The document provides an overview of World War 2 from 1939-1945. It discusses the key combatant powers and timeline of major events including Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, the turning point in 1941 when Germany invaded the USSR and Japan attacked Pearl Harbor bringing the US into the war, the Allied victories from 1942-1945 including D-Day and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the consequences of the war including over 55 million deaths and the Holocaust which killed approximately 6 million European Jews.

1. Second World War (1939-1945)
Hiroshima, 1945

2. Second World War (1939-1945)
Combatant
powers and
features of
the war
War in Europe
(1939-1941)
The turning
point 1941
The victory of
the Allies
(1942-1945)
The
consequences
of the war
The Jewish
Holocaust

3. Second World War (1939-1945)
Combatant powers
YEAR THE ALLIES THE AXIS POWERS
1939 FRANCE, BRITAIN GERMANY
1940 BRITAIN GERMANY, ITALY
1941
1945
BRITAIN, USSR, USA,
FRANCE (1945)
GERMANY, ITALY (until
1943), JAPAN

4. Second World War (1939-1945)
Features of the war
Genuine world war: Europe,
Africa, Asia, the Atlantic, the
Pacific, the Mediterranean Sea…
More than 100 million soldiers
More 800 million civilians suffered
Sixty countries were involved in
the war

5. Second World War (1939-1945)
Features of the war
Duration of the war
• Traditionally, 1939-1945
• Some scholars claim that this
idea corresponds with a
«Western view of history»,
for them WWII actually
started in 1937 when Japan
invaded China
• Any way, we will stick to the
traditional notion: 1939-1945

6. Second World War (1939-1945)
Features of the war
Totalitarian regimes: atrocities (Jewish
and Gypsy holocaust, Soviet prisoners
starvation…)
Allies: bombing civil population, atomic
bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Sufering of the civil population
Deportation: millions of refugees
Powerful and sophisticated weapons

7. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Sept. 1939
Invasion of
Poland
1940
Denmark
Norway
Holland
Belgium
France
1940
Occupied
France &
«France» of
Vichy
1941
Nazi invasion
of the Balkans
1940
Battle of
Britain

8. Invasion of Poland
1939
• German attack, 1/9/1939
• Soviet troops marched into
Poland, 17/9/1939 (and the
Baltic States later)
• October 1939, Poland
completely invadid
Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

9. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

10. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Hitler in Poland

11. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
)
«We are going to Poland to trash the Jews»

12. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Sept. 1939
Invasion of
Poland
1940
Denmark
Norway
Holland
Belgium
France
1940
Occupied
France &
«France» of
Vichy
1941
Nazi invasion
of the Balkans
1940
Battle of
Britain

13. Nazi invasions in
Western Europe
(1940)
• One after the other:
Denmark, Norway,
Holland, Belgium and
France
Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

14. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Paris, 1940

15. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Occuppied and annexed France / «France of Vichy»

16. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Hitler and Pétain, 24 October 1940

17. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Hitler and Franco, 23 October 1940

18. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Sept. 1939
Invasion of
Poland
1940
Denmark
Norway
Holland
Belgium
France
1940
Occupied
France &
«France» of
Vichy
1941
Nazi invasion
of the Balkans
1940
Battle of
Britain

19. Battle of Britain (1940)
• Churchill, new British PM
• German air attacks on
Britain
• Britain resisted. The only
power that faced Hitler in
that moment
Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

20. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)
Winston
Churchill
British Prime Minister

21. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

22. Second World War
War in Europe (1939-1941)

23. Second World War
The turning point (1941)
22/06/1941
German invasion of the
USSR
«Operation Barbarossa»
German
quick
advance
7/12/1941
Japanese
attack on
Pearl Harbor,
main US
naval base in
the Pacific
The US and
USSR
entrance in
WWII was
the turning
point of the
war
1941-1942
Axis’
advances
continued

24. Operation Barbarossa
• 22 June 1941
• 4 million Axis soldiers
invaded the USSR
• Soviet army pushed back
up to Leningrad (Saint
Petersburg), Moscow and
Ukraine
Second World War
The turning point (1941)

25. Second World War
The turning point (1941)

26. Second World War
The turning point (1941)

27. Second World War
The turning point (1941)
Terrible repression against Soviet citizens and Jews

28. Second World War
The turning point (1941)
The Soviet army almost collapsed

29. Attack on Pearl Harbor
• 7 December 1941
• Japan and US at war
• Japan continued
conquering new
territories in Southeastern
Asia and the Pacific
Second World War
The turning point (1941)

30. Second World War
The turning point (1941)

31. Second World War
The turning point (1941)

32. Second World War
The turning point (1941)
British Singapore surrender

33. Second World War
The turning point (1941)
American Philippines surrender

34. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-19145)
1942-1943
Midway,
Stalingrad,
El Alamein
1943
Mussolini
dismissed
Italy
invaded by
the Allies
and the
Germans
June 1944
Normandy
landing
(«D Day»)
Allies
invaded
France
August 1945
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
US Atomic
Bombs
Japan
surrendered
The war is
over
1944-1945
Soviets
invaded
Germany
and took
Berlin (April-
May 1945)
Germany
capitulated

35. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Midway
Pacific
June 1942
Stalingrad
Eastern Front
August 1942 –
February 1943
El Alamein
Norhern Africa
October –
November
1942
The
beginning
of the end
of the war

36. Second World War
The victory of the Allies(1942-1945)
Allied invasion.
Coup in Rome.
Mussolini
dismissed by
the king
German
commando
liberated
Mussolini
Italy invaded
by Germany.
Mussolini
established a
Fascist regime
in the North
Allies
advanced
slowly
towards
Northern Italy
1943 1943-1945

37. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

38. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

39. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

40. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

41. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

42. «D Day» - Normandy
landings
• Allies disembarked in
Normandy and Marseille
• Allies conquered France
• Allies started attacking
Western Germany
Second World War
The victory of the Allies(1942-1945)

43. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

44. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

45. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Liberation of Paris 25 August 1944

46. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Charles de Gaulle, Liberation of Paris 25 August 1944

47. Soviet advance
towards Germany
• From Stalingrad,
continuous Soviet
advances
• The Red Army conquered
the Baltic states, Poland,
the Balkans
Second World War
The victory of the Allies(1942-1945)

48. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

49. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
German population fleeing from the Soviet army

50. Soviet and Western
advance towards Germany
• Battle of Germany (1944-45)
Soviets from the East, Westerners
from the West
• Hitler commited suicide
• Berlin conquered by the Soviets
• Unconditional surrender ( 7-8 May
1945)
Second World War
The victory of the Allies(1942-1945)

51. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Soviet soldiers in the Battle of Berlin

52. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Hitler commited suicide on 30th April 1945

53. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)

54. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
German capitulation 7-8th May 1945

55. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
German capitulation 7-8th May 1945

56. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
German capitulation 7-8th May 1945

57. The end of the war
• Japan went on fighting
• New American president,
Truman, decided to use a
terrible new weapon
• August 1945, atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• 2nd September 1945, Japan
surrendered. The war was
over.
Second World War
The victory of the Allies(1942-1945)

58. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Hiroshima after the bomb

59. Second World War
The victory of the Allies (1942-1945)
Japanese capitulation 2nd September1945

60. Consequences
• Death toll: 55 million plus
injured, maimed, orphans,
widows…
• Material devastation,
especially in the USSR,
Eastern Europe, Germany and
Japan
• Some Western European and
Asian areas were also ruined.
Second World War
The consequences of the war

61. The Conference of Yalta
• Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met
in Yalta few months before the end
of the war
• They agreed on dividing Germany
in four occupation zones (British,
American, French and Soviet)
• They agreed on holding free
elections in the liberated countries,
but Stalin did not meet this
compromise
Second World War
The consequences of the war

62. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Conference of Yalta, February 1945

63. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Japanese capitulation 2nd September1945

64. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Stalin poster in
Unter den Linden
Berlin 1945

65. Second World War
The consequences of the war
French troops
parade in Berlin

66. Second World War
The consequences of the war

67. Second World War
The consequences of the war
British troops
parade in Rome

68. Changes in Europe’s map
• Soviet Union recovered the former
Tsarist Empire frontiers and
expanded towards the East
• Poland was «pushed» towards the
West, giving eastern lands to the
USSR and annexing former German
territories
• Central and eastern Europe under
Soviet rule
Second World War
The consequences of the war

69. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Soviet troops
entering Lodz
(Poland)
230.000 Jews
were exterminated
in that Polish city

70. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Poland was
«pushed
eastwards»

71. Second World War
The consequences of the war
Soviet expansion in
Central Europe after WW2

72. Aftermath of WWII
• Europe, as a continent, was the
great loser
• USA and USSR became the two
«superpowers»
• Cruelty, genocide, atomic bomb…
• United Nations were founded in
1945  maintain international
peace and protect human rights
Second World War
The consequences of the war

73. Second World War
The consequences of the war
San Francisco Conference
1945
Foundation of the UN

74. The Holocaust or
«Shoah»
• Nazi extermination of Jews and
other peoples (Gypsies) carried out
by Nazi Germany
• About 6 million (out of 9 million)
European Jews were exterminated
• 40.000 facilites in Nazi occupied
Europe to concentrate, hold and
exterminate
Second World War
The Holocaust

75. The Holocaust
• Not only Jews were exterminated
• Romani (Gypsy) people was also
mass murdered, alongside disabled
people, Soviet prisoners, Polish and
Soviet civilians and homosexuals.
• Recent data show that more than
11 million civilians and prisoners
from eastern Europe countries
were murdered
Second World War
The Holocaust

76. Antisemitism in Nazi
Germany
• Antisemitic propaganda (Goebbels)
• Nüremberg Laws (1935)  Jews
were deprived of their German
nationalisty, Interracial marriages
were forbidden
• Kristallnacht or “Crystal Night”
(1938)  huge «pogrom» all over
Germany
Second World War
The consequences of the war

77. Second World War
The Holocaust
Nüremberg Laws, 1935

78. Second World War
The Holocaust
Nüremberg Laws, 1935

79. Second World War
The Holocaust
Nüremberg Laws, 1935

80. Second World War
The Holocaust
Kristallnacht or “Crystal Night”, 1938

81. Second World War
The Holocaust
Kristallnacht or “Crystal Night”, 1938

82. Second World War
The Holocaust
Kristallnacht or “Crystal Night”, 1938

83. Second World War
The Holocaust
Nazi antisemitic propaganda

84. The Holocaust in WWII
• From 1941 on, Nazis came to
control most of central and eastern
Europe
• Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic
states, Russia had important Jewish
minorities that in certain areas
made up the majority of the
population
• Wannsee Conference 1942  Final
solution to the «Jewish Problem»
Second World War
The consequences of the war

85. Second World War
The Holocaust
Millions of Jews were caught by the Nazi expansion

86. The Holocaust in WWII
• Overcrowded Ghettos in the cities
• Concentration camps  Slave
labour until they died of
exhaustion or disease
• SS Einsatzgruppen  mass
shootings
• Extermination camps  Industrial
murder of Jews and other inmates
in gas chambers
• «Research» on human beings
Second World War
The consequences of the war

87. Second World War
The Holocaust
Warsaw ghetto

88. Second World War
The Holocaust
Einsatzgruppen in action

89. Second World War
The Holocaust
Jews sent to extermination camps

90. Second World War
The Holocaust
Jews arriving in Auschwitz extermination camp

91. Second World War
The Holocaust
Bergen Belsen concentration camp after the liberation

92. Second World War
The Holocaust
Josef Mengele carried experiments on inmates in Auschwitz