2. HOW THE WAR STARTED
• The countries of Europe spent most of the 1930s building towards war.
On 1 September 1939, the German army invaded neighbouring Poland.
This was the event that finally led to the start of World War II. The war
soon spread beyond Europe, however, to Asia and Africa. The United
States entered the war in December 1941 after the Japanese attacked a
US military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The war ended shortly after
the United States dropped two atom bombs on Japan in August 1945. By
the time it was over, World War II had involved nearly every part of the
world. Although the estimates are inexact, it is believed that between
35 and 60 million lives were lost. Some six million of those were Jewish
victims of what became known as the Holocaust. This was an attempt by
the German leader, Adolf Hitler, to destroy the Jewish people.
3. WAR IN 1940
• Early in April Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark
accepted the “protection” that Germany offered the two
countries. Norway, however, declared war.
• British troops landed in Norway, but they were unable to stop the
German advance. In May the British forces were evacuated. On
June 9 Norway fell. King Haakon VII escaped and set up a
government in exile in London.
4. INVASION OF SMALLER COUNTRY’S
• On May 10 German forces invaded Belgium, he Netherlands, and
Luxembourg. Luxembourg was occupied without resistance.
Belgium and the Netherlands declared war.
• Winston Churchill now replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime
minister of Great Britain. The Allies sent troops into the Low
Countries, but by May 14 the Dutch army had to give up the fight.
The Netherlands was quickly brought under the rule of German
occupation forces. Queen Wilhelmina fled to London, where she
formed a government in exile.
5. Adolf HITLER
• In 1920 Hitler changed the name of the German Workers’ Party to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), abbreviated to Nazi. Sneering at the liberal
generalities of various other political parties and hating the communists, Hitler shouted accusations
against the Jews and cried out to the Germans to form an all-powerful national state. His voice, torn and
hoarsened by mustard gas, was a hypnotic one. His speeches kindled the anger of rivals, especially the
communists, and they tried to break up his meetings. They were prevented from doing so by the brutal
Nazis.
• The flamboyant spirit of the growing Nazi Party now began to attract the varied restless men who were to
become its core. They included chiefly Alfred Rosenberg, engineer and “philosopher,” anti-Jew, and anti-
Christian; Rudolf Hess, mathematician and geographer; Hermann Göring, combat pilot; General Erich
Ludendorff, war hero; and Major General Franz von Epp, infantry commander. All helped to persuade
communist-fearing German industrialists to give money to the Nazi Party, for Hitler assured them that the
Nazis “combat only Jewish international capital.”
• An established Munich journal, Völkischer Beobachter (“Popular Observer”), was bought to spread Nazi
influence. Hitler adopted the ancient swastika (hooked cross) as the party emblem and designed the Nazi
red banner with the black swastika. He saluted his comrades with a raised stiff arm and was greeted by
the words Heil Hitler! (“Hail Hitler!”).
7. INVASION OF POLAND
• IN THE FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER, GERMAN PLANES SWOOPED
OVER POLAND, BOMING FACTORIES AND MILITARY BUILDINGS.
8. CONCENTRATION CAMP
• In the 20th century millions of people were confined to
concentration camps, primarily in Germany and the
former Soviet Union, not for what they did but simply
because of who they were. Concentration camps are not
prisons where people are kept because they have been
lawfully convicted of some criminal offense. They are
places where political dissidents and members of national
or minority groups are confined for reasons of state
security, exploitation, or punishment for imagined or
accused crimes
9. END OF WAR
• By early 1945 it was clear that Germany could not fight for much
longer. The Allied leaders – British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet Premier
Joseph Stalin – met in Russia for the Yalta Conference. While at
Yalta, they planned for the final defeat and occupation of
Germany.
• Meanwhile, Soviet troops pushed on through Germany. By 25 April
the Soviets had surrounded Berlin. Adolf Hitler realised that the
war was lost and committed suicide on 30 April. Germany
surrendered at midnight on 8 May 1945.
