Transcript World War II Notes

World War 2
What was WWII?
• Largest war in human history.
• Involved countries, colonies, and territories
around the entire world.
• By the end, over 70 million were dead.
• It lasted from 1939 until 1945.
Causes
• W WI and the Treaty of Versailles
• Appeasement
• Rise of Totalitarianism
WWI and the Treaty of
Versailles
• Germany lost land to
surrounding nations
• War reparations
– Allies collect $ to pay back
war debts to US
– Germany pays $57 trillion
(modern day equivalent)
– Germans are bankrupt,
embarrassed, guilt ridden,
and angry.
• Desperate people turn to
desperate leaders
Appeasement
• Giving someone something to make them happy and leave you alone.
• Hitler demanded land that wasn’t Germany’s and others just gave it to
him.
• Nations were trying to prevent war…it didn’t work. (Isolationism)
• Appeasement just showed Hitler that he could do whatever he wanted.
How did WWII start?
• Germany invaded Poland to get lebensraum
“Peace
in Our
Time!”
Rise of Totalitarianism
• A system in which the state and its leader
have nearly TOTAL control.
• Individual rights are not viewed as important as the needs of
the nation.
– No right to vote
– No free speech
– Government controlled economy
– Often a police state
Adolf HitlerGermany
Hideki Tojo Japan
Benito Mussolini-Italy
Josef StalinUSSR
What did Hitler Want?
• Militarism- soon after becoming chancellor he begins
rearming Germany breaking the Treaty of Versailles
• Rhineland- moves troops into the Rhineland territory
again breaking the Treaty of Versailles
• Lebensraum- “living space”
– Austria - annexed peacefully in 1938
– Sudetenland – territory in Czechoslovakia
• Given to Germany by Great Britain and France
– Hitler then invades the rest of Czechoslovakia
– On to Poland
How did WWII start?
• Germany invaded Poland.
• Allies declare war on Germany.
• Germany then invades France, Belgium, etc.
• Germans use “blitzkrieg” to overwhelm other
armies.
– Blitzkrieg means “lightening war” in German.
– Use tanks, mechanized infantry and airpower to
overwhelm an enemy
Who was on each side?
Axis Powers
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
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Allied Powers
Great Britain
Soviet Union
United States
France
– Surrendered to Germany
in 1940 after 6 weeks
“A day that will live in infamy”
• December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii to sink US ships there.
– Two hours = most US navy destroyed and 2,000
sailors killed
• This draws the US into the war and out of the
great depression.
Turning Points of WW2 in Asia
• Island Hopping – US strategy in the Pacific theater,
specific islands were targeted due to value of moving
the fight closer to Japan.
• Battle of Midway – US sinks 4 Japanese aircraft
carriers in one day.
• Manhattan Project – top secret project to build an
atomic bomb
Turning Points of WW2 in Europe
• Battle of Britain – air battle over Britain, the allies
gain air superiority after this battle allowing for the
bombing of Germany (summer/fall 1940)
• Stalingrad – German 6th Army defeated in Russia,
turning point in the eastern front. Russia goes on the
offensive until the war ends. (1942-1943)
• D-Day – Allied invasion of France, June 6, 1944
How did WWII end in Europe?
• Operation Overlord- Allied invasion of France.
Also called D-Day.
– Within a month 1 million Allied troops were
stationed in Europe.
– Germany is surrounded with the USSR to the east
• Germany surrenders in 1945 after Hitler
commits suicide.
How did WWII end in Asia?
• Two atomic bombs
were dropped on the
Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
– Roughly 246,000
people died
• The 6 days after the
2nd bomb was dropped
Japan surrendered.
Aftermath of WWII
• Allies divide Germany up between them.
– This helps start the Cold War.
• Trials are held in Germany (and Japan) to try
the people responsible for the war.
– Many are executed and jailed for war crimes.
What was The Holocaust?
• Holocaust is literally defined as:
– “a sacrifice consumed by fire”
• But most would define it as:
– the mass slaughter of European civilians,
especially Jews, by the Nazis during World War
II
– Lasted from 1933-1945
Who were the victims?
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Jews
Homosexuals
Gypsies
The Disabled
Slavic Peoples
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Concentration Camps
• Prisoners were forced to go into concentration
camps
– Also called labor camps
– Some camps were death camps
Auschwitz
• Auschwitz was the largest camp during the
Holocaust
• Prisoners were forced to give up all
belongings
• Children were often killed upon arrival
• Between 1,100,000 and 1,500,000
prisoners were murdered here
• Auschwitz was located near the German-Polish
border in Upper Silesia
• The sign of the main gate here states “Arbeit Macht
Frei”
• This translates to “Work Brings Freedom”
At the camps…
• Prisoners were forced to do hard labor
• Prisoners were starved
• Forced to obey the Nazi’s, and were murdered if
they disobeyed
• Many prisoners died as a result of incarceration
and maltreatment
Camp Doctors
• Nazi doctors tortured men, women, and
children at death camps
• Performed experiments on victims
• Victims were:
– put into pressure chambers
– tested with drugs
– castrated
– frozen to death
• Children were exposed to :
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Experimental surgeries without anesthesia
Blood transfusions from one to another
Isolation endurance
Injections of lethal germs
Sex change operations
Removal of organs and limbs
Josef Mengele
• Known as Angel of Death
• Performed experiments on twins:
– Carried out twin to twin
transfusions
– Stitched twins together
– Castrated or sterilized twins
– Organ and limb removal
Ways of Genocide
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Gas chambers
Cremation
Starvation
Malnutrition
Torture
Death Marches
Liberation of the Camps
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Liberation began in 1944
Soviets liberated Auschwitz in 1945
U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald in 1945
Remaining camps were liberated in 1945
“Liberators confronted unspeakable conditions in
the Nazi camps, where piles of corpses lay
unburied”
The Numbers
• 11 million prisoners were murdered
• 6 million victims were Jews
• Number of European Jews who survived:
3,546,211
• Percentages:
– Polish Jews killed: 91%
– German Jews killed: 36%
– Jews killed in Europe during war: 63%