1. World War II

2. Europe between the World Wars The Versailles Treaty of 1919 put the blame for the war on Germany and planted the seeds of WWII. The Versailles Treaty included harsh treatment of Germany, the breaking up of The Austro- Hungarian Empire, the creation of new countries out of Germany and Russia, and the short- changing of territory for Italy. Worldwide economic depression created unrest.

3. Resentment and economic desperation fostered dictatorships and militarism in Germany (Adolf Hitler), Italy (Benito Mussolini), and Russia (Joseph Stalin). Militarism and imperialism was strong in Japan (General Hideki Tojo).

6. Fascism in Italy and Spain and Nazism in Germany were fueled by concepts of racial superiority and extreme nationalism. Inaction by the League of Nations and the policy of appeasement fostered bolder moves by dictators to expand territory.

7. Aggressors on The March Following the Munich Conference a policy of appeasement France and Britain let Hitler have the Sudetenland Appeasement policy convinces Hitler that Britain and France will not stop him from taking Czechoslovakia Germany began to build up a military presence in the border area next to France (Rhineland) and in the Sudetenland despite the Versailles Treaty restrictions. Next, Germany invaded Austria, a country where the language was German and many welcomed the unification.

8. Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact in August 1939 that stated they would not fight each other.

9. Blitzkrieg Events Leading to All Out War in Europe –Germany attacks Poland; Britain and France declare war –Soviet Union Invades Poland, the Baltic States and Finland –Hitler Invades and Conquers Denmark and Norway

10. The Fall of France and the Battle of Britain –Sweeping around the Maginot Line, German forces strike into France, pushing allied troops to the sea –Italy enters the war on the German side as France collapses and surrenders –Despite devastating German air raids, Britain fights on alone. Its resistance forces Hitler to call off the attacks

11. In June of 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and attacked Leningrad, the Crimean Peninsula, and Moscow. In the 1930s, Japan invaded parts of China and declared all-out war on China in 1937. In 1940, Japan signed an alliance with Germany and Italy (the Axis). Japan had militaristic and imperialistic ambitions like Germany, and both were invading their neighbors.

12. When Germany invaded Poland, the United States remained neutral, but deals were unofficially worked out to aid allies Britain and France, the Soviet Union, and China. The United States refused to recognize Japanese conquests in Asia and imposed an embargo on the sale of scrap metal and oil, which Japan desperately needed. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act that allowed the United States to sell or lend war materials to “any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.” President Roosevelt compared it to “lending a garden hose to a next-door neighbor whose house is on fire.”

13. Pearl Harbor While Japanese representatives were in Washington for negotiations, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Most of the United States Pacific Fleet was moored in Pearl Harbor. The United States lost 2,400 people, 19 ships, and 200 planes in the attack.

17. Victories in the Pacific and Asia give Japan a vast Empire Japanese’s seized Guam and Wake Island then turned on the Philippines Bataan Death March Japanese also took British possession, Java, Dutch East Indies and Burma

18. A date which will live in infamy On December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war after “a date which will live in infamy.” Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States was fully engaged in a world war that included Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

20. United States Prepares For War

22. Daily Life on the Home Front 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. 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.

23. 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. 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.

24. Europe Most American military resources were targeted for Europe in a strategy to “Defeat Hitler First.” The Allies, namely Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, were united in this strategy. Germany sought to defeat the Soviet Union and force Britain out of the war before the United States could mobilize her war power.

25. Africa Britain fought Germans in North Africa, especially in Egypt, to prevent Hitler from controlling the Suez Canal, gateway to Middle East oil. In the battle of El Alamein in 1942, Germany’s Field Marshal Rommel was stopped 200 miles from Suez Canal.

26. The Course of the War: 1943–1945 In September 1942, Germans attacked Russians at Stalingrad but could not avoid the ravages of the cold winter resulting in thousands of deaths. The Germans surrendered in February 1943. This defeat prevented Germany from seizing the Soviet oil fields and turned the tide against Germany in the east.

27. D-Day On D-Day (June 6, 1944), Allied forces surprised the Germans at Normandy. This was a major turning point in the war in Europe.

31. Yalta 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)to split Germany into four zones, each under the control of a major Ally, including France. (2)They planned a similar division of Berlin. (3)Stalin promised to allow free elections in the nations of Eastern Europe that his army had liberated from the Germans. (4)He also promised to enter the war against Japan. Stalin did not fulfill any of these promises.

32. This invasion made possible the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944. After Russia reached Berlin in April 1945, Hitler killed himself, and the remaining German leaders surrendered on May 7.

33. V-E Day May 7-8 1945 In the United States, President Harry Truman, dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, because he had been so committed to ending the war. Roosevelt had died less than a month earlier, on April 12. Massive celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles and especially in New York City's Times Square.

34. The Pacific After Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded many Southeast Asian and Pacific territories, including the Philippines and Indonesia, and had plans to invade Australia and Hawaii. Japan’s leaders hoped that the United States would accept Japanese dominance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific rather than conduct a bloody and costly war to retake these areas.

35. The Pacific In June of 1942, the United States Navy removed the threat to Hawaii by destroying four Japanese carriers and Japanese 150 airplanes at Midway Island. This victory was a turning point in the Pacific. In early 1945, the Allies fought hard to capture Iwo Jima and Okinawa to provide refueling and launching places for planes. There were terrible losses to both sides: 120,000 Japanese and 18,000 Allied troops, mostly United States Marines. Japanese soldiers, Kamikaze pilots, and civilians were willing to die or commit suicide rather than surrender.

36. Island Hopping The Allies began a strategy of island hopping, or capturing one island at a time in order to reach Japan. Planes attacked Japanese war ships, and submarines attacked Japanese merchant ships.

37. Midway — In the “Miracle of Midway,” American naval forces defeated a much larger Japanese force as it prepared to seize Midway Island. Coming only a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese victory at Midway would have enabled Japan to invade Hawaii. The American victory ended the Japanese threat to Hawaii and began a series of American victories in the “island hopping” campaign that carried the war closer and closer to Japan.

38. Iwo Jima and Okinawa — The American invasions of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa brought American forces closer than ever to Japan, but both invasions cost thousands of American lives and even more Japanese lives, as Japanese soldiers fought fiercely over every square inch of the islands and Japanese soldiers and civilians committed suicide rather than surrender.

40. Welcome to the Nuclear Age President Harry Truman was concerned about American losses if Allied troops invaded Japan. When Japan refused to surrender, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. More than 110,000 Japanese died instantly, with more to die later from radiation.

41. Hiroshima – Little BoyNagasaki – Fat Man

43. The energy released by the bomb was powerful enough to burn through clothing. The dark portions of the garments this victim wore at the time of the blast were emblazoned on to the flesh as scars, while skin underneath the lighter parts (which absorb less energy) was not damaged as badly. Nagasaki

45. V- J Day Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.

46. Estimated WW2 Deaths CountryMilitary DeathsCivilian DeathsTotal Deaths Axis Germany3,250,0002,350,0005,600,000 Italy226,90060,000286,900 Japan1,740,000393,4002,133,400 Allies France122,000470,000592,000 Great Britain305,80060,600366,400 United States405,400---------405,400 Soviet Union11,000,0006,700,00017,700,000 China1,400,0008,000,0009,400,000

48. End of the War

49. The Geneva Convention The third Geneva Convention of 1929 established rules for treatment of prisoners of war. They were not to be treated as criminals but humanely, and returned when the war was over. Not all prisoners were treated humanely, especially in Asia. After the Japanese took the Philippines, they forced 60,000 American and Filipino prisoners to march (the Bataan Death March) for six to nine days without enough food and water; 10,000 died. In POW camps they continued to die. Treatment of prisoners in Europe more closely followed the rules of the Geneva Convention

50. Nuremberg Trials The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces "The Verdict in Nuremberg." Depicted are (left, from top): Goering, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick; (second column) Funk, Streicher, Schacht; (third column) Doenitz, Raeder, Schirach; (right, from top) Sauckel, Jodl, Papen, Seyss-Inquart, Speer, Neurath, Fritzsche, Bormann. Image from Topography of Terror Museum, Berlin.

51. Nuremberg 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. Twenty-four Nazi leaders were tried for their “crimes against humanity.” Japanese leaders were also tried in other proceedings, and some were executed.

52. 12 War Criminals Sentenced to Death Others received varying degrees of prison sentences The Spandau Prison was used solely for these prisoners Hermann Goerring committed suicide the night before his execution

53. Spandau Prison After World War II it was operated by the Four-Power Authorities to house the Nazi war criminals sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. Only seven prisoners were finally imprisoned there: Rudolf Hess with life sentence (died 1987) Walther Funk with life sentence (released 1957) Erich Raeder with life sentence (released 1955) Albert Speer 20 year term (released 1966) Baldur von Schirach 20 year term (released 1966) Konstantin von Neurath 15 year term (released 1954) Karl Dönitz 10 year term (released 1956)

54. The trials led to an increased demand for a Jewish homeland.