H1.

3: WORLD WAR II

Key Questions:
1. Analyze the use of violence in WWII.
2. What political choices did French citizens make after their defeat and occupation?
3. Why and how was the Shoah carried out?
4. Analyze the role of the ‘Home Front’ in WWII. (What were the social consequences of the war in
the US from 1941 to 1945?)
5. Evaluate whether the dropping of the atomic bombs by the United States was justified.
6. How did World War II sow the seeds of the Cold War?

Learning Objectives:
 Analyze the choices French citizens were confronted with in June 1940.
 Compare the circumstances and the development of the Vichy regime and the National
Revolution and the development of the Resistance and the CNR.
 Understand the nature and impact of the Holocaust and the mass destruction of the war
(genocide, war dead, displaced populations).
 Evaluate the impact of the war on US civilian life (incorporating the role of women and the
issue of Japanese internment).
 Evaluate how the circumstances surrounding the decision and use of the two atomic
bombs contributed to the emergence of the Cold War

Key Terms:
Vichy Regime
National Revolution: was
the official ideological
program promoted by the
Vichy regime (the “French
State”).
Collaboration
Accommodation
Conseil National de la
Résistance (CNR): Created
in Paris in 1943, it has as
objectives to coordinate
actions against the occupier
and prepare the
refoundation of the
Republic.
Einsatzgruppen ("Groups of
intervention"): SS soldier
units, responsible for
systematically executing the
communists and Jews at the
back of the Russian front.
Holocaust (Shoah: Meaning
in Hebrew "catastrophe" or
"destruction", this term has
been used since the 1970s
to express the singularity of
the genocide of the Jews.)
D Day: the Allied landings in
Normandy on 6 June 1944.
Manhattan Project: an
unprecedented, top-secret
World War II government
program in which the
United States rushed to
develop and deploy the
world's first atomic
weapons before Nazi
Germany.
The Japanese Empire
Isolationism
The War in Europe
Pearl Harbor
American entry into World
War II
Atomic Bombs
Soldiers’ Experiences
The End of the Great
Depression
The Bracero Program
(1942-1964): series of
agreements between the
U.S. and Mexican
governments to allow
temporary labourers from
Mexico, known as braceros,
to work legally in the United
States.
Women in the workforce
Women in the military
African American service
members: African
Americans were allowed to
serve on ships with white
sailors, and more black
units were sent into
combat. The
changes did not come
easily.
Segregation in the military
The United Nation: officially
began after the San
Francisco Conference
ended, on 24 October 1945.
The G.I. Bill (1944):
provides demobilized
soldiers of the Second
World War with the
financing of their university
studies or vocational
training as well as a year of
unemployment insurance.
Organization:
1. Introduction: causes of WWII (Rooted in the peace settlement of 1919-1920): Poorly drawn
borders and changes, Inconsistent application of self-determination, Russian suspicion,
Italian dissatisfaction, German “war-guilt” clause. To summarize it was because of Realism
(Power politics persisted even in the League of Nations, Middle East Mandates, League of
Nations became a league of winners against the losers), Failure of peace and Economics.
Problems Arising From the Peace Settlement (1919-1923) : Both Turkey and Italy were
dissatisfied with their treatment; Turkey was prepared to defy the settlement, The problem
of German reparations and whether or not she could afford to pay caused strained relations
between Britain and France, because of their different attitudes towards German recovery,
The USA, while choosing to remain politically isolated, exercised considerable economic
influence on Europe by, among other things, insisting on full payment of European war
debts, Russia, now under Bolshevik (Communist) rule, was viewed with suspicion by western
countries, The new states which came into existence as a result of the war and the peace
settlement, all had serious problems and were divided among themselves. General
Improvement: (1924-1929) in the international atmosphere, caused partly by changes in
political leadership. The result was the Dawes Plan, worked out in 1924 with American help,
which eased the situation regarding German reparations; 1925 saw the signing of the
Locarno Treaties, which guaranteed the frontiers in western Europe fixed at Versailles: this
seemed to remove French suspicions of German intentions. Germany was allowed to join the
League in 1926 and two years later, 65 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing
war. The 1929 Young Plan reduced German reparations to a more manageable figure; all
seemed set fair for a peaceful future. Degradation (1930-1933): towards the end of 1929 the
world began to run into economic difficulties, which contributed towards a deterioration in
international relations. It was partly for economic reasons that Japanese troops invaded
Manchuria in 1931; mass unemployment in Germany was important in enabling Hitler to
come to power. In this unpromising climate, the World Disarmament Conference met in
1932, only to break up in failure after the German delegates walked out (1933). Finally: The
decisive factor in the crisis of the 1930s, and the trigger for another World War, lay in a blend
of violent nationalism and modern ideologies that glorified the nation and national destiny
(fascism and militarism)
2. France in WWII: defeat, collaboration, resistance, the battle of France (22 June 1940): Vichy
and Révolution Nationale, Conseil National de la Résistance (CNR)/The National Council of
the Resistance, Prime Minister Paul Raynaud (Move gov’t to French Territories in N. Africa,
Continue fighting) / Vice-Premier Philippe Petain & Commander-in-Chief, General Maxime
Weygand (Stay in France, Cessation of hostilities)
3. Violence and Shoah: crimes against humanity, civilians and soldiers loss, the holocaust,
genocide, mass murder, Dehumanization (the process of depriving a person or group of
positive human qualities), Untermensch (Subhuman), antisemitism: Earlier forms of
antisemitism (19th century), Joined by international anti-Jewish theory, The Jew as outsider,
Dreyfus Affair, A wave of of late nineteenth-century programs, An “international Jewish
conspiracy”, Racial laws exclude Jews from public office (April 1933)/ Nuremberg Decrees
(1935) : Deprived Jews of citizenship (determined by bloodline), Marriage prohibited
between Jews and Germans / Kristallnacht (nov. 1938) : SA attacked 7500 Jewish stores,
Burned 200 synagogues, Killed 91 Jews, Beat thousands more/ Massive Population Transfers
(1939) : Rassenkampf—Racial struggle, Radicalized by the war, No concerted plan (1938-
1941), forced emigration, Ethnic Germans moved into the Reich, Poles, and Jews deported,
campaign of terror, Poles deported to forced labor camps/Systematic Brutality and Murder :
 More than 5 million military prisoners marched to camps as slave labor, Einsatzgruppen
(death squads), The Warsaw and Lodz ghetto - death and terror/ Shoah : Early Methods
(Discussion of plans for mass killings in death camps, The ghettos are sealed, Poison gas
vans), AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU (Work facility and center of the systematic annihilation of Jews
and other subhumans.), BOBREK LABOR CAMP, BLOCK 10:HUMAN MEDICAL
EXPERIMENTATION FACILITY/ Human Costs: Around 6 million jews were killed, 80% of Baltic,
German, Czech, Yugoslavian, and Polish Jewish, communities were destroyed, 50%
elsewhere, 11 Million of other persecuted groups
4. The US in WWII: Strong Isolationist Sentiment : College students demonstrate against war,
1934: Congressional special committee (charged weapons manufacturers with driving the
United States into World War I in the hopes of windfall profits), the communist-influenced
American League against War and Fascism claimed more than 1 million members in 1938, In
1940: the Committee to Defend America First was formed to oppose U.S. intervention /
Moves Toward War (Cash and Carry: responsibility of transport on the purchaser): Neutrality
Act of 1935—prohibited the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war”,
Neutrality Act of 1939—allowed the sale of military arms to belligerents / The Axis Threat
(Summer 1940: France had fallen and Britain was under siege, September 1940: Germany,
Italy, and Japan—the Tripartite Pact) / Building US Defenses : Increase spending for national
defense, The Selective Training and Service Act (1940) (first peacetime draft, 16 million men
(21-35 y.o.)), US Pacific Fleet transferred to Pearl Harbor / Lend-Lease Act
5. (March 1941) (expect them to give them back what they gave to Europe intactly)/ The
Atlantic Charter :A joint declaration of war aims (collective security, disarmament, self-
determination, economic cooperation, freedom of the seas), The Atlantic Charter became
the basis of the “Declaration of the United Nations.” / Attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December
1941): Less than two hours, 2,403 killed, 1,178 injured, 21 ships sunk—nearly the whole U.S.
Pacific fleet, 300 aircraft were severely damaged or destroyed, so enters to war in 1941 /
sacrifice and shortages / Mobilization: The War Powers Act—established a precedent for
executive authority that would endure long after the war’s end, Roosevelt created special
wartime agencies (The National War Labor Board (NWLB)—mediated disputes between
labor and management, The War Manpower Commission (WMC)—directed the mobilization
of military and civilian services, The Office of War Mobilization (OWM)—coordinated
operations among all these agencies.), Domestic propaganda (objectives: Recruitment,
Financing the war effort, Eliminating dissent and unifying the country, Conservation of
Resources, Increase factory production/ devices: Dehumanization, Demonization, Emotional
appeals, Name calling, Nationalism, Half-truths or lies, Catchy slogans, Evocative visual
symbols, Humor or characterization)/ Organizing the War Economy (he country enjoyed
many advantages to meet this challenge: large industrial base, abundant natural resources,
large civilian population to increase/ huge GDP, very low unemployment) / New Workers
(women, World War II opened up new fields: automobile and electrical) / Families in
Wartime (The rushed to get married, Juvenile delinquency rose, Many teenagers quit school
for high wage factory jobs, public health improved during war) / “Double V” (Victory at
Home and Abroad): because Allied victory abroad and Rights as citizens at home but still
“Hate strikes” by white men/ the atomic bomb (Marshall Plan)/ Popular Culture
6. Internment of Japanese American (EO 9066): incarceration, Dorothea Lange’s images of
internment, challenge to democracy

LESSON :

Introduction:
About twenty years after the First World War, a new conflict mobilizes the entire planet. After a
series of successes of the Axis forces, the Allies managed to win and liberate the conquered
territories in Europe and Asia.
The Second World War pushes the logic of total war to their peak: because of the ideological
dimension of the conflict, it is no longer just a question of defeating, but of annihilating the
opponent. Crimes Mass are perpetrated and Jews and Gypsies are victims of genocide.
In France, after the defeat of 1940, the population was divided. If the vast majority remains wait-and-
see, one part of the French chooses al collaboration with the Nazis and another engages in the
Resistance and in General de Gaulle's free France.

A global conflict

1. The March to War (1937-1939)

-Japanese imperialism. Japan wants to create and submit to its domination a "sphere of co-
prosperity of Greater East Asia." He invaded in 1931 the Manchuria, allied with Germany in 1936 and
declared war on China in 1937, which is considered by many to be the true beginning of the Second
World War. The Japanese army shows its extreme violence in Nanjing, where it massacres 300,000
prisoners and civilian soldiers (December 1937). He progressed rapidly until 1938 at the Battle of
Wuhan, during which the Chinese stabilized the front.
-Fascist and Nazi expansionism. After invading Ethiopia in 1935, fascist Italy allied itself with Germany
within the Axis. Hitler wants to create a "Greater Germany" bringing together all German speakers
and colonize Eastern Europe to equip itself with a "vital space". This is why, in 1938, he annexed
Austria, then the Sudeten region at the expense of Czechoslovakia, with the agreement of France
and the United Kingdom (Munich Conference), which thus hoped to avoid war. In August 1939, Hitler
and Stalin signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, by which they decided not to attack and to
share Poland and the Baltic countries. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This time,
Paris and London react: after sending an ultimatum to Berlin, they declare war on the IlI* Reich on
September 3.

2. The successes of the Axis (1939-1942)

-First quick victories. The Polish army, victim of the effect of surprise, its technical inferiority and a
Soviet attack in the East, was quickly defeated. In the spring of 1940, after several months of "funny
war" on the Western Front, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to ensure its supply of iron. On
May 10, the Wehrmacht attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and France. All these fights take the form
of a war of movement and the German army easily wins thanks to Blitzkrieg's strategy. To force the
United Kingdom to withdraw from the conflict, the Luftwaffe relentlessly bombards English cities.
-Towards a long war in the East. On June 2, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa: he broke the
non-aggression pact and concentrated his forces against the RSS. It is now on this Eastern Front that
war is played out and, with the exception of the missed landing of the Allies in Dieppe (1942) and the
actions of the Resistance, no fight is to be reported on the Western front until 1944. The USSR is
overwhelmed, both because of the surprise effect and the disorganization of the Red Army,
beheaded by the Stalinist purges, which have eliminated a large number of competent officers. At
the beginning of winter, the Germans are at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad.
-Japanese expansion in Asia-Pacific. On September 27, 1940, Japan joined the Axis by signing the
"Tripartite Pact" with Germany and Italy. He took advantage of the French defeat to invade
Indochina. Faced with the embargo put in place by the United States, which supports China, it
launched in 1941 to conquer the countries of Southeast Asia to seize their resources. On December
7, li carried out a surprise attack on the United States' main naval base in the Pacific, located in Pearl
Harbor, in the Hawaiian archipelago. The toll is heavy: eight American ships are out of combat, 18
planes are destroyed and 2,400 soldiers perish. The next day, the United States declared war on
Japan.
 3. The Allied victory (1942-1945)
-Stops to the expansion of the Axis. In January 1942, the United States created the "Great Alliance"
with the United Kingdom and the USSR. In June, in the Pacific, the Americans beat the Japanese at
Midway. In October, the British blocked the Germans in El-Alamein, which allowed the Allies to land
in North Africa. Finally, on the Eastern Front, the Soviets won the Battle of Stalingrad in February
1943. The forces of the Axis are beginning to retreat. The liberation of Europe. In 1943, the Allied
landed in Sicily and Italy, which forces Mussolini to ask for an armistice. Then they landed in
Normandy on June 6, 1944 and in Provence in August. On the Eastern Front, the USSR launched
Operation Bagration in June 1944 and liberated Central and Eastern Europe. In April 1945, the Soviets
took Berlin and on May 8, Germany capitulated unconditionally.
-The end of the war in Asia. In the Pacific, the United States is gradually reconquering the various
archipelagos held by the Japanese. The fighting is fierce, especially on the islet of Iwo Jima, where
almost all of the Japanese garrison dies rather than surrender (February-March 1945). The suicide
bombers mu-l type suicide missions by launching their planes on American ships. To accelerate at the
end of the war and limit their losses, the United States launched two atomic bombs on Hiroshima
(August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Japan capitulated on September 2, 1945.

A war of annihilation

1. A logic of extermination
-An ideological justification. The Axis countries share an imperialist and racist ideology, which
legitimizes the violence exerted on the populations of the occupied countries, exterminated or
enslaved. For their part, the Allies justify their fight by defending freedom. Signed in August 1941 by
Churchill and Roosevelt, the Atlantic Charter provides for the destruction of the Nazi regime and the
establishment of a new order based on the right of peoples to self-determination. But the Great
Alliance with Stalin leads the Allies to remain silent about the mass crimes committed by the USSR,
where the NKVD has long ruthlessly eliminated all opponents.
-Economy and technology at the service of destruction. To annihilate their opponents, the
belligerents create new weapons. In 1942, the United States launched the Victory Program, which
mobilized the entire economy to manufacture several thousands of planes and tanks. They secretly
develop the atomic bomb (Project Manhattan). To weaken Germany, Allied aviation is targeting its
cities, such as Hamburg and Dresden, ravaged by incendiary bombs. These strategic bombings erase
the distinction between the front and the back. The Germans retaliate by developing the V1 and V2
missiles in 1944 to hit English cities. To bend Japan, the Americans do not hesitate to use atomic
weapons on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9).

2. Mass crimes
-In Eastern Europe. By the German-Soviet pact (August 23, 1939), Hitler and Stalin divided Poland
and the Baltic countries. On both sides, the occupation of these territories resulted in mass crimes,
such as the execution of 4,400 Polish officers by the Soviets in Katyn in 1940. After the breach of the
pact in June 1941, the Germans advanced towards the East and conducted a policy of terror in the
territories they occupied (Poland, Belarus, Ukraine). The communist resistance fighters are executed,
the villages are razed and the genocide of the Jews begins.
-In Asia. After the Nanjing massacres in 1937, the Japanese army multiplied the abuses in the
countries it occupies. Prisoners of war are detained in appalling conditions and sometimes used as
guinea pigs for medical experiences. In Korea, tens of thousands of women, nicknamed "comfort
women", are forced to prostitute themselves.
-A heavy human toll. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 60 million people. Unlike the
First World War, the victims are in heir vast majority of civilians, victims of difficult living conditions,
bombings, deportations and massacres.
 3. The Genocide Of The Jews And The Tsiganes
-The racial policy of the Reich Island. As early as 1933, Jewish shops were boycotted. In 1935, the
Nuremberg laws deprived Jews of their citizenship. With the outbreak of war, the Nazis are
intensifying measures against populations considered "harmful". In September 1939, 30,000 German
and Austrian Gypsies were deported to Poland. Between January 1940 and August 1941, the "Aktion
T4" project plans the death of 70,000 mental patients and makes it possible to test gas
extermination. Jews are locked up in ghettos, where they suffer famine and forced labor. Hitler plans
to deport them to "reserves" in Eastern Europe or Madagascar.
-The "final solution". The Shoah began with the invasion of the USSR in June 1941, when the
Einsatzgruppen were ordered to shoot all the agents of "Judeo-Bolshevism." 1.7 million Jews were
murdered as part of this "Shoah by bullets" on the Eastern Front. Then the Nazis decide to
exterminate the Jews in the territories they occupy, because the war with the RSS gets bogged down
and they will no longer be able to deport them to the East. In January 1942, the Wannsee conference
planned the "final solution", i.e. the systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe.
-Death camps. Jews from the ghettos, then those in Western Europe, are deported to concentration
or extermination camps. The first ones, such as Dachau or Auschwitz, are places of killing at work,
where the deportees die of exhaustion or are executed when they are no longer useful. The latter,
such as Treblinka or Auschwitz-Birkenau, built in the occupied regions of Poland, aim to immediately
murder, in the gas chambers, all the people who are sent there. The bodies are then burned in
crematory ovens by the Sonderkommandos. Nearly 6 million Jews and more than 200,000 Gypsies
are victims of this genocide.

France in the war:

1. The collapse
-The defeat. On May 10, 1940, the German army attacked Belgium, the Netherlands and France. On
June 10, the Italian armies in turn invaded France. Despite fierce fighting, the French army was
quickly defeated. In less than a month, 100,000 soldiers are killed, 200,000 wounded and 2 million
are taken prisoner. The government withdrew to Tours, then to Bordeaux on June 15. The Germans
enter Paris on June 14.
-The exodus. Nearly 8 million civilians are fleeing the advance of the Wehrmacht and are de-serting
major cities. This movement of collective panic and massive migration is called "the Exodus". Taking
with them meagre luggage, distraught by the Luftwaffe's air attacks, civilians flee to the west and
south of al France. Engendering gigantic chaos, they hinder the displacement of French troops.
-The armistice. On June 16, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, because he is a minority to want
to continue the war. He was replaced by Marshal Pétain, considered a hero of the Great War. The
next day, convinced that the war was lost, Pétain announced to the French that "the fight must stop"
and asked for the armistice. This one was signed on June 22 and puts an end to the Battle of France.
-The occupation. Following this agreement, Alsace-Moselle was annexed by the Reich and the rest of
the territory was divided into two parts: the North zone, occupied by the German army, and the
South zone, administered from Vichy by Pétain but occupied in turn from November 1942.
Throughout the war, France was looted and it had to pay 20 million marks daily to maintain the
occupying army. This leads to supply difficulties and the establishment of strict food rationing.

2. The Vichy regime and collaboration

-"The French State." On July 10, 1940, Pétain received full powers from deputies and senators to
draft a new Constitution. The next day, he replaced the Republic with "the French State", an
authoritarian and reactionary regime whose motto is "Work, Family, Homeland". Elections are
abolished, the media are controlled, fundamental freedoms violated. Pétain is the subject of a cult of
personality, presenting him as the savior of al France twice: during the battle of Verdun in 1916 and
during the defeat of 1940. An intense propaganda famous al "National Revolution", which must make
it possible to
-"Regenerate" the country and fight against the "anti-France", responsible for the defeat (Jews,
communists and Freemasons). Marked by xenophobia and anti-Semitism, the Vichy regime puts in
place discriminatory legislation against Jews and immigrants.
-Collaboration and collaborationism. On October 24, 1940, Pétain met Hitler in Montoire (Loir-et-
Cher) and engaged the country in collaboration with the Nazis. To provide manpower to Germany, li
created the al relève system, then the STO in 1943. lI also organized the deportation of Jews to the
extermination camps. On July 16 and 17, 1942, during the Vel'd'Hiv' raid, more than 13,000 people,
including nearly a third of children, were arrested in Paris and the suburbs by the French police. They
are interned in the Winter Velodrome or in the Drancy camp before being deported. The French who
adhere to Nazi ideology join the German army on the Eastern Front or in the Militia. Founded in 1943
by Joseph Darnand, it is responsible for helping the Gestapo track down resistance fighters and Jews.
Historians describe this commitment as collaborationism, to distinguish it from the state
collaboration led by Pétain.
-A predominantly wait-and-see population. The population, shocked by defeat, concerned by the
difficulties of daily life and influenced by Vichy propaganda, resigns itself to the occupation of the
country and is mostly in favor of Marshal Pétain.

3. Resistance and Liberation

-Free France. On June 18, refusing the armistice, General de Gaulle launched, from London, a call for
resistance. Supported by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchil, he founded free France and
managed to rally the African colonies. Thanks to the first volunteers who joined in England, he set up
the FFL, who fight alongside the Allies. In November 1942, the landing in North Africa made it
possible to establish a French authority rival Vichy. Algiers becomes the capital of free France, which
has a government, the CFLN.
-Inner Resistance. At the same time, an inner Resistance sees the day in France. Various actions are
carried out to fight against the occupier: intelligence for the Allies, printing and distribution of
leaflets or newspapers, sabotage, raids against the German army. To escape al Gestapo and al Milice,
the resistance fighters are hiding in maquis. In 1941, the breach of the German-Soviet non-
aggression pact amplified the commitment of the communists: attacked by Hitler, Stalin then gave
them the order to fight against the Nazis. The French communists create the movement of the
Francs-Shooters and partisans (FTP), which comes to increase the ranks of al Internal Resistance. In
1943, Jean Moulin, commissioned by the General of Gaul, managed to unify the various resistance
movements within the CNR.
-The Liberation. On June 6, 1944, the Allied, including fighters of al Free France, landed in Normandy.
Helped by the FFI, who multiplied sabotage actions and harassed the Germans, they managed to
liberate the country after several months of fighting. On August 24, 1944, French troops, led by
General Leclerc, entered Paris, whose inhabitants were insurgent a few days earlier. To prevent the
Allies from placing liberated France under the tutelage of a government of occupation, de Gaule
transformed the CFLN on June 3, 1944 into the Provisional Government of the French Republic
(GPRF), of which he holds the presidency. Refusing to recognize any legitimacy to the Vichy regime,
he affirms: "the form of the government of al France is and remains al République; in law, it has not
ceased to exist".