1. Pre-War Foreign Policy
-we focused on domestic issues
*Great Depression and the New Deal*
-extreme anti-war feelings
“Merchants of Death”
isolationism
-Good Neighbor policy in Latin America
-Neutrality Acts
forbids arms sales to warring nations, prohibits loans to warring nations, and American travel on their ships
-1937 Roosevelt gives Quarantine speech leave isolationist policy to contain fascist aggression, big words but no action

2. Prelude to War
-Japanese Aggression
Expansionism---Manchuria and China very aggressive
Emperor Hirohito----Hideki Tojo
-Italy
Fascism: glorification of a nation above an individual, central gov’t headed by dictator, severe economic and social restrictions
Benito Mussolini –leads Italy

3. Prelude to War
-Rise of Germany
Failed Weimar Republic falls to Nazi party
Adolph Hitler & Third Reich come into power, want to expand, believe the Aryan race to be superior especially to the Jews.
-Russia (USSR)
Joseph Stalin: rises to power in the Soviet Union, after failed attempts to get support from Britain and France, he turns to Hitler and signs Nazi-Soviet Pact

5. Appeasement
-Kellogg-Briand Pact: outlawed war, was a useless piece of paper
-Hoover-Stimson Doctrine
refuse to recognize lands taken by force
-German rearmament: Hitler begins to build army
-Taking of the Rhineland in Austria
Initially, appeasement is Britain and France’s official policy towards Germany
-Austria
-Munich Peace Conference:
future of Czechoslovakia, allowing Germany to take the country is an example of appeasement
-American Neutrality

7. Europe at War
-Japanese are invading China, 1937
-Germany annexes Austria, 1938
Violation of Munich Peace Pact
-Germany takes Czechoslovakia, 1938 (again, against Munich agreement)
-Germany-Russia sign non-aggression treaty, 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact
-Germany attacks Poland Sept. 1, 1939
-France, England declare war

9. Blitzkrieg
-lightning warfare
-heavy use of machinery and aircraft
-quick victory over Poland—only took 3 weeks
-Phony War begins: more for propaganda than strategy, represent defensive intentions
Maginot Line France
Siegfried Line Germany
-Stalin attacks Finland, Hitler attacks Denmark, Norway, then Belgium
-Invasion of France
-Massive Allied evacuation at Dunkirk aka Miracle of Dunkirk
-France signs surrender, June 1940

10. Battle of Britain
-Germany controls most of Europe
-Luftwaffe begin bombing of Britain
(German Air force)
-RAF defends British homeland
(Royal British Air force)
-”Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”--Winston Churchill:
-Germany never launches invasion of Britain

11. The Holocaust

12. Persecution Begins
-Anti-Jewish sentiments for many centuries: hatred of Jews, Jews were blamed for Germany’s failures
-Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” blamed Jews for Germany’s problems
“My Struggle”
-Nuremburg Laws
took away civil rights of Jews
Star of David required to wear yellow star and to register
-Kristallnacht, 1938 Night of Broken Glass
15 hours of destruction of Jewish property, arrested 30,000

13. Jewish Refugees
-after Hitler’s election, many Jews fled Germany, however, many countries would not accept Jews
-U.S. was one of many nations not accepting many Jewish refugees
Albert Einstein (Jewish Refugee)
Only excepted Jews of exceptional merit.
Why?? Great Depression
-Why did others not leave???

14. Final Solution
-1939
decision to rid Europe of all Jews and other undesirables
-concentration camps set up across Europe imprisonment of a large number of people
-many sent to slave labor camps (slavery and prison combined)
-others were simply killed or experimented upon: idea was to improve master race

15. Concentration Camps
-Jews gathered from ghettos and separated: families were separated forever
-crude wooden barracks held thousands who were fit to work
Cycle of hunger, humility, and work that often ended in death
Crowded quarters, rats, fleas, unsanitary, worked from dawn to dusk
-hunger and disease killed thousands

16. -as war went badly for Germany, they tried to speed up Final Solution
Death Camps
-as war went badly for Germany, they tried to speed up Final Solution
Final Solution: genocide of Jews
-building of several death camps to execute Jews with poison gas
-bodies were then buried in mass graves or burned
-Auschwitz: largest death camp, located in S. Poland, Anne Frank and Ellie Wiesel
-Belzec: first extermination camp
-Buchenwald: largest camp on German soil, not a death camp but there was an extraordinary amount of death here

18. Survivors
-6 million were killed in the Holocaust, 63% of the Jewish population
-some were liberated by Allied armies
-others were helped to hide or escape from capture
-Elie Wiesel
“Night”
-Oscar Schindler: subject of Schindler’s List, saved 1000s of Jews

19. Personal Voice
“The brute Schmidt was our guard; he beat and kicked us if he though we were not working fast enough. He ordered his victims to lie down and gave them 25 lashes with a whip, ordering them to count out loud. If the victim made a mistake, he was given 50 lashes…Thirty or forty of us were shot everyday. A doctor usually prepared a daily list of the weakest men. During the lunch break they were taken to a nearby grave and shot. They were replaced the following morning by new arrivals…It was a miracle if anyone survived for more than 5 or 6 months in Belzec”

23. Personal Voice
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night….Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned to wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forged these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”

25. Essential Questions 1. What were the main causes of WWII?
2. What factors combined to draw the world and ultimately the U.S. into WWII?
3. How did the U.S. respond?
4. Why did the Holocaust occur?

26. Review Questions
What did the fascist states that formed in Europe have in common?
Each prospered during the Great Depression
Each was led by Adolf Hitler
Each stressed nationalism
Each had ties to socialism

27. 2. Which event led Britain and France to declare war on Germany?
Germany’s invasion of Austria
Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland
Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia
Germany’s invasion of Poland

28. 3. Why did Roosevelt refuse to admit large numbers of Jews who were fleeing Europe?
He believed they should go to Israel
He feared they would take jobs from Americans
He thought it was Germany’s problem to solve alone
He believed they should remain in Europe

29. 4. This speech claimed we should leave our isolationist policy to contain fascist aggression.
Quarantine Speech
Four Freedoms Speech
The Miracle at Dunkirk Speech
Churchill’s inaugural address

30. 5. A form of government that emphasizes glorification of a nation above an individual, a dictator, and economic restrictions.
Totalitarianism
Fascism
Democracy
Monarchy