APPEASEMENT AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA

HISTORY CAMBRIDGE AS (PAPER 2)PRESENTATION 15 (PLUS HOMEWORK)

1933-1939 MODULE

• SPLENDID ISOLATION• "The British policeman should stick to his own beat." - Evening Standard, 22 April

1935

• ...Paris may pass in gas and flame and blood –We shall sit safe behind our sundering flood. Berlin may build a Holier Inquisition –It will but mean an extra-late edition. Hitler be hailed through all a wrecked Ukraine –We shall just read, and turn to golf again. For God, the day our guardian seas He took, Gave us the broad breast of a Beaverbrook; Round us, though fails the Channel – never fear! –Still lie the stainless depths of Rothermere.

• From a verse-satire by F. L. Lucas on the pro-appeasement British press barons; New Statesman and Nation, 11 May 1935, p. 669

PRO-APPEASEMENT OPINION

My dream is of a British statesman who could say to his countrymen: "You are sick of war, weary of entanglements. There are some who would have you renounce both. I offer you instead a heavier load of foreign responsibilities, a risk of new war. Because that is the only road to lasting peace. Since the War, British policy has been shuffling, timid, ignoble. Be bold at last, and give a lead to Europe, by offering to form with France and whatever other European states will join, a League within the League, of nations pledged to submit all disputes to the League, but pledged also to fight without hesitation in defence of any member of the group who is attacked. If Germany will join, so much the better; though Germany as she is never will. If America, better still; for the present America is a broken reed. All the more honor for us to accept a responsibility if she refuses. "The way will not be easy. We shall often regret the day we pledged ourselves to bear taxation in peace and face death in war for interests and frontiers not our own. But no interest is more really our own than the reign of law between nations.“ That is little likely to happen. Only an Abraham Lincoln takes risks of that sort with a nation. But this is not because the ordinary politician is wiser; it is because the ordinary politician does not realize the latent force of idealism, all the stronger with the decay of the religions which gave it other outlets, ready in the world of to-day for any leader with the courage to use it; and so easily abused accordingly by the rulers of Moscow and Berlin. From a letter by F. L. Lucas of King's College, Cambridge, British anti-appeasement campaigner, to The Week-end Review, 21 October 1933.

ANTI-APPEASEMENT OPINION

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain cheerfully greeted by Adolf Hitler at the beginning of the Bad Godesberg meeting on 24 September 1938, where Hitler demanded annexation of Czech border areas without delay.

• In 1934, all of Hitler’s key advisors were in place to carry out his domestic and foreign policies.

• Rudolf Hess was the secretary. Hess was the person that Hitler dictated Mein Kampf. He was sentenced to life long imprisonment at the Nuremburg trials; he committed suicide at the age of 92.

• Hermann Goering was the head of Luftwaffe. He survived World War Two, but took cyanide when Germany surrendered.

• Heinz Guderian was the head of Wehrmacht (infantry and cavalry).

• Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda was responsible for the mass brainwashing in Nazi Germany.

HITLER’S ADVISORS: HESS, GOERING, GOEBBELS

HITLER’S ADVISORS: HIMMLER• Heinrich Himmler was the head of the SS and the Gestapo

(the secret police) including the unit that administered the death camps.

• He was a well-educated man, obsessed with efficiency, to the extent that he would be ruthless in his methods.

• He had no sense of morality and he order meticulous record keeping in death camps.

• He only struggled once to deal with the brutality of these camps (seeing 35,000 people being shot in Ukraine he vomited).

HITLER’S ADVISORS: BORMAN AND EICHMANN

• Martin Borman was the architect of the final solution. He came up with the idea of deceiving people at the death camps, with the quote “work will make you free” at Auschwitz making it seem like a retreat centre.

• Adolf Eichmann was an SS supervisor in the concentration camps. He was a sick and strange individual as he extensively implemented the Final Solution. Thus, the men in the SS were terrified of leaders like him.

STEPS TO BUILD THE “NEED” FOR APPEASEMENT

• 1935: Plebiscite in the Saarland favours Germany. France returns the Saarland to Germany after 15 years of control.

• 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis was the pact between Hitler and Mussolini where they agree that they will come to each other’s said. Also, in 1937 they signed they Anti-Comintern Pact, pledging to fight and halt the spread of communism.

• This seems to be return to the old system of alliances, which was one of the major causes of World War One.

APPEASEMENT AFTER RHINELAND• 1936: Remilitarization of the Rhineland – the German army

entered the Rhineland and Hitler made a military parade around this event. This was a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Other European Nations did not respond and appeased Hitler because people believed that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh and Hitler was only taking back what was rightfully German. At the same time it was a practical sanctions. Britain and France could not imposed economic sanctions that could hurt them as there was not guarantee that the USA would freeze its trade relations with Germany and was especially unlikely considering the fact that it was not a member of the League.

USA Isolationism vs. Appeasement

INVOLVEMENT IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR• 1936: Spanish Civil War – Between 1931 and 1936 the

Spanish Parliament had steadily disintegrated with many factions and parties being formed but none of them taking proper control.

• In 1936, there were two main groups trying to control, the Communists and the Fascists.

• Germany supported the Fascists led by General Franco. • The fascists completely dominated over the Communists. • Also, German planes got a great deal of practice and

improved their ability to devise techniques for success.

APPEASEMENT IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR• The Germans had a chance to experiment with having

both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe work together in the conflict.

• This was also a dress rehearsal for Propaganda. • So whilst Germany was completely using this situation to

her advantage, the USA, Britain and France were confused about what stance to take seeing as they didn’t want either the Communists or the Fascists to come to power.

IMPLEMENTING IDEAS FROM MEIN KAMPF• 1937: Hitler announces to his advisors and key leaders in his

government that he is going to put the plans he devised in Mein Kampf into action, and that anyone who opposed would lose the job.

• At this time, persecution Jews was getting worse and worse. Many wealthy Jewish men migrated to the USA, as a result. However, intellectually and academically speaking Germany lost some very clever individuals.

• The father of the Atomic Bomb, Oppenheimer was the son of a Jewish migrant from Germany. The Atomic Bomb was a key component of US power internationally, and Germany lost this.

ANSCHLUSS AND APPEASEMENT• 1938: Hitler begins to target the circle of area around

Germany in anti-clockwise manner. He started with Austria. • In March, Hitler met with Klaus Von Schusnigg, the Prime

Minister of Czechoslovakia. Schusnigg was terrified by Hitler. When Hitler demanded Anschluss, Schusnigg negotiated and requested a plebiscite as he was a strong believer of democracy.

• Hitler ensured that there was mass propaganda in Austria and as result Germany won. Hitler then proudly paraded into Austria and visited his hometown Linz. The people were happy to see him as unification with a strong nation was desired. It was surprising that Hitler took over an entire nation without firing a single shot.

Seyss-Inquart and Hitler in Vienna, March 1938

FOOLING HIS OPPONENTS• In September, Hitler continued to say that he simply wanted

to unite the German people and that he was not on a conquest (not at all true, as he clearly stated in Mein Kampt in 1925 that one his objectives for Germany was greater Lebensraum or living space which implied conquest).

• So according to this statement, the next area he wanted unify Germany with was the Sudetenland, in Czechoslovakia, an area with 3 million Germans.

SELF DETERMINATION AS AN EXCUSE• Hitler justification for this was self determination. • To make his demands seem more justified he order Henrich

Heinlein the Nazi Sudeten German leader to stir up trouble in the Sudetenland and at the same time he had Goebbels start a massive propaganda campaign about the plight of the Sudeten Germans which falsely advertised that they were brutally oppressed as an ethnic minority.

From left to right: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Czechoslovak border areas to Germany

THE “PEACE IN OUR TIME” AND CZECKOSLOVAKIA

• In October, a reaction was produced in the form of the Munich Conference.

• Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain were involved in the discussions.

• Chamberlain led these negotiations with his policy of Appeasement. He claimed to have achieved “Peace in our time” but the ironic thing was that the he had handed Czechoslovakia on silver platter to Hitler.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, landing at Heston aerodrome on 30 September 1938 after his meeting with Hitler at Munich. In his hand he holds the peace agreement between Britain and Germany.

BOTH-WAYS APPEASEMENT• 1939: Now, that things were getting tense Hitler wanted to

ensure that his aggressive foreign policy would not entail a two front war as he believe that war with the West was inevitable, but he simply wanted to ensure that the Soviet Union did not form an alliance with the West.

• As a result, Hitler sent his Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to negotiate some sort of pact with the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov.

• Publicly they stated that it was simply a trade agreement. • But in reality, it was a complex pact which was geared

towards ensuring both Germany and the Soviet Union could pursue their self-interests without being bothered by the other.

STALLING FOR TIME• Hitler wanted to attack the West and be assured that the

Soviet Union would not attack Germany from the eastern front.

• In return, he was willing to let Stalin have the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), which became independent as a result of the Treaty of Versailles.

• They also agreed to carve up Poland. • The product of these negotiations was the Nazi-Soviet Pact

which was signed in August 1939. • This pact would not last long as Hitler was simply stalling

for time.

SOVIET UNION AS A TARGET• In Mein Kampf, Hitler clearly stated that the Soviet Union

was the ultimate target for Lebensraum (living space). • Hitler wanted to fight the West first then look to the USSR. • After the war Stalin stated that he was in fact aware of this

fact, but he had gone ahead with the agreement to give the USSR to rearm as the Soviets only entered World War Two in 1941.

PLANS TO INVADE POLAND• So after the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler

immediately began to act on his plans to invade Poland. • He made it seem like Poland had triggered the conflict with

the first display of aggression and that Germany responded to this.

• To do this he took two Polish prisoners from Germany and dressed them in Polish army uniforms.

• Then he released them in a forest on Polish-German border, shot them and then took pictures claiming that the Polish army was infiltrating Germany.

• On September 1st Germany declared war on Poland.

THE END OF APPEASEMENT• At this time, Hitler gave a speech to his generals

forecasting a brutal war campaign on Poland stating that Poland would be depopulated.

• The fatal mistake that Hitler made was that he believed that Chamberlain would appease him once again. He was wrong.

• Chamberlain did not appease him. Britain and France stood by their word that they would protect Poland in the event that she was attacked.

• On September 3rd, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

• World War Two had begun.

MAKING SENSE OF THE APPEASEMENT• With hindsight, it seems that Chamberlain’s policy of Appeasement was a bad idea. But if one places themselves in his shoes at that time it makes sense.

• The Treaty of Versailles was extremely unfair on Germany. So Hitler wanting to overturn some of its terms, ones regarding self-determination in particular, seemed reasonable.

• Self-Determination was something President Woodrow Wilson of the USA had promised Germany in line with his Fourteen Points at the end of the World War One.

• Nobody wanted a repeat of the First World War, so for Chamberlain to want to avoid another war at all costs seemed logical.

APPEASEMENT AS A GOOD IDEA• In some ways, Appeasement was a good idea as it gave

Britain and France enough time to rearm (as Depression triggered policies were geared towards rebuilding the economy), as Hitler himself stated that as of 1938 Germany was much more prepared for war and more likely to achieve victory than Britain or France.

CHAMBERLAIN’S NAIVITY• Chamberlain was too naive, believing everything that Hitler

said. • He should’ve been more suspicious of Germany’s

rearmament program, after all, if self-determination was all Hitler wanted which Britain was happy to give peacefully, why would Germany need to rearm?

HOBBES THEORY OF WAR• The pure state of nature or "the natural condition of mankind" was deduced by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

• From the equality and other causes in human nature, everyone is naturally willing to fight one another: so that "during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre as is of every man against every man".

• In this state every person has a natural right or liberty to do anything one thinks necessary for preserving one's own life; and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Leviathan).

• Hobbes described this natural condition with the Latin phrase bellum omnium contra omnes (meaning war of all against all).

NATIONALISM AND PRIDE• Using the Jews as a scapegoat for Germany’s problem

invoked a form of nationalism and pride in the German nation as it suggested that all of Germany’s failures and lack of glory since the end of World War One was due to the parasitical Jews.

HOMEWORK• How efficient was the appeasement policy? State the

positives and negatives.