In 1936, Hitler brazenly remilitarized Germany’s Rhineland border with France. Remilitarization directly threatened French national security. After World War I, the Rhineland had been left demilitarized to deter German aggression against France. With this border undefended, the French could pour into Germany. Only 3,000 Nazi troops entered the Rhineland. Hundreds of thousands of French troops stood just miles away. Germany’s generals trembled with fear, certain that a French invasion would end the Third Reich. However, facing bad economic conditions and finding few allies willing to offer support, the French government decided that military intervention was too expensive. Once again, a weak and divided West allowed the Nazi threat to increase.
In early 1938, Hitler forced Austria into the Third Reich by threatening to invade. Immediately, unprecedented anti-Semitic violence broke out across Austria. The Western Allies responded with a collective shrug. By incorporating Austria, Hitler gained millions of new citizens and access to Austria’s ample cash reserves and industrial resources. He was now more powerful than ever.
Many British and French political leaders had staked their hopes on appeasing Hitler to avoid war. Appeasement was a fatally flawed policy. Churchill condemned appeasement as the strategy of feeding a crocodile in the hopes it would eat you last. He recognized that Hitler was insatiable, and each meal only made the crocodile more dangerous.
The infamous Munich Conference in late 1938 revealed the costs of appeasement. Hitler had demanded an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France should have supported the strong pro-Western democracy against Nazi aggression. Instead, they sold out the young nation by accepting Hitler’s claims. The Czechoslovaks were not even invited to Munich. The Western betrayal proved disastrous. Czechoslovakia lost its natural defenses and industrial areas, rendering the nation helpless against further German expansion. Additionally, Britain and France’s capitulation convinced other nations that Western leaders lacked the will to stop Hitler.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich declaring that he had obtained “peace for our time.” That peace would prove short-lived. Within a few months, Hitler had swallowed up the rest of Czechoslovakia. Then, Germany demanded territory from Lithuania and Poland. The Lithuanians gave in, the Poles did not. Hitler decided that Poland must be destroyed. On the eve of his invasion, Hitler
