- Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
- Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) Director of the SS (Schutzstaffel), Hitler's
private army
- Herman Göring (1893-1945) Minister of Interior
- Joseph Goebles (1897-1945) Minister of Propaganda
- Wiemar Republic (1919-1933)
- Hitler appointed Chancellor, January 30, 1933
- Enabling Act of March 1933 gave Hitler emergency powers that provided
a basis for a legal dictatorship
- Gleichschaltung or "Coordination" was the term
used by Hitler and the National Socialists to described the subordination
and control over the state apparatus, communications, labor unions,
local governments, and so forth. In other words, a revolution from above
to bring about a dictatorial regime.
- Nuremburg Laws in 1935 abolished German citizenship for Jews
- 1938
- September: The "Anschlus.: Germany
annexes Austria (March). Czechoslovak crisis and Munich conference
lead to German annexation of Sudetenland.
- November 9-10, Kristallnacht
marks the beginning of violent persecution of German Jews
- August
23, 1939. Hitler and Stalin sign a non-agression pact, making it possible
for Hitler to seize parts of Poland and Eastern Europe with the threat
of a two-front war--France and Britain in the west; the USSR in the
east. Stalin got eastern parts of Poland as well as assurances to Stalin
about the eventual annexation of the Baltic states--Latvia, Lithuania,
Estonia, and Finland.
- September 1939, Germany invades Poland and the war is declared against
Germany by Britain and France
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