Throughout the course of the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party has overwhelmingly, terrifyingly seized power in Germany. Now, Hitler’s vile ambitions have turned to Czechoslovakia. On the 12th of September 1938 at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, he rabidly defended the supposed interests of the German speaking minority in Czechoslovakia, claiming that they had been ravaged and tortured by their cruel Czech overlords, but not so. In reality, Hitler is preparing the ground for the invasion and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia - what he sees as a crucial step towards the creation of a new German dominion in central and eastern Europe. In so doing, he is setting Europe upon the road to an increasingly imminent Second World War. With Nazism driven above all by the shattering experience of the First World War, a hunger for war burns at the very centre of the Nazi’s ambitions. For Hitler, it is personal - the German economy is in meltdown and with it, his frayed mental and physical state. Was it possible, then, that at this crucial juncture in 1938, the outcome of war could be prevented? Certainly, Britain’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, was determined to make it so… Join Tom and Dominic for the opening episode in their next series on the Nazis’ road to the Second World War. With European politics in turmoil, Adolf Hitler hungry for war, and Neville Chamberlain desperate to appease him, will there be peace in our time? At Munich, one of the most controversial diplomatic instances in history, the fate of the world will be decided. ______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Editor: Jack Meek Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Today, we are insulted. Our blood brothers are at the mercy of their cruel abusers without any means of defending themselves. I am speaking of Czechoslovakia. Among the suppressed minorities in this state are three and a half million Germans. These Germans are God's creatures. The Almighty did not create them so that the Versailles Treaty could place them at the mercy of an alien power.
And he did not create seven million checks to reign over these three and a half million, keep them in tutelage. And far less did he create them for ravage and torture. The misery of the Sudeten Germans defies description. They are being oppressed and humiliated in an unprecedented fashion. There must be an end to the injustice inflicted upon these people.
The Reich will no longer stand for any further oppression and persecutions of these three and a half million Germans. It is the duty of all of us to never again bow our heads to any alien will. To this, let us pledge ourselves. So help us God.
So that, Dominic, was very much not friend of the show, Adolf Hitler. And he was speaking to the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg on the 12th of September 1938 about Czechoslovakia, as he frames it. And it's the beginning of the year. We're into 2025 now. And on the rest of history, if it's the new year, it must be Nazis.
You're not wrong there, Tom. That was a very spirited performance. You didn't do an accent, which is probably best.
I wanted to evoke the sense of Hitler through the power of my acting and my oratory. So I hope people got that sense.
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