COUNTDOWN TO WW2

PAGES 123

FIRST SIGNS OF THE NAZI POWER

INTRODUCTION

• 1936 - Adolf Hitler:

• Chancellor of Germany.

• Leader of the National Socialist (Nazis).

• Banned all political parties.

• Imprisoned all this enemies.

• Manipulated all the German media.

• Began persecuting the Jews.

KEY CONCEPTS

GETTING INTO WW2

• Rhineland.

• Anti-Cominterm Pact.

• Condor air force.

• Anchsluss.

• Sudetenland.

• Munich agreement.

• Poland.

• Britain, France & Germany.

MARCH 1936

RHINELAND

• The Treaty of Versailles broke up.

• Germany marched into the Rhineland (demilitarized area).

• The excuse was the protection of the border against any threat.

• No country was able to face Germany at the same intensity.

NOVEMBER 1936

ANTI-COMINTERM PACT

APRIL 1937

CONDOR AIR FORCE

• Support Franco’s side on the Spanish Civil War.

• It was a trial exercise.

• Testing the use of airplane bombings against civilians.

• Gernika & Durango.

MARCH 1938

ANSCHLUSS

• The proclamation of the Greater German Reich.

• Hilter was born in Austria.

• He believed that Germany and Austria belonged together.

• Anschluss = merger.

SEPTEMBER 1938

SUDETENLAND

• A region in Czechoslovakia.

• A region with 3 million German speakers.

• Hitler was given the option of taking this region in the Munich Agreement (“Appeasement”).

• The condition: Hitler would not take the rest of Czechoslovakia.

• But Hitler broke the promise March 1939.

• France & Britain were more worried about the communists and Stalin (and their possible expansion) than Hitler and then nazis.

AUGUST 1939

GERMAN-SOVIET PACT

• A pact of no-aggression was signed.

• Both nations would split Poland among them.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

GERMANY INVADES POLAND

WW2 BEGINS

POLAND

CHARACTERISTICS OF WW2

PAGES 125-126

INTRODUCTION

WW2

• WW2 was the biggest military conflict in History.

• It’s the conflict that caused the most damage ever.

• Its consequences are enormous, and even today we are among them.

• This conflict really and truly changed the world

• It meant the beginning of another distinct period.

KEY ASPECTS

WW2

• Worldwide.

• Technology.

• Rapid movement.

• Occupations.

• National resistance.

• Espionage.

• Holocaust.

• Atomic bombs.

• Superpowers.

AXIS POWERS VERSUS ALLIED POWERS

TWO MAIN GROUPS IN WW2

• Axis Powers: Germany, Italy and Japan.

• Allied Powers: Britain, France, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand; later, 1941 (after Pearl Harbor attack), the USA; China.

• Russia will be among both: first, with Axis (until Operation Barbarossa), then with the Allied (key in the final victory).

• Some countries remained neutral for different reasons: Switzerland, Spain among them.

ANY PLACE WAS GOOD FOR WAR

WORLDWIDE

• Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific (main theaters).

• Deserts, arctic, mountains, jungles,…

• Air, land, sea, underground,….

HUGE DIFFERENCE IN WEAPONS

TECHNOLOGY

• Fighter planes & (short and long range) bombers.

• Tanks.

• Nuclear weapons.

• Communications.

• The objetive: rapid movements (avoid the trenches stalemate of WW1).

• Espionage, significant (secret war).

CIVILIAN POPULATION AFFECTED DIRECTLY

OCCUPATIONS

• Germany occupied France.

• Evacuations to safer parts.

• National resistance feeling against Germany.

• Germany and Britain, bombing key cities (civilians to break the morale).

THE FINAL SOLUTION

HOLOCAUST

• 6,000,000 jews, exterminated under the racial theories.

• And more information coming soon…

TWO MAIN ASPECTS

END OF WW2

• [1] The atomic bombs dropped August 1945 (Hiroshima & Nagasaki) marked the end of WW2 in the Pacific theater.

• Consequence: [2] Two superpowers: USA & Soviet Union.

• “Cold War” (nuclear tension) - 1945-1989.

LEADERS OF WW2 HOW DOES HISTORY

REMEMBER THEM?

KEY EVENTS OF WW2 PAGES 126-127

• 1939 - September - Germany’s invasion on Poland.

• 1941 - June - Operation Barbarossa.

• 1941 - December - Pearl Harbor.

• 1944 - June - D-Day.

• 1945 - May- Russians arrived in Berlin / Germany surrendered.

• 1945 - August - Japan surrended (end of WW2).

WHY DID HITLER START IT ALL?

PAGES 128

• Adolf Hitler is one of the most complex figures in modern history.

• “Nazi” is a terrible term.

• “Swastika” is a negative symbol =hatred and intolerance (origin, Hindu, represents the sun).

• It is banned in public by most western societies.

• “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) is the base of Hitler’s and Nazi philosophy: [1] superiority of the Aryan race; [2] anti-semitism.

• Concentration camps.

• Death camps.

• “Final Solution”.

• “Holocaust” (burning sacrifice).

• “Shoa” (calamity).

• Nuremberg Trials; crimes against humanity.

THE GREAT DICTATOR

A MOVIE RECOMMENDATION:

CONTENT TEST