Eighty years ago, on September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War II. In this first article in a three-part series, Charles Debono outlines the main causes and events leading up to the war.

The first question for anyone discussing how Europe and the rest of the world ended up in World War II, a total war involving extremisms, cruelty, massacres and extermination, is how this happened just over two decades after the end of World War I.

The devastating experience of World War I in Europe had left the victorious nations and their people desperate to avoid a repeat. Of all the countries that took part on the defeated alliance, Imperial Germany was blamed for the outbreak of WWI. Why?

During the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, the Allied countries, mostly France and Belgium, wanted to punish Germany severely through the terms of the treaty, not only because the Western Front had been fought on their soil, but also so that Germany would never again be allowed to regain its dominance over other European countries. But as we shall see, the treaty left Germany humiliated, providing fertile soil for nationalistic Germans to demand revenge on the Allies, especially France.

The armistice and Treaty of Versailles

During the last weeks of World War I, the Central Powers, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, started crumbling one by one. The last member of this alliance, Imperial Germany, continued fighting till the end, but the civilian population was suffering from severe food shortages, caused by an Allied blockade and domestic policies. Finally, on November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed at Forest of Compiègne, France, by the Allied and German representatives, which effectively ended military operations. (see ‘The Armistice and the reaction in Malta – November 11, 1918’, The Sunday Times of Malta, November 11, 2018).

More negotiations continued until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The treaty forced Germany to give up territory, all of its overseas colonies to the Allied nations, reducing its armed forces and accept the demilitarisation and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River. The treaty placed all blame for inciting the war squarely on Germany, and forced it to pay a huge sum of money in reparations to the Allied nations.

After the war a new democratic Constitution was instituted in Germany to set up what was known as the Weimar Republic. But it faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism and contentious relationships with the Allied victors and others. Several far-right political parties were active in Germany during this time, including the German Workers’ Party (DAP).

Neville Chamberlain showing the Anglo-German Declaration to a crowd at Heston Aerodrome on September 30, 1938, on his return from Munich. He said the declaration, signed by both Hitler and himself, symbolised the desire of the two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

The treaty left Germany humiliated, providing fertile soil for nationalistic Germans to demand revenge

One early member of the DAP who two decades later was again to thrust Germany and much of the world in an abyss of unimaginable destruction and exterminations was Adolf Hitler, who was originally an Austrian citizen. In 1920, the DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party. Hitler became the party’s leader in 1921.

The failure of the Munich Putsch (an attempted coup d’état) in 1923 ended up with Hitler being arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, but he served less than eight months. While in jail, Hitler dictated Mein Kampf, which laid out his ideology of conquests, hatred to the Jews, Slavs and other peoples who were to be enslaved and exterminated.

Pictured before signing the Munich Agreement (from left) British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini.

Birth and expansion of the Third Reich

When the stock market in the United States crashed on October 24, 1929, the effect in Germany was dire. Millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler’s Nazi Party prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party.

After the federal election of 1932, the Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag. Under pressure from politicians, industrialists and the business community, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Within months, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 brought about a state of emergency in the country. Hitler rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as the Third Reich.

In 1935, the Nazis started their territorial expansion of Germany, when following a popular referendum the Saar region decided to rejoin Germany. This was followed in March 1936 by the German army’s occupation of the Rhineland. In March 1938, Hitler annexed his native Austria, in an event known as the Anschluss, and incorporated it into Germany. After the Anschluss, Hitler targeted Czechoslovakia, provoking an international crisis.

A sketch depicting the signing of the WWI Armistice in railway coach 2419D in the village of Rethondes in the Forest of Compiegne, about 60 kilometres north of Paris, on November 11, 1918.

As a result of the Munich Agreement of September 1938, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede to Germany its Sudetenland, which was inhabited by ethnic Germans. However, in March 1939, German troops marched into the rest of Czechoslovakia. In the same month, the Nazis forced Lithuania to sign a treaty that returned the Memel region to Germany.

It was evident that the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement towards Germany to avoid another war, had failed completely.

As the political situation in Europe continued to worsen, six days after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), on April 7, Italy invaded Albania, meeting ineffective resistance. A month after the Italian annexation of Albania, Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel, on May 22, 1939. Officially, the Pact of Steel obliged Germany and Italy to help each other’s militarily. At this point, the aggressive foreign policy of Nazi Germany could not be ignored any longer.

Rise of Mussolini and Fascist Italy

Meanwhile, in Italy, the process of unification, also known as the Risorgimento, had started in the early decades of the 19th century, when various states of the Italian peninsula started combining to form larger states and eventually a single country. The process was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

However, there were still areas with Italian-speaking communities within the borders of several countries around the newly created Kingdom of Italy. The ‘irredentists’ sought to annex the Dalmatian coastline, Gorizia, Istria, Trentino, Trieste, Fiume, and the Ionian islands. They also laid claim to Nice, Savoy, small parts of Grisons and of Valais in south-eastern France, Corsica, the Swiss canton of Ticino and even the Maltese islands.

The Fascist revolutionaries’ ‘March on Rome’ on October 28, 1922.

Irredentism had already led to Italy’s involvement in World War I. Before Italy joined the Triple Entente, the Allies promised most of the above-mentioned lands claimed by the irredentists, but not the city of Fiume. However, after the end of WWI, the Italians gained Trieste, Gorizia, Istria and territories with Italian majority in Dalmatia, while Fiume remained outside of Italian frontiers. In 1920, it became known as the Free State of Fiume until it was annexed by Italy in 1924.

The Treaty of Versailles left the Italians believing that their leaders had been humiliated by Britain, France and the US. The Italian delegation was ignored and considered as secondary figures during the negotiations at Versailles. This heaped further humiliation on the government. Such an attitude of ‘betrayal’ by the Allies and many other resentments, led to the rise of Fascism in Italy.

In March 1919, Benito Mussolini formed the Fascist Party. In 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos, and after the party’s infamous ‘March on Rome’ in October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III invited Mussolini to form a government. During the following years, Mussolini established a dictatorship and promised to restore the pride and glory of the old Roman Empire and transform the Mediterranean Sea into the Mare Nostrum. The Italian Fascists believed also in particular, that they had to complete what it considered as the incomplete project of the Risorgimento by incorporating the remaining Italian unredeemed territories.

President Hindenburg with Hitler (left) and his right-hand man Hermann Göring in 1934.

Malta’s political and linguistic situation

After the unification of Italy, some Maltese showed their interest in the new neighbouring kingdom. During the 1880s, political agitation led to the rise of the ‘Language Question’ in Malta.

This issue erupted because the educated and cultivated upper class Maltese people, namely the nobility, the clergy and professional classes, spoke Italian and wanted to keep their benefits. However, the imperialistic circle in Malta preferred English, while Maltese was popular with the working classes.

In the aftermath of World War I, the cost of living in Malta increased dramatically. After the riots of the Sette Giugno (June 7, 1919), Malta was granted a self-government Constitution. The Maltese government had autonomy in internal affairs. Control was divided between a Maltese government and an Imperial government which had control over many ‘reserved matters’. Provisions were made in favour of the English language, whereby both Italian and English were to be the official languages of Malta and its administration.

With the rise of Fascism in Italy and frequent references that Malta was as an integral part of Italia Irrendenta, the British became aware to the intrusion of Italian influence in Malta.

The ‘Language Question’ ended when the Italian language was pronounced a lingua non grata. Italian was abolished as the official language at the Law Courts and the University. Maltese replaced Italian as a  national language together with English.

Charles Debono is curator of the National War Museum.

(To be continued)

A German artillery regiment receives the acclaim of the people of Dusseldorf in March 1936.