Interwar period and WWII,

1919-1945
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922-1991
USSR or Soviet Union
New Economic Policy, 1921-1928
Jan. 1924: Lenin died
By 1928: Stalin dominant
Great Turn, 1928 on
Five-year Plans
Heavy Industry
Collectivization:
De-kulakization: 5 million sent to labor camps
Famine: 3-4 million died
Causes of the Outbreak of
WWII (1939-1945)
The Rise of Hitler and
Appeasement
Causes of the Rise of Hitler
1. Stab in the Back
myth
Supposedly, civilian
socialist politicians
panicked and gave
up in WWI
German soldiers did not
lose WWI
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
2. Treaty of
Versailles
War Guilt Clause
Humiliation
Reparations
Hurt economy
Limited Army
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
3. Adolf Hitler
Charismatic
Great speaker
Used new media
well
Planes
Propaganda
Film
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
4. The Great Depression, 1929-1939
Germanys Unemployment:
1929: 1.3 million
1930: 5.8 million
January 1932: 6 million
October 1932: 8.7 million (about 50% of work
force)
Industrial production: fell 42 percent from
1929 to 1932
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
5. Germanys left-wing parties split:
Social-Democrats
Communists (USSR-backed)
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
6. Weimar government weak:
Chancellor Bruning stuck religiously to old-
style economics, laissez-faire, slashing
government spending and forcing down wages
and prices
Made Weimars leaders look stupid and
unsympathetic to plight of the masses
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
Chronology of events:
Communists started winning more
support amongst workers
Lower-middle class and middle class then
moved more and more right
Hitler seemed rough around the edges,
but was a man of action and order, and
anti-communist and a real patriot
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
1930 Reichstag elections: Nazis won 6.5
million votes and 107 seats (of 491)
1932 Reichstag elections: Nazis won 14.5
million votes (38 percent) of Reichstag
(230 seats; largest party in the Reichstag)
Hitler also played down his anti-Jewish
ideas and extreme racism at this time

Rise of Hitler (cont.)
Gained support from some key people in
Big Business and the Army.
Elites thought that they could use Hitlers
popularity, manipulate him.
January 30, 1933: President Hindenburg
appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of
Germany
Rise of Hitler (cont.)
February 27, 1933: German Reichstag
(Parliament ) building burned. Nazis
quickly blame the fire on Communists
February 28, 1933: A presidential decree
gives Chancellor Hitler emergency powers
All 100 Communist Party members of the
Reichstag are arrested. One Berlin man is
given 50 lashes for being a Communist
and 50 more for being a Jew
Burning of the Reichstag
Appeasment
CAUSES OF APPEASEMENT:
1. WWI, devastation, sacrifice and humiliation
2. Western powers, especially British PM Neville
Chamberlain, thought he could take Hitler at his
word
3. USA had slipped back into isolation, so League
of Nations had no teeth
4. Many Britons thought that Versailles had been
too harsh and needed to be fixed (Hitler was just
making amends)
5. Many liked Hitler's anti-communism
6. Britains lack of military preparedness also
encouraged it to stay out of any possible war
World War Two, 1939-1945
PRINCIPAL BELLIGERENTS:
Axis powers:
Germany
Italy
Japan
Allies:
Great Britain
United States
Soviet Union
France
China
Appeasement and
Aggression
March 1938: Anschluss (joining)
Austrians warmly greeted Hitler
1938-39: Appeasement: Neville
Chamberlain
Sept. 1938: Munich Agreement
Outbreak of war
March 1939: Germany occupied
Czechoslovakia
August 23, 1939: German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact
Sept. 1, 1939: Germany invaded
Poland
Sept. 3, 1939: Britain and France
declared war on Germany
Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union attacked Poland
Soviet Union imposed control over Lithuania,
Estonia and Latvia
Nov. 1939-March 1940: Soviet-Finnish War
or the Winter War
German armies attacked Holland and
Belgium
May 10, 1940: British Prime Minister N.
Chamberlain resigned
Winston Churchill formed a coalition
government: An appeaser is one who feeds
a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.
Blitzkrieg: "Lightening War"

Panzer Divisions
Armored vehicles
motorcycles
Planes
Concentrated
attack

German occupied Europe
Battle of Britain,
June-September 1940
Britain won: Why?
Winston Churchill
Never Surrender
Spitfires
RADAR
Goerings unclear
strategy
RAF or civilian
targets
Hitler lost interest
German-Soviet War, 1941-45
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Lebensraum (Living space)
Slavs - subhumans
Poor Soviet Army performance in Winter
war with Finland
Possibility of Soviet attack
Hitler: We have only to kick in the door
and the whole rotten structure will come
crashing down!
June 22, 1941: Germany broke Non-Aggression Pact
and attacked USSR: Operation Barbarossa
The Holocaust, 1941-45
The Final Solution
Until 1941, Hitler and Nazis did not agree on
what to do with Jews
Emigration
Madagascar
TURNING POINT: June 1941, Operation
Barbarossa
Einsatzgruppen: Mobile Killing Groups or
Single-task groups
Jews
Communists
Gypsies
Poles
Einsatzgruppen, 1941-42
Final Solution (cont.)
The ghettos were already sealed (1940)
Poison gas vans tested the use of gas
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Systematic annihilation of Jews and Gypsies
19421944: one million killed
Anonymous slaughter
People were tortured, beaten, and executed
publicly
jews arrested
warsaw_HU007442.jpg
Map_26.06.jpg
Map_26.07.jpg
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Who did this?
Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg
Ordinary Germans obeying orders
July 1942-Nov. 1943: killed more than 38,000 Jews
deported 45,000 others

Resistance?
Little resistance seemed to be
possible
Rebellions at Sobibor, Auschwitz and
Treblinka
Warsaw ghetto uprising (1943)
80 percent of the residents had been
deported
Small Jewish underground movement
56,000 Jews were killed
Overall human costs
5.1-6.0 million Jews
800,000 in Ghettos
1,400,000 in open-air shootings
2,900,000 in camps
1.8 -1.9 million Poles
200,000-800,000 Roma & Sinti
200,000-300,000 people with disabilities
10,000-25,000 gay men
2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses
US intervention and end of
WWII
pearl harbor_NA006444.jpg
Dec. 1941: US entered WWII
December 7, 1941: Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor
2.5 hours later, Japanese officially declared war
on the United States and Britain
Dec. 8: Britain declared war
Dec. 8: US Congress declared that a state of war
had existed since December 7
Dec. 9: China declared war on Japan, Germany,
and Italy
Dec. 11: Germany and Italy declared war on the
United States, and the US Congress voted
declarations in return
The Grand Alliance
BIG THREE:
Great Britain: Winston Churchill
USA: F.D. Roosevelt
USSR: Josef Stalin
Keys to victory: Agreed to:
Europe first (Hitler - greatest evil)
Postpone politics (capitalism vs. communism)
Unconditional surrender (no 1918!)
yalta conf
erence_BE001058.jpg
But war in the east was
decisive
Battle of Stalingrad: summer 1942-
February 2, 1943
Hitler wanted to take the city. Why?
Named after Stalin
Important port on Volga river
But distraction from oil reserves
Battle of Stalingrad: summer 1942-
February 2, 1943
Axis powers advanced (General F. Paulus)
Soviets held on
Axis supplies started running out
Winter came
Panzer tanks useless in street fighting
Soviets counterattacked (pincer
movement)
Surrounded Axis forces
Street-to-street fighting
Stalingrad
Feb. 2, 1943: Paulus surrendered
(ignored Hitler)
Total Axis losses (Germans,
Romanians, Italians, and
Hungarians): 800,000 dead
Soviet soldiers: 1,100,000 dead
But turned the tide of the war
June 6, 1944: D-Day: Battle of
Normandy
Long period of preparation and planning
Largest amphibious landing in history
Five beaches:
Utah
Gold
Juno
Sword
Bloody Omaha
Significance: opened up a large second
front

d-day omaha
beach_NA007140.jpg
yalta conf
erence_BE001058.jpg
ENDGAME
April 25, 1945: Soviet Army first to
reach Berlin
April 30: Hitler and Eva Braun
committed suicide
May 8, 1945: Victory in Europe
War in Europe ended
soviet flag over
reichstag_YK004440.jpg
Trinity Explosion: July 16,
1945
End of War with Japan
August 6, 1945: Hiroshima
Killed 70,000-90,000 people, injuring
another 70,000
August 9: Nagasaki
Killed 60,000-75,000 and injured about
the same number
hiroshima
bombed_BE042948.jpg
August 14, 1945:
Japan surrendered
Total deaths:
60-85 million
35-37 percent soldiers
63-65 percent civilians