December 7, 1941 is the day the attack on Pearl Harbor took place. A day later The United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan. World War two now had its two largest combatants fully engaged. The war would intensify as man’s inhumanity to man scaled new and scientific heights.
The United States had been assisting its old allies Britain and France with weapons and funds since the beginning of the war in 1939. So soon after the end of the Great War (914-1918), Britain was ill equipped to wage another campaign. The U.S. had declared itself neutral and Adolph Hitler had stated on several occasions he had no desire to go to war with the United States.
Less than half an hour after FDR finished his speech and he request for a declaration of war, Congress passed a resolution to enter a state of war with Japan. The vote was unanimous. A similar vote in the house had only one vote against. Before lunch on December 8, 1941 America was at war.
Many historians have often asked the question of whether or not World War II could have been avoided. Some scholars of military history point to the British led policy of appeasement that existed just before the war and culminated with the Munich Agreement on September 29, 1938, as one way in which the allies failed to realize the threat of Hitler’s regime.
Europe in the aftermath of the First World War was a place full of debt, indignation and upset. Many felt Germany had unfairly taken the blame for a global war; other countries were bankrupt having put everything into the four year war that had killed millions and millions of soldiers and civilians. Many countries, their leaders and their people were sick and tired of violence and death and wanted anything but more war.
Germany for its part was living under the economic pressures of paying for a war they did not start and frustrated at the outcome of the Versailles Treaty which included the payment of reparations, the demilitarization of the Rhineland and the clause that Germany could not build up her army for the foreseeable future.
Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and immediately set about reversing all the conditions of the Versailles Treaty. Neighboring nations complained but did not take military action against Hitler when he began to build the new German, remilitarize the Rhineland or even annex Austria (Anschluss) in March of 1938.
Every time the powers in Europe drew the line and told Hitler not to cross he ignored them and they ended up drawing a new line. This police became known as “appeasement” and was a way a continent financially weak and morally exhausted could avoid war. And anyway, Hitler promised he would not attack, invade or occupy any other countries. He wrote a friendly note to then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assuring him of his good intentions.
On September 29, 1938, Hitler met with British leader Neville Chamberlain and French leader Edouard Daladier. The meeting was mediated by Italian leader Benito Mussolini and ended in an agreement which Hitler drafted and the other leaders simply agreed to. The treaty stated that the German people of Czechoslovakia in an area known as the Sudetenland would be annexed to Germany in stages during October of the same year. This was in line with Hitler’s policy of Lebensraum and uniting all German peoples every where.
The treaty stated that Czechoslovakia would hand the land over to Hitler despite the fact that the Czech leader was not invited to the discussion and treaty signing but was told of their responsibilities by their allies. The land exchange would occur with Czechoslovakia’s help or they alone would be left to fight Hitler. They had little choice.
| Six months after the signing of the Munich Agreement, Hitler had taken the Sudetenland and divided Czechoslovakia between Germany, Poland and Hungary. The country had no strength to fight and within a year, Europe was at war once again. The Munich Agreement was the last stance in a failed appeasement policy and the nations of Europe would take six years to get Hitler’s Germany under control. |
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There are few dates in recent human history that cause more of an emotional stir in historians than that of September 1, 1939. On this day, Adolph Hitler, then chancellor of Germany declared to his parliament (Reichstag) that enough was enough that Danzig in Poland was a German city full of German people and should be taken back. The culmination of the Nazi ideology of “Lebensraum,” in which all lands currently or formerly belonging to Germany should be returned to Germany and inhabited by German people, would soon signal the death of millions of Jews, Russians, homosexuals, gypsies, agitators, allies and non combatants.
Adolph Hitler fought in World War I and like many Germans felt that the treaty of Versailles was a slap in the face to the German nation making them wholly responsible for a war that involved many nations that came into conflict because of the multitudinous pacts that punctuated European politics.
German troops marched into Danzig to reclaim the city and the Danzig Corridor on September 1 by force. It was not the first act by Germany in regards to nullifying the Versailles Treaty but it would become the most significant. The invasion of Poland was a direct result with Hitler’s Non Aggression Pact with Russia and the secret plan for the two nations to invade Poland and divide her up between the to powers. Because of a pact Britain and France had with Poland, they were forced to declare war on Germany on September 3 and just like the First World War, nation after nation followed suit until the disastrous global conflict was played out once again, only this time religion and ethnic persecution would play a large and deadly role. 
It was the boxing match of the decade, perhaps even the century. In the summer of 1938, it was a symbol of freedom versus dictatorship. The heavyweight championship of boxing was held at Yankee stadium and was the second meeting for the two pugilists. African American Joe Louis and Caucasian German Max Schmeling faced off in front of a crowd of 70,000 with many more listening on the radio. In fact, the famous fight drew the largest radio audience in history at that time. 
But of course, it was far from wonderful in Nazi Germany for a large minority population. Since Hitler’s rise to power German Jews had felt the full weight of economic discrimination and social isolation. In the five years before the famous match in New York, and just one year before the outbreak of World War II, ghettos, restrictive laws, concentration camps, secret arrests and disappearances was commonplace in the German Jewish community. American Jews were well aware of the racism that was spreading like a virus across Europe.
70 million tuned in to hear the blow by blow account of the short match consisting of a single round that lasted only two minutes and four seconds. Because Joe Louis had wanted revenge and he got it. The pounding began almost immediately after the starting bell rang. Perhaps Joe was remembering everything Schmeling had said about him after that first meeting. Calling him amateur in his style and mocking his inexperience, Schmeling was unprepared for the man he met in the ring on June 22, 1938. 
The fight was quick because Louis didn’t give Schmeling the chance. Americans both black and white, Jewish and non Jewish cheered Louis on as he struck the German with blow after powerful blow. Each time Schmeling tried to get back up, Louis knocked him down again and the crowd cheered for an American hero as they booed and hissed at the German. The fight was a distraction from the heavy burden of the depression and a focus for the growing resentment against Nazi Germany. And Joe Louis did his job well, forcing Schmeling into a knock out count situation he couldn’t return from. The referee reached “10,” the fight was over and the crowd roared in the stadium and across the land. 
By May of 1937, planes, trains and automobiles were an integral part of modern life. Transatlantic communication was well on its way to becoming the global streamlined system it is today. People crossed the world’s oceans quite regularly. There were a few misadventures along the way, the worst of which would take the lives of 35 people in a matter of seconds. The Hindenburg disaster remains one of the most shocking and spellbinding pieces of film footage in media history. 
The Hindenburg was named for the former president of the Weimar republic, Paul Von Hindenburg. Considered a national hero, President Hindenburg passed away in 1934, never knowing the grisly outcome of his namesake. It was Hindenburg who appointed Hitler to the position of chancellor; a position that would act as springboard towards his ambitions as fuehrer. Hindenburg is thus associated with two disasters: the rise of Hitler and the downfall of transatlantic airships. 
Having thwarted the efforts of an earlier thunderstorm, the Hindenburg was slowly making its way in to land. 200 hundred feet above ground, and just as the first tie line descended, an ominous orange glow became visible. The massive gas filled balloon was about to burst. There were 91 people on board. 33 lost their lives jumping to the ground to avoid the flames. Another two were ravaged by flames. 
The radio broadcast that is most famed by the Hindenburg disaster (with the famously haunting “oh the humanity!” cry from eye witness journalist, Herbert Morrison) was actually the first national coast to coast broadcast in the country. What was meant to be a shining day for the developing media/movie industry became a thunderous marker of what happens when dreams are marred by fate. 
