in 1938 germany took control of austria in what was known as the third reich.
in 1938 germany took control of austria in what was known as the third reich.
in 1938 germany took control of austria in what was known as the?
third reich
rudolf gelbard was born in vienna, austria, and lived in the leopoldstadt district. his parents were jewish. after the "anschluss", in which germany took control of austria, gelbard was excluded from his school because of his jewish ancestry. gelbard witnessed first-hand the nazi persecution of the jews during "kristallnacht". in 1942, gelbard and his parents were transported to the theresienstadt concentration camp. 19 members of gelbard's family died at theresienstadt, but gelbard survived because he was in the children's section of the camp.
rudolf gelbard
in 1938 germany demanded control of the german-speaking sudetenland region of czechoslovakia. that small country had a defense alliance with france but militarily its position was hopeless. the munich conference of september 29–30, 1938, was a summit meeting of leaders from germany, italy britain and france. the soviet union and czechoslovakia were not invited. the british and french wanted peace—or at least enough delay to allow them to try to catch up to german military superiority. britain did not control french actions, but london had more influence on paris than vice versa. the leading french voice for cooperating with british prime chamberlain in appeasement was foreign minister georges bonnet. he was a "munichois"—that is, a defeatist and pacifist who sensed that france would lose to germany in a war. he wanted to abandon the alliances with poland and russia and allow germany a free hand in the east so it would ignore france. after a short conference hitler got his way—the agreement allowed germany to peacefully absorb the sudetenland. in march, 1939, germany took over bohemia and moravia, and turned slovakia into a puppet state. the british and french finally realized that appeasement did not produce peace.
history of french foreign relations