WWII Explained Part I (20th century explained #4)
Last updated: Friday July 30th, 2021
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The 20th Century
World War II
After taking Czechoslovakia, Germany wanted to get Poland. But by this time, the UK and France were sick of just giving land to Germany. So, Germany looked to its east. It signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union. It formed a sort of alliance between them. They annexed Poland from both sides. The USSR was allowed to annex Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and they agreed not to attack each other. Within a year, Germany invaded Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, and France. In France, Germany directly ruled the Northern coastal areas, while the southern part was another puppet state, Vichy France.
Most communists, socialists, Roma, and homosexuals from the countries Germany invaded were taken to concentration camps. But, one group took up most of the camps, and it wasn’t the POWs or any political enemies. It was Jews. The Nazis considered the Jews “Inferior,” and blamed them for everything bad that happened to Germany, from the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to the Great Depression. The Nazis planned to wipe out Jews from the whole world. Adolf Hitler said, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” Most nations that had Jewish people (Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, USSR, and Austria) were invaded by Nazi Germany. The Nazis constructed many concentration camps throughout Europe. One of the first concentration camps was the Dachau Concentration camp, in Bavaria. It was intended to hold political opponents of the Nazis, like socialists and communists. But it held Jews, Poles, and POWs. It was one of the first camps, a prototype to show what future camps would look like. The camp functioned the longest out of all of the constructed camps, from the start of the Nazi regime until its liberation in April of 1945. According to official records, 32,000 people died there, but there are so many deaths that were not counted, so the real number could be thousands of deaths higher. Over the next dozen years, more than a thousand more were constructed, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergan-Belson.
In June of 1941, the famous Operation Barbarossa started, in which Germany invaded its former ally, the USSR. That was a HUGE mistake. At the time Germany’s only real enemy was the UK and the Commonwealth. Spain and Portugal were neutral, and Iceland was occupied by the UK to prevent any Nazi occupation. Sweden was a friendly nation to both sides, and Finland was waging the Winter War (coming soon!) against the USSR. So when Germany invaded its former ally, it made staggering progress. It committed brutal atrocities to the Russian people. Of course, Germany made progress, but then it happened. It became cold. And then the German troops got stuck. In Stalingrad, the civilians and the Germans fought in the war-torn city. The Axis was still intact until the USSR pushed Germany back and the United States and the UK invaded Sicily via Malta. In Operation Axis, Hitler tried to save Italy. But Mussolini (the Italian leader) was shot while traveling with supporters. By then, Germany was almost done. After D-Day, in which soldiers from the US, Canada, and the UK invaded the beaches of Normandy after deceiving Nazi Generals, the Third Riech had lost almost all of its lands. And with France now against Germany, Hitler knew he had no chance. On top of that, the Soviet Union was invading Germany from the East, and it committed the same atrocities to the German people as revenge for what it did to them. By June, Germany faced no chance. Hitler and other top officials had committed suicide. On May 7th, Alfred Jodl signed the terms of surrender. On the ninth, Wilhelm Keitel signed the surrender to the USSR. WWII in Europe was over.
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Helpful Youtube Channels
These are some of my favorite Youtube Channels that talk about Geography, History, Geo-Politics, and other interesting topics.
American Museum of Natural History
Special thanks to PakistanPunk for his recommendation of British Pathé!
Also, check out Brainpop!
Thanks for reading!
1. The WWII animation is in German. When I found it, I didn't notice. But if you are fluent in English, which hopefully you are, German is very recognizable, apart from the "land" at the end of many countries and the "k" instead of a "c" and some other things.
2. This is only the first blog about WWII. I am planning to another one on the Pacific theater, the aftermath, and maybe something else.