Events

Landmark events of Third Reich history – excluding for the war and the Holocaust.

National-Socialist Book Burning

By John Wear ∙ December 3, 2023

Numerous books and articles have been written about National-Socialist Germany’s book burning and censorship. Some people even think that Germany’s book burning was the precursor to the “Holocaust.” This article provides the details of the book-burning campaigns under the National-Socialist regime, and how this German censorship compares to that imposed by the Allies against Germany after World War II.

Sophie Scholl: Germany’s Celebrated Woman of the Twentieth Century

By John Wear ∙ November 28, 2023

Sophie Magdalena Scholl is one of the most famous members of the German resistance movement during World War II. She and her brother Hans took enormous risks to undermine Adolf Hitler’s power. Hans and Sophie Scholl were dead at ages 24 and 21, respectively, so left behind no careers or life’s work. However, a series of actions over the course of only six or seven months have made them world famous and national heroes in modern Germany. This article discusses the short life of Sophie Scholl, and why she was so determined to end Hitler’s reign.

Neutral Sources Document Why Germany Invaded Poland

By John Wear ∙ August 22, 2022

Most historians state that Germany’s invasion of Poland was an unprovoked act of aggression designed to create Lebensraum and eventually take control of Europe. According to conventional historians, Adolf Hitler hated the Polish people and wanted to destroy them as his first step on the road to world conquest. This article uses non-German sources to document that, contrary to what most historians claim, Germany’s invasion of Poland was provoked by the Polish government’s acts of violence against its ethnic German minority.

Why Hitler Put Jews in Camps and Ghettos

By John Wear ∙ February 6, 2022

Many people question why Adolf Hitler put Jewish civilians into camps and ghettos during World War II. People often assign false reasons for why Jews were interned in these camps. This article demonstrates that Jews were interned in camps and ghettos during World War II because Jews were generally hostile toward Germany, and many Jewish partisans were actively killing German troops.

Czechoslovakia: How Britain Turned the Failure of a State into a Cause for War

By John Wear ∙ November 2, 2020

The Munich Agreement signed by Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy on September 30, 1938 was meant to mark the beginning of a new era in European affairs. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told the cheering crowd in London that welcomed him home after signing the Munich Agreement, “I believe it is peace in our time.” Unfortunately, the mutual confidence that was supposed to arise among the four great European powers quickly unraveled. This article discusses the events that led to Germany’s assuming the protection of Czechoslovakia, and their exploitation by British high officials to promote war against Germany.

Breaking the Chains of Versailles

By John Wear ∙ May 7, 2020

The Treaty of Versailles is sometimes said to have been the beginning of World War II. The Versailles Treaty crushed Germany beneath a burden of shame and reparations, stole vital German territories, and rendered Germany defenseless against enemies from within and without. Britain’s David Lloyd George warned the treaty makers at Versailles: “If peace is made under these conditions, it will be the source of a new war.”

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