Holocaust and WW2

WW2 on the Pacific

The Bataan Death March

  • the forcible transfer of around 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese Imperial Army.
  • More than 10,000 American + Filipino soldiers died during the ==60 mile march to a Japanese prison camp==

Battle Midway (June 7, 1942)

  • major ==naval battle== that took place in pacific theater ==between North America and Asia== in the North Pacific Ocean
  • was a ==major turning point== in the war→ permanently weakening the Japanese Navy
  • Marked the start of the Allied advancement into the Pacific

Battle of Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942- Feb 1943)

  • codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces
  • ==military campaign== on and around the ==island Guadalcanal== in the Pacific theater

Island Hopping

  • ==method of taking not heavily defended islands== → to limit casualties
  • liberated areas can then be used to ==further attacks==
  • used ==after the Midway== by the allies to regain lost land to Japan

Kamikazes

  • ==suicide pilots== used by Japan in response to the American’s advances

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

  • America invaded ==Iwo Jima Feb 1945==
  • one of the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history
  • allowed the land to be used as emergency landings for U.S. b-29 bombers
  • ==Okinawa in April 1945==
  • last and largest battle in the Pacific
  • Japan fought to the death and even committed suicide rather than surrender (Okinawa civilian included)
  • More than 18k American + 120k Japanese casualties

Hiroshima

  • center of military activities
  • ==Aug 6, 1945 atomic bomb (Little Boy)== dropped under Truman’s orders
  • more than 70k civilian deaths, still the Japanese refused to surrender

Nagasaki

  • military infrastructures were located in and around
  • ==Aug 9, 1945 atomic bomb (Fat Man)== dropped
  • 40k more die

Japan finally surrenders on Aug 14 1945

War declared over Sept 2, 1945

“Social Changes During the War”

%%(WPB) War Production Board-%%

  • granted supreme authority to direct procurement of materials and industrial production programs
  • ==The WPB directed conversion and expansion of peacetime industries to meet war needs==, allocated scarce materials vital to war production, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited ==non-essential production==

Ration-

  • fixed amount of commodity officially allowed during a shortage

“Rosie the Riveter”-

  • popular symbol of women who abandoned traditional female occupations to ==work in defense industries==
  • challenged the convention image of female behavior
  • criticized by social critics

A. Philip Randolph

  • The president of the Brotherhood of Sleep Car Porters
  • called for 150k African Americans to march in Washington DC to ==protest the discrimination in the defense industry==→ creation of Fair Employment Practices Commission

(FEPC)Fair Employment Practices commission

  • issued by FDR 1941
  • prohibited discrimination in the defense industry

%%Tuskegee Airmen (332nd Fighter Group)%%

  • African American regimen in the American Air Force
  • earned a distinction for contributions to the war effort

%%Bracero (Working hands)%%

  • established in 1942
  • permitted millions of Mexican men to work as agricultural laborer in the US for a limited time

%%“Zoot Suits”%%

  • flamboyant suits worn by Mexican American youth gang members
  • used to celebrate their ethnicity

“Facing History”

NSDAP

  • National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi)
  • Nationalsozialist^^ische^^ deutsche Arbeiter Partei
  • a political party that plotted to takeover the government
  • created a program to prohibit German alien rights and abolish the Treaty of Versailles
  • Led by Hitler

Appeasement

  • appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked
  • a policy carried out by allied powers that gave Hitler military/territorial concessions in order to avoid the war

Neville Chamberlain (1937-1940)

  • British Politician the served as Uk’s Prime minister (did not do anything in response to Jewish treatment in Germany)
  • best known for his role in the Munich Agreement of 1938

==Kristallnacht “Night of Broken Glass”==

  • Nov 9, 1938

  violence against Jews throughout Nazi-controlled lands including the ==destruction of synagogues and murders==

  • named after the shattered glass of Jewish owned establishments

Einsatzgruppen (German ss)

  • German name for mobile killing squads
  • used to kill mass amounts of Jews in mass shootings and killings

“Final Solution”

  • The final solution the the “Jewish Question”(What should Germans do with Jews) → kill and annihilate all Jews
  • codename for the systematic, deliberate, and physical annihilation of European Jews in both neutral and enemy countries

Wannsee Conference (Jan 1942)

  • where senior government official of Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel leaders came together and created the “final Solution”

“Holocaust” (Second reading packet)

Neutrality act (1937)

  • permitted belligerents to purchase war materials under the condition that they paid cash and carried the goods on their own ship
  • aided the British because of British control over The Atlantic’s sea lanes
  • it allowed America to indirectly aid in the war against Germany in-spite of the strong public isolationism in America at the time

Lend-Lease

  • gave the president authority to \]]]exchange, lend, or lease war material to any country whose defense was vital to U.S. security
  • replaces “cash and carry” after Winston Churchill informs FDR that the British can no longer afford weaponry

General Hideki Tojo

  • leader of the militants (General of the Imperial Japanese army)
  • seized power after the Japanese government fell in Oct 1941

Arizona

  • U.S. Battleship sunken by Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor
  • the worst damaged→ thousands of ship’s sailer dead

Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka

  • known as Operation Reinhard Camps
  • killing centers created to systematically murder Jews in Poland

Operation Reinhard

  • codename for the German plan to murder approximately 2 million Jews in Poland and the Soviet Union
  • created even before the Wannsee Conference and “Final Solution”