Appeasement, World War II and the Impact on Civilians

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Appeasement was the policy of making concessions to aggressive states (mainly Nazi Germany) to avoid war. **Neville Chamberlain** (Britain) is most closely associated with it; France's Daladier followed Britain's lead. It dominated Western policy from roughly 1936 to March 1939.

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Britain (Chamberlain), France (Daladier), Italy (Mussolini) and Germany (Hitler) agreed to transfer the **Sudetenland** to Germany. Czechoslovakia was not invited and could not resist. Chamberlain claimed it secured 'peace for our time'. Six months later Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.

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Stalin had been excluded from Munich (1938) and distrusted British and French intentions. The Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop) bought the USSR time to rearm and gave it eastern Poland and the Baltic states under a secret protocol. For Hitler it removed the danger of an eastern front when he attacked Poland.

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1. **Versailles legacy** — humiliation and economic harm that gave Hitler popular grievances to exploit. 2. **Rise of aggressive nationalism** — Hitler's deliberate programme of rearmament, remilitarisation and expansion from 1933. 3. **Failure of collective security** — the League's inability to stop Japan (1931) and Italy (1935) showed democracies lacked will to resist.

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Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941) was Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union — the largest military operation in history. It was a strategic mistake because it opened a massive eastern front before Britain was defeated, recreating the two-front dilemma of WWI. The vast distances, Russian winter and Soviet resistance eventually destroyed the Wehrmacht.

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The Grand Alliance was the wartime partnership of **Britain, USA and USSR** against the Axis (formed 1941). Key conferences: **Tehran (1943)** — agreed D-Day timing; **Yalta (February 1945)** — planned post-war Europe, zones for Germany, creation of the UN; **Potsdam (July 1945)** — rising tensions foreshadowed the Cold War.

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**Stalingrad (1942–43)**: Germany's Sixth Army was encircled and destroyed; over 800,000 Axis casualties; the myth of German invincibility ended. **Kursk (July 1943)**: largest tank battle in history; Germany's last major offensive on the eastern front failed, giving the Soviets permanent strategic initiative.

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The USA's industrial capacity was decisive — producing more tanks, aircraft and ships than all Axis powers combined from 1942 onwards. US **Lend-Lease** supplied Britain and USSR with vital equipment. Germany failed to fully mobilise its war economy until 1942 (under Speer — too late). The Allied naval blockade cut off raw materials.

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Allied **Combined Bomber Offensive** devastated German cities from 1942 (Hamburg 1943; Dresden 1945). The **Holocaust** killed approximately six million Jews and millions of others. In 1945, Soviet advances caused mass civilian flight westward; millions of ethnic Germans were expelled from eastern Europe after the war.

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France was divided: German-occupied north and the collaborationist **Vichy** regime in the south under **Pétain**. Vichy implemented anti-Semitic laws and conscripted workers under the **Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO)**. German reprisals against the Resistance were brutal (e.g. Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, June 1944 — 642 civilians killed).

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**Long-term**: Versailles grievances (1919) created conditions for extremism. **Medium-term**: Hitler's rearmament, remilitarisation and expansion (1933–38); failure of collective security. **Immediate**: Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939) removed two-front threat; German invasion of Poland (1 September 1939) triggered war. Good Paper 3 essays distinguish all three levels.

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Three reasons: (1) Hitler's aims were **not limited** — he wanted Lebensraum in the east, not just Versailles revision; (2) appeasement **emboldened** Hitler, who expected further concessions over Poland; (3) it **delayed Allied rearmament** and undermined deterrence. The occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 proved conclusively that concessions had not satisfied Hitler.