Transcript End of World War II

End of World War II
ryan henrici
michelle squiteri
peter searle
Table of Contents
Conferences and End of the War
V-E Day and Beginnings of the Cold War
Nuremberg Trials and Creation of the UN
Discussion Questions
Casablanca Conference of 1943
• US (Pres. FDR), and GB (PM. Winston Churchill)
• Soviets (Stalin) did not attend
• Held in Morocco
• Unconditional Surrender
• Finalized Allied offensive attack strategy
Casablanca Attack Strategy
Allied staging area
bombing
Sicily
invasion
Cairo Conference of 1943
• US (Pres. FDR), GB, China
• China officially joins Allies
• Return Japanese occupied territories post WWII
• FDR wants to raise public confidence in China
• Public dislike and distrust China
• Establish China as one of the “Four Policemen” (US, GB, SU, CN)
• China to oversee peace in Asia
• China does not want to aid Burma offensive
• Burma is an English colony
• Boosted Chinese morale
Tehran Conference of 1943
• US (Pres. FDR) , GB, and Soviet Union
• Finalized Operation Overlord
• Opened eastern front to relieve Red Army
• Stalin agrees to declare war on Japan
• Post-War plans
• Poland
• Soviet Territory and Ports
• Plans for United Nations
• “Declaration of the Three Powers Regarding Iran”
• Promised aid to Iran post war in thanks for their wartime
aid
Yalta Conference of 1945
• US (Pres. FDR), GB, SU
• Soviets in the Pacific
• Rewards for Pacific Aid
• Sphere of Influence in Manchuria
• Port Arthur
• Kurile Islands
• Germany takes responsibility for war
• France as a Security Council Member
• Post-War governments should be friendly
Potsdam Conference of 1945
• US (Pres. Truman), GB, SU
• Negotiate Allied terms of surrender
• Disagreement over reparations
• SU wants heavy
• Truman wants to prevent a WWI outcome
• Divide Germany into 4 demil. Allie-Occupied zones
• All Nuremberg Laws repealed
• Germany is remade Democratic
• All authoritarian influences eliminated
Potsdam Conference of 1945
• Redefinition of Poland
• Large Germ territory goes to Poland
• Wanted to prevent a mass German exodus
• Potsdam Declaration
• US SU cooperation declines
• Cold War Relations
End of War Timeline 1943-1945
Battle of Tunis, May 7
Axis forces in N. Africa surrender, May 13
Battle of Kursk, July 4- Aug 1
Allies land at Sicily, July 10
Italians Secretly Surrender Sept 3
Allies Land at Salerno July 19
Allies land at Anzio Jan 22
Allies invade Normandy June 6 (D-Day)
Soviets push Germans into Poland, mid-July
Paris liberated Aug 25
Polish resistance revolts against Germans in Warsaw Aug-Oct
Battle of the Bulge, Dec 16- Feb7 (Last Sig. Germ offensive)
Yalta Conference Feb 4-11
Soviets launch attack on Berlin April 16
Hitler commits suicide Apr 30
Germany surrenders-, WWII in Europe ends May 7
Table of Contents
Conferences and End of the War
V-E Day and Beginnings of the Cold War
Nuremberg Trials and Creation of the UN
Discussion Questions
The Basics
• “Victory In Europe Day”
• May 8, 1945
• World War II Allies
accepted the
unconditional surrender
of the armed forces of
Nazi Germany
• Marked the end of Adolf
Hitler's Third Reich
Allies Take Control
• By January of 1945, the Soviet Army had reached the Oder river
outside Berlin and Allies pushed into Italy
• April 1945, Mussolini tried to flee to Switzerland but was
captured and executed
• American and British troops had now crossed the Rhine River
into Germany and In April, a U.S army reached the Elbe River,
50 miles West of Berlin.
• Allied forces now prepared for an all out offensive to take Hitler’s
capital, Berlin
The Surrender
• Hitler had finally become aware he was going to be defeated,
shaken by tremors and drugs, he gave his last useless orders
• On 30 April Hitler and a few of his closest associates
committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin
• His plan for the “Thousand Year Reich only lasted a dozen
years
• On May 7, Germany surrendered in a little French school
house which served as Eisenhower’s headquarters
The Surrender
• The act of military
surrender was signed on
May 7th in Reims, France
and May 8th in Berlin,
Germany.
• The surrender of Germany
was authorized by his
replacement, President of
Germany Karl Dönitz.
• The administration
headed up by Dönitz was
known as the Flensburg
government.
Post Victory & Celebration
• More than a million people celebrated in the streets to mark
the end of the European part of the war.
• In London, crowds massed in Trafalgar Square and up The
Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the Palace before
cheering crowds.
• In the United States, President Harry Truman, who turned
61 that day, dedicated the victory to the memory of his
predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died less than a
month earlier, on April 12.
Post Victory & Celebration
• Flags remained at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day
mourning period, which ended on May 12. Massive
celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami,
and especially in New York City's Times Square
• Many hardships remained, however, including continued
rationing of food and clothing, which lasted even longer in
peacetime than it had during the war.
US and Soviet
Differences
&
Beginning of the Cold
War
US and SU Differences
• US relations with the Soviet Union after the war were
beginning to break down
• They had only been united in their opposition to Nazi
Germany during the war
• The United States was a capitalist Democracy, its citizens
believed in free elections, economic and religious freedoms,
private property, and respect for individual differences
• On the other hand, the Soviet Union was a Dictatorship
• Under Joseph Stalin, the communist Party made all key
economic, political, and military decisions
Disagreement
• Following the Yalta Conference, it was unclear as
to how Germany and the Nations of Eastern
Europe would be governed after the war
• Stalin wanted to keep Germany weak and divided
and Europe to remain under the control of the
Soviet Union
• The United States sought a stronger and united
Germany and independent nations in Eastern
Europe
Disagreement
• Stalin agreed to establish
broadly representative
governments and free
elections in Eastern
Europe and divide
Germany only temporarily
into zones of occupation
• Despite this agreement,
nearly all the lands
occupied by the Soviet Red
Army in 1945 remained
under Soviet control after
the war
• Poland, Czech, Hungary,
Romania, and Bulgaria as
well as Eastern Germany
became Satellite States of
the Soviet Union
Truman & Stalin Clash
• Stalin refused to make a
commitment to allow free
elections in Eastern Europe
• This angered Truman and
led him to believe that the
Soviet Union was planning
world conquest
• Alliance was quickly falling
apart
• With Stalin and the
enormous Red Army in
power, The US began to view
the Soviet Union as a real
threat and a rivalry began to
brew
Cold War Begins
• The next 46 years were Known as the Cold War
• Great Britain was on the US side and Churchill proposed
that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across the Continent
• East of it, The SU was gaining power and control by
installing communist Gov. and crushing political and
religious dissent, and that the Su was going to attempt to
spread communism
Truman Doctrine
• March 12, 1947 President Truman asked Congress for
money to support free people (Greece and Turkey) who were
resisting attempted conquest by armed minorites or outside
pressure
• Congress responded by giving $400 million in aid for Greece
and Turkey
• This promise from Truman to aid nations struggling against
Communist movements was known as the Truman Doctrine
Containing Soviet Expansion
• George F. Kennan, an American diplomat published an
article called “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in which he
introduced the idea of containment
• The goal of containment was to keep communism contained
within its existing borders
• The Americans believed that Stalin would not risk starting
an all out war with the US just to spread his communism
Marshall Plan
•
•
•
•
In Western Europe after
WWII, people did not have
food, fuel, and medical
supplies, as well as the cold
winters
Secretary of State, George
Marshall unveiled a recovery
plan for Europe
Early 1948, Congress
approved the Marshall Plan,
in which over the next 4 years
the US gave $13 billion in
grants and loans to Western
Europe
By helping and offering to help
these countries, it helped the
US increase in foreign trade
and most importantly helped
join powers to work against
the expansion of communism
Table of Contents
Conferences and End of the War
V-E Day and Beginnings of the Cold War
Nuremberg Trials and Creation of the UN
Discussion Questions
The
Nuremberg
Trials
The Nuremberg Trials
"The wrongs we seek to condemn and punish
have been so calculated so malignant and so
devastating that civilization can not tolerate their
being ignored,
because it can not
survive their
being repeated."
~Robert Jackson
Chief United States
Prosecutor
The Nuremberg Trials
&
Supreme Court Justice
What is The Nuremberg Trials?
The Nuremberg Trials is when
Twenty-four major political and military
leaders of Nazi Germany, indicated for
aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes
against humanity, were brought to trial
before the International Military Tribunal.
The trials were held in Nuremberg,
Germany and lasted from 1945-1949.
Chief Prosecutors of The
Nuremberg Trials
Robert Jackson- A Supreme Court Justice in the
United States of America
Lord Hartley Shawcross- A British barrister and
politician
General R. A. Rudenko- A Soviet Union lawyer
Chief Prosecutors of The
Nuremberg Trials
François de Menthon- A French Politician and
Professor of Law
Auguste Champetier de Ribes- A French Politician
and Jurist
The Twenty-four Men
The Trials began on October 18th 1945 and
ended in October of 1946 here is the outcome
• Of the 24 indicted Nazi leaders, 22 were tried at The
Nuremburg Trials
• Only 22 were tried due to Robert Ley’s suicide and
Gustav Krupp stood down due to illness
• 3 of the 22 defendants were acquitted
• 19 were found guilty
• 3 were sentenced to life in prison
• 4 were sentence to 10-20 years of prison
• 12 were sentenced to death
Creation of the United
Nations
Table of Contents
Conferences and End of the War
V-E Day and Beginnings of the Cold War
Nuremberg Trials and Creation of the UN
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
• Which Conference was most influential in the
Allied victory?
• How could the Post-WWII reconstruction been
handled to prevent the Cold War Crisis?