THE DAY MUSSOLINI STOPPED HITLER
July 25th, 2010, will Mark the 76th Anniversary of Hitler’s First Defeat
Could World War II and the Holocaust have been Prevented?
The front page of the New York Times documented the event with this headline:
Austrian Nazis Kill Dollfuss*.Italian Army, Navy, Planes Ready to Act.*The premier of Austria
Upon hearing the news of the German assassination of Austria’s Prime Minister Engelbert Dollfuss Mussolini gave orders for four divisions to be sent to the Brenner Pass. He wanted England and France to join him in protecting Austria from Hitler’s “Anschluss” plans but received none.
The Nazi takeover of Austria failed and Hitler was handed his first defeat by the timely and forceful action of the Italian government. Italian appeals to France and Britain for a similar show of force against Hitler went unheeded.
The two leaders agreed to meet for their first time on June 14th 1934 in Venice to discuss Germany’s plans for Austria. Mussolini advised Hitler that he would defend Austria’s sovereignty as an independent state, and admonished him for his persecution of the Jews and the Church. He took a dislike for all that Hitler said and told his advisors later that Hitler talked too much and avoided current matters of State.
Mussolini had saved Austria from from the
“Anschluss ” (political annexation)
Although popular history emphasizes the appeasement of Italian and German dictators during the late 1930’s as the cause of World War II, more and more evidence is pointing to an unwillingness of Great Britain to join in a collective security pact with Italy in the early 1930’s.
Their misjudgment not only sent the wrong signals to European powers but it prevented a united front against Nazi Germany early in the decade. Modern day war historians must reexamine the 1930’s with particular attention to such events as the Stresa Front, the proposed
4-power pact, the 1934 Austrian crisis, the Anglo-German naval treaty of 1935, and the conflicts within the British cabinet.
The Stresa Front Conference at Stresa, Italy, April 11-14, 1935 was held at the initiative of Mussolini to discuss, with representatives of England and France, needed programs and agreements to contain the growing German military influence and menace in Europe.
