Week 13

Chapter 27: The Deepening of the European Crisis--World War II

On February 3, 1933, only four days after he had been appointed chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler met secretly with Germany’s leading generals. He revealed to them his desire to remove the ‘‘cancer of democracy,’’ create a new authoritarian leadership, and forge a new domestic unity. All Germans would need to realize that ‘‘only a struggle can save us and that everything else must be subordinated to this idea.’’ Youth especially must be trained and their wills strengthened ‘‘to fight with all means.’’ Since Germany’s living space was too small for its people, Hitler said, Germany must rearm and prepare for ‘‘the conquest of new living space in the east and its ruthless Germanization.’’ Even before he had consolidated his power, Hitler had a clear vision of his goals, and their implementation meant another European war. World War II was clearly Hitler’s war. Although other countries may have helped make the war possible by not resisting Hitler’s Germany earlier, it was Nazi Germany’s actions that made World War II inevitable. World War II was more than just Hitler’s war, however. This chapter will focus on the European theater of war, but both European and American armies were also involved in fighting around the world. World War II consisted of two conflicts: one provoked by the ambitions of Germany in Europe, the other by the ambitions of Japan in Asia. By 1941, with the involvement of the United States in both wars, the two had merged into one global conflict. Although World War I has been described as a total war, World War II was even more so and was fought on a scale unknown in history. Almost everyone in the warring countries was involved in one way or another: as soldiers; as workers in wartime industries; as ordinary citizens subject to invading armies, military occupation, or bombing raids; as refugees; or as victims of mass extermination. The world had never witnessed such widespread willful death and destruction.

Chapter 28: Cold War and a New Western World, 1945 – 1965

The end of World War II in Europe had been met with great joy. One visitor to Moscow reported, ‘‘I looked out of the window [at 2 A.M.], almost everywhere there were lights in the window—people were staying awake. Everyone embraced everyone else, someone sobbed aloud.’’ But after the victory parades and celebrations, Europeans awoke to a devastating realization: their civilization was in ruins. Some wondered if Europe would ever regain its former prosperity and importance. Winston Churchill wrote, ‘‘What is Europe now? A rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground of pestilence and hate.’’ There was ample reason for his pessimism. Almost 40 million people (soldiers and civilians) had been killed during the preceding six years. Massive air raids and artillery bombardments had reduced many of the great cities of Europe to heaps of rubble. The Polish capital of Warsaw had been almost completely obliterated. An American general described Berlin: ‘‘Wherever we looked we saw desolation. It was like a city of the dead.’’ Suffering and shock were visible in every face. Dead bodies still remained in canals and lakes and were being dug out from under bomb debris. Millions of Europeans faced starvation as grain harvests were only half of what they had been in 1939. Millions were also homeless. In the parts of the Soviet Union that had been occupied by the Germans, almost 25 million people were without homes. The destruction of bridges, roads, and railroads had left transportation systems paralyzed. Untold millions of people had been uprooted by the war; now they became ‘‘displaced persons,’’ trying to find food and then their way home. Eleven million prisoners of war had to be returned to their native countries while 15 million Germans and Eastern Europeans were driven out of countries where they were no longer wanted. Yet despite the chaos, Europe was soon on the road to a remarkable recovery. Already by 1950, Europe’s industrial and agricultural output was 30 percent above prewar levels. World War II had cost Europe more than physical destruction, however. European supremacy in world affairs had also been destroyed. After 1945, the colonial empires of the European nations disintegrated, and Europe’s place in the world changed radically. As the Cold War conflict between the world’s two superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—intensified, the European nations were divided into two armed camps dependent on one or the other of these two major powers. The United States and the Soviet Union, whose rivalry raised the specter of nuclear war, seemed to hold the survival of Europe and the world in their hands.