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But in July, as tensions continued building across Europe and all major powers were feverishly casting about for potential allies, Hitler’s foreign minister dropped hints to Moscow that if Hitler invaded Poland, the Soviet Union might be permitted some Polish territory. Several brief diplomatic exchanges in May 1939 fizzled by the next month. To avoid such a scenario, Hitler had cautiously begun exploring the possibility of a thaw in relations with Stalin. They knew Stalin’s purges of his military commanders in 19 had seriously weakened the Soviet army, but the Germans were leery of a campaign that could easily lead to the nightmare faced in World War I–a two-front war, in which they would be fighting Russians troops in the east and French and British troops in the west. However, Hitler’s fervor for a war with Poland made his generals nervous. At the same time, he advanced his plans for attacking Poland in August 1939 if his demands were not met.
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Hitler also wanted to put a stop to the alleged mistreatment of Germans living in the western regions of Poland. Through the spring and summer of 1939, Hitler stepped up his demands on the Polish government in Warsaw, and pushed for allowing Germany to reclaim the port city of Danzig (a former German city internationalized by the Treaty of Versailles). Why FDR's Own VP Ran Against Him Hitler and Stalin Rethink their Positions He also knew France and the Soviets had concluded a defense alliance several years earlier–a treaty that gave Stalin an additional reason to fight Germany if it ventured into Poland and triggered France’s pledge. But Hitler already knew the Soviets would not stand by if he tried to occupy Poland–an act that would extend the border of Germany right up to the Soviet Union. The British and French also stepped up diplomatic engagement with the Soviet Union, trying to draw it closer by trade and other agreements to make Hitler see he would also have to face Joseph Stalin if he invaded Poland. To block him, France and Britain pledged on March 31, 1939, to guarantee Poland’s security and independence. (The treaty, which required Germany to make numerous concessions and reparations, was highly unpopular with Hitler and his Nazi Party.) It also seemed that Hitler was planning to strike next against its neighbor Poland. It appeared that he was determined to undo the international order set up by the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-18). In the previous year, Hitler had annexed Austria and had taken the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, his tanks rolled into the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler felt the cigarette was unsuited to the historic occasion and had it airbrushed from the photo when it was published in Germany. The invasion jolted British and French leaders and convinced them that Adolf Hitler, the German chancellor, could not be trusted to honor his agreements and was likely to keep committing aggressions until stopped by force or a massive deterrent.ĭid you know? Hitler disliked the photograph taken when the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was signed in the Kremlin because it showed Stalin with a cigarette in his hand. On March 15, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, breaking the agreement it had signed with Great Britain and France the year before in Munich, Germany. Germany’s Aggression in Europe Stokes Fears of War
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The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union.
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The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. German chancellor Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed. With Europe on the brink of another major war, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving him time to build up the Soviet military. On August 23, 1939–shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years.