Transcript Aim: What issues surrounding WWII are historians looking at today?

Aim: How did WWII end and What
is the legacy of WWII?
Do Now: When you think of the
word legacy, what words come to
mind?
Legacy: something transmitted by
or received from an ancestor or
predecessor or from the past
The End of the War in Europe
and Asia
Tehran Conference, Nov.-Dec. 1943.
The first of the “Big Three” Meetings
• Although all three of the leaders
present arrived with differing
objectives, the main outcome of
the Tehran Conference was the
commitment to the opening of a
second front against Nazi
Germany by the Western Allies.
The conference also addressed
relations between the Allies and
Turkey and Iran, operations in
Yugoslavia and against Japan as
well as the envisaged post-war
settlement. A separate protocol
signed at the conference pledged
the Big Three's recognition of
Iran's independence.
Operation TORCH, November, 1942
Allied attack on German-controlled
North Africa.
Designed to set the stage for the
invasion of southern Europe through
Italy and open up a second front to
reduce pressure on the Soviet forces
fighting the Nazi’s in the East.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
George s. Patton
D-Day (Operation OVERLORD): June 6th,
1944
Europe, percent of pop. Killed in WWII
The Yalta (Crimea) Conference,
Feb. 1945
• Second of the “Big
Three” meetings.
• Purpose was to divide
up Post-War Europe,
particularly Poland and
Germany.
• Creation of the United
Nations, with Stalin
initially agreeing to
participate.
Potsdam Conference, July-August,
1945
• Primary goals were the
punishment of
Germany, the
establishment of a
postwar order, the
creation of new Peace
Treaties, and countering
the effects of the war
(war crimes trials,
displaced persons (DP’s)
The Division of Poland
Europe, As a Result of Yalta, 1945
Europe by Late 1945
The Destruction of Japan
• A combination of
firebombing Japanese
cities (and Dresden,
Germany), and the
dropping of the two
atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
is estimated to have
killed over 1 million
Japanese civilians
between March and
August, 1945.
The Surrender and American
Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952
Rep’s of the Japanese government surrender
on board USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945
General Douglas MacArthur with
Japanese Emperor Hirohito
War Crimes Trials
• Nuremberg, and other European sites, such as
Warsaw.
• Some Trials held in Asia, General Tojo was executed.
• Eight Judges determined the fate of those accused
of various war crimes against humanity.
• 12 defendants (Nazi’s) sentenced to death, 7 were
sentenced to prison, and 3 acquitted.
Legacy of Nuremberg Trials – Nov.
1945-Oct. 1946
•
•
•
The Tribunal is celebrated for
establishing that "[c]rimes against
international law are committed by
men, not by abstract entities, and
only by punishing individuals who
commit such crimes can the
provisions of international law be
enforced."
It served as the model for the
International Military Tribunal for
the Far East which tried Japanese
officials for crimes against peace
and against humanity.
It also served as the model for the
Adolf Eichmann (1962)trial and for
present-day International Criminal
Court (ICC).
Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in the
dock. The main target of the
prosecution was Hermann Göring (at
the left edge on the first row of
benches), considered to be the most
important surviving official in the Third
Reich after Hitler's death.
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler
and Stalin, Timothy Snyder (2011)
Aim: What is the legacy of WWII?
• 1. What contributions
did Bloodlands make to
the historiography of
WWII?
• 2. Why do you think
Very Nice People is such
a controversial book in
France?
The War in Pop Culture
Churchill’s Secret War
•In Bengal, between one and three million died of
hunger in 1943.
•The man-made famine and the contrast between
the plight of starving Indians and well-fed British
officers dining in the city's many colonial clubs has
been described as one of the darkest chapters in
British rule on the Indian subcontinent.
World War II has sometimes
been referred to as the “last
good war”. Was it???