How did the 1935 plebiscite change the situation in the Saar
n the referendum, voters were asked whether the Saar should remain under League of Nations
administration, return to Germany or become part of France.[2] To the surprise of neutral
observers as well as the Nazis themselves, over 90% voted in favour of reuniting with
Germany.[14] Every voting district saw at least 83% of voters support returning the Saar to
German rule,[14] and despite Georges Clemenceau's claim that there were 150,000 Frenchmen in
the Saar, fewer than 1% of voters supported the annexation of the Saar by France.[14][15]
The legitimacy of the referendum was questioned by foreign observers on grounds of widespread
voter intimidation by the Berlin-sponsored Deutsche Front.[16] The Sundy Mail of Adelaide, South
Australia, reported that the opponents of the Saar's return to Germany were "hounded off the
streets and even blockaded in homes".[16] Jewish shops were boycotted and vandalised, and Nazi
supporters visited Jewish homes and demanded their voting identity cards in exchange for
protection. In his report, Marinus van der Goes van Naters stated that the Deutsche Front
infiltrated public services such as municipal authorities and the police, and voters were forced to
vote for Saar's return to Germany under threats of dismissals or loss of pension.[17] The Bulletin of
International News wrote that the Nazi militias "went from house to house asking people to sign
an undertaking to do all they could to secure the return of the Saar to Germany", while pro-Nazi
police officials kept "black lists" of people opposed to German rule of the Saar to be prevented
from voting.[18] In addition, socialist and separatist newspapers such as
the Volkstimme and Volkszeitung were taken down, and there were reports of illegal seizures
and confiscations of documents by the members of the Deutsche Front.[18] Lewy Gunter believes
that the result of the referendum could have been different with proper supervision, given the
Catholic hostility towards the Nazi regime.[13]
Explain why Hitler wanted the NAZI-Soviet pact of 1939?[6]
The Soviets also kept negotiating with Britain and France, but in the end
Stalin chose to reach an agreement with Germany. By doing so he hoped to
keep the Soviet Union at peace with Germany and to gain time to build up
the Soviet military establishment, which had been badly weakened by the
purge of the Red Army officer corps in 1937. The Western democracies’
hesitance in opposing Adolf Hitler, along with Stalin’s own inexplicable
personal preference for the Nazis, also played a part in Stalin’s final choice.
For his part, Hitler wanted a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union so
that his armies could invade Poland virtually unopposed by a major power,
after which Germany could deal with the forces of France and Britain in the
west without having to simultaneously fight the Soviet Union on a second
front in the east. The end result of the German-Soviet negotiations was the
Nonaggression Pact, which was dated August 23 and was signed by
Ribbentrop and Molotov in the presence of Stalin, in Moscow.
The policy of Appeasement was justified, How far do
you agree with this statement? Explain your
answer.[10]
Appeasement was British policy towards Hitler throughout the 1930s. It
involved granting Hitler’s demands in the hope that he would eventually
become satisfied. There are a number of arguments in favour of such a
policy.
1. Britain was afraid of Communism and Hitler was standing up to it,
therefore many in Britain supported Hitler’s actions in this way.
2. No one wanted another world war after the devastation of the First
World War, therefore, appeasement was a method to avoid a war.
3. Britain could not fight another war, the equipment Britain had was out
of date and Britain did not have sufficient numbers to keep up a long
war against Germany.
4. Britain could not count on the support of the Empire, Commonwealth
or USA against Hitler, therefore a war would likely result in Britain
losing.
5. Britain was dealing with economic problems linked to the Great
Depression and a war would be a costly distraction therefore
appeasement would allow governments to focus on the problems at
home.
Many Britons felt that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and that what
Hitler was doing was justified. Public opinion tended to support the British
Government's’ position