Download World War II

World War II
1939-1945
The Road to War
 Essential Question
 How did dictators acquire and expand power in Europe in the
1930s?
The Rise of Dictators
 Bitterness over the outcome of WWI and serious
economic problems led to the rise of dictators in
several countries
American Diary
 Many people underestimated Adolf Hitler’s
influence, but not journalist William Shirer. He
described a rally for Hitler at Nuremberg in
September 1934: “Like a Roman emperor, Hitler
rode into this medieval town…When Hitler finally
appeared on the balcony for a moment,…(people)
looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces
transformed into something positively inhuman.”
The passion of the Nazis shocked Shirer, and soon it
would shock the world.
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From Berlin Diary
Hitler
Hitler
Italy – Benito Mussolini
 Made fascism popular
 Banned all other political parties except the Fascist
Party
 Ended democratic rule
 Civil liberties and free press ceased to exist
 Left the League of Nations
Germany – Adolf Hitler
 Won support by appealing to German fears about the
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economy and Treaty of Versailles
Leader of National Socialist Party (Nazi)
Believed German people were superior to others
Anti-Semitism
Ended democracy and set up totalitarian state
Formed alliance with Italy in 1936
Soviet Union – Joseph Stalin
 Communist leader
 Used force to gain obedience from his people
 Executed his rivals
 Sent millions of people suspected of disloyalty to
labor camps
American Neutrality
 1935 and 1937 Neutrality Acts
 Banned weapons sales and loans to nations that were at
war
Germany on the March
 Other European countries stood by as Germany
expanded its territory
Sent German troops to take over neutral territory
 Sent troops to Austria to unite them with Germany
 Claimed parts of Czechloslovakia
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 Britain and France thought they could avoid war
by accepting Germany’s demands – Appeasement
Germany took Western Czechoslovakia
 Germany prepared to invade Poland
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Answer the Essential Question
 How did dictators acquire and expand power in
Europe in the 1930’s?
War Begins
 Essential Question
 How did peaceful nations confront foreign aggressors in
WWII?
War in Europe
 1939 – Hitler invades Poland – Great Britain and
France declare war
 Germans called their attack a blitzkrieg
Swift and fierce
 Thousands of soldiers entered Poland
 Soviet Union and Germany divide Poland in half
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The War Expands
 Germany forces Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands
and Belgium to surrender
 1940 – Germany invades France and captures Paris
 Allied Powers
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Great Britain
France
 Axis Powers
 Germany
 Italy
 Japan
Battle of Britain
 Hitler aims to break British morale before invading
 Bombed airbases, shipyards, industries and cities
(London)
 Under inspiration of Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, England fought back
Never gave up control of the skies and inflicted heavy
losses
 Hitler ended the attacks
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London
Germany Turns East
 Hitler wanted resources offered by Soviet land and
invaded
 Stalin ordered a scorched earth policy
Burned their own cities and destroyed their own crops
 Made it harder for Germans to supply their troops as they
advanced
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America and the War
 Roosevelt favored neutrality but began to mobilize
 Openly supports Allies
 Built up navy
 Set up peace time draft
 Threatened by war, Roosevelt ran for third term
and easily wins 1940 election
 Began sending supplies to the Allies
The Japanese Threat
 Japan continues their expansion and military
conquests in the East
 Japan planned to attack British, Dutch and
American territory in the area
 Roosevelt froze all Japanese reserves of money in US
banks
Attack on Pearl Harbor
 December 7, 1941: Japanese war plans attack
American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Destroyed battleships, cruisers and airplanes
 Americans taken by surprise and more than 2,300 are
killed
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 Attack unites the country
 Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war and
joined Allied Powers
Answer the Essential Question
 How did peaceful nations confront foreign
aggressors in WWII?
On the Home Front
 Essential Question
 In what ways did American men, women and minorities
support the war effort at home?
America Prepares
 Building an army
 More than 15 million Americans joined the armed forces
 Women joined the military in large numbers (non combat
roles)
 Mobilization
 Nation refocused economy to provide
supplies for the war effort
Financing the War
 $320 billion dollars spent by government on war
effort (10x amount of WWI)
Raised taxes
 Sold war bonds
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Making Sacrifices
 Civilians provided training, equipment, transportation,
medical care, food and shelter for the armed forces
 Separation from loved ones
 Shortages of consumer goods
 Used government issued ration books to buy things
like
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Gasoline
Tires
Sugar
Meat
Ration Books
Women and Minorities in WWII
 African Americans
 1 million serve in armed forces in low level assignments and
segregated units (at first)
 1942 – Army begins training white and black soldiers together
 Many migrate North to take factory jobs
 Fought for equality on the home front
Women and Minorities in WWII
 Women
 More than ever join the workforce
 “Rosie the Riveter” encouraged women to take factory jobs
 Earned less than men
 Many lose their jobs when men return
 WWII changes public opinion about women’s right to work
Women and Minorities in WWII
 Native Americans
 Served in armed forces
 Worked in industry
 “Code talkers” – armed forces used a special code in Navajo
language that the Japanese never broke
 Where do you think this is?
 What do you think you are looking at?
Women and Minorities in WWII
 Japanese Americans
 Feared and hated by many other Americans
 Americans were worried about their loyalty
 FDR ordered more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to
detention centers
 Internment camps
Had almost everything taken away
 Crowded and uncomfortable
 Some were forced to stay for 3 years
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Japanese Internment
Making Connections
 What kinds of sacrifices did American civilians make
during wartime?
 What legal action was taken against many Japanese
Americans? What does the word “legal” imply?
 Answer the Essential Question: In what ways did
men, women and minorities support the war effort at
home?
War in Europe
 Essential Question
 What strategies did the Allies pursue to defeat the Axis Powers
in Europe?
Setting a Strategy
 German forces occupied almost all of Europe and
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most of North Africa
Allied powers invade North Africa to gain combat
experience and attack the edges of the German
empire
Under American general Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
Allies drove the Germans out of North Africa in 1943
Invasion of Italy under American General George
Patton forced Benito Mussolini to surrender
Launched air raids on Germany
The Tide Turns in Europe
 Germans focused much of their effort on the Soviet
Union
 Set up a military blockade on Leningrad (900
days)
Thousands starved to death
 Germans never able to take the city
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 1941 – Germans tried to take Stalingrad
 Wintry weather slowed the attack
 Soviets forced a German retreat and cut off supply lines
 Major turning point in the war!
Invasion of France
 Allied forces were preparing to invade German
occupied Europe
 June 6, 1944 – D-Day
Allied troops took the shores of Normandy under heavy
German fire and threat of landmines
 Allies landed millions of troops in France and pushed
into Europe
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Victory in Europe
 Looked as if war would be over soon
 German counter attacked at the Battle of the Bulge
 Americans won and headed to Germany
 1945 – With Soviet troops just outside Berlin,
Hitler commits suicide
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Germany signed an unconditional surrender (May 7,
1945)
The Holocaust
 As the Allies freed German-held areas, they
discovered numerous instances of Nazi cruelty
Genocide – Jews targeted for total extermination (6
million killed)
 Slavs, Gypsies, Communists, homosexuals and people
with disabilities killed as well
 Beginning when Hitler gained power in 1933, Jews were
deprived of many rights
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Persecution of Germany’s Jews
 Marriage between Jews and other Germans banned
 German citizenship taken away
 Kept from voting or holding public office
 Not allowed to employ non-Jewish Germans
 Later, banned from owning businesses
 Could not practice law or medicine
 Forced to wear a yellow six pointed star
 Sent to concentrations camps
The Persecution Spreads
 Mass killing begins in 1941
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Shot groups of Jews and dumped in mass graves
Primary Source
 “We marched into a forest where a huge long ditch was
already dug…I could hear…a machine gun going…All of
a sudden,…I saw my mother and four sisters lined up
before I had a chance to say, “Mother!” they were
already dead. Somehow, time stands still…But what
woke me was the sight of my five nieces and nephews
being marched, and the murderers had the audacity to
ask them to hold hands…I would have been almost the
next one but all of a sudden the bombers came over, we
were ordered to lay face downwards, but everyone
started running…and I…ran deep into the forest.
 From Remembering: Voices From the Holocaust
The Final Solution
 1942 – Nazi’s built death camps like Aushwitz (1.6
million dead) and Treblinka to aid in
extermination
Poison gas chambers
 Cruel Experiments
 Some chosen for slave labor
 Elderly, women and children went to gas chambers
 Bodies burned in giant furnaces
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The Final Solution
 News of atrocities reached western leaders well
before 1945
 Some historians argue that true atrocities were not
realized until the Allies marched through the camps
 Other historians debate why so relatively little was
done to stop
Making Connections
 What was the Nazi’s Final Solution?
 What strategies did the Allies pursue to defeat the
Axis Powers in WWII?
War in the Pacific
 Essential Question:
 What characterized the WWII in the Pacific?
The Pacific Front
 Allies fought the Japanese for 4 long years in the
Pacific
Attacked the Philippines and other Allied territory
 American General Douglas MacArthur and his troops
were forced to surrender
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Island Hopping
 American morale improved as small victories
defeated Japan at sea
 Island hopping: US captured and used key islands
as a base for attacks
Thousands died on both sides as American forces got
closer to the Japanese mainland
 Kamikazes sank several American destroyers
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The End of the War
 Japanese refusal to surrender led the US to drop
the Atomic bomb
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President Truman believed it was his duty to use every
weapon available to save American lives
 August 6, 1945 – Dropped bomb on Japanese city
of Hiroshima – A second bomb dropped on
Nagasaki three days later
Killed between 115,000 and 194,000 people
 Burns and radiation sickness killed more
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 August 16, 1945 – Japanese surrendered
The Cost of War
 Most destructive conflict in history
 55 million dead
 More than ½ the casualties were civilians killed by
bombing, starvation, disease, torture and murder
 American dead: 322,000
 American injured: 800,000
 Soviet deaths: 22 million
 Those who survived faced the huge task of
rebuilding their countries and their lives
Making Connections
 Evaluate what was significant about the cost of
WWII?
 Answer the Essential Question: What characterized
the WWII in the Pacific?