Hitler's Bluff: How The Munich Accords Signalled The Start Of WW2 | Impossible Peace | Real History

[Music] two world wars tore the heart out of the 20th century they are a rent in the fabric of History one well before another after between these two tragedies are mere 20 years 20 years of peace that produced War peace that failed impossible [Music] [Music] peace the sad shuttle diplomacy of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain is often used to illustrate the age and the word appeasement to damn it when he arrives in Germany when he arrives in Munich on the third visit again lines and lines of crowds are there to to meet him he's completely treated to these great great crowds of those who see him as as the savior of Peace the British Premier goes straight to the fura house where the faithful conference is to take place he walks up the steps with one ribon trro deep in thought it is 2:00 in the morning and agreement has been reached Hitler sign then the signature of the prime mover in the negotiations the Prime Minister goes on to the document peace is safe Adolf Hitler had got the sedan land and claimed it was the end of his territorial Ambitions but it was not the anos exposed Czechoslovakia the occupation of Czechoslovakia would outflank Poland this was a plan not a random series of grand lassies and if it was a plan what must follow was blindingly obvious except to the [Music] blind appeasement is remembered as the failure of liberal democracy through the incompetence of an old man summed up in a wing collar and a windy Airfield and perhaps it was all of that we regard the agreement signed last night as symbolic of the desire of never to go to war with one another [Applause] again the big newsreal companies were complicit with the policy of appeasement um and presented and projected Chamberlain as the hero of the paace to the Prime Minister the agreement of Munich is only a beginning our words of admiration and thanks are exhausted for the man who averted another [Music] armag 3 weeks prior to traveling to Munich to meet the furer Neville Chamberlain had written that he thought Hitler was half mad so he knew Alfred Hitchcock made a film exactly contemporary with Munich in which some see him signifying his view of appeasement the moment in in the lady vanishes where cesil Parker comes out of the carriage waving his white handkerchief and then being shot by the police which was a film released bang on the time of the Munich crisis and which came a moment which came to be read as a kind of allegory [Music] appeasement many who oppose appeasement were vifer and they were immediate in their criticism a writer named robber Rell was responsible for an article that appeared in the nation on March the 12th 1938 under the title Chamberlin's treason in it Dell excoriated the successful Bluff and blackmail of the fascist powers on the one hand and the incapacity and ponery of the western Democratic powers on the other the writing on the wall is in the wake of the Munich agreement really that that's the point when Hitler doesn't just take a territory that was taken from Germany at the Paris peace conference but in fact starts to Annex things that are beyond what was agreed at the Paris peace conference that's where you know that this man's shopping this just continues and you're on it the argument that Chamberlain bought time is not supported by the [Music] facts Britain grew stronger Germany grew stronger [Music] still the French paraded Chamberlain as M Jean ban Mr I love of Berlin but we should remember when prime minister daladier returned from Munich expecting to be booed for the sellout he was cheered to the [Applause] rafters there's a famous story of him expecting to be lynched because he's sold out to Hitler and instead the crowds are cheering at the airport because he's brought back peace for a few more [Music] months he comes out and he says Le the idiots the reason was simple the world breathes again said the newspaper Paris we can all [Music] live hoping to be the strong leader that he thought the British wanted to stand up to the strong men on the continent Oswald Mosley inveterate party Hopper led the British Union a fact fists Mosley was a notorious philanderer it is said that his private motto combining social conscience with rampant liido had been vote labor sleep [Music] Tory the peace in Germany was shattered less than 2 months after Munich when Hitler Disturbed perhaps by the German people celeb ation of Munich as a guarantee of Peace Unleashed a fearsome pogram November the 10th has come to be known as Crystal KN the violence should not have been revelatory but it was and some in Westminster now saw that more than a power struggle was in play this was a moral struggle no more Munich for me said Lord Halifax Crystal KN made it crystal clear that persecution of the Jews was not off the cuff hooliganism it was an expression of State policy an under reported decree of August the 17th supremely characterizes both the absurdity and cruelty of the race laws from that date all Jewish men were by law to call themselves Israel and all Jewish women to add the name Sarah to their forame why would seem to be the only necessary question the newvs did not really want controversy they did not see that as a part of their job they were covering fashion parades they were covering sporting events they were coverings non-controversial issues but in the week after Crystal Fox movie news and the other news real companies they covered Crystal some in America did follow and respond to events elsewhere was it any wonder that in America the home of Liberty the champions of Freedom should stage one of the most Sensational public protests ever witnessed in the streets of New York after Crystal maack fella laguadia mayor of New York organized a 12 and police detail to guard the German consulate in his City it was made up entirely of Jewish officers under the command of Captain Max [Music] finlin in France the election of Leon Bloom's second popular front produced a government that lasted only 26 days the French need to pull together with the sort of national front government but no one wants to support him apart from the few leftwing people around him the center ignore him the right ignore him and his government is really pillared in extreme anti-semitic terms and and doesn't last very long the world was moving to the right and France moved to Edward theer ringing a final curtain down on the popular front revolution of June 1936 to musolini writing in poo dalala Bloom was one Jew who did not possess the gift of Prophecy melini's regime had never been better than half-hearted on the subject of race but as it co it up to the Reich it became full throated the regime finds that talian soldiers Italian administrators actually rather like beautiful Ethiopian women and are perfectly capable of having relationships with them and musolini reacts personally actually like saying well how do I explain this to the British real Imperial people don't do that sort of thing and so Italy starts bringing in tougher and tougher legislation the publication Manifesto of racial scientists to which Uchi himself contributed contained the statement that the people of Italy are of Aryan origin which must have surprised many Italians and musolini grudgingly by 1938 has to accept that his best chances of success are with going along with this new Force Through the huge crowd mysterious in the low glare of the search lights runs the thrill of race Consciousness as the Latin leader addresses them in their own [Applause] tongue by the time he received the news of Crystal KN mulini had so reinvented his racial policy that he could tell chano he unconditionally approved of Germany's policy towards the Jews legislation was passed mimicking the nurenberg laws the first Clause prohibited the marriage of an Italian citizen of Aryan race to a person belonging to another race Rome is having quite a glut of weddings the latest is that of the's eldest son Victorio Air Force Herer of the Aban war Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations following her invasion of Manchuria she was now embroiled in full scale War in China she faced no sanctions continued to attend International conferences and was until 1938 contributing to League programs military expenditure accounted for 75% of the government's [Music] budget and Japanese ambition s were not about to be curtailed on February the 18th Japanese planes bombed the provincial capital to which Chang Kai shk had withdrawn his [Music] government as well as explosives the aircraft dropped propaganda leaflets including the anti-war or perhaps more accurately pro-fascist speeches of Charles Lindberg thoughtfully translated into Chinese in a world of evil places people ordinary people cannot be blame if they look for escape the comic book really emerges in the United States in the middle late 1930s but we see a transformation in the content from this sort of funny humor strips to the emergence of adventure stories and particularly the superhero the first Superman comics were published in 1938 by 1938 70% of the world's scream time was taken up with American movies in some countries as much as 95% and in America there was not much change from 100% movies were made in Hollywood automobiles were made in Detroit and that was the natural order of things the Journey of jazz from Fringe to Center perhaps climaxed in January 1938 when Benny Goodman played a concert at carigi [Music] Hall Trumpeter Harry James said he felt like a [ __ ] in church [Music] on March the 13th 1938 the day after the anlos CBS inaugurated world news Roundup which rather than relying on The Wire Services featured live broadcasts from European capitals in that broadcast filing from an EDG Vienna that was awaiting Hitler's arrival was the soon to be legendary Edward arm Morrow it was the realtime urgency of this pioneering reporting that Orson Wells would harness and mimic later in the year in 1938 Southern Senators Philly bustered for 6 weeks until on February 21st the bill to which they objected was withdrawn it was an anti- lynching bill I believe in white supremacy declared Louisiana Senator Alan J elander and as long as I am in the Senate I expect to fight for white supremacy the prospect of large numbers of Jewish refugees prompted President Roosevelt to call an International Conference the fight of Jewish children driven from Germany has stirred the sympathy and conscience of the rest of the world for many of these Innocents don't even know the whereabouts of their parents let alone their fate the Evan conference brought 32 Nations to Evian Lear to discuss the problem of what it called involuntary immigration basically the Jewish question Hitler hoped that they would be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical [Music] Aid we on our part he said are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries after a week of conversation the delegates recommended that they should meet at London an intergovernmental committee they formed a committee and that is all they did the great benefit of avier was it allowed more than than 30 Nations to unite in doing nothing which was so much less embarrassing than doing nothing on your own and only a few months of Peace remained on the morning of January the 22nd Republican General Roo told his prime minister that the Barcelona front had ceased to exist prime minister nagrin in response ordered all government departments to abandon the [Music] city 48 hours before the entrance of the enemy wrote General Roo Barcelona was a dead City when the French government opened the border on January 28th 200,000 people crossed thousands of others made their unchecked escape over the [Music] Pyrenees on January the 31st President Roosevelt spoke to Senators who were about to vote on a bill that would authorize the purchase of thousands of aircraft for the Army aircore his topic was how to deal with Hitler and he said there isn't any use calling him a nut because he is a power and we have to recognize [Music] that on February the 27th the British and French governments formerly recognized the Nationalist government in [Music] Burgos on March the 6th what had been the government left Spain aboard three Douglas aircraft [Music] on the 26th the final nationalist Advance began on March the 31st the Nationalist Army reached the last of its objectives when Republican resistance collapsed Franco's supporters in Madrid came out into the open to welcome the conquerors amazing how the extended arm replaced the clenched fist overnight and Pope p i 12th sent a message to Franco giving sincere thanks for the victory of Catholic [Music] Spain giano melini's foreign minister praised a formidable victory for fascism the greatest one so far some 10,000 people were killed executed murdered in the first 5 days following the Nationalist entry into the capital on May the 19th a grand Victory Parade in Madrid trooped along the castellana renamed AA delimo in honor of galimo Francisco Franco edilo The Man HD Wells called a murderous little Christian gentleman the biggest impact for Britain was that Hitler and melini's attempt to expose the limits of appeasement effectively had been successful the balance of power in Europe had actually shifted against Britain and France following Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War President Roosevelt admitted to his cabinet that his Spanish policy had been a mistake and arms should have been supplied to the Republican government to allow Spain to fight for her life and he added prophetically for the lives of some of the rest of us as well as events will like prove they did defeat not victory was shaping Japanese [Music] policy the crushing loss to Zuko's Red Army on the Mongolian border at nahan Japan lost more troops than the Soviets in the ratio of 5 to1 and the Soviet German non-aggression pact signed on August 23rd hugely strengthened the hand of the strike South faction those in the military who believed that Japan's territorial expansion should be South into Asia Pacific rather than North through China when the Japanese sued the USSR for peace following their defeat Stalin said they have understood my language if you look at what Japanese contemporaries were really saying and writing through much of the 30s what really comes out is this sense of vulnerability now we can say that it's an imagined vulnerability it's not necessarily real vulnerability but but to them it is very rare in February 1939 a new commercial treaty bound Germany and Italy together among its Provisions was the transfer of half a million Italian guest workers to the Reich and on May the 22nd Germany and Italy signed The Pact of Steel the Italians signed on the strength of a promise by ribbon trop that the fura wanted peace for 5 years but all of ribbon trop's promises were written on water to boast their sliding self-esteem Italy performed the bully's trick of picking on the feeblest fellow in the room in this case Albania Italy always invades Albania on a religious day they' invaded it on Christmas Day 1914 under the Liberals they come back in on Good Friday 1939 and again establish a curious regime it always seems to me because they don't want to have a final solution to the Alban problem or something or rather they don't want to murder all the albanians They rather want to turn the albanians into an Albanian fascist movement an Italian Destroyer arrives at Duro escorting troop ships taking part in the invasion of Albania these are the first authentic pictures of this world shaking event they depict the scene much as we had imagined it columns penetrating the country from several Landing points it was cowardly meaningless and its clumsiness exposed Italian military might as being in the words of foreign minister chano a tragic Bluff looks as if he's halted the entire column no it's a native giving eggs away that's causing the delay and this is how Italy's gobbling up Albania it was the cost of Italy's Spanish entanglement an unaffordable 8 and A2 billion L 12,000 wounded 157 destroyed tanks and 3,819 dead that was bleeding out the country large amounts of equipment were left behind when the Italians left Spain and it has been calculated by military experts that if Italy had had that equipment when it was at war with the British in North Africa that Italy might well have won on March the 3D Hitler announced that German forces would move to occupy Prague and eliminate the Czech state in 5 days when a fearfully browbeaten Czech president ordered Czech troops not to resist the German Invaders failure to do so ging had told him would mean bombs falling on his historic Capital Hitler announced to his secretaries I will go down as the greatest German in history the furer shouts for Joy noted gal but musolini complained the Italians will laugh at me every time Hitler takes the country he sends me a message he found consolation with his much younger mistress claretta Pachi musolini finds time to ring claretta a dozen times today his record is something like 21 and I do wonder how many other CEOs manag lives like [Applause] [Music] that the Spanish Civil War ended in March 1939 and so did Czechoslovakia the one with the fall of Madrid the other with the predictable German contempt for a small piece of paper hardly anyone watched Hitler's entry into [Music] Prague but thousands cheered his return to [Applause] Berlin with the occupation of the whole of Czechoslovakia Germany acquired a shield and a launching pad which the Germans hoped would put pressure on the still unyielding poles in the matter of Danzig and the Polish Corridor one of the more in kept lines scratched on the map of Europe at Versa the invasion of the whole of Czechoslovakia demolished the policy of appeasement and United a country of previously divided opinion the fate of Czechoslovakia inspires concern among peoples as well as governments and the crowds proceed to the Czech legation to express their sentiments the British people and their politicians at last understood what they were facing on March the 18th the British cabinet formly endorsed the change of [Music] policy on March the 20th according to the minutes Neville Chamberlin told cabinet that the government must be prepared to act not in order to save a particular victim but to pull down the bully and on March the 31st Chamberlain Rose in the house to pledge to Poland all support in Britain's power it was recognized at the time as a significant statement it was as it turned out momentous March 1939 that's when the last radar poll goes up and therefore Britain they hope we'll at least have an advanced notice if anything happens they now have some protection why did Chamberlain abandon Czechoslovakia and 6 months later make a pledge to Poland because in those 6 months Hitler had broken his promise he'd occupied Prague in March and shown himself to be no [Music] gentleman in this climate of fevered uncertainty many nostrums were proposed if only Hitler and musolini could have a good game of bowls once a week in Geneva claimed Captain RG Bristo Member of Parliament I feel that Europe would not be as troubled as it [Music] is the pledge to defend Poland was made in the full knowledge that a parliamentary subcommittee had advised that Great Britain and France could afford them no direct support by sea on land or in the air neither it continued could Great Britain nor France Supply any armaments to Poland so what would the treaty obligations mean the problem was now the Soviet Union felt isolated and threatened and Stalin started to think about the possibility that maybe the main reason behind this appeasement policy actually is to direct Hitler against the Soviet Union for those who could read the clues it had been predictable but London and Paris missed the clues found in Stalin's speech to the party Congress and the replacement in May of Maxim litvinoff as commissioner for foreign affairs litvinoff was Jewish his successor was veslav Molotov whose real name wasn't Molotov which means hammer if the Soviet Union could be brought into an agreement something meaningful might be accomplished but the British were wary and before their mission headed by the impressively named Admiral Sir Reginald Almer ran furly plunket nnel Earl Drax made any sort of progress the rug was comprehensively pulled from under them by the Nazi Soviet non-aggression pact the delegation seemed to the Russians to advertise the British lack of sincerity Chamberlain and dader had gone to Munich but asked Molotov who do we get here and he answered Admiral [Music] nobody F ribon drop leaving Berlin for Moscow ushers in a new incomprehensible chapter in German diplomacy what can Russia have in common with Germany to throw over the Peace front if she [Music] has finally the day came malth and F ribbon Trope got together and the Nazis and Communists signed a pack it was a betrayal by the [Music] Communists at this moment the cost of global entanglement arising from Imperial reach again distracted London although history has all but forgotten the Jensen incident in which a Japanese blockade of British interests in northern China exposed the weakness of [Music] overextension unable to force a backd down the British negotiated compromise skewed in Japan's favor that this could have serious consequences was not imagined by the arch imperialist Winston Churchill it is inconceivable In Our Lifetime and in that of our children that Japan could pose a threat to the security of the British Empire in the East he had stated in [Music] 1925 in 1939 facing Japan F's possible designs on Singapore he added with similar reassurance there will be no attack in any period which our foresight can measure Churchill's error did not arise from strategic ignorance or political naivity it came as did his Relentless opposition to granting India Dominion status from racial Prejudice never shamblin said that debating Churchill was like arguing with a brass band Wars will wash over us said gretag gabbo in 1939's nka bombs will fall but not yet let us be happy she said give us our moment it's very very funny film there's a line where they're talking about when when Aro as the commissar arrives in Paris for the first time and the three commissars meet her how are things in Moscow very good the last Mass trials were a great success there are going to be fewer but better Russians which is a terrific line but actually you know if you know what happened in the show trials which they didn't to be fair in in Hollywood in 1939 it's not at all funny what was motivating the terror in the Soviet Union is more more difficult to [Music] classify at the beginning of 1939 the Soviet Census Bureau reported that 17 million people were missing then the census takers were shot by 1939 the gulag was the largest employer in Europe and contained up to 10% of the Soviet [Music] population they had an average life expectancy of one [Music] winter when Stalin treated with the Enemy he explained the non-aggression pack to the Army in a document headed what has comrade Stalin done the reason was illustrated by drawings of two triangles in one the bases were labeled Berlin and Moscow in the other Berlin and London what comrade Stalin's sophistry had done was Elevate Moscow above the coming battle the opportunity had existed to encircle Germany but it had been fatally missed on September the 7th Darlin said he would have preferred an agreement with the so-called Democratic countries but instead he signed the non-aggression packed with the [Applause] [Music] Reich the normally Abus Hitler when he received confirmation of the signing allowed himself a glass of champagne and now Europe is mine he said the others can have [Music] Asia British outrage over the non-aggression pact conveniently forgot that to Stalin Chamberlain's Munich piece of paper was a non-aggression pact seeming to license Germany to go East article one of the German Soviet non-aggression pack reads both High Contracting parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence any aggressive action and any attack on each other Article 2 of The Secret additional protocol added agreement on what would happen in the event of a Territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish [Music] state and then on September the 1st having fabricated a fical pretext 1 and A2 million German soldiers in 67 divisions with air and nabal support invaded Poland destruction from the sky hit far and wide railroad centers bombed like that one polish Communications were swiftly disrupted by the air [Music] raing German troops had occupied the ryeland forced the incorporation of Austria into the Reich and invaded Czechoslovakia but not until they invaded Poland were they required to fire a shot on the 17th as foreshadowed in the secret protocols Soviet troops invaded from the East and Poland was in Michael burley's phrase crucified between two thieves at the front Germans and Russians meet Poland defeated the Soviets push in to seize a share and there's a proclamation the Nazi communist arrangement of such fateful meaning the existence of a Nation signed [Music] away and so it was that Adolf Hitler the political genius LED his country into a war years earlier than he intended against the vast British Empire that he had tried so hard to befriend and in Alliance with the Soviet Union which he had for years demonized as the great threat to civilization a flawed genius [Music] then the crisis moves on to its climax Germany has attacked Poland and and Parliament meets again if German troops are not withdrawn from Poland Britain goes to her Aid with all the resources at her command ultimatums following Germany's move were issued and ignored on the third the war in a strange way to the relief of many who could now exhale was declared and unlike the first world war no one thought it would be over by Christmas War then and at that moment the day-to-day reality of 500 million people was irreversibly altered it's tempting to say where did it go wrong could democracy have survived uh I think under the conditions in which they were operating persistent economic crisis and poverty um constant threats of one kind or another external threats of one kind or another deep political and ideological divisions within those countries it's very difficult to see how you could have produced a functioning Democratic continent in the 1920s and 30s everything I have worked for everything I have hoped for everything that I have believed in during my public life has crashed in Ruins Neville jaman told the House of Commons [Music] millions of others like me said the narrator of George Orwell's 1939 novel coming up for air I've got a feeling that the world's gone wrong the Europe that took up arms was a very different place to the Europe of 20 years earlier by 1939 11 European countries from Iceland through to Scandinavia to Britain and France were democracies 16 were under some form of repressive authoritarian rule the League of Nations remained in existence throughout but its Fate In memory was sealed as the Talking Shop that had failed to prevent War the the league in the first 10 years of its life up to 1930 up to the early 1930s was a hugely successful organization it promotes ideas of international labor cooperation it promotes the idea that women have rights independent of a nation state they also promote the idea that children have rights it settled 60 disputes on two occasions when States had gone to war it was enough for the league to tell states to stop fighting you've got free trade you've got Democratic elections spreading across large parts of the world you got the League of Nations which yes we know the script it was a big failure well it didn't look like this in the 1920s it was an extraordinary experiment and people had invested a lot of hopes into it the League of Nations is really the world's first intergovernmental financial and economic Arrangement the league has been unfairly tainted because it's a associated with the failure of its member states what the league could do depended on its member states so I think it was a very remarkable organization great [Music] experiment talk had failed goodwi had failed political will had failed the peace was lost and a world of dislocation dictatorship and genocide was born observers have ransacked the 1930s for lessons about statecraft ever since it had been according to the surrealist poet David gascoin writing on New Year's Eve 1939 a decade of free Flags flagrantly torn down by order of maab puppet orators the blind leading the blind unfolded in the Devil's Den strangely sadly and rather foolishly wrote journalist Malcolm muggeridge the 30s Drew to a [Applause] close there is a word for the overlapping of things the tiles on a roof the scales on a fish the word is imbrication this has been a story about imation the overlapping of things political social economic military cultural casual serious and profane at the heart of the story but not all of the story is what the poet TS Elliot called the immense Panorama of futility and Anarchy that is contemporary history the 20s went sour when in a flurry they broke every promise and smashed every [Music] dream new promises and new dreams were supplied but in 1939 the clever hope expire wrote wh Jordon of a low dishonest decade at Versailles woodro Wilson had defined the intent of the peacemakers as being to make the world safe for democracy a decade later facing the rise of dictators and the success of demagogues British prime minister Stanley borin wondered whether the task might not be to make democracy safe for the world the obvious effect of propaganda and big parades prompted his fellow Tory AR Butler then a junior minister to say that good government flourishes in the dark but those days had gone the second world war was not a continuation of the first in the sense of aims objectives alliances or cheerleaders viline Germany was not the Third Reich the USSR was not zaris Russia both Italy and Japan had chain sides where the ones side the other wasin the empty vaults of national treasuries the prospects of Peace were throughout the 20s and 30s persisted ly undercut by the cost of the Great War by debt deflation and inflation that tried to pay the debt Max warberg a director of the rice bank and so one responsible for the Reckless printing of money was among those who saw the choice as being whether one wished to stop the inflation and Trigger the revolution he and his colleagues decided that inflation was the Lesser evil but it was not the chance to make a decent place out of the great War's bloody mess had come and it had gone and soon the chance would come again to build up out of an even bigger mess but that's not this story this story about a piece that proved impossible began when the guns fell silent it ends as they Roar back into life not a happy [Music] [Applause] [Applause] ending [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Real History

Views: 29,936

Keywords: 20th Century History, British History, Dictatorship, Dictatorship in Germany, European History, Global Conflict, Military Alliances, Military History, Munich Agreement, Nationalism in Europe, Nazi Germany, Nazi Regime, Political History, Post-WWI Era, Pre-World War II, Real History, Reichstag Fire, WW2 History, War History, War Planning, World War 2

Id: fwrUxMIM47E

Length: 50min 26sec (3026 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024