scholarly journals The The War Guilt Clause and the Rise of Adolf Hitler

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-44
Author(s):  
Stella Zhu

After the fall of Nazi Germany during World War II, the allied powers issued harsh reparation payments that burdened the German economy and humiliated the Germans. Most importantly, the War Guilt Clause led Germany into an economic and social turmoil, which in turn paved the path for the rise of radical extremists like Adolf Hitler.

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Spoerer ◽  
Jochen Fleischhacker

When Germany and Austria discussed the matter of compensating former forced laborers in the German economy during World War II, it became clear that no definitive estimate of how many were still alive was available. Combining Nazi statistics with postwar demographic data for twenty countries reveals that the number of foreigners deployed in the German economy totaled around 13.5 million, of whom approximately 11 million survived the war. Fifty-five years later, about 2.7 million were still alive. This calculation of forced laborers within Germany may well become more precise as scholars compile more and better data, perhaps eventually to be supplemented with statistics about forced laborers outside Germany's borders as well. Nonetheless, the evidence at hand reveals that Nazi Germany's forced-labor program was the largest and most brutal that Europe had seen since at least the Middle Ages.


Author(s):  
Xavier Heckert

Pervitin is a drug developed in Nazi Germany by the pharmaceutical company Temmler, before the start of World War II. Originally sold without prescription to the population, it was claimed to suppress fatigue, make one more alert, reduce hunger, and help fight depression. The main ingredient of this wonder drug was methamphetamine, the primary component of what we now call crystal meth. This miracle drug’s effectiveness against fatigue caught the attention of the director of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology of the German forces, Dr. Otto Ranke, who considered that fatigue was enemy number one of a soldier during battle. An order of thirty five million Pervitin tablets were purchased for the Wehrmacht’s invasion of France in May 1940 to increase effectivity of the campaign that relied especially on speed for success. History will claim that the use of mobile warfare over positional warfare with Germany’s motorized army, French high command mistakes, and an equipment disadvantage led to the ultimate defeat. My research aims to show that Pervitin was a crucial factor in the iron force of the blitzkrieg by the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and that it did not as much come from its tactics, inferiority of the Allies, and employment of mobile warfare but from an army that was blitzed on Pervitin to turn it into a steamroller of a machine that could not be stopped, day or night.


Author(s):  
Tat’yana K. Shcheglova ◽  
Aleksey V Rykov

The war between Nazi Germany and the USSR caused drastic changes in the Soviet system of distribution of goods. Reorientation of factories on military contracts led to diminishing of the centralised production of goods for consumers in rear areas. As a result, consumers cooperative society started to play an important role. The article considers the problems of consumers cooperative society and local enterprises which were its major suppliers. Through the example of pottery and manufacture of wooden sole boots diffi culties of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war are revealed. The problems of interaction of local enterprises and consumers cooperative society are considered. In conclusion, the author points out that the major problem of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war was the shortage of raw materials and the signifi cant factor of development was hand-crafted character of anufacturing. A certain problem was created by the reluctance of enterprises to deliver their production at artifi cially low state prices and its poor quality. The consequence of that was the decrease of signifi cance of consumers cooperative society and the increase of the ratio of market trade in provisioning of collective farm peasantry.


Author(s):  
Klaus J. Arnold ◽  
Eve M. Duffy

In this introductory chapter, the author narrates how he searched for his missing father, Konrad Jarausch, who had died in the USSR in January 1942. After providing a background on Jarausch's nationalism and involvement in Protestant pedagogy, the chapter discusses his experiences during World War II. It then explains how Jarausch grew increasingly critical of the Nazis after witnessing the mass deaths of Russian prisoners of war. It also considers how the author, and his family, tried to keep the memory of his father alive. The author concludes by reflecting on his father's troubled legacy and how his search for his father poses the general question of complicity with Nazism and the Third Reich on a more personal level, asking why a decent and educated Protestant would follow Adolf Hitler and support the war until he himself, his family, and the country were swallowed up by it.


Author(s):  
Ilka Quindeau ◽  
Katrin Einert ◽  
Nadine Teuber
Keyword(s):  

Arthur Szyk ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Ansell
Keyword(s):  

This chapter examines Arthur Szyk's career as a political caricaturist during World War II. In less than four months, since the September 1939 German invasion of Poland, Szyk had created a significant number of images directed against the Nazi aggressors. The range of subjects treated in these works is broad. There are the expected caricatures of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders, ridiculing them and indicting their ideas and actions. Others depict Nazi ‘types’, anonymous members of the Schutzstaffel (SS) or the war staff; they are shown as brutal and unthinking, with an air of superiority that is patently false and hollow. These images express the trenchant political invective associated with caricature. Yet there is another group of works which, although in the same style as the caricatures, might best be described as political drawings. This significant portion of Szyk's images concentrates on Polish citizens and their struggle to survive.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah

Sweden maintained a policy of uneven neutrality throughout World War II. While the Swedish government initially maintained a strict anti-immigrant policy, attitudes changed once World War II began. When Swedish authorities learned in 1942 that the Germans sought to deport Jews from Denmark and Norway, they aided in the rescue of thousands of Jews from the two neighboring countries. Throughout the war, Sweden maintained diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany. The Nazis sought to have Aryanization policy carried out in Sweden with respect to German-controlled companies operating in Sweden and also for Swedish companies with links to Germany. In the end, however, efforts to Aryanize property in Sweden were not very effective and did not have a major impact on the economic well-being of Swedish Jews. Sweden endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah

Germany invaded France in 1940. A month later the countries entered into an agreement, by which 80 percent of France was occupied by Nazi Germany. Competing property expropriation laws were enacted in both Occupied and Unoccupied (Vichy) France. More than 20 percent of France’s Jewish population was killed during World War II. Restitution and reparations measures—particularly with respect to private and heirless property—took place in two phases. The first occurred in the immediate postwar years and ended around 1954, and the second commenced in the late 1990s and early 2000s and is ongoing. In the late 1990s, a government commission (Matteoli Commission) was established to examine the conditions under which property was confiscated by the occupying or Vichy regimes. A compensation commission (Drai Commission) was subsequently established to provide payment to those not previously compensated for damages resulting from legislation passed either by the occupying or Vichy regimes. France endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Bazyler ◽  
Kathryn Lee Boyd ◽  
Kristen L. Nelson ◽  
Rajika L. Shah

Albania was occupied by Fascist Italy and then Nazi Germany during World War II. Albania’s occupation experience was unique among all Axis-occupied countries. Despite Nazi Germany’s attempt to carry out the genocide of the Jews (the so-called Final Solution), Albanians resisted. Albania was the only Nazi-occupied country where the Jewish population increased after the war. Post-Communist Albania has not enacted any laws for restitution of Holocaust-era confiscated immovable property. Post-Communist restitution laws dealing with return or compensation for property nationalized during the Communist period apply equally to all citizens. Albania endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 and the Guidelines and Best Practices in 2010.


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