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this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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The Nazis started WW2, the Versailles treaty blame is historical cope. Many nations have had more onerous reparations after losing a war than Germany did.
The Great Depression was a far bigger factor in the economic struggles of the Weimar Republic, so, honestly, if you want to blame indirect historical circumstances instead of the Nazis it's America's fault.
What many nations do doesn't matter, political movements are made powerful by feelings and there are plenty of primary sources talking about the inevitability of another war largely because of the treaty of Versailles and how the Germans felt about it. The great depression was another factor, certainly, but the German people didn't consult a chart to see how they ranked in reparation costs before deciding to go Nazi. It was still an unfathomable large number for the time that took them over 90 years to pay. It also had a bunch of other restrictions beyond monetary compensation, like harsh limits on their military. People were angry. German people suffering because of the actions of the Kaiser was a huge sore spot and we musnt ignore it.
And the nazis watched what we were doing and wanted to get in on that.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influenced-hitler
You admit it yourself, the terms of the Treaty didn't matter. The Treaty did not really matter, the Treaty was just an emblem of their loss.
What mattered was the resentment of losing a war they thought they should have won, sharing a national delusion that it was the fault of anything but gleefully fighting a war against most of the neighbors, and the only way to prevent that would have been to eradicate them as a nation, as some French and British leaders wished, but America refused and counselled against.