1. World War II

2. Warm Up
Considering your work from the previous class day and your reading, when do you think the US should have entered WWII?
Explain your rationale.

3. Why did the US wait until 1941, after nearly every European nation had fallen to Germany to enter WWII? What were the sources of American political isolationism?
In what ways did WWII impact daily life of the majority of Americans?
Overall, what impact did WWII have on women & various minority groups?
Evaluate the contributions of the Soviets & the Americans to the allied victory. What tensions developed b/w the two nations in terms of strategy & post-war territorial issues?
Why did the US use atomic weapons against Japan?

4. Totalitarianism in Europe: Pre-1939
Hitler
Mussolini
Stalin
Rise to power
Methods to keep power
Pre-WWII conquest for land

5. Europe moves towards war
Hitler calls for lebensraum “living space” for German people
Take over lands of inferior peoples (Slavs & Poles) & occupy German speaking lands of Europe
European leaders try appeasement to avoid war with Germany
Germany begins building a large army & producing weapons in 1933 –violating the Treaty of Versailles
Anschluss of 1938, Germany enters Austria
“Peace for our time” –English Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain gets Hitler to agree to stop “annexing” parts of Europe on September 30, 1938
Next day, Germany occupies the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)

6. War Begins: Blitzkrieg
with the invasion of Poland
Days before Hitler signs nonaggression pact with USSR
USSR will not stop German attacks in Europe
France & GB declare war on Germany
Spring of 1940 –Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium & France invaded

7. August –October ,1940 Battle of Britain
“the Blitz” (blitzkrieg=lightning war) bombing
Germany uses U-boats to prevent supplies from reaching Britain
British hold out with radar & US supplied food & weapons thru the Lend-Lease Act

8. US enters the war December 7th, 1941 “A date that will live in infamy”
Japan attacks US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Punish U.S. for banning the sale of oil to Japan
Gen. Hideki Tojo also attacks the Philippines and several islands in the Pacific held by US
Isolationism: refusal to be involved in political events abroad -ends for US

9. Germany Attacks the USSR
June 1941, Hitler sends 3 million men into Russia
Blitzkrieg effective at first
By autumn still had not conquered Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad (St. Petersburg)
USSR cuts off all supplies to Stalingrad
Stalin “sieges a siege” -winter
1 million Soviets die
Out of 250,000 Germans: 90,000 captured, nearly 100,000 died

10. Battle of the Atlantic German navy is small
Largest warship of it’s time “The Bismarck” destroyed by British in less than 2 weeks
Germany relies on U-boats to disrupt supply lines and enigma code to send secret communications
By 1943, the U.S. can out-produce destroyed airplanes and ships

11. War in North Africa & Italy
German-Italian Afrika Korps has many early wins, but has vulnerable supply lines
Allies want control of Suez Canal to get Middle East oil supplies
Battle of El Alamein (1942), German General Erwin Rommel loses to British due to lack of supplies
By May 1943, American, French & British troops control all of Africa

12. Battle of the Pacific Japanese control much of the Pacific
b/c they’re well supplied & near home
US Navy severely weakened by Pearl Harbor attack
Capture more than 70,000 Allies –Bataan Death March
Battle of Midway -1st Allied Victory due to code breaking
Allies begin “island hopping” –Battle of Guadalcanal
Japan retaliates with Kamikazes

13. The End of the War -Europe
Soviets push west from Stalingrad; US, British, French push east from the Atlantic
D-day: Allied attack of Normandy, France
June 6, 1944
150,000 men landed on the same day by sea & air
Germayn continues to fight for 11 more months
V-E Day, May 7, 1945 war in Europe ends

14. The Holocaust –”Great Raging Fire”
Long tradition of anti-Semitism in Europe
Nuremburg Laws passed in 1937 to exclude Jews from mainstream German life
Kristallnacht “night of broken glass”: November 1938 in Germany & Austria
Jewish homes & businesses vandalized
Synagogues destroyed
25% of Jewish men in Germany arrested

15. “The Final Solution”
Ghettos –walled off sections of cities where all Jews had to live
Concentration camps
From France, Poland & other German held territory –Jews put on trains to work in slave labor camps in Eastern Europe
Used to produce necessities for the army
Those who were not “essential” –the old, sick and young children were gassed & cremated
Death marches
Hitler’s ultimate goal was to exterminate “the Jewish race”

16. The End of the War -Asia
US bombing raids of Tokyo begin in summer 0f 1944
Battle of Iwo Jima & Battle of Okinawa
Japanese fight to the death and heavy American losses
July, 1945 US asks for Japanese surrender
Atomic Bomb
Aug. 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima
Aug. 9, 1945 bombing of Nagasaki
V-J Day Japan surrenders, August 15, 1945