Totalitarianism

Questions• What is Totalitarianism?

• How did Mussolini come to power in Italy?– To what extent was Italian Fascism totalitarian?

• How did Joseph Stalin take control over the Soviet Union?– How did Stalin transform the Soviet Union?

• How did Adolf Hitler seize power in Germany? – How did Hitler’s policies lead to another World War

Totalitarianism in the S.U.• Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)• ‘Socialism in One Country’• Stalin feared S.U. would be

overwhelmed by capitalist west• He believed the Soviet Union

needed to industrialize at all costs

• His policies led to creation of massive bureaucracy (government), controlled by him.

Stalin’s Russia• Stalin drove all of his

opponents out of power• Trotsky exiled 1929, later

assasinated• Personality cult• Purges: 600,000 out of 1.2 mil.

CP members imprisoned or killed

• Total number of those who died as a result of Stalin’s policies reached between 8-13 million people

• Aug. 1939 non-aggression pact with Germany seemed to ensure peace

Stalin signs a death warrant

Totalitarianism• A government for the industrial age• The State was above all other aspects

of society• Government willing to intervene in

lives of citizens, keep control over economy

• Use of propaganda to mobilize nation around a central ideology– Education as indoctrination (program

people to follow)

• Often totalitarian regimes try to mobilize the public around a national goal or program

• Glorification of militarism

Stalin’s Economic Program• Improve industrialization through

a huge amount of state investment

• Beginning in 1928, 5 Year Plans set goals for industrial achievements

• Collectivize agriculture by using force to seize the land of middle-class peasants (kulaks). Gov. runs farms

• Results: Rapid Industrial Growth– 1928 S.U. built 6000 tractors/year– 1932 S.U. built 150,000 tractors/year

Worldwide Depre$$ion

• Post WWI economies are in DEEP trouble.• Germany is broke, inflation is soaring. Their

government (Weimar Republic) is failing.• Great Depression hits U.S., 1 out of 4 people

can’t find a job. New Deal (gov. spending)• France and Britain economies struggling.• Socialism is becoming popular with workers.

Why?

Fascism in Italy

• Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

• War seriously damaged Italian economy, brought little benefit to nation

• Pressures for land reform, socialism

• Italian wealthy began to view Parliamentary govt. as weak, turned to right-wing parties

• Oct., 1922 March on Rome made Mussolini Prime Minister

Mussolini Marches on Rome

From Republic to Totalitarian State

• 1923 Mussolini passed the ‘Acerbo’ Law which ensured Fascist dominance in Parliament

• Mussolini began to intimidate his opponents using violence (Blackshirts)

• Mussolini used his power in parliament to make himself dictator

The Rise of Adolf Hitler• Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

– Nazi Party– SA (Brownshirts)

• German unemployment after 1929 created environment of crisis in Germany

Jan 1933, Conservatives agree to form coalition government making Hitler Chancellor

Adolf Hitler in 1927

Dollar Reichsmark RelationshipU.S. $1.00 would buy

Jul 1914 RM 4.2 Jan 1919 8.9 Jul 1919 14.0 Jan 1920 64.8 Jul 1920 39.5 Jan 1921 64.9 Jul 1921 76.7

Jan 1922 191.8 Jul 1922 493.2

Jan 1923 17,972.0 Jul 1923 353,412.0

Aug 1923 4,620,455.0 Sep 1923 98,860,000.0

Oct 1923 25,260,208,000.0 15 Nov 1923 42,200,000,000,000.0

Unemployment in Germany

Year Total (inmillions)

% ofPopulation

1929 1,899 8.5

1930 3,076 14.0

1931 4,520 21.9

1932 5,603 29.9

The Nazi Party• Founded after WWI, Hitler

transformed it into the largest party in Germany

• Main goals– Restore German Power and Pride

• Get rid of Treaty of Versailles• Lebensraum (Living space)

– Prevent Communist takeover of Germany

– Purge Germany of elements which Hitler believed threatened German power

• Jews, Communists, Gypsies, Homosexuals

– Reinforce traditional gender roles

Hitler in Power• Deflection of

criticism– scapegoats– nationalism/massive

rallies– economic success

• pump priming• government spending

Hitler at rally, 1937

German Anti-Semitism• Germany had over 500,000 Jews in 1933• After Hitler came to power he passed

laws preventing Jews from being professionals, holding jobs in the civil service and army, and attending universities

• 1935 Nuremburg Laws:– Jews and non-Jews could neither

marry nor have sex– Jews were stripped of German

citizenship– Jews were forced to wear Star of

David on clothes• Nov. 9, 1938 Kristallnacht (Night of

Broken Glass)- 1st night where violence broke out.

19331 Apr: One-day boycott of all Jewish businesses.7 Apr: Most Jews in the civil service were forced to "retire"25 Apr: Limit set on number of Jews students in high schools and gymnasiums10 May: Buecherverbrennung public book burning of about 500 tons of books by or about Jews(Marx, Ernst Bloch, Freud, Magnus Hirschfeld, Heine, Heinrich Mann, ErnstGl„ser, Erich Kaestner, Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Schnitzler, Ernest Hemingway, JackLondon).1935 6 Sep: Jewish newspapers cannot be sold on the street15 Sep: Nurenberg Laws Jews stripped of German citizenship, can not display the German flag, can not employ in the home Germans under the age of 45, and marriage or relationships between Jews and non-Jews are forbidden.193716 Nov: Passports for foreign travel to be issued to Jews only in "special circumstances."193826 Apr: Jews must register all property valued over RM50015 Jun: Any Jews ever convicted of any offense, including trafiic violations, was arraested.23 Jul: All Jews over 15 years and older must carry a special ID card and must show it when ever dealing with a government official.25 Jul: Licenses of Jewish doctors suspended; they may only treat Jews27 Jul: All street names of Jewish origin are changed17 Aug: All Jewish children born after 1 January 1939 must be named from an approved list of Jewish names.9-10 Nov: Kristallnacht 200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 shops looted;30,000 Jews sent to camps; over 1,000 Jews killed11 Nov: Jews cannot own weapons12 Nov: Jews cannot own retail businesses, cannot attend public performances of plays, films, concerts, or exhibitions; Jews must pay RM1.25 million for damages caused on Kristallnacht.15 Nov: All Jews expelled from schools3 Dec: Jews cannot own cars or have drivers licenses8 Dec: Jews expelled from universities

19391 Jan: All Jews must add "Sarah" or "Israel" to their names21 Feb: Jews must surrender all gold, silver, platinum, pearls, and gemstones4 Mar: Jews leaving Germany can take only goods acquired before 30 Jan, 1933 except for gold, silver, platinum, pearls, and gemstones. It was permitted to take wedding rings, used silverware (two each of knifes, forks, spoons and soup spoons only).3 Sep: Jewish curfew established 8.00 p.m. in winter, 9.00 p.m. in summer23 Sep: Jews must hand in all radios 1 Dec: Jewish food ration reduced19406 Feb: Jews cannot buy clothes or shoes19 Feb: Jews can not have telephonesJul: Beginning of T4 euthanasia for Jewish mentally ill and infirm patients194119 Sep: All Jews over the age of six must wear "a black, six-pointed tar of yellow material, as big as the palm of a hand, with the inscription 'Jew' sewn over the heart."16 Oct: Jews forbidden to emigrate from Germany16 Oct: General deportation of all Jews from Germany begins.31 Oct: Jews still working cannot receive sick pay, vacations, or overtime pay.26 Dec: Jews cannot use public phones1942 5 Jan: Jews must hand in all woolens and furs.17 Feb: Jews cannot subscribe to newspapers or magazines26 Mar: Jews must affix a Star of David to the outside door17 Apr: Jews cannot use public transportation15 May: Jews cannot have pets30 Jun: All Jewish schools closed18 Sep: Jews cannot have rationed foods (meat, eggs, flour, milk and milk products) 9 Oct: Jews cannot buy books

Extermination• Jews would be separated; those

who might be used for labor were allowed to live, temporarily; the rest were taken to showers where poison gas would kill them. The dead would be hauled to crematoria and burned.

• The scale of the operation meant Germans and Poles must have known what was going on.

• Ultimately 6 million Jews were killed and about 5 million others were exterminated

Attitudes toward Germany

• British: Anti-war and willing to be more lenient to Germans

• French: bitterly hostile to Germans but unwilling to risk slow-growing population on war

• Soviets: suspicious of all western powers, feared that capitalist nations would gang up on the USSR

• U.S.: felt duped by Europe and was unwilling to involve itself in European affairs: isolationism

Stresemann and Briand

Dealing with Nazi Germany• Problem of what to do about

Germany became more difficult in 1933

• The French had created a series of alliances which were designed to prevent German aggression

• Conservative British governments still wanted to rely on diplomacy

• Appeasement• Rome-Berlin Axis 1937

Hitler and Mussolini, Sept. 1938

Toward World War• 1936 Germany moved troops into

the Rhineland, in violation of Treaty of Versailles

• March 1938: Germany annexed Austria

• Late 1938: Czech. crisis– Sudetenland (3 million Germans)– Munich Conference 1938

• March 1939: Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia

• August 23, 1939 German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact– The Danzig Corridor

Chamberlain and Hitler at Munich

The Growth of Germany in the 1930s

The Failure of Versailles

• The British and French were unwilling to enforce the treaty or the revisions to it.

• The League of Nations could not keep peace because it was not a credible threat to aggressor nations.

• The citizens of the United States failed to grasp that WWI had changed America’s role in the world; as a result the British and French had to face Hitler without American support.