Adolf Hitler – Great History

Stauffenberg’s Plot to Kill Hitler

By July, 1944, the war was turning sour for Germany.

A map of the Front Lines by July 15th, 1944 (Allies – red, Axis – white, neutral – grey)

After a disastrous loss of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, the German army was on the run from the Soviets, who had begun to enter Poland. On the Western front, the Allies had made an incredible landing at Normandy, whilst an allied invasion was coming up from the south through Italy, where the Germans were assisting their allies. Germany was now fighting a war on three fronts and losing. Many Nazis began to blame Hitler’s mismanagement. Some of these men wanted Hitler gone. One of these men was Claus von Stauffenberg.

A photo of Stauffenberg before the accident

Claus von Stauffenberg was a general in the German Army. He had been severely wounded in North Africa, losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand and his left eye. While agreeing with many of Hitler’s nationalist policies, he believed that the war would do nothing but run Germany into the ground. During his time in Russia before the accident, he was appalled by the treatment of the citizens there, especially the Jewish ones, by the SS. He believed that the only way to stop the war was to stop Hitler, and the only way to stop Hitler was by killing him. And by 1943, he had met the right man to do it.

Henning von Tresckow was a major general and the leader of a small conspiracy group inside the Nazi high command. Tresckow used to be a staunch Hitler supporter until the Invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Not only that but he knew about the Holocaust and felt he had a moral responsibility to stop this mad tyrant.

Tresckow had previously made attempts himself to kill Hitler. One famous one was in March of 1943, where he had given Heinz Brandt, a lieutenant colonel who was travelling with Hitler, a box containing two bottles of Cointreau. However, the box instead contained a bomb which would be detonated by a crushed capsule of acid, with the intent that the bomb would explode during the flight from Smolensk to Prussia. However, the bomb was stored in the cold cargo hold, whereupon the acid detonator had frozen over and Hitler landed in Prussia unscathed. Thankfully, Tresckow had managed to take a flight to Prussia, swap out the bomb with two bottles and disarm the bomb.

Stauffenberg joined the conspiracy and had eventually rose the ranks to become one of its leaders along side Tresckow. They came up with a new plan, wherein Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche would detonate a British hand grenade at a meeting he would have with Hitler, showing the new Wermacht Uniforms. However, an allied bombing raid on a train shipment delayed their plans, as the train contained the new uniforms. Not only that but during this time, Bussche was seriously wounded and had to have his leg amputated. They now had to find a new man to kill Hitler. This man would be Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, who was only 21 at the time. However, Hitler cancelled on short notice and, once again, the plot could not go through. Eventually, the meeting finally took place on July 7th, 1944, with Hellmuth Stieff as the new assassin. However, Stieff backed out, most likely because he did not want to end his life. The bomb did not detonate and Hitler walked free.

However, the conspiracy went on and this time Stauffenberg wanted to take matters into his own hands. Not only did he want to kill Hitler but also take out the entire Nazi Regime.

On July 20th, Stauffenberg and his aide, Werner von Haeften flew to the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s Headquarters in Prussia. They find out that the meeting had been pushed forward by half an hour due to a visit from Benito Mussolini. Stauffenberg and Haeften rushed into a room, planning on activating two bombs and placing them in Stauffenberg’s briefcase, which would then be placed under the table in the room where the meting was held. Stauffenberg would then leave the room and the bombs would detonate. The meeting was intended to be held in an undergound bunker in the Wolf’s Lair, which would mean that the pressure of the explosion would certainly kill Hitler. Stauffenberg managed to arm one bomb, before they are interrupted, being informed that the meeting was starting. He handed the unarmed bomb to Haeften before entering the meeting.

A diagram of the room where the bomb went off. Survivors are marked in green, casualties in red, the bomb in yellow and Hitler in blue

The plan had now reached a second hiccup. Due to the weather, the conference was being held upstairs in a ventialted room with open windows. The pressure plan would not work. Stauffenberg decided to place the bomb on the left side of the table leg on the right end of the table. Hitler and the bomb were only separated by 1.3 metres. Stauffenberg then gives his briefing on the Eastern front before quickly leaving the room to take an important phone call. Once he leaves, the briefcase was moved to the other side of the table leg. At 12:42, Hitler then leaned over the table to discuss more in depth plans. At this exact moment, the bomb went off.

Stauffenberg watched the explosion 20 metres back from the building. He was very confident that Hitler was dead. He then drove out of the lair with Haeften, tossing the unarmed bomb into the forest. The next step of the plan was about to commence, Operation Valkyrie.

Operation Valkyrie was originally intended to deal with domestic disturbances inside the German Reich and orders to commence the operation would be issued to the reserves. It would implement in the event of a general breakdown in national civil order. It was made by General Friedrich Olbricht, who later became a member of the conspiracy. However, he, Tresckow and Stauffenberg modified the plan to detail that in the event of Hitler’s death, the Nazi Regime would be abolished. However, General Friedrich Fromm was the only one allowed to authorise the plan. Fromm was confronted and decided to remain silent on the matter but declined to be directly involved.

Olbricht was recieving two conflicting messages. From one line, he was being told Hitler was still alive and on the other Stauffenberg was insisting Hitler was dead. Eventually, he gave the go ahead and the reserves began to mobilise, with the orders to arrest High Ranking officials, including SS officers, framing them for a coup. The conspirators would then form a government which would appeal more to the allies and attempt to negotiate peace from there.

Eventually, a group of reserves commanded by Otto Ernst Remer began surrounding the Ministry of Propaganda, with the intent of arresting Josef Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda. However, Goebbels handed Remer the telephone in his office.

Do you recognise my voice?
Hitler on the other end of the line

Hitler had survived the explosion, meaning that Operation Valkyrie could not go through. Remer was ordered to crush the plot as fast as possible. Eventually, the Bendlerblock, the headquarters of the conspiracy, was laid under siege by the Wermacht. Fromm, betraying the conspirators in order to not be caught, rounded up the conspirators. 4 of them were executed in the courtyard of the building, including Olbricht, Haeften, another conspirator called Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg’s final words were:

Long live sacred Germany!
Stauffenberg’s last words

Many of the other conspirators who were not arrested either committed suicide or went into hiding in the following weeks. Many families of the conspirators were also arrested. over 5,000 people were executed for, indirectly or not, being a part of the conspiracy. Erwin Rommel, the famous North African Tank commander, was rumoured to be a part of the conspiracy. Many movies have been made about the sacrifice of these brave men, most notably in 2008, where Mission Impossible Star, Tom Cruise, portrayed Stauffenberg. It was filmed on location in the Bendlerblock, where director Bryan Singer lead the crew in a minute of silence to honour the dead before filming began. In 1980, a memorial museum was opened in honour of these men who, in the face of evil, risked their lives to try and stop that evil from spreading.

The street sign for Stauffenbergstaße in Berlin, named after Stauffenberg. Upon this road is the Bendlerblock

The Battle of Stalingrad

By July of 1942, Operation Barbarossa had been raging for over a year. The United States had entered the war and with no signs of Britain surrendering despite the U-Boat warfare and bombing campaign, Hitler decided to turn his back on his old ally and invade the Soviet Union. For the last 13 months, the operation had raged on and they were beginning to fall short of key objectives. One important thing that the Germans were lacking was oil. They were now over 1,000 miles into foreign territory and, with the Russian scorched earth tactic, supply lines were running thin.

In one last ditch effort to find some more oil. Hitler set his eyes on the Caucuses, an oil rich area of the Soviet Union in modern day Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. However, Hitler added a new objective to the plan. He believed that in order to secure the Caucuses, they would need to capture the key city of Stalingrad.

Stalingrad, named after General Secretary Joseph Stalin, was a massive supply hub, due to its bountiful number of factories and a massive transport hub. Despite this, German High Command did not believe that Stalingrad was a very important objective, who thought that Army Group South should flank the Caucuses by pushing through to Astrakhan and then the armies would go down from there. However, Hitler believed that they should split Army Group South in half from the onset, and assigning Friedrich Paulus and his 6th Army to capture Stalingrad.

A photo of a building in Stalingrad before the war

The advance was swift and forceful, and the city was very close to being surrounded. However, due to the advance the supply line was even thinner. Some in the 6th Army resorted to eating their own horses to prevent themselves from starvation. 1/4 of the casualties from the 6th thus far had been due to disease rather than bullets.

Meanwhile, Stalin had prepped for a change of plans. Wanting to keep the city named after himself, he had built a large number of tanks, placing all his reserves in the city. On the 28th of July, Stalin issued his infamous order 227.

Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters!
An excerpt from Order 227

Any officer or soldier who did not comply with the order would, most likely, be shot on sight. After a large Luftwaffe attack, the 6th Army pushed into Stalingrad, managing to seize much of the suburbs. The Soviet Divisions were now split in two, with the 62nd and 64th armies shipping supplies and reinforcements across the Volga River, whilst under heavy bombardment from the Luftwaffe.

The Russians are ordered to stay close to German lines, in order to stop air support out of fear that Hitler would bomb his own men. The unique urban combat of Stalingrad had begun, with most gunfights engaging within spitting distance of the enemy. The German advance slowed but pushes into the city were still made. The Soviet Divisions in Stalingrad were on their last legs, until the Russian secret weapon eventually came.

The winter soon began to set in. The already hungry Germans were also beginning to feel the effects of the cold. The German advance either halted or slowed to a crawl, allowing Soviet High Command to recuperate and form a plan of counter assault. Whilst the plan is being formed, Paulus, orders another assault. The Germans manage to push back the Soviet forces to a small sliver of land against the Volga. However, having suffered 60,000 casualties, the battered and hungry German army cannot advance. A stalemate began to set in

Barmaley Fountain in the middle of the war torn city

Eventually, Georgy Zhukov, one of the key Russian Generals in the defence of the city, unleashes his master stroke. Operation Neptune goes ahead on November 19th, with 10 entire armies, totalling 1 million men, push through the German line, managing to encircle the German 6th and 4th armies, taking out the Romanian 5th corps, inside the city in only 3 days.

With supply lines cut off, Hitler decided to airlift supplies into Stalingrad. However, for reasons unknown, only army supplies, such as ammunition, was dropped and not food and clean water, a dire resource in the war torn city. Not only that but he also ordered 500 tons of said supplies to be dropped into the city, despite Paulus claiming that they needed 700 and the Luftwaffe saying they could only manage 300. Many Germans starved whilst the wounded succumbed to the elements, dying of hypothermia as winter truly began.

Around Christmas, Erich von Manstein, head of the Wehrmacht, ordered a push through the soviet line in order to relieve the 6th and 4th Army. However, due to orders from the Fuhrer, and dwindling numbers, Paulus did not attempt to meet up with Manstein’s men. Thousands more die in this attempted breakthrough. With no ammunition or food, the Germans are offered 2 surrenders by Zhukov, both of which Hitler orders Paulus to deny. by this time only 40,000 men of the 300,000 who initially marched on Stalingrad are still alive, whilst there are 18,000 men who are injured and yet untreated due to the lack of medical supplies. The situation became even more dire once the Soviets capture the last airfield that could be used for airdrops into Stalingrad. Despite his failure, and the German force in Stalingrad being split in two, Paulus received a promotion to Field Marshal, from Hitler himself. However, Hitler knew that there has never been a single Field Marshal ever who has been taken alive. Hitler had just signed Paulus’ death warrant.

Eventually, the Russians found his base of operations in a worn out department store basement, with the southern part of the army falling not long after that. The Soviets took mercy on Paulus, who lived out the rest of his life in East Germany until 1957. He is the only Field Marshal to ever be taken prisoner. The commander of the northern pocket also subtly requested that his men surrender. 11,000 German insurgents did not surrender and it would not be until March of 1943 before Stalingrad was clear of a German presence.

Many historians cite Stalingrad as a key turning point in the war. If Stalingrad had been captured, it would’ve been a catastrophic loss of life and morale for the Red Army. Thankfully, Hitler’s forces were pushed all the way back to Berlin thanks to the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, leading to the death of Hitler in April, 1945, and the end of the war in Europe. However, it came at a heavy cost. The Battle of Stalingrad was and still is the single deadliest battle in human history.

Casualties

German – 800,000
Soviet – 1.1 million
Civillian – 40,000

The Hunt for the Bismarck

By 1941, Paris had fallen to the Nazis. The next big target on Hitler’s wish list was the United Kingdom. In one ear he had Karl Doenitz, head of the Kreigsmarine and U-Boat effort said that Hitler needed to expand U-Boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean, in order to cut off Britain’s supplies and force them into surrender through starvation. In his other ear, he had Erich Raeder, the Chief of the German Navy High Command, who said that if Hitler built some very large battleships, he could destroy Britain’s mighty Royal Navy. Soon, Hitler’s mind was made up.

Admiral John Tovey, Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow, a large ocean stretch in the North of Scotland. His mission was to patrol the vast expanse of Greenland and Nazi occupied Norway. At his base, he had been receiving regular intel about this ship. A ship so large that it is the third largest battleship in human history and the largest ever used by a European country. That ship was the Bismarck.

Towering over its opponents at almost 30 ft tall, this eight 15-inch gun battleship was the might of the German Navy. Weighing in at around 40,000 tons and being equipped with the top grade armour, it was a flagrant violation of Post WW1 treaties, that limited the size of German ships.

However, while the Royal Navy was mighty once, it had somewhat lost its touch since WW1. Due to naval treaties, battleships could not be produced in the interwar period, so many ships had to be converted to match and, in some cases, not very well. Ships that were produced because of the war were produced very hastily and thus not equipped very well, and hardly had any time to test to see if they functioned.

Whilst it was operating in the Baltics at the time, a real fear of the British Naval command was the Bismarck making a break through the North Sea and escaping into the Atlantic, a guaranteed disaster for the British. And it was possible this fear was becoming a reality, as Tovey was informed that the Bismarck had left a Polish port 3 days earlier, whilst a group of German boats had been spotted passing in between Denmark and Norway. Tovey ordered his men to refuel and stand by.

A photo of the *Bismarck* moored in the fjord

An RAF scouting plane spotted a large boat, shadowed by a small cruiser, in a Norwegian Fjord. The plane sent photos back to base, where analysts confirm it’s the Bismarck, accompanied by the Prinz Eugen. A foul fog soon set in, and Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland is ordered to guard the oceans surrounding the possible path of the Bismarck from a naval base in Iceland, with Tovey believing it’ll take this opportunity to slip out into the Atlantic. A reconnaissance plane flies to the Bismarck‘s last known position below the clouds. It’s gone. Tovey ordered his fleet, who have been stationed at Scapa Flow, to sail for Iceland, filling up the gaps across Holland’s line. Tovey then radioed Holland, ordering him to maintain radio silence.

In the Denmark Strait, two cruisers were patrolling the water. One young crew man spots the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. Knowing that they could not take on the 15-inch guns and that they could not pierce the armour, the cruisers took a sharp turn into the fog. Notifying the other cruiser, the radar was activated, a true technical marvel at the time. However, the second cruiser had a very close call with the Bismarck, only being 6 miles out. Shots rang out from the Bismarck as the cruiser made its getaway. Soon, HMS Prince of Wales, commanded by Captain John Leach and HMS Hood, commanded by Captain Ralph Kerr with Holland aboard, set sail to confront the Bismarck.

Hood, was one of the warships that had been built in 1918 and revamped for WW2 but was still largely considered to be the pride of the Royal Navy, whilst Prince of Wales was a new one, fresh out of the factory only 2 months prior. Prince of Wales was still having mechanical problems, with civilian engineers still fixing hydraulics issues by the time they encountered the German ships. At 6AM on the 24th of May, 1941, Holland ordered his men to fire at the leading ship. However, Hitler had, unconventionally, placed the cruiser first. The Bismarck was the second ship. Realising the error, Leach opened fire on the Bismarck all their shots missed. They had lost the element of surprise and were now sitting ducks.

Whilst a few shots were hit against the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, the British ships were no match for the German 15-inch guns, which laid waste to them. Unfortunately, Hood was struck hard. Leach watched in horror as a large fire erupted from the centre of the Hood, before it exploded, splitting in half and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Both Holland and Kerr were lost in the destruction.

The Prince of Wales manages to put itself in the exact same position that the Hood was in just moments earlier. After getting a lucky hit off on the Bismarck, a shell crashed through the bridge, killing all but 4. Leach was luckily one of those 4. He managed to order a retreat, dispensing a smoke screen to cover his get away. Out of the crew of 1,318 men, only 3 were rescued from the Hood. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a disaster for the British and the Bismarck now had a clear path to the Atlantic but, thankfully, the fight was not over yet.

Reconnaissance planes saw oil slicks in the area, trailing away. It appeared as though Bismarck had been damaged in the battle. This should be a relief but Tovey began to worry. A while back, some of what was Holland’s Icelandic guard had lost the Bismarck on their radars. They had no idea where the beast was. Depending on how bad the damage was, there could be a mid ocean refuelling if the damage wasn’t that bad. If it was bad, it would most likely return to base, at either France or Norway. Analysts believed that it would stop at France, due to the signals being sent to the Bismarck had changed source from Berlin to Paris. Tovey’s map, due to a mathematical error, indicated that the Bismarck was travelling North to Norway. Tovey charged his fleet north, to where he believed the Bismarck might be.

Back on the home front, in Bletchley Park, mathematicians and codebreakers were scrambling to find any clues on the Bismarck’s whereabouts, before one German speaking codebreaker noticed something. A letter from a concerned father to German Naval Command, asking whether his son, who was serving on the Bismarck, was safe after the battle. The Navy confirmed that everyone was fine and that they were headed to Brest for refuelling. This message was quickly conveyed to Tovey aboard the King George V.

A photo of Bletchley Park during the war

Meanwhile, American lent scout planes were surveying the area, and spotted a large battleship leaking oil which opens fire with the anti-aircraft guns. They’ve found the Bismarck. As the planes climbed, they relayed this to the Admiralty. The HMS Ark Royal, an aircraft carrier, headed straight to the location. The had to catch her now, before she got in the range of the Luftwaffe airbases in France, where she would be unstoppable. 15 Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from the aircraft carrier. With intel claiming that it’s the only ship in the area, the Swordfish got into attack formation upon seeing a ship. The HMS Sheffield, however, realises that the Swordfish were targeting them instead. As four of the Swordfish pulled out, having realised their error, 11 released the new magnetic torpedoes. 6, thankfully, detonate on contact with the water and Sheffield managed to weave through the other 5.

The Swordfish returned to the carrier before heading out one last time. This is their final chance to sink the Behemoth. In their attack run, two torpedoes strike the Bismarck, one in its side and one in its stern. They saw the Bismarck sail on. Having prepped to report a mission failure, the jubilant crew of the aircraft carrier reported that the Bismarck was acting erratically, indicating that the torpedo run had damaged its steering.

Over next few hours, destroyers, under Tovey’s orders, have been firing upon the ship, making sure it’s occupied and cannot return to base. However, they still kept their distance till morning when Tovey spotted the Bismarck at around 9 in the morning on the 27th of May, 3 days after the sinking of the Hood. Tovey’s plan involved approaching the Bismarck from all sides, in order to disperse the gunfire across 4 directions. But first, an advance from the West must occur. One of the ships, the old, slow HMS Rodney, managed to take out the main fire control director with its massive 16-inch guns. With the Bismarck falling silent for a moment, the barrage began. The assault was from multiple sides, with even the Norfolk and Dorsetshire‘s 8-inch guns making decent work of the upper deck. An ammunition locker exploded, taking the secondary fire control director with it. The Bismarck’s crew were now firing whenever and wherever they wanted. Once the main guns fell silent permanently and the bridge down, Tovey began slamming broadsides into the Bismarck. Shockingly, it did not go under, even after 50 minutes of fire. Tovey ordered the Dorsetshire to finish the Bismarck while the other ships returned to base, which fires to torpedoes into the hull. The pride of Hitler’s fleet is finally sunk.

As they’re pulling German men out of the water, the crew of the Dorsetshire noticed a periscope peering over the water line. The Captain ordered the Dorsetshire to move, less it be sunk, abandoning hundreds of men in the water. Out of the 2,200 men on the Bismarck, only 114 were pulled from the water.

In Parliament the next day, Churchill sat down just before he was handed a note. He stood and proclaimed:

I have received news that the Bismarck is sunk.
Churchill speaking to the House of Commons

A photo of Churchill in the House of Commons

Bletchley Park erupted into cheers and applause. The sinking of the Bismarck was a naval victory that Britain desperately needed. It showed the competence of Bletchley Park and that they were highly important to the war effort. It distracted the press from the naval losses in the Mediterranean. And, most importantly, it showed the US Congress, who were hesitant about the war, that the Royal Navy could defend American Convoys. Despite Goebbels portraying the Bismarck as a noble last stand Hitler, from then on, would only use capital ships in defence of Germany, listening to Doenitz and expanding U-Boat operations in the Atlantic. Only 3 weeks later, Hitler would attack the Soviet Union, the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. The hunt for the Bismarck showed that even in the face of the might of Germany that Britain would never give up and never surrender.

The Battle of France

By May 1940, Germany controlled most of the European Continent. With Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark and Norway being under Nazi control, Britain and France now stood alone as the last enemies of Germany, for the time being. One key problem in Germany’s path was the Maginot Line

A photo of a fortification on the Maginot Line

Between the late 1920s to mid 1930s, the French had built a large line of forts across their border with Germany. These forts were nigh impenetrable, so Hitler needed to think of a new strategy. He had two options. To breach south through Switzerland or to go North through the Low Countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Hitler chose the latter.

However, there was much bickering in army high command about how to attack. Whilst most advocated for a mere replica of the Schlieffen Plan in World War 1, Hitler and Erich von Manstein, Chief of Staff for Army Group A, requested a battle plan be made through the Ardennes, a dense forest region in Belgium and Luxembourg. Eventually, a compromise is reached, wherein Army Group B would attack from the Dutch border, whilst Army Group A would swoop in through the Ardennes.

Meanwhile, the British and French were prepping for a hypothetical counter attack. Whilst the Belgians and Dutch refused to allow French and British troops to immediately enter territory, for fear of provoking the Germans, they came up with a plan to hold the line and hopefully counter attack. However, the plan left little in the means of defence in the Ardennes, which British and French high command believed is impassible for armoured units, despite intelligence that sugggested the German’s plans to do just that.

On May 10th, 1940, Germany began to invade the Low Countries. They began with the pretence of just attacking the Netherlands, forcing Allied forces to organise up there. However, they were delayed in their response by mass numbers of refugees fleeing the opposite direction. Meanwhile, German forces began pushing through the Ardennes in mass numbers, forcing traffic jams 250km back from the front. All too late, the Allies realised their response in the Ardennes had been far too weak. The Blitzkrieg tactic worked once more in the Lowlands, with Stuka dive bombers, Messerschmidt fighters and Panzer divisions all working together in order to hit fast and hard.

The tension in France was felt on the home front too. With much of the British Public and government believing that Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policies in the lead up to the war, with Czechoslovakia, has done nothing but think Hitler he can do what he wanted, Chamberlain resigned and was replaced by First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill.

By May 24th, Allied forces had been forced into a pocket in Belgium and Northern France. In a fighting retreat, Allied forces moved to Dunkirk, planning to evacuate forces there. Many French commanders viewed this as an abandonment and betrayal. Fearing a Southern counter attack, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt requested a cease of a direct assault on Dunkirk, to which Hitler agreed. Many say that if the Nazi forces had advanced on Dunkirk, Britain would’ve been more likely to surrender. Hitler defended this decision later, saying he did not want to humiliate the British, in hopes of initiating peace talks. Runstedt later claimed that it was not his order but Hitler’s. Regardless, nearly 340,000 troops were evacuated from Dunkirk in a spectacular feat in co-operation with land, air and sea, both civilian and military.

After the troops were evacuated and Belgium surrendered, without the consultation of the British and French, Germany launched an all out assault on the south. Only 10 days after the last troops left Dunkirk, German forces entered Paris on June 14th, 1940. On the 16th of June, the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, resigned, and was immediately replaced by Phillipe Petan, who immediately began peace talks with Germany.

Many protested to this, including Charles de Gaulle, who broadcasted a radio message from Britain, urging his fellow country men to fight. Whilst Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, was calling for peace talks through neutral Italy, Mussolini began forcing troops through the Alps on June 21st. The armistice eventually took effect on June 25th, 1940. The puppet of Vichy France was established whilst some overseas colonies remained under Allied French Control. However, Britain and the Commonwealth, with the assistance of a fractionalised France, now stood alone against the might of the German Army.

A photo of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Churchill’s famous speech to Parliament before Dunkirk

Invasion of Poland

Gaining living space, striving for land power in the East. France’s opposition to this is unavoidable, but not that of England or Italy. […] France as an ally is possible, but undesirable. Help for South Tyrol only with Italy against France; this also means freedom of movement against the East.
Hitler writing in his second posthumously published book, 1928

After World War 1, many Eastern European countries were unified to form Poland. As such, Poland divided East Prussia from the remainder of Germany. Hitler formed a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin, Communist Leader of the Soviet Union. The non-aggression pact also included the East of Poland being occupied by the Soviet Union in the event of an invasion. Many people didn’t agree with this, since Hitler was heavily anti-Communist, with many anti-leftist purges taking place in Germany and in their recently annexed territories.

On the night of August 31st, 1939, 3 men dressed in Polish Army Uniforms infiltrated Gleiwitz Radio Tower, on the Polish-German border. They transmitted anti-German messages, all in Polish, to the people of Germany using a radio tower. The next day, a man in a Polish Army Uniform was found dead near the tower. His body was reported to the police. This was a staged operation by the Nazis.

The man found dead was Franciszek Honoik, a Polish man, who was legally the first casualty of the war. Franciszek was killed by the Gestapo. He was unmarried, 43 and wasn’t even a soldier. The same day, German soldiers marched on the west side of Poland, with Soviet soldiers closing in on the East.

The German tactic known as Blitzkreig, involving striking fast and hard with as many units as possible, was used in taking out many Polish divisions. Not only that, but the highly advanced Panzer Divisions combined with the Stuka Dive bombers made quick work of the Polish Cavalry. The West of Poland was captured within two weeks. On October 6th, the last Polish Division surrendered, having been encircled by the German Army. The invasion only lasted 1 month and 5 days. In accordance with the agreement, Germany occupied the West, establishing the Generalgouvernement in the southern region, with the USSR Occupying the East.

Casualties

Germany – 16,343
Soviet Union – 737
Poland – 66,000

This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o’clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
Neville Chamberlain’s radio broadcast to Britain, September 3rd, 1939

Hitler’s Pre-War Expansions

Hitler turned closer to home with his home country of Austria. On the 12th of March, he announced his plans to unify Austria with Germany. According to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg, who was hoping to soothe tensions with Hitler about the Anschluss, Hitler was already good to go on the annexation of Austria when they met in February of 1938.

What is all this nonsense about your independence? Whether Austria is independent or not is not the question. There’s only one thing to discuss. Do you want the Anschluss brought about with bloodshed or without?
Hitler speaking with Schuschnigg

On March 9th, Schuschnigg announced he would hold a referendum on the Anschluss for the 13th. He predicted it would result in a split of around two thirds against the Anschluss. Outraged, Hitler began mobilising for an Austrian invasion the next day and the Chancellor was forced into calling it off and resigning. Only 2 days later, Panzers rolled across the Austrian border unopposed, due to the collapse of the Austrian government.

A referendum was later held that April in which 99.7% of the Austrian people voted in favour of the Anschluss. However the vote was not secret and it is believed that many people were scared to vote against it for fear of being killed. Reminder, this is after the Night of the Long Knives; people knew what Hitler was capable of. After the referendum, anti-semitism was rife in Austria, and around 200 Austrian Jews committed suicide in the weeks following the annexation, fearing a worse fate if they didn’t. It is estimated that, if the election was secret and fair, around 70% would’ve voted against German Annexation. He has the nation of Czechoslovakia surrounded from all 3 sides and he began to look towards the Sudetenland

The country was naturally in an already pretty weak spot. It was bordering a once former and now slowly growing major power, who was very open about wanting to expand its territories. One of its few allies was France, who weren’t exactly enthusiastic about starting another war after losing almost 2 million people in the First World War. Another ally was the USSR, who they did not share a land border with, meaning they would either have to cross through Romania or Poland to assist, both of whom were adamantly against Communism. Czechoslovakia now stood alone as Hitler declared he wanted the Sudetenland, a mountainous region on the German border, that the Czechoslovakian government had just spent quite a sizeable amount of money on forts to defend from their expansionist neighbours. With both their alliances being highly inconvenient, they turned to the UK government for war support. They came back with a less than stellar response.

However much we may sympathise with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbour, we cannot, in all circumstances, undertake to involve the whole British Empire in war simply on her account. If we have to fight, it must be on larger issues than that. I am myself a man of peace to the depths of my soul. Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me. But if I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force, I should feel that it should be resisted. And that such a domination like the people who believe in liberty, would not be worth living. But war is a fearful thing, and we must be very clear before we embark on it, that it is really the great issues that are at stake, and that a call to risk everything in their defense, when all the consequences are weighed, is irresistible.
Chamberlain’s statement on Czechoslovakia

With central European tensions rising and war on the horizon, France and Britain decided to host a peace conference with Germany, with Italy as a mediator. Czechoslovakian officials were not invited. At the conference, Germany was given everything that they wanted, just as long as they promised to not take any more land, not just in Czechoslovakia, but across Europe.

Satisfied, Chamberlain returned home, waving the contract off of a plane, declaring “peace in our time”. Because of the summit, Hitler was selected for Time magazine’s Man of the Year award in 1938.

The cover of the January 2nd 1939 issue of Time Magazine, in which Hitler was declared Man of the Year

The Czechoslovakians had now lost their major forts and Hungary, seeing an opportunity, took lower parts of Slovakia. A now even weaker Czechoslovakia, with no more allies, was powerless to stop Hitler from backing an independence bid for Slovakia, effectively setting it up as a puppet state, before Hungary took a little bit more of the tip of Slovakia. With the majority of their defences, industry and population gone, Czechoslovakia had no choice but to bow down to German oppression and was turned into a protectorate.

Memel is a much shorter story for a much smaller piece of land. Hitler simply sent an ultimatum to Lithuania, who had around 20,000 men, compared to Germany’s bordering a million men and Lithuania was forced into conceding Memelland, a former territory of Imperial Germany.

Hitler Building Alliances

During this time, Hitler formed a pact with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Dictator of Italy. His march on Rome inspired Hitler’s Munich Putsch in 1933.

Mussolini (left) and Hitler (right) surrounded by an adoring crowd

They also wanted Spain to join the pact but were currently in the middle of a civil war, between Manuel Anzaña’s Republicans and Francisco Franco’s Nationalists, the latter of which piqued Hitler’s interest. He sent multiple bombing raids and armoured troops to Franco to help with the war effort. One of the most famous raids was that of Guernica.

Guernica was an old town in North Spain with, at the time, a population of 7,000 people. At around 4:30 in the afternoon on the 26th of April 1936, a Luftwaffe Dornier Do 17 flew above the quaint town and dropped 50 kg worth of bombs onto the town. For an hour and a half, Italian and German planes flew over and bombed the town, killing between 170 and 300 people. This event was painted by Pablo Picasso in one of his most well-known works, simply titled Guernica. Picasso was in Paris at the time of the German Occupation of France. When a German Officer came into his apartment, he spotted a photograph of Guernica. The officer asked Pablo, “Did you do that?” to which Pablo replied, “No, you did.”

*Guernica,* Pablo Picasso’s painting inspired by the bombing

Hitler’s attempts to get Spain into his pocket failed, although the Nationalists won, so he decided to turn his eyes to the east.

By 1938, Japan had colonised Korea, multiple islands in the Pacific, Manchuria, a puppet state of China controlled by the Soviet Union, other parts of China and Taiwan. They had control over most of eastern Asia and started the rape of Nanking, in which 40,000 to 300,000 people were killed and 20,000 to 80,000 peopled raped. Hitler formed an alliance with the Japanese Empire.

A child crying in the aftermath of the Rape on Nanking

Hitler in Power

At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! … Don’t forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!
Adolf Hitler, reporting to a British Correspondent, 1934

Hitler employed his “Work and Bread” tactic once he became Führer. It started with when he would make it appear that unemployment had gone down. He did this by counting women who made families as employed. He fired Jewish shopkeepers and replaced them with non-Jewish shopkeepers. He then didn’t count the Jews as unemployed. If the Jewish business owners refused to cooperate, they would be boycotted.

Hitler built the Autobahn, which took only 3 years to build 1000 kilometres. He also made the Volkswagen Beetle, a cheap and affordable car for the working class. Unemployment went down to 400,000 during Hitler’s time in office and things seemed to be looking up for Germany. Little did the German people know, Hitler was preparing them for war.

He denounced the Treaty of Versailles and rearmed his army, by building tanks, planes and warships for the German Army and reintroduced conscription. Hermann Goering would become the head of the new Luftwaffe, a name that has stuck with the German Air Force to this day.

Young boys were made to join a Nazified version of the Scouts, the Hitler Youth. They did exercise, sports and learned not to trust Jews.

Hitler meeting a group of Hitler Youth members

Jews suffered from relentless persecution and segregation under the time of the Nazi’s being in power. Jewish Lawyers and judges were sacked in March 1933. They were banned from sports clubs and the teachers were sacked by April. Race Studies was introduced in schools in September. Jewish businesses boycotted by painting the Star of David or the word “Juden”, the German word for Jew, on shop windows and soldiers turned people away. Jews had their German Citizenship revoked. They weren’t allowed to vote and marry non-Jews. By 1936, Jews weren’t allowed electrical equipment. In 1938, Jewish doctors were sacked, had to have something to identify them as a Jew in their name, Jewish children were banned from non-Jewish schools, Synagogues and businesses were attacked. The discrimination escalated further and further until the straw broke the camel’s back.

Ernst Vom Rath, a German diplomat, was killed by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew who killed Rath for deporting his parents, along with thousands of other Polish Jews to a slum of a refugee camp near the Polish Border, as the Polish government were not admitting Jews without valid passports who had lived in Germany for more than five years. Many Polish Jews wanted to return to Poland due to Hitler’s antisemitic laws, but were denied entry. Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Gestapo, forced thousands upon thousands of Polish Jews to illegally cross the border. Due to the increased influx of immigrants, faster than they could build homes, the Polish Government denied Polish Jews from entering the country, and the Jews remained trapped between two countries who did not want them. Enraged by the Nazi government’s actions, an angered Grynszpan killed Vom Rath. On the night of November 9th, 1938, members of the SS and SA, along with the Hitler Youth and the general public, attacked Jewish businesses, burnt down synagogues and arrested Jews in an attempt to force them out of the country. Over 30,000 Jews were sent to the concentration camps, where many would die. Herschel was arrested and sent to the concentration camps. He was never seen again. His parents, who had survived the war, requested that his date of death be put as May 8th, 1945, the day Germany surrendered and the European war ended. This night of November 9th 1938 is known as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass.

A Jewish business having been attacked as a cause of Kristallnacht, German for Night of Broken Glass

Jewish and non-Jewish children weren’t allowed to play together, and Jews were banned from swimming pools. They were evicted from homes in April 1939 and by September weren’t allowed outside between 8pm and 6am. All of this lead up to the Final Solution in 1942, referred to as the Holocaust or the Shoah, in which 6 million Jews were killed by shootings and, more infamously, Zyklon B gas. Those who survived returned home to find their houses taken and Jews still suffer persecution to this day.

Children who were prisoners at Concentration camps during the Holocaust

Jehovah’s Witnesses, unlike the Jews, were given a choice to join them and stop being a Jehovah’s Witness or go to a concentration camp. Over a third of German Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in concentration camps.

Under Nazi policy, women were not allowed to do much of anything, either. They were required to wear traditional German dresses instead of trousers and high heels. They weren’t allowed to work and if they were working, they were fired and encouraged to start a family. Women were given 25% of a year’s wage for every child they had. They were awarded medals for how many children they had, the highest being a gold medal for 8 children. They were even paired up with SS officers to have the “perfect” Aryan children, since all SS officers were pure Aryan.

They were imposed an ideology where they were only to focus on three things, Kinder, Kirche, Kuche or Children, Church, Cooking in English. They were banned from juries in court trials, considered to be too emotional to judge such a decision.

Hitler Gaining Power

After Hitler is appointed chancellor and calls for another election, Hermann Göring, wanting to curry favour with Hitler, attempted to dispose of any possible opposition for the upcoming election. The first target was the Communists, who Göring believed were an existential threat to the German State. He and a group of Stormtroopers (SA), the Nazis Paramilitary wing, raided the Communist party headquarters, looking for evidence of a violent Communist uprising. Having found nothing other than Marxist literature, Göring decided to make it seem as though it was beginning.

Thankfully, the fire was quelled but, almost immediately, the Nazis began playing the blame game, pinning the fire as a Communist plot. They immediately called upon Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree, calling for the suspension of habeas corpus, freedom of speech and freedom of press. It is strongly believed to this day that the burning of the Reichstag was a plot by Göring in an attempt to demonise the Communists and uplift himself in the Nazi ranks. An attempt that, unfortunately, worked.

Göring, now having ample reason to arrest political opponents, called upon the SA once more to help with the muscle of the operation, the SA being lead by Ernst Rohm. Members of the Communist party are rounded up and arrested, heads of the party, such as Ernst Thälmann, are captured, their hiding places being ratted out. Thälmann was shot on a personal order from Hitler in 1944 at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. In all, over 20,000 people were arrested, simply for the crime of having a political belief.

That election, the Communist lost 19 seats, whilst the Nazis gained 92. The SPD, who had leftist leanings, also lost votes.

Due to the outrage, both in and out of the Reichstag about the fire, an act was passed that allowed the Nazi Cabinet of Germany and the Chancellor to govern and enact laws without the consultation of the Reichstag or President Paul von Hindenburg.

In addition to the procedure prescribed by the constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich. […] Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain unaffected. […] Treaties of the Reich with foreign states, which relate to matters of Reich legislation, shall for the duration of the validity of these laws not require the consent of the legislative authorities. The Reich government shall enact the legislation necessary to implement these agreements.
Excerpts from the Enabling Act of 1933

The Reichstag had been controlled. Now it was time to subjugate. In July of 1933, the Law Against the Formation of Parties was passed. It was only 3 sentences long.

The Reich government has passed the following law, which is hereby promulgated:

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party [Nazi Party] is the only political party in Germany.

Anyone who undertakes to maintain the organisational cohesion of another political party or to form a new political party will be sentenced to imprisonment for up to three years or jailed from six months to three years, unless the act is punishable with a higher penalty by other regulations.
The entirety of the act

It was signed off by Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, Minister of Justice, Franz Gürtner, and Hitler himself. That September, another “election” was held in which voters were simply given a list of Nazi Sympathisers but who were not members of the party, and were asked if they were for or against the Party. The election was not secret and multiple people were punished for voting no or not voting at all. The Reichstag was now merely a stage for Hitler’s speeches to a crowd of yes men. Democracy was dead and Hitler killed it.

An election poster, reading “*One People, One Leader, One ‘Yes’*“

Hitler, however, had higher aspirations. He needed all political dissent crushed as fast and effectively as possible, so he called upon Heinrich Himmler. Himmler had been the Reichsführer of the SS since 1929, the SS being another paramilitary group made by the Nazis. The difference between the SS and the SA was firstly the sheer commitment they had to the Nazi Ideology, that the Aryan Race was truly superior to all other races, and secondly their brutality, both sentiments shared by Himmler. He opposed more conservative Nazis, who believed that the Rule of Law was required to arrest political opponents. Himmler had other plans.

Himmler, now following the will of Göring, weaponises new laws to arrest the Nazi Opponents, under the pretence of Protective Police Custody. Himmler used this very liberally, arresting over 100,000 political opponents. Now needing a space to put these prisoners, he began the opening up of concentration camps, which would be guarded by the SA and the SS would rule. The standard police were not present. As a result, mass executions of political prisoners were organised. It is suspected that at Dachau alone, 40,000 people died between 1933 and 1945, many of whom were Communists, Social Democrats, Trade Unionists and Jews.

Himmler expanded the SS to fundamentally replace the police all across Germany. Himmler also offered a handpicked group of SS members to the highly paranoid Hitler to be his personal bodyguards, buying his complete loyalty to Hitler.

Finally, Göring, in an attempt to counter the influence of the SS, established the Gestapo, a secret police who would report on any anti-Nazi activity and have those who partook in it arrested.

In just 6 months, Hitler brought down the parliamentary democracy, fundamentally reshaped the rule of law and began polluting the minds of the German people through state owned newspapers.

One outstanding issue, however, was Ernst Röhm. Röhm, still currently head of the SA, had ambition beyond just running an auxiliary force. He wanted a Nazi army all to himself and felt he was being upstaged by the rapid expansion of the SS and founding of the Gestapo. He went behind Hitler’s back and began making moves within the army, then controlled by President Hindenburg. Not only that, but Röhm was quite openly gay, something that was strictly illegal under socially conservative laws in Germany and disgusted the Nazis. Hitler believed that the open secret that Röhm was a homosexual, something that he had previously defended, now could be an issue to his reputation, as a leader of a pure Germany. In addition, due to the violence and chaos on the streets, Hindenburg immediately requests that Hitler stops the SA or he will be removed as Chancellor. Röhm was an issue that Hitler needed to take care of and fast.

On the 30th of June 1934, Hitler invited Röhm and many other SA generals to Hotel Lederer in Bad Weissee. Once they were all gathered there Hitler and many SS officers stormed the building and arrested the officials. Hitler gave Rohm the option of him killing himself or he would be executed. Rohm chose to be executed and was shot on the 1st of July in Stadelheim Prison.

This carried on until July the 2nd, killing many, including former German Chancellor, Kurt Von Schleicher, anti-Nazi journalists, Fritz Gerlich and Edgar Jung, Competitor for Chairman of the Nazi Party, Gregor Stasser, a man who attempted to stop the Munich Putsch, Gustav Ritter von Kahr and many more. Once the purge was done with, Hitler claimed that Rohm had been trying to overthrow the government, which justified the killings to the public. He also claimed that there were only 61 deaths, when in reality it could’ve been anywhere between 85 and 1000.

David Low’s cartoon depicting the Night of the Long Knives, published in *The Evening Standard*

On the 1st of August, a law was made that if the President were to die, his powers would be merged with that of the Chancellor. President Hindenburg died the next day, giving Hitler full control of Germany and its people. When greeting himself to his new army, Hitler made them swear an oath to him and not the country. The Nazi age had begun.

The Reichstag Fire

In the late hours of Monday, the 27th of February 1933, a young theology student, Hans Floter, is on a leisurely stroll near the southwest of the German Government building, the Reichstag. Suddenly, he hears a smash of glass, and Hans turns to see a man clambering through the window with a flaming object in his hand. He runs to the nearest police officer, Karl Buwert, who reports it to the fire department as the building is set on fire by the intruder. Firefighters are dispatched.

Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and Chancellor of Germany, is having dinner with Joseph Goebbels, the current Gauleiter, regional leader, of Berlin, when they receive a phone call about the fire. Goebbels answers but writes it off as “a tall tale” and doesn’t inform Hitler. He receives another phone call not too long after, and only then does he tell Hitler of the fire.

Berlin citizens watching the Reichstag Burn

They rush over to the scene and meet Hermann Goering, current Speaker of the Reichstag, who cries “This is Communist outrage! One of the Communist culprits has been arrested.”

The Communist Culprit in question is 24-year-old Marinus van de Lubbe, a Dutch Council Communist, arrested by Buwert, only 24 minutes after the break in. He is put on trial, found guilty and executed on January 10th, 1934, 3 days before his 25th Birthday. In 2008, almost 75 years after the fire, he is pardoned by the German Government.

Hitler says that the fire is “a sign from God” saying that it was the beginning of the German Communist Revolution, similar to that of the October Revolution in 1917 in Russia. The fire is put out by 11:30, 2 and a half hours after the fire started. Two other communists are arrested in the following weeks, one of which is killed in prison.

The next day, Hitler requests that Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany, issue the Reichstag Fire Decree. It ordered the immediate suspension of multiple articles of the constitution as well as the suspension of habeas corpus and a crack down on freedom of speech. This was one of the Nazi’s key moves in order to gain power and instate Hitler as a dictator.

At the Nuremberg trials in 1945 General Franz Halder claimed that “On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer’s birthday in 1943, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value. I heard with my own ears how Göring broke into the conversation and shouted: ‘The only one who really knows about the Reichstag building is I, for I set fire to it.’ And saying this he slapped his thigh” When Goering heard this, he denied all claims. The fire took place exactly 1 week before the election where they won by 43.9% of the vote and 288 seats. Van De Lubbe was arrested and executed without trial.