Lecture 9: The Origins and Course of World War II

1. Preliminary
   • roll-call and return of journals at end of class
     --Tuskegee syphilis study: the men already had the disease; they were denied treatment
     --book by Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
   • journals due next Tuesday; paper proposals next Thursday
2. After Euthanasia (strand I: race science, modernity), Strand II: Politics (see text 134-6, 147-50)
   • Hitler as a lucky (and skillful?) gambler: "Weekend Coups"
     • Germany leaves the League of Nations, Saturday, 14 October 1933
     • other "weekend coups": draft in 1935, Rhineland in 1936
   • The improvised nature of Hitler's politics
     • Austria in July 1934: clerical fascist Dollfuss and Mussolini opposed Hitler
       reasons for failure
     • by March 1938: strong "indigenous" Austrian Nazi party
     • Munich Conference, 30 Sept. 1938: "appeasement"
       Heinlein and Sudeten Germans; strategic importance
       Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini-not Stalin
   • "Hitler-Stalin" Pact (Ribbentrop and Molotov), 23 August 1939
     • role of Munich conference
     • 28 Apr. 1939: Hitler drops all criticism of Marxism and Bolshevism
3. Film clip from Erwin Leiser's Mein Kampf (18 mins.)
   • Attempted coups against Dollfuss in Austria (1934) to destruction of Poland (1939)
   • Speech by Minister of Justice Hans Frank; also by Rudolf Hess
4. The Course of World War II
   • Three Phases:
     1. Blitzkrieg ("lightening war"): 1939-1941
     2. Campaign against the Soviet Union as "back and forth": June 1941-Feb. 1943
     3. Slow German retreats until end of war
   • Key events
     • Sept. 1939: quick victory over Poland
       [late Sept. 1939: Polish Jews in (open) ghettos; summer 1940 walls; 15 Nov. 1940 sealed]
     • Spring 1940: occupation of Denmark, Norway (Quisling), Holland
     • May-June 1940: Belgium and France (Petain capitulates, 17 June: "Vichy" France)
       Hitler as Commander-in-Chief: British troops at Dunkirk
     • Aug. 1940-Feb. 1941: "Blitz on London," "Battle of Britain;" May 40: Churchill Prime Minister
     • Stalemate; Hitler attacks oil supply route in eastern Mediterranean
       by April 1941: Greece, Yugoslavia conquered; Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria allied
     • 22 June 1941 (18 Dec. 1940): "Operation Barbarossa:" Kiev, Leningrad, Moscow
       Nov. 1941: Russian winter: German retreat; Dec. 1941: Pearl harbor; declaration of war on US
       Spring & Summer 1942: German advances, but winter arrives before decisive victory
     • January 1943: German army defeated at Stalingrad
     • June 1944: Allied landing in France (Normandy)