Ch 11. WWIITurning the Tide

The War Continues…

• The RAF fought off the Nazis in the air war over Britain

• US Navy was successful at the Battle of the Coral Sea in stopping JAP plans for domination in the Pacific

• Signs of hope existed for the Allies…

Axis Strategy…

• GER, IT, JAP all shared common enemies but did not have a coordinated plan of attack

• Hitler wanted to dominate Europe and eliminate inferior peoples

• Mussolini had dreams of an IT empire stretching from the Adriatic to East Africa

• Tojo wanted control over the Western Pacific and Asia

Allies Strategy…• Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin all considered

GER/Hitler the most dangerous enemy• None believed that JAP or IT was a serious long-

term threat• GER had the resources to bomb BR, fight US and

BR navies on the Atlantic and invade RUS• Although the plan was to win the two-front war – all

agreed on a “Europe First” strategy – so defeat Hitler first and the Pacific would be the second theater of war

Arsenal of Democracy…

• US factories turned out millions of guns, tanks, planes and other supplies – enough to keep the BR and RUS fighting for years

• But how to deliver?

Battle of the Atlantic

• How to keep GR subs from surrounding BR and keeping them from US supplies

• US warships formed convoys with merchant ships – the GR subs formed their own convoys called “wolf packs” (30+ subs) and sank nearly 3500 merchant ships

• When the US entered the war - the battle spread - GR subs began attacking ships off of the US coast

GR v. Russia

• As early as 1924 – Hitler wanted control of RUS – claiming that GR needed lebensraum (living space) to the east and wanting control of the Caucasus oil fields

• After losing the Battle of BR – Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and attacked RUS – Operation Barbarossa

• Blitzkrieg---Wehrmacht – RUS was unprepared for the lightening intensity of the GR attack

• GR ground troops executed the majority of RUS they encountered

RUS v. GR• Scorched Earth Policy – burning everything

while in retreat• Stalin asked FDR for help through the Lend-

Lease program – Congress vetoed any aid for RUS until June 1942

• GR troops threatened major cities in RUS – Stalin asked that the Allies launch a major offensive against GR in Europe so that Hitler would have to divide his troops and fight on two fronts

• The Allies hesitated and the RUS had to fight GR on their own

Battle of Stalingrad• RUS made a stand at Stalingrad – GR began a

2 month bombing and shelling campaign – RUS hid in the rubble and began house to house fighting

• Winter hits – RUS surround and attack the GR – The Red Army launch their final assault on the GR – 90,000 freezing, starving GR surrendered on January, 31, 1943

• GR lost over 330,000 soldiers at Stalingrad• This battle was the turning point of the war in the

east

North African Campaign

• BR had been fighting the GR & IT in North Africa since 1940 – the BR won a decisive victory at El Alamein and began forcing the GR Afrika Korp led by the “Desert Fox” – Erwin Rommel - into retreat to the west

• BR and US troops led by Gen Dwight Eisenhower landed in Morocco and Algeria and began to push east

• They trapped the GR at Tunisia – 240,000 GR & IT supply-less soldiers surrendered against Hitler’s command

• The Allies realized that they needed strong commanders and troops trained for desert fighting to win to win in North Africa

• Tank Commander George S. Patton known as “Blood and Guts” was put in command

• Patton pushed his troops east as the BR pressed west from Egypt – trapping the Axis troops in Tunisia

Casablanca Conference

• Churchill and FDR meet again at Casablanca, Morocco

• They made up a war plan – agreeing to concentrate on the European Campaign before trying to win the war in the Pacific – increase the bombing of GER and invade IT

• They also agreed that neither would accept anything less than the unconditional surrender of GR, IT, & JAP

GI• GI = Government Issue(stamp on clothing)• 16 million American served in WWII• 300,000 Mexican Americans fought to defend

the Philippines, served in N. Africa, and took part in the D-Day invasion

• 25,000 Native Americans – 300 Navajos served with the Marines as radio operators – “code-talkers”

• 20,000 Japanese Americans served – the 442nd combat team became the most decorated military unit in US military history

GI…..

• 1 million African Americans served• 761st Tank Battalion captured 30 towns

from the GR in a 183 day marathon battle• 99th Fighter Squadron “Black Eagles” shot

down over 110 planes over IT• The JAP-AM and AA troops were not

immediately accepted into the rank and file – it took heavy white casualties for these minority groups to gain acceptance

Invasion of Italy• US troops led by Gen Patton attacked Sicily and in 38

days Mussolini was overthrown• As Allied troops threatened in the rest of IT – the new

government surrendered• GR troops in IT continued to fight – they blocked roads,

destroyed bridges• They surrounded the GR in Anzio – south of Rome and

fought a long agonizing battle to gain just a few miles of beach

• When the fighting ended after one year and the allies had won – over 72,000 GIs had been killed or wounded at Anzio – over 190,000 GI casualties in the freeing of IT

• Rome was quickly captured and IT surrendered in April of 1945

Air War• RAF began bombing runs on GR in 1940

• The Luftwaffe forced the RAF to run night missions only – after the Battle of BR – the RAF began a technique called saturation bombing – large # of bombs dropped on GR cities –cities suffered heavy damage

• 1943 the US joined in the bombing raids – concentrated on political and industrial areas – strategic bombing – destroy GR capacity to make war

Tuskegee Airmen…

• AA Fighter Squadron - Began as escort and protection planes rather than carrying out bombing raids

• 332nd Fighter Group reportedly flew 1,500 successful support missions – never losing a single bomber

Home Front…

• War promoted and prompted patriotism and production

• New economic reality helped women and minorities

Women and the War• Rosie the Riveter – popular song in 1942 – that

told the story of Rosie who worked in a defense plant while her boyfriend Charlie served in the Marines

• Her image was used in posters and recruitment ads to get women to work

• The image was of a woman who was young, white and middle class

• Patriotism was her motivation – she would do her part while her boyfriend was off fighting

• Women of all ages and ethnicities wanted to work for various reasons as well as doing their part in the war effort

Recruiting Women

• Office of War Information launched recruitment campaigns – aimed at women who might not have normally sought out a job – older married women

• 14.6 million women in 1941 to 19.4 million in 1944

• At one point women made up 35% of the total civilian workforce

• Married women soon accounted for than ¾ of the increase – by the end of the war ½ of all women workers were over the age of 35

Benefits…

• Money earned paid off Depression debts and helped to buy new homes

• Other women found their new jobs more interesting and challenging

• Still others found that their new jobs made them feel patriotic

• Women felt more self-confident and important

Problems Women Faced…

• Experienced hostility from other workers in jobs that were mostly male jobs

• Fraternizing rules were established• Childcare was very limited – most mothers

arranged for other family members to care for their children

• Women also earned less than men• National War Labor Board said that women who

did the exact same job as men should earn the same pay – this was widely ignored

• Women began at the bottom – Seniority rules ensured that women advanced slower than men

African American Women

• Many AA women faced prejudice and discrimination when they applied for these new jobs

• Lawsuits and other forms of protest improved their lots in life

• AA women employed in non-domestic jobs rose from 6.8% to 18% from 1940-1944

• The number working as domestics dropped from 59.9% to 44.6%

Discrimination…

• During the war – FDR pushed for an end to bigotry

• Even though many experienced a new found freedom – the war made it more difficult for some groups in the US

• African Americans and Japanese Americans still had many difficulties

African Americans

• Jim Crow was alive and well in the South• But many still faced hardship in the North

with discrimination in employment, education and housing

• 1 out of 5 AA were jobless in 1941• Gov’t agencies pushed for equality – they

still honored requests for “white only” employees

Double V Campaign…

• The first V was for victory against the Axis powers - The second V was for victory in winning equality at home

• A. Philip Randolph – Labor leader – said AA would not longer accept 2nd class citizenship – gave FDR a list of demands that AA needed in the workplace

• To counter a protest march during wartime – Executive Order 8802 was issued by FDR – fair hiring practices for any job that was gov’t funded

Economic Discrimination

• 2 million AA migrated to the North looking for jobs but finding other problems

• Segregation in housing and apartments was common

• Housing was found only in ghettos• 1941 – survey taken – 50% of all AA housing

was substandard versus only 14 % of white housing

• White workers and homeowners did not want AA in their workplaces or neighborhoods – riots broke out in Detroit and NYC

CORE…

• CORE – Congress for Racial Equality – believed in using non-violent means to end racism – organized its first sit-in at the Jack Spratt Coffee House in Chicago in 1943 – AA sat in every seat and refused to leave until every one was served

• CORE groups quickly spread to other major cities

Mexican Americans

• Both MA citizens and Mexicans working in the US experienced discrimination before, during and after the war

• But jobs were found by MA in the shipyards in in Los Angeles – about 17,000 there – as well as in aircraft factories in California, Texas, New Mexico

• Many moved to major cities to work in other defense jobs – Chicago, Detroit and NYC

Bracero Program

• 1942 – agreement between the US and Mexico for workers (Braceros) in food production – the US would provide transportation, food, shelter, medical care

• 1942-1947 – 200,000 Braceros worked on Farms and occasionally other industries to aid the war effort

• Large Barrios (Spanish speaking neighborhoods) grew up in Southern California

• Crowded conditions and discrimination caused tension

Zoot Suit Riots

• MA young men wore a style of suit called a Zoot Suit – long jackets, baggy pants with tight cuffs – hair slicked back (ducktail)

• The look offended many people – US sailors on leave in LA would go looking for fights with Zoot-Suiters because they looked “un-American”

• June 1943 – Full scale fighting began – most blamed the MA men rather than the soldiers who had started the fight – soldiers were banned from leave in LA

Japanese Americans

• 1941 - .01% of the total US population – 127,000 JA lived in the US

• Most lived on the west coast where prejudice had always been strong

• About 2/3 were Nisei or people who were born in the US of parents who had immigrated from Japan

• Although they were native born – they were heavily discriminated against

Hostility and Hatred• After Pearl Harbor, many Americans felt that the

JA were spies – newspaper headlines strengthened their ideas

• Gov’t decided to remove all “aliens” from the west coast

• Feb. 19, 1942 FDR signed Executive Order 9066 – authorized the Sec. of War to created military zones and remove “any and all persons” from such zones

• Germans, Italians and Japanese were all at first affected – told to move away from the west coast

• War Relocation Authority was set up to remove all Japanese American citizens and non-citizens – about 110,000 to Internment Camps

• Relocation happened so fast that most JA had no time to secure their property

• Many lost businesses, homes, farms and other property

• Camps were in desolate areas – wooden barracks covered with tar paper – families were given a room with cots, blankets and one light bulb

• Toilet, bathing and dinning facilities were shared• Barbed wire and armed guards surrounded the

camps

Legal Challenges• Four lawsuits reached the Supreme Court

challenging relocation – However the Court ruled that wartime relocation was constitutional

• Korematsu v. United States – Ted Korematsu refused to go to a relocation camp – said that it violated his civil rights

• The Majority Opinion said that it was a wartime decision and it was upheld

• Early 1945 – JA were allowed to leave the camps – many returned home to pick up their lives – many found that nothing of their former lives was left – 1988 US Gov’t gave each internee $20,000 and an official apology

• “The worst thing about the camp was we felt we didn’t have a country. We didn’t know what we were, American or Japanese. We could have been very helpful in the defense work. Sitting in camps like that didn’t do us any good.” – 1942 Internment camp resident

• Can a government ever justify locking up some of its citizens even if they have committed no crime? Explain your answer completely in one clear paragraph.

Nisei Soldiers

• 17,000 JA served with the armed forces in WWII – about 1,200 volunteered from relocation

centers - the rest came from Hawaii where there were no relocation centers

• 442nd Regimental Combat Team – all Japanese Americans – won more medals than any other unit in WWII while fighting in Germany and France

Great Arsenal of Democracy…

• US production increased each year of the war

• By mid 1945 – 300,000 airplanes, 80,000 landing craft, 100,000 tanks and armored cars, 5,600 merchant ships(2,600 Liberty Ships), 6 million rifles, carbines and machine guns, 41 billion rounds of ammo

• 1940 – 14.5% unemployed

• 1945 – 2 % unemployed

• Union membership rose

• Labor and management agreed after Pearl Harbor to no more lock-outs or strikes

• No Strikes became difficult as the cost of living increased

• Gov’t often intervened in labor issues to keep strikes from shutting down production during war time

Cost of War

• Gov’t spending increased from $8.9 billion in 1939 to $95.2 billion in 1945

• GNP doubled in that same time

• 1941-1945 – Cost to the Gov’t was $321 billion – 10 X the cost of WWI

• Higher income tax helped – 41% of the cost of the war

• Revenue Act of 1942 – increase the # of people who paid taxes, set up withholding taxes or “pay-as-you-go”

• 94% was paid by the richest Americans – higher rates were charged to corporations and placed on consumer goods

• The rest of the money was borrowed from banks, private investors and the public

• War Bonds – Defense Stamps were sold to Adults and children across the US

The Government steps in…

• To organize the war effort at home…• Office of Price Administration – 1941 – keep

shortages from sending prices up – avoiding inflation – later it would oversee rationing

• War Production Board – 1942 – conversion of industry from consumer goods to war goods

• No more cars/mowers/vacuums – Military gave out contracts – the WPB set priorities and allocated materials

• Rationing was another form of economic control

• Each citizen was issued coupon books that limited the amount of certain goods such as passenger automobiles, typewriters, sugar, gasoline, bicycles, footwear, fuel oil, coffee, stoves, shoes, meat, lard, shortening and oils, cheese, butter, margarine, processed foods (canned, bottled and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal, jams, jellies and fruit butter and tires

Ration Books

• Point values assigned to sugar, coffee, meat, butter, shoes, canned fruit

• Coupons were worth a certain number of points for categories of food or clothing

• Once your points were used up – you could not get more until you got your new book or you traded coupons with your neighbors

Public Support of the War• Office of War Information – 1942 – worked

with magazines, ad agencies, and radio stations to create patriotic ads and posters to keep American morale high

• Victory Garden – Plant your own veggies so that more can be sent to the troops

• By 1943 – Victory Gardens were producing 1/3 of the country's vegetables

• “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

Tehran Conference…• Iran – Nov. 1943 – FDR, Churchill, and Stalin

met to set a cross channel invasion

• FDR sided with Stalin and felt that a new front to the war needed to be added - Churchill was not comfortable with the idea but finally agreed

• With the RUS fighting GER already – the US and BR Allied forces would open a new front FR

• The invasion was called Operation Overlord

Prep for the Invasion• US, BR, CAN, POL, DUT, BEL, FR troops

gather in southern BR to prep for the invasion – 4,600 ships and landing crafts

• Plan called for striking 5 beaches in Normandy – code names – Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold & Sword – fictional army set up at Dover – fake ships/tanks, radio

• GR had reinforced their armaments from their first days in FR - along the FR coast – added machine-gun emplacements, barbed wire fences, and land/water mines

D-Day• June 6, 1944 – 11,000 planes pounded the

GR at Normandy

• 23,000 airborne US & BR soldiers dropped behind enemy lines at night

• Sunrise on D-Day Allied warships in the channel began shelling the coast

• 150,000 Allied troops started to come ashore onto the beaches of Normandy at 6:30 am facing artillery, water/land mines, heavy surf

D-Day….

• Hitler hesitated in his counter attack – he believed a larger attack would happen near Calais

• Regardless fighting was fierce – at Omaha Beach – 2,000 Allied soldiers were killed

• One week – ½ million Allied soldiers were in FR – 7 weeks later it was up to 2 million

Liberating Paris…

• Aug. 1944 – Paris is liberated by the Allies

• Hitler had ordered that Paris be destroyed but his Generals disobeyed him and left the “City of Lights” pristine

Allies Advance…

• Rommel and other GR commanders were in despair – wanted to overthrow Hitler

• July 20, 1944 – bomb planted in Hitler’s HQ – explosion killed/wounded 20 people but Hitler survived

• Rommel took poison to escape being put on trial

• Hitler believed that fate was on his side and refused to surrender

Battle of the Bulge• BR & CAN forces freed Brussels and then

Belgium

• Sept. 1944 – Allied troops attacked the GR in Holland – At the same time US troops pushed into GR

• Defending the motherland – New GR recruits as young as 15 – fought fiercely in Belgium and Luxembourg – Dec. 1944 – this became known as the Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge cont’d….

• GR pushed the GIs back (bulge) causing the troops to become separated – they fought valiantly but were losing ground

• Eisenhower ordered reinforcements by way of Gen. George Patton

• Patton moved his entire force of 250,000 soldiers across FR in a few days to help stop the GR advance

Stats on the Battle of the Bulge

• Largest battle in WWII

• Largest battle ever fought by US troops

• 600,000 GIs – 80,000 were killed, wounded or captured

• GR losses totaled about 100,000

• This was the absolute turning point for the war in Europe – GR leadership realized that they had lost

Russia v. Germany

• Fought from 1941-1945

• At any given time – it involved more than 9 million troops

• 13.6 million RUS & 3 million GRs killed = 2/3 of all killed in entire WWII

• Currently the count for RUS has actually been pushed as high as 27 million

Allies Push to Victory…

• RUS had pushed to the Oder River outside of Berlin – Allies had pushed northward in IT

• Mussolini tried to escape the Allies troops but was captured and executed

• AM & BR troops pushed to the Rhine River in GER

• By April 1945 US troops pushed to the Elbe River – 50 miles outside of Berlin

• Hitler was a wreck – had tremors, paranoid from drugs, and kept alive with insane dreams of final victory – gave orders that no one followed – planned battles that no one fought – kept cyanide pills with him always

• April 30, 1945 – He and his new wife Eva Braun committed suicide by gunshot and cyanide pills in their bunker – personal servants tried to burn the bodies – shelling of the bunker burned the bodies further – KGB retrieved the bodies and cremated them in 1970 after many autopsies

V-E Day…

• May 7, 1945 GER surrendered in a small FR schoolhouse that Eisenhower had used as an HQ

• Americans celebrated V-E Day• Sadly FDR had passed away on April 12,

1945 and was never able to see the end of his hard work after 4 terms as President – Harry S. Truman becomes the new US President

Island Hopping• Selectively attacking or bypassing specific

enemy held islands• MacArthur and Adm. Halsley leapfrogged

through the Solomon Islands – as Nimitz did the same starting in the Gilbert Islands

• Nimitz took Tarawa Island and used it as a base to run bombing raids on the JAP in the Marshall Islands – taking Kwajalein and Eniwetok isles

• From the Marshall Islands – Nimitz captured parts of the Mariana Islands in June 1944

• US long range bombers could reach JAP from this locale – began bombing JAP cities

Battle of Midway

• Yamamoto believed that JAP would win the war if they could completely destroy the US Fleet

• He directed a large part of the JAP Fleet to Midway Island

• He knew that Adm. Chester Nimitz would do anything to protect Midway – thus protecting Hawaii

• June 4 1942 – battle began - air war

Battle of Midway…• Due to US code breakers – Nimitz knew the general

facts about the JAP plan of attack

• US planes found the JAP carriers at a vulnerable time – as they were loading bombs onto their planes

• US planes quickly destroyed 3 of the 4 JAP carriers as bombs on deck to be loaded exploded during the attack

• The 4th carrier was destroyed while trying to escape

• The loss of 4 carriers and 250 planes was a huge blow to the JAP Naval Fleet – never again were they able to launch an offensive attack

Battle of Guadalcanal

• Solomon Islands – off NE coast of AUS – 11,000 Marines landed in Aug. 1942

• 2,200 JAP fled into the jungle – 4 mos. of fighting finally saw the JAP flee the island

• Gave the Marines their first taste of jungle warfare – snipers made quick work of the Marines – hiding in brush or the tops of palm trees

• The Marines only knew they had won when they say the empty JAP boats on the beach.

Battle of Leyte• MacArthur promised to return – Oct. 1944 • 160,000 US troops invade the Philippines at

Leyte• As troops pushed inland – a massive naval war

was taking place• Over 280 warships engaged in the 3 day Battle

of Leyte – JAP high command directed every ship still floating to push for a full out attack – Kamikaze attacks used

• JAP were badly beaten and their navy was 90% destroyed

• JAP land troops continued fighting – 80,000 JAP killed in the battle for control of Leyte – fewer than 1,000 JAP surrendered

Battle of Manila

• Philippines capital city – island of Luzon

• Hard fought victory – one month battle left most of the city in ruins

• 100,000 Filipino civilians killed

• Philippines would not be completely freed from the JAP until June 1945

Battle of Iwo Jima

• Tiny volcanic island 700 miles from JAP• Caves and tunnels served the JAP well in trying

to defend their territory• 600+ guns encased in concrete bunkers –

protected by natural barriers• Nov. 1944 – US bombers pound Iwo Jima from

the air – for 74 days planes and warships poured nearly 7,000 tons of bombs and 20,000 shells into the JAP defenses

• Mt. Suribachi

Iwo Jima…• Feb. 1945 Marines take the beaches – fierce

fighting – in 3 days had advanced 700 yards• 110,000 US troops v. 25,000 JAP • One month to secure the island – Jap fought

until the bitter end – only 216 JAP prisoners • 25,000 US casualties in taking a 14 sq. mile

island• 27 Medals of Honor awarded from this battle

alone – more than any other battle in WWII• “Uncommon valor was a common virtue” -

Nimitz

Battle of Okinawa• April-June 1945 – 100,000 JAP defended this

last obstacle to JAP mainland invasion – 350 miles off the coast of Japan

• JAP soldiers pledged to fight to the death• Kamikaze (2000) and Banzai (kill as many

enemy while dying in battle) attacks almost hourly

• 2nd largest Allied force since Normandy – 180,000 US and BR troops gathered on the beaches

• 7,200 JAP remained to surrender• 50,000 US casualties made this the costliest

battle of the Pacific war

Manhattan Project• Tipped off the GR were working on the project by

Albert Einstein (escaped from Nazi GR) – FDR organized a group to pursue a bomb that would end the war

• Splitting the nucleus of a uranium atom, Creating a controlled chain reaction explosion – Enrico Fermi (left Fascist IT) achieved the chain reaction at Univ. of Chicago lab in 1942

• July 16, 1945 – field test first Atomic bomb in a remote New Mexican desert

• J Robert Oppenheimer – project director said “Now I am become Death – the destroyers of worlds”

Drop the bomb?• Debate raged – to use it or not ?• Continued bombing? Test the bomb to

scare the JAP? Negotiations? Full out invasion? All sides were discussed.

• The Interim Committee (Scientists, Military Ofcrs., Gov’t Officials) discussed all sides

• After the total casualties of Okinawa & Iwo Jima – The committee decided to go ahead with the Atomic Bomb

• Final decision rested with the President - Harry S. Truman ( FDR died in office 4/45)

Drop the Bomb.• Aug. 6, 1945 – Atomic Bomb “Little Boy”

dropped on Hiroshima• No exact casualty info exists – estimated

140,000 died in the explosion or within a few months from radiation burns and illness

• 90% of the city’s buildings were destroyed• Aug. 9, 1945 – A-bomb “Fat Man” dropped on

Nagasaki – with the same outcome• Aug. 15, 1945 – Japan surrendered – V-J Day• Official agreement signed Sept 2, 1945 on

board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay

The Holocaust

• Nazi GR systematic murder of European Jews – 6 million – 2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population massacred by the end of WWII

• 8% of Jews taken into camps - survived• 5-6 million other people also die in Nazi

captivity• Anti-Semitism – Hostility/violence against

Jews – became official policy of the Nazi’s

• Hitler blames Jews for all the ills of GER – from Communism, to inflation, to abstract painting and especially for losing WWI

Nazi Germany• GR citizens were encourage to stop patronizing

Jewish business• 1935 Nuremburg Laws – stripped GR Jews of

citizenship and forbade marriage between Jews and non-Jews

• Jewish Doctors were banned from treating non-Jews

• All GR people had to carry ID’s – Jews were marked with a red “J”

• All Jews had to take new middle names – Sarah or Israel – for easier identification by Police

• SS – elite guard for the Nazi party / Gestapo – secret state police – dissidents were thrown into “camps”

Kristallnacht

• Nov. 9-10, 1938 – Nazi thugs throughout GR and Austria loot and destroy Jewish businesses (7,000), homes and synagogues (1,688).

• 100 Jews killed, 30,000 sent to camps

• Known as Kristallnacht “Night of the Broken Glass” referring to the store windows that were broken by the Nazi’s

Refugees Escape

• 130,000 Jews fled GR prior to 1937 – which was encouraged by the Nazis – many countries are not willing to deal with the refugees- the US included

• At first Jews were rounded up and kept in ghettos surrounded by barbed wire walls – disease, starvation kill off many

• Einsatzgruppen = mobile killing units – Killed whoever and wherever they were sent – upper class, doctors, Jews, political leaders in POL, RUS

Wannsee Conference

• Jan. 1942 – Nazis meet to come up with the “final solution” about what to do with the Jews

• Establish special concentration camps in rural areas of GR

• At these camps a known campaign of genocide would be carried out

• Genocide = deliberate destruction of an entire ethnic group

Concentration Camps• Poles ---- 2 million

• Homosexuals --- 10,000

• Jehovah's Witnesses--- 4,000

• Mentally Ill and Physically Disabled—250,000

• Gypsies/Romanies –--- 1.5 million

• Communists ------3 million

• Church Officials – 15,000

• Jews ---- 6 million

60,000 REICH MARKS – THAT’S WHAT IT COSTS TO KEEP THIS MAN ( with genetic defects) ALIVE – ITS YOUR MONEY TOO..

Joseph Goebbels

• Minister of Propaganda

• “Our starting point is not the individual --- We do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty or clothe the naked…Our objectives are different: We must have healthy people in order to prevail in this world.” 1938

• 15,0000 camps of varying sizes were set up across the 15 Nazi occupied countries – with many in Poland

Death Camps• Experiments were done to see what the

most efficient way to kill was

• Poisonous gas Zyklon-B was best when administered in disguise as a shower – killed in 20 minutes or less

• Tried it out in Poland – killed 2,300 Jews the first day – eventually built 6 camps in Poland

• Concentration Camps = work until you die

• Death Camps = mass murder

• Arrive at camp – inspected …..• Elderly, women with small children and

those who were obviously sick/weak were taken straight to the gas chambers and killed

• Guards forced prisoners to carry the dead to the crematorium to be burned in big ovens

• Those who were not gassed – heads were shaved, registration # tattooed on their arms, given 1 set of clothes and then herded into overcrowded, cold, dirty barracks – no bathrooms, no beds

• Only food was a thin soup made with rotten vegetables

• Diseases swept through and killed many who were weakened by labor and hunger

• “Selections” were made periodically to get rid of the weak or sick

• Treblinka = 870,000 killed

• Belzec = 600,000 killed

• Auschwitz = 1.5 million killed – 90% Jews

• Buchenwald = 43,000 killed at work camp

Resistance• In and out of the camps Jews resisted the

Nazi’s

• In Poland 700 Jews armed with handguns and homemade bombs held out for a month against 2,000 GR soldiers

• Revolts erupted in camps – rioting prisoners damaged one camp so badly it had to be closed

• Escape was the most common form of resistance

Dr. Josef Mengele

• Medical experimentation

• Pressure chambers, new drug testing, freezing temperatures, amputations, no anesthetic, eye color experiments, live autopsies

• Children, twins, dwarfs

• “I remember one set of twins in particular: Guido and Ina – age 4. Mengele took them away. When they returned they were sewn together, back to back – like Siamese twins. Their wounds were so infected – they screamed day and night. Then their parents managed to get some morphine and they killed their children in order to end their suffering” – Vera Alexander, Jewish Inmate at Auschwitz – who looked after 50 sets of Romani twins

Rescue & Liberation• US newspapers were not interested in the

Holocaust during the war

• American Jews were ineffective in getting the Gov’t to rescue the prisoners

• With funding – Raoul Wallenburg was able to rescue 1,000s of Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish passports

• Oskar Schindler purposefully employed 1300 Jews in his factories so that they would not be shipped to the gas chambers

Could It Have Been Stopped?

• Early on – most countries (US included) could have done more by relaxing their immigration policy

• Could have saved the lives of many Jews from across Europe

• Many have placed blame on many areas – anti-Semitism, apathy, Great Depression, underestimation of Hitler’s plans

US Takes Action…

• US and BR attend Bermuda Conference to discuss what should be done to help the Jewish refugees and how the other Jews could be rescued from the Camps

• FDR set up the War Refugee Board which worked with the Red Cross to save thousands of Eastern European Jews

• Most of the camps were close to RUS - but Stalin was not concerned with the Jews lives and did little to help them

• BR and US were sympathetic but had other issues to deal with

• RR lines to the camps could have been bombed but it was argues that to do so would take valuable resources (planes) from other targets that were important to victory

• After GI’s retold the stories of what they saw when they liberated the camps made Americans sympathetic to the plight of these people – Many Jews found refuge in the US after WWII

Different from WWI…

• WWII was fought to the bitter end

• GER and JAP kept fighting even after they knew victory was not possible

• Allied Bombing devastated both JAP and GER cities and farm land

• GER fought until Hitler committed suicide

• JAP fought until the bombs were dropped

Yalta/Potsdam Conferences• Feb. 1945 – 2 mos. before the fall of Berlin• FDR, Churchill & Stalin met in Yalta, Russia to discuss

post war plans• At Potsdam, GER later in 1945 – Plan for GER division

was implemented• Germany would be split into 4 zones – US, RUS, BR &

FR would each control 1 zone• Berlin would also be split into 4 zones. Berlin was in the

Soviet held zone• Stalin promised elections in the nations that his armies

had liberated and also to enter the war against JAP as soon as GR surrendered

• Stalin did not keep his election promise and FDR and Churchill were accused of not doing enough to prevent Soviet domination in eastern Europe

Changes Post WWII…

• Gen MacArthur stays in JAP and helps to write a new constitution – abolished the military except for defense, women’s suffrage, set democratic reforms, and set the foundation for a full economic recovery

• Abuses of imperialism prior to the war were examined – many controlled people wanted independence – East Indies, Indochina, India, Burma

Balance of Power Shifts…

• BR/FR/GER were no longer the super-powers – RUS and US came out of WWII in positions of strength

• With the exception of Pearl Harbor, US was untouched by war – US was wealthy, militarily powerful and confident

• RUS had much of the war fought on its soil - RUS industries, cities, people suffered

• US had the A-Bomb – RUS had the Red Army – world’s largest military force

US Uses Its New Power…

• US pushes for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (US funded) – foster global economic and financial stability

• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) set up to expand world trade and reduce tariffs

United Nations…• April 1945 -United Nations created – 50 delegates

met in San Francisco to write the charter• Set up on the idea of cooperation of the Great

Powers not on the absolute equality of all nations• All member nations sat on the General Assembly

but the 5 WWII Allies were permanent members of the Security Council

• Helped to create Israel, provide food and aid• Universal Declaration of Human Rights –

condemns slavery & torture, freedom of speech & religion, supports an adequate standard of living

War Criminals…• Axis had repeatedly violated Geneva

Convention (sick/wounded, field/at sea, civilians, pow’s)

• 1,000s of Jap were tried for atrocities committed in CH, KOR, & SE Asia and mistreating POWs – 100s were put to death including Tojo for the Bataan Death March

• Nuremburg Trails – Nazi war crimes and the Holocaust – no longer would “I was following orders” be accepted – the outcome was “You are responsible for your own actions”

New American Identity…

• US fought in WWII for tolerance, freedom, democracy, & peace

• During the war – US leaders and popular culture emphasized these positive themes repeating that the Allies were fighting the “people’s war”

• Although war does not always lend itself to those ideals – it was hoped that the postwar period would bring about changes

Isolationism Again?

• Most Americans had kept a close eye on the war – the troops movements – battles won or lost

• Americans knew that the US could not go back to a period of isolationism – that the US had a huge role to play in the world peace and economic development