The Granger Collection!From World Book © 2002 World Book, Inc., 233 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL All rights reserved. It brought the atomic age, which still has an impact on our lives today. World War II killed more people, cost more money, damaged more property, affected more people, and probably caused more far-reaching changes than any other war in history.

The number of people killed, wounded, or missing between September 1939 and September 1945 can never be calculated. More than 10 million service men from the Allied Forces and nearly 6 million military men from the Axis countries lost their lives.

So what caused this war? Problems left by World War I The rise of dictatorships Desire of Germany, Italy, and Japan for more territory Weimar Republic was not able to meet the needs of the people

Problems Left by WWI As a result of a weak government and economic/social problems that the Germans faced, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party grew in strength. Another name for the Nazi party was the National Socialist Party.

Jews and the Holocaust The Holocaust was the systematic and state supported execution of Jews. Hitler wanted to eliminate all Jews as part of his aim to conquer the world. The Nazi party believed that “Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.” By the end of WWII in 1945, the Nazis had killed about 6 million Jewish men, women, and children – more than two- thirds of the Jews in Europe.

Jews and the Holocaust cont. In addition to Jews, the Nazis killed millions of other people whom Hitler regarded as racially inferior or politically dangerous. The largest groups included Germans who were physically or mentally handicapped, Gypsies, Slavic people (particularly Russian & Polish), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, and Socialists.

Jews and the Holocaust cont. In 1933, Hitler began to make life more difficult for the Jews. Over the course of the next 10 years, he along with the Nazi government, slowly and systematically stripped the Jews of their rights and possessions. Anti-Jewish decrees

Jews and the Holocaust cont. On November 9, 1938, Nazis destroyed thousands of Jewish-owned businesses and burned most of the synagogues in Germany & Austria - Kristallnacht They beat Jews in the streets and attacked them in their homes. They sent Jews to concentration camps.

Jews and the Holocaust cont. The Nazis also moved many Jews from towns and villages into city ghettos. Ghettos are areas of a city sectioned off with fences and guards. Jews were forced to live there and work for the German war effort. They later sent these people to the concentration camps as well. Although many Jews thought the ghettos were their final destination, the Nazis saw the ghetto confinement as only a temporary solution.

Concentration Camps Life in the concentration camps was miserable and more often than not, led to death. Upon arrival, the men were separated from the women and children. Upon further inspection by the Nazis, the groups were separated among those deemed healthy to work and those whose health was poor and destined for death.

Anne Frank 13 year old German girl. Anne’s family moved to Amsterdam to avoid the persecution they were facing in Germany. Her family was forced into hiding when the Nazis invaded Amsterdam. They lived in the hidden attic space of her father’s business along with another family and a single man. Kept a diary of her experience, which was found by her father after liberation and was turned into a novel.