WWII and the HolocaustCh 29

I. Introduction• Continuation of WWI

• Result of Germany being punished for WWI

• Major use of airpower• Ex. Battle of Britain

• Extensive Naval Warfare • Including amphibious

landings

• Casualties(estimates)• Axis Military and Civilian-

8,268,000*• Allied Civilian and Military-

39,963,700*• USSR- 20 million & China 10

Million*• * Varies per source

II. Road to War• World Perspective: Japan was the initial aggressors

• 1931 invasion of Manchuria• 2nd Sino-Japanese War (Rape of China)

• European Perspective: Hitler and Mussolini were the initial aggressors• October 1933- Hitler pulls from international disarmament

conference• February March 1935- Hitler breaks Versailles treaty with creating

German Luftwaffe and military conscription• Goal to unite all German people and expand Germany’s territory

• March 7, 1936- Hitler sent troops to the Rhineland (demilitarized)• October 1935- Mussolini orders an attack on Ethiopia

• Revenge for 1896 defeat

• Spanish Civil War (1936-39)• Francisco Franco (fascist/nationalist) supported

by Germany and Italy• Soviet Union supported established republican

government• Both sides tested new weapons• Ended with Francisco Franco’s forces winning

II. Road to War

Guernica

• Austria- united with Germany (Anschluss) 1934-1938• Nazi’s assassinated Prime Minister but Mussolini

interfered• Hitler eventually marches in to takes over on March 12,

1938

• Czechoslovakia• Democratic nation that was a French and Soviet ally

• Created as a buffer between France and Germany• Ceded to Germany the Sudetenland as a result of Nazi

encouraged riots and the Munich Pact of 1938• Chamberlain allowed this through policy of appeasement• Major turning point that led to the war

II. Road to War

• Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939• Stalin saw Hitler as a threat but wanted to buy

some time• Hitler wanted Poland and wanted to prevent a 2

front war• Both countries would divide Poland

• USSR would gain the Baltic and Romania

II. Road to War

III. The War• Officially begins with invasion of Poland

• September 1,1939- Germany invades Poland• Defeated October 6• Blitzkrieg

• September 3- France and Britain declare war on Germany• September 17 USSR invade Eastern Poland

III. The War• Maginot Line

• Huge French defensive line that stretched from Switzerland to Ardennes Forrest in Belgium• Thought there was no way that Germany could get through

• April 1940- Hitler invades Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg• Belgium had long since stopped building their part of the Maginot Line

• Battle of Dunkirk• Failed Ally defense in Belgium

• Resulted in French and British retreat across the English Channel• 300,000 troops escaped but left large amounts of equipment

• Battle of France May 10- June 22,1940• Germany invaded from the North (took Paris) and Italy from South

• Left Britain fighting alone

III. The War• Battle of Britain July- October 1940

• Hitler initially tried to make a deal with England • Churchill refused

• Hitler begins air strikes in July 1940• Initially focused on military targets but then focused on London

(nightly/daily) as a way to break morale• 15000 Londoners killed• Failed- united people and caused Hitler to waste resources

• RAF eventually defeated the Germans in the air• With help of US supplies and radar

III. The War• Operation Barbarossa (June 22 –December 5, 1941)

• Originally scheduled for May 15th • Caused problems much later on

• Plan was to attack Russia for supplies and to crush British morale• Planned to attack USSR all along

• Mussolini caused problems by invading Africa and Greece• Hitler eventually had to bail him out

• Blitzkrieg got bogged down and USSR bought their time until the Russian winter• Stalingrad-one of the most costly battles on the Eastern

Front• Important due to it blocking Hitler from Russian oil fields

III. The War• The United States

• Neutral but not really• Japan expanding their empire in the pacific• United States cuts off all supplies to Japan in

July 1941• British and Dutch also cut off Japanese trade• Japan forced to either attack or stop expanding

• Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941• Crippled US Pacific fleet (not carriers) • US declares war on Japan (Dec. 8) then Italy and

Germany declare war on the US (Dec 11)

III. The War• US continued

• US was not geared for war• Needed to increase troop size/training and change most of the

industry over to war material production• Pacific Theater

• Priority due to Japan being an immediate threat• US loss Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island• Turning point was Coral Sea and Battle of Midway where the US had

their first decisive victories (May and June 1942)• Battle of Midway crippled Japanese fleet• Led to US island hopping

III. The War• European Theater

• 1943- US and British initially focused on bombing Nazi held territories

• 1944- Allies started depleting German ability to control the sky• Allowed for land assaults

• June 6, 1944- Normandy Assault (D-day)• Codenamed Operation Overlord• Commanded by General Eisenhower• Massive amphibious landing to gain a foothold in Nazi

controlled France• Led to the liberation of Paris (August 25)

III. The War• Battle of the Bulge (December 1944)

• Final German attack in the Ardennes Forrest (Belgium)• All or nothing attack that led to the end of the Nazi control

in Europe

• Fall of the Nazis• Russia captured Berlin while the western powers were still

moving east (March 1945)• May 1, 1945 Hitler and his top advisors committed suicide• May 8- Germany surrendered

• April 27- Mussolini and his top advisors were captured

III. The War• The defeat of Japan

• Japan vowed to fight to the very last man• Became extremely desperate and resorted to suicide attacks

• Fire Bombing of Tokyo (Nov. 1944- May 1945)• Systematically torched huge portions of the capital

• Operation Downfall• Proposed invasion of Honshu• Estimated casualties as high as 1 million US and 3-10 times as

many Japanese

III. The War• Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)

• Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb (Little Boy- Plutonium) on the industrial city of Hiroshima

• 70,000 dead

• Nagasaki (August 9, 1945)• Bockscar dropped the 2nd

atomic bomb (Fat Man- Uranium) of Nagasaki• 80,000 dead

• Japan surrenders on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

IV. The End• Why Germany lost

• Overextended military• Had to pad military forces with those from occupied

territories• Cut off ties with allies

• Overconfident that the Blitzkrieg would be successful• Invaded Russia too late in the year but too soon in the war

• 1942- virtually cut all consumer goods to produce war materials• Wore down the citizens (extreme rationing)• Depleted labor force- Teens, women and old men

• Forced labor from POW and occupied regions

IV. The end• Tehran Conference of 1944

• Allied forces met to discuss how to defeat Hitler• France was focus• Soviet Union allowed to take over Eastern Europe

• Yalta Conference 1945• Roosevelt gave Stalin Manchuria and parts of Japan in

exchange for help defeating Japan

• Potsdam July 1945• Final conference• Confirmed Soviet control of Eastern Europe• US occupies Japan and colonies returned• US and Soviet Union divides Korea (North and South)• Divides Germany and Berlin between US, UK and USSR

IV. The End• The end and the beginning

• Leads to the Cold War• Allowed too many concessions to the USSR

• Too much land was given to Soviet Union

V. The Holocaust• Holocaust

• Hitler’s final solution• About 6 million Jews were killed• Brought to light to the persecution of the Jews• The Jews pushed for their own homeland

• Israel became a state on May 14, 1948• Arabs were unhappy• Suffered numerous invasions in the first year

• Ended up increasing territory

V. The Holocaust• Hitler also killed

• Gypsies• Homosexuals (pink triangles)• Mentally handicapped • Physically handicapped• Religious leaders who refused to accept the Nazi

cult• Slavs

V. The Holocaust• Ghetto

• Containment of all Jews in a town that made it easier to ship them off to concentration camps• Many died due to poor conditions and lack of

supplies

• Extermination• Mass executions• Concentration Camps

• Auschwitz and Dachau• Some were work camps with eventual execution• Some were immediate execution

V. The Holocaust• The Holocaust was not the only period of

attacks on the Jews, just the most systematic• The Jews/Israel were historically a disliked group

• Pogroms- Russian attacks on Jews• Why?

• Historically- would not conform to cultural/religious norms• Money lending- In Europe, many would run the

banks

VI. Conclusion• WWII changed the political landscape of

Europe and large portions of the world• Many colonies were given self-determination• Creation of new countries

• Cold War developed resulting in decades of conflict and tension