WWII, Cold War, Korean War

1. WWII, Cold War, Korean War American History II - Unit 5 Ms. Brown

2. Review • What post-WWI problems contributed to the rise of dictators and the outbreak of war in Europe? • Post-WWI economic depressions, growing nationalism, tensions existed due to the Treaty of Versailles, some European countries turned to dictators to solve problems • Who were the 3 powerful dictators that rose to power in the 1920s/30s? What country did they rule? What political/economic/social philosophy did they follow? • Benito Mussolini – Italy – Fascism • Adolph Hitler – Germany – Nazism • Joseph Stalin – USSR – Communism • What is appeasement? What was its consequence when practiced by France and GB? • Policy of conceding to an enemy in hopes of maintaining peace • Encouraged Italy and Germany to become more aggressive • What was FDR’s official stance on involvement in foreign affairs? What did he actually do? • Official – neutrality (Neutrality Acts) • Actually – found loopholes in the Neutrality Acts to continue involvement in foreign affairs

3. 5.2 – WWII Begins & the Holocaust

4. Germany and Austria • 1937 – Hitler met with advisors to plan for attack on neighboring nations  absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich • Austria • Created post-WWI • 6M people – most favored unification with Germany • 1938 – German troops march into Austria with no opposition  Austria announced union with Germany • US and League of Nations did nothing.

5. Germany and Czechoslovakia • Czechoslovakia • aka “Sudetenland” • 3M German speaking people • Rich in natural resources • Hitler claimed the Czechs had abused Sudeten Germans  Oct. 1938 - sent German troops to Czech border • France and GB had promised to protect Czechoslovakia but continued appeasement  Munich Agreement (1938) - would give the Sudetenland to Germany without shots fired.

6. Great Britain's Political Leaders • GB’s prime minister Neville Chamberlain believed appeasement was the best plan for peace. • Winston Churchill (Chamberlain’s main political rival) disagreed with appeasement. • “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.”

7. Continued German Aggression • March 1939 – Hitler (violating the Munich Agreement) marched troops into the rest of Czechoslovakia on  Czechoslovakia fell into German control • Hitler focused on Poland next and claimed Germans in Poland were mistreated • Hitler bluffing? Invading Poland could lead to a 2 front war. • GB and France promised aid to Poland • Invasion could upset the USSR as Poland’s eastern neighbor

8. USSR’s Neutrality • August 1939 - Stalin and Hitler signed a nonaggression pact • Countries would not attack each other • Secret pact to split Poland • Poland’s fate sealed…

9. German Invasion of Poland • Sept. 1, 1939 – German blitzkrieg (lightening war, take the enemy by surprise and crush all opposition with overwhelming force) attack on Poland • Air bombings and tanks  very overwhelming and effective • Sept. 3, 1939 – France and GB declared war on Germany • Not in time to mobilize troops to save Poland from Germany (2/3) and USSR (1/3) • Essentially the start of WWII

10. The Phony War • Sept. 1939 – April 1940 - sitzkrieg (sitting war) aka phony war  French/British troops and German troops met at the Maginot Line (fortifications built at France’s eastern border) • USSR began annexing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland • April 9, 1940 – Hitler invaded Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg  sitzkrieg ended!

11. Fall of France • French troops along the German border were ineffective  Hitler sent tanks through the Ardennes, a wooded treacherous region in northeast France (thought to be impassable) • Hitler headed towards Paris

12. Fall of France • German troops pushed over 330,000 British, French, and Belgian troops across the English Channel • Southern invasion by Italy (new to the war, aligned with Hitler) and Northern invasion by Germany - both closed in on Paris • June 1940 – France fell to advancing forces • Germany occupation of northern region • Nazi puppet-gov’t controlled southern region • French General Charles de Gaulle fled to England – “France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.”

13. The Battle of Britain • Summer 1940 – Germans along the west coast of France set up to invade GB • GB navy superior to German navy launched air strikes on GB to bomb cities and defeat the British Royal Air Force (RAF) • Bombed London every night for 2 months • RAF fought back, used radars to locate enemy planes in the dark • September 1940, Hitler called off the invasion of GB • German planes continued to bomb London, while British planes bombed Germany cities

14. The Holocaust

15. Holocaust and Jews • Holocaust – The systematic/methodical murder of 11 million people across Europe, more than half of whom were Jews • Racial purity through the extermination of races/ethnic groups that were not German and Aryan • Anti-Semitism – hatred of Jews • Long history in Europe • Used as a scapegoat for anger over WWI (defeat and economic failure post war)

16. Persecution Begins • April 7, 1933 – Hitler ordered all “non-Aryans” removed from gov’t jobs • 1935 – Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of German citizenship, jobs, and property  Jews identified by wearing a yellow star • November 9-10, 1938 – Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken Glass” • Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, business, and synagogues/temples across Germany • ~100 Jews killed, hundreds injured • ~300,000 Jews arrested • Hundreds of synagogues burned • Nazis blamed Jews for the destruction

17. Hitler’s “Final Solution” • 1939 – about 250,000 Jews left in Germany, other German occupied nations had millions more • Hitler obsessed with ridding Europe of Jews  The “Final Solution” – a policy of genocide (deliberate and systematic killing of an entire population)

18. The Condemned • Final Solution based on the belief that Aryans were the master race that must be preserved  death/slavery of Jews as well as other inferior groups and enemies of the state • Communists, socialists, liberals • Gypsies (inferior race) • Freemasons (part of the “Jewish Conspiracy” to rule the world) • Jehovah’s Witnesses (refused to join army or salute Hitler) • Homosexuals • Mentally deficient • Mentally ill • Physically disabled • Incurably ill

19. Forced Relocations • Nazi death squads or “security squadrons” (SS) rounded up Jews (men, women, children, babies) and shot them on the spot • Jews also relocated to ghettos – dismal, crowded, segregated areas in certain Polish cities lined with barbed wire and stone walls • Bodies of victims lined streets • Forced labor in nearby factories • Jewish resistance – underground newspapers, secret schools, secret theater and music groups

20. Concentration Camps • Jews not killed by the SS or in the ghettos were sent to concentration camps (labor camps) • Families often separated • constant, hunger, humiliation, and labor  death • Dirty – fleas, rats • Worked from dawn to dusk, 7 days/wk, until they collapsed  the too weak to work were killed

21. Mass Exterminations • Final Stage of the Final Solution  Hitler and top officials decided to begin the mass murder of Jews in 1942, added poison gas • 6 death camps built in Poland • As many as 12,000 gassed a day at a single camp • Auschwitz – doctors inspected Jews as they arrived, those deemed unhealthy were directed to the chambers to “shower” (even given soap), actually poisoned with cyanide gas from vents in the walls

22. Mass Exterminations • Bodies buried in large pits (stench, laborers dug graves) • Cremation used to cover up evidence (crematorium or thrown into large fires) • Gassing, shootings, hangings, poison injections • Medical experiments gone wrong – injected with deadly germs to study effects, tested sterilization methods (to preserve the master race from mixing and other races from populating)

23. Jewish Refugees • Many Jews who tried to flee Germany were met with resistance • France accepted 40,000, didn’t want more • Britain refused over 80,000 Jews however allowed 30,000 to settle in Palestine (British controlled, later Israel) • “We want to get rid of our Jews. The difficulty is that no country wishes to receive them.” • Joachim von Ribbentrop, German foreign minister, 1938

24. Jewish Refugees • The average Jew had little chance escaping to the US however some prominent Jews (“persons of exceptional merit”) did seek refuge in the US • Albert Einstein (physicist) • Thomas Mann (architect) • Paul Tillich (theologian) • 100,000 more • Many Americans did not want to accept refugees • Competition for jobs • Interference in European affairs

25. Jewish Refugees • American indifference demonstrated with the St. Louis • German ocean liner St. Louis passed Miami in 1939 and forced by the Coast Guard to return to Germany • Despite the fact that 740 of the 943 passengers had US immigration papers  more than half of these passengers were killed during the Holocaust • “The cruise of the St. Louis cries to high heaven of man’s inhumanity to man.” – NY Times

26. Honored Righteous Persons • Thousands of non-Jews risked their lives to aid in the refuge of Jews during the Holocaust  The Israeli Parliament (as of 2001) has bestowed the title of “Righteous Gentiles” to more than 18,270 individuals recognized for their courage and morality • Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat, issued 10,000 Portuguese visas to Jews despite contrary orders • Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, issued “protective passports” that allowed thousands of Hungarian Jews escape • Oskar Schindler, German/Nazi industrialist, motivated initially by profit, he employed Jewish workers in his factory, later paid bribes to Nazi officials to keep his workers safe

27. The Survivors • Estimated 6M Jews died in death camps and Nazi slaughters, some miraculously survived “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night… Never shall I forget the little faces of children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live, Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” – Elie Wiesel, Night “I do believe that if you were blessed with an imagination, you could work through it. If unfortunately you were a person that faced reality, I think you didn’t have much of a chance.” – Gerda Weissman Klein