THE CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Chairman I’m here with four trainee teachers to discuss the question: ‘Who was to blame for the Second World War?’ Well, ladies and gentlemen – you’re going to have to
teach this next year: what do you think?
John Obviously it was Hitler! He SAID in Mein Kampf in 1924 he would go to war.
In 1935, he told his generals to get ready to do it in four years time.
And then he went ahead and did it: 1935: rearmament rally – 1936: remilitarisation
of the Rhineland – March 1938: Anschluss with Austria. In September 1938 he
bullied Chamberlain into giving him the Sudetenland, and in March 1939 he took
the rest of Czechoslovakia and dared the world to stop him.
Then in September 1939 he did the same again in Poland and … surpri, surpri ...
there’s a war. Open and shut ca: Hitler!
Andrea I know that Hitler SAID he was destroying Versailles to get the support of his own people. But the Treaty of Versailles was dead long before Hitler. The allies had
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killed it already. They had renegotiated reparations in 1924, and allowed
Hindenburg to deny war guilt in 1927. In 1935 the British had even made a naval
arms agreement with Germany – they cooperated in overturning Versailles.
And then they GAVE him the Sudetenland at Munich! So we can’t be surprid if
Hitler thought it would be OK to attack Poland.
John Wasn’t Chamberlain at Munich simply trying to buy time for Britain to rearm? Andrea Rubbish! If Britain was militarily weak in the 1930s, Germany was weaker.
Remember that the German army had orders to retreat if it met ANY resistance in
the Rhineland in 1936.
No – we ENCOURAGED Hitler to do what he did. Loads of people in Britain
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actually SUPPORTED what he was doing. And NOBODY thought Chamberlain
would ever keep his promi to defend Poland – not even Stalin, who gave up on英国留学费用
Britain and made the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Hitler in August 1939.
Appeament ENCOURAGED Hitler to go too far and – for me – you’ve got to
撒播blame the appears.
provokePeter I don’t think I blame a person at all. I blame the Great Depression of the 1930s.
While the economy was booming in the 1920s, everybody was happy to sign up to
peace. But when the economy fell apart in the ‘30s, and people were starving,
suddenly it was: ‘I need that and I’m taking it, war or no war’.
That’s why Japan marched into Manchuria; their Pacific empire was called the
‘Japane Co-Prosperity Sphere’ … it can’t be any clearer than that. That’s why
Italy invaded Abyssinia. And that’s what lebensraum was all about – expanding
into Russia to cure food and raw materials.
Paula But surely that’s nonn? The invasion of Poland was not about Germany
ATTACKING Russia, it was about Germany and Russia allying and splitting Poland
between them. That’s politics, not economics.
For me, if you’re looking for a scapegoat for starting World War II, what about
Stalin? Hitler would NEVER have dared to attack Poland without Russia’s connt. Chairman Can you sort this out in terms of long-term, short-term and trigger caus?
Long-term, you’ve got Germany’s anger at the Treaty of Versailles.
Shorter-term you have the economic depression, and all the tensions caud by
Japan, Italy and Germany, and appeament.
And then the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 sort of releas a trigger and …
everything explodes into war.
John Yes, but that doesn’t asss the caus – it doesn’t say which was the most
important.
For me, it’s got to be Hitler. He t the agenda. He was – in Churchill’s words –
‘insatiable in his lust for power’. Look at the history of Europe. It’s happened
often – one nation becomes too powerful, and the others get together and knock it
back into line. It just happened again in 1939.
Andrea Can’t agree. If a child is allowed to misbehave, you can’t blame him for being naughty. If you’re looking for a cau of World War Two, try appeament. At
best Chamberlain allowed Hitler to going too far. At worst, he actively LURED
Hitler into war, hoping he would attack Russia so Fascism and Communism would
fight each other to the death.
will do
traffPaula NA! ALL that happened without there being a war.
Economic depression: Manchuria – Abyssinia. No war.
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Nazi expansionism: Austria – Czechoslovakia. No war.
Appeament: Sudetenland. No war.
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And yet – Hitler makes the Nazi Soviet Pact with Stalin on 23rd August … and one
week later, 1st September 1939, BANG! Germany invades Poland. War!车皮
LOOK AT THE DATES!!! It’s Stalin, I blame for World War Two.
Chairman Hmmm. I wonder which of you is right? I suppo I need to go back to look at the facts and the events and the dates … and decide for mylf what I think.
