1. On The Home Front Wartime Life New Economic Opportunities for Women
New Economic Opportunities for African Americans
On The Home Front

2. Life on the Home front
Rationing: you could only get a limited amount of scarce, war-needed goods. Among rationed items: (rubber) tires, gasoline, steel, aluminum typewriters, bicycles, footwear, silk, nylon, fuel oil, stoves, meat, butter, shortening and oils, cheese, processed foods (canned, bottled, and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal, jams and jellies, and medicines such as penicillin.
Office of War Information: Created Propaganda to encourage support for the war effort

4. Industrial Production
War Production Board (WPB) was organized in Early 1942 to manage war industries
By 1944 US war-related industrial production was practically twice that of all the Axis powers combined!
The government paid for the war by….?!?!?
Stimulated by war-time demand and government contracts, the US industries did a booming business, officially ending The Great Depression, and unemployment practically disappeared!

5. Economic Opportunities for Women
Over 200,000 women served in the military in non-combat roles.
New job opportunities opened up as soldiers left to fight the war .
5 million women entered the workforce.
Women went to work even if older or married.
Note…pay was not equal to male workers
“Rosie the Riveter”

6. Economic Opportunities for African Americans
As in WWI, African Americans left the south to pursue job opportunities in both the north and out west (1.5 million+)
Another million young men served in the armed forces.
Black Americans, however, still faced discrimination and segregation, whether civilian or soldier.
One of the most important Black Activist during this time was named A. Phillip Randolph…we will see him again in the 1960s civil rights mvmt.

7. Double V Campaign
Double Victory - against Fascism abroad and Racism at home.
In 1942, in agreement between A. P. Randolph’s March on Washington group and the Double V Campaign, some 18,000 African Americans congregated in Madison Square Garden threatening a March on Washington if their demands for integration were not met.
This pressured FDR to sign Executive Order 8802, on June 25, 1941, prohibiting racial discrimination in the national defense industry and eventually for hiring practices in any job funded by government money.

8. The End of the Second World War “The World as we know it”
Wartime Conferences: Planning for after WW2
The UN
The Nuremberg Trials
The End of the Second World War “The World as we know it”

9. Yalta Conference
FDR, Stalin, and Churchill met (in USSR) in February, 1945
They decided how they would split up the Post WWII Europe and the world.
Red Army would continue to occupy Eastern Europe, but would hold “free elections” asap.
Decided to divide Germany into four zones of occupation. British, French, American, and Soviet Zone
FDR got Stalin’s pledge to help in Japan (joined US on August 8…thanks)
UN would be formed.

10. German OCCUPATION ZONES
Germany eventually splits between Communist East Germany and Non- Communist West Germany

11. Potsdam Conference
Truman, Attlee, and Stalin met at Potsdam, Germany in July-August, 1945
Issued a warning to Japan to surrender Unconditionally
Decided to hold war-crimes trial of Nazi leaders.

12. The Nuremberg Trials
23 of the most important political and military Nazi leaders of the Third Reich leaders were put on trial for their crimes, mostly for the Holocaust.
They all used the defense “I was just following orders”
Held between
November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946
Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in the dock. The main target of the prosecution was Hermann Göring (at the left edge on the first row of benches), considered to be the most important surviving official in the Third Reich after Hitler's death

13. The New World Order: The UN
April, delegates from nations met in San Francisco to discuss creating the UN; Charter ratified in October, 1945.
All nations sat in the General Assembly but the five major WW Allies (US, USSR, Britain, France, & China) sat as permanent members on the leadership Security Council, with 10 other rotating members on the Council.
United Nations was established to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social, and humanitarian problems
The UN meeting in NYC –
Now there are 193 member nations

14. Discussion Question
“What were the signs that a conflict is brewing between the United States and the Soviet Union?”