Transcript European Theatre

 1936
Hitler took over Rhineland (violating
the Treaty of Versailles), annexes Austria
and part of Czechoslovakia
 Other countries practice policy of
“Appeasement”: they try to ignore and give
in to Hitler in order to avoid war
 Japan, Germany, and Italy UNITE to form
AXIS POWERS
 Soviet Union (Russia), USA, and Great Britain
would make up the ALLIED POWERS
 September
1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland,
beginning the war
 US
was still neutral, but passed the LendLease Act: President could send aid to
any nation whose defense was
considered vital to the US
 The
lend-lease program allowed the U.S. to
send weapons to Britain if Britain promised to
pay rent or return them after the war
 April
1, 1933 Boycott of Jewish Stores
 April
7, 1933 – passes laws that state Jews
cannot work for the government or be in
the army
 September
1935 – Nuremberg Race Laws
• Established who was “Jewish”
• Took citizenship away from Jewish people
 Into
the 1940s- “Final Solution” leads to
concentration camps and extermination
camps
 Jews
were considered
socially inferior and unfit to
live by the Nazi party
 Hitler’s “Final
Solution” to
the “Jewish Problem” was
mass genocide (systematic
killing of a race of people)
 Roughly
6 Million Jews died
during this episode in
history known as the
HOLOCAUST
 By
1944, the Allies had control over
European skies and began to plan a land
invasion of Axis controlled Europe
 The
Allies chose to attack the Germans in France
on the coast of Normandy
 100,000 soldiers and 23,000 paratroopers
participated in the attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPA6kRuhKks ---Saving Private Ryan D-Day
Clip
The invasion of France
caught the Germans by
surprise. Looking at the
map, where do you think
the Germans thought the
invasion would land? Why?
http://www.history.com/shows/wwii-in-hd/videos/ddays#d-days
 Though
the D-Day invasion caught the Germans by
surprise, heavy American casualties occurred at
Omaha Beach
 The invasion was the turning point of the war in
Europe: within two months the Allies had over a
million troops in France


As American, British and
Russian armies began to
close in on Berlin, Hitler,
the leader of Germany,
committed suicide
Within a week the
German army
surrendered, ending the
war in Europe (known as
V-E Day)