extermination camps the Nazis would soon build in the east

defeat of Axis in Europe

- the Soviets moved southward into Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia - in Jan 1945 the Red Army crossed Poland into Germany, and on April 26 met American forces on the Elbe River - the Allies had overrun Europe and taken Nazi Germany - As Soviet forces fought their way into Berlin, Hitler committed suicide and on May 8 the remaining German commanders surrendered

Polish uprising

- the Soviets reached the outskirts of Warsaw by August 1944 - anticipating German defeat, the Polish underground Home Army ordered an uprising so that the Poles might claim independence - citing military pressure, the Soviets refused to enter Warsaw, allowing the Germans to destroy the Polish insurgents - only after the destroyed Home Army surrendered did the Red Army move into Warsaw

Grand Alliance v. Axis in Italy

- the US and British forces invaded Sicily in the summer of 1943 and mainland Italy that autumn - Mussolini was overthrown in a coup d'etat and the new Italian gov publicly accepted unconditional surrender - Nazi armies invaded northern and central Italy, and German paratroopers rescued Mussolini in a daring raid and put him at the head of a puppet gov - the Allies battled their way slowly up the Italian peninsula - the Germans still held northern Italy, but they were clearly on the defensive

military resources of the Grand Alliance

- the US used its vast industrial base to wage global war and out produced all the rest of the world combined in 1943 - GB became an impenetrable fortress that the Germans could not break through - after a determined push, the Soviet Union's military strength was so strong it was nearly able to defeat Germany on its own - Stalin drew heavily on the heroic resolve of the Soviet people, especially those in the central Russian heartland - Russian nationalism, rather than the often divisive communist ideology was used to unify Soviet people in the "Great Patriotic War of the Fatherland"

Hitler and Stalin

- the previous sworn enemies signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939 that paved the road to war - each dictator promised to remain neutral if the other became involved in conflicts - a secret section of the agreement divided Poland, the Baltic nations, Finland, and part of Romania into German and Soviet spheres of influence - Stalin agreed to the pact because he was distrustful of the Western European nations and because Hitler promised immediate territorial gains

resistance to the Nazis

- the resistance groups were very disunified, as socialist and Communists disagreed with centrists and nationalists on long-term goals and short-term tactics - despite this, the groups still presented a real challenge to the Nazi New Order - Poland had the most determined and well-organized resistance - the Nazis had closed all Polish universities and shut down national papers, but the Poles organized secret classes and created a thriving underground press - underground members of the Polish Home Army, led by the gov in exile in London, passed intelligence about German operations to the Allies and committed sabotage - resistance groups in France, Italy, Greece, Russia , and the Netherlands undertook similar actions

goal of Japanese expansion, how it was promoted, and the response of the people

- to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere - Japanese propagandists maintained that expansion would free Asians from the hated Western imperialists - by promising to create a mutually advantageous union for long-term development, the Japanese tapped in to nationalist sentiments and most local people were glad to see the westerners go

Air warfare between Germany and Britain

- to prepare to invade Britain, Germany sought to gain air control - in the Battle of Britain, which began in July 1940, up to 1,000 German planes attacked British airfields and factories a day - losses were heavy on both sides - In September 1940, Hitler turned from military objectives to bombing British cities in an attempt to break British morale - British aircraft factories increased production and the heavily bombed people of London dug in - by October, Britain was winning 3/4 of all air battles and the Battle of Britain was over

WWI and the Italian gov

- to win support for the war effort, the Italian gov promised territorial expansion as well as social and land reform, which it could not deliver - the Versailles treaty denied Italy any territorial gains and soaring unemployment and inflation after the war caused mass hardship - radical workers and peasant of the Italian Socialist Party began occupying factories and seizing land in 1920 - these actions mobilized the property-owning classes - the pope lifted his ban on Catholic participation in Italian politics after WWI, and a strong Catholic party quickly emerged - by 1921, revolutionary socialists, conservatives, Catholics, and property owners were all opposed to the liberal gov

objectives of the first five-year plan

- total industrial output was to increase by 250% - heavy industry was to grow even faster - agricultural production was to increase by 150% - 1/.5 of peasants in the USSR were to give up their private plots and join collective farms

Causes of the rise of totalitarianism

- total war inspired totalitarian leaders - WWI govs had limited individual liberties and intervened in the economy to obtain victory - totalitarians followed this example, devaluing human life and expanding the power of the state in pursuit of social control

how did the Germans try to step up their efforts following defeats at the hands of the Allies?

- under minister of armaments Albert Speer, put millions of POWs and slave laborers to work across Europe - German war production tripled from 1942-1944 despite heavy bombings

politicization of culture in the USSR

- used for propaganda and indoctrination - party activists lectured factory and farm workers, while newspapers, films, and radio broadcasts recounted socialist achievements and capitalist plots - in the 1930s, intellectuals were ordered by Stalin to become "engineers of human minds" - they were to exalt the lives of ordinary workers an glorify Russian nationalism - Russian history was rewritten to display Stalin as the nation's destined greatest leader - writers and artists who succeeded in these efforts joined the elite upper class

Rise of Radical Totalitarian Dictatorships

- when authoritarianism revived after WWI, new kinds of radical dictatorships that went much further emerged - dictatorships established in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Italy - both communist and fascist parties were established in all European nations and mounted challenges to democratic rule

Hitler's destruction of democracy

- when the Nazis won only 44% of the vote in the elections Hitler set up, he outlawed the Communist party an arrested its parliamentary representatives - On March 23, 1933, the Nazis pushed the Enabling Act through the Reichstag - the Nazi's deceitful stress on legality with divide and conquer techniques was astonishingly successful - Germany became a one-party Nazi state - elections were farces - the Nazis left the bureaucracy intact and simply took over old positions - Hitler's gov was a series of overlapping institutions responsible only to him - the gov was full of rivalries, contradictions, and inefficiencies, and lacked the unity its propagandists claimed it possessed - however, this fractured system suited Hitler and his purposes, encouraging competition in the gov and giving Hitler complete control

Were the five-year plans successful regarding industrialization

- yes - a state planning committee called the Gosplan was created to set production goals and control deliveries of raw and finished materials - Stalinist planning favored heavy industry over the production of consumer goods which led to shortages of basic necessities - despite these problems, the USSR's industry produced about 4x as much as it had in 1928 min 1937

Did King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy make Mussolini prime minister? Why or why not?

- yes - he did not like liberalism and had few other options - Mussolini became prime minister in 1922

Was collectivization successful for the gov?

- yes, despite its cruelty -93% of peasant households had been moved to collectivized farms, neutralizing them as a threat - however, peasant resistance had forced some concessions: won the right to limit a family's labor on a collectivized farm and to cultivate tiny family plots

great purge

-1936-1938 - a series of spectacular public show trials in which false evidence often gathered using torture was used to incriminate party administrators and Red Army leaders - secret police used torture to extract confessions from party faithfuls, union officials, managers, intellectuals, army officers, and ordinary citizens - at least 6 million people were arrested, with 1-2 million executed/imprisoned or exiled to work camps for life

the SS

-Hitlers elite personal guard - led by Heinrich Himmler - took over the political police and the concentration camp system

Two theories on what led ordinary Germans to allow the Holocaust to happen or to participate in it

1. widely shared anti semitism led ordinary Germans to become Hitler's willing executioners 2. heightened peer pressure, the desire to advance in rank, and brutal wartime violence turned average Germans into reluctant killers - both agree that racist Nazi propaganda played a role

The first Fascist state in Europe was

Italy

Black Shirts

Mussolini's private militia that destroyed socialist newspapers, union halls, and Socialist Party headquarters, eventually pushing Socialists out of the city governments of northern Italy

Main difference between Nazism and Italian fascism

Nazism was far more interventionist

Mussolini and women

gov opposed to liberal feminism and promoted traditional gender roles

Why did Mussolini never establish complete totalitarian control?

he was forced to compromise with conservative elites

Primo Levi's gray zone

the moral compromise by which people allowed the rise of totalitarian govs and the atrocities they often committed