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The Great Patriotic War, 1941-45
PRINCIPAL BELLIGERENTS:
• Axis powers:
 Germany
 Italy
 Japan
• Allies:
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British Empire
United States
Soviet Union
France
China
Soviet Foreign Policy, 1934-1938
• Comintern, 1919-1943
• 1933: USA recognized USSR
• W. Bullitt, US ambassador
• Collective Security, 1934-1937
– Maxim M. Litvinov (1876-1951)
• Narkom Foreign Affairs, 1930-38
• Jew, anti-Nazi, pro-West
• Sept. 1934: USSR joined League of
Nations
• May 1935: France and USSR sign
pact
• USSR pledged to help
Czechoslovakia, if France first.
– March 1936: Germany remilitarized Rhineland
– 1936: Germany, Italy, Japan form
anti-Comintern pact
Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
• Germany and Italy supported Francisco Franco,
Nationalists’ leader
• West proclaimed non-intervention, but many leftists
volunteered.
• USSR supported Popular Front government (lost).
• Seen as dress rehearsal for eastern war
Appeasement and Aggression
• March 1938: Anschluss (“joining”)
• Austrians warmly greeted Hitler
• 1938-39: Appeasement: Neville
Chamberlain
• Sept. 1938: Munich Agreement
• Britain, France, Italy, Germany signed.
• Czechoslovakia and USSR not invited.
• Stalin realized West powerless or worse.
Outbreak of war, 1939
• March 1939: Germany occupied
Czechoslovakia
• May 1939: Stalin replaced Litvinov
with V. Molotov
• August 23, 1939: German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact (10 years)
– Secret protocol divided EE
• Sept. 1, 1939: Germany invades
Poland
• Sept. 3, 1939: Britain and France
declare war on Germany
• Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union attacked Poland
• Soviet Union imposed control over Lithuania,
Estonia and Latvia
• Nov. 1939-March 1940: Soviet-Finnish War or
the Winter War
Katyn massacre, April-May 1940
• 25,700 Polish POWs
killed, 4400 at Katyn.
• Germans discovered
graves 1943.
• NKVD Lavrenti Beria’s
idea
• Stalin signed
• Only in 1990 admitted.
Soviet Union’s expansion, 1939
Blitzkrieg: "Lightening War"
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Panzer Divisions
Armored vehicles
motorcycles
Planes
Concentrated
attack
Blitzkrieg (cont.)
• Germans quickly took France
(occupied Paris on June 14, 1940)
• June 22, 1940, at Rethondes (the
scene of the signing of the Armistice
of 1918) Franco-German Armistice
was signed
• Vichy France created: General HenriPhilippe Petain became head of state
German occupied Europe
German-Soviet War, 1941-45
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Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Lebensraum (Living space)
Slavs - “subhumans”
Poor Soviet Army performance in “Winter
war” with Finland
• Possibility of Soviet attack
• Hitler: “We have only to kick in the door
and the whole rotten structure will come
crashing down!”
June 22, 1941: Germany broke Non-Aggression Pact
and attacked USSR: Operation Barbarossa
Numbers on the eastern front
Axis powers
USSR
3.9 million
Troops
3.2 million (later 5
million)
Troops
3600
Tanks
12-15,000
Tanks
4839
Aircrafts
11,357 (later 3540,000)
Aircrafts
250,000
Killed
802,191
Killed
500,000
Wounded
3,000,000
Wounded
3,300,000
Captured
Casualties
2093
Aircraft destroyed
21,200
Aircraft destroyed
2758
Tanks lost
20,500
Tanks lost
The Holocaust, 1941-45
“The Final Solution”
• Until 1941, Hitler and Nazis did not agree on
what to do with Jews
• Emigration
• Madagascar
• TURNING POINT: June 1941, Operation
Barbarossa
• Einsatzgruppen: “Mobile Killing Groups” or
“Single-task groups”
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Jews
Communists
Gypsies
Poles
Einsatzgruppen, 1941-42
Final Solution (cont.)
• The ghettos were already sealed (1940)
• Poison gas vans tested the use of gas
• Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Systematic annihilation of Jews and Gypsies
• 1942–1944: one million killed
• Anonymous slaughter
• People were tortured, beaten, and executed
publicly
jews arrested
warsaw_HU007442.jpg
Map_26.06.jpg
Map_26.07.jpg
Overall human costs
• 5.1-6.0 million Jews
– 800,000 in Ghettos
– 1,400,000 in open-air shootings
– 2,900,000 in camps
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1.8 -1.9 million Poles
200,000-800,000 Roma & Sinti
200,000-300,000 people with disabilities
10,000-25,000 gay men
2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses
pearl harbor_NA006444.jpg
US enters the war
• December 7, 1941: Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor
• 2.5 hours later, Japanese officially declared war
on the United States and Britain
• Dec. 8: US Congress declared that a state of war
had existed since December 7
• Dec. 9: China declared war on Japan, Germany,
and Italy
• Dec. 11: Germany and Italy declared war on the
United States, and the US Congress voted
declarations in return
The Grand Alliance
• BIG THREE:
– Great Britain: Winston Churchill
– USA: F.D. Roosevelt
– USSR: Josef Stalin
• Keys to victory: Agreed to:
– Europe first (Hitler - greatest evil)
– Postpone politics (capitalism vs. communism)
– Unconditional surrender (no 1918!)
yalta conf
erence_BE001058.jpg
But war in the east was
decisive
• Battle of Stalingrad: summer 1942February 2, 1943
• Hitler wanted to take the city. Why?
 Named after Stalin
 Important port on Volga river
 But distraction from oil reserves
Battle of Stalingrad: summer 1942February 2, 1943
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Axis powers advanced (General F. Paulus)
Soviets held on
Axis supplies started running out
Winter came
Panzer tanks useless in street fighting
Soviets counterattacked (pincer
movement)
• Surrounded Axis forces
Stalingrad: Street-to-street
fighting
Stalingrad
• Feb. 2, 1943: Paulus surrendered
(ignored Hitler)
• Total Axis losses (Germans,
Romanians, Italians, and
Hungarians): 800,000 dead
• Soviet soldiers: 1,100,000 dead
• But turned the tide of the war
June 6, 1944: D-Day: Battle
of Normandy
• Long period of preparation and planning
• Largest amphibious landing in history
• Five beaches:
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Utah
Gold
Juno
Sword
“Bloody” Omaha
 Significance: opened up a large second
front
d-day omaha
beach_NA007140.jpg
Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945
• Big Three
• Key issue: Poland
– London Poles (pre-WWII govt.)
– Lublin Poles (communists)
• Sovietization
• Big Three agreed on “interim governmental
authorities broadly representative of all
democratic elements in the population . . . and the
earliest possible establishment through free
elections of governments responsive to the will of
the people.”
yalta conf
erence_BE001058.jpg
ENDGAME
• April 25, 1945: Soviet Army first to
reach Berlin
• April 30: Hitler and Eva Braun
committed suicide
• May 8, 1945: Victory in Europe!!
• War in Europe ended
soviet flag over
reichstag_YK004440.jpg
Potsdam Conference,
summer 1945
• USA: Harry S Truman
• USSR: J. Stalin
• Great Britain: W. Churchill, then
Clement Atlee
• Solved nothing
• Showed sides in emerging Cold War
• Truman told Stalin about the bomb
End of War with Japan
• August 6, 1945: Hiroshima
• Killed 70,000-90,000 people, injuring
another 70,000
• August 9: Nagasaki
• Killed 60,000-75,000 and injured about
the same number
hiroshima
bombed_BE042948.jpg
August 14, 1945:
Japan surrendered
• Total deaths:
• Civilians’ deaths: 40 to 52 million,
including 13 to 20 million from warrelated disease and famine.
• Soldiers’ deaths: 22 to 25 million,
including deaths in captivity of about 5
million prisoners of war.