1. Axis Aggression

2. Aggression in Asia 1931—Japan Invades Manchuria
Japan leaves the League of Nations
By 1938, Japan has control of major cities along Chinese coast
Japan’s brutal attack on China from caused about 20 million deaths

4. Background of German Jews
500,000 Jews made up .8% of German population
Jews were loyal patriots linked to the German way of life
Same language
Same culture
24% of German Nobel Peace Prize winners were Jewish
Jews believed that their contributions would prevent Germany from excluding them.

5. New Policies
1933
1935
Government sponsored boycotts of Jewish shops and businesses
Jews lose the right to be German citizens
Jews are refused protection by police
It becomes illegal for Jews to inherit land.
New laws enforce segregation
Jews are banned from parks, swimming pools, restaurants, public buildings
It is illegal for Germans to marry Jews.
School children are openly ridiculed and humiliated in front of class on a regular basis

6. The Holocaust
Hitler’s policy of Nazi racism targeted Jewish people and fed on European anti-semitism
Hitler viewed Jews as a national enemy and began implementing his Final Solution—elimination of Jewish people by sending them to concentration camps as slave laborers and then executing them in gas chambers
The extermination of nearly 6 million Jews, as well as Gypsies, Slavs, and other people deemed undesirable came to be known as the Holocaust

7. Genocide - the systematic destruction of all or part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group.
Buchenwald concentration camp was not an extermination camp, though it was responsible for a vast number of deaths

9. German Expansion
1936 Hitler begins rebuilding German military and marches troops into the Rhineland (had lost in WWI) violating Treaty of Versailles
1938 Germany annexes Austria and claims parts of the Sudetenland
Great Britain and France pursue policy of appeasement (making political concession to an enemy power to avoid conflict)—rather than challenge Hitler’s aggression
In 1939, Hitler invades Poland
“blitzkriegs” (fast, surprise attacks combining ground forces and air support).
Britain and France declare war on Germany—thus beginning World War II

10. Italy
took over Ethiopia (1935)
annexed Albania (1939)