World War II in Literature  World War II in Literature Summary
Historical Background (Society and Self, Critical
Representations in Literature)  In 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of
the Nazi Party, was appointed chancellor of Germany. He
immediately began to prepare for war, rearming the country,
engaging in aggressive foreign policy, and establishing
dictatorial powers for himself. German rearmament and aggression
were in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which Germany had
signed at the end of World War I, and which the Nazi Party
repudiated. Even after Hitler annexed Austria and invaded
Czechoslovakia in 1938, attempts were made by other European
powers to placate him. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939,
however, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The
war of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania,
and Bulgaria) against the Allied powers (Great Britain and its
allies, France, China, Denmark, Greece, Norway, and Yugoslavia)
had begun.  The Soviet Union, initially at uneasy p