World War II

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World War II

• The Holocaust
• and the Defeat
• of Germany

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The Holocaust

• Nazi systematic slaughter of impure
  undesirables including Jews
• 1933 9 million Jews in Europe
• Jewish bankers blamed for European Depression
• The Final Solution to the Jewish Question
  Annihilate the Jews

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Steps of the Final Solution

• 1. Anti-Jewish legislation removed Jews from
  Germany society
• 2. Establish Concentration Camps
• 3. Establishment of Ghettos in Poland
• 4. Mobile killing squads SS and SD
• 5. Six Extermination Camps

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Military Executions

• Special death squads follow behind the front
  killing Jews, gypsies, and communists in the area
• Einsatzgruppen mobile killing units
• Used shootings and mobile gas units
• Killed over 1 million Jewish men, women and
  children

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Ghettos

• Jews were forced to live in walled off parts of
  cities in misery
• Densely populated areas
• Warsaw 400,000 ppl in 1.3 sq. mi
• Wear identifying arm patch
• Often work in forced labor
• Jews received little food or supplies (253
  calories/day)

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Concentration Camps Genocide
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Genocide

• The deliberate annihilation of an entire people
• 1941 Germans began constructing concentration
  camps to perform the final solution
• Move Jews from Ghettos to labor camps and killing
  centers throughout Europe

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The Death Camps

• Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek,
  and Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Jewish men, women, children were transported to
  the camps in sealed railroad cars
• Many immediately killed in gas chambers
• Bodies cremated in ovens

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The Death Camps

• Others faced forced labor in the camps
• Josef Mengele infamous doctor at Aushwitz
  chose who lived
• Angel of Death collected eyes
• Human experiments performed
• Freezing, drug testing, sterilization, disease
  studies

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The Death Camps

• Death Marches at end of war to avoid allied
  liberation of Jews
• Around 6 million Jews died in the camps 2/3 of
  pop.
• 6 million Poles, mentally disabled people, and
  political religious prisoners also died

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How Could The Holocaust Happen?

• Nazis took advantage of the long history of
  anti-Semitism in Europe
• Nazis flooded Europe with anti-Semitic
  propaganda stirring up hatred
• This hatred caused non-Jews to assist the Nazis
  or look the other way

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The Defeat of Germany
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The Yalta Conference
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Yalta

• The Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine
• The Big 3
• Stalin Soviet Union
• FDR US
• Churchill Great Britain
• Purpose - To plan for postwar peace following the
  defeat of Hitler

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Agreements Reached

• 1. Stalin pledged to declare war on Japan three
  months after the surrender of Germany
• 2. All agreed to divide Germany Berlin
  following the war
• 3. Outlined plans for a new international peace
  organization

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Roosevelt Wins 4th Term

• The war convinced FDR to run for his 4th term
• Won easily with Harry Truman as his running mate

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The Allies Reach Berlin
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The Race To Berlin

• March 1945
• The Allies crossed the Rhine River into the heart
  of Germany
• The Soviets occupied most of Eastern Europe
• Gen. Eisenhower allows Russians to take Berlin
• Hitler orders Berlin defended to last man
  fighting street to street

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Berlin Falls
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• April 30, 1945
• Hitler commits suicide in his bunker under Berlin
• May 8, 1945
• V-E Day (Victory in Europe)