Germany fell to fascism because:
- Respectable mainstream conservatives would rather have the nazis running Germany than risking mild social democratic reforms.
- Big industrialists funded the Nazis like crazy
- Centrists believed the Nazis would keep their promises of they supported them
- The fucking SPD invited the Freikorps to crush the proletarian revolution in 1919. They then went on to have their heads up their arses and spent their energy fighting the KPD instead of the Nazis, right up until the takeover.
- The police and the courts were extremely friendly to the Nazis and let them get away with almost anything as long as they staved off the reds.
In short, Germany fell to fascism because the German bourgeoisie wanted it to fall.
This is of course an unacceptable conclusion to liberals so instead they make up bullshit about voting, like that ever changed anything.
And then the Brits and Americans waited out for war because they thought Hitler might deal with Russia for them.
I’ve done a bunch of research into the lead up to WWII and the evidence is clear that the UK was intentionally stoking tensions between Germany and the Soviets (a good summary from Counterpunch). What I still haven’t figured out, though, is why Poland was the line in the sand for the policy of appeasement. If the UK wanted an armed conflict between Germany and the USSR, why be so passive on Austria and Czechoslovakia only to flip when Poland is threatened, when a partially annexed Poland would have been the gateway for the Eastern war that UK seemed to desire?
Because there were two factions in the British elite. The French were against going to war (yet, they wanted Hitler to crush the Soviets and then invade) but reluctantly did.
One, representing Capital, wanted the Soviets to fall at any cost but was sidelined due to Edward VIII causing a constitutional crisis. The other representing the British Civil Service and the Aristocracy, continued down the standard path of preventing a single power from dominating Europe and thought the Munich Conference was a line in the sand. Once Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia anyway they began mobilisation