 Political and economic conditions in Europe after
World War I.
 There was:
 Worldwide depression
 High German war debt
 High inflation
 Massive unemployment
 These conditions led to the rise of
fascism, which threatened peace in
Europe and Asia.
 Fascism:
Philosophy in which
total power is
given to a dictator
and individual
freedoms are
denied.
Nationalism and
often racism are
emphasized.
“Mein Kampf”
Who were the
fascist dictators
that later became
known as the Axis
Powers?
 Adolf Hitler, Germany
 Benito Mussolini, Italy
 Hideki Tojo, Japan
Which nations were the Allies?
 Franklin D.
Roosevelt & later
Harry S. Truman,
United States
 Winston Churchill
Great Britain
 Joseph Stalin,
Soviet Union
 Note: The Soviet
Union joined the
Allies after being
invaded by Germany.
As the conflict in Europe and Asia
grew, how did America's policy of
neutrality gradually change to one
of direct involvement?
 It began with isolationism because the
United States was focused on
combating the Great Depression and
because of the legacy of World War I.
Germany Seeks
to Build the
“Third Reich”
The Munich Pact
 On October 6,
1938 in Munich,
Germany an
agreement among
Germany, France,
the United Kingdom,
& Italy was signed.
 Hitler promised he
would be appeased
to just have the
Sudetenland around
Czechoslovakia.
 Hitler would break
that agreement a
year later.
Leaders At The Munich Conference
October 6, 1938 Munich, Germany
 After taking
Austria and
Czechoslovakia,
Germany
attacks Poland
from the West.
 Following the
attack on
Poland, France
and England
declare war on
Germany.
Days later, the
Soviet Union also
invaded Poland and
the Baltic nations
from the East.
Franklin D.
Roosevelt
Annual Message
to Congress,
January 6, 1941
“Our national
determination to
keep free of foreign
wars and foreign
entanglements
cannot prevent us
from feeling deep
concern when ideals
and principles that
we have cherished
are challenged.”
~Franklin D.
Roosevelt
 Franklin Roosevelt
provided economic
aid to Allies.
1. Naval warships in
return for the use
of military bases in
Bermuda and the
Caribbean.
2. War supplies
through the LendLease Act.
The “Battle
of France”
The Battle of Britain
BBC news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/sounds/air_raid_siren
Germany bombed
London, beginning
the Battle of
Britain.
 The British fought
valiantly against
the German Air
force known as the
Luftwaffe .
England won the
battle with economic
and war air from the
United States, but they
are in desperate need
of more help from the
West.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y60xvkJ8ko
&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe
=active
Why could the U.S. no longer
remain an isolationist nation?
 Rising tensions
developed
between Japan
and the United
States because
of Japanese
aggression in
East Asia.
In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial
Army marched into China's capital city of
Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000
out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers
Pearl Harbor
 The United
States
became
directly
involved in the
war after
Japan bombed
Pearl Harbor
December 7,
1941.
The
United
States
declared
war on
Japan.
"A date
which will
live in
infamy...“
-FDR
 After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the
United States declared war on Japan and
then its allies.
 Germany and Italy declared war on the
United States.
The U.S. Enters WWII
War in the Pacific
The war in the
Pacific was
brutal.
Sometime
fought in hot,
humid jungles,
barren volcanic
islands, in the
air, and months
at sea.
 The U.S. employs a campaign in the
Pacific know as “Island Hopping.”
The United
States was
victorious
over Japan
in the
Battle of
Midway.
Official U.S. Navy film footage- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi4HwxOZDJw
Battle of Midway is the turning point
of the war in the Pacific.
Analyze this
Political
Cartoon
 What do you
see?
 What is the
cartoonist
trying to say
about the U.S.
Navy?
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima
“The Japanese were
not on Iwo Jima. They
were in it!”
 22,000 Japanese on
Iwo Jima.

216 survived.
 26,000 Americans
killed or wounded.
The Battle of
Stalingrad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L-GBHNNqrQ&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Germany
invaded the
Soviet Union.
The Soviet
Union defeated
Germany at
Stalingrad,
marking the
turning point of
the war in
Eastern Europe.
The Battle of Stalingrad
A letter from Stalingrad:
...I have received your answer. You will hardly expect thanks
for it. This letter will be short. I should have known
better when I asked you to help me. You always were and
you remain forever 'righteous.' This wasn't unknown to
either Mama or me. But we could hardly expect that you
would sacrifice your son to 'righteousness.' I asked you to
get me out of here because this strategic nonsense isn't
worth biting the dust for. It would have been easy for you
to put in a word for me. But you don't understand the
situation. Very well, Father. This letter will not only be
short, but also the last one I write you. I won't have any
more opportunities to write you, even if I wanted to. It is
also unimaginable that I should ever stand face to face
with you again and have to tell you what I think. And
because neither I in person nor another letter will ever
speak to you again, I will once more recall to you your
words of December 26: 'You became a soldier voluntarily;
it was easy to stand under the flag in peacetime, but
difficult to hold it high during war. You will be faithful to
this flag and be victorious with it.' These words were
much clearer than the position you have taken during the
last few years. You will have to remember them, because
the time is coming when every German with any sense
will curse the madness of this war. And you will see how
empty are the words about the flag with which I was
supposed to be victorious. There is no victory, Herr
General; there are only flags and men that fall, and in the
end there will be neither flags nor men. Stalingrad is not
a military necessity but a political gamble. And your son
is not participating in this experiment, Herr
General! You blocked his way to life; he will choose the
second way, which also leads to life, but in an opposite
direction and on the other side of the front. Think of your
words, and hope that, when the whole show collapses,
you will remember the flag and stand by it.
This Soviet Union victory over Germany is the
turning point of the war in Eastern Europe.
Marching Towards D-Day:
Operation Overlord
D-Day:
June 6, 1944
Rommel inspects the beaches.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day
American and Allied troops land in Normandy,
France to begin the liberation of western Europe.
Five sectors
would be
attacked:
1. Utah –
American
2. Omaha –
American
3. Gold –
British
4. Juno –
Canadian
Operation
“Overlord”
5. Sword -
British
5,000
Ships
13,000
Aircraft
160,000
Troops.
American and
Allied troops
landed in
Normandy,
France, on DDay to begin
the liberation
of Western
Europe.
Despite initial Axis success in both
Europe and the Pacific, the Allies
persevered and ultimately
defeated Germany and Italy.
V-DAY ~ Allied Victory in Europe
May 8, 1945
REVIEW:
What were the major turning
points of World War II in Europe?
 Germany invaded Poland,
setting off the war in
Europe. (The Soviet Union
also invaded Poland and the
Baltic nations.)
 Germany invaded France,
capturing Paris.
 Germany bombed London,
beginning the Battle of
Britain.
 Germany is Defeated at
Stalingrad.
The Beginning of
the End for Japan
Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki
 Following FDR’s
death, Harry Truman
becomes President of
the United States.
 Truman decided to
use the bomb on
Japan because he
believed that it was
the only way to get
the Japanese to
surrender and save
American lives.
 On August 6th, 1945 a
lone B-29
Superfortress called
the Enola Gay by its
crew took off and
headed for Hiroshima.
The plane and pilot that dropped the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
 The United
States dropped
two atomic
bombs on Japan
at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in
1945, forcing
Japan to
surrender and
ending World
War II.
•At 8:15am on
August 6th, the
atomic bomb
nicknamed “Little
Boy” was dropped
on Hiroshima.
“Little Boy”
•On August 9th, a
bomb called
“Fat Man” was
dropped on
Nagasaki at
11:02 am.
At noon,
August 15th,
1945 –
Emperor
Hirohito
spoke
directly to
his people to
tell them
Japan had
surrendered.
What were the fates Hitler,
Mussolini, Tojo?
Hitler’s Fate
Hitler committed
suicide on. April
30, 1945.
Mussolini’s Fate
 April 28 1945,
Mussolini was spotted
heading towards
Switzerland by an
Italian customs guard
at Dongo, near Lake
Como.
 Benito Mussolini, as his
mistress, Clara
Petacci, and 12 close
associates were
arrested and then
executed by partisans.
 Their Bodies were
transported to Milan
and display in the open
square of Piazzale
Loreto.
Tojo’s Fate
 Tojo tried to
commit
suicide, but
missed his
heart. He
was arrested,
sent to a
hospital, and
was later
tried for war
crimes.
Tojo’s Fate
 Tojo was
found
guilty and
sentenced
to be hung
in 1948.
What was the
Holocaust?
It was the
systematic
attempt to
rid Europe of
all Jewish
people.
Anti-Semitism is an example of
prejudice and discrimination
taken to the extreme.
Nazi Propaganda
Their AntiSemitism used
tactics that
included:
Boycotting
of Jewishowned
stores.
Their signs read:
"Germans, defend
yourselves against the
Jewish atrocity, buy only
at German shops!"
AntiSemitism
tactics…
Threats and
violence like
Kristallnacht
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUiEBQ2ga4U&feature=player_embedded&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Anti-Semitism
tactics…
Segregation
into ghettos.
Anti-Semitism
tactics..
 Imprisonment
and killing of
Jews and others
in concentration
camps and death
camps.
Germany occupied western Poland in fall 1939. Much of this territory was annexed to the German Reich.
Eastern Poland was not occupied by German forces until June 1941. In south-central Poland the Germans set
up the General Gouvernement (General Government), where most of the early ghettos were established.
Ghettos were enclosed districts of a city in which the Germans forced the Jewish population to live under
miserable conditions. Ghettos isolated Jews by separating Jewish communities both from the population as
a whole and from neighboring Jewish communities. The Warsaw ghetto, established on October 12, 1940,
was the largest ghetto, in both area and population. There, more than 350,000 Jews--about 30 percent of the
city's population--were eventually confined in about 2.4 percent of the city's total area.
— Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Ellie Wetsel
 At the end of
the war, the
Jewish people
and other
undesirables
were liberated
by the Allied
forces from
the
concentration
camps.
“Dear finder,
Search every part of the
ground. Buried in it are
dozens of documents of
others, and mine, which shed
light on everything that
happened here... As for us,
we have already lost all
hope...
...The future will judge us on
the basis of this evidence.
May the world understand
some small part of the tragic
world in which we lived.”
Jews walk in a line towards the gas chambers.
Auschwitz, Poland, 1944.
Photo courtesy of Yad Vashem.
V-Mail – Victory Mail
How did World War II affect
Americans at home?
 American involvement
in World War II
brought an end to
the Great
Depression.
Factories and
workers were needed
to produce goods to
win the war.
The war
affected
every
aspect of
American
life.
Women During WWII
Thousands of
American
women took
jobs in
defense
plants during
the war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CQ0M0wx00s&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Rosie the
Riveter was
a symbol of
all American
women in
the war
effort at
home.
Americans
were asked to
make
sacrifices to
support the
war by
conserving and
rationing
resources.
Breaking Down Racial Barriers
 The need for
temporary workers
broke down some of
the racial barriers,
like the hiring in
defense plants,
although
discrimination against
African Americans
continued.
Tuskegee Airmen
Japanese Americans
 While many
Japanese
Americans served
in the armed
forces, others
were treated with
distrust and
prejudice, and
many were forced
into internment
camps.
Oprah & Elie Weisel at Auschwitz
 Part 1
 Part 2
 Part 3
 Part 4
 part 6
Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfCFU3Mqww&feature=related&safety
_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active
Clip showing Russians without weapons/guns/etc. going into battle. Interviews with prior Russian and
German soldiers... Defeat at Kiev, etc., Germany winning at end of clip. Good intro into the reason for
our Lend Lease Policy - Russia was desperate for military supplies. 10 mins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F00TssZASkY&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Stalingrad set to music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd_Wt4N1Sss&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Operation Barbarossa: 2 min overview showing Germany winning, then winter setting in and Hitler
having to stop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L-GBHNNqrQ&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Stalingrad battle scenes set to music, beginning with sign 'North Stalingrad'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzVrfuywDcw&feature=fvsr&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mod
e=1
News clip celebrating anniversary of the victory of Stalingrad that gives good history and significance of
battle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik7C6amdy1Y&NR=1&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
stalingrad pictures set to music: 4:21 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6b1PNWqpbM&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_
mode=1