Questions
• Do you think Canada should continue to try and
prosecute alleged war criminals who may not
have harmed anyone for half a century? Why or
why not? Is it ever too late to seek justice?
• How do you think the trial of Julius Streicher
paved the way for sentencing Hassan Ngeze?
(Research the trial of Hassan Ngeze)
• Should Allied powers have been sentenced of war
crimes during the firebombing of Dresden?
Why/Why not? How do you define/understand
crimes against humanity or war crimes?
The End of WWII
Grand Alliance
• Pearl Harbor brings US into war
• Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
• Agreement on the strategy that the defeat of
Germany should have priority over the defeat
of Japan.
• Safeguarding Europe was the primary concern
of his next three and a half years.
• Not the most stable alliance.
Yalta Conference-February 1945
• Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan
• Soviets granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria
following Japan’s surrender.
• Germany, Berlin divided into occupied zones
administered by US, British, French and Soviets
• Germany's military abolished and major war criminals
were tried
• Germany should assume some, but not all,
responsibility for reparations following the war
• Eastern nations bordering Soviet Union would be
allowed free elections
Feb 13-15th 1945 fire bombing of
Dresden
• Controversial because Dresden was not an
important city in Germany
• Not a city of production or industry
• estimated between 40,000-135,000
• area bombing using incendiary bomb= fires
• Allies claimed they were destroying important
lines of communication that would assist in
the invasion of Soviet forces
Germany Surrenders
• Soviets surround Berlin
• Admiral Karl Donitz as head of state and
Joseph Goebbels as chancellor.
• Hitler commits suicide
• May 7 1945- General Alfred Jodl surrenders all
German forces.
• Donitz and Jodl were tried at Nuremberg,
Goebbels committed suicide
Potsdam-July 1945
• last conference WWII
• Truman, Attlee and Stalin
• “It is the intention of the Allies that the German people
be given the opportunity to prepare for the eventual
reconstruction of their life on a democratic and
peaceful basis.”
• 5 D's: demilitarization, denazification, democratization
and deindustrialization
• Return land: Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, and land
east of the Oden and Neisse rivers
• Split Vietnam
Paris Peace Conference-1946
• U.S Soviet Union, Britain, France and other smaller
Allied powers
• Allowed Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland
to remain sovereign states and join the UN
• colonies taking away-Italy
• borders adjusted
• reparations demanded from former Axis powers
• fascist organization disabled
• democratic freedoms implemented
• Military composition regulated
Cold War
• Describes relations between the US and Soviet
Union 1945-1990
• mutual distrust
• Fought for their beliefs in client states- Vietnam,
Afghanistan, Korea--> "CONTAINMENT"
• Nuclear arms race
• Communism vs Capitalism
• overthrow regimes-compete to influence anticolonial movements