WORLD WAR IIBY EOIN FLANAGAN

HOW THE WAR STARTED

• The countries of Europe spent most of the 1930s building towards war. On 1 September 1939, the German army invaded neighbouring Poland. This was the event that finally led to the start of World War II. The war soon spread beyond Europe, however, to Asia and Africa. The United States entered the war in December 1941 after the Japanese attacked a US military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The war ended shortly after the United States dropped two atom bombs on Japan in August 1945. By the time it was over, World War II had involved nearly every part of the world. Although the estimates are inexact, it is believed that between 35 and 60 million lives were lost. Some six million of those were Jewish victims of what became known as the Holocaust. This was an attempt by the German leader, Adolf Hitler, to destroy the Jewish people.

WAR IN 1940

• Early in April Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark accepted the “protection” that Germany offered the two countries. Norway, however, declared war.

• British troops landed in Norway, but they were unable to stop the German advance. In May the British forces were evacuated. On June 9 Norway fell. King Haakon VII escaped and set up a government in exile in London.

INVASION OF SMALLER COUNTRY’S

• On May 10 German forces invaded Belgium, he Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Luxembourg was occupied without resistance. Belgium and the Netherlands declared war.

• Winston Churchill now replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of Great Britain. The Allies sent troops into the Low Countries, but by May 14 the Dutch army had to give up the fight. The Netherlands was quickly brought under the rule of German occupation forces. Queen Wilhelmina fled to London, where she formed a government in exile.

Adolf HITLER

• In 1920 Hitler changed the name of the German Workers’ Party to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), abbreviated to Nazi. Sneering at the liberal generalities of various other political parties and hating the communists, Hitler shouted accusations against the Jews and cried out to the Germans to form an all-powerful national state. His voice, torn and hoarsened by mustard gas, was a hypnotic one. His speeches kindled the anger of rivals, especially the communists, and they tried to break up his meetings. They were prevented from doing so by the brutal Nazis.

• The flamboyant spirit of the growing Nazi Party now began to attract the varied restless men who were to become its core. They included chiefly Alfred Rosenberg, engineer and “philosopher,” anti-Jew, and anti-Christian; Rudolf Hess, mathematician and geographer; Hermann Göring, combat pilot; General Erich Ludendorff, war hero; and Major General Franz von Epp, infantry commander. All helped to persuade communist-fearing German industrialists to give money to the Nazi Party, for Hitler assured them that the Nazis “combat only Jewish international capital.”

• An established Munich journal, Völkischer Beobachter (“Popular Observer”), was bought to spread Nazi influence. Hitler adopted the ancient swastika (hooked cross) as the party emblem and designed the Nazi red banner with the black swastika. He saluted his comrades with a raised stiff arm and was greeted by the words Heil Hitler! (“Hail Hitler!”).

HITLER

INVASION OF POLAND

• IN THE FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER, GERMAN PLANES SWOOPED OVER POLAND, BOMING FACTORIES AND MILITARY BUILDINGS.

CONCENTRATION CAMP

• In the 20th century millions of people were confined to concentration camps, primarily in Germany and the former Soviet Union, not for what they did but simply because of who they were. Concentration camps are not prisons where people are kept because they have been lawfully convicted of some criminal offense. They are places where political dissidents and members of national or minority groups are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment for imagined or accused crimes

END OF WAR

• By early 1945 it was clear that Germany could not fight for much longer. The Allied leaders – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin – met in Russia for the Yalta Conference. While at Yalta, they planned for the final defeat and occupation of Germany.

• Meanwhile, Soviet troops pushed on through Germany. By 25 April the Soviets had surrounded Berlin. Adolf Hitler realised that the war was lost and committed suicide on 30 April. Germany surrendered at midnight on 8 May 1945.

PHOTOS