U.S . History – B Chapter 16

World War Looms

526 CHAPTER 16

Flanked by storm troopers, Adolf Hitlerarrives at a Nazi rally in September 1934.

Prohibitionends.

1933

Jesse Owens winsfour gold medals at Olympicsin Berlin, Germany.

1936

The EmpireState Buildingopens in New York City.

1931Franklin

Delano Roosevelt is elected president.

1932

Rooseveltis reelected.1936

Japan con-quers Manchuria,in northern China.

1931 Adolf Hitler isappointed German chancellor and sets upDachau concentrationcamp.

1933 Stalin beginsgreat purge in USSR. 1934

General Francisco Francoleads a fascist rebellion in Spain. 1936

1931USAWORLD 1931 19331933 19351935

Ethiopia’s Haile Selassieasks League of Nations forhelp against Italian invasion.

1936

Chinese communists flee in the Long March.

1934

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World War Looms 527

1938 1940 19411938 1940 1941

I N T E R A C TI N T E R A C TW I T H H I S T O R YW I T H H I S T O R Y

In the summer of 1939, PresidentFranklin Roosevelt addresses an anxious nation in response to atrocities in Europe committed byHitler’s Nazi Germany. Rooseveltdeclares in his broadcast that theUnited States “will remain a neutralnation.” He acknowledges, however,that he “cannot ask that everyAmerican remain neutral in thought.”

Why might theUnited States try to remainneutral?Examine the Issues

• How might involvement in a largescale war influence the UnitedStates?

• How can neutral countries part-icipate in the affairs of warringcountries?

Orson Wellesbroadcasts The Warof the Worlds, a fic-tional alien invasion.

1938United

States entersWorld War II.

1941

Germanyinvades Poland.Britain andFrance declarewar.

1939Kristallnacht—Nazis riot,destroying Jewishneighborhoods.

1938 Japanbombs PearlHarbor.

1941

Rooseveltis elected to athird term.

1940

19371937 19391939 19411941

Amelia Earhart mysteriously disappears attempting solo round-the-world flight.

1937

Visit the Chapter 16 links for more informationrelated to World War Looms.

RESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

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Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

•Joseph Stalin•totalitarian•Benito Mussolini•fascism

•Adolf Hitler•Nazism•Francisco Franco •Neutrality Acts

The rise of rulers with totalpower in Europe and Asia ledto World War ll.

Dictators of the 1930s and1940s changed the course ofhistory, making world leadersespecially watchful for theactions of dictators today.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

528 CHAPTER 16

One American's Story

Martha Gellhorn arrived in Madrid in 1937 to cover the brutal civil war that had broken out in Spain the yearbefore. Hired as a special correspondent for Collier’s Weekly,she had come with very little money and no special protec-tion. On assignment there, she met the writer ErnestHemingway, whom she later married. To Gellhorn, a youngAmerican writer, the Spanish Civil War was a deadly strug-gle between tyranny and democracy. For the people ofMadrid, it was also a daily struggle for survival.

A PERSONAL VOICE MARTHA GELLHORN

“ You would be walking down a street, hearing only the citynoises of streetcars and automobiles and people calling toone another, and suddenly, crushing it all out, would be thehuge stony deep booming of a falling shell, at the corner. There was no place torun, because how did you know that the next shell would not be behind you, orahead, or to the left or right?”

—The Face of War

Less than two decades after the end of World War I—“the war to end allwars”—fighting erupted again in Europe and in Asia. As Americans read about dis-tant battles, they hoped the conflicts would remain on the other side of the world.

Nationalism Grips Europe and AsiaThe seeds of new conflicts had been sown in World War I. For many nations,peace had brought not prosperity but revolution fueled by economic depressionand struggle. The postwar years also brought the rise of powerful dictators drivenby the belief in nationalism—loyalty to one’s country above all else—and dreamsof territorial expansion.

Dictators ThreatenWorld Peace

▼

Martha Gellhorn,one of the firstwomen warcorrespondents,began her careerduring theSpanish Civil War.

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FAILURES OF THE WORLD WAR I PEACE SETTLEMENT Instead of securinga “just and secure peace,” the Treaty of Versailles caused anger and resentment.Germans saw nothing fair in a treaty that blamed them for starting the war. Nordid they find security in a settlement that stripped them of their overseas coloniesand border territories. These problems overwhelmed the Weimar Republic, thedemocratic government set up in Germany after World War I. Similarly, theSoviets resented the carving up of parts of Russia. (See map, Chapter 11, p. 400.)

The peace settlement had not fulfilled President Wilson’s hope of a world“safe for democracy.” New democratic governments that emerged in Europe afterthe war floundered. Without a democratic tradition, people turned to authoritar-ian leaders to solve their economic and social problems. The new democraciescollapsed, and dictators were able to seize power. Some had great ambitions.

JOSEPH STALIN TRANSFORMS THE SOVIET UNION In Russia, hopes fordemocracy gave way to civil war, resulting in the establishment of a communiststate, officially called the Soviet Union, in 1922. After V. I. Lenin died in 1924,Joseph Stalin, whose last name means “man of steel,” took control of the coun-try. Stalin focused on creating a model communist state. In so doing, he madeboth agricultural and industrial growth the prime economic goals of the SovietUnion. Stalin abolished all privately owned farms and replaced them with collec-tives—large government-owned farms, each worked by hundreds of families.

Stalin moved to transform the Soviet Union from a backward rural nation intoa great industrial power. In 1928, the Soviet dictator outlined the first of several“five-year plans,” to direct the industrialization. All economic activity was placedunder state management. By 1937, the Soviet Union had become the world’s sec-ond-largest industrial power, surpassed in overall production only by the UnitedStates. The human costs of this transformation, however, were enormous.

In his drive to purge, or eliminate, anyone who threatened his power, Stalindid not spare even his most faithful supporters. While the final toll will never beknown, historians estimate that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 8 millionto 13 million people. Millions more died in famines caused by the restructuringof Soviet society.

By 1939, Stalin had firmly established a totalitarian government thatmaintained complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individualshave no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition.

World War Looms 529

A

B

Germany was expected to pay off hugedebts while dealing with widespreadpoverty. By 1923, an inflating economymade a five-million German mark worthless than a penny. Here children buildblocks with stacks of useless Germanmarks.

▼

A. Answer A lack of demo-cratic tradition,failure of theTreaty ofVersailles andeconomic dev-astation.

B. AnswerComplete con-trol over citizensand ruthlesssuppression ofopposition.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

IdentifyingProblems

Why did thenew democraciesset up after WorldWar I fail?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

BSummarizing

What are thecharacteristics ofa totalitarianstate?

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C

THE RISE OF FASCISM IN ITALY While Stalin was consolidating his power inthe Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini was establishing a totalitarian regime inItaly, where unemployment and inflation produced bitter strikes, some commu-nist-led. Alarmed by these threats, the middle and upper classes demandedstronger leadership. Mussolini took advantage of this situation. A powerful speak-er, Mussolini knew how to appeal to Italy’s wounded national pride. He played onthe fears of economic collapse and communism. In this way, he won the supportof many discontented Italians.

By 1921, Mussolini had established the FascistParty. Fascism (fBshPGzQEm) stressed nationalism andplaced the interests of the state above those of individ-uals. To strengthen the nation, Fascists argued, powermust rest with a single strong leader and a small groupof devoted party members. (The Latin fasces—a bundleof rods tied around an ax handle—had been a symbol ofunity and authority in ancient Rome.)

In October 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome withthousands of his followers, whose black uniforms gave them the name “BlackShirts.” When important government officials, the army, and the police sidedwith the Fascists, the Italian king appointed Mussolini head of the government.

Calling himself Il Duce, or “the leader,” Mussolini gradually extended Fascistcontrol to every aspect of Italian life. Tourists marveled that Il Duce had even“made the trains run on time.” Mussolini achieved this efficiency, however, bycrushing all opposition and by making Italy a totalitarian state.

530 CHAPTER 16

“ Italy wants peace,work, and calm. I will give thesethings with love ifpossible, with forceif necessary.”BENITO MUSSOLINI

Rome

BerlinLondon

Paris

Moscow

Tokyo

Madrid

YellowSea

Sea ofJapan

EastChina

Sea

Mediterrane a n Sea

PAC I F I CO C E A N

AT L A N T I CO C E A N

Tropic of Cancer

Arctic Circle

45°E 165°E0°

75°N

60°N

45°N FRANCEITALY

GERMANY

JAPAN

CHINA

S O V I E T U N I O N

SPAIN

GREATBRITAIN

Fascist dictatorship

Communist dictatorship

Imperialist military regime

0

0 750 1,500 kilometers

750 1,500 miles

N

S

EWThe Rise of Nationalism, 1922–1941

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Region In which countries did authoritarian leaders come to power?

Who were the leaders?2. Location What geographic features might have led Japan to expand?

Francisco Franco leads the rebelNationalist army to victory inSpain and gains complete con-trol of the country in 1939.

Benito Mussolini rises to powerin 1922 and attempts to restoreItaly to its former position as aworld power.

Joseph Stalin grabs control of theSoviet Union in 1924 and squelchesall opposition after V. I. Lenin, founderof the communist regime, dies.

Hideki Tojo, the force behind Japanesestrategy, becomes Japan’s prime minister in 1941. Emperor Hirohitobecomes a powerless figurehead.

Adolf Hitler offers economic stabilityto unemployed Germans during theGreat Depression and becomes chancellor in 1933.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Germany—Adolph Hitler;Spain—FranciscoFranco; Italy—BenitoMussolini;Soviet Union—Joseph Stalin;Japan—HidekiTojo.2. Its status asisland nation.

C. AnswerItalians pridewas hurt, risinginflation, unem-ployment, andsocial unrest.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingCauses

What factorsled to the rise ofFascism in Italy?

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THE NAZIS TAKE OVER GERMANY In Germany, Adolf Hitler had followeda path to power similar to Mussolini’s. At the end of World War I, Hitler had beena jobless soldier drifting around Germany. In 1919, he joined a struggling groupcalled the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the NaziParty. Despite its name, this party had no ties to socialism.

Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that hequickly became the party’s leader. Calling himself Der Führer—“the Leader”—hepromised to bring Germany out of chaos.

In his book Mein Kampf [My Struggle], Hitler set forth the basic beliefs ofNazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. Nazism (nätPsGzQEm),the German brand of fascism, was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler, who hadbeen born in Austria, dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a greatGerman empire.

Hitler also wanted to enforce racial “purification” at home. In his view,Germans—especially blue-eyed, blond-haired “Aryans”—formed a “master race”that was destined to rule the world. “Inferior races,” such as Jews, Slavs, and allnonwhites, were deemed fit only to serve the Aryans.

A third element of Nazism was national expansion. Hitler believed that forGermany to thrive, it needed more lebensraum, or living space. One of the Nazis’aims, as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, was “to secure for the German people theland and soil to which they are entitled on this earth,” even if this could beaccomplished only by “the might of a victorious sword.”

The Great Depression helped the Nazis come to power. Because of war debtsand dependence on American loans and investments, Germany’s economy washit hard. By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men whowere out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (or Brown Shirts).The German people were desperate and turned to Hitler as their last hope.

By mid 1932, the Nazis had become the strongest political party in Germany.In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister). Once in power,Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place heestablished the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the ThirdReich would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years.

World War Looms 531

BackgroundAccording to Hitlerthere were threeGerman empires:the Holy RomanEmpire; TheGerman Empire of1871–1918; andThe Third Reich.

D

▼

Left to right:Benito Mussolini,Adolf Hitler,Joseph Stalin

The Faces of TotalitarianismFascist Italy Nazi Germany Communist Soviet Union

• Extreme nationalism• Militaristic expansionism• Charismatic leader• Private property with strong

government controls• Anticommunist

• Extreme nationalism and racism• Militaristic expansionism• Forceful leader• Private property with strong

government controls• Anticommunist

• Create a sound communist stateand wait for world revolution

• Revolution by workers• Eventual rule by working class• State ownership of property

D. AnswerTo reunite allGermans;Germans were amaster race;other “races”were inferior;Germany need-ed more livingspace.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

DSummarizing

What were thekey ideas andgoals that Hitlerpresented in MeinKampf?

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E

Addis Ababa

Rome

ITALY

ETHIOPIA

Mediterranean Sea

RedSea

INDIANOCEAN

Tropic of Capricorn

Equator0° 0°

15°N

15°S

N

S

EW

0 400 800 kilometers

0 400 800 miles

Tokyo

Mukden

KOREA

JAPAN

SOVIET UNION

MONGOLIAMANCHURIA

CHINA

PACIFICOCEAN

YellowSea

East ChinaSea

Sea ofJapan

Tropic of Cancer

135°E

N

S

EW

0 200 400 kilometers

0 200 400 miles

MILITARISTS GAIN CONTROL IN JAPAN Halfway around the world, nation-alistic military leaders were trying to take control of the imperial government ofJapan. These leaders shared in common with Hitler a belief in the need for moreliving space for a growing population. Ignoring the protests of more moderateJapanese officials, the militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control ofthe Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Within several months, Japanesetroops controlled the entire province, a large region about twice the size of Texas,that was rich in natural resources.

The watchful League of Nations had been established after World War I to pre-vent just such aggressive acts. In this greatest test of the League’s power, represen-tatives were sent to Manchuria to investigate the situation. Their report condemnedJapan, who in turn simply quit the League. Meanwhile, the success of theManchurian invasion put the militarists firmly in control of Japan’s government.

AGGRESSION IN EUROPE AND AFRICA The failure of the League of Nationsto take action against Japan did not escape the notice of Europe’s dictators. In1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935, he began a militarybuildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. A year later, he sent troops intothe Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demili-tarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop Hitler.

532 CHAPTER 16

BackgroundMilitarygovernment hadcenturies-old rootsin Japan. Theshogun lords ofthe Middle Ageshad been militaryleaders.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Location What countries were aggressors

during this period?2. Movement Notice the size and location of

Italy and of Japan with respect to the countryeach invaded. What similarities do you see?

Japan Invades Manchuria, 1931 Italy Invades Ethiopia, 1935–1936

Skillbuilder Answers1. Italy, Germany, Japan2. They were both small nationsthat invaded larger countries.

E. Answer Togain “livingspace” andresources forpeople.

In 1910, Koreawas brought underJapanese control.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

AnalyzingMotives

Why did Japaninvade Manchuria?

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Meanwhile, Mussolini began building his new RomanEmpire. His first target was Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fewremaining independent countries. By the fall of 1935, tensof thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance onEthiopia. The League of Nations reacted with brave talk of“collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.”

When the invasion began, however, the League’sresponse was an ineffective economic boycott—little morethan a slap on Italy’s wrist. By May 1936, Ethiopia had fall-en. In desperation, Haile Selassie, the ousted Ethiopianemperor, appealed to the League for assistance. Nothingwas done. “It is us today,” he told them. “It will be youtomorrow.”

CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT IN SPAIN In 1936, a group ofSpanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco,rebelled against the Spanish republic. Revolts broke out allover Spain, and the Spanish Civil War began. The wararoused passions not only in Spain but throughout theworld. About 3,000 Americans formed the AbrahamLincoln Battalion and traveled to Spain to fight againstFranco. “We knew, we just knew,” recalled MarthaGellhorn, “that Spain was the place to stop fascism.”Among the volunteers were African Americans still bitterabout Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia the year before.

Such limited aid was not sufficient to stop the spread offascism, however. The Western democracies remained neu-tral. Although the Soviet Union sent equipment and advis-ers, Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco’s forces with troops,weapons, tanks, and fighter planes. The war forged a closerelationship between the German and Italian dictators, whosigned a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s victory in 1939established him as Spain’s fascist dictator. Once again atotalitarian government ruled in Europe.

World War Looms 533

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

AFRICAN AMERICANS STANDBY ETHIOPIANS

When Mussolini invaded Ethiopia,many Europeans and Americans—especially African Americans—were outraged. Almost overnight,African Americans organized to raise money for medical sup-plies, and a few went to fight inEthiopia. Years later, the Ethiopianemperor Haile Selassie (shownabove) said of these efforts,

“We can never forget the helpEthiopia received from NegroAmericans during the terriblecrisis. . . . It moved me toknow that Americans of Africandescent did not abandon theirembattled brothers, but stoodby us.”

F

A French journalistescapes from Spain toFrance with a child herescued from a streetbattle. Fighting wouldsoon engulf not onlyFrance but the rest ofEurope and parts ofAsia.

▼

F. AnswerGermany andItaly on the sideof Franco; theSoviet Union insupport of theSpanish govern-ment.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

FSummarizing

What foreigncountries wereinvolved in theSpanish Civil War?

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The United States Responds CautiouslyMost Americans were alarmed by the international conflicts of the mid-1930s butbelieved that the United States should not get involved. In 1928, the UnitedStates had signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The treaty was signed by 62 countriesand declared that war would not be used “as an instrument of national policy.”Yet it did not include a plan to deal with countries that broke their pledge. ThePact was, therefore, only a small step toward peace.

AMERICANS CLING TO ISOLATIONISM In the early 1930s, a flood of booksargued that the United States had been dragged into World War I by greedybankers and arms dealers. Public outrage led to the creation of a congressionalcommittee, chaired by North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye, that held hearings onthese charges. The Nye committee fueled the controversy by documenting thelarge profits that banks and manufacturers made during the war. As the furor grewover these “merchants of death,” Americans became more determined than ever toavoid war. Antiwar feeling was so strong that the Girl Scouts of America changedthe color of its uniforms from khaki to green to appear less militaristic.

Americans’ growing isolationism eventually had an impact on PresidentRoosevelt’s foreign policy. When he had first taken office in 1933, Roosevelt feltcomfortable reaching out to the world in several ways. He officially recognizedthe Soviet Union in 1933 and agreed to exchange ambassadors with Moscow. Hecontinued the policy of nonintervention in Latin America—begun by PresidentsCoolidge and Hoover—with his Good Neighbor Policy and withdrew armedforces stationed there. In 1934, Roosevelt pushed the Reciprocal Trade AgreementAct through Congress. This act lowered trade barriers by giving the president thepower to make trade agreements with other nations and was aimed at reducing

534 CHAPTER 16

G

AnalyzingAnalyzing

“IT AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE”During the late 1930s, Americans were divided aboutbecoming involved in “Europe's quarrels.” Some peo-ple felt that the United States should be moreinvolved in the economic and political problemsoccurring across the Atlantic. Isolationists—peoplewho believed the United States should stay com-pletely out of other nations’ affairs except in thedefense of the United States—strictly opposed inter-vening. The idea that America and Europe were twoseparate worlds divided by an ocean that could guarantee safety was quickly eroding.

SKILLBUILDERAnalyzing Political Cartoons1. What does Uncle Sam’s turning his back on

Europe show about American attitudes in the late 1930s?

2. What U.S. policy does the cartoon imply?3. Why might the Atlantic Ocean have appeared to

shrink in the late 1930s?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

G

AnalyzingCauses

What factorscontributed toAmericans’growingisolationism?

G. AnswerEvidence thatlarge profits hadbeen made bybanks and armsindustries dur-ing World War I;regret over hav-ing beeninvolved in thatwar; hatred ofmilitarism.

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MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Using a web diagram like the onebelow, fill it in with the mainambition of each dictator.

What ambitions did the dictatorshave in common?

CRITICAL THINKING3. ANALYZING CAUSES

How did the Treaty of Versailles sowthe seeds of instability in Europe?Think About:

• effects of the treaty on Germanyand the Soviet Union

• effects of the treaty on nationalpride

• the economic legacy of the war

4. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Why do you think Hitler foundwidespread support among theGerman people? Support youranswer with details from the text.

5. FORMING GENERALIZATIONSWould powerful nations or weaknations be more likely to follow anisolationist policy? Explain.

tariffs by as much as 50 percent. In an effort to keep the United States out offuture wars, beginning in 1935, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. Thefirst two acts outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at war. The third act waspassed in response to the fighting in Spain. This act extended the ban on armssales and loans to nations engaged in civil wars.

NEUTRALITY BREAKS DOWN Despite congressional efforts to legislate neu-trality, Roosevelt found it impossible to remain neutral. When Japan launched anew attack on China in July 1937, Roosevelt found a way around the NeutralityActs. Because Japan had not formally declared war against China, the presidentclaimed there was no need to enforce the Neutrality Acts. The United States con-tinued sending arms and supplies to China. A few months later, Roosevelt spokeout strongly against isolationism in a speech delivered in Chicago. He called onpeace-loving nations to “quarantine,” or isolate, aggressor nations in order to stopthe spread of war.

A PERSONAL VOICE FRANLKIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

“ The peace, the freedom, and the security of 90 percent of the population of theworld is being jeopardized by the remaining 10 percent who are threatening abreakdown of all international order and law. Surely the 90 percent who want tolive in peace under law and in accordance with moral standards that have receivedalmost universal acceptance through the centuries, can and must find some way .. . to preserve peace.”

—“Quarantine Speech,” October 5, 1937

At last Roosevelt seemed ready to take a stand against aggression—that is, untilisolationist newspapers exploded in protest, accusing the president of leading thenation into war. Roosevelt backed off in the face of criticism, but his speech didbegin to shift the debate. For the moment the conflicts remained “over there.”

World War Looms 535

Stalin: Hitler:

Mussolini: Franco:

Dictator’sAmbitions

•Joseph Stalin•totalitarian

•Benito Mussolini•fascism

•Adolf Hitler•Nazism

•Francisco Franco•Neutrality Acts

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

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Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

•NevilleChamberlain

•Winston Churchill•appeasement

•nonaggressionpact

•blitzkrieg•Charles de Gaulle

Using the sudden massattack called blitzkrieg,Germany invaded and quicklyconquered many Europeancountries.

Hitler’s actions started WorldWar II and still serve as awarning to be vigilant abouttotalitarian government.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

One American's Story

War in Europe

In 1940, CBS correspondent William Shirer stood in the for-est near Compiègne, where 22 years earlier defeated Germangenerals had signed the armistice ending World War I. Shirerwas now waiting for Adolf Hitler to deliver his armisticeterms to a defeated France. He watched as Hitler walked upto the monument and slowly read the inscription: “Here onthe eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminalpride of the German empire . . . vanquished by the free peo-ples which it tried to enslave.” Later that day, Shirer wrote adiary entry describing the führer’s reaction.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM SHIRER

“ I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. Buttoday! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph. He steps off the monu-ment and contrives to make even this gesture a masterpiece of contempt. . . . Heglances slowly around the clearing, and now, as his eyes meet ours, you grasp thedepth of his hatred. But there is triumph there too—revengeful, triumphant hate.”

—Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941

Again and again Shirer had heard Hitler proclaim that “Germany needs peace. . . . Germany wants peace.” The hatred and vengefulness that drove thedictator’s every action, however, drew Germany ever closer to war.

Austria and Czechoslovakia FallOn November 5, 1937, Hitler met secretly with his top military advisers. He bold-ly declared that to grow and prosper Germany needed the land of its neighbors.His plan was to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich. Whenone of his advisors protested that annexing those countries could provoke war,Hitler replied, “ ‘The German Question’ can be solved only by means of force, andthis is never without risk.”

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▼

William Shirer,a journalist andhistorian, becamewell known for hisradio broadcastsfrom Berlin at the beginning ofWorld War II.

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UNION WITH AUSTRIA Austria was Hitler’s first target.The Paris Peace Conference following World War I had creat-ed the relatively small nation of Austria out of what was leftof the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The majority of Austria’s 6million people were Germans who favored unification withGermany. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched intoAustria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that itsAnschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. The UnitedStates and the rest of the world did nothing.

BARGAINING FOR THE SUDETENLAND Hitler thenturned to Czechoslovakia. About 3 million German-speak-ing people lived in the western border regions ofCzechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. The mountainousregion formed Czechoslovakia’s main defense againstGerman attack. (See map, p. 538.) Hitler wanted to annexCzechoslovakia in order to provide more living space forGermany as well as to control its important naturalresources.

Hitler charged that the Czechs were abusing theSudeten Germans, and he began massing troops on theCzech border. The U.S. correspondent William Shirer, then stationed in Berlin,wrote in his diary: “The Nazi press [is] full of hysterical headlines. All lies. Someexamples: ‘Women and Children Mowed Down by Czech Armored Cars,’ or‘Bloody Regime—New Czech Murders of Germans.’”

Early in the crisis, both France and Great Britain promised to protectCzechoslovakia. Then, just when war seemed inevitable, Hitler invited Frenchpremier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain tomeet with him in Munich. When they arrived, the führer declared that theannexation of the Sudetenland would be his “last territorial demand.” In theireagerness to avoid war, Daladier and Chamberlain chose to believe him. OnSeptember 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned theSudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired.

Chamberlain returned home and proclaimed: “My friends, there has comeback from Germany peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.”

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

ADOLF HITLER1889–1945

“All great world-shaking eventshave been brought about not bywritten matter, but by the spokenword!” declared Adolf Hitler. A shyand awkward speaker at first,Hitler rehearsed carefully. He even had photographs (shownabove) taken of his favorite gestures so he could study themand make changes to produceexactly the desired effect.

Hitler’s extraordinary power as aspeaker, wrote Otto Strasser,stemmed from an intuitive abilityto sense “the vibration of thehuman heart . . . telling it what itmost wants to hear.”

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A

A. AnswerAnnexation ofAustria and theSudetenland.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ASummarizing

What movesdid Germany makein its quest forlebensraum?

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Chamberlain’s satisfaction was not shared by Winston Churchill,Chamberlain’s political rival in Great Britain. In Churchill’s view, by signing theMunich Agreement, Daladier and Chamberlain had adopted a shameful policy ofappeasement—or giving up principles to pacify an aggressor. As Churchill bluntlyput it, “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chosedishonor. They will have war.” Nonetheless, the House of Commons approvedChamberlain’s policy toward Germany and Churchill responded with a warning.

A PERSONAL VOICE WINSTON CHURCHILL

“ [W]e have passed an awful milestone in our history. . . . And do not suppose that this is the end. . . . This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cupwhich will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moralhealth and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in theolden time.”

—speech to the House of Commons, quoted in The Gathering Storm

The German Offensive BeginsAs Churchill had warned, Hitler was not finished expanding the Third Reich. Asdawn broke on March 15, 1939, German troops poured into what remained ofCzechoslovakia. At nightfall Hitler gloated, “Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist.”After that, the German dictator turned his land-hungry gaze toward Germany’seastern neighbor, Poland.

1940

1941

1939

1940

1940

1939

1941 1941

1941

1941

1941

1941

1938

LondonBerlin

Paris

Dunkirk

Munich

Rome

Warsaw

Leningrad

Moscow

Stalingrad

AT L A N T I CO C E A N

Black SeaAdriatic Sea

Balti

cSe

a

NorthSea

EnglishChannel

M e d i t e r r an e a n S e a

BESSARABIA

RHINELAND

SAAR

SUDETENLAND

VICHY FRENCHGOVERNMENT

(unoccupied zone)

FRANCE

IRANIRAQSYRIA

TURKEYGREECEALBANIA

ITALYBULGARIA

YUGOSLAVIA

SWITZ.ROMANIA

HUNGARYAUSTRIA

LUX.BELG.

GERMANYNETH.

POLAND

EASTPRUSSIA

S O V I E T U N I O N

LITHUANIADENMARK

LATVIA

ESTONIA

FINLANDNORWAY

SWEDEN

ALGERIA TUNISIA

PORTUGAL SPAIN

GREATBRITAIN

IRELAND

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

60°N

15°E 30°E

Arctic Circle

N

S

EW

Axis powers

Axis-controlled by Dec. 1941

Allied territory, Dec. 1941

Neutral countries

German troop movements

Maginot Line

0 200 400 kilometers

0 200 400 miles

German Advances, 1938–1941

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Region Which European countries did Germany invade? 2. Location How was Germany’s geographic location an

advantage?

538 CHAPTER 16

B

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Austria,Yugoslavia,Bulgaria, Greece,Romania, Slovakia,Hungary, Poland,Lithuania, Latvia,Estonia, Finland,Norway, France,Denmark, theNetherlands,Belgium, and theSoviet Union.2. It was centrallylocated.

B. Answer Anattempt to dowhatever wasnecessary topacify Hitler;Churchill saw itas an abandon-ment of moralprinciples thatwould lead to awar and nation-al disaster.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingMotives

What wasappeasement, andwhy did Churchilloppose it sostrongly?

536-541-Chapter 16 10/21/02 5:32 PM Page 538

C

THE SOVIET UNION DECLARES NEUTRALITY Like Czechoslovakia, Polandhad a sizable German-speaking population. In the spring of 1939, Hitler began hisfamiliar routine, charging that Germans in Poland were mistreated by the Polesand needed his protection. Some people thought that this time Hitler must bebluffing. After all, an attack on Poland might bring Germany into conflict withthe Soviet Union, Poland’s eastern neighbor. At the same time, such an attackwould most likely provoke a declaration of war from France and Britain—both ofwhom had promised military aid to Poland. The result would be a two-front war.Fighting on two fronts had exhausted Germany in World War I. Surely, manythought, Hitler would not be foolish enough to repeat that mistake.

As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fas-cist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other.Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing todivide Poland between them. With the danger of a two-front war eliminated, thefate of Poland was sealed.

BLITZKRIEG IN POLAND As day broke on September 1, 1939, the GermanLuftwaffe, or German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on militarybases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced acrossthe Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the firsttest of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war.Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks andmore powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush allopposition with overwhelming force. On September 3, two days following the ter-ror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

The blitzkrieg tactics worked perfectly. Major fighting was over in threeweeks, long before France, Britain, and their allies could mount a defense. In thelast week of fighting, the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, grabbingsome of its territory. The portion Germany annexed in western Poland containedalmost two-thirds of Poland’s population. By the end of the month, Poland hadceased to exist—and World War II had begun.

BackgroundLuftwaffe inGerman means“air weapon.”

539

▼

German Junkers JU-87dive-bombers, commonlyknown as Stukas, were a mainstay of Germany’sblitzkrieg style ofattack.

A German tank unitin Western Poland in 1939.

▼

C. Answer Thedevelopment ofimproved tanksand airplaneshad madeblitzkrieg tacticseffective.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CEvaluating

How didGerman blitzkriegtactics rely on new militarytechnology?

536-541-Chapter 16 10/21/02 5:32 PM Page 539

D. Answer As away of protect-ing their inde-pendence.

540 CHAPTER 16

THE PHONY WAR For the next several months after the fall of Poland,French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortifica-

tions built along France’s eastern border (see map on p. 538), satstaring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On theSiegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. Theblitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg(“sitting war”), and what some newspapers referred to as thephony war.

After occupying eastern Poland, Stalin began annexing theBaltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Late in 1939, Stalin

sent his Soviet army into Finland. After three months of fighting,the outnumbered Finns surrendered.

Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasionof Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom

and independence.” But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along thecoasts to strike at Great Britain. Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands,Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phonywar had ended.

France and Britain Fight OnFrance’s Maginot Line proved to be ineffective; the German army threatened tobypass the line during its invasion of Belgium. Hitler’s generals sent their tanksthrough the Ardennes, a region of wooded ravines in northeast France, therebyavoiding British and French troops who thought the Ardennes were impassible.The Germans continued to march toward Paris.

THE FALL OF FRANCE The German offensive trapped almost 400,000 Britishand French soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk on the French side ofthe English Channel. In less than a week, a makeshift fleet of fishing trawlers, tug-boats, river barges, pleasure craft—more than 800 vessels in all—ferried about

330,000 British, French, and Belgian troops to safetyacross the Channel.

A few days later, Italy entered the war on the side ofGermany and invaded France from the south as theGermans closed in on Paris from the north. On June 22,1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of theworld watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms ofsurrender. Germans would occupy the northern part ofFrance, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, head-ed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy,in southern France.

After France fell, a French general named Charlesde Gaulle fled to England, where he set up a govern-ment-in-exile. De Gaulle proclaimed defiantly, “Francehas lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.”

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN In the summer of 1940, theGermans began to assemble an invasion fleet along theFrench coast. Because its naval power could not competewith that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war atthe same time. The Luftwaffe began making bombing

D

▼

For months therewas nothing muchto defend against,as the war turnedinto a sitzkriegendured bysoldiers such asthis French oneon the MaginotLine.

Children watch with wonder and fear as the battling Britishand German air forces set the skies of London aflame.

▼

Background Hitler demandedthat the surrendertake place in thesame railroad carwhere the Frenchhad dictated termsto the Germans inWorld War I.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingMotives

How did Hitlerrationalize theGerman invasionof Denmark andNorway?

536-541-Chapter 16 10/21/02 5:32 PM Page 540

runs over Britain. Its goal was to gain total control of theskies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). Hitlerhad 2,600 planes at his disposal. On a single day—August15—approximately 2,000 German planes ranged overBritain. Every night for two solid months, bombers pound-ed London.

The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer andfall. Night after night, German planes pounded British tar-gets. At first the Luftwaffe concentrated on airfields and air-craft. Next it targeted cities. Londoner Len Jones was just 18years old when bombs fell on his East End neighborhood.

A PERSONAL VOICE LEN JONES

“ After an explosion of a nearby bomb, you could actually feel your eyeballs being sucked out. I was holdingmy eyes to try and stop them going. And the suction wasso vast, it ripped my shirt away, and ripped my trousers.Then I couldn’t get my breath, the smoke was like acid andeverything round me was black and yellow.”

—quoted in London at War

The RAF fought back brilliantly. With the help of a newtechnological device called radar, British pilots accuratelyplotted the flight paths of German planes, even in darkness.On September 15, 1940 the RAF shot down over 185 Germanplanes; at the same time, they lost only 26 aircraft. Sixweeks later, Hitler called off the invasion of Britain indefi-nitely. “Never in the field of human conflict,” saidChurchill in praise of the RAF pilots, “was so much owed byso many to so few.”

Still, German bombers continued to pound Britain'scities trying to disrupt production and break civilianmorale. British pilots also bombed German cities. Civiliansin both countries unrelentingly carried on.

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

WINSTON CHURCHILL1874–1965

Churchill was possibly Britain’sgreatest weapon as that nationfaced the Nazis. A born fighter,Churchill became prime ministerin May 1940 and used his gift asa speaker to arouse Britons andunite them:

“[W]e shall defend our island,whatever the cost may be, weshall fight on the beaches, weshall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in thefields and in the streets, weshall fight in the hills; we shallnever surrender.”

World War Looms 541

1938 1940

1937 1939

•Neville Chamberlain•Winston Churchill

•appeasement•nonaggression pact

•blitzkrieg•Charles de Gaulle

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Trace the movement of Germanexpansion from 1937 to the end of1940 by supplying events to followthe dates shown on the time line.

What event was the mostsignificant? Why?

CRITICAL THINKING 3. ANALYZING MOTIVES

To what extent do you think lies anddeception played a role in Hitler’stactics? Support your answer withexamples. Think About:

• William Shirer’s diary entry aboutheadlines in the Nazi newspa-pers

• Soviet-German relations• Hitler’s justifications for military

aggression

4. EVALUATING DECISIONSIf you had been a member of theBritish House of Commons in 1938,would you have voted for or againstthe Munich Agreement? Supportyour decision.

5. DRAWING CONCLUSIONSReview Germany’s aggressiveactions between 1938 and 1945. At what point do you think Hitlerconcluded that he could take anyterritory without being stopped?Why?

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Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

•Holocaust•Kristallnacht•genocide

•ghetto•concentrationcamp

During the Holocaust, theNazis systematicallyexecuted 6 million Jews and5 million other “non-Aryans.”

After the atrocities of theHolocaust, agencies formed topublicize human rights. Theseagencies have remained a forcein today’s world.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

542 CHAPTER 16

One American's Story

The Holocaust

Gerda Weissmann was a carefree girl of 15 when, in September1939, invading German troops shattered her world. Becausethe Weissmanns were Jews, they were forced to give up theirhome to a German family. In 1942, Gerda, her parents, andmost of Poland’s 3,000,000 Jews were sent to labor camps.Gerda recalls when members of Hitler’s elite Schutzstaffel, or“security squadron” (SS), came to round up the Jews.

A PERSONAL VOICE GERDA WEISSMANN KLEIN

“ We had to form a line and an SS man stood there with a littlestick. I was holding hands with my mother and . . . he looked atme and said, ‘How old?’ And I said, ‘eighteen,’ and he sort ofpushed me to one side and my mother to the other side. . . . And shortly thereafter, some trucks arrived . . . and we were loaded onto the trucks. I heard my mother’s voice from very far off ask,‘Where to?’ and I shouted back, ‘I don’t know.’”

—quoted in the film One Survivor Remembers

When the American lieutenant Kurt Klein, who would laterbecome Gerda’s husband, liberated her from the Nazis in 1945—justone day before her 21st birthday—she weighed 68 pounds and her hairhad turned white. Even so, of all her family and friends, she alone had survivedthe Nazis’ campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jews.

The Persecution BeginsOn April 7, 1933, shortly after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs. This order was one of the firstmoves in a campaign for racial purity that eventually led to the Holocaust—thesystematic murder of 11 million people across Europe, more than half of whomwere Jews.

ESCAPING THEFINAL SOLUTIONKurt Klein and GerdaWeissmann KleinRemember theHolocaust

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A

World War Looms 543

JEWS TARGETED Although Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust,they were the center of the Nazis’ targets. Anti-Semitism, or hatred of the Jews,had a long history in many European countries. For decades many Germans look-ing for a scapegoat had blamed the Jews as the cause of their failures. Hitler foundthat a majority of Germans were willing to support his belief that Jews wereresponsible for Germany’s economic problems and defeat in World War I.

As the Nazis tightened their hold on Germany, their persecution of the Jewsincreased. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizen-ship, jobs, and property. To make it easier for the Nazis to identify them, Jews hadto wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing. Worse was yet to come.

KRISTALLNACHT November 9–10, 1938, became known as Kristallnacht(krGsPtälPnächtQ), or “Night of Broken Glass.” Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewishhomes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany. An American who witnessedthe violence wrote, “Jewish shop windows by the hundreds were systematicallyand wantonly smashed. . . . The main streets of the city were a positive litter ofshattered plate glass.” Around 100 Jews were killed, and hundreds more wereinjured. Some 30,000 Jews were arrested and hundreds of synagogues wereburned. Afterward, the Nazis blamed the Jews for the destruction.

A FLOOD OF JEWISH REFUGEES Kristallnacht marked a step-up in the Nazipolicy of Jewish persecution. Nazis tried to speed Jewish emigration but encoun-tered difficulty. Jews fleeing Germany had trouble finding nations that wouldaccept them. France already had 40,000 Jewish refugees and did not want more.The British worried about fueling anti-Semitism and refused to admit more than80,000 Jewish refugees. They also controlled Palestine (later Israel) and allowed30,000 refugees to settle there. Late in 1938, Germany’s foreign minister, Joachimvon Ribbentrop, observed, “We all want to get rid of our Jews. The difficulty isthat no country wishes to receive them.”

Vocabularyscapegoat:someone who ismade to bear theblame of others

On November 17, 1938, twopassersby examine theshattered window of a Jewish-owned store in the aftermathof Kristallnacht.

Jewish men holding a “star of David”are rounded up and marched throughthe streets on their way to aconcentration camp.

▼

▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingIssues

Whatproblems didGerman Jews facein Nazi Germanyfrom 1935 to1938?

A. AnswerLoss of employ-ment and prop-erty; harrass-ment, humilia-tion, and physi-cal harm; deaththreats and murder.

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B

Although the averageJew had little chance ofreaching the United States,“persons of exceptionalmerit,” including physicistAlbert Einstein, authorThomas Mann, architectWalter Gropius, and the-ologian Paul Tillich wereamong 100,000 refugeesthe United States accepted.Many Americans wantedthe door closed. Americanswere concerned that let-ting in more refugees dur-ing the Great Depressionwould deny U.S. citizens jobs and threaten economic recovery. AmongAmericans, there was widespread anti-Semitism and fear that “enemy agents”would be allowed to enter the country. President Roosevelt said that while hesympathized with the Jews, he would not “do anything which would conceivablyhurt the future of present American citizens.”

THE PLIGHT OF THE ST. LOUIS Official indifference to the plight of Germany’sJews was in evidence in the case of the ship St. Louis. This German ocean linerpassed Miami in 1939. Although 740 of the liner’s 943 passengers had U.S. immi-gration papers, the Coast Guard followed the ship to prevent anyone from disem-barking in America. The ship was forced to return to Europe. “The cruise of the St.Louis,” wrote the New York Times, “cries to high heaven of man's inhumanity toman.” Passenger Liane Reif-Lehrer recalls her childhood experiences.

A PERSONAL VOICE LIANE REIF-LEHRER

“ My mother and brother and I were among the passengers who survived. . . . Wewere sent back to Europe and given haven in France, only to find the Nazis on ourdoorstep again a few months later.”

—Liane Reif-Lehrer

More than half of the passengers were later killed in the Holocaust.

Hitler’s “Final Solution”By 1939 only about a quarter million Jews remained in Germany. But othernations that Hitler occupied had millions more. Obsessed with a desire to ridEurope of its Jews, Hitler imposed what he called the “Final Solution”—a policyof genocide, the deliberate and systematic killing of an entire population.

544 CHAPTER 16

B. Answer TheUnited Statesrefused toloosen immigra-tion restrictionsto allow moreJews to immi-grate to theUnited States.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingEffects

How did theUnited Statesrespond to Jewishrefugees?

Image not availablefor use on CD-ROM.Please refer to theimage in the textbook.

542-549-Chapter 16 10/21/02 5:32 PM Page 544

THE CONDEMNED Hitler’s Final Solution rested on thebelief that Aryans were a superior people and that thestrength and purity of this “master race” must be preserved.To accomplish this, the Nazis condemned to slavery anddeath not only the Jews but other groups that they viewedas inferior or unworthy or as “enemies of the state.”

After taking power in 1933, the Nazis had concentratedon silencing their political opponents—communists, social-ists, liberals, and anyone else who spoke out against thegovernment. Once the Nazis had eliminated these enemies,they turned against other groups in Germany. In addition toJews, these groups included the following:

• Gypsies—whom the Nazis believed to be an “inferior race”

• Freemasons—whom the Nazis charged as supportersof the “Jewish conspiracy” to rule the world

• Jehovah’s Witnesses—who refused to join the army or salute Hitler

The Nazis also targeted other Germans whom they found unfit to be part ofthe “master race.” Such victims included homosexuals, the mentally deficient,the mentally ill, the physicallydisabled, and the incurably ill.

Hitler began implementinghis Final Solution in Poland withspecial Nazi death squads. Hitler’selite Nazi “security squadrons”(or SS), rounded up Jews—men,women, children, and babies—and shot them on the spot.

FORCED RELOCATION Jewsalso were ordered into dismal,overcrowded ghettos, segregat-ed Jewish areas in certain Polishcities. The Nazis sealed off theghettos with barbed wire andstone walls.

Life inside the ghetto wasmiserable. The bodies of victimspiled up in the streets faster thanthey could be removed. Factorieswere built alongside ghettoswhere people were forced to workfor German industry. In spite ofthe impossible living conditions,the Jews hung on. While someformed resistance movementsinside the ghettos, others resistedby other means. They publishedand distributed undergroundnewspapers. Secret schools wereset up to educate Jewish children.Even theater and music groupscontinued to operate.

World War Looms 545

BackgroundThe first person touse the term FinalSolution wasGeneral GeorgeCuster. He wasreferring to theexecution ofNative Americans.

SkillbuilderAnswerOver 65 percent

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEDENMARK’S RESISTANCE

King Christian X became animportant symbol of Danish resistance in World War II. In1942, he rejected the Nazis’demand to enforce theNuremberg Laws against theJews in occupied Denmark. InAugust 1943, the king spoke outagainst the German occupyingforces, an act that led to hisimprisonment for the remainderof the war.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting ChartsApproximately what percentage of the total Jewish populationin Europe was killed during the Holocaust?

Pre-Holocaust Low HighPopulation Estimate Estimate

Austria 191,000 50,000 65,500

Belgium 60,000 25,000 29,000

Bohemia/Moravia 92,000 77,000 78,300

Denmark 8,000 60 116

Estonia 4,600 1,500 2,000

France 260,000 75,000 77,000

Germany 566,000 135,000 142,000

Greece 73,000 59,000 67,000

Hungary 725,000 502,000 569,000

Italy 48,000 6,500 9,000

Latvia 95,000 70,000 72,000

Lithuania 155,000 130,000 143,000

Luxembourg 3,500 1,000 2,000

Netherlands 112,000 100,000 105,000

Norway 1,700 800 800

Poland 3,250,000 2,700,000 3,000,000

Romania 441,000 121,000 287,000

Slovakia 89,000 60,000 71,000

USSR 2,825,000 700,000 1,100,000

Yugoslavia 68,000 56,000 65,000

TOTALS 9,067,800 4,869,860 5,894,716 Source: Columbia Guide to the Holocaust

Number Killed

Estimated Jewish Losses

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546 CHAPTER 16

CONCENTRATION CAMPS Finally, Jews in communities not reached by thekilling squads were dragged from their homes and herded onto trains or trucks forshipment to concentration camps, or labor camps. Families were often sepa-rated, sometimes—like the Weissmanns—forever.

Nazi concentration camps were originally set up to imprison political oppo-nents and protesters. The camps were later turned over to the SS, who expandedthe concentration camp and used it to warehouse other “undesirables.” Life inthe camps was a cycle of hunger, humiliation, and work that almost alwaysended in death.

The prisoners were crammed into crude wooden barracks that held up to athousand people each. They shared their crowded quarters, as well as their mea-ger meals, with hordes of rats and fleas. Hunger was so intense, recalled one sur-vivor, “that if a bit of soup spilled over, prisoners would converge on the spot, digtheir spoons into the mud and stuff the mess into their mouths.”

Inmates in the camps worked from dawn to dusk, sevendays a week, until they collapsed. Those too weak to workwere killed. Some, like Rudolf Reder, endured. He was one ofonly two Jews to survive the camp at Belzec, Poland.

A PERSONAL VOICE RUDOLF REDER

“ The brute Schmidt was our guard; he beat and kicked usif he thought we were not working fast enough. He orderedhis victims to lie down and gave them 25 lashes with awhip, ordering them to count out loud. If the victim made amistake, he was given 50 lashes. . . . Thirty or 40 of uswere shot every day. A doctor usually prepared a daily list ofthe weakest men. During the lunch break they were takento a nearby grave and shot. They were replaced the follow-ing morning by new arrivals from the transport of the day. . . . It was a miracle if anyone survived for five orsix months in Belzec.”

—quoted in The Holocaust

On May 9,1945, inmatesat theEbenseeconcentrationcamp inAustria wereliberated byU.S. soldiers.

After stripping their victims of life and dignity,the Nazis hoarded whatever articles of valuethe victims had possessed, such as weddingrings and gold fillings from teeth.

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The Final StageThe Final Solution reached its final stagein early 1942. At a meeting held inWannsee, a lakeside suburb near Berlin,Hitler’s top officials agreed to begin a newphase of the mass murder of Jews. To massslaughter and starvation they would add athird method of killing—murder by poi-son gas.

MASS EXTERMINATIONS As deadly asoverwork, starvation, beatings, and bulletswere, they did not kill fast enough to sat-isfy the Nazis. The Germans built six deathcamps in Poland. The first, Chelmno,began operating in 1941—before themeeting at Wannsee. Each camp had sev-eral huge gas chambers in which as manyas 12,000 people could be killed a day.

When prisoners arrived at Auschwitz,the largest of the death camps, they had toparade by several SS doctors. With a waveof the hand, the doctors separated thosestrong enough to work from those whowould die that day. Both groups were toldto leave all their belongings behind, with apromise that they would be returned later.Those destined to die were then led into aroom outside the gas chamber and weretold to undress for a shower. To completethe deception, the prisoners were even

World War Looms 547

Prisoners were required to wear color-codedtriangles on their uniforms. The categories ofprisoners include communists, socialists,criminals, emigrants, Jehovah’s Witnesses,homosexuals, Germans “shy of work,” and othernationalities “shy of work.” The verticalcategories show a variation. One for repeatoffenders, one for prisoners assigned to punishother prisoners, and double triangles for Jews.Letters on top of a patch indicate nationality.

C

▼

C. AnswerExtermination ofEuropean Jewsin death camps.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

What was thegoal of the Nazis’Final Solution, andhow was that goalnearly achieved?

542-549-Chapter 16 10/21/02 5:33 PM Page 547

548 CHAPTER 16

given pieces of soap. Finally, they were led into the cham-ber and poisoned with cyanide gas that spewed from ventsin the walls. This orderly mass extermination was some-times carried out to the accompaniment of cheerful musicplayed by an orchestra of camp inmates who had tem-porarily been spared execution.

At first the bodies were buried in huge pits. At Belzec,Rudolf Reder was part of a 500-man death brigade thatlabored all day, he said, “either at grave digging or empty-ing the gas chambers.” But the decaying corpses gave off astench that could be smelled for miles around. Worse yet,mass graves left evidence of the mass murder. LilliKopecky recalls her arrival at Auschwitz.

A PERSONAL VOICE LILLI KOPECKY

“ When we came to Auschwitz, we smelt the sweet smell.They said to us: 'There the people are gassed,three kilometers over there.' We didn't believe it.”

—quoted in Never Again

At some camps, to try to cover up the evidence oftheir slaughter, the Nazis installed huge crematoriums, orovens, in which to burn the dead. At other camps, thebodies were simply thrown into a pit and set on fire.

Gassing was not the only method of exterminationused in the camps. Prisoners were also shot, hanged, orinjected with poison.

Still others died as a result of horrible medical experi-ments carried out by camp doctors. Some of these victimswere injected with deadly germs in order to study theeffect of disease on different groups of people. Many morewere used to test methods of sterilization, a subject ofgreat interest to some Nazi doctors in their search for waysto improve the “master race.”

WORLD STAGEWORLD STAGE

RIGHTEOUS PERSONS OFWORLD WAR II

In the midst of the world’s over-all indifference to the plight ofJewish refugees, thousands ofnon-Jews risked—and in manycases lost-—their own lives tosave Jews from the Nazis. Inrecognition of such heroicefforts, the Israeli Parliament, theKnesset, bestowed on these indi-viduals the title of RighteousGentiles (or Righteous Persons).As of the year 2001 more than18,269 individuals were recog-nized for their courage and morality.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes, aPortuguese diplomat stationed inFrance, defied his government’sorders and issued some 10,000visas to Jews seeking entry to hiscountry. The Swedish diplomatRaoul Wallenberg issued “protec-tive passports” that allowedthousands of Hungarian Jews toescape the Nazi death camps.Even citizens of Germany lent ahand. And Sempo Sugihara,Japanese consul in Lithuania,helped over 6,000 Jews toescape the Nazis’ clutches, anact that cost him his career.

Children takenfrom EasternEurope andimprisoned inAuschwitz look out frombehind thebarbed-wirefence in July1944.

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World War Looms 549

THE SURVIVORS An estimated six million Jews died in thedeath camps and in the Nazi massacres. But some miraculouslyescaped the worst of the Holocaust. Many had help from ordi-nary people who were appalled by the Nazis’ treatment of Jews.Some Jews even survived the horrors of the concentration camps.

In Gerda Weissmann Klein’s view, survival depended asmuch on one’s spirit as on getting enough to eat. “I do believe that if you wereblessed with imagination, you could work through it,” she wrote. “If, unfortu-nately, you were a person that faced reality, I think you didn’t have much of achance.” Those who did come out of the camps alive were forever changed bywhat they had witnessed. For survivor Elie Wiesel, who entered Auschwitz in1944 at the age of 14, the sun had set forever.

A PERSONAL VOICE ELIE WIESEL

“ Never shall I forget that night, the firstnight in the camp, which has turned my lifeinto one long night. . . . Never shall I forgetthe little faces of the children, whose bod-ies I saw turned into wreaths of smokebeneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I for-get those flames which consumed my faithforever. Never shall I forget that nocturnalsilence which deprived me, for all eternity,of the desire to live. Never shall I forgetthose moments which murdered my Godand my soul and turned my dreams to dust.Never shall I forget these things, even if Iam condemned to live as long as GodHimself. Never.”

—Night

•Holocaust•Kristallnacht

•genocide•ghetto

•concentration camp1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

List at least four events that led tothe Holocaust.

Write a paragraph summarizing oneof the events that you listed.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

Do you think that the United Stateswas justified in not allowing moreJewish refugees to emigrate? Why or why not? Think About:

• the views of isolationists in theUnited States

• some Americans’ prejudices and fears

• the incident on the German luxury liner St. Louis

4. DEVELOPING HISTORICALPERSPECTIVEWhy do you think the Nazi system ofsystematic genocide was so brutallyeffective? Support your answer withdetails from the text.

5. ANALYZING MOTIVESHow might concentration campdoctors and guards have justified tothemselves the death and sufferingthey caused other human beings?

Cause Effect

The Holocaust

“ Survival is both anexalted privilege anda painful burden.”GERDA WEISSMANN KLEIN

Elie Wiesel, 1986

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Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

•Axis powers•Lend-Lease Act•Atlantic Charter

•Allies•Hideki Tojo

In response to the fighting in Europe, the United Statesprovided economic andmilitary aid to help the Allies achieve victory.

The military capability of the U. S. became a deciding factorin World War II and in worldaffairs ever since.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

One American's Story

America MovesToward War

Two days after Hitler invaded Poland, President Rooseveltspoke reassuringly to Americans about the outbreak of war inEurope.

A PERSONAL VOICE FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

“ This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot askthat every American remain neutral in thought as well. . . .Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his con-science. . . . I have said not once, but many times, that Ihave seen war and I hate war. . . . As long as it is my powerto prevent, there will be no blackout of peace in the U.S.”

— radio speech, September 3, 1939

Although Roosevelt knew that Americans were stilldeeply committed to staying out of war, he also believed thatthere could be no peace in a world controlled by dictators.

The United States Musters Its ForcesAs German tanks thundered across Poland, Roosevelt revised the Neutrality Act of1935. At the same time, he began to prepare the nation for the struggle he fearedlay just ahead.

MOVING CAUTIOUSLY AWAY FROM NEUTRALITY In September of 1939,Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass a “cash-and-carry” provision that allowedwarring nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash and transported them intheir own ships. Providing the arms, Roosevelt argued, would help France andBritain defeat Hitler and keep the United States out of the war. Isolationists attackedRoosevelt for his actions. However, after six weeks of heated debate, Congresspassed the Neutrality Act of 1939, and a cash-and-carry policy went into effect.

Franklin D.Roosevelt

550 CHAPTER 16

▼

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AnalyzingAnalyzing

THE AXIS THREAT The United States cash-and-carry policy began to look liketoo little, too late. By summer 1940, France had fallen and Britain was undersiege. In September 1940, Americans were jolted by the news that Germany, Italy,and Japan had signed a mutual defense treaty, the Tripartite Pact. The threenations became known as the Axis powers.

The Tripartite Pact was aimed at keeping the United States out of the war.Under the treaty, each Axis nation agreed to come to the defense of the others incase of attack. This meant that if the United States were to declare war on any oneof the Axis powers, it would face its worst military nightmare—a two-ocean war,with fighting in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Hoping to avoid this situation, Roosevelt scrambled to provide the Britishwith “all aid short of war.” By June 1940, he had sent Britain 500,000 rifles and80,000 machine guns. In September, after the Tripartite Pact was signed, theUnited States traded 50 old destroyers for leases on British military bases in theCaribbean and Newfoundland. British prime minister Winston Churchill wouldlater recall this move with affection as “a decidedly unneutral act.”

BUILDING U.S DEFENSES Meanwhile, Roosevelt asked Congress to increasespending for national defense. In spite of years of isolationism, Nazi victories in1940 changed U.S. thinking, and Congress boosted defense spending. Congressalso passed the nation’s first peacetime military draft—the Selective Training andService Act. Under this law 16 million men between the ages of 21 and 35 wereregistered. Of these, 1 million were to be drafted for one year but were only allowedto serve in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt himself drew the first draft num-bers as he told a national radio audience, “This is a most solemn ceremony.”

ROOSEVELT RUNS FOR A THIRD TERM That same year, Roosevelt decided tobreak the tradition of a two-term presidency, begun by George Washington, andrun for reelection. To the great disappointment of isolationists, Roosevelt’sRepublican opponent, a public utilities executive named Wendell Willkie, sup-ported Roosevelt’s policy of aiding Britain. At the same time, both Willkie andRoosevelt promised to keep the nation out of war. Because there was so little dif-ference between the candidates, the majority of voters chose the one they knewbest. Roosevelt was reelected with nearly 55 percent of the votes cast.

CARVING IT UPThe three Axis nations—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were a threat to the entire world. They believed theywere superior and more powerful than other nations,especially democracies. By signing a mutual defensepact, the Axis powers believed the United States would never risk involvement in a two-ocean war. Thiscartoon shows the Axis powers’ obsession with globaldomination.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons1. What are the Axis leaders—Hitler, Mussolini, and

Tojo—greedily carving up?2. What do you think the artist means by showing

Hitler doing the carving?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

World War Looms 551

A

A. AnswerRevision of theNeutrality Acts;dramaticallyincreaseddefense spend-ing; institution ofthe nation's firstpeacetime draft.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingEffects

What impactdid the outbreakof war in Europehave on U.S.foreign anddefense policy?

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552 CHAPTER 16

“The United States must protect democracies throughout the world.”

As the conflict in Europe deepened, interventionistsembraced President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declarationthat “when peace has been broken anywhere, peace ofall countries everywhere is in danger.” Rooseveltemphasized the global character of 20th-century com-merce and communication by noting, “Every word thatcomes through the air, every ship that sails the sea,every battle that is fought does affect the Americanfuture.”

Roosevelt and other political leaders also appealedto the nation’s conscience. Secretary of State CordellHull noted that the world was “face to face . . . with anorganized, ruthless, and implacable movement ofsteadily expanding conquest.” In the same vein,Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles called Hitler “asinister and pitiless conqueror [who] has reduced morethan half of Europe to abject serfdom.”

After the war expanded into the Atlantic, Rooseveltdeclared, “It is time for all Americans . . . to stop being

deluded by the romanticnotion that the Americascan go on living happilyand peacefully in a Nazi-dominated world.” Headded, “Let us not askourselves whether theAmericas should begin todefend themselves afterthe first attack . . . or thetwentieth attack. The timefor active defense is now.”

“The United States should not becomeinvolved in European wars.”

Still recovering from World War I and struggling with theGreat Depression, many Americans believed their coun-try should remain strictly neutral in the war in Europe.

Representative James F. O’Connor voiced the coun-try’s reservations when he asked, “Dare we set Americaup and commit her as the financial and military bloodbank of the rest of the world?” O’Connor maintainedthat the United States could not “right every wrong” or“police [the] world.”

The widely admired aviator Charles Lindberghrisked his reputation by stating his hope that “thefuture of America . . . not be tied to these eternal warsin Europe.” Lindbergh asserted that “Americans[should] fight anybody and everybody who attempts tointerfere with our hemisphere.” However, he went on tosay, “Our safety does not lie in fighting European wars.It lies in our own internal strength, in the character ofthe American people and American institutions.” Likemany isolationists, Lindbergh believed that democracywould not be saved “bythe forceful impositionof our ideals abroad, butby example of their suc-cessful operation athome.”

C O U N T E R P O I N TC O U N T E R P O I N TP O I N TP O I N T

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

1. CONNECT TO TODAY Making Inferences After WorldWar l, many Americans became isolationists. Do you recommend that the United States practice isolationismtoday? Why or why not?

2. CONNECT TO HISTORY Researching and Reporting Do research to find out more about Charles Lindbergh’santiwar activities. Present yor findings in an editorial.

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R34.

Vocabularylease: to grant useor occupation ofunder the terms ofa contract

“The Great Arsenal of Democracy”Not long after the election, President Roosevelt told his radio audience during afireside chat that it would be impossible to negotiate a peace with Hitler. “No mancan tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” He warned that if Britain fell, theAxis powers would be left unchallenged to conquer the world, at which point, hesaid, “all of us in all the Americas would be living at the point of a gun.” To pre-vent such a situation, the United States had to help defeat the Axis threat by turn-ing itself into what Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.”

THE LEND-LEASE PLAN By late 1940, however, Britain had no more cash tospend in the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt tried to help by suggesting a newplan that he called a lend-lease policy. Under this plan, the president would lendor lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to theUnited States.”

Roosevelt compared his plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whosehouse was on fire. He asserted that this was the only sensible thing to do to pre-vent the fire from spreading to your own property. Isolationists argued bitterlyagainst the plan, but most Americans favored it, and Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941.

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ScienceScience

SUPPORTING STALIN Britain was not the only nation to receive lend-lease aid.In June 1941, Hitler broke the agreement he had made in 1939 with Stalin not togo to war and invaded the Soviet Union. Acting on the principle that “the enemyof my enemy is my friend,” Roosevelt began sending lend-lease supplies to theSoviet Union. Some Americans opposed providing aid to Stalin; Roosevelt, how-ever, agreed with Winston Churchill, who had said “if Hitler invaded Hell,” theBritish would be prepared to work with the devil himself.

GERMAN WOLF PACKS Providing lend-lease aid was one thing, but to ensurethe safe delivery of goods to Britain and to the Soviet Union, supply lines had tobe kept open across the Atlantic Ocean. To prevent delivery of lend-lease ship-ments, Hitler deployed hundreds of German submarines—U-boats—to attack sup-ply ships.

From the spring through the fall of 1941, individual surface attacks by indi-vidual U-boats gave way to what became known as the wolf pack attack. At nightgroups of up to 40 submarines patrolled areas in the North Atlantic where con-voys could be expected. Wolf packs were successful in sinking as much as 350,000tons of shipments in a single month. In June 1941, President Roosevelt grantedthe navy permission for U.S. warships to attack German U-boats in self-defense.By late 1943, the submarine menace was contained by electronic detection tech-niques (especially radar), and by airborne antisubmarine patrols operating fromsmall escort aircraft carriers.

World War Looms 553

B

GERMAN WOLF PACKS On October 17, 1940, near Rockall, west of Ireland, a BritishConvoy, SC-7 (shown below), was attacked by a German wolfpack. The convoy was outlined clearly against a moonlit sky,making the merchant ships easy prey.

A tanker burns and sinksin the Atlantic Ocean afterbeing torpedoed by aGerman U-boat.

U-boats used hydrophonicequipment to pick up thesound of convoy propellersup to 100 miles away.

The Germans used radiosto summon U-boats into afighting wolf pack.

German aircraftcould patrol 1,000miles out to sea toscout for convoys.

Convoys pinned their hopes on finding U-boats using ASDIC—sonar apparatus that could detect submerged submarines.

At the start of the war, theBritish had too few warshipsto escort the convoys.

▼

B. AnswerRooseveltbelieved that thebest way to stopthe Axis powerswas to help theiropponents—mainly Britainand the SovietUnion.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

DrawingConclusions

Why didRoosevelt takeone “unneutral”step after anotherto assist Britainand the SovietUnion in 1941?

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554 CHAPTER 16

FDR Plans for WarAlthough Roosevelt was popular, his foreign policy was under constant attack.American forces were seriously underarmed. Roosevelt’s August 1941 proposal toextend the term of draftees passed in the House of Representatives by only onevote. With the army provided for, Roosevelt began planning for the war he wascertain would come.

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER While Congress voted on the extension of the draft,Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly at a summit aboard the battleship USSAugusta. Although Churchill hoped for a military commitment, he settled for ajoint declaration of war aims, called the Atlantic Charter. Both countries pledgedthe following: collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economiccooperation, and freedom of the seas. Roosevelt disclosed to Churchill that hecouldn’t ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, but “he wouldwage war” and do “everything” to “force an incident.”

The Atlantic Charter became the basis of a new document called “A Declarationof the United Nations.” The term United Nations was suggested by Roosevelt toexpress the common purpose of the Allies, those nations that had fought theAxis powers. The declaration was signed by 26 nations, “four-fifths of the humanrace” observed Churchill.

SHOOT ON SIGHT After a German submarine fired on theU.S. destroyer Greer in the Atlantic on September 4, 1941,Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to respond. “When yousee a rattlesnake poised to strike,” the president explained,“you crush him.” Roosevelt ordered the navy to shoot theGerman submarines on sight.

Two weeks later, the Pink Star, an American merchantship, was sunk off Greenland. In mid-October, a U-boat torpedoed the U.S. destroyer Kearny, and 11 lives were lost.

Days later, German U-boats sank the U.S. destroyerReuben James, killing more than 100 sailors. “America hasbeen attacked,” Roosevelt announced grimly. “The shoot-ing has started. And history has recorded who fired the firstshot.” As the death toll mounted, the Senate finallyrepealed the ban against arming merchant ships. A formaldeclaration of a full-scale war seemed inevitable.

Japan Attacks the United StatesThe United States was now involved in an undeclared navalwar with Hitler. However, the attack that brought theUnited States into the war came from Japan.

JAPAN’S AMBITIONS IN THE PACIFIC Germany’sEuropean victories created new opportunities for Japaneseexpansionists. Japan was already in control of Manchuria.In July 1937, Hideki Tojo (hCPd-kC tIPjIQ), chief of staff ofJapan’s Kwantung Army, launched the invasion into China.As French, Dutch, and British colonies lay unprotected inAsia, Japanese leaders leaped at the opportunity to uniteEast Asia under Japanese control by seizing the coloniallands. By 1941, the British were too busy fighting Hitler toblock Japanese expansion. Only the U.S. and its Pacificislands remained in Japan’s way.

C

D

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

HIDEKI TOJO1884–1948

U.S. newspapers describedHideki Tojo as “smart, hard-boiled, resourceful, [and] con-temptuous of theories, senti-ments, and negotiations.”

The Nazi press in Germanypraised Tojo as “a man chargedwith energy, thinking clearly andwith a single purpose.” To aBritish paper, Tojo was “the sonof Satan” whose single purposewas “unleashing all hell on theFar East.” In Japan, however, Tojowas looked up to as a manwhose “decisive leadership was asignal for the nation to rise andadminister a great shock to theanti-Axis powers.”

C. Answer It setforth the waraims of theAllies.

D. AnswerGerman U-boatswere attackingAmerican ships.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingCauses

Why did theUnited Statesenter into anundeclaredshooting war withGermany in fall1941?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

Why was theAtlantic Charterimportant?

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World War Looms 555

The Japanese began their southward push in July 1941 by taking over Frenchmilitary bases in Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). The UnitedStates protested this new act of aggression by cutting off trade with Japan. Theembargoed goods included one Japan could not live without—oil to fuel its warmachine. Japanese military leaders warned that without oil, Japan could bedefeated without its enemies ever striking a blow. The leaders declared that Japanmust either persuade the United States to end its oil embargo or seize the oil fieldsin the Dutch East Indies. This would mean war.

PEACE TALKS ARE QUESTIONED Shortly after becoming the prime ministerof Japan, Hideki Tojo met with emperor Hirohito. Tojo promised the emperor thatthe Japanese government would attempt to preserve peace with the Americans.But on November 5, 1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese navy to prepare for an attackon the United States.

The U.S. military had broken Japan’s secret communication codes andlearned that Japan was preparing for a strike. What it didn’t know was where theattack would come. Late in November, Roosevelt sent out a “war warning” to mil-itary commanders in Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines. If war could not beavoided, the warning said, “the United States desires that Japan commit the firstovert act.” And the nation waited.

The peace talks went on for a month. Then on December6, 1941, Roosevelt received a decoded message that instruct-ed Japan’s peace envoy to reject all American peace propos-als. “This means war,” Roosevelt declared.

THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR Early the next morning,a Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor—the largest U.S. naval base in thePacific. The bomber was followed bymore than 180 Japanese warplaneslaunched from six aircraft carriers. Asthe first Japanese bombs found theirtargets, a radio operator flashed thismessage: “Air raid on Pearl Harbor.This is not a drill.”

For an hour and a half, theJapanese planes were barely dis-turbed by U.S. antiaircraft guns andblasted target after target. By thetime the last plane soared off around9:30 A.M., the devastation wasappalling. John Garcia, a pipe fitter’sapprentice, was there.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN GARCIA

“ It was a mess. I was working on the U.S.S. Shaw. It was on a floating dry dock.It was in flames. I started to go down into the pipe fitter’s shop to get my toolboxwhen another wave of Japanese came in. I got under a set of concrete steps atthe dry dock where the battleship Pennsylvania was. An officer came by andasked me to go into the Pennsylvania and try to get the fires out. A bomb hadpenetrated the marine deck, and . . . three decks below. Under that was the maga-zines: ammunition, powder, shells. I said “There ain’t no way I’m gonna go downthere.” It could blow up any minute. I was young and 16, not stupid.”

—quoted in The Good War

E

▼

Newspaperheadlinesannouncethe surpriseJapaneseattack.

E. AnswerJapan neededoil, and theUnited Stateshad placed anembargo on it toprotestJapaneseaggression inIndochina.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

AnalyzingIssues

How was oil asource of conflictbetween Japanand the UnitedStates?

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Tropic of Cancer

150°E 165°E 180°

150°E 165°E

15°S

0°

Kamchatka

YangtzeR.

Yellow

R.

KurileIsla

ndsSakhalin

MarianaIslands

MarshallIslands

SolomonIslands

Wake Island

Midway Islands

RyukyuIslands

Formosa

New Guinea

Caroline Islands

Hawaiian Islands(U.S.)

Guam

Shanghai

Peking

Hong Kong

Singapore

A U S T R A L I A

D U T C H E A S T I N D I E S

MALAYA

PHILIPPINESTHAILANDFRENCHINDOCHINA

BURMA

C H I N A

MANCHURIA

KOREA JAPAN

MONGOLIA

SOVIETUNION

P A C I F I CO C E A N

I N D I A N O C E A N

N

S

EW

Japanese Empire in 1931

Areas under Japanesecontrol, 1941

Extent of Japanese control, 1941

0

0 600 1,200 kilometers

600 1,200 miles

556 CHAPTER 16

Japanese Aggression, 1931–1941

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Region Which countries had

Japan invaded by 1941? 2. Movement Notice the placement

of the U.S. ships in Pearl Harbor—on the lower inset map. Whatmight the navy have donedifferently to minimize damagefrom a surprise attack?

At Pearl Harbor, American sailors are rescued by motorboat after their battleships, the USS West Virginia and the USS Tennessee, were bombed.

Pearl Harbor Invasion,Dec. 7, 1941

Solace

Phoenix

Nevada

VestalArizona

TennesseeMaryland

Neosho

Oglala

ShawHelena

Pennsylvania

DownesCassin

St. LouisHonolulu

San FranciscoNew Orleans

DetroitRaleigh

UtahTangier

Curtiss

West Virginia

OklahomaCalifornia

P e a r l

H a r b o r

U.S. NAVALSTATION

Ford Island

Ships undamagedShips damagedShips sunk

0

0 .25 .5 kilometers

.25 .5 miles

U.S. Ships at Pearl Harbor

Fighters

Fighters

Horizontal bombers

Torpedobom

bers

Dive

bom

bers

Horizontal bombersD ive bombers

Second Attack,8:55 A.M

First Attack,7:55 A.M

PACIFICOCEAN

PearlHarbor

Oahu

Kaneohe NavalAir Station

Pearl Harbor Naval Base

Wheeler Air Force Base

Honolulu

158°W

21°30'N

0

0 8 16 kilometers

8 16 miles

Pearl Harbor Invasion

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In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The surprise raid hadsunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—nearlythe whole U.S. Pacific fleet. More than 300 aircraft wereseverely damaged or destroyed. These losses constitutedgreater damage than the U.S. Navy had suffered in all ofWorld War I. By chance, three aircraft carriers at seaescaped the disaster. Their survival would prove crucial tothe war’s outcome.

REACTION TO PEARL HARBOR In Washington, themood ranged from outrage to panic. At the White House,Eleanor Roosevelt watched closely as her husband absorbedthe news from Hawaii, “each report more terrible than thelast.” Beneath the president’s calm, Eleanor could see howworried he was. “I never wanted to have to fight this war ontwo fronts,” Roosevelt told his wife. “We haven’t the Navyto fight in both the Atlantic and the Pacific . . . so we willhave to build up the Navy and the Air Force and that willmean that we will have to take a good many defeats beforewe can have a victory.”

The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress.“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live ininfamy,” he said, “[the Japanese launched] an unprovokedand dastardly attack.” Congress quickly approved Roosevelt’srequest for a declaration of war against Japan. Three dayslater, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

For all the damage done at Pearl Harbor, perhaps thegreatest was to the cause of isolationism. Many who hadbeen former isolationists now supported an all-out American effort. After the sur-prise attack, isolationist senator Burton Wheeler proclaimed, “The only thingnow to do is to lick the hell out of them.”

World War Looms 557

•Axis powers•Lend-Lease Act

•Atlantic Charter •Allies

•Hideki Tojo1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Create a time line of key eventsleading to America’s entry into WorldWar II. Use the dates below as aguide.

Which of the events that you listedwas most influential in bringing theUnited States into the war? Why?

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

Do you think that the United Statesshould have waited to be attackedbefore declaring war? Think About:

• the reputation of the UnitedStates

• the influence of isolationists• the events at Pearl Harbor

4. PREDICTING EFFECTS What problem would the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor solve forRoosevelt? What new problemswould it create?

5. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES Although the U.S. Congress was stillunwilling to declare war early in1941, Churchill told his war cabinet,

“ We must have patience and trust to the tide which is flowing our way, and toevents.”

What do you think Churchill meantby this remark? Support youranswer.

ECONOMICECONOMIC

WAR AND THE DEPRESSIONThe approach of war did what allthe programs of the New Dealcould not do—end the GreatDepression. As defense spendingskyrocketed in 1940, long-idlefactories came back to life. Amerry-go-round company beganproducing gun mounts; a stovefactory made lifeboats; a famousNew York toy maker made com-passes; a pinball-machine com-pany made armor-piercing shells.

With factories hiring again, thenation’s unemployment rollsbegan shrinking rapidly—by400,000 in August 1940 and byanother 500,000 in September.By the time the Japaneseattacked Pearl Harbor, Americawas heading back to work. (See Keynesian Economics onpage R42 in the EconomicsHandbook.)

Vocabulary infamy: evil fameor reputation

September1940

June1941

December1941

March1941

August1941

SkillbuilderAnswers 1. Japaneseislands, half ofthe island northof Japan, Korea,Taiwan, smallerislands,Manchuria,parts of easternand southernChina, FrenchIndochina.2. Scatter theships to makethem more diffi-cult targets.

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