Nazi history and policy of peace: can the Second World War be prevented?

“The situation can hardly be more idyllic: Strez – this city is located on Lake Maggiore on the bay, where beautiful Baro Islands are at home. What a sight. ” Thus, the Northern Italian municipality today advertises tourists. It would be absolutely possible that states will be not only for relaxing leave. But also to preserve peace in Europe in the 1930s, in order to stop the policy of the murderous expansion of Hitler before it really began. For that the Second World War never took place.

Would be.

80 years after the end of World War II, the question arises in Europe whether this deadly war is for all the time, whether it was possible to prevent the Holocaust from Jews in Europe and all a different disgust. In view of the extensive traction of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, this issue has a certain relevance, even if the author is far from abandoning the racist and anti -Semitic regime of Hitler into a pot with today’s government in Moscow.

At least at one point, however, there are analogies: in case of reluctance to pay attention to international law and boundaries of the international level. Thus, an attempt to answer the question about the prevention of World War II has any attitude towards us in 2025.

“Do you know that Germany is being prepared now?”

Left -Liberal journalist Leopold Schwarzshild, who is exile in Paris A New diary Looking back in the middle of the war: “Do you know that Germany is now setting up? Criticism of Schwarzshild is applied by the 1930s. Only shortly before the start of the war, the Western powers realized that their weapons were insufficient.

It would be possible at least three times to deduce the aggressive military course of the Nazi regime. First of all, you might think about the 1938 Munich agreement, when the UK and France approved the annexation of the Czechoslovak Sudetenland by the German Reich and, thus, approved the dismantling of the democratic state in the middle of Europe. But the Western powers failed earlier. For example, states.

Stres was not just an idyllic seaside resort. The small city was also a particularly well-connected place in the 1930s, because it was stopped for the famous Summer Orient Express, Paris compounds with Calais and London, associated with Venice and Istanbul. And it so happened that from April 11 to 14, 1935, state -owned men from three countries met to narrow the desires of Hitler’s expansion: the Frenchman Fland Fland and Foreign Minister Laval, Prime Minister McDonald and Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon from the UK and, as the host of the Italian dictator Mussolini, who was not yet on the Hitler line.

There was a reason to take care

The Stresa Pact, which was closed by the three forces, emphasized that Germany should respect the border of the neighbor of France, as well as the demilitarization of Reynland. There was a reason for concern: in March 1935, the Nazis first announced the repetition of the Air Force and soon after that they explained the general mandatory call. Both violated the 1919 Peace Treaty. However, London and Paris took these steps of update.

Strez Pact confirmed the contracts with Locarno, in which Germany, France and Belgium in 1925 took the obligation not to attack each other, respect the borders and guarantee the demolitarian Rhineland. At that time, Gustav Streanemanne was the Minister of Foreign Affairs Reich, a former monarchist and conservative, but someone, someone’s word was something. Now Adolf Hitler defined a policy in the German Reich, who broke the contracts as he wanted. But not everyone wanted to be true.

The return of the German army to Reynland was one of the Nazi’s heart. For a long time, people wound up a team of allied troops there and made an image of lustful black soldiers from the French colonies, who would replace German women called the Black Shmach. The allies were deducted in 1930, but the Germans did not rise.

On March 7, 1936, Hitler forced the Wehrmacht in Rhineland without notice. This, undoubtedly, was a triple broken contract – against Versailles, against Locarno, against stress. The German army was still weakly equipped in 1936, France would be easy to stop it, military experts say. Hitler was afraid of such an attack, plans for a German retreat, allegedly, were already in a box. “If the French moved to Reinland at that time, we would have to leave the gap and shame,” Hitler said later.

Hitler Puff up and wins

But nothing happened except the usual protest. The French government was afraid of mobilization costs and gained upcoming elections. Conservatives in London, of course, were not ready for the gang. Demonstrators on the left -they propagated the world. And the pact stress exploded because Mussolini changed the side. Hitler had poker and won.

The British historian Jan Kershaw writes: “If the French brought advanced troops to conduct a demonstration of military force, Hitler was significantly weakened by the German military and public.

Would be.

Almost two years later, in November 1937. Lord Galifax, who soon had to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain, Hitler made it clear that the United Kingdom could imagine the changed status of Austria and Czechoslovakia, focusing only on “peaceful development”. Galifax was one of the main characters of the policy of peace, that is, peacefulness to the Nazis. They must be reassured in the negotiations. They took note of this with a kiss.

In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. The protests were limited. Next, it should be a turn of Czechoslovakia.

The Prime Minister of Great Britain Neville Chamberlain was convinced that Hitler would leave the border shift of Czechoslovakia in the annexation of Sudentenland. The conservative also had a mandate in France during his negotiations with Hitler on Obersalzberg. Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda painted a distorted picture of the terrible suppression of the Seten Germans. Hitler threatened to go and was, in the visible one, was also ready for war with the Western powers.

On September 30, 1938, Hitler, Chamberlain, Prime Minister of France Eduard Daladier and Benito Mussolini, signed the Munich agreement. “The world is for our time,” Chamberlain called. He was based on the division of Sudetenland to the German Reich. The country that was mutilated there, Czechoslovakia, was neither in negotiations or in signing. The Czechoslovak Republic ”protested against Munich’s resolutions before the world that were captured unilaterally and in the absence of Czechoslovakia,” the statement said. Then the country surrendered to the superiority of the Nazi regime.

Celebration in London, occupation in Prague

After the Munich Agreement was completed, a huge crowd in London celebrated her Prime Minister, who escaped the outbreak of the European War. Chamberlain was welcome and confirmed. However, unlike him, the Nazis did not stop in Sudetenland. In March 1939, the Wehrmacht occupied Prague. It was the end of an independent state, even before the start of the war. And it was the sad end of the policy of peace.

Can Britain and France more rigidly emphasize the Sudeten crisis, prevent a flash of war? It has been controversial for decades. The war may have escaped in 1938. Perhaps the Western powers would have the best military maps at that time.

Would be.

When the Nazi state attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, military superiority was clearly on the German side. But Britain took advantage of Poland after a break in the Munich agreement and made a warranty declaration for Poland, which joined France. If Poland is attacked, military assistance was promised. Germany threatened two front war, as in the First World War. The Wehrmacht posted only weak forces in the West. They may not have stood up to intervene in France. To this end, Britain could attack the German Reich from the air. The war would not be prevented, but its result could look completely different.

Would be.

But even at this historical moment – nothing. Royal air forces threw several leaflets over Germany. Only when Warsaw surrounded, and Poland ran into surrender that French soldiers penetrated some German villages, such as Bubingen in Saarland. But this military is moving in the most symbolic meaning.

Poland was left alone

While the French and the British consulted according to the further procedure, Poland of the Soviet Union also abolished the consent with the Germans, who took a secret agreement on the separation of interest spheres in Eastern Europe, which the German and Soviet government closed on August 24, subsequently called Hitler-Stalin-Paktu. Poland was left alone, busy and divided, two front ones did not take place. Next year, the Germans attacked France after they won Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Other states followed. We know how it ended.

Neville Chamberlain said on September 3, 1939: “Everything that I worked for, everything I hoped for, everything that I believed in my political life is in ruins.”