Transcript World War II - Aurora City Schools

World War II
1939-1945
Section 3
THE HOLOCAUST
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller
The Power of Words…
• “The great masses of the people will more easily
fall victims to a big lie than a small one”
• “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think”
• “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth”
• “The personification of the devil as the symbol of
all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew”
What do all these quotes have in common?
All Quotes of
Adolf Hitler
The Holocaust
Holocaust
• The systematic mass
slaughter of Jews and other
groups judged as inferior
Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”)
• After a Jewish citizen shot a German diplomat, Nazi
storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses and
synagogues across Germany
• This marked a major advance
in the persecution of Jews
The Holocaust
Ghettos
• Segregated Jewish areas
sealed off from the rest of the
city
• While forced to live in ghettos,
many Jews formed resistance
movements and worked to
maintain their traditions and
way of life
• Nazis established 356 ghettos
in Poland, the USSR,
Czechoslovakia, Romania, and
Hungary during WWII
Final Solution
• Hitler grew impatient
waiting for the Jews to
die in the ghettos so he
took more direct action
called the “Final
Solution”
• Jews were moved to
extermination camps
• Genocide – The
systematic killing of an
entire people
Auschwitz
The largest extermination camp.
People were sorted –the strong were kept, those
labeled weak were sent to take “showers” (actually
large gas chambers) then the bodies were cremated.
1,000,000 died.
Encountering Auschwitz
Nearing the End of the War
• By 1945, the Nazis’ began to destroy
crematoriums and camps as Allied
troops closed in
• Death Marches (Todesmarsche):
Between 1944-1945, Nazis ordered
marches over long distances.
Approximately 250 000 – 375 000
prisoners perished in Death Marches
• On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army
entered Auschwitz (largest camp)
and liberated more than 7,000
remaining prisoners, who were mostly
ill and dying.
Jews Killed under Nazi Rule*
Original Jewish
Population
Jews Killed
Percent Surviving
Poland
3,300,000
2,800,000
15%
Soviet Union
(area occupied
by Germans)
2,100,000
1,500,000
29%
Hungary
404,000
200,000
49%
Romania
850,000
425,000
50%
Germany/Austria
270,000
210,000
22%
* estimates
Source:Hannah Vogt, The Burden of Guilt
What percent of Jews were killed in each of these countries?
Approximately how many Jews were killed in total?
Section 4
THE ALLIED VICTORY
El Alamein
• After Tobruk (June 1942)
Rommel pushes toward Egypt
• British General Bernard
Montgomery leads a surprise
attack in Egypt where British troops defeat Rommel
and push Axis troops back
• Operation Torch
o Led by Dwight Eisenhower
o 100,000American troops land in Morocco (November 1942) and
cut off Rommel’s retreat, caught between Montgomery and
Eisenhower, the Afrika Korps were crushed in May 1943
• Importance
o Pushes the Germans out of North Africa
o Gives Allies control of the Mediterranean Sea and a place to
launch an attack on the European continent (Italy)
Battle of Stalingrad
• German (6th Army) offensive
to capture Soviet oil fields,
led by Friedrich Paulus
• Luftwaffe sent nightly
bombing raids, but Stalin
ordered that “his city” be
defended to the death.
• Germans gained control of
90% of the city, but winter set
in. Soviets launch a counter
attack and trap Germans in
city.
Stalingrad
• The besieged Germans
surrendered to the Soviets 90,000 of the 330,000
o 1st major loss on Eastern
Front
• Lost 1 million and city was
99% destroyed, but the
Germans were now on the
defensive
Invasion of Italy
• Allied troops landed on Sicily
(1943) and gained control
within a month.
• After the loss of Sicily, King
Victor Emmanuel III had
Mussolini arrested.
• Allies liberated Rome on June 4,
1944 but fighting continued
until Germany fell in May 1945.
• Italian resistance fighters
ambushed German trucks near
Milan. They found Mussolini
disguised as a German soldier,
shot him the next day and
hanged his body in Milan for
all to see.
The Home Front
Mobilizing for War
• Factories converted their
peacetime operations to wartime
production, most citizens had
jobs in war industries
• 17 to 18 million U.S. workers—
many of them women—make
weapons
• Rationing-factories were so
focused on war that consumer
goods became scarce, goods were
distributed in limited amounts to
help with the war effort
• Propaganda aims to inspire
civilians to aid war effort
The Home Front
War Limits Civil Liberties
• Propaganda campaigns
inspired patriotism, but also
prejudice against Japanese
Americans.
• Japanese Americans were
forced to live in relocation
camps
• Internment Camps
Camps in America
• Many signed up for military
service, called Nisei (nativeborn American citizens
whose parents were
Japanese) served bravely
even though their families
remained in the camps.
D-Day Invasion of Normandy
• Allies plan invasion of France; use
deception to confuse Germans
• Eisenhower (Supreme Allied
Commander), Montgomery,
De Gaulle vs. Rommel
• D-Day—June 6, 1944; day of “Operation
Overlord” (the Allied invasion of France)
• Largest amphibious invasion in history
o Allies invade 5 beaches in Normandy France
o Omaha*(US), Utah (US), Sword,
Juno and Gold (Canadian, British,
French). *most casualties
• Germans were waiting with machine
guns and rocket launchers
• Over 2,700 American casualties alone
that day
D-Day
•George Patton and the 3rd Army liberate Paris by September and
opens the Western Front.
•Hitler has to split his armies and fight allies from 3 directions
Battle of the Bulge
• U.S., British forces advance
on Germany from the west,
Soviets from the east
• Battle of the Bulge—
German counterattack in
December 1944
o Hitler had planned to attack
the west and split the
American and British troops
• Germans gain early success
as they break through a 75
mile front in the Ardennes
but are forced to retreat
• Last German offensive of
the war
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
Germany’s Unconditional Surrender
• By 1945, Allied armies approach
Germany from two sides
• Soviets surround Berlin in April
1945
• Hitler commits suicide
• President Roosevelt dies in April;
Harry Truman becomes
president
• On May 9, 1945, the Third Reich
officially surrenders to
Eisenhower, marking V-E Day
(“Victory in Europe”)