Major Military and Political Leaders in World War II

1. Major Military and Political Leadersin World War II

2. Adolf Hitler Born April 20, 1889 In Braunau am Inn, Austria He was born to Alois and Klara Hitler Hitler came from an abusive family He feared and disliked his father but was a devoted son to his mother.

3. Early Life • Not a great student and dropped out of school when he was 16. • Hitler spent a great deal of his early years in the city of Linz in Upper Austria. • Linz was his favorite city and he had expressed his wishes to be buried there. • Aspired to be an artist • Was twice denied into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts

4. Hitler in WWI • 1914 Hitler was screened for Austrian Military • Classified as unfit due to inadequate physical rigour • At the outbreak of WWI, Hitler volunteered for the German Army • Joined the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment • wounded in October 1916, and was gassed two years later • his bravery in action was rewarded with the Iron Cross, Second Class, in December 1914, and the Iron Cross, First Class (a rare decoration for a corporal), in August 1918. • Hitler felt satisfied with war • He found discipline and comradeship satisfying and was confirmed in his belief in the heroic virtues of war.

5. Rise to Power • After WWI Hitler joined the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi). • 1921 became leader of the party • 1923-Beer Hall Putsch • Hitler spends 9 months in Jail • Writes Mein Kampf which combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. • Jan 30th 1933, he becomes Chancellor of Germany.

6. Personal Notes • Hitler did not eat meat • Gave up drinking beer (and all other alcohols) • Married his long-time mistress Eva Braun on their death bed • Had a half-sister and two nieces. One of which he drove to suicide

7. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill • born Nov. 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died Jan. 24, 1965, London • as prime minister (1940–45, 1951–55) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory

8. Life and Times • Officer in the British Army. • Served in British India, the Sudan, and the second Boer War • Accomplished writer • Received a Nobel Prize for literature • Churchill was also a Historian and artist.

9. Politics • Churchill was at the forefront of British politics for fifty years • Held many political and cabinet positions over the years. • During WWI he served as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Air. • Interwar years held several position with the British government.

10. Winston Churchill • During the 30’s Churchill was a serious advocate for rearmament due to what he saw as dangerous German advances. • In May of 1940, Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Britain. • His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender or a compromised peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to Hitler

11. Benito Mussolini • Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (1883-1945) • He was born in Dovia, Italy • His father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and a socialist, while his mother Rosa Mussolini, was a devoutly Catholic school teacher.

12. ] Owing to his father's political leanings, Mussolini was named Benito after Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez, while his middle names Andrea and Amilcare were from Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani • Graduated from a teaching school wherein after he taught elementary school • Fulfilled his military requirements in 1904 and returned to teaching for another 4 years

13. In 1919, he founded fascist political group in Milan • Credited as one of the founders of fascism • 1922 Mussolini became the 40th Prime Minister of Italy • Mussolini was among the founders of Italian Fascism, which included ultraconservative elements of nationalism, corporatism, expansionism, social progress, and state propaganda • Once in power Mussolini wished to be referred to as Il Duce. • Benito soon began his dictatorship by erasing all political parties except for the Fascist

14. WWII • 1936 invades Ethiopia • 1936-1939 Active intervention on the side of Franco in the Spanish Civil War • Il Duce aligns Italy with the Germans • In 1940 declares war on Britain and France • Invades France •  1943, he was overthrown by the Fascist Grand Council and imprisoned, but later rescued by the Germans • 1945 Il Duce is executed

15. William Lyon Mackenzie King • December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) • Born in Kitchener Ontario • His maternal grandfather was William Lyon Mackenzie, first mayor of Toronto and leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837

16. A Liberal with 21 years in office, he was the longest-serving Prime Minister in British Commonwealth history • Was the tenth Prime Minister of Canada beginning in 1921 • Served four terms • Highly educated • Earned 5 university degrees

17. WWII • Mackenzie King entered the war a week after Britain and France • Exercising Canada’s Autonomy under the Statute of Westminster • Did not initially enact conscription fearing divide that occurred during WWI • Canada's major role in supplying food, raw materials, munitions and money to the hard-pressed British economy, training airmen for the Commonwealth. • After the fall of France enacts Total War measures • To rearm Canada he built the Royal Canadian Air Force as a viable military power

18. After the start of war with Japan in December 1941 the government oversaw the Japanese-Canadian internment on Canada’s west coast • After the War King helped found the United Nations in 1945

19. Joseph Stalin • Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin • 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) • Born in the town of Gori, Georgia. • At 7 contracted smallpox • By 12 his left arm was permanently damaged by horse and carriage accident

20. Rise to Power • joined Lenin's Bolsheviks in 1903 • Stalin was conscripted by the Russian army to fight in World War I, but was deemed unfit for service because of his damaged left arm • A disciple of Vladimir Lenin, he served in minor party posts and was appointed to the first Bolshevik Central Committee (1912) • After Lenin's death (1924), Stalin overcame his rivals and took control of Soviet politics

21. Rise to Power • In 1928 he inaugurated the Five-Year Plans that radically altered Soviet economic and social structures and resulted in the deaths of many millions • In the 1930s he contrived to eliminate threats to his power through the purge trials and through widespread secret executions and persecution • Pre-World War II he signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (1939), attacked Finland ( Russo-Finnish War), and annexed parts of eastern Europe to strengthen his western frontiers

22. WWII • When Germany invaded Russia (1941), Stalin took control of military operations. He allied Russia with Britain and the U.S • In November 1943, Stalin met with Churchill and Roosevelt in Tehran. The parties later agreed that Britain and America would launch a cross-channel invasion of France in May 1944, along with a separate invasion of southern France.Stalin insisted that, after the war, the Soviet Union should incorporate the portions of Poland • Stalin bio