1) The document summarizes key events of World War II from 1939 to 1945, including Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declaring war on Germany, Germany's invasion of Western Europe in 1940, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and the United States entering the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 2) It discusses major battles like Stalingrad in 1942-1943 and conferences between Allied leaders that helped coordinate the war effort against Germany and plan for the postwar period, such as the Atlantic Charter and Yalta Conference. 3) It concludes with Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945 after Hitler's suicide and the Soviet Union and United States

1. World War II
Author: Carl Schmidt, prof.

2. World War II
●
September 1, 1939: Germany attacks Poland
●
September 3, 1939: Declaration of war from France
and England to Germany
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September 17, 1939: Soviet Union attacks Poland
●
October 6, 1939: Polish capitulation

3. „Let's see how long the honeymoon will last“ Engl. caricature Sep.1939

4. Référence de l'image ci-dessus

5. Caricature from the „Evening Standard“

6. Caricature from the „Evening Standard“ Sept. 21, 1939

9. Blitzkrieg – Phoney war (Sitting war)
●
April 9 – June 10, 1940: German invasion of
Norway and Denmark, neutral countries
●
May 10 – June 25, 1940: German attacks
France through Belgium and Netherlands,
neutral countries
●
Summer 1940: Great Britain last remaining
country in the war against Germany

11. Great Britain in 1940
We are in the largest hole we have ever been in. I
bet my 20 million dollar pony on it.
I would say to the House as I said to those who
have joined this government: I have nothing to
offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have
before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.
We have before us many, many long months of
struggle and of suffering.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one
word: Victory. Victory at all costs — Victory in
spite of all terror — Victory, however long and
hard the road may be, for without victory there is
no survival.
Winston Churchill

12. The war against the Soviet Union

13. The war against the Soviet Union
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German code name: Fall Barbarossa
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June 22, 1941: an attack without a warning
●
Again planed as „Blitzkrieg“; war should end in
several weeks
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Aim: To capture the whole of European Russia
●
Special orders for the German Army in this war

14. The war against the Soviet Union
„Dad, kill the Germans!“

16. War of extermination
●
Extermination of a whole
population
●
Killings of civilians, children
and prisoners of war
●
Destruction of complete
villages and cities
●
To cause death by starving

17. War of extermination
● More than 50% of all war
prisoners from the
Soviet Union died
(around 3,3 million)
●
around 26 million Soviet
civilians died during the
war (more than 4 million
starved under German
occupation)

18. Crossroads
American press, March 1939

19. Anti-war demonstrations
in New York

20. The USA before December 1941
●
US citizens were isolationistic and pacifistic
●
Negative recollection of World War 1
●
At the same time military support of Great
Britain and the Soviet Union
→ Lend-Lease Act, February 1941

21. December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor

23. The USA in World War II
●
December 8: declaration
of war to Japan
●
December 11: declaration
of war from Germany
and Italy to the USA
●
First Washington
Conference 1941/42
between GB and the
USA
→ „Germany first“

24. Turning point of the war 1942-43
●
November 1942 – May 1943: American and
British soldiers attack North Africa
→ German and Italian forces were defeated
●
September 1943 – February 1943:
Battle of Stalingrad
→ Defeat of the whole Sixth German Army

25. Stalingrad
City of Stalingrad 90.000 German prisoners of war

26. Sportpalastrede Joseph Goebbels
February 18, 1943
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVP3KU-qOzc

27. Total War
●
Mobilisation: all resources
for the war
●
No limits: disregard the
laws of war and
humanity
●
War aims: total victory or
death
●
No difference between
frontline and home;
everybody is part of the
war

28. World War II conferences
Atlantic Charter, August 14, 1941

29. World War II conferences
Atlantic Charter, August 14, 1941
Aims for the post-war world such as:
● Self-determination of all the people in the world
● No territorial gains or changes against the will
of the citizens
● Disarming aggressor nations
● Global economic cooperation and trading
● Founding charter of the United Nations

30. World War II conferences
Atlantic Charter, August 14, 1941
First meeting of „The Big Three“
Results:
●
Cooperation in and after the war
●
Destruction of German troops and
war industry
●
Second front in Northern France
and Soviet Union joining the war
against Japan
●
Reordering of Poland (Curzon
Line, Oder-Neisse Line?)
From left to right:
●
Splitting of Germany Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

32. World War II conferences
Yalta/Crimea Conference, Feb 4-11, 1945
●
Rules of the unconditional
surrender of Germany
●
Splitting Germany into 4
occupation zones
●
Ruling Germany by an Allies
comission in Berlin
●
Denazification and
demilitarisation of Germany
●
Main war criminals on trial
●
War reparations
●
Plans to found the UN

33. German resistance against Hitler
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Conspiracy of July 20 (Operation Valkyrie)
●
Weiße Rose
●
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

34. Holocaust and the Wannsee
Conference (January 20, 1942)
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Conference about the „Endlösung der Judenfrage“
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Coordination and exact planning of the
deportation and mass killing of Jews
●
Killed Jews at the end of the war: 6 million

36. Literature

38. Unconditional surrender of
Germany May 8, 1945
●
Adolf Hitler suicide: April 30, 1945 during the
battle of Berlin
●
New president and supreme commander Karl
Dönitz authorized the leading generals to
sign the unconditional surrender of the
German army

39. Films

41. Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki: August 6 – 9, 1945

42. Capitulation of Japan
●
92.000 people died immediately after the
explosions, 130.000 weeks later from the
after-effects
●
September 2, 1945 capitulation of Japan
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Consequences: arms race of nuclear weapons
(Soviet Union 1949)

43. Potsdam Agreement: August 2, 1945
●
Principles to govern Germany within the borders of 1937
●
Reparations from Germany
●
Territorial changes (Oder-Neiße Border with Poland,
Königsberg to Soviet Union)
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Treatment of war criminals
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Orderly transfer of German population
●
Denazification, Demilitarisation, Democratization,
Decentralisation, Disassemblement

45. Expulsion of Germans
„Germany is 100% „No wrong, as big as it
responsible for their own has been, can justify
banishment destiny if another wrong.
you have the crimes of
the Germans during the A crime is still a crime,
war in mind. Poland even if there where
doesn't need to justify crimes led the way.“
the repaid sorrow.“
Roman Herzog
Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (President of Germany
(Prime minister of Poland 1994-1999)
2006-2007)