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World War I (1914–1918). The war, and especially its settlement in the Treaty of Versailles, demoralized and bankrupted the country: under the agreement, Germany was required to pay vast amounts of money in reparations to the vic- tors in the war. The Great Depression and World War I left Germany broken and tired. There was little to eat and virtually no work. The humiliating Treaty of Ver- sailles, which took away most of Germany’s coal and iron production among other things, dashed hopes for any type of economic recovery. There was lit- tle the government could do except pay its bills by printing more and more money. That practice eventually forced the German economy toward collapse. By 1932, 6 million Germans could not find jobs. Hitler, like other Germans, blamed the Communists, corrupt businessmen, and Jews for Germany’s woes. Hitler tapped into the hatred and despair that his countrymen were experi- encing and formed the Nazi Party. Hitler and the Nazis ultimately led Germany down the path of another more destructive war. The Nazis, who believed themselves pure members of the superior, white Aryan race, rounded up Jews and transported them to concentration camps long before the war had started in 1939. It was part of Hitler’s “Final Solution” to rid Europe of Jewish people.

In the end, some 6 million Jews and others, including homosexuals, gyp- sies, and the “feebleminded,” would be systematically murdered. After the war, power politics played out once again as the victorious nations of the United States, Britain, France, and Soviet Union divided Ger- many into zones of occupation. The The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, securing the end of World War I and the peace settlement that was to cripple Germany’s economic prospects and ultimately lead to Hitler’s rise and World War II.

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CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY, RELIGION, AND TRADITION