The Rest Is History
528. The Nazis' Road to War: Hitler Prepares to Strike (Part 1)
Mon, 06 Jan 2025
Throughout the course of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party has overwhelmingly, terrifyingly seized power in Germany. Now, Hitler’s vile ambitions have turned to Czechoslovakia. On the 12th of September 1938 at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, he rabidly defended the supposed interests of the German speaking minority in Czechoslovakia, claiming that they had been ravaged and tortured by their cruel Czech overlords, but not so. In reality, Hitler is preparing the ground for the invasion and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia - what he sees as a crucial step towards the creation of a new German dominion in central and eastern Europe. In so doing, he is setting Europe upon the road to an increasingly imminent Second World War. With Nazism driven above all by the shattering experience of the First World War, a hunger for war burns at the very centre of the Nazi’s ambitions. For Hitler, it is personal - the German economy is in meltdown and with it, his frayed mental and physical state. Was it possible, then, that at this crucial juncture in 1938, the outcome of war could be prevented? Certainly, Britain’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, was determined to make it so… Join Tom and Dominic for the opening episode in their next series on the Nazis’ road to the Second World War. With European politics in turmoil, Adolf Hitler hungry for war, and Neville Chamberlain desperate to appease him, will there be peace in our time? At Munich, one of the most controversial diplomatic instances in history, the fate of the world will be decided. ______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Editor: Jack Meek Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What did Hitler say about Czechoslovakia?
And so the window of opportunity, as they see it, is beginning to close. And at the end of 1937, Hitler told his bigwigs, look, we've probably got about seven years to do this. So I think we should be looking to fight a European war by 1943 to 1945.
And a European war would include taking on Britain and France and attacking the Soviet Union. So, I mean, basically taking on everyone. I mean, what are his plans at that point?
At this point, I think it's possible that in Hitler's dream scenario, he doesn't fight Britain. I think he probably thinks he'll always have to fight France, but he thinks the French can easily be beaten. Of course, he's not entirely wrong. So he'll leave Britain to its empire. Yes, because he's making off, as we would discover in this series, he's making offers to Britain to stay out of the war.
until the very last possible minute. He's spending much more effort on Britain than he is on France. So some of his generals were always anxious about this. They'd liked the idea of fighting small Central European countries. They'd never liked the idea of fighting Britain and France. But by 1938, Hitler is being encouraged in this aim by a terrible man, another terrible man.
This guy is the ultimate kind of war hawk, and he is the new foreign minister. And this is Joachim von Ribbentrop, who will be featuring a lot in this series. So if you see photographs of Ribbentrop, Ribbentrop looks kind of quite suave, doesn't he? And quite dapper, which was not his reputation in Britain, where people said he was always wearing inappropriate trousers or something like that.
Yes. And he's very rude to tailors in Britain. So he'll summon them to come and, you know, measure him and then he won't turn up. So his name is Mudd. His name is Mudd on Savile Row.
Well, I mean, we take Savile Row very seriously. We do.
So that's very poor. And also the other thing, his name is Mudd in the Church of England because he gives a Nazi salute in Durham Cathedral.
Really?
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