1. Introduction to WW2
Rise of the Dictator

2. Benito Mussolini (Italy)
Founded Italy’s Fascist Party
Fascism
Considers the Nation more important than the individual
Strongly anti- communist
Backed by the Fascist Militia
Blackshirts
Set up a Dictatorship

3. Vladimir Lenin (USSR) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Communist
One party rule
Suppressed individual liberties
Punished opponents

4. Joseph Stalin (USSR) Changed last name from Dzuhgashvili to Stah
Meaning “steel”
Imprisoned or exiled 7 times
Always escaped
1926
Became new Dictator

5. Joseph Stalin (USSR) Collectives Concentration Camps
Family farms were combined
Government owned farms
Peasants who resisted were either put on trial or starved
Killed livestock
Hoarding crops
10 million peasants died of starvation between
Concentration Camps
1935, 2 million people were in camps
Located in the Arctic
8-10 million people died as result of Stalin’s rule
He died in 1953

6. Adolf Hitler (Germany)
Anti-Communist
Admired Mussolini
Austrian-born
Fought for Germany for WW1
National Socialist German Workers’ Party
Nazi Party
Wanted to expand territory and not follow the Treaty of Versailles
Anti-Semitic

7. Adolf Hitler (Germany)
Arrested after trying to take over Munich, Germany
In prison wrote Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”)
Called for unification of Germany
Got elected to the lowest house of the German house of Parliament
Reichstag
Nazi’s largest political party in the Reichstag
1933, President named Hitler Chancellor of Germany

8. Winston Churchill (Britain)
Prime Minister in 1940
Opponent of Appeasement
Lend Lease Act
Allowed Britain to borrow good from the US on credit
Voted out of office in 1945
Re-elected in 1951
Minister of Defense
October, became Prime Minister

9. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA)
Elected in 1932
Elected four times as President
Selected Harry S. Truman as his Vice President for his 4th term.
Failing health
Died in 1945
Cerebral Hemmorhage
Harry Truman takes over as President

10. Harry S. Truman (USA)
A few weeks as Vice President before becoming President
No briefing on the Atomic Bomb
Took over all the war problems when Roosevelt died
Witnessed the signing of the United Nations