1. S
World War 2

2. S
People of WW2

3. Allies vs. Axis
S Allies
S Britain (Churchill)
S France (Charles de
Gaulle)
S USSR (Stalin)
S China (Kai-shek,
nationalists)
S US (FDR)
SAxis
S Germany (Hitler)
S Italy (Mussolini)
S Japan
(Yamamoto)

4. Charles de Gaulle
S =French general
S After France fell, he
committed to re-conquer
France
S Organized the Free French
military forces that battled
the Nazis until France was
liberated in 1944
S Often arrogant, declared, “I
am France”
S Upset many Allied leader

5. Winston Churchill
S=prime minister of
Great Britain
S Declared “We shall never
surrender!”
S Strong opposed of Nazi
Germany
S His speeches & radio
broadcasts gave confidence to
the British people
S Battle of Britain

6. Isoroku Yamamoto
S=Japanese
Admiral
S Greatest Japanese naval
strategist
S Called for the attack on Pearl
Harbor after FDR cut off oil
supplies to Japan

7. Douglas MacArthur
S=US commander of
the Allied forces in
the Pacific
S Devised the plan of “island hopping” to
regain Japanese strongholds
S Following the surrender of Japan after
the dropping of the atomic bombs,
MacArthur helped occupy Japan to
restore order

8. Erwin Rommel
S =German General
S When Britain took a strong hold in
Italy’s North African colonies, Rommel
was sent it as help from Germany
(Axis ally)
S British were surprised and were
kicked back to Libya- the battle
winners went back & forth until
Rommel finally won in 1942
S His success gave him the nick name
“Desert Fox”

9. Bernard Montgomery
S=British General
S Sent to take control of British
forces in North Africa
S Battle of El Alamein= British
frontal assault to the Germans in
Africa; British won

10. Dwight D. Eisenhower
S= US General
S Led Allied forces (mostly
Americans) to regain North
Africa- “Operation Torch”
S Later will become President

11. Joseph Stalin & Soviet Union
S Russia Soviet Union, 1922,
communist state
S Lenin dies in 1924 Stalin takes
power

12. Stalin
S Stalin means “man of steel”
S Goal: Create a model communist
state
S Goal: Move Russia from a rural 
industrial state
S All economic activity was placed
under the government’s control
S By 1937, the Soviet Union became the
world’s second-largest industrial power

13. Stalin
S Stalin eliminated anyone
that stood in his way
S Stalin is estimated to be
responsible for 8 to 13
million deaths (total is not
known)
S AND millions more died
from a result of famine
when reconstructing the
Soviet Union

14. Stalin
S Totalitarian
Government=
S government that exerts
complete control over
its citizens.
S Individuals have no
rights
S Government
suppresses all
opposition

15. Fascism in Italy
S Benito Mussolini and totalitarian
government in Italy
S Mussolini appealed to Italy’s
wounded national pride and
strikes by workers
“Italy wants peace, work, and
calm. I will give these things
with love I possible, with force
if necessary.” Benito
Mussolini

16. Fascism
SFascism=
S stressed nationalism and
places the interests of
the state above those of
individuals
S Power must rest with the
strong single leader and
a small group of his
devoted followers

17. Mussolini
S Mussolini marches on
Rome with his
followers (“Black
Shirts”) and
eventually the Italian
King appointed
Mussolini head of the
government
S IL Duce- “the leader”

18. The Nazis Take Over Germany

19. S Born:
April 20,
1889 in
Austria-
Hungary
S Poor
student
who never
completed
high
school
S He applied
to the
Academy of

20. He was convinced that it
was a Jewish professor
that had rejected his art
work; he became convinced
that a Jewish doctor had
been responsible for his
mother’s death; he
cleared the snow-bound
paths of beautiful town
houses in Vienna where
rich people lived and he
became convinced that
only Jews lived in these
homes. By 1910, his mind

21. S Hitler served in WWI
S In 1919 he joined the
National Socialist
German Workers’ Party
(Nazi)
S Didn’t believe in Democracy
or failed Capitalism of the
West
S Want to distribute wealth
more equally

22. Adolf Hitler
S After WW1, Hitler was a
jobless soldier
S 1919, he joined the
Nationalist Socialist
German Worker’s Party
aka Nazi Party (had no ties
to Socialism)
S He was a powerful
speaker and organizer that
he became the party’s
leader

23. S In 1923,
Hitler led
in uprising
in Munich
against the
Weimar
Republic
S Imprisoned
for 8 months
(sentenced

24. Mein Kampf
S Hitler’s book, “My
Stuggle,” set forth
his basic beliefs of
Nazism that
became his plan
of action

25. S 1933, The legislature
anointed Hitler dictator,
der Fuhrer
S Soon he declared all
labor unions and
political parties illegal
except his own
S Established the Gestapo=
powerful police force

26. Nazism
S Nazism=
S German brand of fascism
S Extreme nationalism
S United all German-speaking people in a great German
empire

27. NaziIdeolog
S Anti-Semitism
S Nationalism
S Militarism
S Anti-communism

28. “Purification”
S Enforce racial
“purification”
S In his view, Germans
(especially blue-eyed,
blond-haired “Aryans”)-
formed a “master race”
S “Inferior Races”= Jews,
Slavs, and all nonwhites,
were only fit to serve
Aryans

29. S Hitler believed that for Germany to
thrive
S Germans needed more “living
space” even if that meant getting
that land by force
S Because of Germany’s economic
depression after WW1, Hitler had
an easy time getting men to join
the army (Why?- needed jobs)
S Hitler’s private army= Storm
Troopers or Brown Shirts

30. S By 1932, Nazis had
become the strongest
political party in
Germany
S In 1933, Hitler was
appointed chancellor
(prime minister)
S Hitler soon dismantled
Germany’s democratic
government and
established the Third
Reich (Third German
Empire) and this Reich
would last 1,000 years

31. S
Battles & Attacks

32. The Battle of
Britain
S Germans attacked Britain by air
(Germany knew they couldn’t
compete with their navy)
S For 2 months, Germans bombed
Britain everyday
S RAF (Britain’s Royal Air Force)
fought back and with the help of
the radar, Germany eventually
called off their invasion
Churchill said in praise of the RAF
pilots, “Never in the field of
human conflict was so
much owed by so many to
so few.”

33. Japan
S Hideki Tojo- chief of Japan’s
army, launched invasion of
China
S British were too busy with
Hitler to block Japanese
expansion
S Only the US and its Pacific
islands remained in the way
S Japan took over bases in
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
S US protested by cutting off
trade with Japan
S Japan couldn’t survive
without the oil from the
US….this meant war

34. Peace Talks are Questioned
S Tojo met with emperor Hirohito
and promised that their
government would attempt to
preserve peace with
Americans
S But, Tojo ordered the navy to
prepare for an attack on the
US

35. Hints of an Attack
S US military broke Japan’s
secret communication codes
and learned Japan was
preparing for an attack.
S US didn’t know where attack
would be
S FDR sent “war warnings” to
Hawaii, Guam and Philippines
S US didn’t want to attack and thus
waited for an overt act
S Japan denied any talks of peace
treaties

36. Pearl Harbor
S 6 Japanese aircraft carriers, 180 air
bombers
S Radio operator flashed this message, “Air
raid on Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill.”
S For an hour and a half, the Japanese
planes attacked without disturbance of US
S Americans killed: 2,403
S Wounded: 1,178
S Ships Sunk/Damaged: 21, 8 Battleships
S Pearl Harbor had more losses than in all of
WW1

37. S

45. Reaction to Pearl Harbor
S “Yesterday, December
7, 1941, a date with will
live in infamy, the
Japanese launched an
unprovoked and
dastardly attack.”-FDR
S US declared war on Japan
S Germany and Italy declared war
on US

46. Battle of Midway
S Midway= island that lies
northwest of Hawaii
S Americans broke the Japanese
code and knew they were
attacking Midway
S Allied forces attacked Japanese
before they could even get
planes off their carriers
S Seen as revenge of Pearl
Harbor
S This battle was a turning point
S Allies then began “island
hopping” and gaining back
island after island of lost territory
back from the Japanese and

47. Guadalcanal
S Japanese troops arrived on
Guadalcanal (located in the
Solomon Islands) to construct
an air base
S Taken the the US marines
S Became a turning point in the war
S Strategically it was important was a
communication point between the
US & Australia

48. Battle of
StalingradS Germans were attacking Soviet
Union
S Stalingrad= major industrial center, and a city that Hitler
wanted to wipe out
S Citizens wanted to abandon the city, but Stalin ordered
that they defend his namesake city no matter what
S By the next winter, Germans controlled 9/10 of the city
S During winter Soviets brought in fresh tanks and trapped
the Germans
S Starving Germans surrendered
S Soviets lost 1,100,000 soldiers (more than the Americans
in the entire war) defending Stalingrad
S From then on, Soviets took control and
moved west

49. D-Day
S 3 million British, American and Canadian
troops
S Attack at Normandy in northern France
S Code Name: Operation Overlord
S June 6, 1944
S Shortly after midnight, thousands landed
S Largest land-sea-air operation in army history

50. D-day
S German retaliation brutal,
especially on Omaha Beach
S “People were yelling,
screaming, dying, running
on the beach, equipment
was flying everywhere, men
were bleeding to death,
crawling, lying everywhere,
firing coming from all
directions…We dropped
down behind anything that
was the size of a golf ball.” –
soldier Felix Branham

51. S

52. S

53. The Battle of the Bulge
S =Hitler’s last ditch effort
on the offensive
S SS Germans soldiers pushed forward
S Captured 120 GI’s and shot them
down in a huge field
S Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600
tanks and 1,600 planes-soldiers and
weapons they could not replace
S From this point on, the Nazis
could do little but retreat

54. S

55. S

56. Japanese Defense
S Kamikaze= suicide planes
(word means “divine winds”
and refers to a legendary
typhoon that saved Japan in
1281 from a Mongol invasion)

57. The Manhattan Project
S =Led by scientist, J. Robert
Oppenheimner
S =development of the atomic
bomb
S More than 600,000 people
were working on it, but many
did not know what it was for
(“best kept secret of the war”)
S Tested in New Mexico in July
of 1945
S IT WORKED!

58. The Manhattan Project
S Truman now faced the decision…to use the atomic bomb or
not
S US warned Japanese that it faced “prompt and utter
destruction” unless it surrendered…it did not.
S President Truman choose the location of the bomb droppings

59. Hiroshima & Nagasaki
S Bomber, Enola Gay, released an
atomic bomb, coded Little Boy, over
Hiroshima (Japanese military center)
S 45 seconds later, nearly every
building in Hiroshima ceased to
exist
S Japan did not surrender
S 3 days later, a second bomb, code-
named, Fat Man, was dropped on
Nagasaki
S By the end of the year, 200,000
Japanese had died as a result of
injuries and radiation

60. Yamaoka Michiko:
S “They say temperature of 7,000 degrees
centigrade hit me…Nobody there looked like
human beings…Humans had lost the ability
to speak. People couldn‟t scream, „it hurts!‟
even when they were on fire…People with
their legs wrenched off. Without heads. Or
with faces burned or swollen out of shape.
The scene I saw was a living hell.”

70. Japanese Surrender
SSeptember 2,
1945
SSurrender
ceremonies took
place on the US
battleship
Missouri in
Tokyo Bay

71. S
Political Move &
Techniques

72. Nonaggression Pact
S =signed 10 year
agreement between
USSR (Stalin) and Nazi
Germany (Hitler)
S Signed because Stalin was not
happy about not being invited to
conferences with the west
S In a secret agreement they
decided to divide Poland
between them.
S Also agreed that the USSR could
take over: Finland, Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia

73. Blitzkrieg in Poland
S Germany storms Poland
S Germany’s newest military
strategy, blitzkrieg, or
lightning war (fast tanks, powerful
aircraft, take enemy by surprise
and then quickly crush the
opposition)
S 2 days after the attack on Poland,
Britain and France declared war
on Germany

74. Atlantic Charter
S Atlantic Charter= promises between Churchill & FDR
(collective security, disarmament, economic cooperation and freedom of seas)
S FDR said he couldn’t ask Congress for a declaration
of war against Germany, but that he would do
everything to “force an incident”

75. The Holocaust
S Persecution Begins
S Hitler’s first move: ordered
all “non-Aryans” to be
removed from government
jobs
SHolocaust= the
systematic murder of 11
million people across
Europe, more than ½ of
whom were Jews

76. Jews Targeted
S Anti-Semitism= hatred of Jews, had a long history in many
European countries
S For many decades, Germans blamed Jews for everything
S Nuremberg Laws= stripped Jews of their German citizenship,
jobs and property

77. Stars of David
S To make them easier to identify, Jews
had to wear a bright yellow Star of David
attached to their clothing

78. Kristallnacht
S =“Night of Broken
Glass”
S Nazi storm troopers attacked
Jewish homes, businesses,
and synagogues across
Germany
S Many were killed or arrested
S Later, the Nazis blamed the
Jews for the destruction

79. A Flood of Jewish Refugees
S Many Jews fled and became
refugees but they had no place to go
S France would only accept 40,000,
Britain, 80,000 refugees
S Many countries feared what would
happened if they let Jewish refugees
in.
S The US let in 100,000 refugees, but
many Americans were fearful that
the immigrants would hurt the
economy more during the Great
Depression (ie: Albert Einstein led it)

80. Plight of the St. Louis
S Coast guard refused to let this
German ocean liner (filled with
Jewish refugees) stop in America
and forced them to return to
Europe.
S Later, ½ of these passengers
were killed in the Holocaust
S Significance: Indifference (not
caring) about the plight of the
Jews

81. Hitler’s “Final Solution”
S “Final Solution”= a
policy of genocide,
the deliberate and
systematic killing of
an entire population

82. The Condemned
S “Master Race”= Aryans
S “Inferior Race”=
S Communists
S Socialists
S Liberals
S Homosexuals
S Gypsies
S Jews
S Anyone who spoke out against the Nazi government
S Mentally deficient and ill, physically disabled, incurably ill
S Freemasons (supporters of the “Jewish conspiracy” to rule
the world)
S Jehovah’s Witnesses (who refused to join the army or salute
Hitler)

83. SS
S Rounded up Jewish
men, woman and
children and shot them
on the spot
S Nazi death squads
“secret squadrons”

84. Forced
Relocation
S Forced in crowded ghettos
(segregated Jewish areas in
certain Polish cities)
S Nazis sealed off ghettos with
barbed wire and stone walls
S Conditions were hard inside
S Bodies of victims pilled in
the streets
S Forced to work in factories

85. Concentration Camps
S =labor camps
S Originally used for political
opponents and protesters, but
later turned over to the SS
S Crowded in barracks, meager
meals, rats and flees, worked
from dawn to dusk
S If you were too weak, you were
killed
“The brute Schmidt was our guard; he beat and
kicked us if he thought we were not working fast
enough. He ordered his victims to lie down and
gave them 25 lashes with a whip, ordering them to
count outloud. If the victim made a mistake he was
given 50 lashes…30 or 40 of us were shot every
day. A doctor usually prepared a daily list o the
weakest men. During the lunch break they were
taken to a nearby grave and shot. They were
replaced the following morning by new arrivals from
the transport of the day…It was a miracle if anyone
survived for 5 or 6 months in Belzec.” –Rudolf

86. The Final Stage
S Mass murder:
slaughter, starvation
and now murder by
poison gas
S Gas Chambers:
could kill 12,000 a
day
S Overwork,
starvation, beating
and bullets did not
kill fast enough

87. Arriving at the Camps
S When prisoners
arrived, doctors
determined whether
they were strong
enough to work or not
S Personal belongings
were collected,
promised that they
would be returned later

88. Showers
S Weak were told to undress
and go to the “showers”
(gas chambers)
S Prisoners were even given
a bar of soap as part of the
deception
S Poisoned with cyanide gas
that came from the vents in
the walls
S Orchestras of fellow camp
inmates were usually
played during
exterminations

89. Evidence of Mass Murder
S Graves were being filled too fast
S Smell of murder
S Huge crematoriums, or ovens, to hide the evidence

90. S

91. The Survivors
S 6 Million died
S Some able to live through the concentration camps
S Survivors were forever changed by what they witnessed
S “Survival is both an exalted privilege an a painful burden.”
Gerda Klein

109. Liberation of Death Camps

110. Internment of Japanese Americans
S After Pearl Harbor, prejudice
increased against Japanese
Americans
S War Department called for a
mass evacuation of Japanese
from Hawaii
S Internment= confinement
S Any of Japanese ancestry from
California, Washington, Oregon
and Arizona were sent to
relocation camps

119. Internment of Japanese Americans
S Many had to sell their homes for less
than they were worth
S Jobs lost
S Japanese American Citizens League
(JACL) pushed the government to
compensate those sent to the camps
(only 1/1o of $ lost was given)
S JACL kept pushing and in 1978, Reagan
signed a bill giving $20,000 to every
Japanese American sent to relocation
camp
S With the check came a letter from
President Bush (1990) that said, “We can
never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we
can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that
serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans
during WW2.”

120. S
Effects/End of
War/Treaty

121. Displaced People/Survivors
S = included survivors of the
concentration camps, prisoners of
war, and refugees
S All of them found themselves in
wrong countries when postwar
treaties changed national borders
S Many wandered in hopes of finding
their families and/or a safe place to
live

122. Conditions in Europe Postwar
S Destroyed land
S Agriculture destroyed
S Transportation systems
destroyed
S Famine & disease

123. The Nuremberg War Trials
S With the discovery of the death
camps, many Nazi leaders were
put on trial (called Nuremberg
Trials)
S Following Crimes
S Crimes against the peace- planning and waging
an aggressive war
S War Crimes- acts against the customs of
warfare, such as killing of hostages and
prisoners, plundering private property and the
destruction of towns and cities
S Crimes Against Humanity- the murder,
extermination, deportation, or enslavement of
civilians
RESULT: the excuse “I was just following orders”
did not matter, and that people are responsible
for their actions, even during war

124. S

125. Occupation of
Japan
S US forces occupied Japan under
General Douglas MacArthur (for 7
years)
S Many Japanese military leaders were
tried, some, including Tojo, were
sentenced to death
S MacArthur instituted a free-market
economy and transformed the
Japanese government, including the
Japanese Constitution (which is still
known as the MacArthur
Constitution)

126. Demilitarize & Democratize
S Demilitarize= disbanding the Japanese armed forces, leaving them
only a small police force
S Democratize= creating a government by the people, new constitution
S *MacArthur was not instructed to revive the economy