World War 2 began with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930s. Hitler gained power as Chancellor in 1933 and established a fascist dictatorship. Germany invaded Poland in 1939, which led Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Germany then conquered much of continental Europe. The Holocaust led to the genocide of approximately 6 million Jews and other groups deemed undesirable by the Nazis. Allied forces turned the tide starting in 1942-1943, leading to the eventual defeat of Germany in 1945.

1. Unit XII
WWII!!

2. I. The Beginning

3. A. Young Hitler
1. Born in Austria, aspired artist
2. Spent his youth as a tramp in Vienna
3. The outbreak of World War I as his liberation
4. After the war, he joins German Workers’ Party
– National Socialist Workers’ Party (Nazi) (1920)
– Refused to accept November (1918) Resolution

4. B. Nazis
1. Munich putsch (November 1923)
– Hitler imprisoned
– Dictates Mein Kampf
2. Portrays himself as savior of German people
3. ‘Nazi elections - Nazis polled 6.6 percent of the vote
(1924)
4. Joseph Goebbels, propaganda
5. Nazi supporters
a. Small property holders, rural middle classes
b. Elitist civil servants
6. 1930 election
– Nazis win 107 of 577 seats in Reichstag
– No party gained majority

5. C. Chancellor
1. Appointed Chancellor by Hindenberg (1/ 1933)
2. Reichstag set on fire by Dutch anarchist
(February 27, 1933)
3. Hitler suspends civil rights
4. New elections (March 5, 1933)
– Hitler granted unlimited power - four years
– Hitler proclaims Third Reich

6. D. Third Reich
• 1 party state enforced by Propaganda
• Opposition - Storm troopers (SA)—maintain party
discipline, Eliminated on Night of Long Knives (June 30,
1934)
• Schutzstaffel (SS)
a. Most dreaded arm of Nazi terror, by Heinrich Himmler
b. Fought political, racial enemies
4. Support
– Played off communism, language of pride
– Hitler = symbol of strong, revitalized Germany (Führer cult)
i. Charismatic
ii. Gave people what they wanted
c. Recovery of German national glory
5. National recovery
– Sealed Germany off from rest of world
– Unemployment dropped from 6 million to 200,000
– Outlawed trade unions
– Popular organizations cut across class lines - Hitler Youth

7. E. Racial Purity
• Inherited 19th century opinions
• Anti-Semitism
a. Jews as outsiders
b. Dreyfus Affair
c. Pogroms
d. “International Jewish conspiracy”
• Racial laws exclude Jews from public office (April
1933)
• Nuremberg Decrees (1935) - Deprived Jews of
citizenship (determined by bloodline)
• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) (November
1938)

8. IV. The War

9. A. Prewar
1. Peace settlement - Created more problems
2. League of Nations as alliance of victors against
vanquished
3. No binding standards created for peace&security
4. Kellog-Briand Pact (1928)—outlawing war
5. Great Depression intensified economic nationalism
6. Depression as last blow to Weimar Germany
7. Decline of Japanese exports = Invasion of
Manchuria (1931)
8. Mussolini invades Ethiopia (1935)
9. Ideologies
a. Violent nationalism
b. Glorifying nation, destiny
c. Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany = “Axis” (later joined by
Japan)
d. Fascist regimes in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania

11. B. Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
1. A weak Republican government
2. Right-wing officers rebel - Francisco Franco (r.
1936–1975)
3. Hitler, Mussolini send in troops, test new
weapons
4. Soviets back Republicans
5. Britain, France failed to act
6. Hitler’s lessons
a. Britain, France, Soviet Union have a hard time
containing fascism
b. Britain, France would do anything to avoid another war

13. C. German Space
1. Germany out of League of Nations (1933)
2. Disarmament provisions of Versailles voided(1935)
3. Goal = Unification of all Germans
4. Reoccupies the Rhineland (1936)
5. Annexation of Austria (1938)
6. Hitler wants to take Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
7. Neville Chamberlain
a. After Sudetenland, Hitler will want no more
b. Germany could not afford long war
c. Eastern Europe low in British priorities
8. Munich: September 29, 1938
a. Daladier (France), Chamberlain, Mussolini,&Hitler meet
b. Chamberlain proclaims “peace in our time”
c. Germany invades Czechoslovakia (March 1939)
d. Appeasement fails
9. Stalin’s response
a. Feared Western deal w/ Hitler
b. Nazi-Soviet non-aggression (August 1939)
c. Stalin promised ½ Poland

15. D. “Peace” Continues
1. Avoiding another war
2. 1930s as “a low, dishonest decade” (W. H. Auden, 1939)
3. Outbreak of world war unthinkable
4. British, American arguments = Germany was mistreated
5. Fascist states stop Soviet communism
6. The League of Nations
a. Japanese invasion of China
i. “Rape of Nanjing” (1937)
ii. League expressed shock, did nothing
b. Mussolini invades Ethiopia (1935)
i. Avenging defeat of 1896
ii. League imposed sanctions, did not enforce them

18. E. Poland Invaded
1. Hitler demands abolition of Polish Corridor
2. Poland stood firm but Hitler attacked (September
1, 1939)
3. Britain, France send warning to Germany
4. Britain&France declare war (September 3, 1939)
5. The Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”)
6. Soviet troops invade from the east
7. Poland falls in four weeks

20. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005137&MediaId=337

21. F. Move to West
1. Scandinavia—Germans take Denmark, one day
(Spring 1940)
2. Germans through Belgium toward France (May 10,
1939)
3. France
a. French army overwhelmed by Germans
b. French army poorly organized
c. French refugees flee south
d. Dunkirk—300,000 British, French troops evacuated to
England
e. Germans reach Paris (June 18, 1939)
f. French surrender (June 18, 1939)
i. Germans occupy northern France
ii. Southern France falls under Vichy regime under Marshall
Pétain
g. Free French movement resist, grows w/ war

23. G. Battle of Britain
1. The Battle of Britain (July 1940–June 1941)
a. 40,000 civilians dead
b. Stalemate in the air
c. British resistance
2. Winston Churchill (1940–1945, 1951–1955)
a. Talented, arrogant
b. Language, personal diplomacy
c. Convinced FDR to break w/ American neutrality
- Lend-Lease

27. H. Global War
1. Battle of the Atlantic
a. German submarines (“wolf packs”)
b. British development of sonar, aerial reconnaissance,
break German codes
2. North Africa - Protect the Suez
a. British humiliate Italian invasion in Libya - Germany to
intervene
b. Afrika Korps&Erwin Rommel successful at first
c. Rommel’s invasion of Egypt defeated at El Alamein (1942)
d. United States lands in French territories of
Algeria&Morocco
3. Conference at Casablanca - Allies discuss course of war
4. Japan
a. Attack Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), British
protectorate Malaya
b. Singapore falls (12/1941), Philippines invaded, press on to
Burma
5. American navy
a. Rapid production schedule
b. Chester Nimitz, William Halsey = victories

28. I. Germany on a Roll
1. Germany takes Yugoslavia (1940) - Croatian puppet state
2. Romania, Hungary, & Bulgaria side w/ Germany
3. Greece falls
4. Russia&Ukraine
a. Ethnically inferior Slavs & Jews, governed by communists = bad
b. Nazi-Soviet Pact matter of convenience for Hitler
5. Operation Barbarossa—invasion Soviet Union (6/22/41)
a. Stalin’s purges rid Russia’s most capable commanders
b. Germans take thousands of prisoners
6. War against Soviets pitted one ideology against another
7. Hitler diverts his attack from Moscow to industrial south
8. Nazi “New Order”
9. Patchwork affair
a. Military governments (Poland&Ukraine)
b. Collaborators (France), Fascists (Hungary)
10. Empire fed Germany, maintain morale/support
11. Countries paid taxes, food, industrial production, manpower

30. J. Puppets
1. Norway/Netherlands - party of Nazis governed, resistance
2. France
a. Collaboration = survival tactics to active Nazi support
b. Isolation/deportation of French Jews
c. Communist – Smuggling, guerrillas, saboteurs
d. Free French under Charles de Gaulle
3. Yugoslavia
a. Fascist Croats against most Serbs
b. Josip Broz (Tito) leader of Yugoslav resistance
c. Communist guerilla army
d. Gained support of Allies
e. Moral issues facing occupied countries
f. Enemies of the Nazis—“undesirables”

32. K. Holocaust
1. Hitler had already outlined his war against subhuman - Jews,
Gypsies,&Slavs
2. Himmler removes people (Fall 1939)
3. Poles&Jews deported from German lands
4. Special death squads shoot Jews in the streets
5. Planned (1938–1941) - Forced emigration, Deportation to
Madagascar
6. More than 5 million military prisoners marched to camps
7. Warsaw&Lodz ghetto—death&terror
8. Plans for mass killings in death camps, ghettos are sealed, Poison
gas vans
9. Extermination involved knowledge, cooperation of many not directly
involved
10. What of other governments?
a. Vichy France required Jews to wear special identification
b. Italians participated less actively
c. Hungarian government dragged its feet when it came to deportation
– Rebellions at Auschwitz&Treblinka
– Warsaw ghetto uprising (1943)
– Human costs, 4.1–5.7 million Jews killed

35. L. Allies Turn
1.Nazi enters USSR, Siege of Leningrad
2.Eastern Front
a)War to save the Russian motherland
b)Victory during the “General Winter,” recovery of Soviet army
c)Turning point—1943, German all-out assault on Stalingrad
d)Bitter house-to-house fighting w/ Soviet snipers, Stalingrad destroyed
e)January 1943: German surrender
3.Ukraine back to Soviet, Romania out of war, wins in
Yugoslavia&Czechoslovakia
4.Western Front
• Stalin pressured Allies to open second front in West
• Allied invasion of Sicily - Mussolini surrenders (Summer, 1943)
• Normandy (6/6/44), Liberation of Paris (8//44), Battle of the Bulge
(12/44)
• Allies cross Rhine (4/45), Soviets enter Berlin (4/21/45)
• Hitler - suicide bunker (4/30/45), German unconditional surrender
(5/7/45)

38. M. End of War
1.War demanded massive resources&national commitment
2.Germany&Japan: robbed local areas of resources
3.United States, Britain,&Soviet Union
4.Propaganda campaigns encouraged production
5.Germany was less efficient
6.Pet projects of Nazis expended time&money
7.Targets included industry
8.British = retribution
9.Americans = grind down Germany
10.Dresden fire-bombing – terrorize civilians?
11.Race to build the bomb - Manhattan Project
12.VJ Day 8/15/1945