View the list of all donors. Trending keywords:. Featured Content. Tags Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics. Browse A-Z Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically. For Teachers Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. Wise — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. About This Site. Glossary : Full Glossary. Key Facts.
More information about this image. Hitler's Non-Aggression Pact with Poland One of Adolf Hitler 's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power in was to sign a non-aggression pact with Poland in January Appeasement in Europe In the mid- and lates, France and especially Great Britain followed a foreign policy of appeasement. The last resistance of Polish units ended on October 6. Discussion Questions What conditions, ideologies, and ideas made the Holocaust possible?
What does war make possible? See Also Article Polish Victims. Article German Administration of Poland. Glossary Terms. Critical Thinking Questions Investigate the reasoning behind various choices by the Allies in response to German policy and military moves in the s. He said there were no governmental documents that proved Poland had waived its right to reparations. Dr Agnieszka Lada, an expert on Polish-German relations from a Polish think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, doubts whether Warsaw will ever officially raise the matter with Berlin.
Indeed Mr Mularczyk acknowledges that raising the reparations issue is not only about compensation. It also addresses the government's concerns that when the world's media inaccurately write about "Polish death camps" they are trying to rewrite the history of the period.
Polish government wins museum standoff. Image source, Alamy. How the war began. Image source, Getty Images. Nazi Germany invaded Poland using 45 army divisions as well as aerial bombardment. Thousands died in the Luftwaffe bombing of Warsaw as Hitler's forces invaded. Have Poles received reparations? This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In addition to this, following the Nazi-Soviet Pact of , the Soviets ceased to be an immediate threat to the Nazis.
This allowed them to start the war for Lebensraum with Soviet support. When combined, these factors reduced the chances of an effective challenge to Nazi Germany preceding the Second World War. It meant that Hitler was able to get progressively more confident without fear of retaliation or serious action from other powers.
The Spanish Civil War helped to unite Italy and Germany, who both offered military support to the nationalist rebels attacking the democratic government. Following the Spanish Civil War however, relations between the two countries improved. The following month in November , an anti-communist treaty, the Anti-Comintern Pact, was signed between Japan and Germany. In , Italy joined this pact. The three countries formalised these pacts into a military alliance in The countries that were part of this alliance became known as the Axis Powers.
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were ideological enemies. Despite this, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered into a non-aggression pact in the summer of , which allowed them to invade and occupy parts of Poland. This pact suited both countries territorial aims. This situation however, was not inevitable. In , the Soviet Union was initially engaged in talks with the Allies over a defensive strategy for Poland. When these talks broke down, the Soviet Union turned back towards Germany, quickly agreeing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
This failure was a contributing factor in the outbreak of the Second World War. Following the invasion and occupation of Poland, German soldiers hoist the Nazi Flag over Krakow castle in The Nazis justified the invasion by suggesting that Poland had been planning to invade Germany, and with false reports that Poles were persecuting ethnic Germans.
The Nazis and Soviets used an encirclement tactic to occupy Poland, sending troops in from all directions. Over tanks and planes were used to advance on Warsaw, the Polish capital. By the 27 September , just 26 days after invasion, Poland surrendered to the Nazis.
Following the surrender, the Nazis and the Soviets divided Poland between them, as had been secretly agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The western area of Poland was annexed into the Greater German Reich. The Soviet Union took the eastern section.
On 23 October , the area not annexed to Germany or the Soviet Union was placed under the control of a German administration led by Hans Frank. This administration was called the General Government. The period of war following the invasion of Poland is often referred to as The Phoney War.
The term Blitzkrieg means lightening war. It is a term used to describe the military tactics of Germany in their first offensives of the Second World War. Germany managed to quickly break through enemy lines and encircle their enemies by combining fast moving tanks and artillery with air force support in concentrated areas. It was through this tactic that within four weeks after invasion Germany had completely occupied and divided up Poland, with the assistance of the Soviet Union.
Using the same tactics in the first half of , this victory was quickly followed by the occupation of Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Control of Denmark and Norway was vital to Germany as it provided safe supply routes for Swedish iron ore. Prior to the war, Germany imported approximately half of its necessary iron ore from Sweden. As such, if access to this ore was limited or denied, it could have had crippling effects on German war efficiency.
In Denmark, troops crossed over the German-Norwegian border at 4. Meanwhile, the Germans had attacked Norway early the same morning. In Norway, the Germans attacked from the sea, hoping to occupy and protect key coastal waterways where the vital iron ore was transported.
This sea attack was supported by a small division of bomber planes called the Fiegerkorps. Ships from the British and French Navy had sailed to Norway pre-empting a campaign against them in early April. Despite this, within 24 hours key towns such as Bergen and Narvik were occupied by the German troops. The main German land campaign followed, moving north from Oslo with relative ease over the next two months. The last key strategic fort, the Hegra Fortress fell on the 5 May , and the Norwegian Army surrendered on the 10 June Through invading and occupying Denmark and Norway in just over two months, the Nazis had secured vital supply routes for iron ore that would supply the Nazis war effort for the majority of the war.
Thus, the Allies concentrated their troops near the Franco-Belgium border. Group B were tasked with invading and defeating The Netherlands as quickly as possible, and then engaging the Allies in combat in central Belgium. Group C were tasked with invading the Maginot Line of defences, engaging the French troops defending this line and distracting them from Group A.
Group A were the main focus of the German offensive. From here, they advanced straight to the coast, which they reached on the 20 May Here, they captured key ports whilst also encircling a huge number of French and British troops in Northern France and Belgium, who had been fighting Group B of the German attack. The Allied troops were divided. On 29 May, Belgium surrendered. The German Army pushed on towards Paris, capturing the city on 14 June Less than a year after invading Poland, Germany had occupied, or become allied with, a large part of Europe.
Following the declaration of war with Germany, and the increasing threat of air attacks, the Ministry of Home Security in Britain issued these guidance leaflets on bomb shelters.
As the threat of air attacks and German invasion increased, the War Office and Ministry of Home Security attempted to prepare Britain for invasion, and a potential occupation. Following the invasion and subsequent occupation of France, the Nazis turned their attention towards Britain.
The Nazis assumed that, due to the defeat of almost all of their allies, Britain would be willing to agree to a negotiated peace deal. In the face of this opposition, the Nazis began to step up planning for Operation Sealion — the code name for the invasion of Britain. The Luftwaffe initiated the first attack as part of the Battle of Britain on 10 July For the first six weeks the Luftwaffe concentrated on bombing strategic targets, such as air strips, on the south coast.
After a series of battles, it became clear that the Nazis were not going to enjoy a swift and easy victory. This decision marked an active switch to bombing civilian targets. Whilst devastating for London, the bombing raids on the East End allowed the RAF crucial time to recover from the raids on their own runways and airports.
On 14 September , Hitler recognised that invading Britain was, at that moment, impossible. Operation Sealion was postponed indefinitely. The bombing of London, which became known as the Blitz, continued until 11 May The British, who had troops stationed in Egypt which was a colony at the time , responded four days later by capturing the Italian Fort Capuzzo in Egypt.
A series of counter offensives followed. The situation reached a head in the Second Battle of El Alamein in October , which became a key turning point in the war. The German and Italian troops were expecting an attack, and sheltered behind a minefield. The Allied invasion took place in two parts: an intense bombing campaign followed by infantry attack which then cleared the way for armoured divisions to break through the German defences. The German and Italian troops were in a weak position, with their leader, Erwin Rommel, in hospital from 23 September onwards.
They also had little fuel or transport. Rommel returned from hospital to retake command on the 25 October By 2 November , the defences were near breaking point. Rommel withdrew his troops on 4 November By 11 November, the battle was over, leaving the Allied troops victorious.
The battle marked a turning point in the North Africa campaign, reviving the morale of the Allied troops following the failure of the Battle of France. After a winter stalemate in , with both sides building up reinforcements, the Allied troops advanced and surrounded the Axis troops. On 13 May , the Axis forces in North Africa surrendered. All Axis territory was captured along with , experienced troops.
It represented a significant reduction of Axis power. By , the German Army had annexed or occupied large parts of Europe. This map shows these territories as well as the German advance into the Soviet Union. This certificate was issued to thank German citizens for their donations of fur and winter clothes in response to a Christmas appeal for the troops on the Eastern Front.
Following the failure of the Battle of Britain, the Nazis turned their focus towards their ideological enemy, the Soviet Union.
Hitler had always envisioned that a successful war against the Soviet Union would be necessary to achieve two of the Nazis ideological aims: Lebensraum and the destruction of communism. Hitler had anticipated the attack being similar, if not easier, than that of France, lasting four or five months at most.
The Nazis viewed the Russian people as racially and ideologically inferior: no match for the German army. Hitler authorised preparations for the attack, known as Operation Barbarossa , on the 18 December The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June This broke the Nazi-Soviet aggression pact which had been signed just two years prior.
The Nazis aimed their attacks at three key targets, the Ukraine in the south, Moscow in the middle, and Leningrad in the north. The invasion took the Soviets by surprise.
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