Leningrad, Stalingrad, Warsaw, Hiroshima, Dresden, 

By Kenneth T. Jackson, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, adapted by Newsela staff on 

01.03.17 

Word Count 1,046 

Level 1230L

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 

Nagasaki, Cologne and dozens of other great cities had been obliterated. And population centers 

that had mostly avoided the worst of the death and destruction continued to see poverty and 

hunger linger for years after the surrender documents had been signed.

into Poland. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, and within a 

matter of weeks the Soviet Union, which had recently signed a nonaggression treaty with Hitler, 

attacked Poland from the east. World War II had begun. 

made astonishing gains in the years before Japan's 

attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

in the morning of May 10, 1940, Hitler launched a 

blitzkrieg, or lightning war, against France, whose army had previously been considered the finest 

in the world

essentially all of western Europe was under the control of Nazi Germany. 

staged a massive rally celebrating the German armed forces. This is clearly in 

violation of The Treaty of Versailles.  

Allied forces do nothing, however, France were angry at Britain for yet again 

allowing Germany to disobey the Treaty of Versailles.

Britain's. This breaks the Military clause from the Treaty of Versailles: "Germany 

was allowed only 6 capital naval ships". 

Britain attempts to appease Germany by increasing their security.

Germany and France. This had been declared a demilitarized zone under the 

Treaty of Versailles; and later confirmed in the Locarno Treaty this was a very risky 

move by Hitler as it might have led to a war with France. 

However, France would not take action without British support and the British 

refused to go to war over the incident, declaring that "Germany was only marching 

into its own back yard”. As well as this League of Nations attention was divided 

between the Abyssinian crisis and Hitler’s move. In the end the League 

condemned Hitler’s actions, but had no power to do anything else 

Hitler had met the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, in order to demand 

concessions for the Austrian Nazi Party. Schuschnigg refused and was replaced by 

Arthur Seyss-Inquart, leader of the Austrian Nazis. On 13th March, Seyss-Inquart 

invited German forces to occupy Austria. 

Britain and France did protest Hitler’s expansion but didn’t take action. Despite 

this Chamberlain thought that Austria and Germany had the right to be united and 

the Treaty of Versailles was wrong to separate them.

contained lots of raw resources he could use to gain autarky and because the 

Sudetenland had excellent natural defences. Hitler annexed the Sudetenland by 

creating propaganda and riots to agitate the workers from the Sudetenland at how 

they were being treated and He manipulated Chamberlain and into allowing the 

Sudetenland.  

The French public reacted badly to the Sudetenland crisis saying it was a 

“shameful necessity”. Chamberlain thought that Hitler’s demands were 

unreasonable.