1. Warm Up – April 25 Answer the following questions on a post it:
What battle is considered a turning point in the Pacific Theater? Why is considered a turning point?
What is the name of the strategy used in the Pacific Theater by the United States?
Why did the United States think invading Japan would be so difficult?
What was the name given to the project to develop the atomic bombs?

2. Unit 8: The great depression and world war II
The End of World War II

3. Yalta Conference
Feb Yalta Conference – Big Three (FDR, Churchill, Stalin) met in USSR to discuss Germany’s fate when they lost
Joseph Stalin – harsh approach, separate Germany into zones occupied by Allied troops
Prime Minister Winston Churchill disagreed
President FDR acted as mediator
Wanted Soviet army to join in the Pacific
Wanted Stalin’s support of new world peace-keeping organization called the United Nations.

4. Yalta Conference Compromises at Yalta
Division of Germany into 4 temporary zones (US, GB, USSR, France)
Free and unfettered elections in Poland and other Soviet occupied eastern European countries
Stalin joined war against Japan and agreed to participate in an international peace conference in the US (form the UN)

5. Nuremburg War Trials
Discovery of death camps  24 Nazi leaders on trial for…
crimes against humanity – murder, extermination, deportation, or enslavement of citizens
crimes against peace – planning/waging an aggressive war
war crimes – acts against the customs of warfare, such as the killing of hostages and prisoners, the plundering of private property, and the destruction of towns and cities.
Nuremburg Trials ( )
Defendants (the accused): Hitler’s most trusted party officials, gov’t ministers, military leaders, and powerful industrialists
Prosecution led by US Chief Justice Robert Jackson

6. Nuremberg War Trials
12 of 24 sentenced to death (2 committed suicide before execution), most remaining sentenced to prison time
Later, 200 lesser leaders found guilty of war crimes
Many Nazis did go free  some argue the Nuremburg Trials didn’t go far enough in finding and prosecuting Nazis
IMPACT – established the principle that people are responsible for their own actions during war
“following orders” is not an excuse
Model for the Declaration of Human Rights and eventual establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

7. World War II Lasting Impact
World War II is the deadliest military conflict in history
60 million lives were lost (3 % of the world’s population)
Allies would divide and occupy Germany as they attempted to not repeat the failure of the Treaty of Versailles
European countries would be devastated economically as countries would be destroyed by the effects of the war
The United States and Soviet Union would emerge as superpowers following the war and would now oppose each other in the conflict known as the Cold War

8. TOD: April 25 1. What was the purpose of the Yalta Conference?
2. How was Germany going to be divided following World War II?
3. What were the Nuremburg Trials? What defense could no longer be used as a result of these trials?
4. What effects did World War II have on European countries?
5. What did the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as following the war? Why?