Chapter 14 World War 2 pt. 1

Holocaust

the systematic murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War 2; comes from Greek word meaning “sacrifice by burning” became a English word in 1950

Genocide

the deliberate of annihilation of an entire race of people

Anti-Semitism

hatred of Jews

Nazi persecution in 1930’s

* Attacks on the streets by Nazi storm troopers
* Boycotts of Jewish businesses
* Book Burning of books by Jewish authors
* Signs Posted “Jews Not Wanted” “Jew Free Village”
* Jews were designated by wearing the Yellow Star of David on their outer clothing
* The Nazis used propaganda to promote and took over media and schools to spread false info
* passports had to stamped with a J

Nuremburg Laws

17 Articles that took away the rights of Jews under law

5 articles from Nuremburg laws

1. took away citizenship
2. banned marriage between Jews and Germans
3. prohibited Jews from voting and holding public office
4. banned from practicing law and medicine
5. by the summer of 1936, nearly half of Germany’s Jews were jobless

Kristallnacht

“Crystal Night”, violence against the Jews on the night of November 9, 1938 retaliation for killing of a German Diplomat, stage attacks against the Jews that would appear spontaneous popular reaction to news of murder, smashed property, threw furniture into the streets, firebombed synagogues and beat Jews

Joseph Goebbels

Hitler’s minister of propaganda

Jews Fled between 1933-1939

350,000 Jews escaped Nazi Germany including Albert Einstein

Some countries refused to accept Jews due to economic wrong times

German Jews could not take more then $4.00 out of Germany

Einsatzgruppen

Specially trained SS mobile killing units that were sent into German-occupied territories to round up the Jews, taken to deserted areas, forced to dig open its, then shot and buried in these pits (mass graves)

eventually the SS group killers were affected physiologically by the face to face mass killings

Ghettos

Sections of the city that were sealed off with brick walls, barbed wire, and police guards

movement in and out strictly controlled, no radios, no communication with the outside, severe over crowding, limited food, conditions were terrible, typhus and tuberculosis

The Final Solution

On January 20, 1942, 15 high ranking officials met in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee to plan the complete extermination of Jews

Move the Jews out the Ghettos and place them in Camps

Prisoners’ clothing and belongings were taken, heads were shaved, and numbers were tattooed on their arms or identification

Concentration Camps

Jews were sent here to work slave labor until they died of exhaustion and starvation; food rations were meager, famous concentration camps were Bergen-Belsen and Dachau

Extermination Camps (Death Camps)

Jews would be exterminated by poison gas called Zyklon B and their bodies would be burned in the Crematoria

Auschwitz

Largest Death Camp

12,000 A day died in Auschwitz

1\.6 million total

44 rail lines going into Auschwitz

Work Makes you free at the entrance

Factory of Death

Sonderkommando

Jews who were forced to put bodies into ovens

Nuremberg Trails

Several Nazi leaders committed suicide to avoid being punished for their crimes: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heidrich Himmler

The Allies formed the International Military Tribunal to bring Nazi leaders to trail

22 Nazis were brought to trial in Nuremberg, Germany 3 categories of Crimes: Crimes against peace (for carrying out a war of aggression), War Crimes (for killing prisoners of war), Crimes against Humanity (mass murder of civilians including Holocaust Victims)

Outcomes of the Nuremburg Trials

12 were sentenced to death; 7 were sentenced to life in prison; 3 were acquitted

Investment

citizens were encouraged to buy war bonds to fund the war

War Bonds

a loan from American people to the American Government to help fund the war

War effort posters urged citizens to where

Investment, production, and conservation

Production

the government regulated prices and wages, factories started producing war goods and military clothing

women entered the workforce alongside some men

Conservation

Saving, Recycling, and Rationing

The Office of Price Controls

created to set limits on items

issued ration cards

issued a certain number of stamps or coupons per month

Victory Gardens

Gardens grown at homes to provide vegetables

The Battle of the Atlantic

Defeat of the Axis powers depended on the control of the Atlantic Ocean in order to safely deliver supplies, war goods, and troops

U-boats

German Submarine and undersea boats traveled in packs called wolf packs

known as iron coffins

Enigma

Germany’s code system of where their U-Boats where located and where they were going to attack

Operation Barbarossa

June 22, 1941-Feburary 2, 1943

German Invasion of the Soviet Union

Largest Military Operation and a decisive turning point in the war

German Strategy for Invasion of the Soviet Union

battles on encirclement and blockade

3 groups the German forces advanced to

1. Army Group North- Leningrad-Soviet’s main naval base
2. Army Group Center- Moscow-capital city of Soviet Union
3. Army Group South- Ukraine-region with rich oil fields, grain and industry

Hitler thought it would be an easy win but did not prepare for…

Harsh winter to come


1. Wearing summer uniforms
2. expecting quick victory, Germans brought insufficient food and supplies
3. No plans were made for Shelter from cold weather

Battle of Stalingrad

September 1942- February 1943

a turning point in the war and most brutal confrontations

women dug trenches for men

lots of loss for the German Army

Soviet’s Biggest Ally

General Winter was really cold and no one was prepared for it on Germany’s side

Hitler’s Mistakes in Operation Barbarossa

1. Thought it would be a quick victory
2. not prepared for the harsh winter
3. supply lines too far away
4. Hitler Underestimated Soviet Union Strength
5. Hitler Refused to retreat when in the sure face of Defeat

Stalingrad was so important because

It turned the tide of the war in Europe and marked the beginning of Germany’s Collapse

Paved the way for soviet forces to push German forces back toward Germany and invade the Capital city of Berlin

Scorched Earth Policy

Stalin’s Policy that required that when forced to withdraw the Red Army should destroy anything that could be use to the enemy (crops, farms, food, bridges)

North African Campaign

June 1940-May 1943

British were fighting the Italians for control of North Africa

Why is Africa such an important territory for the Allies?

1. By controlling North Africa, the British could protect shipping on the Mediterranean Sea against Italian Attacks
2. The British needed to control the region so they could bring oil from Middle East through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean and back to Great Britain

Suez Canal

Connects the Med with the Red

Erwin Rommel

German General who led forces into North Africa

Afrika Korps name of the group that he led

Nicknamed the Desert Fox

Convicted of joining the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and Hitler gave him a Cyanide Pill and he took his own life

Operation Torch

November of 1942

America’s first WW2 offensive invasion

Went to North Africa to help the British

German and Italy surrendered

Two American Commanders of Operation Torch

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

General George S. Patton

Who commanded the British troops in North Africa

Bernard Montgomery (Monty)

The plan called for the invasion of what North African Countries

Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia

The Big Three

met in Tehran, Iran

First meeting of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin

Came up with a final strategy against Nazi Germany and to discuss the invasion of Italy

Italian Campaign

Where the Allies headed next to knock them out of the war

Soft Underbelly

the weakest portion of the Axis defense

The Battle of Sicily

June 1943

The allies first captured the island of Sicily at thee toe of the Italian boot. Allies were headed north of Peninsula

German sent Reinforcements lasted a year

Tuskegee Airmen

First African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter Army Air Corps

Fighter and bomber pilots that fought in WW2

On June 5, 1944 the Allies liberated

Rome

What Happened to Benito Mussolini

He and his wife tried to escape to Switzerland but where recognized with Benito wearing a Luftwaffe coat and shot at and hung upside down

D-Day

Operation Overload

The Allied Invasion of France

June 6, 1944

The most celebrated victory in WW2

Largest Seaborne invasion in history

U.S Army Chief of Staff who developed the overall war stagey

General George Marshall

“organizer of victory”

Who was named the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe in December 1493

Dwight Eisenhower

D-Day definition

Day the operation starts

June 6, 1944

H-Hour

How the operation starts 6:30 a.m.

Atlantic Wall

Hitler’s forts that were built up of 1,670 miles of forts from Denmark to Spain

Overall allied commander of Operation Overlord

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Who did Eisenhower choose to lead the American troops at Normandy

Omar Bradley

Who was the top British Commander for operation Overlord

Bernard Montgomery

German Commander in charge of the German forces at Normandy

Erwin Rommel

The code names of the 5 beaches and who landed there

1. Gold (British)
2. Juno (Canada)
3. Sword (British)
4. Utah (United States)
5. Omaha (United States)

1st Phase of D-Day

1. Just after midnight on June 6, 1944-24,000 paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines. Their goal was to establish control of positions such as roads/bridges, landing forces would come from inland

2nd phase of D-Day

2. 11,000 war planes bombed German defenses before the first troops landed on the beaches

3rd phase of D-Day

6:30 a.m. H-Hour

5,300 battleships targeted German defenses on the cliffs above the beaches

about 4,000 landing crafts ferried the troops to the beaches

Why was the Landing on the 6 mile stretch of sand called Omaha beach was the most difficult

1. The broadest beach 6 miles and deepest beach 3 fb fields deep
2. The beaches had dunes, barbed wire obstacles and hedgehogs planted to prevent tanks from being brought ashore
3. Germans also planted many explosive mines on the beach and in the water-”Bouncing Betties”
4. Steep 100-foot bluffs/cliffs above the beach were fornications of 2,000 veteran German troops, 85 machine-gun nests, 38 rocket placements, 35 pill boxes, 18 antitank gun positions, 8 fortified gun batteries, 6 mortar pits
5. troops had been told that creators would be left by the air craft and naval artillery would serve as ready-made foxholes for air raids: did not happen; blinded by cloud cover
6. The cross channel trip was rough causing sea sickness
7. many drowned before ever arriving to the beach
8. 1/3 f those landing on Omaha died within the first hour it would 12 hours to gain control at Omaha

Special landing Craft boats that were used for the D-Day invasion

Higgins Landing Crafts

A German commander reported…

“The whole western front has been ripped wide open”

When all was said and done the success of D-Day came down to the

courage of individual soldiers

Dwight D. Eisenhower became America’s favorite military hero which led to him later becoming

the 34th president of the United States in 1952

The Battle of the Bulge

December 16, 1944-January 28, 1945

Hitler’s last offensive

Hitler was hoping to turn the tide in his favor

After about only a day of fighting the German’s broke through the Allied battle lines creating the famous bulge

Fierce resistance delayed the Germans long enough until George S. Patton “old blood’ n guts” and ended siege

Yalta Conference

February 1945 Last meeting of the Big Three


1. Agreed to divide Germany into 4 sectors
2. U.S Britain , Soviet Union, France would occupy a Sector
3. Capital City Berlin was divided into 4 sectors
4. Stalin agreed to help the U.S in Japan
5. Stalin agree to hold free elections in its countries
6. FDR argued for a United Nations

Crossing the Rhine River

April 1945

Germany was the next Allied target

British would march from the West and Soviets would come from the East

Any German commander caught retreating or surrendering would be immediately shot

Hitler ordered all bridges to be blown up to prevent Allies from crossing into Germany

The Death of FDR

April 12, 1945 FDR died of a brain hemorrhage while posing for a portrait at his vacation home in Warm Springs, GA. A big blow to the troops

The Suicide of Hitler

Knowing a defeat was imminent; On April 30, 1945 Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun then committed suicide

V-E Day (Victory in Europe)

May 8, 1945

The unconditional surrender was signed on May 7 in Rheims, France and would take effect the following day