Transcript World War II - Yeshiva of Greater Washington

World War II
Fascism
 An
ultra-nationalist vision of government
that holds the nation is a body, with a
single leader at its head.
 Advocates private business but demands
business be devoted to the good of the
nation
 Designed as a third way to oppose both
Capitalism and Communism
Benito Mussolini
 Founder
of Italian Fascism
 Led a group of Fascist thugs known as
“black shirts” on a march to Rome to
depose government
 Supported by Italian King
 Establishes himself as “Il Duce” (the
leader) of Italy in 1922
 Argued for the recreation of the Roman
Empire, invaded Ethiopia in 1936.
Mussolini
Francisco Franco
 Former
military officer, launched a coup
to become dictator of Spain
 Leads to a decade long civil war as
Fascists under Franco fight
socialists/communist resistance
 Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini send troops to
aid both sides of war
 Spanish Civil War becomes a model of
what was to come in World War II
Franco and his Nazi allies
Nazism
 Built
off the ideas of fascism: overpowering state with single ruler, a Fuhrer
 Includes racial ideology that claims
Germans are the supreme race
 Seeks to exterminate other races to
establish German “Aryan” supremacy
over the world

Saw Jews in particular as deserving of
extermination
Rise of Adolf Hitler



Joined ultra-nationalist Nazi Party after leaving
Army, quickly rose to leadership
Launched an attempted coup from Munich in
1923. Ended up arrested. Wrote Mein Kampf in
prison
Used economic turmoil to rise to power again



Blamed Jews and Communists for German
surrender and current state of German economy
Took chancellorship in 1932
Used fire in Reichstag to assume emergency
powers and declare himself Fuhrer
Hitler Practicing
Stalinist Russia
 After
the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin
seizes control of Russia
 Stalin begins a five-year plan to
modernize Russia at the cost of Russian
territory. Millions die of starvation
 Sends dissidents to Gulags, slave labor
camps designed to build Russian
economy.
Purges
 Stalin
systematically murders anyone in
government who opposes him, or isn’t
sufficiently enthusiastic.
 Leaves Russian government weakened,
and totally beholden to Stalin for
leadership
Imperial Japan: Greater Asian
Prosperity Zone
 In
a quest to become an world power,
Japan begins invading neighboring
countries to seize their natural resources
 Declares that they are freeing Asian
nations from colonization to form a
prosperity zone

In reality, Japanese occupation much more
brutal than European powers
Invasion of China
 Japan
launches an invasion of China
through captured Manchuria, committing
hundreds of atrocities against Chinese
citizens in order to seize factories, mines
and fields.
American Neutrality Acts



FDR pushed for an embargo (stoppage of
trade) of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Congress refused, arguing it would bring
America into war.
Congress passes Neutrality Act: forbade
President from making selective embargoes
without Congressional approval. Prevented
loans, or money to be given to any
combatants in war.
Arms could be sold only if paid immediately in
cash.
Violating Versailles: The
Rhineland
 Hitler
became popular by declaring
Treaty of Versailles null and void.
 Marched German troops into the
Rhineland to reclaim German territory
 Move went unopposed, since most
agreed that Versailles was unfair

Saw it as a way to appease Hitler
Rhineland
Annexing of Austria: The
Anschluss


Hitler argued that Austria must be made part
of Germany since it was mostly German
speaking people
Gave an ultimatum to Austrian government
demanding Nazis be put in charge


Austrians appealed to France and Britain, they
refused to intervene
Germans engineer vote, use intimidation on
Austrian citizens, and finally march into Austria
and claim it for Germany
Austria
S.S. Troops raiding Jewish
Quarter in Vienna
The Munich Conference



Hitler next demanded The Sudetenland, a
portion of Czechoslovakia, which was
German speaking
Britain and France called a Conference in
Munich to dissuade Hitler
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
agreed to let Hitler have Sudetenland if he
promised not to invade anything else


Declared, “It is peace in our time.”
German troops march into Czechoslovakia
Soviet-German NonAggression Pact
 Seeing
their former allies unwilling to fight
Hitler, Stalin decides on an alliance with
Nazis to prevent war
 Soviet foreign minister Molotov and
German foreign Minister Ribbentrop sign a
treaty agreeing to not attack each other
 Both agree to carve up Poland between
each other
Sitzkreig or Quasi-War




Hitler and Stalin invade Poland in 1939.
Poland has alliance with Britain and France.
France declares war on Germany but neither
country acts in Poland’s defense
Poland falls to Germany in a matter of weeks
A month passes with neither side acting
against the other, known as the Quasi-War
Attack on Poland
The Blitzkrieg
 The
German attack involved lightning fast
tank attacks backed by air support
 Other European powers, preparing for a
trench battle could not stand up to
German firepower
Battle of France
 Germany
invades France from the North,
smashing through their lines.
 Paris falls within a month of the start of
fighting in France
 France divided into two state: a Nazi
occupied territory and a puppet state
called Vichy
Hitler in Paris
Battle of Britain
 Hitler
sends aircraft to attack Britain in
preparation for invasion
 Though outnumbered, British fight
Germans off
Election of 1940
 Roosevelt
runs for an unprecedented 3rd
term
 Runs against isolationist Wendell Wilkie
 Promises that United States will not get
directly involved in World War II
Lend-Lease Program
 In
order to aid Britain without violating
Neutrality Acts, Roosevelt begins lending
equipment to the British to help them fight
 Includes American planes and destroyers
The America First Committee
 Started
in response to lend-lease
 Argued that Americans should think of
America First, rather than risk getting
involved in foreign war

Opposed all efforts to join WWII or aid either
side
Operation Barbarossa
 In
Summer 1941, Hitler launches a massive
invasion of the Soviet Union
 Commits hundreds of thousands of men,
giving Britain a reprieve
 Germans soon bogged down in Russian
territory
Atlantic Charter
 Charter
between British and French.
Declared that the United States and
Great Britain would protect existing
borders, and defend against any
aggression in their territory
 Ultimately a statement of solidarity,
nothing more
Japan on the Move
 Japan
invades Indochina, declaring war
on the French, British and Dutch.
 In response, the United States launched
an embargo of coal, oil and rubber on
Japan
Attack on Pearl Harbor
 Believing
War with U.S. inevitable, Japan
launches a surprise attack on United
States navy



Destroys every battleship in the fleet
Aircraft Carriers untouched
Ends protest to war, United States fully
commits
America on the Homefront
Roosevelt’s War Programs
 The
President begins enacting programs
to transition the entire American economy
into producing goods for the war effort
War Production Board
 Roosevelt
created a new government
agency to oversee the transformation of
the U.S. economy into making weapons


Effectively commandeered car and plane
factories to make fighters, bombers and
tanks
Companies received large amounts of
government funding if they could convince
gov. of their necessity
Office of Price Administration
 Had
the power to place price ceilings on
all goods to ensure that the government
could purchase raw materials
 Controlled supply to ensure bulk of
material went to the war
National Labor Relations
Board
 In
order to prevent strikes in all industries
vital to the War, FDR used the Labor
Relations Board to arbitrate worker’s
grievances against their companies

Had Unions sign “No-Strike Pledges”
Revenue Act of 1942
 Added
a 5% Victory tax to all incomes,
with the exception of the very poor.
 Created widespread income taxation for
the first time in American history
The Draft
 Established
a draft for all American males
aged 18-29.
 Chosen by a lottery system



Around 10 million men drafted
Refusing to go a felony offense
Exceptions included
 College
Student
 Married with children
 Chronic medical problems
WACS and WAVES
 Women
served either in the Women’s
Auxiliary Core or the Women’s Auxiliary
Volunteer Emergency Service

Women worked as nurses, radio operators,
ambulance drivers and members of the
signal corps
African Americans
 Served
in segregated units or flocked to
the cities for high paying war jobs
The Japanese
 Internment:
Fearing Japanese on the
west coast would be disloyal, thousands
of families were rounded up by executive
order and locked in internment camps for
the duration of the war
Anti-Japanese Sentiment
Korematsu v. U.S.
A
group of Japanese-American citizens
sued the government, arguing that
internment was a violation of their rights.
 Court found that in cases of emergency
the government has the right to imprison
citizens if they represent a danger to the
U.S.
Nisei Regiments
 Japanese
were allowed to fight for the
U.S., but only against the Germans
 Several served with distinction and won
Medals of Honor
U.S. Joins the Fight
 North
Africa: First U.S. combat against
Germans was to force German troops out
of N. Africa.

Overwhelming U.S. numbers forced
German General Erwin Rommel to retreat
to Italy
Invasion of Italy
 U.S.
led invasion of Italy through Sicily
 Italians rise up to aid U.S./British invasion


Mussolini murdered by a mob, Italians side
with Allies
Germans forced to fight a delaying action
in Alps to stop U.S. from invading Germany
The Air War
 U.S.
used heavy bombers like the B-17 to
carpet bomb German cities and industry
 Losses were high, but German economy
crippled
Tide Turns in Russia
 Russians
win two major battles at
Stalingrad and Kursk, crushing the
German Army and destroying thousands
of tanks

Germany now forced on the defensive for
rest of war
Invasion of France
 On
June 6, 1944 the United States, Britain
and Canada launch a massive invasion of
Northern France


Known as D-Day
Hitler now facing a war on all sides
V-E Day
 Germany
surrenders after Hitler’s suicide
on May 8th, 1945
 Germany divided between Soviet Red
Army and Allies
 Berlin divided into sectors controlled by
British, French, Americans and Soviets
V-E Day
The Shoa
 Krystallnacht:
Nov 9-10 1939, beginning of
German pogrom against the Jewish
people. Thousands of Jewish homes,
synagogues, and storefronts destroyed
Resettlement and the Ghettos
 As
Germans conquered Poland, Austria,
and Czechoslovakia they forced Jews to
move to enclosed spaces in cities, and to
mark themselves with yellow stars

Jews forced to work as slave labor in
various war industries
The Wannsee Conference
 Jan.
20, 1942: Reinhardt Heydrich offered
what he called the “final solution to the
Jewish question” in a paper to Hitler. Hitler
signed off on it, beginning the process of
organized extermination of Jews, Gypsies,
persons of color and Slavs.
Concentration and Slave Labor
Camps
 Germans
set up nearly 100 camps in
every country they conquered.
 Kept political prisoners and undesirables
at starvation conditions, working in war
industries
 Many would eventually be converted to
extermination camps
The Death Camps
 Camps
devoted to the full-time
extermination of people Hitler considered
undesirable.
 Total number died in camps 8.8 million,
around 6 million of which were exclusively
Jewish.
Jewish Resistance
 Ghetto
Uprisings: Several ghettos
experienced prolonged uprisings as
Jewish civilians fought to keep from being
evicted or exterminated.
 Most famous was the Warsaw Uprising



Months of smuggling guns into the ghetto
Hundreds of German deaths
Germans forced to send a tank battalion to
put down the uprising.
Sonderkommando Uprising
 Sonderkommandos
bodies in Auschwitz

worked disposing
Destroyed a crematorium, killed several
German soldiers prior to being killed
Working for the Resistance
 Resistance
groups worked to smuggle
Jewish families out of Europe to U.S. or
Africa.
 Many Jews remained with the resistance
as guerilla fighters against the Nazis
Roosevelt and the Holocaust

Roosevelt hindered by isolationist policies put
in place by previous Congresses


Incident of the U.S.S. St. Louis demonstrates
Roosevelt’s problems


Had reports of German brutality but chose to
focus on war effort
Forced to find another place for Jewish
Refugees to go thanks to National Quotas set by
Immigration Acts
Did not live long enough to see the horrors of
the camps as they were liberated.
Pacific Front
 The
Philippines: Philippines fell to
Japanese in 1941, Americans fought until
out of ammo then surrendered
 Japanese force-marched them across
island with no food or water to kill as many
as possible.

Known as the Bataan Death March
Return
 Americans
return and invade islands in
1944. Filipinos aid army, after having
been largely enslaved by Japanese.
Islands become a base to launch air
attacks against other Japanese holdings
Island Hopping and Midway
 Island
Hopping: Strategy of capturing
one island after another moving steadily
towards Japan itself
 Midway: U.S. forces lured the Japanese
carrier fleet into a trap. Destroyed three
Japanese carriers in one day. Turned tide
of war. From Midway onward, Japan
steadily losing
Iwo Jima
 Small
Island: capable of supporting a
land-strip, in range of Japan
 Month long grueling battle digging
entrenched Japanese out of their
mountain stronghold
 Americans saw many civilians and soldiers
commit suicide rather than be captured
 Convinced President Truman that Japan
would not surrender
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Manhattan Project
 Secret
plan to construct a nuclear bomb
 Best scientists in the country gathered to
develop weapon
 Tested at Alamagordo, NM, July 16, 1945
The Atomic Bomb
 First
atomic Bomb, Little Boy dropped on
Hiroshima, Aug 6, 1945. The single bomb
destroyed 70% of the city. Initial deaths
were around 200,000
 On Aug. 11th, a second bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki. Death toll
estimates at 70,000-100,000.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Power of the Flash
Power of the Flash
V-J Day: The War Ends
 Japan
Surrenders Unconditionally on Sept
2, 1945 after Russia entered the War
 The War left most of Europe and Asia in
devastated ruins. United States and
Russia are now the uncontested superpowers in the world.
 Stage set for a nuclear fueled conflict
between two gigantic powers, capable
of destroying themselves and the planet.