Download What the Nazis Believed

Who was Hitler?
• Born in Austria.
• Reared Catholic.
• Aspired to be an artist.
Rejected by Vienna Academy of Arts on two occasions.
Never attended college.
• Exposed to antisemitic influences while in Vienna.
• Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft.
Fought for Germany in World War I.
Born in Austria
Braunau-am-Inn
Insert Hitler Family tree
Reared Catholic
Adolf (center) with schoolmates, 1900.
St. Michael’s Catholic Church
attended by Hitler as a child.
Leonding, Austria
Who Was Hitler?
• Born in Austria.
• Reared Catholic.
• Aspired to be an artist.
Rejected by Vienna Academy of Arts on two occasions.
Never attended college.
• Exposed to antisemitic influences while in Vienna.
• Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft.
Fought for Germany in World War I.
Aspired to be an Artist
Rejected by Vienna Academy of Arts
Never Attended College
Oedensplatz (Feldherrnhalle),
Munich, 1914
Artist: Adolf Hitler
The Rotterdam Cathedral
Munich, 1930
Artist: Adolf Hitler
Exposed to antisemitic influences
while in Vienna.
Hitler’s description in Mein Kampf of how he
had become an antisemite in Vienna:
For me this was a time of the greatest
spiritual upheaval I have ever had to go
through. I had ceased to be a weak-kneed
cosmopolitan and become an antisemite.
Vienna, he said, had significantly contributed
to his becoming antisemitic:
At the time of this bitter struggle between
spiritual education and cold reason, the
visual instruction of the Vienna streets had
performed invaluable services.
Vienna Opera House by Adolf Hitler
Moved to Germany to avoid Austrian draft.
Fought for Germany in World War I.
Hitler served in the Bavarian contingent of the German Army.
Factors Contributing
to the Rise of the Nazis
All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win is for good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke, British Philosopher, 1729-1797
• Treaty of Versailles
• Economics
• German Nationalism
• Antisemitism
Treaty of Versailles
European alliances on the eve of World War I
After World War I, the need for security on the
continent led France to support a buffer zone of new
nations between Russia and Germany, carved out of
the former Austrian Empire: Yugoslavia, Austria,
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania were created.
German territory along the French border was
demilitarized out of the same concern for protection.
Europe after World War I
German territorial losses as dictated by the Treaty of Versailles.
Unemployment in Germany
1928-1933
September 1928
650,000
September 1929
1,320,000
September 1930
3,000,000
September 1931
4,350,000
September 1932
5,102,000
January 1933
6,100,000
Inflation in Germany
DATE
GERMAN MARKS
U.S. DOLLARS
1919
4.2
1
1921
75
1
1922
400
1
Jan. 1923
7,000
1
July 1923
160,000
1
Aug. 1923
1,000,000
1
Nov. 1, 1923
1,300,000,000
1
Nov. 15, 1923
1,300,000,000,000
1
Nov. 16, 1923
4,200,000,000,000
1
German children with stacks of inflated currency,
virtually worthless in 1923.
Worldwide Depression, 1929
Bread lines for the unemployed in the U.S.
German Nationalism
1st Reich
800 - 1806
Charlemagne
800-814
His vast realm
encompassed what are
now France,
Switzerland, Belgium,
Netherlands, half of
present-day Italy and
Germany, and parts of
Austria and Spain.
2nd Reich
3rd Reich
Otto von Bismarck
1871-1890
Engineered the unification of
the numerous states of
Germany.
Adolf Hitler
1933 - 1945
Hitler promised to return
Germany to its previous
glory with an empire that
would last 1000 years.
In reality, the 3rd Reich
lasted only 12 years.
1871 - 1918
1933 - ?
Antisemitism
Recognizing public support for his antiJewish comments, Hitler capitalized on
these anti-Jewish feelings that had
existed for centuries in the German
population and offered the Jews as a
scapegoat for the country’s current
financial woes. He would claim that
Germany had lost World War I because
of the Jews, that democracy and
communism were Jewish inventions,
and that the Jews were engaged in a
conspiracy for world domination. It was
the Jews who controlled society and
made Germans suffer.
Antisemitic political cartoon entitled
"Rothschild" by the French caricaturist,
C. Leandre, 1898.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
The world is too dangerous to live in – not because of the people who do evil, but
because of the people who sit and let it happen. – Albert Einstein
• Birth of the Nazi Party
• The Weimar Republic
• Beer Hall Putsch (November 8-9, 1923)
• Nazis Become a Legitimate Party
• Hitler Appointed Chancellor (January 30, 1933)
• Reichstag Fire (February 27, 1933)
• Emergency Decree (February 28, 1933)
• Enabling Act (March 23, 1933)
• Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934)
• Hitler Becomes Führer (August 2, 1934)
Birth of the Nazi Party
• In 1919 Hitler joined the
fledgling “German Worker’s
Party.”
German propaganda postcard showing an early
Hitler preaching to the fledgling Nazi Party.
• In 1920 he took control of the
group and changed the name to
the National Socialist German
Worker’s Party, National
Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter
Partei, NSDAP, or Nazi for short.
• It was here that Hitler
discovered two remarkable
talents: public speaking and
inspiring personal loyalty.
Assembly of the Nazi Party, 1922, Coburg, Germany
The Weimar Republic
♦ How the New Government Was to Be Run ♦
PRESIDENT
Publicly elected to 7-year term.
CHANCELLOR
Appointed by President
CABINET
REICHSTAG
Unlimited number of political parties.
Elected to 4-year term by proportional representation.
(e.g., 10% of the vote equals 10% of the seats)
421 members (1919)
647 members (1932)
Beer Hall Putsch
November 8-9, 1923
Part of a photo-card collection used by
the Nazis to indoctrinate German
children. This beer hall was the scene
of the failed Nazi Putsch. It symbolized
the birth pangs of Nazi power.
Munich, Germany, 1923, Masses in the
streets during the Putsch.
• Historical experience … shows with terrifying
clarity that in every mingling of Aryan blood
with that of lower peoples the result was the
end of the cultured people.
• Those who want to live, let them fight, and
those who do not want to fight in this world of
eternal struggle do not deserve to live.
• The [Nazi party] should not become a
constable of public opinion, but must dominate
it. It must not become a servant of the masses,
but their master!
• The personification of the devil as the
symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of
the Jew.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Number of Reichstag Deputies Elected
Total Deputies
Jan
1919
423
Jun
1920
459
May
1924
472
Dec
1924
493
May
1928
491
Sept
1930
577
July
1932
608
Nov
1932
584
Mar
1933
647
SPD, Social Democrats
165
102
100
131
153
143
133
121
120
USPD, Independent Socialists
22
84
4
62
45
54
77
89
100
81
64
65
69
62
68
75
70
74
21
16
19
16
19
22
20
18
Date
KPD, Communists
Centre Party (Catholics)
91
BVP, Bavarian People’s Party
DDP, Democrats
75
39
28
32
25
20
4
2
5
DVP, People’s Party
19
65
45
51
45
30
7
11
2
Wirtschafts Partei, Economy Party
4
4
10
17
23
23
2
1
DNVP, Nationalists
44
71
95
103
73
41
37
52
52
32
14
12
107
230
196
288
19
12
28
49
9
11
7
NSDAP, Nazis
Others
3
5
Nazi propaganda poster illustrating the Nazi’s desire to
break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles.
• The Nazi Party, political
unknowns, promised the
German people a solution to
their hunger and poverty:
Work & Bread.
• After the Nazis came to
power, public works programs
similar to those initiated by
FDR’s “New Deal” stimulated
the German economy.
• Prior to World War II,
average Germans credited the
Nazis with their improved
standard of living.
“Work and Bread!”
Nazi Party election poster
from the early 1930’s.
Hitler Appointed Chancellor
January 30, 1933
Adolf Hitler greets a crowd of
enthusiastic Germans from a
window in the Chancellery
building on the day of his
appointment.
Hitler in Berlin as new
Chancellor of Germany,
January, 1933
Newly appointed Chancellor
Adolf Hitler shakes hands with
German President Paul von
Hindenburg.
Reichstag Fire
February 27, 1933
The Nazis accused the Communists of
the arson as well as attempting to
overthrow the state. The Nazis would
use this event to eliminate all political
opposition.
Emergency Decree
February 28, 1933
President Hindenburg was persuaded to
issue an Emergency Decree invoking
Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.
This gave the Chancellor the authority to
impose dictatorial power to protect the
democratic order from being overthrown.
Members of the Communist Party were
arrested.
Enabling Act
March 23, 1933
• Hitler won the office of Chancellor in a legal
fashion, but he was determined to rule
Germany without the restraints of a
democratically elected parliament.
• The Enabling Act was a special power
allowed by the Weimar Constitution that gave
the Chancellor and his cabinet the power to
pass laws by decree for a specified period of
time, without Reichstag involvement. It was
only to be used in times of emergency.
• Because it altered the constitution, passing
the Enabling Act required a 2/3 majority vote
of the Reichstag. This was achieved by Nazi
maneuvering.
•The Enabling Act gave Hitler’s government
dictatorial powers for four years.
German Reichstag in session.
Night of the Long Knives
“The Roehm Putsch”
June 30, 1934
Ernst Roehm, Leader of the SA
Political Cartoon by David Low, July 3, 1934
Hitler Becomes Führer
August 2, 1934
With President Paul von Hindenburg's death, Hitler consolidated power by joining
the offices of Chancellor and President. He assumed the title of Führer (leader)
and Reich Chancellor of the German nation.
"One People, One Empire,
One Führer."
Placing one hand upon the Nazi flag and
raising the other in obedience, these
German soldiers swear their allegiance to
the Führer.
What the Nazis Believed
Anyone who interprets National Socialism as merely a political movement knows almost
nothing about it. It is more than a religion. It is the determination to create the new man.
- Adolf Hitler
•What the Nazis Believed
•Racial Science
•Nazi Platform
•Symbols
What the Nazis Believed
 The Nazis valued authority and order.
 The Nazis valued emotion more than reason.
 The Nazis valued the community rather than the
individual.
 The Nazis had a strong belief in the traditional family.
 The Nazis were strong nationalists.
 The Nazis saw politics as a religion.
 The Nazis valued the concept of a select race.
“Second Creation”
Theodor Seuss Geisel, April 3, 1942
Racial Science
The law of existence requires uninterrupted killing, so that the better may live. –
Adolf Hitler
Nazi physicians conducted
“bogus” medical research in an
effort to identify physical evidence
of Aryan superiority & non-Aryan
inferiority. The Nazis could not
find evidence for their theories of
biological racial differences
among human beings.
This kit contains 29 hair
samples used by doctors,
anthropologists, and
geneticists to determine racial
makeup of individuals.
Establishing racial descent by
measuring an ear at the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for
Anthropology.
Caliper to measure skull width.
Nazi Platform
We demand:
1. A union of Germans to form a great Germany.
2. Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles.
3. Lebensraum (living space) for Germans as well as surplus populations.
4. German blood as a requirement for citizenship. No Jew can be a citizen.
5. Non-citizens live in Germany as foreigners only, subject to the law of aliens.
6. Only citizens can vote or hold public office.
7. The state insures that every citizen live decently and earn his livelihood.
8. No further immigration of non-Germans. Any non-German who arrived after
August 2, 1914, shall leave immediately.
9. Revision of the national system of education with citizenship being taught.
10. All newspapers must be published in the German language by German
citizens.
Symbols
The Perpetrators
History teaches us to beware of demagogues who wrap themselves in the flag
in an attempt to appeal to the worst aspects of nationalism.
- Alistair Nicholson
Reinhard Heydrich
Joseph Goebbels
Hermann Goering
Adolf Eichmann
Rudolf Hess
Heinrich Himmler
Name
Age:1933
Profession
Position(s)
Hans Frank
33
Lawyer
Governor General of Poland
Victor Capesius
26
Physician
Headed camp pharmacy at Auschwitz
Helmut Knochen
23
Professor of
Literature
Colonel, SS; Commander of Security
Police, Paris, ’40-44
Otto Ohlendorf
26
Economist
In Einsatzgruppen
Werner Best
30
Lawyer
First legal advisor to SD & Gestapo
Albert Speer
28
Architect
Minister of Armaments & War Production
August Hirt
35
Anthropologist &
Surgeon
SS Director of Anatomical Research;
studied skulls
Willi Frank
30
Physician
Chief of Dental Station at Auschwitz
Bernhart Rost
40
Secondary
Teacher
Reich Minister of Science, Education &
Culture
Wilhelm Frick
56
Lawyer
Reich Minister of Interior; close friend of
Hitler
Heinz Kammler
----
Engineer
Head of SS Works Department; built gas
chambers at Auschwitz
Joseph Goebbels
36
PhD Literature &
Philosophy
Propaganda Minister of the Reich
Fritz Ter Meer
----
Scientist w/
doctorate
Chief executive of I.G Farben
Nazi Intentions Revealed
Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?
- Lillian Hellman
•Anti-Jewish Policies
•Boycott of Jewish Shops: April 1, 1933
•Nazi Book Burnings: May 10, 1933
•Nuremberg Laws: September 15, 1935
•The November Decree: November 14, 1935
Anti-Jewish Policies
How can such a monstrous crime as the Holocaust occur?
It begins when people start thinking of themselves as ‘us’ and of others as ‘them’.
- Ted Gottfried, Deniers of the Holocaust
Goals:
• social death of Jews
• removal of Jewish presence/influence
from German society
Means of Accomplishment:
• verbal assaults
• physical assaults
• legal/administrative restrictions
Laws Restricting Civil Rights
The Law for the Protection of German Blood & German Honor forbade
either marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans.
Laws Restricting Personal Rights
Jews were only permitted to purchase
products between 3-5 p.m. This was one
step in the overall Nazi scheme of
eliminating Jews from economic, social
and cultural life.
Bench with inscription “Only for Jews.”
Sign on a phone booth
in Munich prohibiting
Jews from using the
public telephone.
Sign forbidding Jews in public pool.
Jews are forced to walk in the street.
The original photo caption read, "Jews in gutter."
Belgium, 1943
October 5, 1938
All Jewish passports must be
marked with the letter "J“ for Jew.
Laws Restricting Education
Political Cartoon from Der Stürmer entitled: “Away with Him”
The long arm of the Ministry of Education pulls a Jewish teacher from his classroom.
March 1933.
Laws Restricting Occupation
With the rise of Nazism, nothing the Jews had done for their country made any difference…
- Alfred Gottschalk, Jewish Survivor
Erich Remarque,
author.
Albert Einstein,
Nobel Prize winner.
Sigmund Freud,
psychoanalyst,
Otto Klemperer,
conductor.
Laws Restricting Private Property
and Business
"Aryanization" announcements in a newspaper.
Aryanization was the process of transferring Jewish businesses
to German control.
Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained
or, on occasion, “regretted,” that, unless one were detached
from the whole process from the beginning, unless one
understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all
these “little measures” that no “patriotic German” could resent
must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day
to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One
day it is over his head.
Heinrich Hildebrandt, non-Jewish German high school teacher during
the Nazi years, interviewed in 1952.
They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer
Boycott of Jewish Shops
April 1, 1933
SA soldiers stood at the entrances to Jewish shops and professional offices
discouraging non-Jewish patrons from entering.
Signs were posted warning: “Germans! Beware! Don’t Buy from Jews!”
Nazi Book Burnings
May 10, 1933
Where books are burned, in the end, people will be burned.
- Heinrich Heine (19th century German poet)
Uniformed Nazi party officials carrying
confiscated books.
Hamburg, Germany,
The public burning of "un-German"
books by members of the SA and
university students.
Nuremberg Laws
September 15, 1935
Reich Flag Law
• Official colors of the Nazi state are black, red, and white.
• The national flag is the swastika flag.
• Jews are forbidden from flying the German flag.
Reich Citizenship Law
• German citizenship is denied to Jews. They are given the status of “subjects.”
• Jews can not vote, own property, operate a business, or be paid wages as employees.
Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor
• Forbids marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans.
• Bans employment in Jewish homes of any German female under 45 years of age.
The November Decree
November 14, 1935
German:
Mischlinge, 2nd Degree:
4 “German”
grandparents
1 Jewish grandparent
Mischlinge, 1st Degree: * 2 Jewish grandparents
Jew:
3+ Jewish grandparents
* 1st Degree Mischlinge would be considered Jews if
they met any of the following criteria:
- practiced the Jewish religion
- were married to a Jew
- or were children born after September 15,
1935 to one Jewish parent and one
German parent
Nazi Propaganda
How can such a monstrous crime as the Holocaust occur? It begins when
people start thinking of themselves as “us” and of others as “them”.
-Ted Gottfried, Deniers of the Holocaust
• The Hitler Youth
• Education in Nazi Germany
• Media
• 1936 Olympics in Berlin
The Hitler Youth
GIRLS
German Girl’s League,
Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)
BOYS
Hitler Youth, Hitlerjügend (HJ)
"Youth Serves the Fuëhrer.
All ten-year-olds join the
Hitler Youth."
“All girls join us.”
Education in Nazi Germany
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. - Diogenes
“The Jewish Question is the Key to World History.”
The German National Catechism
for Young Germans in School
and on the Job:
“Which race must the National Socialist race
fight against?
The Jewish race.
Why?
The goal of the Jew is to make himself the ruler
of humanity. Wherever he comes, he destroys
works of culture. He is not a creative spirit,
rather a destructive spirit.”
Werner May, Deutscher National-Katechismus
2nd edition (Breslau: Verlag von Heinrich
Handel, 1934), pp. 22-26
Typical School Day
The teacher begins and ends the instruction
by leading the assembled students in the
greeting:
The teacher raises the right arm and
declares “Heil Hitler.”
The students raise their right arms and
respond Heil Hitler.”
Raising the Swastika Flag at a school
in Berlin.
Changes in the Curriculum
Math Problems Twisted to Promote Nazi Ideology
According to careful estimates
there are 300,000 mentally
ill persons, epileptics, etcetera in
long-term care facilities in
Germany.
The Jews are aliens in Germany.
What is the total yearly cost of
their care assuming daily costs
of 4 RM per person?
What is the percentage of
aliens?
How many marriage loans for
1,000 RM each could be made
yearly with this money?
In 1933 there were 66,060,000
inhabitants of the German
Reich, of whom 499,682 were
Jews.
Excerpt from this Nazi Biology
Textbook for Middle School Students:
As we have already noted,
people do not live as individuals
like animals and plants, but as peoples,
which largely have come together
as ethnic states. We know something
similar only with insects. Bees and ants
are not only the sum of individuals;
each individual shares a united drive
in service of the entire group….
The ethnic state must demand of each
individual citizen that he does
everything for the good of the whole,
each in his place and with his abilities.
See Marie Harm and Hermann Wiehle, Lebenskunde
für Mittelschulen. Fünfter Teil. (Halle: Hermann
Schroedel Verlag, 1942), pp. pp. 168-173.
Math Book for First Grade, Hirt Publishing, 1937.
The Poisonous Mushroom
“The Poisonous Mushroom”
“How Jewish Traders Cheat”
“The Experience of Hans and
Else with a Strange Man”
“How To Tell A Jew “
Popular children’s board game, “Juden Raus!” (Jews Out).
By throwing dice, the winner manages to get six Jews out of their homes and businesses (the
circles) and on the road to Palestine. It sold over a million copies in 1938, when Nazi policy was
forced Jewish emigration.
Additions to the Curriculum:
Teaching Nazi Racial Ideology
Classroom chart entitled "German Youth,
Jewish Youth." Published in a textbook on
heredity, genealogy, and racial studies.
Two Jewish children humiliated in front of the
classroom. The blackboard reads: "The Jews are
our greatest enemy! Beware of Jews."
Racial instruction is to begin with the youngest pupils (six years of age) in accordance with
the Führer’s instruction that no boy or girl should leave school without complete knowledge
of the necessity and meaning of blood purity.
- Bernhard Rust, Reich Minister for Science & Education
Additions to the Curriculum:
Teaching War Oriented Sports
Throwing grenades as a school sport.
Education in a general way is to be the
preparation for later army service. The
Army will then not need,
as has hitherto been the case, to give
the young man a grounding in the
simplest exercises and rules….
it should rather change the young man,
already physically perfect, into a soldier.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Battle Ball (Kampfball)
Media-Newspaper
“Der Stürmer“, an
antisemitic tabloid, was
posted on billboards for
all to read, under the
heading: Die Juden sind
unser Unglück (The Jews
are our Misfortune).
Völkischer Beobachter,
(“People's Observer”),
daily newspaper
published by the Nazi
Party in Germany from
the 1920’s until 1945.
Media-Radio
Free distribution of radios in honor of
Joseph Goebbel’s birthday.
Berlin, October 29, 1938.
"All Germany hears the Führer on the People's Receiver."
The Nazis, eager to encourage radio listenership, developed an inexpensive
radio receiver to make it possible for as many as possible to hear Nazi
propaganda.
Media-Film
The Eternal Jew, the
most famous Nazi
propaganda film.
Jew Pests, a film aimed
at influencing audiences
to hate Jews.
A propaganda film
designed by Nazis for
Nazis.
Media-Posters
For young men, service to the totalitarian
state meant fighting the Fuhrer's wars, but
for women service meant producing
racially pure children for the Reich.
"Healthy Parents have
Healthy Children."
Nazi propaganda poster
encouraging healthy
Germans to have large
families.
1936 Olympics in Berlin
The torch lighting ceremony.
Spectators salute Adolf Hitler during
the games.
German spectators spell out the phrase, directed at
Adolf Hitler, "Wir gehoeren Dir" [We belong to you].
Jesse Owens' medal
ceremony for the long jump.
Violations of Treaty of Versailles
Violations of Treaty of Versailles
History shows us that appeasement does not lead to peace. It invites an
aggressor to test the will of a nation unprepared to meet that test.
- Ronald Reagan
•The Rhineland Falls: March 1936
•The Anschluss of Austria: March 13, 1938
•Sudetenland Falls: September 1938
The Rhineland Falls
March 1936
German forces enter Aachen, on the
border with Belgium, following the
remilitarization of the Rhineland.
Aachen, Germany, March 18, 1936.
German civilians salute German forces
crossing the Rhine River in open violation
of the Treaty of Versailles.
Mainz, Germany, March 7, 1936.
Anschluss of Austria
March 13, 1938
Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria,
to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss.
Adolf Hitler, May 21, 1935
A public building in Vienna,
adorned with decorations
and a large banner bearing a
quote from Hitler, "Those of
the same blood belong in the
same Reich!" Such banners
were hung throughout Austria
in the weeks preceding the
April 10th plebiscite on the
incorporation of Austria into
the German Reich.
Austrian Antisemitism
A group of SA hold hands on the steps of
the University of Vienna in an attempt to
prevent Jews from entering the building.
Jews forced to erase slogans from the
streets of Vienna during the period
following the Anschluss.
Sudetenland Falls
September 1938
Signing of the Munich Agreement.
From left to right: Chamberlain,
German troops march
Daladier (French), Hitler, Mussolini
into the town square of
(Italian), and Ciano (Italian), pictured
Friedland.
before signing.
Refugees from the
Sudetenland, following its
annexation by Germany,
arrive in Prague,
Czechoslovakia, a month
later.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a
man we can do business with.
Czechoslovakia Becomes Part of the
Third Reich: 1939
German-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact
August 23, 1939
Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov, signs
pact. German Foreign Minister,
Ribbentrop (back center) and Josef
Stalin (back right).
Rome-Berlin Axis, 1939
The “Pact of Steel”
Japan Invades Manchuria, 1931
The Japanese Invasion
of China, 1937
Italy Attacks Ethiopia, 1935
Emperor Haile
Selassie
U. S. Neutrality Acts:
1934, 1935, 1937, 1939
World War II: 1939-1942
World War II Begins
Close your eyes to pity! Eighty million people (the population of Germany) must obtain
what is their right! The stronger man is right! Be harsh and remorseless!
- Adolf Hitler, August 31, 1939
• The Invasion of Poland: September 1, 1939
• Poland’s Largest Jewish Communities on the
Eve of War
• The Blitzkrieg of Poland
• The Division of Poland
• The Germanization of Polish Gentiles
• The Isolation of Polish Jews
The Blitzkrieg of Poland
September 1 - 27, 1939
The Division of Poland
Germanization of Polish Gentiles
Two masters cannot exist side by side, and that is why all members
of the Polish intelligentsia must be killed. -Adolf Hitler
 Poles with Aryan features were allowed to remain in Poland. Some Aryanlooking children were kidnapped and taken to Germany to raised as German.
 Some Polish men were drafted into the German army, others were
deported to the Reich for slave labor.
 Monuments to Polish history and culture were destroyed.
 Valuable collections of art and science were transported out of the
country. Museums and libraries were demolished.
 Polish press and theaters were closed.
 Polish cities and streets were renamed with German names.
 Universities and secondary schools were closed. Education after the 4th
grade was forbidden as Poles would need little education as slave laborers.
 Use of the Polish language in public and private life was forbidden.
Gentile Poles assembled for
forced labor. June 1943
A German soldier stands on a
toppled Polish monument.
Krakow, Poland
Attack in the West
Denmark & Norway: April 9, 1940
The Lowlands: May 10, 1940
France: May 13, 1940
Great Britain: July 10, 1940
Invasion of Denmark & Norway
April 9, 1940
• With the outbreak of war,
Scandinavia had proclaimed
itself strictly neutral.
• With Poland now secured
and the Soviet Union safely on
hold, Hitler was eager to
attack in the west.
• Russia attacked Finland in
November 1939, making
Norway and Denmark
vulnerable to a Russian
takeover. Germany recognized
the need to advance into
Scandinavia first.
• The Norwegians and Danes
were seen as fellow Aryans
and offered a “partnership”
with Nazi Germany.
Invasion of the Lowlands
May 10, 1940
• All hoped to remain neutral
after World War II began.
• Germany attacked without
declaring war.
• Allied assistance was
requested, but it was too late.
British and French forces
were able to rush into
Belgium, but fell into a
German trap.
• Luxembourg surrendered in
1 day, the Netherlands
surrendered in 5 days, and
Belgium surrendered in 18
days.
(Yellow lines are borders of countries.)
Invasion of France: May 13, 1940
Dunkirk
•
Dunkirk
Evacuation at Dunkirk, June 4, 1940
Ardennes
Forest
● France was the country Hitler most wanted to conquer and humiliate.
● France’s military was larger and more technologically advanced than Germany’s.
● The German army entered France just north of the Maginot Line through Luxembourg and the dense
Ardennes Forest of Belgium.
● The Allied forces in Belgium found themselves surrounded and were forced to retreat to Dunkirk.
June 14, 1940
German
troops enter Paris as French and
Allied forces retreat.
June 22, 1940
Armistice is signed.
June 23, 1940
Hitler tours Paris.
The conquest of France was the zenith of Hitler’s career and the peak of popularity
for the Nazis among the German people.
● The Armistice with was signed on
June 22, 1940 on the very spot of
Germany’s humiliating surrender
at the end of World War I.
● A separate agreement was
reached with Italy, which had
entered the war against France on
June 10, well after the outcome of
the battle was beyond doubt.
● France was divided into 2 zones:
- An occupied zone in the north,
under German control, with Paris
as the official capital.
- An unoccupied zone in the south
under the control of a
collaborative French government
led by Marshal Pétain, with the
town of Vichy as the administrative
center.
“Stamps” drawn on the blank borders of
a sheet of postage stamps by Karl
Schwesig, a non-Jew interred in Gurs
concentration camp in France.
The words “Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity” were the motto of the French
Revolution. The founding principle’s of
the state.
The stamps tell ironically what Schwesig
believed had become of these noble
ideas.
Italy Joins the Axis
June 10, 1940
Benito Mussolini with Adolf Hitler.
Italy enters World War II as a Germany ally hoping to establish a
“New Roman Empire.” Although allied with Germany, Mussolini did
not willingly cooperate in the Nazi plan to kill the Jews of Europe.
Mussolini called himself “Il
Duce“ (the leader). He was
Prime Minister & Dictator of
fascist Italy, 1922-1943.
The Battle of Britain
July 10, 1940
● This was the first major battle to be fought entirely in the air.
● Britain’s survival was crucial for the Allied war effort.
● Hitler’s plan was to take London by August 1940.
● In October 1940, unable to accomplish his goals, Hitler had to
postpone the invasion.
“The Painter and the Clipper”, 1940
Arthur Szyk
The Tripartite Pact
September 27, 1940
Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany
Emperor Hirohito, Japan
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Attack in the East
The Invasion, June 22, 1941
Soviet P.O.W.’s
Einsatzgruppen
Bialystock Massacre, June 27, 1941
Babi Yar Massacre,
September 28-29, 1941
The Invasion, June 22, 1941
The invasion of the Soviet Union was an “ideological battle
and a struggle of races” according to Heinrich Himmler.
The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion.
This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted
with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness.
- Adolf Hitler, 1941
German soldiers in the Soviet Union. December 1943
Soviet P.O.W.’s
Soviet P.O.W.’s from the Ukrainian front.
Kharkov, Soviet Union, June 18, 1942
Camp for Soviet P.O.W.’s. Shelter was
minimal, consisting of rough dug outs.
Wietzendorf, Germany, 1941-1942.
Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in
infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and
deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of
Japan. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have
directed that all measures be taken for our defense. With
confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded
determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable
triumph – so help us God.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941
U.S.S. Maryland and
capsized U.S.S. Oklahoma.
View down “Battleship Row.”
Midway (June 3-6, 1942)
– Japanese planned a diversionary attack on
the Aleutian Islands while the main force
attacked Midway to destroy the American
fleet
– Thanks to code breaking intercepts, the US
didn’t fall for the Alaska fake out and
reinforced Midway
– Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers
and most of their flight crews
– Japanese advance was checked and initiative
in the Pacific began to turn to the Americans
Greatest Extent of Greater East Asia
Co-prosperity Sphere
The Final Stages of War
• Allied Invasion at Normandy: June 6, 1944
• The Allies Close In
• Death Marches
• Liberation
• Yalta (Crimea) Conference: February 4-11, 1945
• Hitler’s Last Days
• The Fall of Berlin: May 2, 1945
• Surrender in the West: May 8, 1945
• Allied Occupation and Denazification
Allied Invasion at Normandy
D-Day: June 6, 1944
The Allies Close In
The war against the Jews
continued as the Allies
closed in on the crumbling
Nazi empire. Extermination
of the Jews was so efficient
that by the time the Soviet
army re-crossed the Polish
border in 1944 and D-Day
occurred on June 6, most of
the approximately 6 million
Jews who died in the
Holocaust were already
dead.
Yalta (Crimea) Conference
February 4 - 11, 1945
Roosevelt & Churchill
“How are we feeling
today?”
– a 1945 British cartoon
shows Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin as
doctors, working together
to heal the world.
The "Big Three": Winston Churchill,
D. Roosevelt , Joseph Stalin
Franklin
Hitler’s Last Days
One of the last pictures taken of Hitler in
his bunker before he committed suicide.
On the left is Col. Gen. Ferdinand
Schoerner who was appointed
commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht in
Hitler’s will.
In the garden outside his bunker, Hitler
decorates Hitler Youth who have been
newly recruited as soldiers.
After the ceremony, he returns to his
underground refuge.
The Fall of Berlin
May 2, 1945
Soviet soldiers
celebrate the fall of
Berlin by hoisting the
Red Flag over the
ruined Reichstag.
As his last significant official
act, Hitler appointed Grand
Admiral Karl Doenitz to
succeed him as führer.
The Reichstag lies in
ruins as did most of
Berlin.
Surrender in the West
May 8, 1945
With this signature the German people and the German Armed Forces are, for better or worse,
delivered into the hands of the victors … In this hour I can only express the hope that the victor will
treat them with generosity.
- General Alfred Jodl (during the signing of the unconditional surrender), Reims, France.
Move to last days??????????
General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations
Staff in the German High Command, signs the
document of unconditional German surrender
on May 7. Left is Admiral Von Friedeburg of the
German Navy. Right is Major Wilhelm Oxenius
of the German General Staff.
German Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel
signs a surrender document at Soviet
headquarters in Berlin, May 9, 1945. The
Soviets had insisted that a second
ceremonial signing take place in Sovietoccupied Berlin.
Allied Occupation
& Denazification
Final Campaigns
• From Feb 19 to Mar 11, 1945
the Marines captured Iwo Jima
• From Apr to June Americans
captured Okinawa
o Total American battle
casualties were 49,151, of
which 12,520 were killed or
missing and 36,631
wounded
o Approximately 110,000
Japanese were killed and
7,400 more were taken
prisoners
o Okinawa showed how costly
an invasion of the Japanese
home islands would be
Raising the flag on
Mt. Suribachi, Iwo
Jima
Potsdam Conference
July 17 – August 2, 1945
POLAND
Churchill, Truman, Stalin
The "Big Three" pose with their principal advisors.
Seated (left to right): British Prime Minister Clement Atlee;
U.S. President Harry S. Truman; Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
Standing (left to right): Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, USN,
Truman's Chief of Staff; British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin;
U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes;
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.
Plan to Invade Japan
• US planned to invade
Japan with eleven Army
and Marine divisions
(650,000 troops)
• Casualty estimates for the
operation were as high as
1,400,000
• Truman decided to use the
atomic bomb to avoid such
losses
Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
The Atomic Bomb
• In the early 1940s,
America had started
an atomic weapons
development
program code
named the
“Manhattan Project”
• A successful test
was conducted at
Alamogordo in New
Mexico in July 1945
J. Robert Oppenheimer and General
Leslie Groves at the Trinity Site soon
after the test
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Hiroshima Aug 6,
1945 – “Little Boy”
o
90,000 killed
• Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945
–”Fat Man”
o
35,000 killed
• Okinawa had been
much more costly
than Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane
that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima
Hiroshima Before
Hiroshima After
Nagasaki Before
Nagasaki
After
Surrender – August 15th,
1945
Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri
Europe after World War I