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WORLD WAR II TO THE
COLLAPSE OF THE
SOVIET UNION
THE RISE OF NAZISM
Adolf Hitler
 Elected in 1933
 Led the National
Socialist German
Workers Party (NAZIS)
Who to Blame for Germany’s Problems?
1. Germany’s enemies in WWI
2. Previous German government
3. Jewish people
TREATMENT OF JEWS
Hitler’s government passed many
laws discriminating against Jews.
Nazis persecuted Jews.
Denied them their rights as German
citizens.
WORLD WAR II
They are at it again…
 WWII began when Hitler invaded Poland, France, the Soviet
Union, and several other European nations.
 The United States eventually joined the war (when Japan
attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.) They sided with Great Britain,
Soviet Union, and several others.
 The Allies were once again victorious and Germany was
defeated.
THE HOLOCAUST
H O W W E R E J E W S T R E AT E D ?
Hitler tried to kill all the Jews living in Nazi
areas.
The Nazis removed millions of people from
their homes and sent them to prison camps.
Jews were used as forced labor and died from
starvation and abuse.
Nearly 6 million Jews were killed.
WHAT DID THEY FIND?
 When Allied troops marched on Germany they discovered
concentration camps throughout Germany filled with Jews.
 They also found mass graves where Nazis had dumped
bodies.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
A special court tried and hanged a number of
Nazi leaders for their crimes after the war.
Hitler killed himself in the final days of the
war before he could be captured.
HELPING THE JEWISH PEOPLE
People around the world were horrified by the
treatment of Jews and were very supportive.
A new organization is formed…the United
Nations.
The UN granted part of Palestine in Southwest
Asia to the Jewish people.
This area became the Jewish state of Israel.
A DIVIDED EUROPE
After the war, the Soviet Union and the United
States did not trust each other.
UNITED STATES
SOVIET UNION
DEMOCRACY
GOVERNMENT
COMMUNISM
GOVERNMENT
The U.S. was concerned because they believed that the
Soviets wanted to spread communism all through Europe.
EUROPE DIVIDED
WESTERN
EUROPE
• Remained or
became free
democracies.
• West
Germany
became a free
democracy
and sided
with the U.S.
and other
Western
European
nations.
EASTERN
EUROPE
• Became
Communist
• East Germany
became a
Communist
nation allied
with the
USSR.
IRON CURTAIN
An Iron Curtain has descended on Europe
– Winston Churchill
Iron Curtain came to
symbolize the dividing
line that separated
Western Europe and
Eastern Europe.
GERMANY DIVIDED
WEST GERMANY
EAST GERMANY
Controlled by
Great Britain,
France, and the
United States
Controlled by the
Soviet Union
DIVIDING UP BERLIN
THE ALLIES ALSO DIVIDED UP THE GERMAN
CAPITAL OF BERLIN.
THE COLD WAR
 After WWI, 2 superpowers emerged in the world. They were
the United States and the Soviet Union.




Both had nuclear weapons.
Neither trusted each other.
Great tension existed between the two.
People feared that this tension would one day result in
nuclear war.
 Cold War – the tension between the US and the Soviet Union
that many feared would lead to war.
 It divided most of the world into 2 camps.
1. Those that supported free democracy.
2. Those that supported the USSR and communism.
THE BERLIN WALL
 Many east Germans were fleeing to West Germany.
 In the 1960’s, the communist leaders built the Berlin
Wall.
 The wall made it hard for people
to escape from communist
East Berlin to free West Berlin.
 Anyone that tried to scale
the wall was shot.
 It stood until 1989.
COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
 The U.S. built up their military and made more nuclear
weapons.
 The Soviets were unable to keep up with the U.S due to their
economy.
 Soon communist governments fell throughout Europe.
 By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union ceased to be a country.
 It divided into Russia and several other countries.
END OF THE COLD WAR
 In 1990, Germans voted to reunify (rejoin) Germany.
 For the first time since WWI, Germany became one country.
 Europe is no longer divided by the “Iron Curtain.”