>> He understood the consequences of punishing Germany too severely and was pressing for a more just settlement.
>
>While I agree it was short sighted to punish Germany in a financial sense, I still disagree that the western allies are to blame for the rise of Germany. The rise of Germany in WWII had more to do with:
>- Germany's sense of victimhood
>- Germany's desire for a greater Geman state
>- Germany's mistunderstanding of how WWI ended. They thought it was a stalemate, but it was a German defeat
>- a charismatic, sociopathic, racist leader

Evan;

The Treaty of Versailles was not signed by the United States and as Tamar stated it was too harsh.

The Germans fully understood the terms of the treaty. Hitler used the term, “Stabbed in the back”, due to the German government signing the Treaty of Versailles.

An example of this was the finical reparations Germany had to pay. Along with that the French took much of the heavy machinery used for manufacturing from areas such as the Ruhr, and violated the treaty.

http://economics.about.com/cs/econometrics/l/bltermpaper.htm

The Saint Germaine-en-Laye Treaty divided German land amongst other countries.

http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/fame/pod.htm

Unemployment was high in Germany, and money had little value. When a man cannot feed his family he may resort to desperate acts. The climate was ripe for Hitler to take control of Germany. Imagine an Austrian running Germany? My apologies to Mozart, whose 250th birthday is being celebrated today.

My brother in law Karl, was born in Neuss, Germany, in 1930. He had many stories about growing up in Germany during this period. Older Germans I talked to all thought Hitler was a wonderful man and said nothing negative about him. The typical comments I would hear from Germans who went through the Hitler years stated the same thing, “He gave everyone a job”!

Tom