Transcript Slide 1

World War II Hits Europe
• In March 1935, Hitler announced he
would no longer obey the Treaty of
Versailles
• He violated the treaty by building up an
army
• According to the treaty the German
Rhineland was to be a demilitarized zone
(no military occupation)
• 1936 Hitler orders his troops to reoccupy
this area
• However if the French begin to mobilize
Hitler’s orders were to withdrawal
• France did nothing when the Rhineland
is remilitarized
• Britain followed the policy of
appeasement or giving in to avoid war
Sudetenland
• In March 1938, Hitler sent his army
into Austria & took over
• Sudetenland = Western section of
Czechoslovakia
• Three million German speaking people
live in this section of Czechoslovakia
• Hitler contends the intent of the
Versailles treaty was violated in
Czech.
• He wants to combine Czechoslovakia
& Austria to form the Third Reich
(empire)
• Munich Settlement: Chamberlain
(Great Britain’s Prime Minister),
Daladier (France’s Leader), on Sept.
29, 1938 give Germany the
Sudetenland to avoid war
• March 15, 1939 Germany take the
rest of Czechoslovakia
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
• The British & French leadership didn’t
really trust the Communist Soviet
Union
• Stalin didn’t like the fact that he was
left out of the Munich Conference by
France & Britain
• Secret Non-Aggression Treaty
between Germany and Soviet Union
was signed 8/23/1939
• Publically they agree not to attack
each other, privately they agree to
split Poland between them
• Germany say it’s okay for Soviet
Union to take the Baltic States &
Finland
• Stalin agreed to it because he thought
it would keep Russia out of WWII
• Axis Powers = alliance of Germany,
Italy, Japan & Russia (secret)
Beginning of World War II
• Great Britain and France
have reasserted their
pledge to defend Poland
• Sept. 1, 1939 Germany
invades Poland from the
West
• France and Great Britain
declare war on Germany
• WWII has begun
• On Sept. 17th Russia
invades from the East
• Oct 6, 1939 Poland
surrenders
Blitzkrieg
• For almost 7 months after the invasion of
Poland things remained calm
• France & Britain mobilized (prepared) their
troops along the Maginot Line
• The line was a series of fortifications
(defenses) along the German & French
border
• Hitler wanted to apply the tactic of
Blitzkrieg = Lightning War
• Airplanes and tanks hit strategic areas,
then troops storm in from east and west
• April 1940 Germany attacks Norway and
Denmark
• May 1940 Germany invades Belgium and
the Netherlands
• End of May 1940 Germany invades France
• June 22, 1940 France surrenders
• A French General, Charles de Gaulle fled
to London where he setup a govt. to try to
re-conquer France
Battle of Britain (Summer 1940)
• With the fall of France, Britain stood alone
against the Nazis
• New British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill promised they would never give in
• Hitler originally targeted military site and
industries in Britain with his air force
(Luftwaffe)
• However bombers had a 500 mile range
• The British moved production beyond their
range
• Hitler targets heavily populated areas
London
• The British developed Radar to track planes
& also stole the Enigma, a German code
machine
• British tracked the German planes from
take off, and the R.A.F. (Royal Air Force)
could fight them going and leaving
• Germans used V1 and V2 rockets which
couldn’t be shot down
United States & War in Europe
• Roosevelt, while not an
isolationist, was determined to
keep America out of the
European war
• Roosevelt broke a long tradition
in American politics and ran for a
third term which he handily won
• Roosevelt constructed a plan for
sending material aid to Britain
without demanding payment
termed the Lend-Lease Act of
1941
• The Act destroyed all pretensions
of neutrality; German U-Boats
began sinking American
merchant ships in earnest
Pearl Harbor
• In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria &
China in 1937 which angered the
rest of the world, including the U.S.
• In 1940 the U.S. stopped trade & all
oil sales to Japan (embargo)
• Japan, in retaliation for the economic
stance of the U.S. in terms of
material sales and trade, launched a
surprise attack on the base on
December 7
• Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was home to
the American Pacific fleet in 1941
• Japan hoped the attack would
cripple the U.S. & keep it out of WWII
• This action unified the country and
threw America into World War II
The Twisting Road to War
• Great Britain gained a new ally
on June 22, 1941, when
Germany invaded the Soviet
Union (before Pearl Harbor)
• Hitler had previously signed an
agreement with Stalin (Russia)
to avoid war, but backed out.
• By Dec., 1941, German
mechanized divisions had
destroyed a substantial part of
the Soviet army and had
overrun much of European
Russia
• However, the harsh Russian
winter halted the German
sweep
• The drive on Moscow was foiled
by a Soviet counteroffensive.
War in the Pacific
• General Eisenhower decided that
the European war had to have
priority over the Pacific campaign
• Thus, the first phase of the war in
the Pacific was disastrous for the
Allies
• Japan swiftly conquered the
Philippines, Malaya, Burma,
Netherlands East Indies
(Indonesia), and many Pacific
islands
• Japan destroyed an Allied fleet in
the Java Sea
• By mid-1942, Japan reached its
furthest points of advance in the
Aleutian Islands and New Guinea.
Pacific War Turns Around
• Australia became the chief Allied base for the
countermoves against Japan
• Directed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Army),
Admiral Nimitz, and Admiral Halsey (Navy)
• To defeat Japan, Admiral Chester Nimitz
developed the famous "island hopping"
strategy
• American forces coordinated a series of
amphibious (beach landings) assaults on
select Japanese island fortresses while
skipping over certain others.
• The first Allied naval successes against Japan
were scored in the battles of the Coral Sea
(5/42) and Midway (6/42)
• U.S. bombers knocked out the major part of
Japan's carrier fleet and forced Japan into
retreat.
• Midway was the first decisive blow against the
Axis by Allied forces.
War in Europe Looks Bad
• Despite the slightly improved
position in the Pacific, the late
summer of 1942 was perhaps the
darkest period of the war for the
Allies.
• In North Africa, the Axis
(Nazis/Italians) forces under Field
Marshal Rommel were sweeping
into Egypt;
• In Russia, they had penetrated the
Caucasus and launched a gigantic
offensive against Stalingrad
• In the Atlantic, even to the shores
of the United States and in the
Gulf of Mexico, German
submarines were sinking Allied
shipping at an unprecedented rate.
Nazi Persecution of Jews
• Nazi propaganda started an ugly campaign
against the Jews even before the war
• For centuries, many Germans & other
Europeans blamed the Jews for their failures
• Anti-Semitism: Hostility towards Jews
• As early as 1933, the Nazis made persecution
of Jews a national policy
• By 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews
of their right to citizenship, jobs, & property
• On Nov. 9, 1938 Nazi soldiers & citizens
attacked Jewish homes, businesses &
synagogues
• It became known as the Kristallnacht or “night
of broken glass”
• By the end of 1939, many Jews realized Nazi
Germany was dangerous & fled the country
Jews Flee Germany
• However, many Jews stayed some
willingly, others forced
• Many countries, like the U.S., France,
& Britain put a limit on the # of Jewish
immigrants allowed
• They feared that allowing too many in
would cause a hatred of Jews
• Hitler ordered all Jews in countries
under his control into ghettos located
in Poland
• The ghettos were segregated Jewish
areas
• Hitler sealed off the ghettos with
barbed wire & walls hoping the Jews
would die or starve to death
• Even in horrible conditions the Jews
held on
Holocaust in Europe
• Hitler got tired of waiting for the Jews
to die, so he came up with the “Final
Solution”, which was genocide
• Genocide: the deliberate killing of
people based on their ethnicity,
nationality, race, or religion
• The Holocaust refers to Nazi
Germany’s systematic genocide of
various ethnic, religious, national, and
secular groups during World War II
• Other groups deemed "undesirable",
Slavs, the disabled (mentally and/or
physically) and homosexuals
• Hitler’s elite security force, the S.S.,
rounded up Jews & others throughout
Europe
• These people were sent to isolated
locations, called concentration camps
• Concentration camps for
"undesirables" were spread throughout
Europe
Concentration Camps
• Some camps, such as Auschwitz, combined
slave labor with systematic extermination.
• Prisoners were divided into two groups: those
too weak for work were immediately executed
in gas chambers
• Chambers were sometimes disguised as
showers
• The bodies were burned
• Others were first used for slave labor in
factories or industrial enterprises located in the
camp or nearby
• The Nazis also forced some prisoners to work
in the collection and disposal of corpses, and
to mutilate them when required.
• Gold teeth were extracted from the corpses,
and women's hair was recycled for use in
products like rugs and socks
• The total death toll is estimated at between 12
and 26 million.
• The commonly used figure for the number of
Jewish victims is six million