Download Who did what: Larger Concepts 1, Chester Nimitz

Who did what:
Larger Concepts 1, Chester Nimitz-Hiroshima -- Emma Krass
Larger Concepts 2, Nagasaki-Holocaust-- Carter Socha
Map, Axis Powers-Neville Chamberlain Eni Kruja
MC 1, Munich Conference-phony war Frank Krol
MC 2, Timeline, Battle of Britain-Charles de Gaulle Spencer Kiniry
MC 3, collaborators-Auschwitz Keith Dylan West
MC 4, Warsaw Ghetto-Pearl Harbor Julia Christina Janka
MC 5, Teheran Conference-Warsaw Pact Matt Tahey
MC 6, MC 7-- Robert Rust
Timeline
1938- Munich Conference held
1939- Germany attacks Poland, initiates World War
1941- Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
1943- Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin meet at Teheran
1944- Allied forces land in Normandy
1945- US. drops the atomic bomb on Japan
II
Putting Larger Concepts Together
1. What were the war aims of Japan and Germany? How are these related to the events
from 1920 to 1939 in Europe and Asia? Germany hoped to gain power through the war and these aims began to appear
evident through their actions from 1920 to 1939. Germany’s main goal in the war was to
create Lebensraum or living room for the German people. Hitler wanted to reunite the
German people and right the wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles. He sought to spread
into the Sudetenland, Anschluss, and Poland. He planned to expand east to areas that
were either populated by Germans or non-Aryans, who were inferior to Germans.
Germany not only desired living space east, but also desired an Aryan empire free of
“subhuman” peoples. Hitler hoped to ultimately exterminate the European Jews. In the
1920s, the Weimar Republic remained weak and many Germans became disgusted with
the Parliamentary Democracy. This dissatisfaction allowed for the rise of Hitler who
became chancellor in 1933 and within two months, he became a dictator. He sought
Lebensraum, rearmament and economic recovery for the German people. German
remilitarized the Rhineland and began to illegally rearm their country. They recovered
economically through pumping in state money to armament and consumer industries.
Germany scapegoated the Jews and began to preach their racial superiority. Hitler
withdrew from the League of Nations. In 1938 he annexed Austria to Germany and
threatened Czechoslovakia on the pretext of protecting the German minority in the
Sudetenland. In the month of September 1939, Poland fell to advancing German armies.
Germany’s aggressive policies in the 1930s made its war aims clear. Japan, like
Germany, hoped to gain land and influence and this is evident in their decisions from
1920 to 1939. Before the war, Japan’s economy was expanding rapidly. They needed
Chinese markets and raw materials, but China boycotted their goods. This resulted in
the military occupation of the Chinese province, Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the
League of Nations, like Germany. In 1937,it began an undeclared war on China, gaining
control of Peking, Shanghai, Nanking, Canton, and Hankow. In order to protect their own
interests, the U.S.A., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union assisted the Chinese
government, angering the Japanese powers. While World War II began, Japan
expanded further to southern China, Indochina, and Thailand. These actions showed
Japanese desire for dominance in Asia and beyond. Japan desired hegemony in Asia,
declaring itself the liberators of the Asian against Westerners. They sought to gain
territory to create more markets and gain more resources. Japan, like Germany, viewed
themselves as superior, but morally superior, not racially, to Westerners and other
Asians. They sought to “purify” themselves from morally corrupting influences. Japan’s
actions before the war foreshadowed its quest for dominance in the War.
2. What factors led to the defeat of the Axis powers? If you were asked the question,
“What nation contributed most to the Allied victory?” How would you answer the
question? Compare the contributions of the European powers to those of the Soviet
Union and the United States.
There were a variety of factors that led to the defeat of the Axis powers. The
first was that there was no unity of strategy or command that could coordinate their
actions to benefit each other. Japan was an entire continent away. In Europe the Axis
were defeated by a war on multiple fronts in the west, east, and south. Another problem
was that Italy was militarily and economically weak. Mussolini started wars in Africa
against the British that pitched a technologically backward Italian army against the up to
date machines and tactics of the well trained British army. Because of the Pact of Steel
Germany was forced to intervene in Africa on Italy's behalf. This diverted valuable
resources and military units into the harsh desert. Hitler also forced Germany into a war
on two fronts, the very type of conflict he had tried to avoid with the Soviet Non
Aggression Pact. Also this campaign was started in the late summer and none of the
soldiers were supplied with winter uniforms so when an extremely harsh, and early
winter set it in it severely hurt the German army. Since the German army depended
upon speed and quickness of their armored forces when the fuel in these vehicles froze
the army was crippled. The Germans were forced to commit huge amounts of troops to
this conflict and their invading forces of three million soldiers was the largest ever. The
third factor was the inability of the Germans to finish off Britain leaving a giant launching
point for an allied attack into western Europe. Japan was doomed from the beginning
against the United States because they were not able to sink the aircraft carriers at Pearl
Harbor and could not match the USA economically. The nation that contributed most to
the allied victory was the Soviet Union. When the Germans invaded in 1942 they were
faced with the largest invading force ever. The Eastern front became a giant black hole
for Germans to dump men and supplies into. The Russians occupied the full attention of
Germany for almost two years. Their sacrifices made a second front in the West
possible. They were also the allied country that actually fully defeated Germany. The
Russians were the ones that not only captured Berlin but caused Hitler to commit
suicide. The contribution of the European powers was trivial compared to those of the
United States and Soviet Union. The majority of the European countries fell quickly to
the German and only Britain remained. But even then Britain just absorbed Germanys
attacks until it turned its attention to the Soviet Union. The United States aid kept Britain
from falling apart economically. The United States and Soviet Union were the ones who
committed the lionshare of the manpower and resources. Although there were some
freedom fighters but they were spread out and ineffective.
Terms, People, Events
Axis Powers- (193s?6-1945) It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between
Germany and Italy and between Germany and Japan. The "Rome-Berlin Axis" became a
full military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, and the Tripartite Pact of 1940 fully
integrated the military aims of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Later Hungary (1940) and
Bulgaria (1941) joined the powers. As Germany expanded, the territories it invaded were
added to the Axis Powers. They were finally defeated in 1945 when Germany and Japan
surrendered.
Atom Bomb- (1945) bombeds dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was the most
powerful weapon created at the time, capable of destroy whole cities. It forced Japan to
surrender unconditionally without American deaths. The knowledge of its existence
caused the Cold War, an arms race between USA and USSR, in which the two nations
competed for the most deadly weapons.
Phony War- (3 September 1939-April 1940) Six month period between Great Britain’s
and France’s declaration of war on Germany and actual military action. Nothing was
done because of poor weather conditions. France’s morale deteriorated during this wait,
considerably altering France’s performance in the beginning of the war.
Grand Alliance- (1941-1945)the alliance between the United Kingdom, United States,
and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany during World War II. Russia allied itself with
Great Britain (the only power still standing in Europe) after Germany broke the NonAggression Pact of 1939. In 1941, USA joined the war officially after the Pearl Harbor
attack in December, even though it had been helping Great Britain financially since the
fall of France.
Neville Chamberlain-(1869-1940) British conservative Prime Minister. Chamberlain is
best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the
Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to
Germany. When Adolf Hitler continued his aggression by invading Poland, Britain
declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through
the first eight months of the Second World War. His policy of appeasement reflected the
popular feelings against a war, but it is often criticized in favor of a more aggressive
policy. Ideally, if Great Britain had been more confrontational, it would have crushed the
Nazis since their beginning. The Munich Agreement allowed Germany to expand and
break up Czechoslovakia (thus making it easier for Germany to conquer Eastern
Europe).
Munich Conference: On September 29, 1938, representatives of Germany, Great Britain,
France, and Italy agreed that Nazi Germany’s acquisition of the Sudetenland (a Germanmajority region) in Czechoslovakia was allowed. The Allies of the First World War in a
worse position then during the onset of the First World War, and as such were in no way
prepared to directly contest Hitler’s demands.
Appeasement: The process by which the Allies from the First World War gave into
Hitler’s territorial demands, as well as essentially acknowledging Nazi Germany’s
rearmament policies. The Allies hadn’t sufficiently recovered from the First World War
and the Great Depression, thus they were in no position to denounce resist Hitler’s
expansionist policies.
Pact of Steel: Signed on May 22, 1939, the Pact of Steel was an alliance between
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the most powerful fascist governments in Europe.
Germany and Italy would also strengthen each other’s economies and trade military
intelligence, providing both with militarily strong and influential allies.
Non-Aggression Pact of 1939: The Non-Aggression Pact served to be was one of the
most controversial arrangements prior to the Second World War. Nazi Germany signed
a pact with the Soviet Union in which either party wouldn’t attack the other, buying time
for both sides to prepare for war against the western Allies. Another very significant and
controversial aspect of the non-aggression pact was that Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union would divide the territory that they bordered, namely Poland and other Eastern
European countries, between themselves, thus becoming neighboring countries. The
pact would inevitably lead to Nazi invasion in 1941, which took Stalin by surprise
because he believed Hitler would honor the agreement.
Battle of Britain- to prepare the way for a German invasion of Britain, the German
airforce, under Reich marshal Hermann Göring, launched a series of air attacks against
England. While first attacking British aircraft, airfields, and munitions centers, the
German airforce soon shifted to targeting major population centers. The British were
successful in maintaining air-superiority and inflicting serious losses to the Germans,
forcing Hitler to abandon his invasion of England.
Winston Churchill- English Prime Minister who succeeded Chamberlain in 1940. It was
under his leadership that England survived through the Battle of Britain, utilizing his
superb public speaking skills to inspire the people of Britain. He is often considered one
of the greatest war-time leaders of the century, and was instrumental in motivating the
British people to stave off the German threat. He also was an important world leader as
he was in charge of a leading Allied power, and thus had much influence in conferences
such as Teheran.
Blitzkrieg- “Lightening war”; the rapid advance accompanied by armored vehicles that
typified the German military during WWII. It was employed particularly successfully
against France, as Germany was easily able to bypass the Maginot line, and an armistice
was forced on France after only two weeks.
Vichy- in the remaining two-fifths of France that was not directly occupied by the
Germans (Southeastern France), Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain created a collaborationist
government that resided at Vichy, a spa city in central France. Vichy worked in
partnership with the Germans for the rest of the war.
Charles de Gaulle- a French brigadier general who was opposed to the armistice and fled
to London where he set up a Free French government in exile. He also led the Free
French Forces, who were mainly drawn from the North-African French colonies and
continued the fight against the Axis.
collaborators - of individuals who were not citizens of the Third Reich at the outbreak of
World War II and collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war. they Some were
hostile towards Stalin's communism and believed that Hitler's Nazism was a far
preferable choice.
Josip Broz (Tito) - Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. He was secretary-general and
president of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, supreme commander of the Yugoslav
Partisans and the Yugoslav People’s Army and president of Yugoslavia. Tito was the
chief architect of the “second Yugoslavia,” a socialist federation that lasted from World
War II until 1991. He was the first Communist leader in power to defy Soviet hegemony,
a backer of independent roads to socialism.
Final Solution - term used by the Third Reich to refer to the extermination of all people
found to be unfit; resulted in the execution of 11 million men, women, and children, 6
million of them were Jews. Zyklon B - was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamous for its use by Nazi
Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the
Holocaust.
Auschwitz - was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and
operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World
War II. It was the largest of the German concentration camps.
Warsaw Ghetto- the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World
War II; residents were sent to extermination camps as well; The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
lead to the annihilation of an additional 50,000 people; at least 300,000 Polish Jews lost
their lives there
Chester Nimitz (1885-1966): commander of the American naval forces in the Pacific who
inflicted a defeat on the Japanese navy that they could not recover from in the battle of
Midway
Hiroshima: On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the Atomic Bomb “Little Boy” was
dropped here directly killing 80,000 people; bringing the war on the Pacific front to an
end
Midway (3-6 June 1942): the critical battle of the Pacific war where American naval
forces won, decimating the Japanese carrier forces; Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, a
heavy cruiser, more than 300 airplanes, and 5,000 men. It is considered the Pacific
equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Stalingrad- controls railway and waterway communications of southern Russia; Germany
fought the Soviets for control; largest battle on the Eastern Front; brutality and heavy
losses; turning point in war since German forces never recovered
Great Patrotic War - term Russians sused to refer to WWII, which reflect their sense of
dedication, natioanlism and sacrifice in the war
Tripartite Pact- Japan, Germany, and Italy; promised mutual support against
aggression and acknowledged the legitimacy of their expansionsist efforst in Europe and
asia
Pearl Harbor- (7 December 1941) Japan bombed the core of the American Pacific Fleet
in Hawaii; crippled American naval power in the Pacific and led the U.S. to declare war
against Japan
Teheran Conference - The first meeting of the Allies’ leaders (the Big Three) in
November 1943 in Teheran, Iran. Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin to open up a
second front against Germany to alleviate some of the pressure on the USSR, and in
turn Stalin promised to attack Japan to aid the US in the Pacific.
Yalta Conference – The Big Three met again in February 1945 to decide what they
were going to do for post-war Europe. Germany was to be partitioned among the Allies
and occupied, and the conquered nations of Europe were to be re-established with
democratic elections, but the wording was vague so the USSR used it to keep the
government it had installed in Poland.
Potsdam Conference – The Big Three met in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin, a final time,
but this time the leaders were different; Truman replaced the late FDR and Attlee
replaced Churchill as PM halfway through. Other circumstances had changed, since the
USSR was occupying Central and Eastern Germany and the US had tested the atomic
bomb, changing the power dynamic between the countries. On the agenda was the
partitioning of the postwar world and resolving the problems of the war in the Far East.
This included the details regarding the division of Germany; the movement of
populations from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy; the creation of a Council of Foreign
Ministers to administer the agreed upon zones of occupation; and issuing a proclamation
demanding unconditional surrender from the Japanese government. It was also agreed
that Stalin could demand reparations from Germany to help rebuild the Soviet Union that
had lost 10% of its population and 1/3 of its industry, along with most of its agricultural
output.
Douglas MacArthur – Commander of the US Forces in the Far East, during the
beginning of WWII, he was in charge of the Philippines when it was conquered by the
Japanese. After he withdrew, he was named Supreme Commander of the Southwest
Pacific, helping create the island-hopping strategy. After Japan’s surrender he oversaw
the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951.
Warsaw Pact – it was a mutual defense treaty between eight communist nations in
Eastern Europe. Engineered by the USSR as a response to NATO, it created satellite
states to ease Russia’s fears of being invaded again. Though it was created in 1955, it
merely formalized the existing conditions because Russia had occupied Eastern Europe
after the war.
Nagasaki - The city where the second atomic bomb was dropped on
Big Three - The leaders of the three major Allies of World War II: Joseph Stalin, Franklin
D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere - was a concept created and promulgated
during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It
represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the
Japanese and free of Western powers"
Holocausts - was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World
War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by
Adolf Hitler, throughout Nazi-occupied territory. Of the nine million Jews who had resided
in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds perished. In particular, over
one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust, as were approximately two
million Jewish women and three million Jewish men.
Map Exercise
In what ways did the expansion of Germany and Japan during WWII reflect their pre-war
concerns with imperialism? How did the expansion reflect the failure of treaty provisions
after WWI?
Germany’s initial expansion by absorbing Austria and the Sudetenland was not
viewed as an imperialistic endeavor, because, as Hitler claimed, the purpose of this
expansion was to protect the rights of the Germans in those territories. Nevertheless,
when the Nazi expansion included Poland and Czechoslovakia, it became clear that
Germany’s new borders were being extended with an imperialistic intent. Hitler’s concept
of Lebensraum, demonstrates the exploitative and racist nature of imperialism.
Lebensraum was a demand for more territory for the German people; this territory was to
be usurped from the occupied lands. This usurpation was excusable because, according
to Nazi ideology, the Germans were the worthy Arian race which needed more room to
procreate which the Slavs, gypsies, and Communists were “racially undesirable” and
could therefore be sacrificed for the benefit of the Arians. Germany’s later expansion
continued the exploitative nature of imperialism. Germany took over the Balkan’s states
in order to use its natural resources (which were necessary for the military), and it
agricultural produce (crucial to a population involved in total war). Germany’s expansion
was first excused because of failures in the Treaty of Versailles. The extensively harsh
penalties placed on Germany after WWI gave the Nazis the opportunity to gain power
and granted the Western countries an excuse to hide behind the idea of appeasement.
The treaty of Versailles was not respected when Germany militarized the Rhine valley,
but the Western powers were in no position to fight back and enforce the
provision.
Japan had emerged as one of the victors of WWI, but had received no
considerable gain from the war treaties. Japan aimed to create an empire and in order to
compete with the industrialized powers. Being an island, the natural resources were very
limited and Japan had to rely on trade with USA for its rubber. In 1931, Japan started its
exploitative expansion by invading Manchuria. In doing so, it broke the provisions of the
League of Nations, but the other members of the league had no power stop Japan or
punish it somehow, since the League had no military power.
Axis Powers- (1936-1945)
It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between
Germany and Japan. The "Rome-Berlin Axis" became a full military alliance in 1939
under the Pact of Steel, and the Tripartite Pact of 1940 fully integrated the military aims
of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Later Hungary (1940) and Bulgaria (1941) joined the
powers. As Germany expanded, the territories it invaded were added to the Axis
Powers. They were finally defeated in 1945 when Germany and Japan
surrendered.
Atom Bomb- (1945) bombed dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was
the most powerful weapon created at the time, capable of destroy whole cities. It forced
Japan to surrender unconditionally without American deaths. The knowledge of its
existence caused the Cold War, an arms race between USA and USSR, in which the
two nations competed for the most deadly weapons.
Phony War- (3 September 1939April 1940) Six month period between Great Britain’s and France’s declaration of war on
Germany and actual military action. Nothing was done because of poor weather
conditions. France’s morale deteriorated during this wait, considerably altering France’s
performance in the beginning of the war.
Grand Alliance- (1941-1945)the alliance
between the United Kingdom, United States, and the Soviet Union against Nazi
Germany during World War II. Russia allied itself with Great Britain (the only power still
standing in Europe) after Germany broke the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. In 1941,
USA joined the war officially after the Pearl Harbor attack in December, even though it
had been helping Great Britain financially since the fall of France.
Neville Chamberlain(1869-1940) British conservative Prime Minister. Chamberlain is best known for his
appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in
1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. When Adolf
Hitler continued his aggression by invading Poland, Britain declared war on Germany on
3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first eight months of the
Second World War. His policy of appeasement reflected the popular feelings against a
war, but it is often criticized in favor of a more aggressive policy. Ideally, if Great Britain
had been more confrontational, it would have crushed the Nazis since their beginning.
The Munich Agreement allowed Germany to expand and break up Czechoslovakia (thus
making it easier for Germany to conquer Eastern Europe).
Making Connections
1. What was the goal of Hitler’s foreign policy before 1939? What was the policy of
appeasement? Why was it necessary?
Hitler’s foreign policies and goals largely focused on acquiring land in Eastern
Europe that would be used as lebensraum, one of Hitler’s most desired objectives.
Lebensraum was the required and necessary living space that Nazi Germany needed if
it was going to expand economically and geographically. The newly acquired territory
would serve as prime settlement locations to expand German territory, dominance, and
influence in the area. However, the Soviet Union stood between Hitler’s goal of acquiring
territory. The Soviet Union, after Stalin’s numerous purges, was in no position to
adequately respond to a German invasion, and Hitler believed that in order to prevent
fighting a two-front war (the leading cause of Germany’s defeat in the First World War)
he would have to maintain a relative peace with Great Britain, which he hoped would be
content with his crusade against communism. However, Hitler’s attempts to acquire
lebensraum became undemocratic when he utilized the military to occupy many
territories, although these territories (those that had a regional German majority) felt that
they were being liberated. Austria and the Sudetenland were notable areas that were
content now that they were in a united Germany, much to the displeasure of
Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European countries. Western European countries,
namely France and Great Britain, couldn’t directly contest Hitler’s demand of territory
because of the deeply felt negative effects of the depression as well as the First World
War. They were in no position to demand that Hitler stop annexing territory and instead
called for a relative peace, which took on the form of appeasement, a deliberate
allowance of Hitler to achieve his territorial demands while believing that he wouldn’t yet
declare war. Appeasement was somewhat necessary in that it initially boosted support
for the British government and fostered a sense of peace, as Germany was believed that
it wouldn’t attack. However, appeasement did nothing to aid Czeczoslovakia and other
Eastern European nations that lost significant territory at their own expense at the hands
of a rapidly expansionist regime.
2. How
did the first stage of World War II in Europe go? How did Hitler’s forces sweep
across Europe so swiftly?
The first stage of World War II was entirely dominated by Nazi Germany.
Hitler’s policy of “Lebensraum” for the German people was put into motion
beginning in 1938, when he annexed Austria. He then demanded “freedom” for the
German people of the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia, with the goal of
destroying the Czech state. Western statesmen failed to realize Hitler’s commitment
to destroying Czechoslovakia or his willingness to use force to do so. France, and
ally of Czechoslovakia wanted to avoid war with Germany, and Britain also pursued
a continued policy of appeasement. In 1938 the Munich Conference was held, where
Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier (French Prime Minister), Mussolini, and
Czechoslovakia convened and ceded the Sudetenland to Hitler. In ceding the
Sudetenland, Chamberlain assumed that through the appeasement, Hitler’s desire
for Lebensraum would be satiated. However, German troops soon occupied the rest
of Czechoslovakia, assumed control of Gdansk and the Polish Corridor, and forced
Lithuania to cede Memel. Hitler made his alliance with Mussolini through the Pact of
Steel, and temporarily removed the USSR from the equation by signing a pact of
mutual neutrality, the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. In doing so Hitler believed that
Britain and France would further appease Germany and avoid war with Hitler while
he took control of Poland, Bessarabia, Latvia, and Lithuania. However, before Hitler
could gain control of Poland, the British and French promised to aid Poland in the
event of an attack. However, on September 1st, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and had
won within a month, while Russia invaded from the east. On September 3rd, Britain
and France declared war on Germany, although they were unable to aid Poland. For
six months, France and Britain were in a “phony war” with Germany, unable to act
and waiting for Hitler’s next move. In spring, Hitler conquered Denmark and
Norway, moved through the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and invaded
France, and France fell within two weeks. Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain began
leading Vichy France in collaboration with Hitler, and Germany began the Battle of
Britain, threatening to invade Britain. While the British were able to stave off the
possibility of a German invasion, Germany did gain control in the Balkans in
Yugoslavia, Greece (where they routed the British at Crete), as well as Hungary and
Romania.
What made Hitler’s forces so powerful and successful was his employment of
the blitzkrieg, or lightening war, in which there is a rapid advance of troops
accompanied by armored vehicles. Many of the countries created after World War I
had fallen into dictatorships and were weak both militarily and economically as well
as divided ethnically. All of these factors made Hitler’s military all the more
successful while Britain and France, the only countries that could have viably acted
aggressively in response to Hitler’s movement for lebensraum, pursued a policy of
appeasement, which only facilitated Hitler’s goals.
3. At whom where Hitler's policies of racial purity directed? What was the final solution?
How was it enforced? why did the allies not take steps to halt the destruction of Europe's
Jews?
Hitler's racial purity was directed toward any person who was deemed "unfit."
This included people such as the mentally handicapped but most importantly the Jewish
population. The "final solution" was the term used by the Third Reich to refer to the
extermination of all people found to be unfit; resulted in the execution of 11 million men,
women, and children, 6 million of whom were Jewish. In the beginning the work for this
"solution" was carried out by the German SS. Later on as all the Jews were rounded up
into Ghettos Reinhard Heydrich the leader of the SS held a planning conference to make
sure the whole operation was carried out smoothly. The plan began with the invasion of
Poland with mass killings Jews and non-Jews alike and this continued with the invasion
of Russia. All of the executions were carried out by the SS. Then Hitler began a mass
propaganda campaign to make the German soldiers believe that they were on a holy
campaign which escalated the extermination policies even further. By 1941 the Third
Reich began erecting the huge network of the infamous extermination and labor camps.
On December 17, 1942, the Allies issued a condemnation of Nazi atrocities against the
Jews, but this was the only such declaration made prior to 1944. Other practical
measures which were not taken concerned the refugee problem. Tens of thousands of
Jews sought to enter the United States, but they were barred from doing so by the
stringent American immigration policy. The Allies refused to bomb the death camp of
Auschwitz and/or the railway lines leading to that camp. So overall before the war and as
the Allies were fighting their way into Germany there was very little attempt by the allies
to help the Jewish population under Nazi control. The best bet as the allies saw it was to
fight their way into Germany for an unconditional surrender to put an end to the war and
the "final solution."
4. What was the Great Patriotic War? Why was it so critical to Allied victory in World War
II? What was its outcome?
As Hitler's troops approached Moscow, Stalin called for the people to help him in
"the Great Patiotic War", in reference to the natioanlistic and dedicated fighting during
World War II. This term goes back to the resistance to Napoleon's invasion, as well as
the eastern front in World War I. During World War II, while it simply represented the
eastern front, it also stood for the dedication, nationalism, and sacrifices of war shared
by the Russians.The brutality of the advancing German army intensified the Soviet
patriotism; however, 20 million Soviet people, soldiers and civilians, men, women, and
children, died throughout World War II. More people starved due to the lack of food. The
Great Patriotic War led to a change in Soviet attitude towards the world. It left them with
a continuing fear of invasion. Soviet citizens felt that they had given the most out of any
country to defeat Hitler; for them, their suffering during the war made the Allied victory
possible.
5. Why did the United States enter World War II? What agreements between the Allies
were necessary in order to win the war in Europe?
The United States entered the war officially on December 8, 1941 due to the
attack on Pearl Harbor, but before that it had been extending massive amounts of aid to
Britain and the USSR in the form of military equipment and raw materials. Japanese-
American relations had soured after Japan joined the Tripartite Pact in 1940, and after
they invaded Manchuria in 1941. After Japan and Germany had declared war on the US
and the US joined the war, there was still the issue of cooperating with the other Allies,
notably the USSR. Stalin distrusted the other two allies, and that only increased as they
delayed opening up a second front to take some of the pressure off of the USSR, who
was fighting the entirety of Germany’s forces. The Big Three discussed this at the
Teheran Conference, where issues were settled, and Britain and the US promised to
open a second front (culminating in D-Day) and the USSR promised to open up a front in
the Far East against Japan by 6 months after victory in Europe. These tensions also
manifested after the war in the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences there were many
disagreements about what was to be done with Europe after the war, with Britain and the
US wanting free elections and the USSR wanting satellite countries.
6. What was the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? In what sense were Japan’s
racial attitudes similar to those of Hitler?
The Japanese entered World War II by appealing to Southeast Asian leaders,
presenting themselves as the liberators of Asian peoples from Western colonialism and
imperialism. This approach struck a responsive chord as the Japanese established what
they called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It began in 1940 and lasted until
the summer of 1945. The reorganization of east and Southeast Asia under Japanese
hegemony constituted a redefinition of world geography, with Japan at the center. The
Japanese fashioned a romanticized vision of the family living in harmony, each member
knowing his place and enjoying the complimentary division of responsibilities and
reciprocities that made family life work smoothly. Behind the pleasant image lurked the
reality of a brutal power structure forcing subject peoples to accept massively inferior
positions in a world fashioned exclusively for Japanese desires and needs. The
Japanese viewed Southeast Asia principally as a market for Japanese manufactured
goods, a source of raw materials, and a source of profits for Japanese capital invested in
rubber, mining, and raw cotton.
Ba Maw, Burma’s leader, said at the Assembly of the
Greater East Asiatic Nations held in Tokyo in November 1943, “My Asiatic blood has
always called to other Asiatics… This I not the time to think with our minds; this is the
time to think with our blood.” Japan’s racial attitudes generally agreed with this point of
view; they did not denigrate Western people, but rather elevated themselves as a people
descended from divine origins. Stressing their unique mythical history, the Japanese felt
a strong sense of moral superiority. They believed that virtue was on their side in their
mission to stop Western expansion in Asia and to take their “proper place” as the leading
people in Asia. Just as Hitler did, the Japanese encouraged people to purify themselves
by accepting difficult and sometimes brutal demands, and by rejecting foreign influences.
Both regimes wanted to achieve superiority for their respective races.
7. What were the decisions reached at the series of conferences held by the leaders
of the Allied powers? Why did the Soviet Union determine that its security required
control of eastern Europe?
The leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union – the Big
Three, as they were called – met three times between 1943 and 1945: first at Teheran;
then in February 1945 at Yalta, a Russian Black Sea resort; and finally in July and
August 1945 at Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. They coordinated their attacks on Germany
and Japan and discussed their plans for postwar Europe. After Allied victory, the
governments of both Germany and Japan would be totally abolished and completely
reconstructed. No deals would be made with Hitler or his successors; no peace would be
negotiated with the enemy; surrender would be unconditional. Germany would be
disarmed and denazified, and its leaders would be tried as war criminals. The armies of
the Big Three occupied Germany, each with a separate zone, but the country would be
governed as a single economic unit. The Soviet Union, it was agreed, could collect
reparations from Germany. With Germany and Japan defeated, a United Nations
organization would provide the structure of a lasting peace in the world.
Stalin
expected that the Soviet Union would decide the future of the territories of Eastern
Europe that the Soviet army had liberated from Germany. This area was vital to the
security of the war-devastated Soviet Union; Stalin saw it as a protective barrier against
another attack from the west. Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland,
the Big Three decided, would have pro-Soviet governments. Since Soviet troops
occupied these countries in 1945, there was little that the Anglo-Americans could do to
prevent Russian control unless they wanted to go to war against the USSR. Churchill
realistically accepted this. But for Americans who took seriously the proclamations of
President Roosevelt that their country had fought to restore freedom and selfdetermination to peoples oppressed by tyranny, Soviet power in Eastern Europe proved
to be a bitter disappointment.