InterWar Years

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InterWar Years
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1.)

• There had been a small group who had questioned
  society before the war. After the war, these
  voices became louder. They rejected the notions
  of "progress" and came to view society through a
  pessimistic lens. The destruction of the war had
  strengthened their opinions that humanity was
  savage.

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2.)

• Valery was a French writer who summed up the idea
  of an "age of anxiety". He and others believed
  that humanity had seen its' apex, and that the
  future held dark times.

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3.)

• Friedrich Nietzsche perhaps best symbolizes this
  ideology. He was a German philosopher whose name
  today summons the grim mindset of the time. He
  rejected Christianity and said that rationalism
  stifled human emotion and passion. Calling
  Christianity "slave morality" which glorified
  weakness, he called on societies to reject the
  staid values of the middle class on focus on
  animalistic competition, which gave life its true
  meaning. His influence on German is tremendous.

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4.)

• Existentialism is the idea that there is no
  creator God. Human beings, instead, simply appear
  on the scene and seek to define themselves, since
  there's no God to help them. Without true
  meaning, then, existentialists were hounded by
  "despair and the meaninglessness of life".
• Without God to give life meaning, these people
  believed in action. The actions a person
  undertook, it was thought, would give life its'
  meaning.

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5.)

• The terrible ravages of WWII in France caused
  that country to become a center of existential
  thought during and after the war. People were
  forced to choice a "life of action" or to accept
  tyranny. Thus, the existential movement caused
  many to join the Resistance or otherwise oppose
  the Nazis. Their actions, thus, gave their lives
  meaning.

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6.)

• Previous psychologists had assumed that the human
  consciousness was unified, and that it always
  processed the information in the same rational
  way.
• Freud said that the human mind was in fact
  irrational. Furthermore, he claimed that the mind
  was actually composed of different parts

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• the "id". This was the primitive, irrational
  unconscious. It focused on sexual, pleasure
  seeking desires. It is always competing with
  other parts of the mind.
• the "ego". This is the rational part of the mind
  that determines what a person can do (what is
  possible).
• the "superego". This is the highest part of the
  sub consciousness. It determines what a person
  should do.
• Therefore, for Freud, human behavior was the
  result of these components constantly battling
  for control of our consciousness. He believed
  that the ego and superego could be too strong and
  repress our sexual desires, which in turn could
  lead to various psychological traumas.

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7.)

• Many middle class people, especially women,
  interpreted Freud to mean that they should
  experiment sexually for a healthy mental state.
  For others, though, Freud reflected the anxiety
  of the time by supposing a dark, disturbed side
  to human nature.

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8.)

• Germany was angered and humiliated by the
  Versailles Treaty. France, Britain, and the U.S.,
  meanwhile, were all becoming isolated. The newly
  formed U.S.S.R. was an unknown, and the eastern
  European countries were too unstable to be a
  force.

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9.)

• The French countryside had been ravaged by the
  fighting, especially the wealthy parts of North
  France. The French believed that reparations from
  Germany were vital to the French economy. But
  moreover, they saw the heavy burden of
  reparations as the means to keep Germany down and
  out.

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10.)

• The British soon changed the opinions they had
  held at the Versailles conference. They came to
  see a healthy Germany as vital to their own
  economic interests. Furthermore, they became
  guilty about the heavy punishments with which the
  Treaty had saddled Germany. Thus, reparations
  were unpopular in Britain.

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• Their attitude about France also soon changed.
  They didn't trust French intentions in postwar
  Europe and feared the French might try to
  dominate the Continent. There was also
  disagreement over the administration of Germany's
  former overseas colonies. With Britain and France
  at odds and the U.S. turning its' back on Europe,
  there was no real control on the volatile
  situation.

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11.)

• In 1921i t was announced that Germany would have
  to repay 33 billion dollars, 2.5 billion yearly.
  In 1922 the Weimar government responded by
  announcing a moratorium on the repayments. This
  was completely unacceptable to the French. To
  them it seemed as if the Versailles Treaty,
  especially the components that guaranteed French
  security, was being abandoned. In 1923, against
  the wishes of the British, the French and
  Belgians sent troops into the Ruhr, the German
  industrial heartland. The intention was to
  collect reparations "in kind"-steel, coal, and
  iron ore.

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12.)

• This occupation stirred German anger and a wave
  of patriotism. The government ordered the people
  of the Ruhr to stay home. With the factories and
  mines silent, the French couldn't collect. But,
  German poverty increased.
• The French responded by threatening to create a
  separate Rhineland state. The situation got worse
  when the Weimar government, to compensate for the
  lost production of the Ruhr, began to print more
  paper money to support the people. Inflation
  spiraled, and people's savings were wiped out.
  The little good will that the Western governments
  had with the Germans vanished. In its place were
  anger, humiliation, and acrimony. The Germans
  blamed the Jews, the communists, and the Weimar
  government.

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13.)

• Such a situation was unpopular in Britain and the
  U.S., and was becoming increasingly unpopular
  with the French people. By 1923 the French and
  Germans were ready for compromise. The Dawes plan
  was meant to soften the blow of reparations. It
  placed the amount the Germans would pay on a
  sliding scale, and recommended large American
  loans to Germany, which could then meet its'
  payments.
• The problem was that the money that the Germans
  were repaying to France and Britain was then
  being repaid to the U.S. for war loans. In
  effect, the U.S. was repaying itself. This was a
  risky strategy that worked in the short term but
  would ultimately lead to the collapse of 1929.

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14.)

• By 1929 the German economy had picked up steam.
  Germany was 50 wealthier in 1929 than in 1913.
  For a time it seemed as if the crisis had passed.
  As unemployment and inflation dropped, the German
  people began to trust their young republican
  government.
• This recovery was due mainly to the influx of
  foreign money, especially from the U.S.

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15.)

• Germany's political situation was improving in
  the 1920's. Early in the decade, as the Ruhr
  crisis crippled the economy, it seemed as if the
  infant Weimar government might collapse.
  Communists had won elections in several parts of
  Germany, and Adolph Hitler had attempted an
  ill-conceived "putsch" in Munich in 1923.
• But by mid-decade things improved. Germany was
  admitted to the League of Nations in 1926, a new
  currency was established, and the re-opened Ruhr
  (along with American loans) had primed the
  booming German economy. People regained faith in
  the government. There was an undercurrent of
  radical political parties but for the time being,
  they were unable to gain any traction.

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16.)

• The Great Depression was unlike any that had
  occurred before. It was more intense, it was
  worldwide, and it lasted longer than nearly any
  that had come before. During the 1920's the
  global economy had boomed (Roaring 20's). Because
  the European economy was devastated by war,
  American factories and farms boomed as their
  goods were shipped overseas.

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• It began in the U.S. when the stock market
  collapsed. The stock market bubble had been built
  on borrowed money. Speculators had borrowed to
  buy stock, paying only a little down (buying on
  margin) in the hopes of making a quick profit.
  When a chain reaction of falling stock values
  began, the lenders began calling their loans.
  Most investors didn't have the cash on hand and
  were ruined.

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• The panic spread quickly. With confidence down,
  consumers bought fewer goods. This caused the
  factories to close down, which raised
  unemployment. Furthermore, American factories had
  been producing too much for several years, which
  eventually led to a surplus. The whole process
  was a vicious cycle.

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17.)

• In Europe, much of the money that America had
  lent was recalled. A panic began, which
  devastated European economies. The Depression
  became global. Worldwide output fell 38 from
  1929-33.

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18.)

• Roosevelt's New Deal was a series of
  government-sponsored programs designed to revive
  the economy and provide employment and relief to
  the people. It rested on higher taxes, which in
  turn funded these vast new public programs.
  During this period Social Security was founded.
  Other new programs included

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• Works Progress Administration
• National Recovery Act
• Civilian Conservation Corps
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration
• Rural Electric Administration
• Home Owners Loan Corporation
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Federal Housing Administration
• National Labor relations Board
• Social Security Board

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The Rise of Totalitarianism
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1.)

• The traditional forms of government had been
  monarchies, usually absolutist, such as the
  Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns, or Romanovs.
  They were conservative authoritarian states that
  resisted any social change that might undermine
  their authority.

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2.)

• This type of mindset was revived after WWI for
  several reasons
• many of the newly formed states had no
  traditions of democratic government and thus
  couldn't sustain democracy.
• dictatorship appealed to many segments of the
  population such as landowners, the Church, and
  middle classes. These people desired stability.
  This was especially true in Eastern Europe.

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3.)

• The three brothers were Fascism, Nazism, and
  Communism, all totalitarian movements. Their
  "common father", or reason that they could
  thrive, was the nature of modern war where a
  small dedicated group could take over and control
  a large state. This was due mainly to technology.

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4.)

• The typical totalitarian state had several common
  features
• use of mass propaganda and modern communications
  spread it
• state tried to control all aspects of life
  (Orwellian state)
• they represented a radical revolt against
  liberalism
• they were built on "mass' movements, the idea
  that whole peoples and societies were mobilized,
  seeking a never-ending change.

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5.)

• Upon taking power, Lenin was faced with the truth
  that Russia was so underdeveloped economically
  and industrially that true communism could never
  emerge. He was forced to allow some limited
  economic freedom to the peasants, which raised
  enough in taxes to begin to build industry.

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6.)

• Upon the death of Lenin in 1924 the Communist
  party was in flux. Lenin had named no successor,
  though the two main contenders were Trotsky and
  young Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin). Stalin was of
  a middle class origin. He had joined the
  Bolsheviks in 1903. He was a good organizer and
  quickly rose through the party ranks, catching
  the attention of Lenin.
• Though never as brilliant as Trotsky, he gained
  influence in the party because he was better able
  to relate Marxist teachings to the realities of
  the Russian economy. When the time came, he had
  more party support than Trotsky.

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• This was mainly because of Stalin's belief in
  "socialism in one country". Whereas Lenin and
  Trotsky had believed that Soviet communism could
  succeed only with a worldwide revolution, Stalin
  maintained that communism could steadily and
  successfully be achieved in Russia, and then
  exported. This made him popular among his fellow
  Russians. Once in power, he eliminated his party
  allies and became a true dictator.
• Trotsky escaped Russia, but in 1940 he was hunted
  down by Russian agents in Mexico and murdered.

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7.)

• Stalin knew full well that the still
  underdeveloped Russian economy could never
  compete with the West. He ordered huge new
  programs aimed at raising industrial and
  agricultural output. He was trying to accomplish
  in Russia what had taken a century to do in the
  West.
• The results were impressive. Hundreds of new
  factories were built. Steel production jumped
  500 from 1928-37. Coal mines, timber yards,
  railroads were all built. Cities boomed.

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• This came at a heavy price. The government was
  investing 1/3 of its national income in this
  effort. As a result, the standard of living fell
  for the people in the name of this sacrifice.
  Furthermore, workers were forced to move to
  wherever they were needed.
• The Five Year Plans would require the gradual
  elimination of the land owning peasantry.
  Communist writers called these people the "little
  capitalists", believing that as they acquired
  more property, they would eventually oppose the
  Soviet government. Furthermore, the agricultural
  goals of the Five Year Plans meant that small
  farms would have to be consolidated in to huge
  new "collective" farms.

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8.)

• Collectivization, then, was the great tragedy of
  Stalinist Russia. Whole villages were forced to
  relocate to farm camps, where they provided
  labor. They were stripped of property. Some
  villages were simply destroyed. In retaliation,
  the peasantry destroyed crops and livestock. This
  simply created a vast famine. Combined with
  Soviet brutality, this famine wiped out ten
  million peasants in the 1930's

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9.)

• The secret police were used to instill fear.
  Political assassination was common
• Stalin was famously paranoid. He occasionally
  used systematic murder to eliminate people he
  considered threats, both real and imaginary. As a
  result, many innocents died. Around 6 million
  total.
• Soviet era art and literature became propaganda
  pieces. Mass technology such as radio and film
  were used to indoctrinate and brainwash the
  people. Christianity was outlawed, and Marx and
  Lenin became the new icons, with Stalin as God.
• Unemployment was wiped out. Free health care,
  education, and day care was provided
• The roles of women were expanded as never
  before. They were a necessary part of the
  Communist revolution. Divorce and abortion became
  completely accessible. They were encouraged to
  become sexually liberated. They were encouraged
  as equals, and were mobilized to benefit the
  state.

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10.)

• Italians had enthusiastically supported the
  government in WWI. But the government lost
  support in the war's aftermath for several
  reasons
• the government promised reforms to the peasants
  and workers but didn't follow through.
• the government failed to grab territory from
  Austria at Versailles.
• the Catholic Church opposed the Italian
  government

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11.)

• Benito Mussolini was from a humble background. He
  was a socialist newspaper editor and joined the
  army. He was wounded on the Austrian front in
  1917, and when he returned home he began
  organizing bitter war veterans like himself into
  a new party, the "fascists". There demands were
  nationalistic and socialist.
• His band of thugs, the "Black shirts", began
  terrorizing other parties, especially communists.
  By 1922 their power was so great that they forced
  the king, Victor Emmanuel III to name Mussolini
  chief minister.

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The Fasces
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12.)

• The people generally accepted Mussolini's fascist
  government for several reasons. Chiefly, they
  were afraid of a Bolshevik uprising, yet didn't
  want a liberal, parliamentary government. As the
  saying went, Mussolini "made the trains run on
  time."

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13.)

• Whether Mussolini's Italy was totalitarian is
  debatable
• He did abolish a free press.
• He fixed all elections
• Arrested political opponents
• Created fascist youth groups
• He never became all-powerful, like Stalin or
  Hitler
• He never tried to destroy the existing power
  structure (the Church, the big landowners). In
  fact, Vatican City was created on his watch.
• He never socialized business
• He never "liberated" women.

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14.)

• Hitler was born in Austria in 1889.
• In his youth he became an extreme German
  nationalist and came to believe in the
  superiority of German culture.
• He was strongly influenced by the mayor of
  Vienna, Karl Leger, who used mass propaganda to
  gain the support of the people of Vienna.
• In his youth he became deeply racist, both
  anti-Semitic and anti- Slavic
• He fought in WWI and was angered by Germany's
  defeat.
• By 1919 he had joined a tiny radical group in
  Munich called the German Worker's party. He
  emerged in control of it, giving speeches on
  street corners. He claimed Germany must be
  unified under "national socialism". The Nazi
  party members soon began wearing uniforms and
  badges, staging parades through the streets.
  Their rallies became larger and larger.

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15.)

• By 1923 Hitler felt ready to attempt his
  revolution. He jumped on a table in a Munich beer
  garden and proclaimed revolution against the
  Weimar government, for which he was arrested and
  tossed in to jail for treason. While incarcerated
  he wrote Mein Kampf, his manifesto that spoke of
  three themes anti-Semitism, "lebensraum or
  living space, and a leader with unlimited power.

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16.)

• Upon his release from prison in 1924, he
  concentrated on building up his party. He had
  learned a lesson from the failed beer hall
  putsch-the way to defeat democracy was to use
  democracy. He started entering Nazi candidates in
  to elections all over the country, and into
  contests for seats in the Reichstag.
• The Depression was a blessing for him.
  Unemployment shot up over 30, inflation was out
  of control. The brief prosperity of the late 20's
  was over and again people started casting about
  for meaning. Hitler stepped in to provide answers.

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17.)

• Hitler had a great deal of appeal to various
  groups
• He promised the middle class economic reform,
  and played on their fear of Jews and socialists.
• He promised Big Business that he would destroy
  organized labor.
• He promised the army that he'd overturn the
  Versailles Treaty and re-arm.
• Nazism was a young movement and Hitler himself
  was a young man. It promised recovery, change, an
  advancement, and appealed to young people. The
  "Hitler Youth" was the prime example.

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18.)

• Nazism continued to gain ground. In 1930 they
  were the second biggest party in Germany. By 1932
  they were the largest.

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19.)

• Communists never took Hitler seriously. They
  regarded him not as a threat but as a "symptom"
  of a society that was ripe for communist
  revolution. By the time they realized his power
  it was too late.

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20.)

• Hitler was appointed Chancellor by President
  Hindenburg in 1933 under the mistaken belief that
  Hitler's Nazi followers could be used to
  stabilize power in Germany. Instead, Hitler
  quickly moved to consolidate power.

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21.)

• In 1933 the Reichstag building burned. Hitler
  blamed the communists, though many thought the
  Nazis probably had the fire set. The Nazis
  smeared communist leaders until they were
  literally hounded out of Germany.

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22.)

• Hitler passed laws abolishing labor unions, as
  too socialist. He then moved to control all print
  and media. The Nazis staged huge book-burning
  rallies, and outlawed all "subversive material.
  They outlawed modern art and architecture. Said
  Joseph Gobbles, "When I hear the word culture I
  reach for my gun."
• Gaining the respect of the army was his biggest
  challenge. They would never accept his party
  hacks that had helped him come up from the
  streets, and Hitler knew this. So he purged them,
  leaving the business of the army in the hands of
  the professional soldiers. This earned their
  trust, and they soon became loyal to him. A
  smaller group of soldiers, the SS, became
  Hitler's elite units.

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23.)

• Almost as soon as the Nazis took power they began
  persecution of the Jews. Many Jews, like
  Einstein, had foreseen the rise of Hitler and
  escaped Germany and Europe. But others became
  ensnared in the Nazi web. New laws were passed
  restricting movement and property rights.
  Businesses and bank accounts were stripped. The
  Nuremburg laws declared that Jews were to be
  stripped of citizenship rights. Later, open
  violence against the Jews occurred
  (Kristallnacht). But the worst was yet to come.

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24.)

• His popularity rested on the simple fact that he
  had revived German greatness, rearmed the
  military, ended unemployment, and was moving to
  undo the Versailles Treaty. Many Germans were
  uncomfortable with the actions of the Nazis but
  most were afraid to act.

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25.)

• Joseph Goebbels- Hitler's minister of propaganda
  who unashamedly bragged that Nazi power rested on
  the "big lie" that the bigger a lie was, and the
  louder it was repeated, that soon the majority of
  people would start to believe it.
• Hitler Youth- paramilitary clubs for boys and
  girls that indoctrinated them and built future
  soldiers and mothers.
• Paul Von Hindenburg- aging WWI hero, he was
  President of the Weimar Republic and appointed
  Hitler to the Chancellorship in 1933.
• Brown shirts- Hitler's street thugs as the party
  grew also called the SA
• SS- Hitler's elite troops and bodyguards.
• Heinrich Himmler- leader of the SS and the
  Gestapo
• Gestapo- Nazi police who used terror to repress
  the people.

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Nazi Expansion and WWII
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1.)

• Hitler had made clear in Mein Kampf that the
  future of Nazism depended on expansion-"lebensraum
  as Hitler called it. Part of Germany's destiny
  according to him was the "drang nach osten"- the
  drive to the East.

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2.)

• Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of
  Nations and laid bare his intentions to rearm
  Germany in clear violation of the Versailles
  Treaty

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3.)

• Appeasement simply meant backing down and giving
  in, on the hopes of maintaining peace. The
  British were guilty about Germany because they
  realized that the Versailles treaty had done much
  to create Hitler. Also, they viewed Hitler as a
  long term buffer against Bolshevik expansion into
  Europe.

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4.)

• In 1935 Hitler forced an agreement with Britain
  that enabled him to begin building up his navy.
  In 1936 he took another brazen step when he
  re-occupied the Rhineland. The French and British
  failed to act, reinforcing Hitler's view of their
  weakness.

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5.)

• Mussolini sought territorial conquest to enhance
  Italy's prestige. From Italian Somaliland in 1935
  he launched an invasion of Ethiopia. Hitler
  supported this action, so that in the next year
  and agreement was signed between Rome and Berlin.
  The "Axis" had been born.

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6.)

• Hitler had long desired a permanent union of all
  Germans (the Anschluss). The Nazis had murdered
  the Austrian Chancellor in 1934 by 1938 Hitler
  bullied the Austrians to hand over control to the
  Nazis. Austria had been brought under Nazi
  control.

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7.)

• The Sudetenland was the western part of
  Czechoslovakia. It was a heavily German-speaking
  region, rich in industry. Hitler demanded loudly
  that it was only natural that it should be
  rejoined to Germany.

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8.)

• The Czechs were ready to defend their young
  country along with French help. The crisis was
  defused when British PM Neville Chamberlain,
  along with the French, ceded the Sudetenland to
  Hitler in 1938. The Czechs had been sold out,
  while Chamberlain proclaimed "Peace in our time."
• Hitler now realized that the Western democracies
  had no will, and forcefully took the rest of the
  Czech republic. The backlash against Chamberlain
  would eventually drive him from office.

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• My good friends, for the second time in our
  history, a British Prime Minister has returned
  from Germany bringing peace with honour. I
  believe it is peace for our time.

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9.)

• Hitler next demanded that the Polish city of
  Danzig (formerly German) be ceded to the Reich.
  The West now realized their mistakes and
  threatened to fight, but Hitler believed they
  would continue to back down.

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10.)

• Hitler and Stalin, mutually suspicious,
  nevertheless signed a pact in August 1939 in
  which they promised not to attack one another.
  The British and French were stunned, for it was
  never suspected that the Nazis and Communists
  could ever be on the same side.

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11.)

• With the Soviets pacified, Hitler was now ready
  to commence his war. On Sept. 1, 1939, the Nazi
  blitzkrieg roared into Poland, while the red Army
  rolled in from the East. Britain and France
  declared war, and WWII had begun.

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Lightning War
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12.)

• Over the winter of 1939-40 there was little
  action. People dubbed it "Sitzkrieg" of the
  "Phony War". But in spring 1940 Hitler struck
  again Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and
  France in quick succession. Only a miraculous
  evacuation from Dunkirk saved the British Army
  from surrender.

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13.)

• The French surrendered that spring. The Nazis
  installed a puppet government under old Marshall
  Pertain in the southern city of Vichy. French
  overseas possessions became the property of the
  Nazis. In the North African city of Oran, the
  British steamed in and destroyed the French
  fleet. Casablanca became the gateway to the Free
  West. In Britain, Charles de Gaulle became the
  leader of the Free French government-in-exile.

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14.)

• Hitler's next logical step was to knock out
  Britain. Before he could risk a Channel crossing
  though he needed to eliminate their air cover.
  Beginning in summer 1940, wave after wave of
  attacks aimed at the British RAF commenced. In
  September of that year, Hitler changed his
  strategy and began bombing cities. Through it all
  the British were defiant. By October the Nazis
  had postponed their planned invasion of Britain.
  According to Churchill, never had "so many owed
  so much to so few".

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History will be kind to me, for I intend to
write it!
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their finest Hour

• the Battle of France is over. I expect that the
  Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this
  battle depends the survival of Christian
  civilization. Upon it depends our own British
  life, and the long continuity of our institutions
  and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the
  enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler
  knows that he will have to break us in this
  island or lose the war. If we can stand up to
  him, all Europe may be free and the life of the
  world may move forward into broad, sunlit
  uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world,
  including the United States, including all that
  we have known and cared for, will sink into the
  abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and
  perhaps more protracted, by the lights of
  perverted science. Let us therefore brace
  ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves
  that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth
  last for a thousand years, men will still say,
  'This was their finest hour.'

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15.)

• By April 1941 Hitler had conquered Greece and
  Yugoslavia, while forcing Hungary, Romania, and
  Bulgaria into alliance. The Nazis now threatened
  the oil fields of the Caucuses and the Suez Canal.

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16.)

• Hitler had decided that the time had come to take
  the "living space" he'd dreamed of in Mein Kampf.
  In June 1941 over a million German troops crashed
  into the Soviet Union, catching the Russians
  unprepared. This would eventually be Hitler's
  downfall, though, because it was unnecessary. By
  invading the East he'd locked himself in a
  two-front war when he could have kept striking at
  Britain.

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17.)

• After the Pearl Harbor raid, Hitler decided to
  honor his treaty with Japan and declare war on
  the United States. This was not really necessary
  but nevertheless it brought the U.S. into the
  European conflict.

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18.)

• From 1940-42 the Nazis set about killing as many
  undesirables as possible.
• The Nordic Peoples, or Aryans, received
  preferential treatment in all countries. The
  "Master Race" would govern the other groups.
• the French and other occupied" Latin" peoples
  were the next group. They were considered
  inferior but could be made to be allies.
• Last were the Jews, Slavs, and other "sub-human"
  groups. They were to be cleared out wherever
  possible to make way for the Aryan. They were
  also used as labor.

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The Holocaust
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19.)

• Early in the war, the Nazis used death squads
  (the SS or einsatzgruppen) to eliminate
  undesirables. As the war went on it became clear
  that they couldn't kill as many as needed. The
  Final Solution to the "Jewish Questions" was then
  proposed industrial slaughter on a mass scale.
  The Holocaust began in earnest.

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Einsatzgruppen
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Ghettos
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The Final Solution

• Aryans
• Mediterranean Peoples
• Slavs
• Jews, colored people

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Concentration Camp
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Death Camp
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The Worst Camps

• Auschwitz
• Bergen-Belsen
• Dachau
• Sobibor
• Treblinka
• and over 300 more

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Who was targeted?

• Jews
• Retarded People
• Gypsies
• Homosexuals
• Soviet POWs
• Intellectuals
• Communists

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20.)

• Hitler was considered the immediate threat. If
  either the British or Soviets were ever knocked
  out of the war (or both) the U.S. would never be
  able to win alone. Concentrating on Hitler also
  would serve to keep the paranoid Stalin satisfied.

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21.)

• The U.S. mainly provided Industry, technology,
  and aid.
• The huge British Empire provided manpower,
  resources, and strategic locations from which to
  launch attacks against the Axis. Also the British
  Islands were a perfect location to launch an
  invasion against Hitler.
• The Soviets provided endless cannon fodder.
  Their troops were extremely motivated through
  harsh communist ideology.
• They undermined Nazi efforts everywhere, at
  great personal sacrifice.

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22.)

• Stalingrad was strategically important. Situated
  on the Volga, it was a railroad junction and the
  gateway to the oilfields of South Russia. Being
  Stalin's name sake it also was a point of pride.
  Hitler was determined to take it.
• It was a months long battle, the worst kind of
  urban warfare imaginable. House to house and room
  to room, it was extremely costly to both sides.
  The Germans eventually lost 1,000,000 casualties
  and thousands of tanks, while the Soviets may
  have lost millions. It was this defeat that broke
  Hitler's back, and changed the momentum on the
  Eastern Front. The Red Army would be on the
  offensive from this point onward.

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23.)

• The attack at Pearl Harbor had crippled the U.S.
  Pacific Fleet. Luckily, the U.S. carriers were
  not at Pearl and escaped. The Japanese captured
  the Philippines and by May of 1942 were
  threatening Australia. They were stopped at the
  Coral Sea by a combined U.S.-Australian fleet.
• The next month at Midway, the U.S. scored a huge
  victory by sinking 4 of the best Japanese
  carriers, losing only 1. With these two
  victories, the U.S. fleet regained the initiative
  in the Pacific and went on the offensive.
• This led to the beginning of the "island hopping"
  campaign.

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• Guadalcanal was the first island to be invaded.
  Conditions were brutal. Tropical heat, poisonous
  plants and animals, malaria and dysentery, jungle
  rot, constant rain were just some of the
  problems. The Japanese were fanatical opponents
  who would rather die than surrender. The American
  public realized that the Pacific campaign would
  be brutal. The Solomon, Marshall, Caroline, and
  Marianas would all be taken in succession. Names
  of islands like Guam, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and
  Okinawa became common to Americans as the navy
  and Marines inched closer to Japan.

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24.)

• In North Africa, the Afrika Korps under the
  command of Erwin Rommel sought to capture Egypt
  and the Suez Canal from the British. With the
  Suez, the way would be open to the oil of the
  Mid-east and an eventual link-up with the
  Japanese.
• The war in Africa see-sawed back and forth until
  a British victory at El Alamein stopped the Nazi
  advance. By 1942 the U.S forces had landed in
  Morocco. The British and U.S. combined to force
  the Nazis out of Africa by 1943.

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25.)

• The Allies launched an invasion of Sicily almost
  immediately to keep the momentum. Patton and
  Montgomery led the way. By 1944 the advance had
  stalled out at a place called Monte Cassino.
  Eventually the Allies captured Rome, and
  Mussolini was deposed, later killed by his own
  people. Italy was never a factor again.

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26.)

• D-Day was an enormous gamble. From 1941-44, U.S.
  and British heavy bombers had carried on a
  massive air campaign against Germany. By 1944
  millions of men and billions of tons of material
  had been massed in the British Isles in
  preparation of an attack against Hitler's
  Atlantic Wall.
• The question was where. The Germans expected it
  near Calais, the traditional cross-channel
  invasion point, and the Allies made every attempt
  to make them believe it. Instead Normandy was
  chosen, in the hopes of getting enough men and
  tanks ashore before the Germans could react. It
  was a gamble that would pay off.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Eisenhowers Order of the Day

• Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied
  Expeditionary Force!
• You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade,
  toward which we have striven these many months.
  The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and
  prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march
  with you. In company with our brave Allies and
  brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring
  about the destruction of the German war machine,
  the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the
  oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for
  ourselves in a free world.
• Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is
  well trained, well equipped and battle hardened.
  He will fight savagely.
• But this is the year 1944 ! Much has happened
  since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United
  Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great
  defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air
  offensive has seriously reduced their strength in
  the air and their capacity to wage war on the
  ground.
• Our Home Fronts have given us an superiority in
  weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our
  disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
  The tide has turned! The free men of the world
  marching together to Victory!
• I have full confidence in your devotion to duty
  and skill in battle.We will accept nothing less
  than full Victory!
• Good Luck! And let us all beseech blessing of
  Almighty God upon this great and noble
  undertaking.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower

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27.)

• By December of 1944 the Americans and British had
  liberated Paris and had pushed the Germans back
  into the Ardennes in Belgium. It was believed
  that Hitler was finished. But in one last gamble,
  the Nazis launched a desperate counter-attack in
  Dec. 1944. Taking advantage of bad weather and
  surprise, they drove 50 miles into the Allied
  lines, cutting off Bastogne. Patton's Third Army
  would eventually push them back. By late January
  1945 Hitler had lost his gamble.

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28.)

• In April 1945 the Soviet and U.S. forces made
  contact near the Elbe River in Central Germany,
  setting off massive celebrations.
• By May 7 (V -E day), Hitler had killed himself
  and the Nazis commanders were surrendering. The
  Americans and Soviets now eyed each other with
  suspicion.

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29.)

• ln the Pacific the island hopping campaign had
  paid off. By 1945 the Philippines were back in
  U.S. hands. Attention was turned towards the
  Japanese home islands. After gaining bloody Iwo
  Jima and Okinawa, the way was cleared for a
  massive invasion that would dwarf D-Day. Instead,
  the decision was made by Harry Truman to use the
  atomic bomb. The Japanese surrendered on August
  14. (V -J day)

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• When the bomb left the airplane, the plane jumped
  because you released 10,000 lbs. Immediately Paul
  took the airplane to a 180Â turn. We lost 2,000
  ft. on the turn and ran away as fast as we could.
  Then it exploded. All we saw in the airplane was
  a bright flash. Shortly after that, the first
  shock wave hit us, and the plane snapped all
  over. We looked to see what happened to the
  target, and we could make absolutely no visual
  observation because the entire city of Hiroshima
  was covered in black smoke and dust, debris that
  had been kicked up by the bomb and the blast, and
  a large white cloud that you've seen pictures of.

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