GERMANY’S TREATY OF VERSAILLES RESTRICTIONS
In 1918, Germany lost World War I. Designed to prevent it from starting another war in the future, the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to abolish universal conscription and limit its army to 100,000 contract soldiers. It was forbidden to have tanks, air force and a navy. To prevent Germany from attacking the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France from its territory, a 150–200 km wide buffer zone was created along the border with these countries: the Rhine demilitarized zone, off limits to the Germans troops. The League of Nations was established to resolve disputes in a peaceful way. However, on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor of Germany. He started implementing a policy of non-compliance with the Treaty of Versailles restrictions. In the fall of 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.
SOVIET-FRENCH ATTEMPT TO CREATE A COLLECTIVE SECURITY SYSTEM
After Germany’s secession from the League of Nations, the USSR and France suggested that European countries conclude an “Eastern Pact” on the inviolability of borders and a new system of collective security. The Soviet-French idea was supported only by Czechoslovakia. Germany and Poland opposed the “Eastern Pact,” while other countries abstained.
CONCLUSION OF THE “PIŁSUDSKI-HITLER” PACT
On January 26, 1934, Poland was the first European state to conclude a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany; it went down in history as the Piłsudski-Hitler Pact.
Polish leader Jozef Piłsudski and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda
The officers of the Wehrmacht and the Polish Army
HITLER DENOUNCES THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES RESTRICTIONS
Hitler used the Polish-German Non-Aggression Pact to secure Germany from the direction of Poland and on March 16, 1935, in violation to the Treaty of Versailles, reintroduced universal conscription. The UK and France showed no reaction to this. Two days later, Hitler denounced the Treaty of Versailles and started building tanks, aircraft and warships.
THE UK ALLOWS GERMANY TO BUILD WARSHIPS
On June 18, 1935, the UK itself signed a naval agreement with Germany allowing Hitler to build a navy, but three times smaller than the British one. London hoped that the revived German fleet would become a counterweight to the Soviet Baltic Fleet.
FRANCE DOES NOT PREVENT GERMANY FROM OCCUPYING THE RHINE DEMILITARIZED ZONE
March 7, 1936: in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, a small portion of the German army entered the Rhine demilitarized zone. France, with 20 times as many troops on its border with Germany, did not prevent it. Hitler later admitted that “...if the French were to enter the Rhineland, the German troops would have had to retreat with their tails between their legs.”
THE UK AND FRANCE GIVE UP AUSTRIA TO GERMANY
The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to unite with Austria. In early 1938, Hitler decided to violate this condition as well. Austria hoped for the French and British protection. However, these countries didn’t prevent Germany’s occupation and the Anschluss (annexation of Austria) on March 12, 1938.
THE ROLE OF THE UK, FRANCE, GERMANY, POLAND AND HUNGARY IN THE PARTITION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA
In September 1938, Hitler threatened Czechoslovakia with war unless it agreed to give up the Sudetenland (Sudeten border region) where 90% of the population was German. It was there, however, that Czechoslovakia had already built the defensive Beneš Line of 264 fortresses and 10,014 reinforced concrete pillboxes. Czechoslovakia had a strong army, and as per their agreement, France and the USSR were obliged to help it in the event of a war against Germany. The German generals therefore doubted the success of a military operation, considering Hitler’s threats a bluff. Some of them even intended to remove him from power.
Nonetheless, France was reluctant to go to war with Germany over Czechoslovakia. The UK wasn’t going to “dig trenches and put on gas masks because of someone else’s disputes,” either. Only the USSR, Czechoslovakia’s ally under the treaty of 1935, was ready to move its troops to help. However, the two countries were separated by Poland that dreamed not of preserving peace in Europe, but of returning its Teschen District captured by Czechoslovakia in 1920 (inhabited by ~120,000 Czechs and ~80,000 Poles). Warsaw could only hope to regain these lands by aiding Hitler. For this reason, not only did Poland forbid the Red Army units’ passage over its territory—it also declared its readiness to shoot down Soviet aircraft if they dared fly over it. Hungary, eager to regain the Slovak lands taken from it after the suppression of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, supported Hitler as well.
Despite its closest neighbors’ support of Hitler, Czechoslovakia started preparing for the war, still relying on the UK and France. Germany responded by moving its troops to the borders. In this situation, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told Hitler that “Germany can have the Sudetenland without a single shot fired.” At the initiative of the British side, Chamberlain himself and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier arrived in Munich for a meeting with Hitler. Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini acted as a mediator.
British and French Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier with Adolf Hitler
Chamberlain and Daladier sign the Munich Agreement on the transfer of the Czechoslovak Sudetenland to Germany
On September 29, 1938, they personally signed a pact with Hitler, passing the Czechoslovak Sudetenland to Germany. The Czechoslovak delegation didn’t get a seat at the negotiations table, but was allowed to wait for their outcome. Coming out with the signed pact, Chamberlain told the Czechoslovak delegation that no one was interested in their opinion, since “the pact was considered automatically accepted for enforcement.” The UK and France didn’t just offer Czechoslovakia zero compensation for the land seized from it; they also forced it to pay Germany 481 million korunas “to ensure circulating assets in the annexed territory.” Describing the British and French shameful role in this deal, Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš said: “History has no precedent of any sovereign state being treated like this. We have been abandoned and betrayed. These cowardly people… Not only did they force us to cede the Sudetenland to Germany—we were also to give up Teschen District to Poland and the Slovak border lands to Hungary.”
That’s the way top European officials decided the fate of a small country to appease the Nazi Reich. Two days later, Germany occupied the Sudetenland, Hungary—the Slovak border region, and Poland invaded Teschen District. The latter added a mere 0.02% to the Polish territory. However, Poland’s output of cast iron and steel went up by almost 50% due to the heavy industry enterprises located there. Poland rejoiced, and its military went ahead with drafting an operation codenamed Wschód (East)... against the Soviet Union!
On March 14, 1939, Slovakia separated from the Czech Republic. The following day, Germany occupied the rest of the Czech Republic in violation of the Munich Agreement. Three days later, Hungary occupied Slovakia’s Carpathian Rus.
The partitions of Czechoslovakia in 1938–1939 Germany in 1939
Just as Hitler had expected, London and Paris, the guarantors of new Czechoslovak borders, did not stand up for Prague. This sacrifice made by the UK and France did not extinguish, but rather fanned the fire of a new global massacre.
THE UK AND FRANCE SIT IDLE AS GERMANY TAKES OVER MEMELLAND
On March 22, 1939, Hitler, elated with his successes, issued an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the return of the German-populated Memel region (Memelland), discretionally captured by the Lithuanians in 1923. Placing no hope on the protection by London and Paris, Kaunas met Berlin’s demand.
POLAND DISRUPTS THE CONCLUSION OF AN ANGLO-FRANCO-SOVIET MILITARY TREATY AGAINST GERMANY
After that, the USSR proposed the conclusion of an anti-German military treaty to the UK and France. However, due to Poland’s reluctance to grant the Red Army passage through its territory, the Anglo-Franco-Soviet treaty never got signed.
CONCLUSION OF THE MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT
By August 1939, Poland, the UK, France, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia had each entered into bilateral non-aggression treaties with Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union did the same on August 23, 1939. Unlike Chamberlain and Daladier, Stalin did not embarrass himself by personally meeting and shaking hands with Hitler. The non-aggression treaty between the USSR and Germany was signed by their foreign ministers, for which reason it went down in history as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Soviet and German Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Molotov and Ribbentrop
Molotov signing the Pact
THE UK AND FRANCE DID NOT DEFEND POLAND, AFTER WHICH THEY THEMSELVES WERE DEFEATED
In January 1939, Germany presented Poland with claims to once German city of Danzig and lands by the sea that were passed to the Poles after World War I. This “corridor”—Poland’s access to the sea—separated mainland Germany from East Prussia. Poland refused. Then Hitler offered them a military alliance against the USSR whereby Poland potentially stood to obtain Soviet territories. Although Poland did agree to receive the part of Soviet Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, it refused to return Danzig and wouldn’t even allow the Germans to build an extraterritorial road through the “Polish corridor.”
Danzig and the “Polish corridor” that divided Germany in two
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. German tanks reached Warsaw by September 8. The Polish government moved to Brest, subsequently leaving the country altogether on September 16. Despite the fact that the completely encircled defenders of Warsaw had been fighting back for 20 days, and the last Polish garrison laid down their arms as late as October 5, the UK and France never did stand up for Poland. By sacrificing Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, the UK and France hoped that Hitler would finally attack the USSR. But on May 10, 1940, he turned his rage against them. The Franco-British forces were defeated and France surrendered on June 22, 1940.
