The stormy road that led to the Second World War

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 12

The stormy road that led to the Second World War

World War 11, which began 50 years ago this Sunday, touched most parts of the globe and reshaped the world. In this, the first of four articles, NAYLOR HILLARY describes some of the events that forced Britain and her allies into war against Germany, Italy, and Japan.

SUNDAY, September 3, is the fiftieth anniversary, in Britain and France, of the beginning of World War 11. Within days Britain’s dominions in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa had also declared war on Germany.

When World War I ended in November, 1918, the Allied Powers believed they had won the war to end wars. World War II was less than 21 years away. Three empires — the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Turkish — were defeated in 1918. Out of the remains a dozen smaller countries achieved independence. The Tsarist Empire in Russia collapsed during the war, making possible the success there of the Communist revolution in 1917. Once the war was over the victorious Western Powers, led by Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, set about establishing an international order that would keep the peace and remove the threat of further war. France, especially, could not resist the temptation to punish the defeated Central Powers. Reparations — payments for war damage — were demanded on a vast scale, especially from Germany, France’s traditional enemy.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June, 1919, established the post-war settlement. Germany’s territory was reduced, its army was limited to 100,000 men, and no air force was permitted. Germany’s colonies were stripped from her; and Germany and Austria accepted guilt for causing the war. The treaty set out the compensation to be paid and led to a redrawing of the map of Europe. From the bitterness of defeat, and the harsh terms imposed by the victors, came the German belligerence and reassertion that led directly to World War 11. In the immediate post-war years the German economy collapsed as the French insisted on reparation payments, even to the point of occupying German industries to force deliveries. Under the treaty, Germany was forbidden to retain more than a tiny army, and forbidden to defend its western frontier with France.

In desperation the Germans turned to political extremists — communists and others — searching for a government that could restore the economy, stop horrendous inflation, find work for six million unemployed, and rescue the country from what seemed to be endless subservi-

ence to other States. Among the extremists there emerged in Bavaria a tiny group calling itself the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartie) — attempting to combine in its name and its policies the twin ideals of a socialist economy and a national resurgence of Germany.

Adolf Hitler, an Austrian who had fought with some distinction in the Germany Army in the war, joined the party in 1919. At that time it had less than 100 members. The party became known as the Nazis and Hitler, whose power of oratory could be hypnotic, became its leader. He led the party in an unsuccessful

coup in Munich in 1923.

The coup, or putsch, won him national fame and 13 months in prison which he used to write "Mein Kampf” — “My Struggle” — the vast, rambling text in which he set out his racial and political theories and ambitions. The Nazis turned to a combination of legitimate politics and street bully tactics to build up the party’s strength. Throughout the 1920 s daily life in Germany was marked by street brawls between gangs of Nazi thugs and gangs of communist thugs. Although the Nazis never won a majority of vote in a general election, by 1932 they had become the second largest party in the German Parliament.

The world Depression was imposing further hardship on Germany. In January, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor or Prime Minister by the President, Hindenburg, one of the German commanders from World War I. Hitler was leader of a party of three million people that at best had won 37 per cent of the vote in a free election.

Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor marked the end of democratic politics in Germany. New elections were called, but with Hitler’s Government in control of the campaign. Shortly before the elections the German Parliament was burned down. The cause of the fire has never been proved beyond doubt. Hitler blamed a communist plot and used the fire as an excuse for reprisals against Left-wing parties which by then were the only effective opposition in Germany. He also used the occasion to suspend the civil liberties guaranteed under Germany’s post-war Constitution. When Hindenburg died 18 months later Hitler, with the support of the armed services, was able to take over also as president and to confer on himself a new title — that of Fuhrer, or leader.

The German military saw in Hitler an opportunity to restore their country’s power. A belief had grown up that the German Army had not been beaten by the Allies in World War I but, as Hitler put it, the army had been “stabbed in the back by Jews and communists.” “Next time,” Hitler assured his Generals, “it will be different.” Out of the German chaos the Nazis in the early 1930 s provided a sense of direction, a sense of purpose, and a renewal of national dignity. Unemployment vanished in a wave of industrial expansion and public works. Rearmament went ahead in defiance of the conditions imposed 15 years before at Versailles. When secrecy was needed to test new weapons, the Nazis did deals with Stalin’s Russia and tested armaments there, even though Hitler did not try to hide that among his ultimate intentions was a war of extermination against the Soviet Union.

The Russians then were still facing diplomatic and economic isolation as a result of the 1917 revolution. The two pariah States — Nazi Germany and Communist Russia — found much in common in the 19305. When Germans looked at the world in the midst of economic crisis they saw three alternatives: The Western democracies, plagued by unemployment, seemed unable to put their affairs in order. The Soviet Union, trying a communist experience, had limited success, even before the mass purges of the 1930 s destroyed the attempt to make communism look acceptable. The Italian model of romantic, authoritarian, revolutionary zeal was called by Mussolini, the Italian dictator, Fascism. It seemed to offer economic security and rapid growth. The Italian experiment, which relieved unemployment by vast public works schemes, appealed to many people around the world in the late 1920 s and early 19305. Under Hitler, the Germans chose to follow the Italians, but with greater thoroughness and reinforced by their own longstanding belief in the superiority of the German people. Faster than his military officers believed prudent, Hitler set out to expand German power. He reoccupied the Rhineland along the French frontier in 1936 and a supine Left-wing Government in Paris did nothing but protest. He absorbed German-speaking Austria into his German Reich early in 1938, again with no more than feeble protests. Later in 1938, when he demanded the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia, the Czechs were prepared to fight to defend a liberty they had won only at the end of First World War I. Britain and France, desperate to avoid a new war at almost any price, stepped in and insisted on a compromise in Germany’s favour. In both the democracies, attempts to arm themselves adequately were hampered in the 1930 s by “peace” movements which appeared unwilling to fight for their own defence, let alone the defence of anyone else. Czechoslovakia was dismembered, without war, and the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, flew home in September, 1938, to proclaim that he brought “peace for our time.” War was a year away. Tomorrow: Hitler’s aims, and Japan and the United States enter the war.