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CHAPTER 24
THE CRISIS DEEPENS: WORLD WAR II
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CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Retreat from Democracy: Dictatorial Regimes
A. Dictatorial regimes were not new, but totalitarian regimes were
1. Totalitarian states demanded not just passive but active loyalty and commitment
2. Totalitarian regimes controlled not only economic, political, and social aspects of life
but also intellectual and cultural
3. Single leader and a single party, using modern technology
B. The Birth of Fascism
1. Italy and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
a. Began as a socialist
b. New political group, the Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat) in
1919
c. Armed bands of Fascists, the squadristi, intimidated opponents
d. Appealed to nationalism and middle-class fear of communist revolution
e. October 1922, Mussolini threatened to march on Rome
f. King Victor Emmanuel capitulated and made Mussolini prime minister
2. Italian fascism included press censorship, prime minister could rule by decree, all antiFascist parties were outlawed, and a secret police force was established
3. By 1926, Mussolini was Il Duce, the leader
4. Italian fascism was less totalitarian than German fascism or Soviet communism
a. Simplistic propaganda
b. Did not entirely control educational system
c. “Young Fascists” youth organization
d. Family was the pillar of the state, and “Woman into the home” the slogan
5. Catholic church, monarchy, armed forces were never absorbed into the Fascist state
C. Hitler and Nazi Germany
1. Hitler and the Early Nazi Party
a. Hitler served in German army in World War I
b. In 1919 in Munich he joined the right-wing German Workers’ Party
c. Assumed control of the party, renamed National Socialist German Workers’
Party (NSDAP), or Nazi, in 1921
d. Nazis became a mass political movement, with newspaper, uniforms, and its
own party militia, the Sturmabteilung, or SA (Storm Troops)
e. Hitler was an effective orator
f. Overconfident, Hitler attempted an armed uprising against the Bavarian
government in November 1923 (the Beer Hall Putsch)
g. Failed, and Hitler sentenced to prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf (My
Struggle)
1) Mixture of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anticommunism
2) Social Darwinian world-view
3) Master races deserve Lebensraum, or living space
h. Hitler concluded that violent revolution would not succeed, so mass party
instead, all over Germany
2. The Rise to Power
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a. By 1932, the Nazi party had 800,000 members and was the largest party in the
Reichstag
1) Great Depression gave Hitler his opportunity
b. Right-wing elites came to believe Hitler’s authoritarianism would save them
from a communist takeover
c. Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, appointed by President Hindenberg
d. The Enabling Act, March 1933: Hitler was given the power to dispense with
constitutional forms for four years and rule as a dictator
1) Civil service purged of Jews and democrats
2) Concentration camps established
3) Trade unions and other political parties abolished
e. Hindenberg died in August 1934, and Hitler became sole leader
1) The Fuhrer, or leader
2) Oath of loyalty to Hitler was required
3. The Nazi State, 1933-1939
a. Goal to establish a “total state,” an “Aryan” racial state to dominate
Europe and beyond
b. Mass demonstrations (e.g.Nuremberg rallies)
c. Considerable administrative chaos
d. Use of public works projects for “pump priming” the economy
e. Schlutzstaffel (the SS) under Heinrich Himmler controlled all police forces
1) Used terror, including murder and concentration camps
f. Churches and education brought under government control
g. Nazi organizations, such as the Hitlerjugund (Hitler Youth) and the Bund
deutscher Madel (League of German Maidens)
h. Women were to wives and mothers, produce master race children
1) “Get hold of pots and pans and broom and you’ll sooner find a groom”
i. Nuremberg laws, September 1935, excluded Jews from German citizenship and
forbade extramarital relations between Jews and Germans
j. Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, a Nazi rampage against Jews
1) Hundreds of Jews killed, thousands sent to concentration camps
2) SS ordered Jews to emigrate from Germany
D. The Stalinist Era in the Soviet Union
1. First five-year plan in 1928, to transform Soviet Union to an industrial society
a. Emphasis upon steel, heavy machinery, and oil rather than consumer goods
2. Collectivization of agriculture
a. By 1934, 26 million private farms collectivized into 250,000 units
b. Millions died
3. Stalin purged the Old Bolsheviks and others in show trials
4. Abortion outlawed and divorce restricted
E. The Rise of Militarism in Japan due to growing influence of militant political forces
1. Weak political parties
2. Depression hurt Japanese exports
3. Prime Minister Tsuyoshi assassinated in 1932, followed by other assassinations
4. Kita Ikki’s call for “Asia for the Asians” had little support during prosperous 1920s
but greater support during Depression 1930s
5. Extreme nationalists and military factions gained more influence
II. The Path to War
A. The Path to War in Europe
1. Hitler stated in Mein Kampf he wanted Lebensraum in the east at the expense of Russia
2. A Diplomatic Revolution: Scrapping the Treaty of Versailles
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a. Hitler, posing as man of peace, stated he wanted to revise Treaty of Versailles
b. March 1935: Hitler announced that Germany had rearmed in spite of
Versailles Treaty
c. March 1936: Germany seized demilitarized Rhineland
d. October 1935: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia
e. October 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis
f. November 1937: Anti-Comintern Pact against Soviets by Germany and Japan
g. 1936-1938:Spanish Civil War
h. March 1938: Austria was annexed by Germany
3. The Takeover of Czechoslovakia
a. Hitler demanded Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia
b. In the Munich conference in September 1938, France and Britain gave
Sudetenland to Hitler in policy of “appeasement”
c. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: “Peace in our time”
d. March 1939: rest of Czechoslovakia was dismembered
4.Poland
a. Hitler demanded return of Danzig to Germany
b. Britain promised to protect Poland
c. Only Soviet Union was in a position to defend Poland
d. Nazi-Soviet Pact on August 23, 1939
e. September 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland and World War II began
B. The Path to War in Asia
1. Japanese Aggression in China
a. September 1931: Mukden incident allowed Japan to seize Manchuria
b. When League of Nations condemned Japan, it left the League
c. Chiang Kai-shek feared the Soviets more than Japan
d. December 1936: Chiang forced into united front with Mao Zedong/the CCP
e. July 1937: China-Japanese clash at Beijing’s Marco Polo Bridge led to war
f. Japanese captured capital of Nanjing, but Chiang moved to Chongqing
g. Japan wanted to create a “Monroe Doctrine for Asia,” taking over Siberia
2. Advance to the South
a. Anti-Comintern Pact doubtful when Nazi-Soviet Pact signed
b. In reaction, Japan refocused from Siberia to Southeast Asia for oil, rice, rubber
c. Would risk war with the United States
1) 1937: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “quarantine” the aggressors speech
2) 1940: Cut off oil and scrap iron unless Japan retreats in China
d. Japan decide to launch surprise attack against the United States
III. World War II
A. Europe at War
1. Winter of 1939-1940 was the “phony war”
2. April-May 1940: Blitzkrieg against Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France
3. By June 22, 1940, Germany had occupied 3/5 of France
a. Vichy France under Marshal Henri Petain controlled the rest of France
4. The Problem of Britain
a. August 1940: Battle of Britain (air battle) began with bombing by Luftwaffe
b. September 1940: Hitler changed strategy from military targets to cities
1) Possibly saved Britain, as British air strength was rebuilt
c. By end of September 1940, Britain had won the Battle of Britain
5. Hitler’s Mediterranean strategy when British defeated Italy in North Africa
6. Invasion of the Soviet Union
a. Hitler believed that by defeating Soviet Union, Britain would capitulate
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1) Supposedly the Soviets were weak, especially after the purges
b. April 1941: to protect his southern flank, Hitler seized Greece and Yugoslavia
c. June 22, 1941: Germany invaded the Soviet Union
d. Initial German victories
1) Ukraine captured, along with 2 million Russian soldiers
2) German armies besieged Leningrad, got to within 25 miles of Moscow
e. Russia winter and Soviet counterattack stalled the German armies
f. German declaration of war against the United States in December probably
doomed Germany
B. Japan at War
1. December 7, 1941: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands
a. Same day attacked Philippines and in Malaya, later the Dutch East Indies
2. By spring of 1942, most of Southeast Asia and western Pacific in Japanese hands
3. Japanese miscalculation: Pearl Harbor galvanized Americans
4. December 11, 1941: Hitler declared war against United States
C. The Turning Point of the War, 1942–1943
1. The Grand Alliance (Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States)
a. Decision that defeat of Germany was the first priority
b. American “lend-lease” of $50 billion worth of materials
c. Allied policy of “unconditional surrender” of Germany was required
2. North Africa and the Eastern Front
a. Summer 1942: war went well for Germany
1) Crimea was captured
2) General Rommel advanced on Alexandria in Egypt
b. Britain’s Montgomery defeated Rommel at Battle of El Alamein
1) November 1942: Americans and British invade French North Africa
c. November 1942-February 1943: Battle of Stalingrad
1)300,000 Germans troops lost
3.Asia
a. May 1942: Battle of the Coral Sea
b. June 1942: Battle of Midway
1) The battles established American naval superiority in the Pacific
c. General Douglas MacArthur began “island hopping”
D. The Last Years of the War: by beginning of 1943, tide of battle had turned against Axis
1. Allied Advances in Europe
a. September 1943: Allies invaded Italy from Sicily
1) Mussolini arrested but freed by Germans
2) Slow allied advance in Italy: Rome did not fall until June 4, 1944
b. June 6, 1944: American-British invasion of Normandy
1) Paris fell in late August
2) By March 1945, Rhine had been crossed
c. In east
1) Germany lost tank Battle of Kursk in July 1943
2) Soviets occupied Warsaw in January 1945
d. Hitler retreated to his Berlin bunker in January 1945
e. European war ended in spring of 1945
1) Mussolini killed on April 28
2) Hitler committed suicide on April 30
3) Germany surrendered on May 7
2. Defeat of Japan
a. American advances across the Pacific towards Japanese home islands
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b. Harry Truman replace Roosevelt as president after latter’s death in April 1945
c. Truman decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan to save American lives
1) August 6, 1945: Hiroshima
2) August 9, 1945: Nagasaki
d. August 14: Japan surrendered unconditionally
E. World War II dead possibly 50 million (17 million in battle)
IV. The New Order
A. The New Order in Europe
1. The Nazi Empire, from English Channel to outskirts of Moscow
a. Not organized systematically or governed efficiently
2. Plans for an Aryan Racial Empire
a. Racial profiling: Nordics good (Danes and Norwegians), Latins inferior
(French), Slavs even more inferior
b. Heinrich Himmler in charge of German resettlement in the east
1) Evacuate inferior Slavs and replace them with Germans
2) Slavs (Poles, Russians, Ukrainians) to be slave labor
3. Use of Foreign Workers
a. Seven million worked in Germany
b. Another 7 million were forced to work elsewhere in the German empire
1) Millions died of neglect
B. The Holocaust: attempt exterminate Europe’s Jews
1. Before the war began, forced emigration of the Jews was the policy
2. Madagascar Plan: ship the Jews to African island of Madagascar
3. The SS and the Einsatzgruppen
a. The SS was given responsibility for the “Final Solution”
b. Reinhard Heydrich set up killing units, the Einsatzgruppen
1) Was inefficient and hurt morale of German troops
4. Six Death Camps established in Poland, with Auschwitz-Berkenau the most famous
a. Zyklon b/hydrogen cyanide used in gas chambers that looked like shower
rooms
b. Jews were shipped on cattle cars from all over Europe to the death camps
c. On arrival, c, 30 percent were sent to labor camps, the rest to the gas chambers
d. Nazi doctors performed inhuman medical experiments
e. Between 5 and 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust
5. The Other Holocaust
a. 9 or 10 million others died by shooting, starvation, overwork, including
Gypsies, intellectuals, Slavs, and others
C. The New Order in Asia
1. Japanese Policies: the Great East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere/Asia for the Asiatics
a. Puppet governments established in conquered areas
b. Japanese military really in charge
c. Traditional values stressed, including obedience and filial piety
2. Resentment and Resistance
a. Initially many took the Japanese at face value, and cooperated
b. Support gave way to resentment, e.g. when Buddhists were obliged to
recognize the Japanese emperor as divine
1) Rape of Nanjing
2) 800,000 Koreans sent overseas as forced labor
c. A dilemma for colonial nationalists: no love for the West but Japan as bad
V. The Home Front: even more than World War I, World War II was “total war”
A. Mobilizing the People
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1. The Soviet Union
a. During 900-day siege of Leningrad, people ate dogs, cats, and mice
b. Factories moved into the Russian interior
c. Women in the factories and elsewhere
d. Female pilots, the “Night Witches”
2. The United States
a. No threat of war on its own territory after Pearl Harbor
b. Mobilization of the economy caused social problems in lack of housing, health
facilities, increase in teenage prostitution
c. 16 million in uniform and another 16 million were relocated in the war effort
d. Race riots in the north when black moved from the south for war work
e. 110,000 Japanese Americans were sent to camps
3. Germany
a. To maintain morale, Hitler did not reduce production of consumer goods and
did not increase armament production until 1942
b. Total mobilization of the economy did not occur until 1944
c. Unlike Russian women, German women largely escaped the war effort
4. Japan
a. Military conscription adopted in 1938
b. Labor unions were dissolved
c. Traditional values enforced, including divinity of the emperor
d. Code of Bushido, or the way of the warrior
1) Kamikaze (“divine wind”) suicide missions against American ships
e. As in Germany, most Japanese women did not do war work in the factories
1) Used forced labor form Korea and China instead
B. The Bombing of Cities
1. Luftwaffe Attacks
a. Belief was that bombing of civilians would reduce enemy’s will to resist
b. Bombing of London—the Blitz—united the British instead
1) London too spread out to destroy
2) Bombing of Coventry did have greater impact
2. The Bombing of Germany
a. Britain’s “Bomber” Arthur Harris did the same to German cities, using
saturation bombing
b. American precision bombing in the daytime on military/industrial targets
c. Bombing of Dresden, February 1945, produced a firestorm that killed 100,000
d. During the war, 500,000 German civilians died in the bombing, but it did not
weaken German morale or destroy Germany’s industrial capacity
3. The Bombing of Japan: The Atomic Bomb
a. Bombing attacks on Japanese cities began in June 1944
b. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945
1) In Hiroshima, 140,000 died out of a population if 400,000
c. Truman’s motives?
1) Defeat Japan?
2) Intimidate the Soviet Union?
VI. Aftermath: The Cold War
A. Ideological, military, and political differences between the Soviet Union and the United States
1. Tehran Conference, November 1943
a. Britain and France would invade France
b. Agreed to a partition of Germany at the end of the war
B. The Yalta Conference, February 1945
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1. Germany defeat was inevitable
2. 11 million Red army soldiers in eastern Europe
3. Stalin concerned about security, Roosevelt about democracy
4. Stalin agreed to help defeat Japan
5. Agreed to formation of the United Nations
6. Germany and eastern Europe
a. Issue of free elections in eastern Europe, but were supposed to be pro-Soviet
1) Irreconcilable goals
C. The Potsdam Conference, July 1945
1. Truman less willing to defer to Stalin’s concern?
a. Demanded free elections in eastern Europe
b. Stalin said free elections would be anti-Soviet
2. West saw world-wide communist expansion conspiracy
3. Soviet said that the West/United States were war-mongering imperialists
4. March 1946: Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech
VII. Conclusion
THOUGHT/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR PRIMARY SOURCES
(BOXED DOCUMENTS)
1. “Propaganda and Mass Meetings in Nazi Germany”—What do these excerpts reveal about Hitler’s
view of humanity and his knowledge of human needs and emotions? What developments since the early
1920s had made people feel “small” and “insecure”? Which people might particularly succumb to
Hitler’s oratory? Did he carry out a “mass bonding experience” at Nuremberg? Would he find an
audience in present-day Germany, or in the United States? (page 689)
2. “The Formation of Collective Farms”—According to the passage, why did the peasants initially oppose
collectivization? What ultimately caused them to accept it? Was agricultural collectivization a recreation
or restoration of pre-emancipation serfdom? Why or why not? What advantages did collectivization
provide to the government? Did the peasants gain anything at all from collectivization? If so, what? What
did they lose? (p. 690)
3. “The Munich Conference”—From the perspective of October 1938, is Neville Chamberlain’s defense
of the Munich agreement convincing? Why or why not? What “disaster” is Winston Churchill warning
about? What were the several possible factors that led to Parliament’s support of Chamberlain against
Churchill? Is “appeasement” always a “doomed” policy? Why or why not? (p. 693)
4. “Japan’s Justification for Expansion”—What reason does Kingoro give for Japan’s need, and right, to
expand its control of territory and resources? Is his argument at all convincing? Why or why not? Was the
“three-door argument” valid? Why or why not? How did he use racist arguments in his apology? Does the
West, including the United States, bear any responsibility for the onset of World War II in Asia? (p. 695)
5. “A German Soldier at Stalingrad”—How does the German soldier’s outlook change during the
five-month period dealt with? Are the changes the result of military or personal influences? Did the
outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad alter the character of the war? How? Is there any similarity between
the siege of Stalingrad in World War II and the trench warfare experience of World War I? (p. 700)
6. “The Holocaust: The Camp Commandant and the Camp Victims”—Is the callousness revealed by the
existence of “efficient,” adjacent murder and cremation facilities more the result of wartime pressures,
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ideology, or human viciousness? Explain the reasons behind your thinking. Why did the victims submit
with such apparent docility? What, if anything, was unique about the Holocaust? Did such
institutionalized mass-murder survive the Nazi defeat? (p. 535)
7. “Hitler’s Plans for New Order in the East”—Who, besides Germans, does Hitler believe will aid in
“Germanizing” the East? What historical phenomena is Hitler referring to in his reference to “Redskins”?
Is the parallel accurate? Why or why not? What are Hitler’s justifications for seizing and transforming
Eastern Europe? Where those claims and justifications unique to Hitler and the twentieth century or have
the same arguments been employed in the past? If so, when and where? (p. 703)
8. “The Holocaust: The Camp Commandment and the Camp Victim”—Is the callousness revealed by the
existence of “efficient” adjacent murder and cremation facilities more the result of wartime pressures,
ideology, or sheer human viciousness? Explain the reasons behind your thinking. Why did the victims
submit with such apparent docility? What, if anything, was unique about the Holocaust? Has such
institutionalized mass-murder survived the Nazi defeat? Is so, give examples. (p. 706)
9. “Japan’s Plan for Asia”—Is the excerpt about the “duty” of Japan as “the leader of the East Asiatic
Union” at all similar to the justifications of Western imperialism as put forth by Rudyard Kipling and
others? Why or why not? Does Japan’s plan for Asia differ from Hitler’s vision of a New Order in the
Russian east? If so, how? (p. 707)
STUDENT RESEARCH AND PROJECT TOPICS
1. Have students examine the Mukden incident, and the Japanese and Chinese responses to it. Ask them to
note and analyze the nature and impact of the international response, including the League of Nations.
2. Have students read portions of Mein Kampf and then examine Hitler’s foreign policy between his
rearmament announcements and the signing of his pact with the Soviets in August 1939. Ask them
to decide the relative degrees by which his perceptiveness and the ineptitude of other leaders explain the
flow of events between 1935 and 1939.
3. Have students compare the new features, and overall effectiveness, of modern totalitarian regimes’
efforts to organize and motivate and control their populations, with those of earlier authoritarian systems.
Is there anything similar in the early twenty-first century?
4. Invite your students to weigh the relative roles of the United States and Soviet Union in defeating Nazi
Germany, and to indicate what evidence causes them to think as they do.
5. Have the class examine the role of civilians in World War II, in contrast to earlier conflicts, and ponder
how their altered role influenced its outcome. A related topic is to have students examine the role women
of different societies played in the war, as preparation for a discussion or debate.
6. In a debate or general discussion, have students compare the significance and influence of World War
II with that of World War I as to which had the greater impact on the world’s future.
7. Given the ideological differences, as well as differing economic interests, of the states comprising the
Grand Alliance, ask students why it was strong enough to allow them to prevail in World War II but was
unable to block the early advent of the Cold War soon after victory had been achieved.
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