WWII

Early actions and causes

Axis disobedience:

• Italy: Mussolini invades Ethiopia, betrays League of Nations.

• Germany: Hitler creates German Army; betrays Treaty of Versailles.

1st Gamble of Hitler:

• 1936, Germany invades The Rhineland (between Germany and France).

• France loses chance to stop Hitler.

-German army still weak.

2nd Gamble of Hitler:

• 1936, Germany invades Sudetanland (Czech Republic).

• Again, French back down.

• Why are the French

So passive?

Reasons for French Passive nature:

1. WWI (France did not want another big war.)

2. Fear of Communism. (A powerful Germany may create a balance.)

3. Hitler himself. (very persuasive, made France believe his goals were limited.)

Munich Conference, 1938Eduard Daladier, France

Neville Chamberlain,Great Britain

Results @ Munich

• Leaders agree to give Hitler Sudetanland.

• Hitler pledges to not invade any more countries.

• Chamberlain viewed as a hero. One of Hitler’s paintings…not bad

Munich conference, no Stalin?

3rd Gamble of Hitler:

• 1939, Germany invades Poland.

• Breaks agreement @ Munich.

****WWII Has Officially Begun!!****

www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com,This is a Kittler

WWII: Blitzkrieg on Poland, Belgium, and France

Appeasement:

• Unsuccessful policy.• Hitler’s army now

much more powerful.

Hitler & Stalin:

• Non-Aggression Pact (1939) stuns Allies

-agreement between Stalin and Hitler to not attack each other.

-Germany and Russia split Poland.

Hitler’s Military tactics

• “Blitzkrieg”• -“lightning war”, swift

tactics lead to defeat of Poland.

• 3 part attack: planes, tanks, troops.

Blitzkrieg!

Poland is Ours!

More Blitzkrieg

• German forces move swiftly through Denmark, Belgium, Holland. (1940)

• Now much stronger, Hitler defeats French, takes Paris.

-Vichy Gov. established

(puppet state)

What next?

• Great Britain only Allied Power left.

• Winston Churchill replace Chamberlain as prime minister.

WWII: Battle of Britain, U.S. Aid, and Hitler’s big mistake

Great Britain/U.S. Alliance

• Neutrality Act (1939)

-sale of arms to warring nations

• Lend-Lease Act (1941)

-7 billion in arms to non-Axis countries.

• FDR & Churchill, are BFF’s.

Battle of Britain (1940):

• Germany and Britain bomb each other.

• tremendous casualties.

• Results in a draw.

Hitler…

Very…

FRUSTRATED!!!

Hitler’s Big Mistake

• Invades Russia.• Now fighting war on 2 fronts.• Angers Stalin.• Britain recovers.

NEXT: Allied retaliation, Japan enters the mix.

U.S.A/Japan

• Hideki Tojo, wants to expand.

• Technologically advanced.

• Wanted to unite Asian world.

• Invades China & S.E. Asia

U.S. Reaction

• FDR imposes trade embargo on iron and steel.

-angers Japan, continues to invade.

• FDR stops exports of oil and seizes Japanese embassy in U.S.A.

December 7th, 1941

• “a date which will live in infamy.”

• Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

• Kill 2,000 U.S. Troops.

• 150 aircraft, 18 ships destroyed.

• U.S. declares war on Japan.

=Alliances go into effect.

Early Victories over Japan:

• After Pearl Harbor, Japan seizes U.S. Pacific bases.

• U.S. Achieves 3 major victories by 1943:

-Midway, 1942

-Coral Sea, 1942

-Guadalcanal, 1943

• U.S. now on Offensive in Pacific war.

“Europe’s soft underbelly”

Churchill’s quote.

In order to defeat the Axis powers,Attack through Italy first.

Part of a 3 part plan to take backEurope.

ITALY

GERMANYFRANCE

STALINGRADD-DAY

N. AFRICA, LIB. OF ROMEN. AFRICA, LIB. OF ROME

“Island Hopping”

• Policy of taking islands of strategic value.

• Chester Nimitz and Douglas MacArthur, 2 important military leaders for U.S.

• Leads to victories in Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Leyte Gulf, Saipan, etc…

• Japanese refuse to surrender.

End of WWII

• Island Hopping successful, Japan wont back down.

• Manhattan Project:

-Einstein tells FDR about A bomb.

-secretive project to build bomb begins.

Truman’s decision:

• Takes over after FDR’s death.

• 2 options: 1. Invade Japan.

2.drop A bomb.

End of fighting

• August 1945, bombs explode in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• Axis surrenders.

• 40-60 million deaths in WWII!

• Hitler commits suicide, Mussolini hanged, FDR dies, Stalin/Churchill live on.

Post war conferences:

• Casablanca, Jan. 1943

• Tehran, Nov.-Dec. 1943

• Yalta, Feb, 1945

• Potsdam, July 1945.

***all focus on the post war world and how to fix it.***

Nuremburg Trials

• Nuremburg Germany.

• Allies punish designers of Holocaust.

• 24 convicted, 12 given death sentence.

• Some high ranking Nazis has escaped to Argentina. (Mengele)

“Angel of Death”

Human experimentation• Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his research on heredity, using inmates for human

experimentation. He was particularly interested in twins, who were selected and placed in special barracks. He also studied a disease called Noma, which particularly affected children from the Gypsy camp. While the cause of Noma remains relatively unknown, it is now known that it affects chiefly children suffering from malnutrition and a weak immune system, and many develop the disease shortly after having suffered another illness like measles or tuberculosis. Mengele tried to prove that Noma was caused by racial inferiority.[4]

• Mengele took an interest in physical abnormalities discovered among the arrivals at the concentration camp. This included dwarves, notably the Ovitz family, a Jewish Romanian artist's family, seven of whose ten members were dwarves. Prior to their deportation they toured in Eastern Europe as the Lilliput Troupe. He often called them "my dwarf family"; to him they seemed to be the perfect expression of "the abnorm."

• Not all of Mengele's experiments were of scientific value, including attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations of limbs and other brutal surgeries. Rena Gelissen's account of her time in Auschwitz details certain experiments performed on female prisoners around October 1943. During roll calls Mengele would show up to perform a "special work detail" selection, which fooled some into thinking that this would be a relief from the otherwise hard labour they were performing. Mengele would experiment on the chosen girls, performing sterilization and shock treatments. Most of the victims died, either due to the experiments or later infections.

• A Hungarian Jewish prisoner doctor, Miklos Nyiszli, who was an experienced pathologist and had studied in Germany, was chosen to work as Mengele's assistant, and wrote about his experiences. The subjects of Mengele's research were better fed and housed than ordinary prisoners and were, for the time being, safe from the gas chambers. To Mengele they were nevertheless not fellow human beings, but rather material on which to conduct his experiments. On several occasions he killed subjects simply to be able to dissect them afterwards.[1]

• Grew from League of nations.

• Forum for countries to have a say on world policy.

• Japan and Germany were excluded.

United Nations