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Major Battles WW2 and End of The War
Major Battles WW2 and End of The War
Causes and
Early
Warfare
Causes
1. Treaty of Versailles created a
bitter peace
2. World-Wide Depression
3. Rise of Totalitarianism
4. Weakness of the League of
Nations (Appeasement)
Treaty of Versailles and the
Bitter Peace
The Treaty of Versailles blamed
the War on the Germans –
created hardship and humiliation
for the German people.
The reparations payments to the
Allies created severe economic
problems for Germany, made
worse by the World-Wide
Depression.
Humiliation, along with Rampant
inflation and terrible
unemployment left the German
people completely dissatisfied
with their democratic government
(The Weimar Republic)
World Wide Economic
Depression
The World Wide Economic
Depression caused
Democratic governments
(such as that in Germany
and Italy) to fail, and in
their place, totalitarian
governments rose,
promising to end the
economic problems (or at
least the totalitarians
provided a good
scapegoat).
3. Rise of Totalitarian Regimes
In a Totalitarian country, individual rights
are not viewed as important as the needs of
the nation GERMANY
USSR
Fascist
Communist
TOTALITARIANISM Dictatorship
Dictatorship
Fascism:- military
government based on
racism &
ITALY nationalism with
Fascist strong support from
the business
5
Dictatorship
community
Rise of Totalitarianism
In Germany Hitler joined and
manipulated the “National
Socialist Workers’ Party”
(which was not socialist),
preaching a doctrine of German
ethnic supremacy and
victimization.
Eisenhower
“No bastard ever won a war by
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going dying for his country. He won it by
to do more to promote peace than our governments. making the other poor dumb
Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that bastard die for his country.”
one of these days governments had better get out of the -Charismatic American General
way and let them have it.” George Patton
- Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower
Stalingrad
• In the meantime, the Soviets were on their own in the East…The Battle
of Stalingrad (and the siege of Leningrad) raged on.
• The fighting in Stalingrad included house-to-house fighting. Millions of
Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed or captured, but Soviet
resistance and the brutal Russian winter of 1942/43 defeated the
Germans, who surrendered (91,000 troops) on January, 1943.
• Stalingrad was the farthest eastern point of the German army’s advance
into the USSR…a major turning point in the war…from Stalingrad, the
Soviet army went on the Offensive, and the Germans retreated.
Battle at
D-Day June 6, 1944
• Finally a second front…
• Preceded by non-stop saturation bombing (by the
British) of German cities and strategic bombing (by the
Americans) of German political and industrial centers,
starting in early 1942
• A phony invasion setup had been created to fake out the
Germans.
• D-Day is the name given to the landing of 160,000 Allied
troops (using 11,000 planes and 4,400 landing craft and
ships, and 448,000 tons of ammunition) in Normandy,
France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day, the first day of the
Invasion of France (“Operation Overlord,”), involved
five separate landings by American, British, and
Canadian troops and was commanded by General
Eisenhower. Stiff German resistance resulted in nearly
10,000 Allied casualties, but the Germans were
ultimately unable to repel the Allied forces. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wrNXesmcLG8&safe=active
Battle of the Bulge
December 16, 1944 – January 25, 1945
Victory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRZJe8IO9I
The End of the Second
World War
Wartime Conferences:
Planning for after WW2
The UN
The Nuremberg Trials
Yalta Conference
• FDR, Stalin, and Churchill met (in
USSR) in February, 1945
• They decided how they would split
up the Post WWII Europe and the
world.
• Red Army would continue to occupy
Eastern Europe, but would hold
“free elections” asap.
• Decided to divide Germany into
four zones of occupation. British,
French, American, and Soviet Zone
• FDR got Stalin’s pledge to help in
Japan (joined US on August 8…
thanks)
• UN would be formed.
GERMAN OCCUPATION ZONES
The Holocaust
1935
Denied German
Citizenship to Jews
Banned marriage
between Jews and Non- Jews wearing
Jews identifying
patches
Segregated Jews in
German Society with Star
of David patches, Jewish
papers to be carried at all
times, and eventually Jews being herded
Jewish ghettos into Jewish ghetto
Kristallnacht
• The First Concentration
camps were built, starting
in 1933 to “rehabilitate”
people and turn them into
productive members of the
3rd Reich.
Elsewhere??
The Nuremberg Trials
• 23 of the most important
political and military Nazi
leaders of the Third Reich
leaders were put on trial
for their crimes, mostly
for the Holocaust.
• They all used the defense
“I was just following
orders”
• Held between November
Nuremberg Trials. Defendants in the dock. The main target of the
20, 1945 and October 1, prosecution was Hermann Göring (at the left edge on the first row of
benches), considered to be the most important surviving official in
1946 the Third Reich after Hitler's death