German Trench on the Eastern Front
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The First World War, which began in July of 1914 and ended in November 1918, claimed many millions of lives and changed the lives of hundreds of millions of others across the world forever. The years that followed the First World War were to see the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the most notorious political character of the twentieth century. The lives of many millions of people across Europe would be devastated as a result of the beliefs, policies and actions of the Nazis led by Hitler.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II
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Kaiser Wilhelm was the Commander-in-Chief of the German armed forces. When it became clear that Germany would lose World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm was forced to leave his throne and flee Germany. The end of the war brought chaos and confusion to Germany. People were fighting in the streets, and there were dreadful shortages of food. The Germans had no strong leader in charge of the country.
Germany was trying to build a new government and many of the new political leaders who came to power were Jewish. This meant that many Germans often blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat, as they thought they had betrayed Germany and negotiated with the countries that defeated them in World War I. In reality, in 1914, the Jewish population of Germany was under 1 per cent. During the First World War 100,000 Jews served in the German army during the First World War, and were very patriotic. |
At a peace conference in Versailles, France, Germany and the allies signed the Treaty of Versailles to form the basis of a peace treaty after World War I between the countries that fought. This plan seemed fair to people across Europe however the Germans were not invited to contribute to the negotiations and the actual treaty was dictated to them. Unfortunately for the Germans, Britain and more especially France wanted to punish Germany; this was a key aim of the Treaty signed on 28 June 1919.
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Signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the palace's Hall of Mirrors, June 28, 1919
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