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World War II: The Road to War
(1931–1941)
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How did Stalin change the government and the
economy of the Soviet Union?
What were the origins and goals of Italy’s
fascist government?
How did Hitler rise to power in Germany and
Europe in the 1930s?
What were the causes and results of the
Spanish Civil War?
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During the 1930s, totalitarian governments
gained power in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet
Union. These governments exerted total
control over a nation, using terror to suppress
individual rights and silence all opposition.
Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini
in Italy ruled their totalitarian states with a
philosophy called fascism. Fascism emphasizes
the importance of the nation or an ethnic group
and the supreme authority of a leader.
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Stalin’s Economic Plans
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Stalin’s state takeover of farmland resulted in a
dramatic fall in agricultural production as well
as mass starvation.
Stalin poured money and labor into
industrialization rather than basic necessities
such as housing and clothing.
Due to Stalin’s policies, the Soviet Union soon
became a modern industrial power, although
one with a low standard of living.
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Stalin’s Reign of Terror
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To eliminate opposition, Stalin began a series
of purges, the removal of enemies and
undesirable individuals from positions of
power.
Stalin’s purges extended to all levels of society.
Millions were either executed or sent to forced
labor camps.
Nearly all of those purged by Stalin were
innocent. However, these purges successfully
eliminated all threats to Stalin’s power.
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Benito Mussolini gained power in Italy both by
advocating the popular idea of Italian conquest in
East Africa and by terrorizing those who opposed
him.
Once appointed prime minister by the king,
Mussolini, calling himself Il Duce, suspended
elections, outlawed other political parties, and
established a dictatorship.
Mussolini’s rule improved the ailing Italian
economy. Under Mussolini, the Italian army
successfully conquered the African nation of
Ethiopia in May 1936.
Hitler’s Rise to Power 1919–1934
 Hitler’s Background: Adolf Hitler, an
Austrian painter, hated the way the Versailles
Treaty humiliated Germany and stripped it of
its wealth and land.
 The Nazi Party: Hitler joined and soon led the
Nazi Party in Germany. Nazism, the
philosophies and policies of this party, was a
form of fascism shaped by Hitler’s fanatical
ideas about German nationalism and racial
superiority.
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Mein Kampf: While imprisoned for trying to take
over the government in November 1923, Hitler
wrote Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). In this book,
he proposed that Germany defy the Versailles
Treaty by rearming and reclaiming lost land. He
also blamed minority groups, especially Jews, for
Germany’s weaknesses.
Hitler Becomes Chancellor: Between 1930 and
1934, the Nazi Party gained a majority in the
Reichstag, the lower house of the German
parliament. Hitler became first chancellor and
then president of Germany. He moved to
suppress many German freedoms and gave
himself the title Der Führer, or “the leader.”
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To boost the German economy and to prepare
for territorial expansion, the Nazi Party began
spending money on rearming Germany.
On March 7, 1936, German troops entered the
Rhineland, a region in western Germany that
the Versailles Treaty explicitly banned them
from occupying. However, neither Britain nor
France took any action.
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Also in 1936, Hitler and Mussolini signed an
agreement, beginning an alliance between the
two nations. Germany, Italy, and later Japan,
became known as the Axis Powers.
In March 1938, Germany took over Austria.
Several months later, Hitler demanded the
Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia.
Following the policy of appeasement, or giving
into a competitor’s demands in order to keep the
peace, British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain agreed to allow Hitler to occupy the
Sudetenland.
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In 1936, military rebels in Spain led by
General Francisco Franco attempted to take
over the Spanish government. These rebels
became known as the Nationalists.
The resulting struggle between the ruling
Republicans and the rebelling Nationalists
led Spain into a civil war.
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Germany and Italy supported the
Nationalists, while the Soviet Union
supported the Republicans.
In March 1939, the Nationalist army took over
the Spanish capital of Madrid and ended the
civil war, making Franco the ruler of Spain.
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How did the German invasion of Poland lead
to war with Britain and France?
What wartime victories and setbacks did
Germany experience in western Europe?
Why was the Battle of Britain an important
victory for Britain?
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After Hitler invaded other parts of
Czechoslovakia, Britain and France ended
their policy of appeasement. They warned
Hitler that an invasion of Poland would mean
war.
Hitler, however, had stopped believing
Britain and France. On September 1, 1939,
Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France
declared war on Germany two days later.
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Germany quickly overran Poland using a new
military tactic called blitzkrieg, or “lightening
war.” Blitzkrieg tactics involved a fast,
concentrated attack that took the enemy by
surprise.
To avoid war on two fronts, Germany signed
a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union.
In a secret addition to this pact, the two
nations agreed to divide between them the
independent states of Eastern Europe.
Early Stages of War in the West
 “Phony War” and the Maginot Line: After
Poland fell, the war entered a quiet period.
The American press called this lack of combat
a “phony war.” France prepared a massive
string of fortifications, known as the Maginot
Line, along its border with Germany.
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Germany Attacks: In April and May 1940,
Germany attacked and quickly conquered
Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium,
and Luxembourg.
Dunkirk: When Germany advanced on
France, British and French forces retreated to
the French coastal city of Dunkirk. From
there, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were
ferried to Great Britain in one of the greatest
rescues in the history of warfare.
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On June 22, 1940, France officially
surrendered to Germany.
In accordance with the surrender terms,
Germany occupied most of France, while the
French government controlled an area known
as Vichy France in the south. Vichy France
adopted a policy of collaboration, or close
cooperation, with Germany.
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A French Resistance movement, supported by
the Free French government in exile in
Britain, sought to undermine German
occupation.
By the summer of 1940, Hitler had conquered
most of Western Europe and seemed on the
verge of conquering the Allies, the group of
countries that opposed the Axis Powers.
Britain alone stood against the Axis.
Between 1939 and 1941, Germany invaded and conquered much of Europe.
Relentless Attack
 Before attempting to invade Great Britain,
Germany wanted to establish superiority in
the air.
 In August 1940, Germany launched an air
assault on Britain, called the Battle of Britain,
which continued well into September.
 At first, Germany only attacked British
military sites. However, it later began
bombing London and other cities to decrease
British morale.
Courageous Defense
 Although greatly outnumbered, Britain’s
Royal Air Force (RAF) worked to shoot down
German bombers.
 Despite massive losses, the British people
kept their will to fight.
 By February 1940, British scientists cracked
the German secret communication code. This
enabled Britain to get a general idea of
Hitler’s battle plans.
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What were the causes and effects of Japan’s
growing military power?
Why was the Manchurian Incident a turning
point for Japan’s civilian government?
What was the initial outcome of Japan’s war
against China?
Why did Japan look beyond China for future
expansion?
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Democracy in Crisis
After World War I, Japan had established a
parliamentary government and granted many
citizens the right to vote.
When economic conditions worsened during
the 1930s, many Japanese became dissatisfied
with multiparty democratic government.
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Rise of Nationalism
Several radical groups formed in response to
the government’s perceived weaknesses.
Radicals demanded an end to Western-style
institutions and a return to traditional ways.
These radicals assassinated several business
and political leaders, hoping to force the
military to take over the government.
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By 1930, Japan lacked the land and raw
materials to care for its growing population.
Many Japanese saw the acquisition of
neighboring Manchuria as a solution to these
problems.
In September 1931, a Japanese army stationed
in Manchuria captured several cities. By
February 1932, the army had seized all of
Manchuria. This seizure came to be known
as the Manchurian Incident.
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Japan set up Manchuria as a puppet state, or a
supposedly independent country under the
control of a powerful neighbor.
After the Manchurian Incident, the military
took a much stronger hand in governing
Japan, especially in the area of foreign policy.
Greater East Asia
 Co-Prosperity Sphere
 In 1940, Japan announced a Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere, to be led by the
Japanese, extending from Manchuria to the
Dutch East Indies.
 Japan declared that this move would liberate
Asia from European colonization. However,
the real reason was Japan’s additional need
for natural resources.
Alliances and Further Expansion
 In September 1940, Japan allied itself with
Germany and Italy through the Tripartite
Pact.
 Japan began to expand into French Indonesia
and the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.
 In April 1941, Japan signed a neutrality pact
with the Soviet Union.
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In July 1937, Japan resumed its invasion of
China. Although China had more manpower
than Japan, Japan’s superior weapons allowed
it to win control of major Chinese cities.
The United States and other nations
condemned Japan’s actions. The United
States remained neutral, but the Soviet
Union sent war equipment and military
advisors to China. Later, Britain sent supplies
to the Chinese over the Burma Road, a
highway linking Burma to China.
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Battling political groups in China put aside
their differences to fight the Japanese. While
Japanese troops controlled the cities, Chinese
guerrillas dominated the countryside. The
war had reached a stalemate by 1939.
Japan’s gradual expansion in Asia led to war with China in 1937.
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Why did the United States choose neutrality
in the 1930s?
How did American involvement in the
European conflict grow from 1939 to 1941?
Why did Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor lead
the United States to declare war?
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Rather than addressing foreign concerns,
President Roosevelt focused on domestic
issues surrounding the Great Depression
during the 1930s.
Congress further prevented international
involvement by passing a series of Neutrality
Acts.
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The first Neutrality Act prevented the United
States from providing weapons to nations at war.
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The second act banned loans to nations at war.
The third act permitted trade of nonmilitary
goods with fighting nations, as long as those
nations paid cash and transported the cargo
themselves. This policy became known as cash
and carry.
The Neutrality Acts prevented the United
States from selling arms even to those nations
that were trying to defend themselves from
aggression.
Debating the American Role
 After the German invasion of Poland, many
Americans began to feel that the United
States shared the Allies’ interests.
 Roosevelt asked Congress to revise the
Neutrality Acts to make them more flexible.
 Isolationists formed the America First
Committee to protest increasing American aid
to Britain.
The Lend-Lease Act
 In December 1940, Britain confessed its
inability to pay cash for supplies.
 In response, Roosevelt announced a new plan
to provide war supplies to Britain without
any payment in return.
 Despite protest from the America First
Committee, Congress passed the Lend-Lease
Act in March 1941. This act authorized the
President to aid any nation whose defense he
believed was vital to American security.
Final Months of Peace
 In July 1940, Roosevelt began limiting what
Japan could buy from the United States.
 General Tojo Hideki, a militant army officer
who supported war against the United States,
became prime minister of Japan in October
1941.
 Americans had cracked a top-secret Japanese
code, military leaders knew by November 27
to expect a Japanese attack in the Pacific.
However, they did not know where.
The Attack
 On the morning of December 7, 1941,
Japanese warplanes attacked the American
naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian
island of Oahu.
 In less than two hours, thousands of
Americans were killed and wounded, and
hundreds of American ships and planes were
destroyed.
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The attack on Pearl Harbor stunned
Americans. Roosevelt declared December 7,
1941 as “a date which will live in infamy.”
On December 8, Congress passed a war
resolution, and Roosevelt signed a declaration
of war on Japan.
On December 11, Germany and Italy declared
war on the United States. America was once
again involved in a world war.
World War II: Americans at War
(1941–1945)
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How did Roosevelt mobilize the armed
forces?
In what ways did the government prepare the
economy for war?
How did the war affect daily life on the home
front?
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President Roosevelt realized that he had to
strengthen the armed forces if the United
States were to enter World War II on the side
of the Allies.
Congress authorized the first peacetime draft
in the nation’s history. The Selective Training
and Service Act required all males aged 21 to
36 to register for military service.
The United States also raised defense
spending from $2 billion to more than $10
billion in the course of a year.
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More than 16 million Americans served as
soldiers, sailors, and aviators in the war. They
called themselves GIs, an abbreviation of
“Government Issue.”
Americans from all ethnic and racial
backgrounds fought during World War II. A
group of Navajos known as the “code talkers”
developed a secret code based on their
language that the enemy could not break.
This code proved valuable in several key
battles of the war.
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About 350,000 American women volunteered
for military service by the war’s end. Military
officials allowed them to work in almost all
areas, except combat.
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The United States entered the war when the
production levels of the other Allies had dropped
sharply. President Roosevelt pushed industries to
move quickly into the production of war
equipment.
As the war continued, the government
established dozens of agencies to deal with war
production, labor questions, and scarce resources.
The President appointed James F. Byrnes to head
the Office of War Mobilization. Byrnes had such
broad authority some people said that Byrnes ran
the country while FDR ran the war.
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As the production of consumer goods
stopped, factories converted to war
production.
Ford Motor Company built B-24 bombers with
the same assembly-line techniques used to
manufacture cars.
 Henry J. Kaiser introduced mass-production
techniques into ship building and cut the time
needed to build one type of ship from 200 days to
40 days. The ships that made Kaiser famous
were called Liberty ships. They were large,
sturdy merchant ships that carried supplies or
troops.
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The Work Force
 War production ended the massive
unemployment of the 1930s. Average weekly
wages rose significantly.
 Union membership increased also, but after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, labor and management
agreed to refrain from strikes and lockouts.
 As the cost of living rose and wages stayed the
same, unions found the no-strike agreement hard
to honor. The number of strikes rose sharply in
1943.
 Finally, in June 1943, Congress passed the SmithConnally Act, which limited future strike
activity.
Financing the War
 The United States government vowed to spend
whatever was necessary to sustain the war effort.
 Federal spending increased from $8.9 billion in
1939 to $95.2 billion in 1945 and the GNP more
than doubled.
 Higher taxes paid for about 41 percent of the war.
The government borrowed the rest.
 High levels of deficit spending helped pull the
United States out of the Depression. It also
boosted the national dept from $43 billion in 1940
to $259 billion in 1945.
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Wartime jobs gave many people their first
extra cash since the Depression. Still,
shortages and rationing limited the goods
that people could buy.
The supply of food also fell short of demand.
The Office of Price Administration (OPA)
was established to control inflation by
limiting prices and rents. The OPA also
oversaw rationing, or the fair distribution of
scarce items, during the war.
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With many goods unavailable, Americans
looked for other ways to spend their money.
Civilians bought and read more books and
magazines. They also went to baseball games
and the movies.
The government understood the need to
maintain morale. It encouraged citizens to
participate in the war effort. The Office of
War Information worked with the media to
create posters and ads that stirred patriotism.
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One popular idea was the victory garden, a
home vegetable garden planted to add to the
home food supply and replace farm produce
sent to feed the soldiers. By 1943, victory
gardens produced about one third of the
country’s fresh vegetables.
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Where did Americans join the struggle
against the Axis?
How did the war in the Soviet Union change
from 1941 to 1943?
What role did air power play in the war in
Europe?
Why did the invasion of Western Europe
succeed?
What events marked the end of the war in
Europe?
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In 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and
President Franklin D. Roosevelt met in secret to
discuss American involvement in the war. They
created a declaration of principles to guide them in
the years ahead called the Atlantic Charter. After the
war, this charter would form the basis for the United
Nations.
The United States entered the war in December 1941,
a critical time for the Allies.
The Battle of the Atlantic: At sea, Britain and the
United States struggled to control the Atlantic trade
routes. German U-boats, or submarines, sailed out
from ports in France and attacked and destroyed
Allied merchant ships.
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The North Africa campaign: From 1940 to 1943,
the Allies and Axis battled in North Africa, with
neither side gaining much of an advantage, until
Allied armies finally trapped the Axis forces.
About 240,000 Germans and Italians surrendered.
The invasion of Italy: In 1943, U.S. troops under
General George S. Patton invaded the island of
Sicily with British forces. Italians lost faith in
Mussolini’s leadership, and he was overthrown.
Italy’s new government surrendered to the Allies
and declared war on Germany in October 1943.
The Allied advance was stalled by fierce German
resistance, but Germans in northern Italy finally
surrendered in April 1945.
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Hitler, in an effort to make Germany selfsufficient, planned to seize the farm lands of the
Ukraine. He broke his pact with Stalin and
attacked the Soviet Union.
The German advance (1941–1942): In June 1941,
more than 3 million Axis troops crossed the
Soviet border. Stalin asked for and received
American aid through the Lend-Lease program.
But, by autumn 1941, German armies threatened
the capital, Moscow, and the historic city of
Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg).
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The Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943): By
October 1941, the cold Russian winter put a
stop to the German advance, which did not
resume until the summer of 1942. The Red
Army made its stand at Stalingrad, a major
rail and industrial center on the Volga River.
The Germans began a two-month
firebombing campaign.
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In November, the Soviets took advantage of
the harsh winter to launch a counterattack.
The German army was soon surrounded in
the ruined city with no supplies and no hope
of escape.
On January 31, 1943, more than 90,000
surviving Germans surrendered.
Germany’s seemingly unstoppable offensive
was over and this proved to be the turning
point of the war in the East.
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The British Royal Air Force (RAF) had been
fending off attacks from the German Air Force,
the Luftwaffe, and carrying out long-range
attacks on German cities.
However, the RAF abandoned attempts to
pinpoint targets and began to scatter large
numbers of bombs over a large area, a technique
called carpet bombing. As a result, German cities
suffered heavy damage.
Allied bombing of Germany intensified after the
United States entered the war. More than 40,000
civilians died in four attacks on Hamburg,
Germany, in the summer of 1943.
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By 1944, British and American commanders
were conducting coordinated raids—
American planes bombing by day and RAF
planes bombing at night.
At its height, some 3,000 planes took part in
this campaign.
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General George Marshall, FDR’s Chief of Staff,
wanted to invade Western Europe—specifically
German forces occupying France. The invasion,
code-named Operation Overlord, would be
launched from Great Britain. General
Eisenhower would be the supreme commander of
the invasion forces.
D-Day: On June 6, 1944, the invasion of Western
Europe began. Heavy casualties were suffered,
but by late July, nearly 2 million Allied troops
were in France. On August 25, 1944, Paris was
liberated from German occupation.
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Battle of the Bulge: In December 1944, Germany
launched a counterattack in Belgium and
Luxembourg. They pushed back the U.S. First
Army, forming a bulge in the Allied Line. The
resulting clash came to be known as the Battle of
the Bulge.
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle in
Western Europe during World War II and the
largest battle ever fought by the United States
Army. In the end the casualties were staggering
on both sides, and most Nazi leaders realized that
the war was lost.
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In March 1945, American ground forces
crossed the Rhine River and moved toward
the German capital of Berlin from the west.
Soviet troops continued to fight their way to
Berlin from the east. This fighting resulted in
the deaths of some 11 million Soviet and 3
million German soldiers—more than two
thirds of the soldiers killed in the entire war.
The Soviets finally reached Berlin in late
April 1945.
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Hitler committed suicide in Berlin on April
30, 1945, refusing to flee the city. On May 8,
Germany’s remaining troops surrendered.
Americans at home celebrated V-E Day
(Victory in Europe Day).
The Yalta Conference: In February, 1945,
months before the fall of Berlin, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in the
Soviet Union, to discuss the shape of the
postwar world. The leaders agreed:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
to split Germany into four zones, each under
the control of a major Ally, including France.
They planned a similar division of Berlin.
Stalin promised to allow free elections in the
nations of Eastern Europe that his army had
liberated from the Germans.
He also promised to enter the war against
Japan. Stalin did not fulfill any of these
promises.
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In what ways did Germany persecute Jews in
the 1930s?
How did Germany’s policies toward Jews
develop from murder into genocide?
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Jews in Europe faced persecution for their
religious beliefs for centuries. In the 1800s, some
thinkers developed the theory that European
peoples, whom they called “Aryans” were
superior to Middle Eastern peoples, called
Semites. Europeans began to use the term antiSemitism to describe discrimination or hostility,
often violent, directed at Jews.
When Hitler became Germany’s leader in 1933,
he made anti-Semitism the official policy of the
nation. No other persecution of Jews in modern
history equals the extent and brutality of the
Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of
European Jews. In all, some 6 million Jews would
lose their lives.
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Repressive policies against Jews escalated
during the 1930s. In 1935, for example, the
Nuremberg laws stripped Jews of their
German citizenship. Some other policies
included: exclusion from public schools,
forced sale of Jewish businesses, and marked
identity cards. Jews were also forced to sew
yellow stars marked “Jew” on their clothing.
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When Hitler came to power he formed the SS, or
the Schutzstaffel, an elite guard that became the
private army of the Nazi Party. The SS guarded
the concentration camps, or places where
political prisoners are confined under harsh
conditions. Nazi camps held people whom they
considered undesirables—mainly Jews, but also
Communists, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Gypsies, and the homeless.
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Any hopes among Jews that they could survive
German persecution under Hitler were dashed
when, on the night of November 9, 1938, Nazi
thugs throughout Germany and Austria looted
and destroyed Jewish stores, houses, and
synagogues. This incident became known as
Kristallnacht, or “Night of the Broken Glass.”
Nearly every synagogue was destroyed and
thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to
concentration camps. After Kristallnacht many
Jews sought any possible means to leave the
country.
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Jewish refugees were not welcomed in many
nations, in part because of the Depression. To
deal with this problem, FDR called the Evian
Conference in 1938. But still, most nations,
including the United States, refused to open
their doors to more immigrants.
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As German armies invaded other European countries,
more and more Jews (even those who had escaped)
came under German control. Nazis dealt with these
Jews by confining them in ghettos, areas in which
minority groups are concentrated. Nazis confined
more than 400,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto in
Poland. Thousands of Jews died in the ghetto as a
result of disease.
In 1942, Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference
outside Berlin. They developed their plan to commit
genocide, or the deliberate destruction of an entire
ethnic or cultural group, against the Jewish people.
To carry out their plan, the Nazis outfitted six camps
in Poland with gas chambers. Unlike concentration
camps, these death camps existed primarily for mass
murder.
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The U.S. government knew about the mass
murder of Jews for two years before President
Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board
(WRB) in January 1944. Despite its late start,
the WRB’s programs helped save some lives.
Horrified by the German death camps, the
Allies conducted the Nuremburg Trials in
November 1945. They charged a number of
Nazi leaders with crimes against peace,
crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
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What advances did Japan make in Asia and
the Pacific in late 1941 and 1942?
Which Allied victories turned the tide of war
in the Pacific?
What was the strategy of the United States in
the struggle to reconquer the Pacific Islands?
Why were the battles of Iwo Jima and
Okinawa important?
How did the Manhattan Project bring the war
to an end?
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The Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and Clark
Field, in the Philippines, in an attempt to gain
military control in the Western Pacific. By
March 1942, they had swept aside British,
American, and Dutch naval power in
Southeast Asia and brought a wide band of
colonies into the Japanese empire.
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On May 6, 1942, the Philippines fell to Japanese
forces. The Japanese then captured some 76,000
Filipinos and Americans as prisoners of war.
They were taken on a brutal 6- to 12-day journey
that became known as the Bataan Death March,
in which they were denied water and rest. Those
who became too weak were executed. At least
10,000 prisoners died. Those who survived were
sent to primitive prison camps where 15,000 or
more died.
The brutality of the Japanese soldiers defied
accepted international standards for humane
treatment of prisoners spelled out in 1929 at the
third Geneva Convention.
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China joined the Allies to fight against Japan,
but was quickly defeated.
In May 1942, Japanese and American naval
forces engaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
This battle caused enormous damage on both
sides. In the end, it was a draw, but it
prevented the Japanese from invading
Australia.
The Battle of Midway
 On June 4, 1942, the Japanese hoped to destroy
the United States Pacific Fleet by luring them
into a battle near Midway Island.
 The Americans, who appeared to be losing at
first, surprised the Japanese as they were
refueling planes. The Americans sank four
Japanese carriers.
 The Japanese lost some 250 planes and most of
their skilled pilots. They were unable to launch
any more offensive operations in the Pacific.
 This victory for the Allies allowed them to take
the offensive in the Pacific.
The Battle of Guadalcanal
 A major goal for the Allies was to capture
Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, where
the Japanese were building an airfield.
 When more than 11,000 marines landed on the
island in August 1942, the Japanese soldiers
fled into the jungle.
 The Battle of Guadalcanal provided the
marines with their first taste of jungle
warfare. After five months, the Japanese were
finally defeated.


From Guadalcanal, American forces began
island-hopping, a military strategy of selectively
attacking specific enemy-held islands and
bypassing others. This strategy allowed the
Americans to move more quickly toward their
ultimate goal—Japan itself.
In October 1944, American troops invaded the
Philippine island of Leyte. As the ground troops
battled inland, the greatest naval battle in world
history developed off the coast. More than 280
warships took part in the three-day Battle of
Leyte Gulf.


The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the first battle in
which Japanese pilots loaded their aircraft with
bombs and then deliberately crashed them into
enemy ships. These were called kamikazes, or
suicide planes. Despite this tactic, the American
force virtually destroyed the Japanese navy and
emerged victorious.
Japanese land forces in the Philippines continued
to resist, however. It took two months for the
American troops to liberate Leyte. The battle for
the Philippines’ capital, Manila, was equally
difficult, leaving some 100,000 Filipino civilians
dead. Not until June 1945 did the Allies control
the Philippines.
The Battle of Iwo Jima
 In February 1945, American marines stormed the
beaches of Iwo Jima.
 In the Battle of Iwo Jima, American forces
suffered an estimated 25,000 casualties. The
United States awarded 27 Medals of Honor, more
than for any other operation of the war.
 It took more than 100,000 American troops almost
a month to defeat fewer than 25,000 Japanese,
who fought almost to the last defender.
 Admiral Nimitz described the island as a place in
which “uncommon valor was common virtue.”
The Battle of Okinawa
 The Battle of Okinawa was fought from April to
June 1945. The island of Okinawa was the last
obstacle to an Allied invasion of the Japanese
home islands.
 The Japanese flew nearly 2,000 kamikaze attacks
against the 1,300 warships of the American fleet.
 For the American forces, nearly 50,000 casualties
made the Battle of Okinawa the costliest
engagement of the Pacific war.
 At the end, the American forces were victorious,
and the Allies had a clear path to Japan.



In August 1939, Roosevelt received a letter from
Albert Einstein, a brilliant Jewish physicist who
had fled from Europe. In his letter, Einstein
suggested that an incredibly powerful new type
of bomb could be built by the Germans.
Roosevelt organized the top-secret Manhattan
Project to develop the atomic bomb before the
Germans.
On July 16, 1945, Manhattan Project scientists
field-tested the world’s first atomic bomb in the
desert of New Mexico. With a blinding flash of
light, the explosion blew a huge crater in the
earth and shattered windows some 125 miles
away.



Once the bomb was ready, President Harry S
Truman, who took office after Roosevelt’s sudden
death, made the ultimate decision to drop the atomic
bomb on Japan.
On August 6, 1945, an American plane, the Enola Gay,
dropped a single atomic bomb “Little Boy” on the
Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast of intense heat
annihilated the city’s center and its residents in an
instant—leading to as many as 80,000 deaths. Three
days later, a second bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on
Nagasaki.
On August 14, the government of Japan surrendered.
On September 2, 1945, the formal surrender
agreement was signed. The long and destructive war
had finally come to an end.
Country
Military Deaths
Civilian Deaths
Total
Axis
Germany
3,250,000
2,350,000
5,600,000
Italy
226,900
60,000
286,900
Japan
1,740,000
393,400
2,133,400
France
122,000
470,000
592,000
Great Britain
305,800
60,600
366,400
United States
405,400
---------
405,400
Soviet Union
11,000,000
6,700,000
17,700,000
China
1,400,000
8,000,000
9,400,000
Allies
SOURCE: World War II: A Statistical Survey



How did African Americans, Mexican
Americans, and Native Americans experience
the war at home?
What difficulties did Japanese Americans
face?
In what ways did the war change conditions
for working women?



In 1941, industries searched for millions of new
workers to meet the demands of the Lend-Lease
program. Still, one out of five potential African
American workers remained jobless.
Finally, on June 25, 1941, the President signed
Executive Order 8802, opening jobs and job
training programs in defense plants to all
Americans “without discrimination because of
race, creed, color, or national origin.”
As a result, during the 1940s, more than 2 million
African Americans migrated from the South to
cities in the North.


African American and white soldiers risked
their lives equally in the war. Yet African
Americans were segregated on the war front
and discriminated against at home.
In 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) was founded in Chicago. CORE
believed in using nonviolent techniques to
end racism.


Mexican American citizens also served in the
armed forces, contributed to the wartime
economy, and faced discrimination in the
United States during the war.
A shortage of farm laborers led the United
States to seek help from Mexico. In 1942, an
agreement between the two nations provided
for transportation, food, shelter, and medical
attention for thousands of braceros, Mexican
farm laborers brought to work in the United
States.

The program brought a rise in the Latino
population of southern California. Many
lived in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods
called barrios.



The war also changed the lives of Native
Americans. In addition to the 25,000 Native
Americans who joined the armed forces,
many others migrated to urban centers to
work in defense plants.
Life in the military or in the cities was a new
experience for many Native Americans who
had lived only on reservations.
For some, the cultural transition brought a
sense of having lost their roots.


Japanese Americans suffered official
discrimination during the war. Hostility toward
Japanese Americans grew into hatred and
hysteria after Pearl Harbor.
In 1942, the War Relocation Authority removed
all people of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and
non-citizens, from the West Coast. They were to
be interned, or confined, in camps in remote
areas far from the coast. Many Japanese
Americans lost their homes, possessions, and
businesses during the period of internment.


Some people were uncomfortable with the
similarities between the internment camps and the
German concentration camps. The Supreme Court,
however, upheld their constitutionality. As time
passed, many Americans came to view internment
as a great injustice. In 1988, Congress awarded
$20,000 to each surviving Japanese American
internee, and issued an official apology.
After 1943, Japanese Americans were accepted into
the armed forces. Most were Nisei, or citizens born
in the United States to Japanese immigrant parents.
Many all-Nisei units won recognition for their
courage in Europe. In fact, the soldiers of the allJapanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team won
more medals for bravery than any other unit in
United States history.



Women of all ages as well as ethnic and economic
backgrounds went to work in the wartime economy.
Many joined the work force out a sense of patriotism;
others realized that the war increased their
employment opportunities.
As the war left many factory jobs vacant, women
were either entering the work force for the first time,
or leaving the low-paying jobs traditionally held by
women. Rosie the Riveter (a fictional character from a
song in 1942) became the popular name for all women
who worked in war-production jobs.
Many women found that employment outside the
home made a big difference in their lives, giving
them self-confidence as well as economic
independence.


In spite of the benefits of working, women,
especially African American women, faced
discrimination in the workplace. They often
encountered hostile reactions from other
workers, they received less pay for the same
work, and many had to make arrangements for
child care.
After the war, the government encouraged
women to leave their jobs and return home. As
the economy returned to peacetime status, twice
as many women as men lost factory jobs.