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The Collapse of Nazism

Nazi Germany

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Learning objectives

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What were Hitler’s early successes in the Second World War?

How did the Battle of Britain, the battle for the USSR and the battle for Germany bring about the fall of Nazism?

What happened to the Nazis, Germany, and the wider world following the collapse of Hitler's regime in 1945?

What we will learn in this presentation:

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Introduction: Blitzkrieg

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After the fall of France, Hitler was keen to defeat Britain –the only country still at war with Germany.

His plan of attack, Operation Sea Lion, aimed to destroy the RAF in preparation for a seaborne invasion from France.

The plan to invade Britain

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However, by September the Luftwaffe had still not succeeded in destroying the RAF.

Operation Sea Lion was called off on 17 September.

Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London.

The Battle of Britain

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Despite signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, Hitler had always intended to invade the USSR to gain more ‘lebensraum’ (living space). According to Nazi racial doctrine, the USSR was populated by ‘inferior’ Russians, Eastern Europeans and Jews, so Germany had every right to take their land for the Aryans.

By the summer of 1940, Hitler’s attention was being drawn away from Britain, and towards the Soviet Union.

Besides, Hitler had always hated Communism, and Russia had vast oil reserves that Germany could exploit.

The battle for the USSR

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Operation Barbarossa

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The German campaign in Russia dragged on until 1944, with incredible suffering on both sides.

The Battle of Stalingrad ended with the capture of 500,000 German soldiers after Hitler refused to allow them to retreat.

The Siege of Leningrad which lasted from 1941 to 1944 resulted in the deaths of almost 1 million Russians (one third of the city’s population), many from starvation.

In 1942 Hitler told his tank commander General Heinz Guderian that feelings of pity and sympathy for his soldiers had to be shut out. Soldiers were a necessary sacrifice in the ‘heroic struggle’.

The Eastern Front

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By 1944, the tide had turned decisively against Germany.

The USSR was attacking Germany from the east, whilst Britain (now aided by the USA) was attacking from the West following the successful D-Day landings in France.

The battle for Germany

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The defeat of Nazi Germany

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The defeat of Nazi Germany

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Which was the most significant turning point of the war:

(a) The Battle of Britain(b) the battle for the USSR(c) the battle for Germany?

Explain your answer carefully.

The defeat of Nazi Germany

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After the war: the Nazis

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Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London.

What do you think about the fate of the Nazi leaders?

were too lenient?

were too harsh?

treated the Nazis fairly?

Do you think that the Allies…

After the war: the Nazis

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After the war: Germany

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After World War II, the international community was horrified to discover the true scale of Nazi atrocities against the Jews.

So in 1947, the United Nations declared that the Jewish people should be given their own legitimate homeland. It was to be situated in Palestine, where the ancient Jewish Kingdom of Israel had been.

However, the Muslim Arab peoples who already lived in the area refused to accept this decision.

This gave rise to the Arab-Israeli conflict which continues to pose a serious threat to world peace today. The USA gives strong support to Israel while the Arab world supports the Palestinians.

After the war: the wider world

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Plenary