In 1936 Germany began closer relations with fascist Italy, a pariah state because of its invasion of Ethiopia the year before. The two antidemocratic states joined together to assist General Francisco Franco in overthrowing Spain's republican government during the Spanish Civil War ( ). In November 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Berlin-Rome Axis. That same year, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Anti- Comintern Pact, the three signatories pledging to defend each other against the Soviet Union and international communism.

So what does the word “Reich” even mean? The German word “Reich” means kingdom or realm. Similar to the word “Ruler”.

The Third Reich The Third Reich’s aggressive population encouraged “racially pure” woman to bear as many “Aryan” children as possible. Within this framework, “racially inferior” peoples, such as Jews and Gypsies, would be eliminated from the region.

Nazi foreign policy aimed from the beginning to wage a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, and the peacetime years of the Nazi regime were spent preparing the German people for war. In the context of this war, the Nazis planned and implemented the Holocaust, the mass murder of Jews, who were considered the primary “racial” enemy.

 Hitler believed that the Third Reich would go on for thousands of years. But really, it lasted until the Germans surrendered to their allies in 1945.

 In 1993 Hitler became the chancellor of Germany.  August 2, 1934 President Hindenburg dies and Hitler becomes the dictator of Germany.  September 15, 1935 Nuremberg laws deprive German Jews of all civil liberties.  March 7,1936 Rhineland was invaded by German troops.  November 9-10, 1938 Kristallnacht occurred.  May 22, 1939 Germany and Italy form an alliance: The Rome-Berlin Axis. ("Pact of Steel")  August 23, 1939 Germany signs Pact with Soviet Union: Russo- German Non Aggression Pact

 The final chapter in the destruction of Hitler's Third Reich began on April 16, 1945 when Stalin unleashed the brutal power of 20 armies, 6,300 tanks and 8,500 aircraft with the objective of crushing German resistance and capturing Berlin. By prior agreement, the Allied armies (positioned approximately 60 miles to the west) halted Devastation in Berlin Soviet troops at the Brandenburg Gate their advance on the city in order to give the Soviets a free hand. The depleted German forces put up a stiff defense, initially repelling the attacking Russians, but ultimately succumbing to overwhelming force. By April 24 the Soviet army surrounded the city slowly tightening its stranglehold on the remaining Nazi defenders. Fighting street-to-street and house-to-house, Russian troops blasted their way towards Hitler's chancellery in the city's center.

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