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Chapter 29
Results of World War II
The Holocaust
• Jan. 1942, top Nazi officials met in Wannsee to
plan systematic and efficient extermination of
Jews
• “a final solution to the Jewish question”
Organized a system of:
• Concentration Camps where Jews from around
Europe were gathered
• Extermination Camps were Jews and other
“undesirables” were killed
- Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Russian P.O.W’s, Communists,
Poles, Magyars
The Holocaust
“Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality.
Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to
slaughter—with premeditation and a happy heart. History
sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of
indifference to me what a weak western European
civilization will say about me. I have issued the command—
and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism
executed by a firing squad—that our war aim does not
consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical
destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my
death-head formation in readiness—for the present only in
the East—with orders to them to send to death mercilessly
and without compassion, men, women, and children of
Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the
living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all,
speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
-Adolf Hitler
The Holocaust
• Upon arrival to the camps, S.S. doctors
selected who would be sent to work
camps,
- and who would be sent immediately to the
gas chambers
• Forced labor at concentration camps
supported the German war effort
• Some underwent grotesque medical
experimentation
The Holocaust
Signs at the gates read “work makes free”
Working and Living in the Camps
Medical Experiments
Holocaust
Death Camps
Gas Chamber
Crematorium
The Holocaust
• 7 million Jews killed
• 6 million “undesirables” killed
Who is responsible for the
Holocaust?
45,000,000-55,000,000 casualties
The Devastation of the War
• Industrial capacity in 1945 was half of the
1939 level
• Many major cities destroyed
• Communication and transportation
networks destroyed
The Devastation of the War
Refugees
• 60 million displaced people
• Prisoners of war
• German slave laborers
• People who had moved to avoid fighting
Potsdam Meeting June 1945
Potsdam Meeting June 1945
• Harry Truman replace FDR, who had died
• Clement Attlee replaced Churchill, who
had been defeated in elections
• Josef Stalin
Potsdam Meeting June 1945
Potsdam Meeting June
1945
• All Nazi institutions
abolished
• German arms production
limited, industry
controlled
• Democracy and Free
Speech restored
• Germany divided into 4
zones of occupation, as
was Berlin
War Crimes Trials
Nuremburg Trials 1945-1946
• International tribunal
• Punish Hitler’s closest associates for
“Crimes Against Humanity”
• Exposed the horrors of the Nazi regime
International Agencies
United Nations
International Agencies
Bretton Woods Conference 1944
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank
Created to help reconstruction, capital
investment and creation of stable
currencies