Germany at War and the Holocaust 1939–1945

The Second World War and the Holocaust represent the catastrophic culmination of Nazi ideology and the most destructive period in European history. The key questions are: why did Germany initially succeed and then fail militarily? How and why did persecution escalate into systematic genocide? And how far were ordinary Germans complicit?

Key Definition: The Holocaust (Shoah) refers to the systematic, state-sponsored murder of approximately six million European Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945, alongside the persecution and murder of millions of others including Roma, disabled people, Slavic civilians, Soviet POWs, and political opponents.

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The Course of the War

Early Victories: Blitzkrieg (1939–1941)

Campaign	Date	Result
Poland	September 1939	Conquered in five weeks; partitioned with USSR
Denmark & Norway	April 1940	Occupied to secure iron ore supply routes
France & Low Countries	May–June 1940	France fell in six weeks; armistice signed 22 June
Battle of Britain	July–October 1940	RAF defeated the Luftwaffe; invasion (Sealion) cancelled
Balkans & North Africa	1941	Yugoslavia and Greece conquered; Rommel in Libya
Operation Barbarossa	22 June 1941	Invasion of the USSR — the decisive strategic gamble

The Turning Points (1942–1943)

• Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 – February 1943): The surrender of General Paulus and the 6th Army (91,000 captured) was the psychological and military turning point. The myth of German invincibility was shattered.
• Battle of El Alamein (October–November 1942): British victory in North Africa
• Battle of Kursk (July 1943): Largest tank battle in history; Soviet decisive victory ended German offensive capability in the East

Defeat (1943–1945)

• Allied bombing: Hamburg firestorm (July 1943, ~35,000 dead); Dresden (February 1945, ~25,000 dead). Enormous destruction but did not break morale or halt war production
• D-Day (6 June 1944): Allied invasion of Normandy opened the second front
• July Plot (20 July 1944): Colonel von Stauffenberg's bomb wounded but did not kill Hitler. The conspiracy's failure led to savage reprisals (~5,000 executed) and prolonged the war
• Soviet advance: From Stalingrad, the Red Army pushed relentlessly westward
• Hitler's suicide (30 April 1945) and unconditional surrender (8 May 1945)

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The War Economy

Albert Speer, as Minister for Armaments from February 1942, achieved significant production increases despite Allied bombing:

Year	Aircraft	Tanks	Ammunition (tonnes)
1941	11,776	3,790	—
1942	15,409	6,180	—
1943	24,807	12,063	—
1944	40,593	19,002	—

However, Adam Tooze argues these increases reflected belated mobilisation rather than a 'miracle', and Germany could never match Allied combined output (the USA alone produced 96,000 aircraft in 1944).

Forced labour was central to the war economy. By 1944, approximately 7.7 million foreign workers and concentration camp prisoners were exploited in German industry, experiencing conditions ranging from harsh to lethal depending on their position in the Nazi racial hierarchy.

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The Holocaust

The Escalation of Persecution