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Danzig
a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (today Gdańsk) and surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Part III, Section XI of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, without a referendum. -
Poland, Britain, France
One of Adolf Hitler's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power was to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland in January 1934. This move was not popular with many Germans who supported Hitler but resented the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces of West Prussia, Poznan, and Upper Silesia under the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. However, Hitler sought the nonaggression pact in order to neutralize the possibility of a French-Polish military alliance -
Hitler and the Treaty of Versailels
Hitler tests strength of Treaty of Versailles. Calls in British newspaper man Ward Price and tells him that Germany now has a military Air Force. No reaction from Britain. They intend to continue their peace movement with Germany. -
Anschluss
Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich on 12 March 1938. There had been several years of pressure by supporters in both Austria and Germany (by both Nazis and non-Nazis) for the "Heim ins Reich" movement -
Munich Conference
The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's areas along the country's borders mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany -
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Czechoslovakia
was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until its peaceful dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.
From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not in fact exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. In 1945, the eastern part of Carpathian Ruthenia was taken over by the Soviet Union. -
Nazi Soviet Pact
On August 23, 1939, representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. By signing this pact, Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II -
Poland Falls
One of the main concerns of those in charge, other than whether a mechanised attack would work, was that the German army was attacking in the north and south of Poland – but with very little in the middle to oppose any Polish counter-attack. There was a 185 mile gap between the German VIII Army based in the south in Silesia and the German IV Army in the north based in Pomerania. Between the two was Poland’s Poznan Army and for a while it posed a theoretical threat to the Wehrmacht with the poten -
Iron ore supplies
The French, feeling secure behind their Maginot Line, were ready to fight World War I all over again - a war of defense. Hitler had other ideas. In order to isolate the iron ore resources of Sweden, and secure his northern flank, Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark on April 9.
