1. THE SECOND WORLD
WAR
Chapter 28

2. Introduction--WWII
 Threats to the balance of power
 A conflict among nations, peoples, and ideals
 The new methods of warfare
 The Holocaust and the atomic bomb

3. From Isolation to Intervention
 Following WWI, successive U.S.
administrations backed away from intervention
in foreign countries

4. Foreign Crises
 Russia
 Lenin 1918
 Stalin 1924
 Italy and Germany
 Benito Mussolini became leader of Italy in 1922
 Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933

5. Lenin and Stalin

6. Mussolini

7. Hitler

8. Weimar Republic Germany 1918-
1932: Problems and More
Problems
 Problems with Legitimacy
 Major changes introduced by unelected Council of People’s
Commissioners in November 1918
 Introduced 8 hour workday, legalized labor unions, required re-hiring
of WWI veterans; farm labor reforms; social welfare; national health
insurance.
 Conservatives opposed these measures and Communists thought
they did not go far enough
 Elections held January 1919
 Great Depression
 Treaty of Versailles indignities
 War guilt
 Disarmament
 Reparations
 Exclusion from major diplomatic events

9. Hitler and the National
Socialists
 Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
 After the war, Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party
(1919)
 Re-definition of “socialism” into “National Socialism”
 German Worker’s Party was created by conservative
working class Germans who rejected the Treaty of
Versailles and the liberal reforms of the Weimar Republic
 “Socialism” was popular among many working class
Germans.
 Hitler hated “socialism” because it called for equality of
race and gender
 Hitler coined the term “National Socialist” to mean Aryan
German Workers who came together as equals to support
the moral, racial and cultural superiority of the German
“Fatherland”.
 National Socialist German Worker’s Party was aligned with
German conservatives who acquiesced in Hitler’s
ascension to be the Chancellor of Germany by forming a
coalition government with the Nazi Party.

10. Hitler and the National
Socialists
 November 1923: Munich (Beer Hall) putsch
 Along with other Nazi’s Hitler attempted a coup d'état
 Hitler dictated Mein Kampf while in prison
 Portrayed himself as the savior of the German people
 Weimar elections
 1924: Nazis polled 6.6 percent of the vote

11. Beer Hall Putsch Defendants

12. Proportional Representation and
the Parliamentary System
 Parliamentary System: Political parties offer a slate of
candidates
 Voters elect a party not individual candidates
 Many parties may participate in parliamentary elections
 Each party receives seats in parliament equal to the
proportional number of votes it received in the election
 If no one party gets 51% or more, the party with the most
seats has an opportunity to form a coalition with other
parties. The leader of the party with the most votes is
usually the Prime Minister
 Parliamentary system differs from U.S. system where
voters elect a candidate

13. How did Hitler come to power?
 1930 election
 Nazis won 107 of 577 seats in the Reichstag
 No party gained a majority
 Conservative Party attempted for form a coalition
government with the Nazis.
 Nazis demand that Hitler be made Chancellor (Prime
Minister)
 Nazi refusal caused the conservative coalition
government to fail, requiring new elections
 Street battles between Nazis and Communists

14. Political Parties in the Reichstag
June
1920
May
1924
Dec.
1924
May
1928
Sep.
1930
July
1932
Nov.
1932
Mar.
1933
Communist Party (KPD) 4 62 45 54 77 89 100 81
Social Democratic Party (SDP) 102 100 131 153 143 133 121 120
Catholic Centre Party (BVP) 65 81 88 78 87 97 90 93
Nationalist Party (DNVP) 71 95 103 73 41 37 52 52
Nazi Party (NSDAP) - - - 12 107 230 196 288
Other Parties 98 92 73 121 122 22 35 23

15. How did Hitler come to power?
 July 1932 elections
 Nazi party became the largest party in the Reichstag
(Parliament) but did not have a majority
 Two largest parties were Social Democratic Party
(Liberals and Socialists) and Nazi party
 Nazi party refused to join any coalition with the conservative
Nationalist Party unless Hitler was made Chancellor
 Conservatives refused to name Hitler as Chancellor
 Stalemate resulted in caretaker government
 Street battles continued between Communists and Nazis
 Government paralyzed and cannot perform basic functions
 Economic situation worsens

16. Freikorps
Communists

17. How did Hitler come to power?
 November 1932 elections
 Nazi Party lost significant seats but still the
largest party
 Communist Party increased seats significantly
 Hindenburg agreed form a government with Hitler
as Chancellor under pressure from industrialists
and conservatives who argued that Hitler could
be controlled
 Nazis appointed to major posts in the government

18. How did Nazis Consolidate
Power?
 Hitler as chancellor
 January 1933: Hindenburg appointed Hitler
chancellor
 February 27, 1933: Reichstag set on fire by Dutch
anarchist
 Hitler suspended civil rights
 March 5, 1933: New elections
 Hitler granted unlimited power for four years
 Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich

19. The Reichstag Fire,
27 February, 1933.

20. How did Nazis consolidate
power?
 Nazi Germany
 A one-party state
 Hitler’s first acts sharply limited freedom of the press and
enabled the cabinet to issue decrees without the consent or
approval of the Reichstag.
 Reichstag Fire Decree suspended all civil liberties
guaranteed by the German constitution.
 Widespread arrests of known or suspected opponents of
the Nazi party—mainly outspoken liberals and Communists
in the SPD and KDP
 Hitler turned on opposition within his own party
 June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives purged SA not
believed to be loyal to Hitler personally.
 Secured the support of the Army generals (Reich weir)

21. Hitler and the
National Socialists
 Nazi Germany
 Support
 Played off fears of communism
 Spoke a language of national pride
 Hitler as the symbol of a strong, revitalized Germany
(the Führer cult)
 The recovery of German national glory

22. Nazis and German Racism
 Nazi racism
 Nazi racism inherited from nineteenth-century social
Darwinism
 Nations and people struggle for survival
 Superior peoples strengthen themselves through struggle
 Anti-Semitism
 Joined by nationalist anti-Jewish theory: The Jew as outsider
to the German nation
 An “international Jewish conspiracy” based in part on
Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a conspiracy theory claiming
that International Jewish leaders were intent on taking over the
world.
 Protocols of the Elders of Zion thought to be created in 1903
by the Tsar’s Security police.

23. Nazi Racism
 Nazi racism
 April 1933: New racial laws excluded Jews from
public office
 1935 Nuremberg Decrees
 Deprived Jews of citizenship (determined by bloodline)
 November 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass)

24. Nazi Boycott of Jewish Shops in Berlin, 1933

25. Still Image from Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (1935),
a Film about a Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, Germany, 1934

26. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 Appeasement
 Assumptions in Europe and the U.S.
 The outbreak of another world war was unthinkable
 Fascist states were a bulwark against Soviet communism
 Ends—how to maintain Europe’s balance of power?
 Soviets the greater threat, so accommodate Hitler
 U.S. Isolationism
 Nye Committee 1934-1936
 Formed in the U.S. Senate to investigate the Munitions industry
profits from WWI
 Headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota (R)
 Questioned U.S. entered WWI because the munitions industry profited
by selling arms to both sides
 Claimed that bankers pressured Woodrow Wilson to enter WWI to
preserve their loans
 Neutrality Acts: U.S. may not ship arms to belligerent nations

27. The 1930s –
The “Dishonest Decade”
 The League of Nations
 Japanese invasion of China turned into an
invasion of the whole country
 The Rape of Nanjing (1937)
 The League expressed shock but did nothing
 Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935
 Avenging the defeat of 1896
 League imposed sanctions on Italy but without
enforcement

29. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 Poland
 The Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
 Soviet troops invaded from the East
 Poland fell in four weeks

31. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 Scandinavia—Germans took Denmark in one
day (spring 1940)
 The fall of France
 French army overwhelmed by the German
advance
 French army poorly organized

32. The Outbreak of Hostilities
and the Fall of France
 The fall of France
 Mid-June 1940: the Germans reached Paris
 June 20, 1940: French surrendered
 Germans occupied northern France
 Southern France fell under the Vichy regime, headed
by Marshall Petain
 The Free French movement

33. The Battle of Britain & the
Beginnings of a Global War
 The Battle of Britain (July 1940–June 1941)
 Forty thousand civilians dead
 Stalemate in the air
 British resistance

34. London during the Battle of Britain

37. Degrees of Neutrality
 Selective Service Act of 1940
 First peace-time conscription in U.S. history. Drafted men between 18
& 45 for one year
 FDR’s request that term of service be extended beyond 1 year
passed the House of Representatives by 1 vote on August 12, 1941
 Lend-Lease Program
 March 11, 1941
 U.S. sent armaments to Great Britain, Free France, China and the
USSR in return for leases on military bases around the world
 Public Opinion
 February 1941: Gallup 54% of Americans favored Lend-Lease without
qualifications
 22% (primarily among Republicans) opposed to any aid
 Senate Vote: 49 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted in favor; 13
Democrats and 17 Republicans voted against
 House vote: Democrats 238 to 25 in favor; Republicans 135 against,
24 in favor

38. Mothers urge defeat of the Lend-Lease program, kneel in prayer in front of the Capitol

39. FDR signs Selective Service Act
into Law

40. The Storm in the Pacific
 Japanese Aggression
 As Japan’s invasion of China became bogged down, Japan was
forced to look to other Pacific Islands for natural resources
 As Japan became more aggressive, FDR limited exports of
American goods to Japan
 Oil, scrap, and iron shipments prohibited
 Japan decided to eliminate U.S. Pacific fleet
 The Attack on Pearl Harbor
 December 7, 1941
 19 American ships sunk or disabled
 2,400 people killed; 1700 wounded
 FDR asked for a declaration of war against Japan on December 8
 Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11

41. Doolittle Raid
 April 18, 1942
 Joint action by the Army and Navy to retaliate
against Japan by bombing Japanese industrial
centers on Japanese home islands
 Primary purpose: boost morale at home and hurt
Japanese morale

42. Photos by Doolittle Raiders: http://www.doolittleraider.com/raid_photos.htm

43. Early U.S. Losses in the Pacific
 Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong and Manila fell to
Japanese in early 1942
 Bataan Death March: April 8, 1942
 Forcible transfer of 60,000- 80,000 American and
Philipino POW’s following the 3 month battle of
Bataan Peninsula
 80 mile march
 Japanese atrocities
 Racism?
 General Homma tried and executed for war crimes in
1946

47. American public did not learn about the “Death March” until January 1944

49. Battles of Coral Sea and
Midway
 Coral Sea—May 4-8, 1942
 Americans took more damage than Japanese
 Repulsed Japanese threat to Australia
 Midway—June 4-7, 1942
 U.S. had broken the Japanese code
 Knew attack coming but not exactly where
 Confirmed location by sending a false message
 3 of 6 Japanese aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl
Harbor destroyed at Midway
 Cumulative effect of these two battles was turning
point in Pacific theatre

50. Japanese carrier destroyed in Battle of Coral Sea

51. Photo by Kiyoshi Oniwa: Sinking of Hiryu

52. Mobilization at Home
 Economic Controls
 Congress authorized office of Price Administration in 1942
to set wages and prices
 War Production Board
 Allowed for central control of industry from peacetime
production to war production
 Congress forced FDR to sell war bonds to finance the war
 Did not raise taxes
 Domestic Conservatism
 FDR won election of 1940
 Midterm elections of 1942: Republicans regained many
seats in Congress and attempted to abolish most New
Deal Programs

53. Franklin D. Roosevelt E.C. 449 Popular: 27,243,218
Wendell Willkie E.C. 82 Popular: 22,334,940

56. African American Soldiers in
WWII
 Segregated units
 Separate accommodations
 Job opportunities
 Tuskegee Airmen
 Red Ball Express: African Americans drove
500,000 TONS of supplies to 1st and 3rd
Armies’ advance through France
 D-Day 1,700 African Americans in units in 1st
Army at Omaha and Utah beaches

59. Double V Campaign
 Victory at Home and Victory Abroad
 Attitudes of white servicemen who saw the
courage of African American servicemen
 Latinos
 Southern farmers recruit Mexican workers for
harvest time
 Zoot Suit Riots: series of riots in Los Angeles in
1943 between white U.S. servicemen stationed in
California and Latino youths

60. Native Americans
 Supported war effort
 1/3 of all eligible Native Americans served
 Code Talkers

62. Japanese-American Internment
 1942: 110,000 Japanese Americans

63. Name State Opened Max. Pop'n
Manzanar California March 1942 10,046
Tule Lake California May 1942 18,789
Poston Arizona May 1942 17,814
Gila River Arizona July 1942 13,348
Granada Colorado August 1942 7,318
Heart Mountain Wyoming August 1942 10,767
Minidoka Idaho August 1942 9,397
Topaz Utah September 1942 8,130
Rohwer Arkansas September 1942 8,475
Jerome Arkansas October 1942 8,497