Transcript Open File

World War II
Appeasement
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1932—Germany announces it will no longer
obey the military restrictions of the Treaty of
Versailles
7 March 1936—German troops reoccupy the
Rhineland
12 March 1938—the Anschluss, Germany
annexes Austria
September 1938—Hitler demands territory
from Czechoslovakia. The Munich Pact signed
by Germany, France, Britain, and Italy gives
him the Sudetenland.
March 1939—Slovakia splits from
Czechoslovakia, German troops occupy the
Czech region the next day.
Through each of these Britain, France, and
the League of Nations choose a policy of
appeasement—giving Hitler what he wants
rather than risk another World War
Neville Chamberlain
British Prime Minister (1937-1940)
Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact
• In April 1939, the Soviet
Union had offered a new
triple alliance to Britain and
France.
• To avoid a war on two fronts,
Hitler sent his Foreign
Minister to Stalin with a
peace deal.
• Formally, the Molotov-Von
Ribbentrop Pact was a nonaggression pact between
Germany and the USSR.
• Secretly they had agreed to
divide Poland and Eastern
Europe.
Blitzkrieg—Lightning War
• 1 Sept 1939—German
troops attack Poland.
• Germany employs a fast
moving strategy with
tanks supported by
aircraft advancing deep
into Poland. Later, trucks
bring in foot soldiers.
• Britain and France
demand Hitler withdraw
and declare war when he
doesn’t.
• The last Polish troops
surrender on 6 Oct 1939
Sitzkrieg—the Phony War
• Britain and France were
not ready for war. As
they built up their armies
Europe settled into a lull
known as the Phony War.
• France concentrated on
strengthening the
Maginot Line.
• Britain sent troops to
protect Belgium.
• Both countries were
preparing to fight WWI
again.
1940
• April—Germany invades
Norway and Denmark
• Britain attempts a
counterattack in Norway.
• May—Germany invades
France and the Low
Countries.
• Chamberlain resigns and
Winston Churchill becomes
Prime Minister of Britain.
Dunkirk
• Germany invades France
through the Ardennes
Forrest, bypassing the
defenses of the Maginot
Line.
• The German blitzkrieg
surrounds hundreds of
thousands of Allied troops
trapping them at Dunkirk.
• Britain organizes a massive
evacuation. Using every
available craft that could
cross the Channel 340,000
troops are rescued.
• France surrenders on 25
June 1940.
The Blitz—the Battle of Britain
• With France out only
Britain remains to oppose
German.
• While Hitler builds an
invasion fleet, the
Luftwaffe begins an aerial
campaign to force Britain
to the peace table.
• London is heavily
bombed. Children are
evacuated to the
countryside. Londoners
take refuge in the
Underground.
Operation Barbarossa
• With Britain seemingly near
defeat, Hitler makes plans
to turn on his real enemy,
Stalin.
• Hitler launches his invasion
of Russia on 22 June 1941.
• Stalin has executed or
exiled his best generals.
Germany. Soviets troops
are forced to rely on
scorched earth tactics.
• Hitler like Napoleon is
finally halted by General
Winter.
The United States
• The US became isolationist
after WWI.
• Throughout the 30’s
Congress passes laws
enforcing US neutrality in
European and Asian wars.
• In 1941, the Lend-Lease Act
ended this neutrality,
allowing the US to provide
arms to the Allies.
• By September 1941, the US
is in an undeclared naval
war with Germany and Italy.
Pearl Harbor
• In 1941, Japan was
prepared to seize the Dutch
East Indies.
• Worried that the US would
interfere, Japan plans a
knock-out first strike on the
US Navy at Pearl Harbor.
• Admiral Yamamoto
promises he will “run wild
for 6 months” but warns
Japan will awaken a
sleeping giant.
• On 7 December 1941,
Japanese planes and
submarines make a surprise
attack and destroy most of
the US Pacific Fleet.
“…a date that will live in infamy.”
• On 8 Dec 1941, President
Roosevelt asks Congress
to declare war on Japan.
• Hitler, in a show of
support for his allies,
declares war on the US.
• Churchill is reported to
have said “So, we have
won after all.”
• America pursues a Europe
First policy, while it
rebuilds the Pacific fleet.
1942-1943
• Yamamoto’s sleeping
giant awakens and pours
its resources into
defeating Mussolini and
Hitler.
• Campaigns in North Africa
and Italy give the Axis its
first strategic defeats.
• In Russia, General Zhukov
is recalled from Siberia
and begins to push the
Germans back.
Strategic Bombing
• Germany and the Allies use
strategic bombing in an effort
to drive enemies out of the
war.
• Strategic bombing targets war
industries and population
centers to destroy the enemy’s
ability and will to fight.
• Technological innovations like
radar and the Norton bombsight make the Allies more
successful at it.
• Germany retaliates with
“vengeance weapons” the V1
and V2 rockets.
D-Day
• As Nazi victory began to
seem less certain, Hitler
began constructing
defenses against an Allied
invasion of Europe.
• On “D-Day” 6 June 1944,
American, British and
Canadian troops landed on
the beaches of Normandy,
France.
• The night before
thousands of British and
American troops had
landed behind German
lines by parachute and
glider.
The Race for Berlin
• British and American forces
secured their landings in
France and defeated a
German counter-attack
through the Ardennes.
• In January 1945, Churchill,
Roosevelt, and Stalin meet
in Yalta to discuss how to
end the war.
• In March, Allied troops
cross the Rhine into
German.
• They engage in a “race”
against the Red Army to be
the first to capture Berlin.
V-E Day
• On 30 April 1945, Hitler
and Goebbels kill
themselves and their
families. Admiral Dönitz
becomes president of
Germany.
• Dönitz tries to continue
the war long enough to
allow German troops to
surrender to the Western
Allies instead of the
Soviets.
• Germany officially
surrenders 8 May 1945.
The Pacific
• After 6 months of easy
victories, Japan receives its
first real defeat at the Battle of
Midway.
• This is the turning point as
Japan begins to be pushed
back by the US Navy.
• Japan had planned to defend
each island to the death,
hoping the US would be
unwilling to loose all the lives
it would take to capture each.
• The US simply bypasses many
islands, cutting them off from
supply and capturing only
those needed to continue the
advance.
Final Victory
• The Battles of Guadalcanal,
Iwo Jima, and Okinawa
make it clear that invading
Japan will be horribly costly.
• One estimate puts Allied
dead at 100,000 and over
half a million wounded.
Japanese dead would be in
the millions.
• Faced with such a horrible
prospect. Roosevelt’s
successor Harry Truman
chooses to use the first
atomic bombs to force
Japan to surrender.
Atrocities
• Hitler gained much of his early
support by playing on latent antiSemitic feelings in Germany.
• Blaming the German Jews for
everything from the Treaty of
Versailles to international
communism, Hitler deprives Jews
of citizenship and rights.
• Hitler may have hoped these
policies would force Jews to leave
Germany, many did, but unless
they had special talents, most
had trouble getting immigrant
visas to other countries.
• As Hitler’s power grew, Jews were
targeted with vandalism and
violence, forced to live in
traditionally Jewish
neighborhoods, and eventually
required to display a yellow star
on their clothing at all times.
The Holocaust
• Hitler was unable to expel the Jews in
Germany and the expansion of
Germany’s borders had added millions
more.
• Hitler wanted a “final solution to the
Jewish problem”.
• In the 1930’s, Germany had begun
using concentration camps to imprison
political prisoners, the mentally
handicapped and other “undesirables”.
• The “Final Solution” sent Jews to these
camps to work as slave labor until they
died.
• In Ukraine and Russia, special units
were created to kill Jews and
Communist party members.
• Later, extermination camps were
created that killed thousands daily.
Left: Concentration camp workers were fed just enough to keep them going.
Top right: Wedding rings collected from Auschwitz prisoners.
Bottom right: Hair shaved from female prisoners.
Showers
• Newly arrived prisoners
at Auschwitz were sent to
the showers.
• The were told to pile their
clothes neatly so they
could retrieve them later.
• Dozens were sent into the
shower rooms at once.
• When the doors closed
behind them, the showers
came on.
• Instead of water, they
sprayed poison gas.
Being a child was no protection. Twins were
often selected for “medical” experiments.
Soon Jews, Gypsies, and Homosexuals were dying faster than
they could be buried. Crematoria were built to dispose of the
bodies more rapidly. Prisoners were forced to handle the bodies.
Japanese Atrocities
• Japanese soldiers took a
very dim view of
surrender and treated
prisoners quite poorly.
• Many were used for
target practice or slave
labor.
• In China, Unit 731 tested
biological weapons on
prisoners.
• Korea girls were bought
or forced to work as
comfort women in
brothels set up by the
Japanese Army.
Soviet Atrocities
• The Soviet Union deported
or conscripted tens of
thousands of Latvians,
Lithuanians, and Estonians
following their take-over.
• Hundreds of thousands of
German POWs disappeared
into prison camps in Siberia,
many never returned.
• During the invasion of
Germany, Soviet troops
frequently shot
surrendering Germans and
were accused of mass rapemurders.
Western Atrocities
• While British, French, and
American troops committed
far fewer war crimes, they
are not blameless.
• Axis prisoners were
sometimes tortured for
information or summarily
executed, usually in
retaliation for their own
atrocities. Several incidents
occurred at liberated
concentration camps.
• Some say the strategic
bombing of German and
Japanese cities was
comparable to the
Holocaust.
Internment Camps
• Following the Pearl Harbor attack,
many American feared Japanese
Americans might act as spies or
saboteurs for Japan.
• Many issei, nisei, and sansei were
imprisoned in interment camps.
• While their goods were not seized
they could not work and many
had their property foreclosed on.
• Others had their property stolen
by “helpful” neighbors who
offered to put land or houses into
their own names to prevent
confiscation.
• Despite this treatment, many
young Japanese-American men
volunteered for the army to prove
their loyalty.