1. YALTA Conference Yalta, U. S. S. R
YALTA Conference Yalta, U.S.S.R. February 1945 Last meeting between the Big Three
Split Germany into 4 zones of occupation
Split Berlin into 4 zones of occupation
Agree to meet April 1945 in San Francisco & form United Nations
Stalin promises free elections in Eastern Europe
Stalin promises to enter war against Japan after Germany defeated

2. BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
Soviets outnumbered and out-supplied in beginning.
Average life expectancy of a reinforcement solider in Stalingrad was only 24 hours
Much hand to hand combat; urban combat - snipers
Soviet winter helps them finally defeat the Germans
German losses – 150,000 & 91,000 captured
Soviet losses – over 500,000; Stalingrad reduced to rubble
Turning point in the War for the Europeans! Soviets now begin the advance on Germany 2

3. NORTH AFRICA Tank Warfare! Keep Germans out of the Middle East
Br-Am. troops defeat Germans in North Africa, May 1943
Gen. Patton (U.S.); Gen. Rommel (Germany)
Opens up invasion of southern Europe thru Italy
PATTON
“Old Blood & Guts”
ROMMEL
“The Desert Fox”

4. ITALY British and US troops take Sicily and then invade southern Italy
Mussolini is overthrown & Rome surrenders
Fighting continues in northern Italy

5. GENERAL
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Addressing the
troops before
the D-Day
Invasion
June 6, 1944
Operation Overlord

6. TURNING POINT IN THE WAR FOR U.S.!
Open a western front, allowing for movement across France – Patton pushing Germans out
Allies now begin the advance on Germany.
Hitler is now forced to split his forces

7. BATTLE OF THE BULGE, 12/44
Hitler’s Last Stand – his last offensive – known as “Operation Grief”
Made Allied lines “bulge” for over 60 miles but never broke through
Last major battle of war; Nazis realize it’s over

8. The Nuremberg Laws Passed in Germany in Sept. 1935
Took away German citizenship from all German Jews
Made it illegal for a Jew to marry a German
Legally defined Jew
A person with at least one Jewish grandparent
Jews were not allowed to hold public office or vote
By 1938, were banned from practicing law & medicine, as well as from operating businesses

9. Jewish Refugees
Between 1933 when Hitler took power & 1939 when WWII started, 350,000 Jews escaped Germany
By 1938, the American consulate had a backlog of over 100,000 visa applications from Jews trying to leave Germany
After the Austrian Anchluss, 3,000 Austrian Jews applied for American visas daily

10. Immigration Issues in the US
In the United States, laws restricted granting a visa to anyone “likely to become a public charge.”
Germany had forced Jews to leave any wealth behind
Were only allowed a little over $4 when the left Germany
High unemployment rates in the 1930s made immigration politically unpopular
Previous immigration policies set quotas on the number of immigrants allowed in each year
Did not have a clause or exception for refugees or victims of prosecution

11. The Final Solution Jan. 20, 1942 – Wannsee Conference
Purpose: To determine the “final solution of the Jewish question”
Possible Solutions:
Rounding up “inferiors,” shooting them, and placing them in mass graves
Placing “undesirables” into trucks, then pumping exhaust fumes back into the truck
Both solutions proved inefficient & time consuming
The Nazis decided upon concentration camps & extermination camps
Reinhard Heydrich (right), who chaired the Wannsee conference, here with Heinrich Himmler.

12. Concentration Camps
First camp established in 1933 to jail political opponents
Buchenwald
One of the 1st & the largest
Built in Germany in 1937
Over 200,000 prisoners worked 12-hour shifts as slave laborers
No gas chambers, though hundreds died from exhaustion

13. Extermination Camps Were built after the Wannsee Conference
Built within many existing concentration camps, primarily in Poland
Treblinka was among the well-known
Auschwitz
Housed more than 100,000 people in 300 barracks
Gas chambers killed up to 12,000 people per day
Afterwards, their bodies were burned in the crematoriums
Of the 1,600,000 people who died at Auschwitz, 1,300,000 were Jewish (the rest were Poles, Soviet POWs, and Gypsies)

14. FDR dies from cerebral hemorrhage, April 1945
President Roosevelt’s Funeral - Warm Springs, GA

15. HITLER’S BUNKER Commits suicide here with wife, Eva Braun
April 30, 1945.

16. MAY 8, 1945