1. World War II to the COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union

2. The Rise of Nazism Adolf Hitler Elected in 1933
Led the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZIS)
Who to Blame for Germany’s Problems?
Germany’s enemies in WWI
2. Previous German government
3. Jewish people

3. Hitler’s government passed many laws discriminating against Jews.
Treatment of Jews
Hitler’s government passed many laws discriminating against Jews.
Nazis persecuted Jews.
Denied them their rights as German citizens.

4. The Holocaust How were Jews treated?
Hitler tried to kill all the Jews living in Nazi areas.
The Nazis removed millions of people from their homes and sent them to prison camps.
Jews were used as forced labor and died from starvation and abuse.
Nearly 6 million Jews were killed.

5. World War II They are at it again…
WWII began when Hitler invaded Poland, France, the Soviet Union, and several other European nations.
The United States eventually joined the war. They sided with Great Britain, Soviet Union, and several others.
The Allies were once again victorious and Germany was defeated.

6. What did they find?
When Allied troops marched on Germany they discovered concentration camps throughout Germany filled with Jews.
They also found mass graves where Nazis had dumped bodies.

7. What Happened Next?
A special court tried and hanged a number of Nazi leaders for their crimes after the war.
Hitler killed himself in the final days of the war before he could be captured.

8. Helping the JewisH People
People around the world were horrified by the treatment of Jews and were very supportive.
A new organization is formed…the United Nations.
The UN granted part of Palestine in Southwest Asia to the Jewish people.
This area became the Jewish state of Israel.

9. A Divided Europe
After the war, the Soviet Union and the United States did not trust each other.
UNITED STATES
DEMOCRACY GOVERNMENT
SOVIET UNION
COMMUNISM GOVERNMENT
The U.S. was concerned because they believed that the Soviets wanted to spread communism all through Europe.

10. Germany Divided WEST GERMANY EAST GERMANY
Controlled by Great Britain, France, and the United States
EAST GERMANY
Controlled by the Soviet Union

11. THE ALLIES ALSO DIVIDED UP THE GERMAN CAPITAL OF BERLIN.
Dividing up Berlin
THE ALLIES ALSO DIVIDED UP THE GERMAN CAPITAL OF BERLIN.

12. EUROPE DIVIDED WESTERN EUROPE EASTERN EUROPE
Remained or became free democracies.
West Germany became a free democracy and sided with the U.S. and other Western European nations.
EASTERN EUROPE
Became Communist
East Germany became a Communist nation allied with the USSR.

13. IRON CURTAIN An Iron Curtain has descended on Europe
– Winston Churchill
Iron Curtain came to
symbolize the dividing
line that separated
Western Europe and
Eastern Europe.

14. THE COLD WAR
After WWI, 2 superpowers emerged in the world. They were the United States and the Soviet Union.
Both had nuclear weapons.
Neither trusted each other.
Great tension existed between the two.
People feared that this tension would one day result in nuclear war.
Cold War – the tension between the US and the Soviet Union that many feared would lead to war.
It divided most of the world into 2 camps.
Those that supported free democracy.
Those that supported the USSR and communism.

15. The Berlin Wall Many east Germans were fleeing to West Germany.
In the 1960’s, the communist leaders built the Berlin Wall.
The wall made it hard for people
to escape from communist
East Berlin to free West Berlin.
Anyone that tried to scale
the wall was shot.
It stood until 1989.

16. Collapse of the Soviet Union
The U.S. built up their military and made more nuclear weapons.
The Soviets were unable to keep up with the U.S due to their economy.
Soon communist governments fell throughout Europe.
By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union ceased to be a country.
It divided into Russia and several other countries.

17. End of the Cold War In 1990, Germans voted to reunify Germany.
For the first time since WWI, Germany became one country.
Europe is no longer divided by the “Iron Curtain.”