The Second World War
Questions
• What was the Holocaust?
• Why did another world war break out in
Europe and in the Pacific in the late
1930s
• Why did the Allies win WWII?
• What innovations in warfare were
introduced in WWII?
• How did WWII differ from WWI on the
front lines and behind the lines?
German Anti-Semitism
• Germany had over 500,000 Jews
in 1933
• After Hitler came to power he
passed laws preventing Jews from
being professionals, holding jobs
in the civil service and army, and
attending universities
• 1935 Nuremburg Laws:
– Jews and non-Jews could
neither marry nor have sex
– Jews were stripped of German
citizenship
– Jews were forced to wear Star
of David on clothes
• Nov. 9, 1938 Kristallnacht (Night
of Broken Glass)- 1st night where
violence broke out.
1933
1 Apr: One-day boycott of all Jewish businesses.
7 Apr: Most Jews in the civil service were forced to "retire"
25 Apr: Limit set on number of Jews students in high schools and gymnasiums
10 May: Buecherverbrennung public book burning of about 500 tons of books by or about Jews
(Marx, Ernst Bloch, Freud, Magnus Hirschfeld, Heine, Heinrich Mann, Ernst
Gl„ser, Erich Kaestner, Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Schnitzler, Ernest Hemingway, Jack
London).
1935
6 Sep: Jewish newspapers cannot be sold on the street
15 Sep: Nurenberg Laws Jews stripped of German citizenship, can not display the German flag, can not
employ in the home Germans under the age of 45, and marriage or relationships between Jews and non-Jews
are forbidden.
1937
16 Nov: Passports for foreign travel to be issued to Jews only in "special circumstances."
1938
26 Apr: Jews must register all property valued over RM500
15 Jun: Any Jews ever convicted of any offense, including trafiic violations, was arraested.
23 Jul: All Jews over 15 years and older must carry a special ID card and must show it when ever dealing with
a government official.
25 Jul: Licenses of Jewish doctors suspended; they may only treat Jews
27 Jul: All street names of Jewish origin are changed
17 Aug: All Jewish children born after 1 January 1939 must be named from an approved list of Jewish names.
9-10 Nov: Kristallnacht 200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 shops looted;
30,000 Jews sent to camps; over 1,000 Jews killed
11 Nov: Jews cannot own weapons
12 Nov: Jews cannot own retail businesses, cannot attend public performances of plays, films, concerts, or
exhibitions; Jews must pay RM1.25 million for damages caused on Kristallnacht.
15 Nov: All Jews expelled from schools
3 Dec: Jews cannot own cars or have drivers licenses
8 Dec: Jews expelled from universities
1939
1 Jan: All Jews must add "Sarah" or "Israel" to their names
21 Feb: Jews must surrender all gold, silver, platinum, pearls, and gemstones
4 Mar: Jews leaving Germany can take only goods acquired before 30 Jan, 1933 except for gold, silver, platinum,
pearls, and gemstones. It was permitted to take wedding rings, used silverware (two each of knifes, forks, spoons
and soup spoons only).
3 Sep: Jewish curfew established 8.00 p.m. in winter, 9.00 p.m. in summer
23 Sep: Jews must hand in all radios
1 Dec: Jewish food ration reduced
1940
6 Feb: Jews cannot buy clothes or shoes
19 Feb: Jews can not have telephones
Jul: Beginning of T4 euthanasia for Jewish mentally ill and infirm patients
1941
19 Sep: All Jews over the age of six must wear "a black, six-pointed tar of yellow material, as big as the palm of a
hand, with the inscription 'Jew' sewn over the heart."
16 Oct: Jews forbidden to emigrate from Germany
16 Oct: General deportation of all Jews from Germany begins.
31 Oct: Jews still working cannot receive sick pay, vacations, or overtime pay.
26 Dec: Jews cannot use public phones
1942
5 Jan: Jews must hand in all woolens and furs.
17 Feb: Jews cannot subscribe to newspapers or magazines
26 Mar: Jews must affix a Star of David to the outside door
17 Apr: Jews cannot use public transportation
15 May: Jews cannot have pets
30 Jun: All Jewish schools closed
18 Sep: Jews cannot have rationed foods (meat, eggs, flour, milk and milk products)
9 Oct: Jews cannot buy books
Extermination
• Jews would be separated;
those who might be used for
labor were allowed to live,
temporarily; the rest were taken
to showers where poison gas
would kill them. The dead
would be hauled to crematoria
and burned.
• The scale of the operation
meant Germans and Poles
must have known what was
going on.
• Ultimately 6 million Jews were
killed and about 5 million others
were exterminated
Outbreak of War in Europe
• Aug 23, 1939 Nazi-Soviet
Non-aggression pact
• Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler
invaded Poland
– Poland partitioned according
to terms of Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact
– ‘Blitzkrieg’
• Sept. 3, 1939, Britain and
France declared war on
Germany
– Through May 1940, Britain
and France mustered troops
in France
– May 1940, German armies
attacked through Belgium;
France fell June, 1940
Hitler’s War
• Battle of Britain, Summer 1940
• Jan 1941 Germans entered war in N.
Africa
• June 1941 Hitler invaded Soviet Union
(Operation Barbarossa)
– At outskirts of Moscow by winter,
Soviets burn everything as they retreat.
Remember?
• Dec. 1941, Germany declared war on
U.S.
• Nov. 1942
– U.S. landed in Africa
– S.U. counterattack at Stalingrad
The Second World War in Europe
Fall of Mussolini
Mussolini as Hitler’s Puppet
Mussolini’s Military Weakness
Mussolini’s Demise
The Collapse of Nazi Germany
• Germany reaches Moscow and
then Soviets counter attack. It’s
winter time and Germany soldiers
are in their summer uniforms.
Hitler says no retreat. Scorched
earth policy worked again.
Germany gains nothing, loses
500,000.
• 1943-1945 Italian Campaign, Allies
are coming from the south
• June 6, 1944 Normandy InvasionD-Day (Operation Overlord,
Eisenhower)
• Battle of the Bulge Dec. 1944
• 6 Million Soviet-3 Mil Allies head
to Berlin
• May 8, 1945 Germany surrendered
Yalta: February, 1945
 FDR wants quick Soviet entry into
Pacific war.
 Stalin needs buffer, FDR & Stalin want
spheres of influence and a weak
Germany.
 Churchill wants
strong Germany
as buffer
against
Stalin.
 FDR argues
for a ‘United Nations’.
 Potsdam Conference, July 1945:
Germany divided into 4 Zones (Truman)
Outbreak of War in Asia
• Emperor Hirohito wants to
create empire in the Pacific.
• July 1940 U.S. Embargo
– Aviation fuel and scrap metal
• September 1940 - Embargo on
oil
• Dec. 7 1941 Japan attacks U.S.
Pearl Harbor, “A day that will go
down in infamy.” FDR
• Yamamoto vs. Mac Arthur
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor Memorial
2,887 Americans Dead!
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War
Japanese forces Invade China 1931. By 1942 they control Philippines,
Guam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Dutch East Indies.
The War in Asia
• June 4-7 1942 Battle of
Midway (Turned the war
in the Pacific against the
Japanese)
• Aug. 1942-Feb 1943
Guadalcanal
• Oct. 1944 Philippines
invaded
• Feb 19-March 16 1945:
Iwo Jima
– March 10, 1945
Firebombing of Tokyo
• Aug. 6 and 9 1945
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• September 2, 1945
Japan surrenders
(V-J Day)
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
 70,000 killed
immediately
 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
 40,000 killed
immediately
 60,000 injured.
 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
New elements in warfare
The Ruins of Dresden
• Tanks: Presence on
battlefield prevented
WWII from turning into
into the hopeless
stalemate of WWI
• Strategic Bombing: Use
of large aircraft to knock
out enemy industries
and bomb enemy
civilians
• Atomic Bomb: Forced
Japan to surrender in
Sept. 1945.
100
90
80
70
US
UK
USSR
Ger
Jap
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Military Aircraft Production, in thousands of Planes
Consequences of War
• Estimated 45-55 million dead
• Soviet Union lost 27 million
• Poland lost 6 million, incl. 3
million Jews
• Germans lost 5 million
• Germans killed between 12
and 20 million in their zones
of occupation
• Germany and Berlin were
divided into 4 occupation
zones
• European economy was
devastated
• U.S. ended war with 1/2 of
the manufacturing capability
on Earth
Postwar Berlin
The Nuremberg War Trials:
Crimes Against Humanity
Total War
• “Civilians must have the war
brought home to them.
Every individual must be
made to see the immediacy
of the danger to him. . . . He
must be made to understand
that he is an integral part of
the war front, and that if he
loses the war, he loses
everything.”
– Government Information Manual
for the Motion Picture Industry
U.S. Office of War Information
Total War
• Warfare in the industrial era meant
that to fight and win, nations had to
mobilize their entire population
– Soldiers fought on front lines
– Workers manned factories to
make weapons
– Farmers fed the soldiers and
workers
• Industrialization made it possible for
the state to direct the entire
economy toward the war effort
• Civilians were regarded as
legitimate casualties of war, since
civilians manned factories, made
weapons, and kept armies supplied