Any account of the origins and

course of the Second World War

must give Hitler the leading

part. Without him a major war

in the early 1940s between all

the world’s great powers was

unthinkable.British historian Professor Richard

Overy, writing in 1996.

Why did peace collapse in Europe in 1939?

Over the next few lessons:

• You will investigate why Britain and France declared war on Germany in 1939.

• You will make up your own mind as to how far Hitler’s own policies were

to blame for the war and whether other factors were equally important.

What were Hitler’s aims in foreign policy?

Objectives:

• Understand Hitler’s aims.

• Explain how his aims might led to another war.

• Evaluate how far Hitler’s aims were justified.

Why would this aim make another war more likely?

Do you think this aim is

“fair”?

Over to you. Find it, remember it, get ready to use it.

Why would this aim make another war more likely?

Do you think this aim is

“fair”?

To make Germany great again BY

• abolishing the hated Treaty of Versailles

• gaining territory for Germany in the East to provide lebensraum

(‘living space’) for the German people

• destroying communism

• uniting all German speaking people under his rule

So what did Hitler want to achieve?

Germany

RECALL the main terms of the Treaty of Versailles

• War guilt: Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war

• Reparations: Germany had to pay £6600 million

• German territory: – Anschluss with Austria forbidden.

– European boundaries altered e.g. loss of Alsace-Lorraine, East Prussia.

• Germany’s armed forces restricted:– Conscription banned.

– Army limited to 100,000 men.

– No armoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft.

– The navy could build only six battleships.

– The Rhineland became a demilitarised zone.

Territorial changes at Versailles

Why did peace collapse in Europe in 1939?

Over the next few lessons:

• You will investigate why Britain and France declared war on Germany in 1939.

• You will make up your own mind as to how far Hitler’s own policies were to blame for the war

and whether other factors were equally important.

Terms of theTreaty of Versailles

How does Hitler challenge the Treaty?

What reason/excuse does he give for his actions?

What was the response from Britain and France?

Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited

The Rhineland to become a demilitarised zone

Germany forbidden to unite with Austria

The Sudetenlandto be given to the new country of Czechoslovakia

German soldiers and armaments on show at the Proclamation

of Freedom to Rearm Rally in 1935.

What can you infer from this picture about Hitler’s aims in foreign

policy?

Rearmament, 1933One of Hitler’s first actions when

he became leader of Germany in

1933 was to increase Germany’s

armed forces. Thousands of

unemployed workers were

drafted into the army. This helped

him to reduce unemployment,

which was one of the biggest

problems in Germany at that time.

It also helped him to deliver on

his promise to make Germany

strong again and break the Treaty

of Versailles.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Hitler knew that the German people would support

rearmament because they bitterly hated the limits

placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. But

Hitler knew that other countries would be alarmed.

He handled it cleverly, rearming secretly at first. He

then went to talk to Britain and France and made a

promise not to rearm Germany if in 5 years all other

nations had destroyed their weapons too. He knew

other countries would not agree to this, so he

seemed justified afterwards when he said he was

only rearming Germany to boost the economy and to

make it equal in power to other European nations.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own

words.4. Predict what happens next.

Hitler reintroduced conscription in March 1935. In

included all able bodied boys over the age of 1919/

By 1939 the army had grown from 100 000 to 1

million. Hitler was breaking the terms of the Treaty of

Versailles, but he guessed correctly that he would

get away with it. In 1935 many other countries were

using rearmament as a way to fight unemployment.

Rearmament was an incredibly popular move in

Germany. It boosted Nazi support. Hitler also knew

that Britain had some sympathy with Germany as

they felt the limits placed on Germany by the Treaty

were too harsh. Britain also believed that a strong

Germany was a good buffer against Communist

Russia.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own

words.4. Predict what happens next.

Terms of theTreaty of Versailles

How does Hitler challenge the Treaty?

What reason/excuse does he give for his actions?

What was the response from Britain and France?

Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited

The Rhinelandto become a demilitarised zone

Germany forbidden to unite with Austria

The Sudetenland to be given to the new country of Czechoslovakia

Complete the first row of your table

What part of the

Treaty is being

broken in this clip?

(Tip: look at the

reactions of the

people or the shop

names)

•In March 1936, Hitler takes

his 1st really big risk and

moves troops into the

Rhineland area of Germany.

•It was a huge gamble for

him as his army was not

equipped to fight

France/Britain if they chose

to attack him for breaking

the Treaty of Versailles.

•He would be humiliated if

they forced him to withdraw,

and he would also lose the

support of his own army.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Remilitarisation of the Rhineland

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own

words.4. Predict what happens next.

The French had just signed a deal with the

USSR to protect each other against attack from

the Germans.

Hitler claimed that he was now threatened as

Germany was surrounded by France and the

USSR. He was entitled to have troops on his

own frontier.

Hitler knew that Britain was already sympathetic

to the Germans and was confident that Britain

would not intervene.

He gambled over France – would they let him

get away with it?

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own

words.4. Predict what happens next.

The League was too busy

dealing with the Abyssinian

crisis, and could not cope with

this added pressure.

Britain said Hitler was simply

“marching into his own back

yard”.

Even France were divided over

what to do – they knew Hitler

was a threat but did not want to

be responsible for plunging the

country into another war.

At that time we had no army worth

mentioning . . . If the French had taken

any action we would have been easily

defeated; our resistance would have

been over in a few days. And the Air

Force we had then was ridiculous – a

few Junkers 52s from Lufthansa and

not even enough bombs for them . . .

Hitler looks back on his gamble over the Rhineland

some years after the event.

THINK! Could Hitler have been stopped?

Terms of theTreaty of Versailles

How does Hitler challenge the Treaty?

What reason/excuse does he give for his actions?

What was the response from Britain and France?

Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited

The Rhinelandto become a demilitarised zone

Germany forbidden to unite with Austria

The Sudetenland to be given to the new country of Czechoslovakia

Complete the second row of your table

Anschluss with Austria, 1938

Hitler was spurred on

by successes with

rearmament and the

Rhineland.

Austrian people were

mainly German and he

made it clear his

intention was to reunite

the two states.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any

unknown words –find their meaning.

3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.

4. Predict what happens next.

Austria supported this as

they were economically

weak. He tried to unite the

two countries in 1936, but

was stopped by Mussolini.

In 1938, they were now

allies.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Nazi Party was strong in Austria. Hitler

encouraged them to stir up trouble, calling for

Union with Germany. Hitler told the Austrian

Chancellor that Anschluss (political union)

would sort out his problems. Hitler put pressure

on him to accept the Anschluss. The Chancellor

called for a vote to see what the people of

Austria wanted.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Hitler sent Nazi troops in to

guarantee a “trouble-free”

vote. 99.75% voted in

favour.

Anschluss was completed

with no military confrontation

– from neither Austria,

Britain or France.

Chamberlain felt the Treaty

had been wrong to separate

them. France would not act

without British support. Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Once again, Hitler had taken risky

but decisive action.

He now controlled Austria, with all

its raw materials and soldiers.

The Treaty had been broken once

again and Britain and France had

done nothing. Britain in particular

felt the Treaty itself was the

problem and were not prepared to

risk a war to uphold it.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Terms of theTreaty of Versailles

How does Hitler challenge the Treaty?

What reason/excuse does he give for his actions?

What was the response from Britain and France?

Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited

The Rhinelandto become a demilitarised zone

Germany forbidden to unite with Austria

The Sudetenland to be given to the new country of Czechoslovakia

Complete the third row of your table

Sudeten Germans

welcoming the Nazis, 4

October 1938

German troops

entering Prague,

March 1939

Challenge:THINK! Why are the reactions of the people so different?

Are you ready to learn? Let’s get on with it then! ☺

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

THINK! What can you learn about Hitler’s (Germany’s) attitude towards the Sudetenland?

Show you know by doing it.

“I give you my word of honour that

Czechoslovakia has nothing to fear from the

Reich (German parliament)”

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

THINK! What can you learn about Chamberlain’s (Britain’s) attitude towards the events taking place in the Sudetenland?

How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between

people of whom we know nothing. I am myself a man of peace to the depths of

my soul.

Show you know by doing it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

Reciprocal reading.1. Read the paragraph.2. Highlight any unknown words – find their

meaning.3. Summarise the paragraph in your own words.4. Predict what happens next.

Over to you. Find it, remember it, ready to use it.

“Peace in our time”

THINK! What was public opinion on the Munich Agreement? Explain your answer using evidence from the source.

Show you know by doing it.

Terms of theTreaty of Versailles

How does Hitler challenge the Treaty?

What reason/excuse does he give for his actions?

What was the response from Britain and France?

Germany’s armed forces to be severely limited

The Rhinelandto become a demilitarised zone

Germany forbidden to unite with Austria

The Sudetenland to be given to the new country of Czechoslovakia

Complete the final row of your table

‘Remember … one more lollipop, and then you can all go home!’

“APPEASEMENT” MEANS TO GIVE INTO THE DEMANDS OF A HOSTILE NATION IN ORDER TO KEEP THE PEACE.

THINK!Do you think this is ever a good idea?

Challenge: can you explain the meaning of the cartoon?

1. Sort the cards into arguments for and against appeasement.

2. Summarise the arguments for and against appeasement. You could do them as two lists or a spdier diagram, it’s your choice.

3. CHALLENGE: Identify which arguments belong in the following categories:• Military reasons• Economic reasons• Fear• Public opinion• Other

4. Was Britain right to follow the policy of appeasement? Use what you have learned to write a PEE paragraph explain your answer. CHALLENGE: write a second paragraph explaining hy the alternative view is wrong in your opinion.

Use the mnemonic to

remember the events

leading to World War

Two.

Saar plebiscite

Conscription & Rearmament

Rhineland

Anschluss

Munich & the Sudetenland

Czechoslovakia

USSR / Nazi Pact

Poland

1. Take each of the following causes of WWII. ▪ Hitler’s actions▪ The policy of Appeasement▪ The problems caused by the peace treaty▪ The Nazi–Soviet Pact

2. For each cause, summarise the ways in which it helped lead to war in 1939 (the consequences).

3. If you took any of these causes away, would there have been a war?

Why did war break out in Europe in 1939?

Challenge: are any of the causes linked? How?

Did you get everything – arguments for?

Did you get everything – arguments against?