1939-1945 WWII Nazi Germany – Selected Events

WWI Nazi Germany – Selected Events

Key Milestones

• 1939: Nazi Euthanasia (T4) Programme starts in Germany
• 1939 September 1: Germany invades Poland, starts WWII
• 1940 June 14: France falls to Germany
• 1940 July-Oct: Battle of Britain – Defeat for Germany
• 1941 June-Nov: Operation Barbarossa – Germany invades the Soviet Union
• 1941 December 1941: Germany declares war on the USA
• 1942 September: Widely considered to be Germany’s peak

1939 September Aktion T4 (Nazi Euthanasia) Programme

Nazi Euthanasia (T4) Programme

Operation T4

Operation T4: The mass murder of the mentally ill and physically disabled throughout Germany and some of its occupied territories. Widely considered a precursor to the Final Solution.

• a Nazi-era biology textbook warned that “a hereditarily ill person costs 50,000 reichsmarks on average up to the age of sixty”
• precursor to the Final Solution
  • many killing methods used were tested here
• carried out openly from 1949-1941, secretly 1941-1945
• criteria not exclusively based on genetics, but also on economic productivity
• victims were deemed as “burdensome lives” and “useless eaters”
• cost-efficient methods of killing the disabled people were sought
  • as early as 1939 December patients were gassed todeath
• Heinrich Himmler witnessed one and liked what he saw
  • gassing would later become the primary extermination method of choice during the Final Solution

1970s – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Nazi Germany

• the movie was filmed in West Germany
• the fantasy world involves Oompa Loompas – Willy Wonka’s faithful workers
• they couldn’t find German actors to portray Oompa Loompas
  • during WWII, most of the people with growth disorders were deemed “unfit for living” and murdered under T4
    • Nazi Party officials turned eugenics into a racist pseudoscience used on the disabled, mentally ill and dwarves too
    • CASE STUDY: the family of dwarves
  • after they discovered this, producers had to fly in small actors from all over the world
    • out of 10, only 1 Oompa Loompa was from Germany
  • they were supposed to have thousands, but ended up with 10 because of the lack of actors with the right height

Link to original

1940 – first year of WWII

• the first year of WWII went very well for Hitler
• Germany was gaining ground easily, winning many Germans over
• Something Interesting: Seth Taras – a photographer who superimposes historical images on modern images

Blitzkrieg – how did Germans cover ground so quickly?

• literally “Lightning Warfare” in German
• a combination of tanks, planes and artillery was used
• intended to move fast and cause shock and disorganisation within enemy lines
  • they caught enemies off-guard
• successful uses of this tactic:
  • Poland, September 1939
  • Denmark, April 1940
  • Norway, April 1940
  • Belgium, May 1940
  • The Netherlands, May 1940
  • Luxembourg, May 1940
  • France, may 1940
  • Yugoslavia, April 1941
  • Greece, April 1941

1939-1941 – War goes well

• 1939 September: rationing introduced for food
  • e.g. meat, bread, fats, sugar, coffee
• 1939 November: clothes rationing
  • e.g. shoes, winter coats
  • winter coats were nearly impsosible to buy
• those with money could easily purchase items

1941-1943 – The tide turns

• Failed invasion of Soviet Union
  • marks the breaking-down of relations between Soviet Union and Germany
  • also broke the Nazi-Soviet pact not to attack each other
    • interestingly, they signed the pact knowing that either party would break the treaty
• trains kept bringing back thousands of wounded German troops
  • ordinary citizens saw these scenes, and consequently shifted ordinary citizens’ view of the war
  • they became disillusioned with the war
• propaganda campaigns were launched to encourage Germans to contribute to the war effort
  • Germans were asked to save fuel and donate metal (to make artillery with)

1941 – Operation Barbarossa: Invasion of the Soviet Union

• Nazi Germany’s ambitious attempt to conquer the Soviet Union
• failed because of various reasons, including poor strategy, Soviet winter and underestimation of Soviet troops
  • supposedly, nobody can defeat Russia in winter

1943-1944 – Total War

• every part of the German society was put to work on the war effort
• non-essentials were ceased
  • e.g. professional sport, casual magazines, hair-dyeing, perming services
• more women were drafted into the labour force
  • before the war, women were to stay home, be good wives and have children

1944 – The July Bomb Plot

More Info on the Bomb Plot

🔗 20 July Plot – Wikipedia

• at least 42 documented cases of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler
• the July Bomb Plot was the closest any plotter came to succeeding
  • Hitler was literally in the room with the bomb
  • it exploded
  • Hitler got injured, but didn’t die
• 1943: war was going poorly for Germany
  • opposition to Hitler was rife in the army (Wehrmacht)
• collaborators were motivated by various reasons, like:
  • removing Hitler from power
  • disillusioned by disastrous battles (especially after the Soviet Union)
  • brutality of the SS towards the civilians and prisoners of war
    • there was a strong rivalry between the SS and the Wehrmacht
• done by ==Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg==
  • started as a Nazi supporter
  • became an army officer
  • 1942: seriously wounded
    • lost his left eye, right arm and two fingers on his left hand
  • executed for his part in the plot
  • portrayed by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie
• ended with 7000 Gestapo arrests and 5000 executions

1944-1945 – Eventual failure and defeat

• early 1945: British and American bombers launched air raids in Dresden, Germany
• around 25,000 civilians were killed
  • a conservative estimate
• was this ethical?
  • remains a controversial debate
  • some see it as senseless destruction since the war was almost over
  • others think that it was necessary in order to end the war quickly and fully

1945 April – Hitler commits suicide

• Hitler learnt of Mussolini’s execution a couple of days before
• Germany was already under attack by the Soviet Union’s Red Army
  • famous picture: Soldiers of the Red Army putting up the Soviet Union flag in Berlin
• Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun one day before their deaths
  • they first met in 1929 when Braun was 17 and Hitler was 40

1945 May 7 – German surrender

• the surrender was unconditional
• ended WWII in Europe
  • but the war continued in the Asia-Pacific

Post-war Germany – Division and Reunification

• 1945 July/August: Potsdam Conference
  • Germany would be split into 4 occupied zones
    • Berlin was also to be divided into 4 occupied zones
  • Great Britain in the northwest, France in the southwest, the United States in the south and the Soviet Union in the east.

Denazification

• civilians were forced to take a tour of the concentration camps to force them to confront the reality of what Nazis did

Nuremburg Trials

• lasted from November 1945 to October 1946
• Nazi ringleaders were put on trial
  • endorsed by the new United Nations
• Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler had committed suicide by then
• verdicts for officials ranged from death to 15-20 years imprisonment to being acquitted entirely