Friday, April 4, 2014 (Vanessa)

Week Twelve, Day 2
Hitler's War (I)

• Hitler announced his rearmament policy to his military leaders, in 1933. It was the first priority, and would be secret.
• He would have been a world hero, because in 1934, he was already a hero. What he did was amazing. The people loved him, because he could do no wrong. 
• We would have gone down in history as one of the greatest heroes on earth, but yet he was also one of the most despised people. Why did people hate Hitler so much? Stalin was so much worse than Hitler, so why?
• The reason was because Hitler was a liar. He was not after the salvation of German people. His objective was revenge and domination.
• He wanted everybody to love and trust him. In order to do that, he needed to do the nicest things. 
• Everybody in the world felt guilty for what happened to German. Everybody knew it was wrong and evil. They felt guilt and all of these emotions.
• Hitler was going to get it back. At first, he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Everyone thought he was nice.
• In 1935, he started to make an announcement. 
• Why did Germans lose World War II, other than the fact that Hitler was absolutely insane? Russia and America had higher level of productions, than Germany.
• In 1838, Hitler took over command of the armed forces. He said that he wanted to take control of the world, and it was his biggest mistake.
• In 1939, war against Britain and France began. Germany had fewer tanks than Britain, and production was slower.
• Hitler's Foreign policy - Step 1 (November 1936): Hitler made alliances with both Italy and Japan.
• Hitler's Foreign policy - Step 2 (March 1938): Hitler annexed Austria, and sent the German army into Austria unopposed.
• Hitler's Foreign policy - Step 3 (September 12, 1938): Germany took over Sudentenland. 
• Sudentenland was a part of Slovakia. Germans were trapped with Slovakia, and they were not happy.
• Hitler announced that Germany was ready to move into the Sudentenland area of Czechoslovakia to protect Germans there.
• They signed an agreement. They said that they got Hitler's promise, and Hitler would not do any harm anymore. Everybody was very happy about this.
• Key word: appeasement. Appeasement meant when you allowed a bully to bully you, and you would not fight back. 

Notes from Vanessa's presentation

• Adolf Hitler was a German politician. He was also a dictator who led the Nazi Party. 
• Hitler started to have the throne in 1933. In 1939, Germany was fighting with the rest of the world, and it lasted for 6 years.
• A lot of people said that Hitler planned all up. They said it was his personal war, and he had carefully planned it. 
• Instead of admitting it, Hitler said the total opposite. He said that he did not intend it to happen. He had once said: "It is not true that I wanted war in 1939. It was brought about by those international statesmen working for Jewish interests. After my experiences of the First World War, I never wished for a second war against England."
• Still, people did not believe his words, and thought he was the one who caused all the chaos to happen.
• Due to knowing that his nation was about to lose, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in Berlin, Germany.
• He was only married to his wife less than 40 hours, before his death.