VA SOL Curriculum - Educational Purposes Only

1. Dr. SeussDr. Seuss
Goes to War
Goes to War
1941 - 1945World War II:
Political Cartoons

2. League of Nations:
Appeasement Policy toward Hitler and the Nazi Regime
What did the
lollipop
represent?

3. 1937 to 1939: British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain’s Appeasement Policy toward Hitler
“The policy of settling
international quarrels
by admitting and
satisfying grievances
through rational
negotiation and
compromise, thereby
avoiding the resort to
an armed conflict
which would be
expensive, bloody, and
possibly dangerous."

4. American Reluctance
to become involved
in the growing
tensions in Europe:
• America First
Committee
focused on
Isolationism &
U.S. Neutrality

5. The American pilot, Charles
Lindbergh, was a leading
member of America First:

6. Later, it was discovered that Lindbergh was Pro-Nazi, and
supported the anti-semitic views of Hitler & the Nazis:
Joseph Goebbels was Hitler’s minister of propaganda
which spread the anti-Jewish message throughout Europe.

7. • Rescue Mission to relocate
Jewish children from Germany
as well as Nazi occupied
Austria, Poland, and
Czechoslovakia.
• England accepted 10,000
Jewish children without their
parents between December 1,
1938 & September 1939.
• The U.S. accepted none
based on the idea that it was
unethical to accept children
without their parents.
• Prior to 1944, the U.S. had
strict immigration quotas.
Read more here…
Kindertransport:

8. Dr. Seuss’ cartoons
dealt with America’s
reluctance to deal
with Hitler or the other
Axis Powers.
•Continued reports of
cruelty toward the
European Jewish
population reached the
United States and
Congress, but most
Americans seemed
unwilling to step in and
help

9. • September 1, 1939:
Germany invades
Poland
• September 3, 1939:
Britain and France
Declare war on
Germany
Declaration
of War:
The Appeasement Policy
was over in Europe,
however, the United
States had yet to enter the
war.

10. June 22, 1940:
German
Occupation
of France
After France fell to Nazi
Germany, Hitler used
the French army, headed
by the new French Vichy
Government to fight
Britain in areas such as
Northern Africa

11. Lend-Lease Program
• 1938 – 1941: The
United States was still
unwilling enter the
war against Germany
• However, FDR knew
that Great Britain
needed help!
• March 1941:
LEND-LEASE ACT
• America would aid
Britain by supplying
military tanks,
weapons, fuel, & more

12. Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941:
The German
invasion of the
Soviet Union
• Hitler broke the
treaty he signed with
Stalin and invaded
the Soviet Union
• Now the Germans
were fighting a two
front war in Europe
• Western Front
• Eastern Front

13. Pearl Harbor
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
-Japanese Navel Marshall General Isoroku Yamamoto
December 7, 1941: Japan declared war on America with an
aerial attack that bombed U.S. warships stationed in Hawaii

14. The U.S. Declares War!
December 8, 1941:
•Japan declares war on
the U.S. & Great Britain
•United States & Britain
declare war on Japan
December 11, 1941:
•Germany & Italy declare
war on the U.S.
•The United States
declares war on both
Germany & Italy

15. Fighter Pilot Recruitment:
Air Force Critical to Allied Victory

16. Racial Segregation & Military
Recruitment during WWII:
Recruitment of
African American for
the United States
Armed Forces which
has been historically
segregated.
Tuskegee Airmen:
First African
American Air Force
Pilots for the United
States

17. Racial Segregation on the
American Homefront:
• U.S. factories were
producing all the war
supplies for the Allied
forces in Europe and the
Pacific.
• With most of the men
away fighting, factories
needed to find workers
to keep the war machine
going.
• This opened up factory
jobs to African
Americans & women in
the U.S.

18. U.S. Defense on the Homefront:
Back at home, the
U.S. government
needed to raise
money to pay for
the war:
•Americans were
asked to buy BONDS
& STAMPS

19. Americans were asked to make sacrifices to
support the war effort.
Conservation
& Rationing:
 FUEL
 FOOD

20. Fuel Shortages

21. Conservation & Rationing:
 METAL
 RUBBER

22. Urging Congress to work together in
support of the war effort.

24. In 1942, Dr. Seuss ran political cartoons dealing with the
possible outcomes of the war.