1. World War II: The War in Europe

3. Germany Begins War in Europe
April 1939 Hitler demanded the Polish corridor
Nonaggression pact with Russia on Aug. 23, 1939
Sept. 1, 1939 Germany attacked Poland
France and GB declared war on Germany on Sep.3
Blitzkrieg- fast planes and artillery, followed by infantry
Soviets take eastern half of Poland and other eastern territories (Baltics)
After period of calm, also called the phony war because no one was fighting, Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway on April 9, both fell to Hitler quickly

4. Battle for France and Great Britain
May 1940 began attack on France through Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg
May 26, 1940 Belgium surrendered
June 10- Mussolini joined Hitler and attacked France from the south
June 14- Paris fell
June 22- France surrendered
Charles de Gaulle set up government in exile
Summer 1940 Luftwaffe attacked Britain in Hitler’s Operation Sea Lion
Britain’s two secret weapons- radar system and the enigma machine
Battle of Britain- continued until May 10, 1941, when Hitler finally decided to give up

5. Eastern Front and the Mediterranean
Germany and Italy attacked North Africa partly to regain
Tobruk- British and Germans fighting but ultimately Germans will win under the leadership of Edwin Rommel, aka “the desert fox”. This is a huge symbolic loss for the British
Hitler began plan to attack the Soviet Union through the Balkans
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary join Germans while Yugoslavia and Greece resisted
June 22, 1941 Operation Barbarossa to invade Soviet Union
Russians retreated and used scorched-earth policy (Napoleon)
Sept. Hitler surrounded Leningrad but wouldn’t surrender, so Hitler looked towards Moscow. Winter came and Germans couldn’t fight anymore

6. The U.S. Aids its Allies Initially U.S. didn’t want to get involved
neutrality acts
1941 Lend-Lease Act allowed the president to lend arms and other supplies to any country vital to the U.S.
Atlantic Charter (Churchill and Roosevelt) upheld free trade and the right of people to choose their own government
Sept. 4 German U-boat fired on a U.S. destroyer

7. The Holocaust Begins Aryans- Germanic peoples
1933- persecution becomes gov. policy
1935 Nuremburg Laws denied them rights to German citizenship- yellow star
Kristallnacht- November 9, Nazi storm troopers attack houses, kill Jews
1939 many Jews left Germany
Ghettos in Poland - sealed off
Some resistance within the ghettos

8. Hitler’s Final Solution
Genocide program included other groups, too- gypsies, Poles, Russians, disabled
1942 Final solution decided on and they built first death camps in Poland
Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka
Cyanide gas poisoning, experiments
6 million Jews died in death camps and Nazi massacres