World War II Topic 18 By Kathryn Raia

World War II Topic 18 By Kathryn Raia

Aggression, Appeasement and War • Acts of Aggression – Japan • Where did Japan invade in the 1930’s and why? • What type of government did Japan develop in the 1930 s? – Italy invades Ethiopia • Why? • Haile Selassie appealed to League of Nations – Effects?

Aggression & Appeasement Continued • Germany – How did Hitler violate the Treaty of Versailles? – How did the Western Democracies react? • Appeasement • Why? ? » France – unstable government » Britain – did not want to confront the dictator » Also thought that his actions were justified in reaction the harsh terms of the treaty » Saw Hitler as a defense against Soviet communism » Great depression zapped their energies » Widespread PACIFISM – opposition to all war and disgust with the last war

Aggression & Appeasement Continued – Reaction in the US • Neutrality acts – forbade the sale of arms to a nation at war • No loans to nations at war • GOAL OF ACTS ? – Rome – Berlin – Tokyo Axis • Germany, Italy and Japan form the Axis powers – Agreed to fight Soviet communism – Not to interfere with each other’s plans for expansion

Spanish Civil War 1936 – Causes: • Left Radicals and Communists – more reforms • Right Conservatives and military rejected change – Nationalists versus Loyalists • Right wing general (conservative) – Francisco Franco led a revolt started civil war • Loyalists – communists socialists, supporters of democracy, etc • Hitler and Mussolini sent forces to help Franco • Western democracies and the USSR sent forces to help the loyalists – A Dress Rehearsal • Both sides committed unbelievable atrocities • German air raid on Guernica – 1600 people killed – experiment with new airplane warfare • 1939 – Franco triumphed – created a Fascist dictatorship

Hitler’s Foreign Goals • Two goals: – Unite all German and Aryan people into one nation. – Lebensraum or living space for them (eastern Europe) • Hitler repudiates Versailles Treaty and begins massive rearmament in mid 1930 s • Anschluss: Germany annexes Austria, 1938 • Sudetenland: Hitler demanded the German speaking province in Czechoslovakia or else there would be war

Czech Crisis • • • Munich Conference, 1938 arranged by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Attended by Britain, France, Italy & Germany; Czechoslovakia or Russia not invited! British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain adopted a policy of appeasement Appeasement: making concessions to an aggressor in order to achieve peace Pacifism is prevalent in Britain and France: memories of horrors of WWI; don't want war – Agreement: Czechoslovakia forced to give away Sudetenland – In return Hitler guaranteed the independence of Czechoslovakia – Also agreed no more territorial demands in Europe – If the Czechs refused to comply, they would get no military help from France or Britain – Chamberlain returns to Britain a hero: "peace in our time"

Movement Toward War • March 1939 Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia – Western democracies promised to protect Poland • Nazi – Soviet Pact • August 1939 Hitler and Stalin sign an non aggression pact • Secretly the two agreed not to fight if the other went to war • To divide up Poland other parts of Eastern Europe between the two • Pact based on mutual need not friendship • Invasion of Poland – September 1, 1939 • 2 days later Britain and France declared war on Germany

German Conquests 1939 -1941 • • Blitzkrieg ("lightning war"): new form of warfare used by Germany to quickly defeat an enemy by poking a hole in enemy line and cutting off front lines from the rear thus surrounding enemy. – Used coordinated attack on one part of enemy line with airforce, tanks, and artillery Poland defeated in about a month; partition occurred when USSR attacked from east Stalin invades Finland (1939) and annexes Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania (1940) to create a buffer zone, believing Hitler will one day invade Soviet Union sitzkrieg (“phony war”): After Poland, a 7 month lull ensued, causing some to say WWII was a myth. The world waited to see where Hitler might strike next.

German Conquests 1940 • • Spring 1940: Hitler invaded Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg Fall of France, June 1940 occurred in less than six weeks – Dunkirk: thousands of French and British soldiers trapped on beaches of France – Before Germans came in for the kill, thousands were rescued by armada of British vessels • Vichy France: Hitler did not wish to waste time subduing all of France – Puppet gov't created in southern France • “Free French” led by General Charles De Gaulle, who fled to Britain

European Theatre

Operation Sea Lion • Battle of Britain: one of most critical battles of the war • Hitler sought to soften Britain up for an invasion ("Operation Sealion") • Luftwaffe sent to destroy Royal Air Force (RAF) • Winston Churchill emerged as inspirational war leader of Britain • After almost defeating RAF, Hitler ordered bombing of London: fatal error (London Blitz) • RAF recovered and ultimately defeated Luftwaffe: Hitler forced to call off invasion of Britain • Significance: Hitler had to guard against a future two front war; D Day launched from Britain

North Africa • Mussolini sends troops from his colony of Libya into British Egypt • Hitler sends General Erwin Rommel or “Desert Fox” into assist • He pushed the British back toward Cairo and the British were nervous about the Suez canal • Mussolini goes into Greece

Operation Barbarossa June 1941 • Hitler's attempt at "lebensraum“ • Einstagruppen (mobile killing units of SS) move eastward • "Scorched Earth": Soviets destroyed anything of value as they withdrew to deprive German army of resources; 1, 000's of towns disappeared! • By winter, Germans at the gates of Moscow; lay siege to Leningrad (lasted two years)

American Involvement • Atlantic Charter: Churchill and FDR meet secretly after invasion of Soviet Union – Decide once Axis Powers defeated, there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes inhabitants (self determination) – Called for “a permanent system of general security”: later became the United Nations – Stalin endorsed the agreement soon thereafter – U. S. neutrality • • Neutrality Acts in 1930 s prevented FDR from drawing U. S. into the conflict earlier Lend-Lease Act (1941) gave large amounts of money and supplies to help Britain and Soviets; effectively ended U. S. neutrality

Japanese Expansion 1939 -1941 • Did the United States have any reason to fear Japanese Expansion? • How did they plan to stop them? – Banned the sale of materials such as iron, steel and oil to Japan – Japanese leaders saw this move as an attempt to interfere in Japan’s sphere of influence in Southeast Asia – Any other reasons for Japanese dislike of the US? (think immigration)

Boxed In?

December 7, 1941 • General Tojo Hideki ordered a surprise attack on December 7 th. • In two waves of terror lasting two long hours, they killed or wounded over 3, 500 Americans and sank or badly damaged 18 ships – including all 8 battleships of the Pacific Fleet and over 350 destroyed or damaged aircraft. At least 1, 177 lives were lost when the Battleship U. S. S. Arizona exploded and subsequently sank. • How is this invasion similar to the invasion of Poland?

Bataan Death March • April 9 th, 1942, US commander Gen. Edward King, surrendered to the Japanese – Numbering more than 70, 000 (Filipinos and Americans), • While the Japanese pounded Corregidor (which would surrender on May 6), they led their prisoners on a forced march out of Bataan. • Before the "Death March" was over, those who survived would march more than sixty miles through intense heat with almost no water or food. • Somewhere between 5, 000 and 11, 000 never made it to POW Camp O'Donnell, where fresh horrors awaited.

US Enters the War • Hitler declared war on U. S. : another fatal blunder! Instead of focusing on Japan, U. S. (along with Britain) would instead focus on defeating Germany first. • The Grand Alliance formed in 1942: Britain, Soviet Union and U. S. and 2 dozen other countries

Allied Successes

Nazi Empire in Europe • • Nazis exploited Europe for its economic value Nordic peoples – Dutch, Norwegians, and Danes received preferential treatment as they were racially related to the Germans Hitler heavily taxed the French as they were seen as “inferior” Latin people Slavs in eastern Europe were seen as “subhuman” – Seized en and women for slave labor in German factories – Hitler planned that the poles, Ukrainians and Russians would be enslaved and forced to die out while Germanic peasants resettled the resulting abandoned lands – Polish workers and Soviet pows were transported to Germany where they did most of the heavy labor and were systematically worked to death • Genocide of the Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses and communists – Expanded upon at end of ppt

Japanese Expansion • Co Prosperity Sphere – – Japan – anti western imperialism – Mission was to help Asians escape western colonization – Goal – Japanese empire in Asia – Japanese treated conquered people Brutally – killing torturing – Seized food crops and make local people slave laborers

The Home Front – Total War • Government – increased political power – Industry – forced factories to turn out war materials – Rationed important materials – Democratic governments limited the rights of their citizens – Censored press and used propaganda – Women – US and the Japanese Internment camps

Turning Points in the War 1. El Alamein: British (under General Montgomery) drove the Germans (under General Rommel, aka Desert Fox) out of Egypt • “Operation Torch”, 1943: U. S. and British forces landed on North Africa • 1943 Germany eventually defeated and suffered mass casualties and surrenders. • Hitler’s decision to invade USSR instead of defeat British in Mediterranean now proved to be a disastrous mistake. 2. Stalingrad, Dec. 1942: first Nazi defeat on land; Soviets began the 2. 5 year campaign of pushing the German army back to Berlin • Wanted Stalingrad en route to taking the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains • German armies were eventually surrounded by Soviet forces – Germans not permitted to surrender • 21/2 year campaign of the Soviets pushing the Germans back to Berlin • February 1945 Soviet forces penetrated outskirts of Berlin

Turning Points in the War 3. Invasion of Sicily and Italy, 1943 • Opened another front that the Germans had to fight in the South. 4. D-Day, Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944: invasion of Normandy (northern French coast) • 12, 000 troops crossed the English Channel from southern England invaded France in an amphibious assault on Normandy. • Western front established; spelled end of Nazi domination of Europe; Paris liberated 1 month later • Hitler now fighting on three fronts: east against Russians, west against U. S. and Britain (& France) and Italy against U. S. and Britain

Toward Victory • Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 1944: Hitler's last gasp offensive to drive Allies away from western German border; after it failed, Allies quickly penetrated deep into Germany in 1945. • V-E Day, May 8, 1945: Germany surrenders (Hitler committed suicide a few days earlier)

Japanese Possessions 1942

Onward to Victory • May and June 1942 – Successes at battles of Coral Sea and Midway Island • Midway – Allies took offensive – General Douglas Mac. Arthur – tried to recapture some Japanese – held islands while bypassing others “stepping stones” to get closer to Japan – The Americans set up military bases to help them refuel and prepare for the war in the Pacific – October 1944 – Mac. Arthur begins to take back the Philippines, and the jungles of Burma and Malaya – NO SURRENDER from the Japanese

End of War in the Pacific • Defeat of Japan – Allies now focused their resources into defeating Japan • Invasion versus the bomb – Officials estimated that an invasion of Japan would have cost an estimated 1 or more million causalities – Bloody battles – Okinawa and Iwo Jima – Japanese will fight until the end – die to save their homeland – Kamikaze – pilots who flew suicide missions – Manhattan Project • Nazi, soviet and American scientists • FDR dies, Truman president – Warns Japan if they do not surrender “face utter and complete destruction” – Japan doesn’t surrender – Drop first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 1945 – Hiroshima – radiation sickness / mass destruction – August 9 th Nagasaki • • August 10 th, Emperor Hirohito intervened and forced government to surrender Peace treaty signed on USS MISSOURI

Results of World War II • • About 55 million dead (including missing); 22 million in USSR alone Poles, Ukrainians, lost their lives as slave laborers 4 million Soviet POWs were killed in captivity – Holocaust resulted in deaths of 6 million Jews and 6 million others – Hitler's "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem – Six death camps built in Poland in addition to hundreds of concentration camps – 90% of the Jewish populations of Poland, the Baltic counties and Germany were exterminated Millions homeless and millions relocated (especially Germans living outside Germany) Much of Europe lay in ruins: would take years to rebuild economy Women played even larger role in the war economy than in WWI (gained more rights after war) The U. S. and Soviet Union emerged as the two dominant powers in the postwar world.

Results of World War II • War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg – The Nuremberg Trials brought some of those responsible for the atrocities of the war to justice. – See end of powerpoint • • General Dwight D. Eisenhower on his observations at the liberation of Ohrdruf: . . . the most interesting—although horrible—sight that I encountered during the trip was a visit to a German internment camp near Gotha. The things I saw beggar description. While I was touring the camp I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty are so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda. ”

Results of World War II • Denazification of Germany & Allied Occupation

Results of World War II • Japan turned into democracy • Beginning of the Cold War

Why did the Germans Lose? 1. 2. Three Front War German Occupation Territory too large Major Blunders 3. • • • 4. Industrial Capacity not equal to Allies Axis Alliance proved to be a liability 5. • 6. Left the Battle of Britain without a victory Invasion of the USSR Declaration of War against US Mussolini was more of a liability than ally. Grand Alliance proved overwhelming

American Memorials

The Holocaust I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel

Raphael Lemkin & Genocide • drafting the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. • Coined the word genocide in 1943 or 1944 from the rooted words genos (Greek for family, tribe, or race) and cide (Latin for killing).

Stages of Genocide • • Classification Symbolization Dehumanization Organization Polarization Concentration Extermination Denial

Pre-War Distribution of Jews

Targets • Nuremburg Laws • Propaganda

Dehumanization

Targeting

Persecution Nazis targeted other individuals and groups in addition to the Jews: • Gypsies (Sinti and Roma) • Homosexual men • Jehovah’s Witness • Handicapped Germans • Poles • Political dissidents

Persecution • Kristallnacht was the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9 10, 1938 • Germans attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses

T-4 Euthanasia Program • The aryanization process went full speed ahead with the beginning of the war in September 1939. • The authorization of the “euthanasia program” or T 4, put into practice of system of killing “lives unworthy of living. ” • These individuals were those who were handicapped or had some mental or physical disability. • This is an important point of fact because if the state could justify killing “those unworthy of living, ” in this case the disabled, then if they portray other groups, such as the Jews as, “those unworthy of living, ” then their death could be justified.

U. S. and World Response • The Evian Conference took place in the summer of 1938 in Evian, France. • 32 countries met to discuss what to do about the Jewish refugees who were trying to leave Germany and Austria. • Despite voicing feelings of sympathy, most countries made excuses for not accepting more refugees.

U. S. and World Response The SS St. Louis, carrying refugees with Cuban visas, were denied admittance both in Cuba and in Florida. After being turned back to Europe, most of the passengers perished in the Holocaust.

Ghettoization • The Nazis aimed to control the Jewish population by forcing them to live in areas that were designated for Jews only, called ghettos. • Ghettos were established across all of occupied Europe, especially in areas where there was already a large Jewish population.

Ghettos • Many ghettos were closed by barbed wire or walls and were guarded by SS or local police. • Jews sometimes had to use bridges to go over Aryan streets that ran through the ghetto.

Ghettos • Life in the ghettos was hard: food was rationed; several families often shared a small space; disease spread rapidly; heating, ventilation, and sanitation were limited. • Many children were orphaned in the ghettos.

Deportation to the Camps

Einsatgruppen n. Einsatzgruppen were mobile killing squads made up of Nazi (SS) units and police. n. They killed Jews in mass shooting actions throughout eastern Poland the western Soviet Union. n. The most horrific of all mass murders in the East happened at Babi Yar outside of Kiev. n. Estimates indicate over 60, 000 -100, 000 people were massacred by the Einstagruppen, and around 33, 000 of them were Jews

Wannsee Conference • On January 20, 1942, 15 high ranking Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference to learn about how the Jewish Question would be solved. • The Final Solution was outlined by Reinhard Heydrich who detailed the plan to establish death camps with gas chambers.

Final Solution • Death camps were the means the Nazis used to achieve the “final solution. ” • Primitive freight train cars were used to transport victims to the camps. Some victims were in these cars for days or even weeks at a time. There was poor ventilation, no bathrooms, and very little if any food. • There were six death camps: Auschwitz Birkenau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Belzec.

Final Solution • In Auschwitz and Majdanek “Zyklon B” pellets, which were a highly poisonous insecticide, supplied the gas. • Before going into the “showers” women’s hair was shaved off and saved for the war effort. • After the gassings, prisoners removed hair, gold teeth and fillings from the Jews before the bodies were cremated or buried in mass graves.

The Major Camps

Auschwitz Platform @ Auschwitz where selection occurred

Camp Pictures

Medical Experiments • Prisoners were subjected to medical experiments which included those meant to keep Jews infertile or experiments to help develop better knowledge for soldiers. • All experiments were cruel and unjust • The most infamous Nazi doctor is Josef Mengele. – His work was with genetics and would always pull twins and those who suffered from dwarfism aside to perform studies and experiments. – His nickname was the “Angel of Death. ” – C. A. N. D. L. E. S. is an organization created that is on the internet which helps victims known as “Mengele’s Twins” find each other today

Resistance • The White Rose movement was founded in June 1942 by Hans Scholl, 24 year old medical student, his 22 year old sister Sophie, and 24 year old Christoph Probst. • The White Rose stood for purity and innocence in the face of evil. • In February 1943, Hans and Sophie were caught distributing leaflets and were arrested. • They were executed with Christoph 4 days later.

Resistance Other famous acts of resistance include: n the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Uprising) n. Sobibor escape (Escape from Sobibor) n. Sonderkommando blowing up Crematorium IV at Birkenau (The Grey Zone) n Jewish partisans who escaped to fight in the forests.

Resistance The Kindertransport (German for "children's transport") was an organized rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10, 000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig.

Aftermath • Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate camp prisoners on July 23, 1944, at Majdanek in Poland. • British, Canadian, American, and French troops also liberated camp prisoners. • Troops were shocked at what they saw Many prisoners died even after liberation.

Aftermath • Many of the camp prisoners had nowhere to go, so they became “displaced persons” (DPs). • These survivors stayed in DP camps in Germany, which were organized and run by the Allies. • Initially, the conditions were often very poor in the DP camps.

Aftermath • Jewish displaced persons, eager to leave Europe, pushed for the founding of a Jewish state in British controlled Palestine. • U. S. President Harry Truman issued an executive order allowing Jewish refugees to enter the United States without normal immigration restrictions.

The Nuremburg Trials • Need to bring to justice those who committed terrible atrocities, newly named War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.

The Nuremburg Trials • To be successful unlike after the Armenian Genocide, the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal was established the laws and procedures for which the trials at Nuremburg would be conducted. – Among other things, the charter defined three categories of crimes: • crimes against peace (including planning, preparing, starting or waging wars of aggression or wars in violation of international agreements), • war crimes (including violations of customs or laws of war, including improper treatment of civilians and prisoners of war) • crimes against humanity (including murder, enslavement or deportation of civilians or persecution on political, religious or racial grounds). • It was determined that civilian officials as well as military officers could be accused of war crimes.

Nuremburg Trials • As the accused men and judges spoke four different languages, the trial saw the introduction of a technological innovation taken for granted today: instantaneous translation. • IBM provided the technology and recruited men and women from international telephone exchanges to provide on the spot translations through headphones in English, French, German and Russian.

War Criminals Verdicts • • It imposes the death sentence on 12 defendants (Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss Inquart, and Bormann). Three are sentenced to life imprisonment (Hess, economics minister Walther Funk, and Raeder). Four receive prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years (Doenitz, Schirach, Speer, and Neurath). The court acquits three defendants: Hjalmar Schacht (economics minister), Franz von Papen (German politician who played an important role in Hitler's appointment as chancellor), and Hans Fritzsche (head of press and radio).

Subsequent Trials • • Following the Trial of Major War Criminals, there were 12 additional trials held at Nuremberg. They differed from the first trial in that they were conducted before U. S. military tribunals rather than the international tribunal that decided the fate of the major Nazi leaders. – The reason for the change was that growing differences among the four Allied powers had made other joint trials impossible. • These proceedings included – the Doctors Trial (December 9, 1946 August 20, 1947), in which 23 defendants were accused of crimes against humanity, including medical experiments on prisoners of war. – In the Judges Trial (March 5 December 4, 1947), 16 lawyers and judges were charged with furthering the Nazi plan for racial purity by implementing the eugenics laws of the Third Reich.

Effects of the Trials • Nonetheless, most observers considered the trials a step forward for the establishment of international law. • The findings at Nuremberg led directly to – The United Nations Genocide Convention (1948) – Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), – The Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War (1949). • In addition, the International Military Tribunal supplied a useful precedent for the trials of – Japanese war criminals in Tokyo (1946 48) – the 1961 trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann (1906 62) – The establishment of tribunals for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia (1993) and in Rwanda (1994).

The Survivors • Read their stories, hear their tales, always remember so this will never happen again…. • Unfortunately it has happened again…in the Sudan, Rwanda, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia…. . more people need to stand up for intervention and what is right….