Transcript WWII

WWII 1939-1945
Chapter 26
The Rise of Dictators

By the mid 1930’s many countries had
been taken over by dictators… i.e. Italy,
Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union.
This was possible because many of these
countries economic and political conditions
were devastated by WWI.
The major problem

The Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI
did not resolve the issues that caused the
war.
 Italy
and Japan were on the allied side during
WWI, however they were not happy with the
results of the treaty
 Germany was treated very harshly by the
treaty

Additionally, WWI left Europe’s economy in
ruins.
The Great Depression

Because of the Great Depression the
economic conditions of most European
countries went from bad to worse, there
was widespread unemployment, and
unrest… many people now turned to new
leaders to solve their problems. (Dictators)
Benito Mussolini

Dictator of Italy who
came to power in
1922 – he began a
political movement
known as fascism –
this political
movement called for
an extreme form of
patriotism and
nationalism that was
often linked to racism.
Adolf Hitler

He was the leader of
the fascist National
Socialist German
Workers’ Party, or
Nazi party. The Nazi
party attracted
supporters by
preaching German
superiority.
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin took
over the Soviet Union
power in 1924, under
Stalin the government
tried to control every
aspect of life in the
nation. It crushed any
form of opposition.
Hideki Tojo

Became prime
minister in Japan – he
increased Japan’s
military power, and as
the war progressed
he took over Japan as
a complete
dictatorship. (he
controlled every
aspect of life.)
Dictators expand their territory

In the early 1930’s dictators began taking
over other countries and expanding their
territory… at first little was done to stop
them – this became a threat to other
democratic countries.
The Axis Powers

In 1936 Hitler and Mussolini formed an
alliance called the Rome-Berlin Axis, which
became known as the Axis. Japan joined
the Axis in 1940.
The beginning of war
In 1938 Hitler invaded Austria, which was
occupied with mostly German speaking
people – many welcomed the unification
 Hitler also wanted to take over a part of
Czechoslovakia – they did not want to be
a part of Germany

 France
and the Soviet Union pledged their
support to Czechoslovakia if Germany
attacked – this threatened another World War
WWII Map
British & French appeasement

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met
with Hitler to solve the problems… he agreed to
let Hitler take over a part of Czechoslovakia as
long as Hitler promised to stop trying to take
over more countries.


This is called British and French appeasement, which
means that they were willing to meet Germany’s
demands to avoid war.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill strongly
disagreed with the policy of appeasement, he
warned that Hitler would not stop taking over
other countries.
Hitler Broke His Promise

Hitler soon broke his promise, in March
1939 he invaded the rest of
Czechoslovakia. He then said he would
seize Polish territory – Britain and France
warned him that if he invaded Poland it
would mean war.
Germany & USSR

In August 1939 Germany and the USSR (Soviet
Union) promised not to attack each other


Germany then invaded Poland on September 1 1939
& France & Britain declared war on Germany.
Hitler quickly took over Poland using a new
method of warfare called Blitzkrieg “lightning
war” – (stressed speed and surprise attacks with
tanks, troops and planes) he also quickly took
over Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the
Netherlands.
France Falls

British and French troops could do little to
stop Hitler.
 In
1940 Germany attacked France, in less
than 2 weeks France surrendered.
 Germany thought that Britain would surrender
after France fell, however Britain did not and
continued fighting despite being attacked
heavily by Germany… The British Air Force
was able to hold off the German Air Force.
Hitler invades the Soviet Union

Despite their agreement not to attack each other
Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union.
He was afraid of the Stalin’s ambitions in Europe, he
did not want the U.S.S.R to become too powerful
 He also wanted the wheat and oil fields in the U.S.S.R


Germany invaded the Soviet Union they killed
and wounded many Soviet troops until
December 1941 when the harshest winter in
decades stopped the Nazi advance.
The U.S. helps the Allies

In 1941 Congress passed the Lend-Lease
Act which allowed the U.S. to lend or lease
resources and equipment to the Allies
 The
U.S. sent Great Britain, the Soviet Union
and other Allies about $50 billion worth of
goods.
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

In 1941 the Tojo government wanted to
attack the Dutch East Indies, (a good
source of oil) but the U.S. Navy stood in
their way.
 On
December 7 1941, Japanese warplanes
bombed a huge American naval base at Pearl
Harbor – the attack came as a complete
surprise – many Americans were killed and
the U.S. fleet was devastated…
The U.S. joins the war

President Roosevelt asked Congress to
declare war On Japan. President Roosevelt
called this day “a day that will live in
infamy.” The U.S. now declares war
against Japan and Germany and Italy
declared war
Question 1

Now that the United States is at war with
Japan, how do you think people in the
U.S. feel about Japanese Americans?

Japanese Americans might face
harassment, discrimination – Internment
New Social Changes

This war, like WWI brought about a lot of
social changes…
 The
government set up an agency called the
War Productions Board which coordinated the
production of military supplies
 By
1945 the U.S. had produced about 300,000
aircrafts and 75,000 ships
 All together the U.S. produced 60 percent of the
allies ammunition
The End of the Great Depression

The production of military supplies created
a lot of factory jobs for people. This in
turn ended the Great Depression
 In
fact, “Between 1939 and 1945, the U.S.
GNP soared from $90.5 billion to nearly $212
billion.”
American Factories

American factories produced so many
military supplies that they stopped
producing other supplies such as cars,
tires, shoes, meat, and sugar.
 The
government then had to use rationing, or
giving families a fixed amount of certain
products to manage the scarce resources.
More Social Changes





Women served in the U.S. Army
Women Performed important non-combat duties
Women built planes, tanks, and other military
equipment
Minorities also served in the Military
More jobs opened up for minorities



More than 1 million African Americans worked in the war
industry
More than 44,000 Native Americans
Tens of thousands of Hispanics worked in the war industry
and farming industry. (Braceros)
Discrimination affects the U.S.

The rise of minority workers caused racial
tensions.
 African
Americans and Mexican Americans
suffered prejudice and violence in the defense
industries in the Northern and Western Coast
cities.
The Government tries to stop
Discrimination for minorities

President Roosevelt issued executive order
8802. It outlawed discrimination in
defense industries working for the Federal
Government.
Discrimination against Japanese
Americans
Because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,
many Americans directed their anger
towards Japanese Americans.
 Because so many Americans feared that
the Japanese Americans would be disloyal
to the United States, President Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066 in February
1942.

Japanese Internment
The order allowed the federal government
to send Japanese Americans to internment
camps which were similar to prisons.
 More than 111,000 Japanese Americans
were forced to sell their property, quit
their jobs, and go to these prison-like
camps.

War in Africa and Europe

The Allies wanted to land in France as
soon as possible. Churchill thought the
Allies were unprepared for such an
invasion.
 He
convinced them that they should first drive
the Germans out of North Africa in order to
gain control of the Mediterranean and open
the way to invade Europe through Italy.
The Allied Plan

The Allies did as Churchill suggested and
they did defeat the Axis powers of
Northern Africa – In May the Axis Powers
of Northern Africa surrendered and the
Allies planned their invasion of Italy.
The Invasion of Italy

The Allied forced the Germans out of Sicily
and then moved towards Italy. By this
time Italians had turned on Mussolini, and
officials had imprisoned him. Although he
escaped, the new Italian government
surrendered to the Allies in September
1943.
Germans Retreat From Russia
In September 1942 Germany invaded the City of
Stalingrad, the Russians fought back and were
able to hold off the Germans for months until
Winter. A German commander begged Hitler to
let him retreat, but Hitler Refused.
 Many German Nazi soldiers froze and/or starved
to death. In February 1943 the remaining
German troops surrendered.
 This battle became a turning point of WWII

Germans Surrendering
"Dead in the mud and slush of the East. German
soldiers died from the cold as much as from enemy
action during this first winter in Russia."
"The crew of a Pzkw III [Nazi tank] thaw the frozen
mud round their tank. Vehicles stuck in the autumn
were practically cemented in by the frosts."
“German Captives: Russian soldiers don’t
beat them or anything, on the contrary, they
are giving them cigarettes and a light.”
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
D-Day was the Allied invasion of France.
American, British and Canadian soldiers invaded
France and began pushing out the Germans.
This was the largest land-sea-air operation in
army history.
 By the end of June 1944, 850,000 Allied troops
had poured into France. They moved inland
towards Paris battling Nazi troops along the way.
 On August 25, Allied forces freed the French
capital.

Hitler’s Final Assault

In December 1944, Hitler launched his
final assault, the Battle of the Bulge.
German troops pushed back Allied forces
in the Ardennes region of Belgium and
Luxembourg before U.S. forces regrouped
and defeated them. The battle’s human
toll was costly, with about 120,000
German casualties and about 80,000
American casualties.
The War Ends in Europe

By early 1945 the Germans were
retreating everywhere. As the Americans
and British advanced from the west, the
Russians raced towards the German
capital from the East.
Yalta Conference

After Germany surrendered Allied leaders
met in the Soviet resort of Yalta (Yalta
Conference.)
 “The
Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill, and
Stalin.) they had to decide the future of
Europe.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
In office 1933-1945

By the time of Yalta
Conference President
Roosevelt was in poor
health. In April 1945 just
months after being sworn
in for a fourth term, the
president died and the
vice president Harry S.
Truman, succeeded him
and continued the war
effort.
Germany Surrenders

In late April 1945 the Russians reached
Berlin. Deep inside his air-raid bunker,
Adolf Hitler sensed that the end was near.
On April 30, the man who had conquered
much of Europe committed suicide.
 German
leaders then signed an unconditional
surrender.
The Holocaust


As the Allies fought toward Berlin, they made
a shocking discovery. Scattered throughout
German-occupied territories were
concentration camps where 6 million Jews
and people of other persecuted groups
(Gypsies, Russians, Poles, political prisoners,
and homosexuals.) had been murdered.
An estimated 11 million people were killed in
all

(More on the Holocaust later in the PP)
Japanese Conquests

Japan did not only attack Pearl Harbor,
they also began attacking other territories
at the same time, and expanding their
power.
 By
Christmas Japan controlled Hong Kong,
Thailand, and the U.S. islands of Guam and
Wake.
 They also pushed deeper into Southeast Asia
attacking Malaya and Burma.
Japanese Conquests
Britain v. Japan
Great Britain fought back, however proved to be
no match for the Japanese invaders – Japan
fought to take over the Philippines, mainly
against American and Filipino troops led by
General McArthur.
 General McArthur was removed from the
Philippines and sent to Australia, shortly
afterwards, Japan mounted an offensive and
American troops surrendered and endured the
brutal Bataan Death March.

Bataan Death March.

When Lt. General Masahuro Homma took the
soldiers prisoner, he discovered that there were
many more men than he had anticipated, and
he was unable to transport all of them by truck
to the prison camp in San Fernando. The only
way to get the men to the camp was to make
them march the 70 miles. The Japanese High
Command advised him that it should only
require a few days, but the men taken as
prisoners of war were not in good health and
were malnourished. That set the stage for an
onslaught of inexcusable brutality.
Bataan Death March.

To show that they were the superior power in
Asia. Japs committed random beatings and
killings of all kinds. They killed men without
provocation, or if a guard felt that someone had
looked at him the wrong way, he was at liberty
to bayonet him to death. If a prisoner was found
with a souvenir, he was shot immediately
because his executioners assumed that the only
way to obtain such an item was to kill a
Japanese soldier
Bataan Death March.

At one point, 30 POW’s attempted to fill their canteens
on the side of the road. That was not what the Japanese
had in mind. As the men were filling their canteens, the
Japanese set up machine guns and shot them on the
spot. Other men were allowed to get water, but when
they got to it, it was filled with maggots. That was pure
torture because there were water spigots nearby with
clean water. Anyone who tried to drink water who was
not allowed to, was shot. When the men were allowed to
rest, they were forced down on burning hot pavement,
and those who fell behind even a few yards were
bayoneted and shot.
The Allies Turn the Tide at Midway
The Allies defeated the Japanese during
the Battle of Midway.
 This became the turning point of the the
war in the Pacific.
 After the Battle of Midway, the Allies went
Island Hopping invading Japanese
controlled islands and getting closer and
closer to Japan.

The Allies Re-take the Philippines

In October 1944 the Allies invade the
Philippines and defeated the Japanese.
 The
Allies left Japan’s navy so badly damaged
that it was no longer a threat.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
The Allies realized that they were defiantly
getting closer to defeating Japan, however they
needed to get closer.
 They decided to invade Iwo Jima and Okinawa





This made it possible to U.S. planes to attack Japan.
The Allies could rescue the POW’s from the Bataan
Death March.
This would mean winning the war.
The Allies successfully took over these islands.
Why Atomic Weapons????????

The Allies planned to attack Japan’s
mainland, however military leaders feared
that this would cost between 200,000 and
1 million American casualties… therefore
they considered using Atomic weapons.
The Atomic Bomb is Dropped on
Hiroshima

President Truman warned Japan that if
they did not surrender, it faced
destruction. Japan refused to surrender
and on August, 6 1945, the B-29 bomber
Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on
the industrial city of Hiroshima. The
explosion killed more than 75,000 people
and turned 5 square miles into a
wasteland.
Hiroshima

"Now is the time to
exterminate the
Yellow Peril for all
time… Let the rats
squeal."
—Congressman
Charles A. Plumley,
August 1945
The Destruction
The Atomic Bomb is dropped on
Nagasaki
Japan still refused to give in, and on
August 9, the United States dropped
another Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki, killing
another 40,000 people
 On August 14th Japan surrendered and the
war was over.

Nagasaki
The Total Human Cost of the war.
The exact human cost of the war is unknown,
however it is estimated to be at around 20
million soldiers were killed and millions more
injured
 The Soviet Union suffered the greatest losses
with estimates reaching 8 million military deaths
and another 5 million wounded.
 More than 400,000 American solders died, and
over 600,000 were wounded.

The Economic Cost

The war also left most of the world’s
economy in ruins…only the United States
– where no major battles were fought,
came out of the war with a strong
economy.
The U.S Helps Europe and Asia
The U.S remained in Japan for years after
the war, and helped them rebuild their
economy.
 The U.S. also passed the Marshall Plan
which allowed the United States to give
more than $13 billion to help the nations
of Europe get back on their feet.

The Nuremberg Trials
The Allies put German war criminals on
trial…The original 24 defendants included
some of Hitler’s top officials.
 They were charged with crimes against
humanity for the Nazi’s murder of millions
of Jews and others.

 19
of the defendants were found guilty and
12 were sentenced to death. Over 130 others
were found guilty in later trials.
Changes in America and the World
Leaders from 50 countries met and
created the United Nations as an
international peace keeping agency.
 The war helped spread communism which
the U.S. will oppose in the years to come.
 The United States passed the G.I. Bill to
help the returning soldiers… it gave them
money for an education and a living
allowance.

Changes in America and the World

In response to the Holocaust, the United Nations
created the new nation of Israel in 1948 as a
homeland for Jews in Palestine.

Many Arabs in Palestine violently opposed Israel.
WWII led to an atomic age – many countries will
begin developing or attempting to develop
atomic weapons.
 The Soviet Union emerged as a major world
power – will later lead to the Cold War

The Holocaust
Adolf Hitler’s Hatred of Jews
In his prison cell, he wrote a book that
would form the blueprint for his
destructive plans to conquer the world
and rid it of people he considered
inferior. Even then, he had a strong
hatred of the Jews who he blamed for
Germany's defeat in the first world war.
 The Nazi plan to exterminate Jewish
people is known as the “final solution.”

Adolf Hitler
One of his first acts as leader was to
construct six concentration camps. He
planned to use them as prisons for
German Jews and other people he
disliked.
 It wasn't until near the end of the war
when the Allies finally reached many of
the camps that the true nature of his plan
became known.

Adolf Hitler

In this image, Adolf
Hitler is giving one of
his famous fiery
speeches. These
speeches were given
with such conviction,
many Germans blindly
followed him and
became willing
participants in his
insane plans.

Jewish Ghetto’s

In Poland and Austria,
he isolated the Jews
from their fellow
citizens by placing
them in ghettos, the
run-down sections of
the larger cities.
Jewish Ghettos
This image shows Jews being used as slave labor in the construction of a
wall around a ghetto; the run-down section of a city where the Jews
were held to separate them from the general population. Many Jews
were shipped to work camps and death camps from these ghettos.
Holocaust

Throughout German
occupied Europe, Jews
were also ordered to
wear the golden colored
six-pointed Star of David
to identify them as
Jews. For no reason other
than who they were,
Jews lost their jobs,
businesses, homes and all
their earthly
possessions.
Jews

Practicing their religion was forbidden
and Jewish schools were closed. The few
children who were able to attend other
schools were now being ridiculed by
classmates and teachers who were once
their friends. The madness he had started
in Germany was now happening across all
of Nazi occupied Europe.
School Children

1935: Two Jewish
students are made
fun of by their class.
The writing on the
blackboard says, "The
Jew is our greatest
enemy! Beware of the
Jew!".
Hitler’s Plan

As Hitler's plan unfolded, mass arrests of Jews
were ordered. Men, women and children of all
ages were herded into town squares and railway
yards in cities throughout Europe. Wives were
separated from their husbands and children
from their parents. Adults with a trade and in
good physical health were taken to work
camps where they were forced to work as
slaves to supply the German army with food,
clothing, weapons and ammunition.
The Fate of Children
In this picture, children separated from their parents are placed with older
people. The Star of David Hitler ordered them to wear as a badge of
shame is visible on the coats of a few.
Death Camps

Adults who were sick or too weak to work were
taken to death camps where they were either
hanged, shot or gassed to death by the
thousands. Their bodies, stripped of clothing,
jewelry and even the gold fillings in their teeth.
They were either dumped and buried in mass
graves or cremated in large ovens and open
pits. In some cases, whole families were
imprisoned together. This did not, however,
spare them of the horrible fate Hitler had
planned for them all.
Death Camps
In this image women and children arrive at a death camp. Unknown
to them, they had mere hours to live. Sadly, it is not hard to see how
frightened they must have been.
The fate of Children

The children arrested by the Germans
ranged in age from infants to teenagers.
The chances of surviving the death camps
was greater for the older children who
were considered better able to work.
Young mothers were often killed, some
still clutching their infant children in a
mother's loving embrace.
The Fate of Children

Many school-aged children suffered the same
fate as the sick and elderly. Some were spared
the death camps, but their fate was just as
horrible. They were used as subjects in all
kinds of medical experiments. Some were
given germs that caused diseases, and once
sick, injected with experimental medicines to
study how the human body would respond. Even
some of the adults did not escape Nazi medical
and military experiments. Many children suffered
greatly until their deaths. Those that did survive
have carried the physical and emotion scars
throughout their lives.
Shipping Jews to Concentration
Camps

The Jews arrested by the Nazis were
transported to concentration camps on
trains but not in comfortable passenger
cars. They were forced to travel in
overcrowded and poorly ventilated freight
and cattle cars. Even here, no dignity
was considered for them.
Shipping Jews to Concentration
Camps

Inside the rail cars, men, women and children
were forced to stand for hours without food and
water as the trains made their way slowly to
concentration camps across Europe. A pail in
one corner of the car served as a toilet for all.
When the trains arrived at their destinations,
some people, especially the sick and elderly, had
died of thirst or suffocation en route because
of the overcrowding. Most of them were
unaware of their fate.
Boarding the Trains
Concentration Camps

Life in the German concentration camps
was unbearable. The camps weren't
much better than the railway's cattle cars
that had brought them there. They were
constructed with row upon row of barrackstyle houses and were secured by
barbed-wire fences, guard towers and
patrolling soldiers.
Concentration Camps

Inside, the barracks there was nothing
more than rows of beds stacked from floor
to ceiling. There was little space between
each row and hardly any room to move
around in each bed. Here too, there was
little food and water. Usually, all of the
Jews, regardless of age, had their heads
shaved and their clothes confiscated and
replaced with stripped prison-like
uniforms.
Concentration Camps

Thousands in the camps died from
starvation, disease, and exposure to
the cold and damp weather. Others were
shot at the whim of the Nazis guards.
Those Jews that were imprisoned in the
work camps had their lives spared but
were fed only enough food to keep them
alive. Nutrition was poor. Barely more than
skin and bones, these workers endured
equally horrible conditions.
Concentration Camps

In this image, a group of women can be seen marching from a
concentration camp. Sometimes they were required to do hard work
in gravel pits and rock quarries. Often the work served no purpose
but to further humiliate the captured Jews.
The Holocaust

In this photo, children wait
their freedom as Allied
soldiers reach their camp.
Dressed in prison-like
clothing, these children may
have been used as slave
labor or as subjects in
medical experiments. The
children that survived
outside of the camps did so
because they were hidden
in homes, basements and
convents or lived with
Christian families who
concealed their identities.
The Human Toll

By the end of the war, an estimated six million
Jews had been killed in one way or another
inside and outside concentration camps across
Europe. No one knows for sure how many
children were killed but it is believed to be
between 1.2 and 1.5 million. Poland lost the
greatest portion of it Jewish population.
Denmark, thanks to the concern of almost its
entire population, saved ninety-seven percent of
its Jewish population, more than any other
country in Europe.
Polish Jews and Non Jews

The Polish Jews suffered more than any other group at
the hands of the Nazis, but they were not the only
victims. Poland's non-Jewish population also suffered
great losses. Anyone who came to the aid of Jews had
their homes destroyed or were arrested. In Poland,
where helping Jews was punishable by death, many
were killed for helping their Jewish friends and fellow
citizens. Millions more Poles were killed as part of Hitler's
plan to eliminate people of non-Aryan descent. An
estimated two million Poles were used in slave labor
camps and over 1.5 million, some of them children, were
deported in cattle cars to Siberian Russia. Many died of
exposure.
Destruction of Buildings

Historically important buildings such as
churches and synagogues were destroyed
and many documents detailing Polish
history were destroyed. It is estimated
that five million Poles lost their lives to
Hitler's madness. Because Polish
newspapers were forbidden, the world
knew very little about what was
happening. For many Poles, this tragedy is
the forgotten holocaust.
The Holocaust
Shortly after the war ended in 1949, the
surviving officers of the German army
responsible for killing the Jews were placed on
trial for war crimes.
 In the years that followed many of the German
officers who committed these crimes but had
escaped capture, were hunted down, put on trial
for their part in the crime and imprisoned or
hanged for their actions.

The Rescuers

Suspecting what was likely to happen to
the Jews arrested by the Germans, it is
little wonder that many people wanted to
save their Jewish friends and countrymen,
even at the risk of their own and their
family's lives.
The Nazis did medical experiments on
children in Auschwitz, one of the Nazi death
camps.
Anne Frank

Anne Frank and her
family, with two other
familes, hid in this
building in Amsterdam in
July, 1942, to escape
from the Nazis. After
more than two years,
they were betrayed and
sent to the concentration
camp, where Anne Frank
died. After the war, it was
discovered that she had
kept a diary. In it Anne
about what it was like to
be in hiding.
A mass execution of Jews in Nazi
occupied Soviet Union.
A mass execution of Jews in Nazi
occupied Ukraine.
Many of the victims of the holocaust
were children.
Concentration Camps
105064 - aka Fred Wolf
Starvation

“We…shall be compelled
to destroy a third of the
population in the
adjacent lands. We can
achieve this by
systematic
undernourishment which
in the end gives a better
result than machine guns
do. Physically breaking
them will be more
effective especially
among the young.” —
German Officer Gerd Von
Rundstedt, 1942
April 12, 1945: Nordhausen Concentration Camp,
where 20,000 inmates were believed to have died.
In occupied Austria, SS Nazis and local residents watch
with delight as Jews are being humiliated by being forced
to get on their hands and knees and scrub the pavement.
Auschwitz Survivors
Holocaust's tragic legacy
Crematorium adjacent to the gas
chamber in Auschwitz.
Inside the gas chamber at Auschwitz