Beginning of WWII

Mark Manbeck

Eugenics

• Eugenics, the social movement claiming to improve the genetic features of human populations through selective breeding and sterilization.

Essential Question

What people, countries, and events began WWII?

“Nature is cruel, so we may be cruel, too… I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin”

-Hitler

Immediate Causes of WW II• Second Sino-Japanese

War• Tripartite Pact (1940)

– Defensive Military Alliance•Italy, Japan,

Germany

– Aimed at US to make them think twice about joining Allies

Immediate Causes of WW II• In Germany Adolf Hitler

came to power in 1933 as a fascist dictator.

• Hitler Hated the Treaty of Versailles and violated it. – First he built up the German

military. – Then he sent troops into the

Rhineland. – Direct violation of the

Treaty of Versailles, which said in 1919 that Rhineland was a demilitarized zone.

Immediate Causes of WW II • Hitler wanted to conquer

whoever he felt was inferior

Germans or Aryans.

• Wanted “living space” for

Germans in Eastern Europe.

• Munich Pact

– Hitler Promised not to

invade any other country

Immediate Causes of WW IIAppeasement:•Gives Germany Sudetenland (1938)

– (Much of Czechoslovakia)

•September 1, 1939• Germany invaded Poland without declaration of war. •This starts World War II.

Kristallnacht 1938• “Night of Broken

Glass”• Pogrom

– Organized massacre of particular ethnic group

• Nazis nonviolent before– After increasingly

worse

Immediate Causes of WW II• Britain and

France

declared war

on Germany on

September 3,

1939.

• Italy declared

war on France

and Britain on

June 10, 1940.

“Blitzkrieg”• In German blitzkrieg

– “lightning war”.

• Blitzkrieg used during invasion of Poland.

• Blitzkrieg – Surprise attacks

– Massive air attacks– Rapid advances

into enemy territory by infantry

• Most Axis victories from Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

“Phony War”• Britain sent

troops to wait with French down behind the Maginot Line.

• Reporters called this quiet time of not much action the “phony war”

Maginot Line

• The Maginot Line was a defensive for France against an invasion of Germany.

• The Maginot Line was established after World War I.

• The line showed to be little use in 1940 when Germany invaded France for the third time.

Maginot Line

“Blitzkrieg: German soldiers being parachuted into Holland - May 10, 1940”

Early Axis Triumphs• In April 1940 the quiet time of the war

exploded into action.• Hitler launched a series of blitzkrieg.• Norway and and Denmark both fell.

• Germany had overrun the Netherlands and

Belgium. • Germany along with Italy forced France to

surrender.

Fall of France

Hitler’s Major Blunder• The Germans invaded France in

May 1940.

• Retreating Allied forces made it to Dunkirk and found themselves trapped between the advancing Nazis and the English Channel. The British sent every boat they could get across the English Channel to pick up troops off the beaches of Dunkirk.

Miracle at Dunkirk• The event at Dunkirk is called a miracle

because the retreating allies had lost hope and then the British pulled through for them and rescued 338,000 men.

June 22, 1940• On June 22, 1940 France signs an armistice with

Germany in occupied France.

• An armistice is a cease fire or a truce.

• The Franco-German Armistice divided France into

two zones. One zone was under German military

occupation and the other was under French

control.

• In 1942 Germans occupied all of France

June 22, 1940

Questions• What were the immediate causes of WWII?• Describe the German concept of the

“blitzkrieg”.• Where were the early Axis triumphs, and what

was the “phony war”?• What was the miracle at Dunkirk?• What was the significance of June 22, 1940?