Whom do you blame for World War II?

Question

The answer may be Hitler and none other than Hitler. But wasn't the 1919 Versiles Treaty was responsible for it? It was the treaty which imposed the entire responsibility of WW-I on German people, isolated Germany and imposed heavy penalty on German people whereas it was, in fact, Kaiser Wilhem-II is alone responsible for WW-I. Isn't it a fact that Versiles Treaty was unjust and it provoked Hitler and his therory of Supremacy of German Tutonic Race, became so popular? Had the Treaty not been so unjust, Hitler wouldn't have become the Fuhrer of Germany and he wouldn't hve been able unleash the cruelty on people.

Answer 1

1 - Adolf
2 - Neville Chamberlain. He did not stop Hitler when he could. He allowed Hitler to seize Czechoslovakia, perhaps thinking that Hitler would stop there
3 - Daladier. Accomplice of Chamberlain.
According to Goring, after the Munich meeting had finished, Hitler said, about Chamberlain and Daladier:
"It is terrible. They are useless !"

Answer 2

The end of World War l made World War l l possible. If the victors had not punished the losers the economy and general ill feelings would not have allowed for the cultivation of the Fascists.

Kaiser Wilhelm is not alone responsible for the first war. There were many treaties that caused the other countries to be sucked into a conflict that no one wanted.

Hilter's theories had nothing to do with his popularity, except he used the Jews as a scapegoat for their problems, and claimed the Jews betrayed the Germans since none of the battles took place on their soil but the army surrendered, which is why the Allies insisted on unconditional surrender in the second war.

Answer 3

Personally, I think the first part of the blame goes to the French. They were vicious and callous in their demands when drafting the Versaille treaty. The expected exorbitant reparations from Germany which crippled the German economy. These economic conditions, and the German government's poor handling of it led to the perfect social and economic environment for Hitler to rise to power. But ultimately the bulk of the blame still has to be dumped on Adolf and his fellow Nazis. If Hitler had died in 1939, or never invaded Poland at least, he'd probably be remembered as one of Germany's greatest leaders. But once he started on his plan of conquest it was all down hill.

Answer 4

A number of things/people: the Versailles Treaty, Hitler, expansionist Imperial Japan, etc.

Answer 5

You answer you question very well yourself. I can offer no additional information to better answer than you have already. BUT, when you start going further and further back you get a lot of different peices needing each other to happen. Had the treaty not been so unjust then hitler wouldnet have come up yada yada yada. If Hitlers mum hugged him more or he had met a really nice Jewish girl in High school i think things would heve been different.
Your answer covers it from a strictly historic,theoratical standpoint.

Answer 6

I blame the human race. Nobody had to follow Hitler. People have choices. My grandfather owned a vineyard in the Rhine Valley of Germany. It had been in the family for generations and generations. The Nazis came one day to take his oldest 8 year old son, who was mentally handicapped, and take him to a facility to 'Cure' him. 6 months later they received a telegram telling him that his son had died. They didn't even tell him where, and to this day no one knows if he was buried or gassed in experiments. 3 months after that, the Nazis came and Levi, the jewish owner of the winery next to his and his family was rounded up and their possessions taken. He had known Levi all of his life, was at his wedding, they were good friends and on that day they came to my grandfather and told him that he would be expected to report for duty.
Instead he went to the local Nazi authority and offered them his vineyard and possessions in return he wanted to leave the country. They agreed and with the clothes on their backs and money for passage and a few prized possessions he took his wife and 3 kids to Canada, where he started over. Some really good wines come out of that vineyard still today.
But my grandfather had no regrets, ever. He choose not to follow the nazi party, not to kill innocent people and was shameful of his homeland. People had choices, they could have revolted, but like sheep they followed. Many liked the new life the Nazi's offered and gave, many served and killed gypsy's, homosexuals, artists, priests, doctors, mentally ill, handicapped and the jewish people. And the world did not learn and it still goes on today.

Answer 7

~WWII was essentially a continuation and completion of WWI. Versailles insured that it would happen, and helped bring about the Great Depression, which in turn helped Adolf Hitler come to power. However, once Hitler became Chancellor, and then Fuhrer, nothing could have stopped the War.

Remember that Stalin and Hitler were allies when they invaded Poland together in '39. At the same time, each knew the other was a natural and fatal enemy to the other (Marxist Communism vs. National Socialism, coupled with proximity to the Ukrainian wheat, among other things.) Even as they cut up Poland together, their respective General Staffs were planning the mutual invasions, one of the other. Himmler, Heydrich and Goebbels brilliantly executed a plan whereby Stalin was convinced his generals were plotting a coup. The result was Stalin's purge, which delayed the Soviet invasion of Germany and thus, Operation Barbarossa came first. Regardless of who throw the first punch, the rest of Europe was going to be drawn into the fray. By '39, at least 6 other nations had been invaded and or conquered by either the Soviets or the Germans and the guns were being oiled all across the continent.

But you neglect the Pacific theater. The Second Sino-Japanese war was already a couple years old by the time the tanks rolled into Poland. Japan had some strange notion that it wanted to become an equal partner on the world stage, wanted to industrialize, wanted to feed her people and wanted to be able to protect herself. China was China. When the British and American trade and armament restrictions were designed to relegate Japan to the ranks of a second rate or third world nation, the Japanese took offense. It was only a matter of time before Japan expanded the Chinese theater to include portions of the imperialist empire of Great Britain in the east. (What was good for the British goose was not good for the Japanese gander after all). Once the Brits were officially in a shooting war, the US had to follow.

The Japanese knew the US would soon be fighting officially. (The British and Americans and Soviets and Germans were already sending unofficial troops (Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, for instance) to assist the Chinese and each was supporting the Chinese financially as well as with supplies, materials and arms. Germany switched sides after a while and signed the Tripartite Pact with Italy and Japan in September, 1940.

Duh, Japan didn't know all of this and get just a little peeved, ya think? The preemptive strike on Pearl Harbor so vociferously condemned by FDR was nothing more, nothing less than what recently happened to Iraq and Afghanistan. That an attack was coming was a given. The only unknowns (maybe) were the date, time and place. The only reason the attack came before the declaration of war was a problem at the embassy in decoding and translating the message in time.

Blaming Kaiser Bill for WWI, exclusively, goes beyond idiotic. You need to hit the books on that one: this is already way too long. Hitler did not espouse the superiority of Teutons (there were too many of them and he certainly was not going to ally himself with his Teutonic Irish, French, Scandinavian, Russian, Dutch, Spanish and (a majority at least) American cousins, although he did align with the Italians (also of Teutonic origin) He did believe the Germans were the most pure of the Aryans after the migration from Persia.

Yes, the Treaty and the consequences of it helped Hitler greatly but his ideas were not unique and they were shared by many. The political party he helped organize, combined with his personal charisma and his independent "army" may have been sufficient to achieve the same result without Versailles and without the depression. Europe, especially France, had a long-standing fear and jealousy of Germany and even before WWI the rest of Europe was trying to restrain and diminish German growth and expansion. Hitler surrounded himself with able deputies. He was not insane. He was an astute politician, a more than competent administrator and he accomplished a great deal of good for his country. He was not a bad military strategist (he opposed Kursk, for example but acquiesced to his generals and let that doomed and inane offensive to go forward. (The end of the war was essentially written at Stalingrad in any case, and it was Hitler's generals who underestimated Soviet ability, weaponry, resolve and capability in that fiasco, not Hitler. Don't kid yourself - the Russian Winter did not beat the Germans, logistics and the Soviets did. They were winning before the first snow fell.)

Time Magazine named Hitler Man of the Year, 1938, for a reason. His downside far outweighs his upside, of course, but understand the complete man. And as for his ruthlessness and barbarism, most credit for the Final Solution goes to Himmler, Heydich and Goering as to implementation, operation and design (and the Jews were a minority of those scheduled to be exterminated and they were a minority of the total who died in the extermination and death camps - and a minority of the Jews who died did so in the death camps, where they had significant non-Jewish company (possibly as many as 25%)). This is not to say Hitler was unaware or uninvolved. The whole world was aware of the concentration camps as soon as Dachau opened in 1933 and of the death camps shortly after Chelmno opened in 1941. But for the results of the Evian Conference in 1938 and what Roosevelt and Churchill did and did not do there, the Nazis may not have had the guts to go forward with operation 14f13. The was no outcry at Evian and there was no outcry in London or Washington when the first confirmed execution pictures and first hand reports arrived there in 1941. Spread the blame - there is a lot to go around and plenty of places to put it.

Answer 8

The treaty propelled guys like Hitler to sway the masses, so yeah, you could say the treaty can be blamed, however you can say Hitler's mom can be blamed too, she brought him into this world and his overbearing dad made him the way he was. I still say the bottom line...Hitler is to blame.

Answer 9

the germans n hitler cuz they r the ones who started attacking other countries around them so then went on n people from italy and other counties find out o they went to the rescue n japan got on it bomb parl harbor americans got piss so they **** japan twice not we started the war everyone comes and we blamed hitler

Answer 10

the art school that didn't like Hitler's paintings.