Road to WWII Tara Madsen

Rise of Dictatorial Regimes By 1939, only France and Great Britain remained democratic… other countries had resorted to dictatorial regimes ITALY- Government type= Fascism… in the early 1920’s, Benito Mussolini set up the first European fascist movement. Fascism glorifies the state over the citizen and has a strong dictator to rule the country.

USSR- Communism… Lenin instated a New Economic Policy (NEP)… Under this system, peasants could sell their produce and small businesses that employed fewer than 20 employees could be privately owned. In 1922, Lenin created a new state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics aka USSR. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power.

Hitler and Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on 20 April Hitler had views of extreme racism (especially toward Jews), while in Vienna he developed his political and social attitudes. Hitler served 4 years on the western front during WWI. By 1921, Hitler had total control over the Nazi Party

Hitler organized a revolt on the government that was quickly crushed and Hitler was sentenced to prison. While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf was an account of Hitler’s viewpoints on life, politics, and social issues. While in prison, Hitler realized that the Nazi Party would have to gain control of the country by political means and not by violent overthrow After Hitler’s release he grew the party and by 1929, it was the largest party in the Reichstag.

Nazis Take Control The Nazi Party came to power on 23 March The Enabling Act was passed which allowed the government to ignore the constitution for 4 years while issuing laws to deal with the countries problems. Nazis quickly brought everything under their control and started limiting the rights of Jews. Eventually, they set up concentration camps and started putting Jews in them.

Hitler felt that certain groups of people did not deserve to live in Germany or really live at all. He wanted to develop an Aryan racial state. (Full blooded Germans of Aryan decent)

The State and Terror Hitler was the ultimate decision maker and absolute ruler. The Shultzstaffeln aka SS were an important force in maintaining order Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, the SS controlled both secret police and the regular police. SS was based on 2 main principles: Ideology and Terror Terror: Secret police, criminal police, concentration camps, execution squads and death camps.

Anti-Semitic Policies Anti-Semitic = Anti-Jewish In September 1935, Nazis announced new racial laws called the Nuremburg Laws Defined even those with one Jewish grandparent as a Jew and revoked German citizenship Forbade Jews and Non-Jews from marrying Jews were forbidden to teach or take part in the arts Jews were also required to wear a yellow star and carry an identification card On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht took place… Nazis burned synagogues and destroyed over 7,000 Jewish businesses… 30,000 Jewish males were rounded up and sent to concentration camps that night. Jews were then prohibited from ride public transportation or entering public places like hospitals and schools Jews were forced to clean up all the debris from Kristallnacht