reflection

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World War II (1939-45) The National Socialist War

The two sides of World War II were:

Allied Powers (victors) Soviet Union France Great Britain United States (1941) China

Axis Powers Germany Italy Japan

Background World War II was actually two separate wars for several years. These two wars were then combined into one war in late 1941 when Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. One war was in the Pacific. Imperial Japan sought to build a Japanese Empire in East and Southeast Asia. This war began when Japan invaded China in 1937.

• The Japanese called their empire the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

• Click here, here, and here to see maps of the Japanese empire. The other war was in Europe. Fascist Germany sought to build a German Empire in Central and Eastern Europe. This war officially began in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

• Click here and here for maps showing how far the Germans got in building their empire. The two wars were combined into one world war when Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. This meant Japan and the United States were at war in the Pacific. Four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. This meant the United States was involved in the European war as well, making the two wars one world war. Our focus in this lecture will be on the European part of the war. This war is often called Hitler’s war because the German Fascist leader Adolph Hitler wanted to build a German Empire in Central and Eastern Europe.

Germans Fascism is National Socialism The name of Hitler’s Fascist party in Germany was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The term “Nazi” comes from the “Na” in National and the “zi” in the German spelling of Socialism (Sozialismus). The Fascist party promoted National Socialism – in the name of the country’s workers. Other prominent leaders of the German National Socialists included

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• Joseph Goebbels

• Heinrich Himmler

• Reinhard Heydrich

• Hermann Göring

• Martin Bormann

• Heinrich Müller

• Eberhard Schöngarth

• Otto Hofmann

• Adolph Eichmann

• Rudolph Lange

• Roland Freisler

The following quotes are from the National Socialists’ party platform. Read the quotes carefully. They highlight why the leaders of National Socialism called their ideas Socialism.

• The party wanted “all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, to be abolished.” The party clearly criticized a major feature of capitalism, which is making money from interest and investments – “income that does arise from work.” The National Socialists wanted this capitalist income “to be abolished.”

• The party wanted guaranteed jobs and a guaranteed standard of living: “the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood.”

• The party wanted to promote “a sound middle-class” by taking over large stores and renting them cheaply to less wealthy workers – “the immediate communalization of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small tradespeople.”

• The party wanted to guarantee higher education: The State shall “make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education.” This included paying for the education of talented children from poor families: “talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, shall be educated at the expense of the State.”

• The party wanted “the nationalization of all trusts,” meaning government ownership of large corporations which have merged together into trusts.

• The party wanted a “generous increase in old age pensions.”

• The party wanted “profit-sharing in large industries,” meaning companies sharing profits with workers.

• The party wanted “to raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers.”

As the party program indicates, the National Socialists viewed themselves as progressive – guaranteed jobs and living standards, cheap rents, profit sharing, pensions, welfare centers, etc. Recall the discussion of Fascism in the last lecture. Many in the early 20th century viewed Fascism as a progressive movement promising to replace old ideas and older ways of doing things with new and more just policies. The German National Socialists viewed themselves as progressive because they promised to replace selfish ways of thinking with service to the community. They focused on the “national community,” not the individual. We see this in the National Socialist program of abolishing “unearned income” and “income that does not arise from work.” This kind of income – capitalist income from interest and investments – was considered selfish. In contrast, Fascists

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promoted the “right distribution” of wealth to benefit “all the classes of the nation.” They promoted profit sharing between workers and companies and national health centers. Replacing old ideas and selfish ways of thinking was part of the Fascists’ new kind of politics. Their new politics sought to overcome the loneliness many feel in modern mass society. The goal was to use the power of the State to create an “authentic” community – a national community of total belonging. In this community, people were to find fulfillment not by pursuing self-interest or exercising individual rights, but by committing themselves to the nation. So the German National Socialists viewed themselves as brining progress, building a better society with guaranteed jobs, higher education, generous pensions, and raising the standard of national health. But they also thought progress required eliminating what they viewed as “corruption” in society. Let’s think through this notion of “corruption.” The notion that there is corruption in society which must be eliminated in order to create unity was important in the thinking of both revolutionary Socialists and National Socialists. The revolutionary Socialists and the National Socialists simply disagreed on who represented the corruption and thus who had to be eliminated:

• Recall that revolutionary Socialists promised a better future of unity and cooperation. But they argued that it was necessary to destroy a particular group in society in order to create unity. That group – the “corruption” which needed to be eliminated – was the “bourgeoisie” or “capitalist.”

• The German National Socialists also promised a better future of unity and cooperation. And they also argued that it was necessary to destroy particular groups in society in order to create unity. The primary group – the “corruption” which needed to be eliminated – was Jews.

o The party stated: “Only those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Hence, no Jew may be a member of the nation.”

o The National Socialists’ attempt to eliminate Jews led to the mass genocide of the Holocaust, discussed below. The National Socialist also identified other “corrupt” groups including Slavic peoples like Poles and Russians.

What we’re seeing here is a basic logic that many revolutionary ideologies use. The logic is that 1) current society includes corruption; 2) it is necessary to eliminate this corruption; 3) once that is achieved, we will have unity and cooperation. For revolutionary Socialists, unity will follow the destruction of capitalists. For National Socialists, unity will follow the destruction of Jews, as well others like Slavs. This type of revolutionary logic has often been enticing in the modern world. It promises to build an inclusive society by scapegoating specific groups.

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The National Socialist War – The Early Years World War II was a racial and ideological war. The National Socialist goal was to build a German Empire in Central and Eastern Europe – i.e., for Germany to expand by taking over Central and Eastern European nations. As the party stated: “We demand land and territory.” Most European Jews lived in Central and Eastern Europe. So as Germany expanded, it had increasing control over European Jews. The ultimate goal of German expansion was the invasion of the Soviet Union – the Socialist empire of 15 nations led by the Russian Bolsheviks.

• This is why World War II was a racial and ideological war.

• Hitler and the German National Socialists sought to destroy the “race” of European Jews.

• The National Socialists also sought to destroy the ideology of Socialism by conquering the Soviet Union.

National Socialists argued that destroying Jews and revolutionary Socialists would bring progress, a better future. They viewed Jews and revolutionary Socialists as the most corrupt elements of Europe. Destroying this corruption, they argued, would lead to a healthier society of unity and cooperation. As part of building a German Empire in Central and Eastern Europe, Hitler and the German National Socialists took the following actions leading up to the beginning of World War II in September 1939. View a map of Europe here as you review the following events:

• March 1938, the German army moves into and takes over Austria.

• September 1938, Germany threatens to take the western part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland.

o Leaders from Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany meet at the Munich Conference in Munich, Germany.

o These leaders agree to give the Sudetenland to Germany in return for Hitler’s promise not to invade other countries.

• March 1939, Hitler’s violates his promise by invading and conquering the rest of Czechoslovakia.

o In response, Great Britain and France promise to defend Poland if Poland is invaded.

• August 1939, Germany concludes a Non-Aggression Treaty with the Soviet Union. The two sides agree that each side will take parts of Eastern Europe soon and they promise not to attack each other.

o Hitler already plans on violating this Treaty at some point in the future. Remember, a National Socialist goal is to destroy revolutionary Socialism by invading the Soviet Union.

o But Hitler is not prepared for this yet. So he signs this Non-Aggression Treaty with the Soviets until he is ready to break the Treaty in a few years.

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• September 1939, World War II begins in Europe when Germany invades Poland.

o In response, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, but do not actually engage in fighting at this point.

• Spring 1940, Hitler reluctantly moves westward by invading Denmark, Belgium, and France.

o This westward movement is reluctant because the National Socialist goal is to move east, to build a German Empire in Central and Eastern Europe.

o Nevertheless, Germany defeats France in only 6 weeks and controls much of Europe.

o Hitler considers an invasion of Great Britain. The British and German air forces battle over Britain in the summer 1940. This air battle is called the Battle of Britain, but it leads to a stalemate.

o Hitler then decides to leave Britain alone and focus on invading the Soviet Union.

• June 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union begins. This is the main event of the war, what makes the war an ideological war. The National Socialists seek to destroy the ideology of revolutionary Socialism, which means trying to destroy the Soviet Union.

The first several months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union go well for Germany. The German military conquers a lot of Soviet land, and captures and kills a lot of Soviet soldiers.

The Holocaust It was after the invasion of the Soviet Union that the German National Socialists decided on the “Final Solution” for European Jews. The National Socialists’ targeting of Jews is what makes the war a racial war. The “Final Solution” refers to the National Socialists’ decision to build death camps for Jews. The National Socialists rounded up Jews into a network of extermination camps where millions were gassed to death and then cremated in ovens. This is called the “Final Solution” because the National Socialists had previously considered other ways of removing Jews from society. One idea was to round up Europe’s Jews and ship them somewhere else – to the African island of Madagascar (see map here) or far east of the Ural Mountains (see map here). But senior National Socialist leaders like Reinhard Heydrich decided that transporting millions of Jews such long distances was impractical. So they decided on genocidal murder. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and then the Soviet Union in 1941, special German forces called Einsatzgruppen (“deployment groups”) accompanied the Germany military. The Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing units. They were separate from the Germany military and had a special task – round up Jews in every town and city the German military conquered and murder them. Jews were often marched to the edge of town, forced to dig their own mass

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grave, and then shot. These episodes, repeated over and over throughout Eastern Europe, were literal bloodbaths. But senior National Socialists decided this approach was too inefficient. It was also too public. Others could see what was happening and the genocide of the Jews was supposed to be secret. So in early 1942, senior National Socialists organized a conference at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin. It was at this Wannsee Conference that National Socialist leaders like Heydrich, Müller, Eichmann and others decided on the Final Solution – the building of extermination camps, a network of concentration camps where Jews would be sent to be gassed to death.

• Remember, the idea of concentration camps is not new. Revolutionary Socialists in Russia – the Bolsheviks – had built concentration camps for their political opponents shortly after the second Russian Revolution of 1917.

• What’s new in the Final Solution is the use of concentration camps as extermination camps for a particular group, places constructed specifically to murder Jews.

• The Germans built many of these death camps in Poland after they conquered Poland. The camps included Auschwitz, Belzec, Treblinka, Warsaw, Sobibor, and Chelmno. See map here (camps are marked by red squares) or here (camps are marked by skulls).

• The National Socialists rounded up Jews from all over Europe and shipped them via train to these and other extermination camps (image here and here). The camps were huge complexes (image here) where millions of Jews were forced to work. See here the sign above the Auschwitz camp which gruesomely reads, “Work Shall Set You Free.”

• Millions of Jews were murdered in the camps. Some were murdered shortly after arrival. Others died of disease and starvation. See image here.

The term Holocaust refers to all the ways the National Socialists killed Jews. The term Final Solution refers to the extermination camp phase of the Holocaust.

Turning Point & Defeat Although the German invasion of the Soviet Union initially went well for Germany, the German army eventually bogged down. The battle of Stalingrad (late 1942/early 1943) was a turning point.

• See a map showing Stalingrad here or here (Stalingrad is on the far right). At Stalingrad, the Soviet Red Army stopped the German advance and began the long, slow process of forcing the Germans to retreat. From late 1943 through early 1945, the Soviet army forced the German military to retreat, eventually out of the Soviet Union and back through the countries of Easter Europe that Germany had earlier conquered such as Poland.

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In June 1944, the United States and Great Britain launched the D-Day invasion of German occupied France. From the summer 1944 through early 1945, the Americans and British forced the Germany military to retreat out of France and other countries Germany had conquered such as Belgium. By the spring 1945, the Soviets had invaded Germany from the east, and the United States and Britain had invaded Germany from the west. The German National Socialist regime collapsed and Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin with the Soviet army just blocks away. The Fascist ideology of German National Socialism was defeated, though at a terrible cost of lives – over 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and over 50 million people were killed in World War II. Given the destruction of the War, and the intense racism against Jews and other groups that fueled much of the violence, it is easy to forget that German National Socialists viewed themselves as a progressive movement. They had promoted generous old age pensions, profit sharing between workers and companies, health and welfare centers, and they promised to abolish the unearned income of capitalists. The National Socialists viewed other ideologies we’ve discussed – Modern Liberalism and revolutionary Socialism – as outdated ways of thinking. They presented their Fascist ideology as the wave of the future. They argued that unity and inclusion could be achieved by scapegoating and removing certain groups – Jews, Slavic people like Poles, revolutionary Socialists. They sought to destroy peoples and ideologies they viewed as standing in the way of progress. In the end, though, much of Germany was destroyed, as were large portions of other countries. Over 50 million people died in World War II. And at least 6 million Jews were murdered in the genocide of the Holocaust.