1. German Offensive

2. Poland fell after just 3 weeks
German Offensive
Blitzkrieg
(lighting war)
surprise and overwhelming force…Luftwaffe airstrikes and then tanks and soldiers
Poland fell after just 3 weeks

3. Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium
The Fall of France
May 1940
Germany had invaded
Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium

4. The Battle of Britain Battle of Britain Nightly bombings of cities
The German forces were driven off by the RAF
- Royal Air Force -

6. The U.S. Provides Limited Aid
In 1940, FDR announced that the US should become
“The Great Arsenal of democracy”

7. “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Germany invaded the USSR
US began to aid Stalin and Communist Soviet Union
“the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

8. Japan Attacks the U.S. PEARL HARBOR December 7, 1941
“A date which will live in infamy”

14. The Eastern Front - 1942 Germany attacks the Soviet Union
Battle of Stalingrad
won by the Soviets
Brutal winter
Massive Soviet counterattack
Hitler refused to retreat
Soviets lost over 1 million soldiers
Soviet army began moving toward Germany

15. Allies were able to start their push towards Germany
Operation Overlord
D-Day
June 6, 1944
70,000 troops land at Normandy, France
Allies were able to start their push towards Germany

16. Adolf Hitler commits suicide
Liberating Europe
The Big Three - FDR, Churchill, Stalin
Yalta Conference
Roosevelt wanted Soviet support against Japan and Soviet participation in the United Nations
Churchill pressed for free democratic elections in Eastern and Central Europe (Poland)
Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe, an essential aspect of the USSR's national security strategy.
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
Germany surrendered
VE Day
(May )

17. Racial Purity Germany tried to prove their “superior” race
The German government tried to identify persons of “inferior” race

18. The Ghettos
Jews were forced to live in ghettos, overcrowded segregated areas within cities

19. Ghetto to Concentration Camps
Jews were later relocated from ghettos to concentration camps where they were forced to work to support the Nazi war effort

20. Genocide the deliberate extermination of a specific group of people
The Final Solution
Genocide the deliberate extermination of a specific group of people
Death Camps to carry out the extermination of all Jews

21. Holocaust
Nazi racism led to the systematic murder of 11 million people in Europe
The Jews suffered the most with 6 million deaths % of Jewish Population in Poland was murdered

22. The Nuremberg War Trials
Death camps were discovered by Allied forces
Nazi leaders were put on trial Charged with war crimes
12 of 24 were sentenced to death
Goering, Hess,
von Ribbentrop, Keitel