NotesChapters 31 & 32

April 8-12, 2013

Causes of the Great Depression

• Industry producing more than they were selling (overproduction)– Leads to reduced production, which leads to

layoffs, which hurts demand

• Wealth unevenly distributed (top 5% of people gained 33% of the wealth)

• Buying stocks “on margin” (on credit), without the ability to pay back the loan

Causes of the Great Depression

• Stock market prices hit “unnaturally high” prices in late September, 1929.

• People begin to sell off, fearing a drop in prices

• Turns into a panic, and on Tuesday, October 29, a record 16 million stocks are sold and the market collapses

The Rise of Fascism in Europe

Mussolini, Hitler, and the turbulent 1930s

Background

• Harshness of the Versailles Treaty (especially for Germany)

• Great Depression: mass unemployment and inflation.

• Democracy is new, especially in Germany under the so-called “Weimar Republic”

• People start turning to political extremes

What is Fascism?

• New, militant political movement that emphasized loyalty to the government and obedience to the Leader

• Incorporated Nationalism• Incorporated Militarism• Right-wing, opposite of communism

Birth of Fascism in ITALY• Benito Mussolini – newspaper editor.

Promised to revive economy and armed forces

• Established the Fascist Party in 1919• Blackshirts: supporters of Mussolini.

Attacked opposition political groups (Communists, Socialists)

• March on Rome: October 1922. 30,000 Blackshirts

• King appoints Mussolini as Il Duce (leader)

German Fascism: NAZISM• Adolf Hitler: WWI veteran. Joins the National

Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) in 1919• Hitler quickly takes over party, known as der

Führer (the Leader)• Attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic in

1923. Fails, spends nearly two years in prison.• Writes “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle)– Germans are the Master Race (Aryans)– Non-Aryans (Jews, Gypsies, Slavs) are inferior– Germany needed more space (Lebensraum)…needed

to take it from Eastern Europe and Russia

German Fascism: NAZISM

• The Nazis remain a minor party until the Great Depression

• After the 1932 elections, the Nazis are the largest party in the German Parliament.

• Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933• Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act • Hitler begins to turn Germany into a

totalitarian state.

The HolocaustPersecution and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany

Background

• Hitler and the Nazis believe that Jews and other groups are inferior because they are “non-Aryan”

• European anti-Semitism • The Nazis blame Germany’s defeat, the Treaty

of Versailles, and the economic problems on the Jews

• Hitler takes power in Germany in January 1933

Early Persecution

• Nuremburg Laws, 1935. Jews are no longer German citizens, Jews cannot marry non-Jews, Jews cannot do certain jobs

• Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938• Nazis try to deport the Jews, but no other

country wanted to take them.• Isolation: Jews are rounded up and sent to

“ghettos”, walled off sections of cities where they were forced to live

The Final Solution

• Hitler orders the SS (security force) to round up Jews and other “inferior groups” into concentration camps– Concentration camps were Work Camps, used

the Jews slave labor

• SS go into some areas and kill the Jews• “The Final Solution”, 1942: Hitler approves

mass extermination.

The Final Solution• Will use vital materials and manpower to carry

out mass murder, hurts Germany’s war effort• Concentration camps converted into

Extermination Camps– Built gas chambers disguised as showers– Built “crematoriums” (ovens) to burn the bodies– Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka

• Victims:– 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis– 9-10 million other groups (Gypsies, Slavs, Mentally

Handicapped) also killed

Japanese Internment Camps

Background

• By 1941: 127,000 Japanese Living in the United States, nearly 90% in California

• Led to high anti-Japanese sentiment. • Japanese immigration barred in the 1920s• Laws segregated Japanese in some cities

Pearl Harbor and Response

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941• Racist attitude towards Japanese Americans

increase• Roosevelt Issues Executive Order 9066 – Feb

1942– Secretary of War can create “military zones from

which any or all persons may be excluded”– Creates “Military Area No. 1”: Pacific Coast to 100

miles inland.

Internment

• Starting in March “Civilian Exclusion Orders” are issued restricting rights of Japanese in Military Area No. 1

• May 3, 1942 - Civilian Exclusion Order 33:– All persons of Japanese ancestry to be

relocated from Military Area No. 1

Internment

• Given a week or less to “evacuate”• Moved first to Civilian Assembly Centers

in California, then to Relocation Camps outside Military Area No. 1

• Camps were built quickly, poorly heated, minimum rations, guarded by military sentries and barbed wire fences

• Held until January 1945. Given $25 and a train ticket home.