This document provides an overview of Germany's history from 1919 to 1945, beginning with the Treaty of Versailles after WWI and the restrictions it placed on Germany. It then discusses the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, key events of WWII such as Germany's invasions and alliances, major battles on the Eastern and Western Fronts, and the Holocaust. The document uses text and images to present information on Germany under Hitler and the key political and military developments of WWII.

1. Germany’s WWII Story
1919-1945
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer

2. One People, One Empire, One Leader

3. Führer-Leader

4. Swastika

6. Treaty of Versailles

8. Treaty of Versailles
• Territorial
• The following land was taken away from Germany :
• Alsace-Lorraine (given to France)
• Eupen and Malmedy (given to Belgium)
• Northern Schleswig (given to Denmark)
• Hultschin (given to Czechoslovakia)
• West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia (given to Poland)
• The League of Nations also took control of Germany's overseas colonies
• Germany had to return to Russia land taken in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
• Some of this land was made into new states : Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
An enlarged Poland also received some of this land

9. Treaty of Versailles
•Military
•Germany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men;
•German army was not allowed tanks
•Germany was not allowed to have an air force
•Germany was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no
submarines
•The Rhineland was made into a demilitarized zone (DMZ)
•No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone
•The Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west
bank of the Rhine for 15 years

10. Treaty of Versailles
•Financial
•The loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe
blow to Germany’s economy
•Coal from the Saar and Upper Silesia in particular
•Germany had to pay $33 billion to the Allies(GB/France)

11. Treaty of Versailles
•General
•1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting
the war. This was Clause 231 - the infamous "War Guilt
Clause".
•2. Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria
•3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace

12. The German Reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
• There was anger throughout Germany when the terms were made
public
• The Treaty was seen by many Germans as being forced on them and
the Germans had no choice but to sign it
• German representatives in Paris knew that they had no choice as
Germany was incapable of restarting the war again
• Many right wing groups such as the Nazis believed in the Dolchstoss
Theory(Stab in the Back Theory)
• Blamed the “November Criminals”(the Weimer Republic) for accepting
treaty

13. Weimar Republic

14. Adolf Hitler
•Born in 1889 in Austria
•Family moved to Germany when he
was three
•Had five siblings-three died in
infancy
•Mom-Klara Dad-Alois

15. •His brother, Edmund, died in 1900
•After his brother’s death, Hitler changed and became
more moody and withdrawn
•Had more issues at school and with his dad
•His dad died in in 1903 and his mom died in 1907
•All three of these deaths had a huge impact on the
young Hitler
•In Mein Kampf, Hitler said he first became anti-Semitic
during his time in Vienna, Austria

16. Hitler Struggled in School

17. Vienna, Austria-1905-1913
•Hitler failed to get into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna two
different times
•Started selling paintings in the streets of Vienna
•Failed his examination to get into the Austro-Hungarian army in
1914
•Moved to Munich, Germany and joined the Germany army
when WWI broke out in 1914

25. Hitler in WWI
•Hitler was wounded twice while
serving
•Injured by a shell explosion
•Temporarily blinded by a mustard
gas attack
•There is a story that Hitler could have
been shot by the French soldier,
Henry Tandy, but was spared

26. Hitler in WWI

28. After WWI
•Hitler starts spying on the new Nationalist Socialist German
Workers Party(Nazi) for the German military
•Hitler quickly realized that this group discussed topics that he
believed in
•Hitler dropped out of the military and joined the Nazi Party and
quickly rose to become the leader
•Hitler found out that he had the power of speech and
persuasion during this time

30. Beer Hall Putsch-1923

31. Hitler’s Trial-1924

33. Hitler in Prison-
-Sentenced for 5 Years
-Served 9 Months-Good Behavior

34. Mein Kampf

35. Mein Kampf(My Struggle) Excerpts
• “If, with the help of his Marxist creed, the Jew is victorious over the other peoples of the
world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity and this planet will, as it did
thousands of years ago, move through the ether devoid of men.”
• “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator:
by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
• “Here he stops at nothing, and in his vileness he becomes so gigantic that no one need be
surprised if among our people the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil
assumes the living shape of the Jew.”
• “With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting
girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means he
tries to destroy the racial foundations of the people he has set out to subjugate. Just as he
himself systematically ruins women and girls, he does not shrink back from pulling down the
blood barriers for others, even on a large scale. It was and it is Jews who bring the Negroes
into the Rhineland, always with the same secret thought and clear aim of ruining the hated
white race by the necessarily resulting bastardization, throwing it down from its cultural and
political height, and himself rising to be its master.”

36. Hitler Rise To Power
•Hitler is appointed Chancellor
in 1933
•President Paul von
Hindenburg dies shortly after
and Hitler dissolves the
Weimer Republic
•Early Actions of Hitler:
•Drops out of the League of
Nations
•Starts rearming Germany
•Rearms the German
Rhineland area

37. Anschluss with Austria-1938

39. Sudetenland Crisis-1938
“Re-uniting German speaking peoples”

40. Sudetenland/Munich Conference-1938

41. Munich Conference
• Neville Chamberlain-Great Britain
• Adolf Hitler-Germany
• Benito Mussolini-Italy
• Edouard Daladier-France

42. Munich Conference--Chamberlain: “Peace for our
time”
• Hitler was given the Sudetenland
of Czechoslovakia
• Hitler promised that he was
done taking over territories
• Hitler wanted to re-unite all
German speaking people
• Became know as the “Policy of
Appeasement”

44. Winston Churchill-Opposed Appeasement

45. Hitler Takes Over all of
Czechoslovakia-1939

47. Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
German Ambassador von
Ribbentrop and Soviet dictator
Stalin laugh as Molotov signs
the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact on August 23, 1939

48. Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• Russia gave raw materials to Germany in exchange for
money and weapons
• Both agreed to stay neutral if the other entered the
war
• Secretly agreed to invade and split Poland. Germany
would get the western half and USSR the eastern half
• Russia would get Finland, Estonia and Latvia and
Germany would get Lithuania

50. How did the world react to this pact?
• Shock
• Poland was scared
• Hitler thought it would force Great Britain and France to back out of
their promise to help Poland if attacked

51. German invasion of Poland-Blitzkrieg!

52. Blitzkrieg-Lightning War-Video
1. Airforce attacks enemy front-line and rear positions, main roads, airfields and
communication centers. At the same time, infantry attacks on the entire frontline and
engages enemy.
2. Tank(panzer) units breakthrough main lines of defense and advance deeper into enemy
territory. While following, mechanized units pursue and engage defenders preventing
them from establishing defensive positions. Infantry continues to engage enemy for the
same reason.
3. Infantry attacks enemy flanks in order to link up with other groups to complete the
attack and eventually encircle the enemy and/or capture strategic position.
4. Mechanized groups go deeper into the enemy territory outflanking the enemy
positions and preventing withdrawing troops and defenders from establishing effective
defensive positions.
5. Main force links up with other units encircling and cutting off the enemy.
6. Goal was to achieve victory as quickly as possible

57. Sitzkrieg-The Phony War

58. Tripartite Pact is signed--Axis Powers-1940

59. Axis Powers
• Main Powers: Germany, Italy
Japan
• Other Powers: Albania, Bulgaria,
Finland, Romania, Thailand,
Hungary

61. The “Phony War” Ends:
Spring, 1940

62. French and German Plans for
the Battle of France 1940

63. France’s “Impenetrable” Maginot Line

66. Miracle of Dunkirk

67. Dunkirk Evacuated
June 4, 1940

68. German Advances until the Armistice-Battle of France: June 4-22, 1940

70. France Surrenders
June, 1940

71. A Divided France
Henri Petain

72. The French Resistance
The Free French
General Charles DeGaulle
The Maquis

73. Axis Invasion of the Balkans(Yugoslavia)-1941

76. Now Britain Is All Alone!

77. Winston Churchill

78. "What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that
the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and
the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and
might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows
that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand
up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move
forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world,
including the United States, including all that we have known and cared
for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and
perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us
therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the
British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will
say, "This was their finest hour."
Winston Churchill

79. Nazi Goals for Battle of Britain
1. Destroy the Royal Air Force(before invasion was possible-hopefully
by 9-15)
2. Attack and destroy the British Navy
3. Attack British troops
4. Once air control was gained, the invasion of Great Britain would
begin
**Germany never succeeded in achieving #1
**German bombers did so poorly against the RAF that they started
bombing at night only
**Great Britain was aided heavily by the radar and Ultra

80. Operation Sea Lion-Unternehmen Seelöwe

82. Battle of Britain-The Blitz-September 1940-May, 1941

83. Royal Air Force

84. Luftwaffe
• Messerschmitt Bf 109 • Herman Goering

85. Air Raid Shelters During the Blitz

86. Results
•In May, 1941, Germany decided to focus on attacking British
ships and ports and thus stopped attacking cities
•British losses-around 40,000 civilians dead
•46,000-139,000 injured
•German losses-3,363 aircrew and 2,265 aircraft
•Britain won by the fact that Germany did not achieve their
goals

87. German Invasion of USSR-June, 1941
• Final Plan for Operation
Barbarossa

89. Scorched Earth Policy
•Stalin demanded this of the
Soviet troops as they retreated
•What is this?

91. Battle for Moscow
•The Soviet Winter
Counteroffensive
December 6, 1941 - April 30,
1942
•The Russian winter sets in
and make is a huge turning
point in the war

93. Battle of Stalingrad:
Winter of 1942-1943
German Army Russian Army
1,011,500 men 1,000,500 men
10,290 artillery guns 13,541 artillery guns
675 tanks 894 tanks
1,216 planes 1,115 planes
• Around two million total casualties

94. Siege of Leningrad
• On August 30th 1941, the Germans took over Leningrad's railroads,
cutting them off from the rest of Russia and the world.
• Unlike the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans surrounded the city to
starve the city into submission
• Between November 1941 and October 1942, 641,000 people died of
starvation
• People resorted to eating rats, wallpaper paste and some resorted to
cannibalism
• Finally, a successful Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad, drained
necessary resources the Germans needed to continue the blockade,
and eventually, it failed
• The Germans never took Leningrad, but it was one of the most costly
conflicts Russia had ever faced-over one million died

95. The North Africa Campaign:
June, 1940-May, 1943
Gen. Erwin Rommel,
The “Desert Fox”
Gen. Bernard
Montgomery
(“Monty”)

98. The Italian Campaign
[“Operation Avalanche”] :
Europe’s “Soft Underbelly”
Allies plan assault on
weakest Axis area -
North Africa - Nov.
1942-May 1943
George S. Patton leads
American troops
Germans trapped in
Tunisia - surrender
over 275,000 troops.

99. The Battle for Sicily:
June, 1943
General
George S. Patton

100. The Battle of Monte Casino:
February, 1944

101. The Allies Liberate Rome:
June 5, 1944

102. The Atlantic Wall

106. Gen. Eisenhower Gives the Orders for
D-Day [“Operation Overlord”]

107. D-Day (June 6, 1944)

108. Normandy Landing
(June 6, 1944)
Higgins Landing Crafts
German Prisoners

109. July 20, 1944 Assassination Plot
Major Claus von
Stauffenberg

110. July 20, 1944 Assassination Plot
1. Adolf Hitler
2. Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel
3. Gen Alfred von Jodl
4. Gen Walter Warlimont
5. Franz von Sonnleithner
6. Maj Herbert Buchs
7. Stenographer Heinz Buchholz
8. Lt Gen Hermann Fegelein
9. Col Nikolaus von Below
10. Rear Adm Hans-Erich Voss
11. Otto Gunsche, Hitler's adjutant
12. Gen Walter Scherff (injured)
13. Gen Ernst John von Freyend
14. Capt Heinz Assman (injured)

111. The Liberation of Paris:
August 25, 1944
De Gaulle in Triumph!

112. The Battle of the Bulge:
Hitler’s Last Offensive
Dec. 16, 1944
to
Jan. 28, 1945

113. US & Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe
River(in Germany): April 25, 1945

114. Hitler Commits Suicide
April 30, 1945
The Führer’s Bunker
Cyanide & Pistols
Mr. & Mrs. Hitler

115. V-E Day (May 8, 1945)
General Keitel

116. Nazi Propaganda
• "All propaganda must be so popular and on such an
intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those
toward whom it is directed will understand
it... Through clever and constant application of
propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as
hell, and also the other way around, to consider the
most wretched sort of life as paradise."
• -- Adolf Hitler

122. The Holocaust
•The genocide of approximately six million European Jews
during World War II
• A program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi
Germany throughout Nazi-occupied territory
• Approximately two-thirds of the population of nine million Jews
who had lived in Europe before the Holocaust died
• Some say that the definition of the Holocaust should also include
the Nazis' killing of millions of people in other groups from
Germany and other occupied territory
• By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would
be between 11 million and 17 million people

123. What is Genocide?
1948-United Nations
• Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
• Member Countries must “undertake to prevent and punish.”
• Source-US Holocaust Memorial Museum

124. Who was Inferior According to Hitler?
1. Jews(6 million dead)
2. Gypsies(500,000 to 1.5 million)
3. Mentally/physically handicapped people(75,000 to 250,000)
4. Soviet Slavs/POW’s/Troops-(16.5 million)The Russian Academy of Science in 1995
reported civilian victims in the USSR, including Jews, at German hands totaled 13.7 million
dead including 7.4 million victims of Nazi genocide, 2.2 million deaths of persons
deported to Germany for forced labor; and 4.1 million famine and disease deaths in
occupied territory. German captors killed an estimated 2.8 million Soviet POWs through
starvation, exposure, and execution
5. Poles(2.5 million dead)
6. Homosexuals(5-15 thousand dead)
7. Communists/socialists(many but number not confirmed)
8. Dark skinned people(death and forced sterilization)
9. Mixed races-"The mulatto children came about through rape or the white mother was a
whore," Adolf Hitler
10. Jehovah’s Witnesses(2,500-5,000)

125. What is the Aryan Race?
•Nazis used term to refer to a so-called master race that
originated around Germany
•Perfect Aryan was blonde, blue-eyed, tall and muscular
•The original term refers to a people speaking a Indo-
European dialect

126. Lebensborn-Fount of Life
• The program aimed to promote the growth of "superior" Aryan
populations by providing excellent health care and living conditions to
women and by restricting access to those deemed “fit”
• Houses were set up throughout Germany and many occupied
territories
• Many Lebensborn children were born to unwed mothers which helped
lead to many rumors of rape
• Contrary to widespread rumors, women were not forced to have
relations with Aryan Germans

128. Hitler’s Jewish Question-1933
•Nazis "temporarily" suspend civil liberties for all citizens
in 1933-Never restored.
•The Nazis set up the first concentration camp at Dachau
in 1933. The first inmates are 200 Communists.
•Jews are prohibited from working as civil servants,
doctors in the National Health Service, and teachers in
public high schools.
•Most Jewish students are banned from public high
schools and colleges.

129. Nuremburg Laws 1935
1. Took away German citizenship from Jews thus making Jews second class
citizens by removing their basic civil rights.
2. Established membership in the Jewish race as being anyone who either
considered themselves Jewish or had three or four Jewish grandparents.
People with one or two Jewish grandparents were considered to be mixed
race.
- eventually anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent was at risk in
Nazi Germany
3. Jews could only marry Jews
4. No sexual relations between non-Jewish Germans and Jews

130. 1936
• Nazis boycott Jewish-owned businesses

131. Kristallnacht-1938
“Night of the Broken Glass”
•On the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazis
roamed through Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows
of Jewish businesses and homes, burning synagogues and
looting.
•In all, 101 synagogues were destroyed and almost 7,500
Jewish businesses were destroyed.
•26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration
camps.
•Jews were physically attacked and beaten and 91 died in
the attack.

132. Kristallnacht

133. Kristallnacht

134. 1938-Cont.
•All Jewish children are expelled from public schools in Germany
and Austria.
•Nazis take control of Jewish-owned businesses.

135. Hitler’s Final Solution
•Genocide

136. 1939
•Hitler orders the systematic murder
of the mentally and physically
disabled in Germany and Austria
•Jews are required to wear
armbands or yellow stars

137. 1940
• Nazis begin deporting German
Jews to Poland
• Jews are forced into ghettos
• Nazis begin the first mass murder
of Jews in Poland

140. Auschwitz

141. Nazi Death Camps

143. 1941
•Jews throughout Eastern Europe are forced into ghettos
•In two days, German units shoot 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at
BabiYar- the largest single massacre of the Holocaust
•The death camp at Chelmno in Poland begins murdering Jews

144. 1942
• Nazi officials announce "Final Solution"- their plan to kill all
European Jews
• Five death camps begin operation in Poland: Majdanek, Sobibor,
Treblinka, Belzec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Ghettos of Eastern Europe are being emptied as thousands of Jews
are shipped to death camps
• The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union acknowledge
that Germans are exterminating the Jews of Europe

145. 1943
•Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto resist as the Nazis begin new
rounds of deportations. These Jews hold out for nearly a month
before the Nazis put down the uprising.

146. 1944
•Hitler takes over Hungary and begins deporting 12,000
Hungarian Jews each day to Auschwitz where they are
murdered

147. 1945
•Hitler is defeated and World War II ends in Europe.
•The Holocaust is over and the death camps are found emptied.
•Many survivors are placed in displaced persons camps until
they find a country willing to accept them.

148. 1947
•The United Nations establishes a Jewish homeland in British-
controlled Palestine, which becomes the State of Israel in 1948.