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Chapter27WorldWarII.pptxWorld War II
The Coming of War
The cause of World War II originated in the settlement that ended the first World War. Three factors help to explain this.
First, the Treaty of Versailles was resented by the Germans, and it weakened western economies while enhancing the appeal of Hitler.
Second, the League of Nations was a failure. It was designed to replace the old system of alliances, but without military power and lacking influence from the United States, it was weak.
Finally, the creation of cohesive nation states created conflict throughout eastern and southern Europe.
The Great Depression helped to destabilize the peace. Governments imposed tariffs to protect vital industries and some used territorial expansion to escape economic difficulty.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, after the collapse of the silk and cotton markets.
Later, Italy will invade Ethiopia, and by 1936 civil war will rage in Spain.
The Japanese will continue their war in China, in what became known as the Rape of Nanking. Soldiers
Invasion of China
The Expansion of Nazi Germany
Between the years 1933-1939, Europe undertook a policy of appeasement when it dealt with Adolf Hitler and Germany.
Hitler had stated clearly in Mein Kampf, that Germany would only be great again if it went to war and expanded its territory into eastern Europe.
In Hitler’s warped mind, the Slavic people, including the Russians were inferior racial stock that needed to be made subordinates to their masters, the Aryan people of Germany.
The destruction and persecution of the German Jews was a clear signal of the danger that Europe and ultimately the rest of the world faced.
Germany’s economic policies were clearly formulated in the expectation of territorial expansion.
Britain and France believed that if they gave into Hitler’s territorial demands, they could avoid conflict and slowly integrate Germany into the European political system.
Hitler took many gambles during the 1930’s, but when he withdrew from the League of Nations and began rearming, this should have been a wake-up call.
The League failed to act, and Hitler had no worry, because they had failed to act when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Poland in 1934.
Hitler followed this with a build up of the army to 500,000 men, and a creation of a German air force.
All of these were clear violations of the Treaty of Versailles.
Europe chose to take an individual response instead of a collective one.
France signed a five-year defensive alliance with the Soviet Union.
They also constructed a series of defensive installations called the Maginot Line in hopes of repelling a future German attack.
The British allowed for the Germans to construct a navy 1/3rd the size of the British Royal Navy.
The French and British joined in regional pacts, with Turkey, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia to preserve the Balkans.
The Maginot Line
None of these responses addressed the remilitarization of the German state, and Hitler could continue as he pleased.
He made passionate speeches in which he called for Lebensraum,(living room).
These speeches called for all German speaking people to be united under one Germany.
In 1935 & 36, more appeasement of Hitler pushed the world toward the brink of yet another war.
Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
The League of Nations imposed economic sanctions on the country but did not even hint at the threat of using troops to help the African state.
Hitler entered into an agreement with Italy and Japan, in a proposed alliance against communism, but they were really forming the Axis Powers, as it would later be called.
Mussolini termed it the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Again, this was Hitler making a clear swipe at the Treaty of Versailles.
Mussolini after the defeat of Ethiopia
In 1936, Hitler ordered German troops into the demilitarized Rhineland.
Germany’s high-ranking military advisors feared the French would attack and occupy the Rhineland.
British leaders looked the other way because in their view, the Germans were just asserting full sovereignty over a part of Germany that was rightfully theirs.
The French were unwilling to use military action without the full support of the British.
Hitler was a native Austrian, and he had been for Anschluss, or unification since before 1919, however the Treaty of Versailles prevented it.
In 1938, Austria was weak, and it had been politically divided by a large following for the Nazi Party.
In March 1938, Hitler ordered the German army in to occupy the country under the umbrella of preventing civil disturbances.
The Austrian people became a part of the German Reich,(empire)
Hitler was a native Austrian, and he had been for Anschluss, or unification since before 1919, however the Treaty of Versailles prevented it.
In 1938, Austria was weak, and it had been politically divided by a large following for the Nazi Party.
In March 1938, Hitler ordered the German army in to occupy the country under the umbrella of preventing civil disturbances.
The Austrian people became a part of the German Reich,(empire)
Britain and France raised eyebrows, but no real action was taken.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was determined to follow the strategy of appeasement.
One reason, was that the annexation was highly popular with the Austrian people.
The next piece of the puzzle was Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain
Hitler was interested in the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia that was home to 3.5 million Germans.
Hitler used the rhetoric of national self-determination.
His propaganda minister Joseph Goebels, decried that the German’s were a minority and that the Czech government was constantly persecuting them.
The Czech government tried to stand firm, and war seemed imminent.
Czechoslovakia was allied with the Soviet Union and with France.
Chamberlain hoped to avert a war by meeting with Hitler. Meanwhile both the British and the French were trying to pressure the Czech government to give in to Hitler’s demands.
Later, Chamberlain and French Premier Edouard Daladier met with Hitler and Mussolini at a conference in Munich.
Oddly enough, Czechoslovakia and the Soviets were not invited.
France and Britain agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland, in exchange for an agreement in writing that he would not attempt to take any more territory. This was known as the Munich Agreement.
From this moment on, Czechoslovakia was a doomed democracy.
The French refused to honor their alliance agreement and the Soviets were angered that they were not allowed to attend.
Chamberlain often gets a lot of the blame for the strategy of appeasement, and for the war that eventually followed.
Sudetenland
Its important to note however, that Chamberlain was leading a country that was not militarily or financially prepared for a war.
Many British citizens were sympathetic to the claim that the Treaty of Versailles had placed Germans against their will in the Czech republic.
Most importantly, although the British citizenry had little trust for the Nazi Party, they viewed Hitler as an ally in the fight against communism that had taken over Russia.
Chamberlain returned to England and declared, “we have achieved peace in our time.”
Churchill
Winston Churchill was less certain and very outspoken about the way Chamberlain had pursued appeasement.
He publicly blasted the Prime Minister in the House of Commons.
He stated, “the German dictator instead of snatching victuals from the table has been content to have them served to him course by course.”
The Munich agreement was viewed by Hitler as Western weakness.
The Czech state was in shambles and the Slovaks were in revolt against Czech rule.
Hitler used this as an excuse to send in troops and soon Germany occupied Prague and ended Czech independence.
It soon became clear to Europe, that the policy of appeasement was a failure. Hitler could not be reasonable, and the world was about to enter another world war.
Hitler began to set his sights on Poland in 1939.
Parts of eastern Germany had been awarded to Poland at the Versailles peace settlement.
Hitler wanted a revision of the settlement, and Britain and France agreed to come to Poland’s defense should there be an attack.
By June of 1939, Hitler was completing plans for a German invasion.
In 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact.
Stalin did not trust Hitler, but in a moment to buy time, he agreed to look the other way while Hitler’s troops took over Poland.
This would also give Stalin the chance to gain back territory that Russia lost in 1918 & 1919.
For Hitler, this was a “green light” for World War II. With Stalin on the back burner, he didn’t have to worry about fighting a two-front war, as Germany did in WWI.
Two weeks after signing the pact with Russia, Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939. Within weeks, they implemented racial policies that murdered millions of Poles.
On September 3rd, the British and the French declared war on Germany.
The Soviets quickly advanced from the east and Stalin’s Red Army occupied Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. It also seized parts of Romania. They also imposed a regime that was characterized by mass deportations and death World War II had begun.
Evaluating appeasement
For Chamberlain and those who promoted appeasement, it was based upon the horrors they remembered from the first World War. They firmly believed that the alternative would be total war, and it would be worse than before.
Motivated by desire to avoid war, appeasement rested on two points:
The assumption that Germany’s grievances were legitimate, and that Germany would neutralize the threat of the Soviet Union.
There hopes were dashed when Germany signed the pact with Stalin.
blitzkrieg
Hitler’s strategy for invading Poland was called blitzkrieg, (lightning war).
The tanks and air power of the German military overwhelmed the Polish defenses.
While the army fought on the ground, the Luftwaffe-The German air force brought ruin from the air.
1300 planes destroyed the Polish air force from the skies.
On the Western front, it remained quiet through the fall and winter. Historians often call this time period the “phony war,” the calm before the storm.
In April of 1940, the Nazis attacked and occupied Denmark and Norway.
The British navy took heavy loses, and Hitler now had valuable navy bases from which he would later launch an assault against Britain.
One month later, the Germans would invade Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg.
The Blitzkrieg was so strong, that it forced a combined force of British and French troops back to the English channel to the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France.
While the RAF (Royal Air Force) held of the Luftwaffe, the British navy with aid from fishing boats evacuated the troops. By June, 110,000 French and 240,000 British soldiers had been rescued.
The defeat at Dunkirk was demoralizing. By this time Winston Churchill (1874-1965) had been appointed prime minister.
He reminded the British people, “Wars are not won by evacuation.”
The Defeat of France
Similar to the first World War, the Germans attacked France through Belgium, avoiding the famous Maginot Line.
French soldiers were demoralized after Dunkirk and the British helped as much as possible.
Italy invaded from the south on June 10th, 1940.
While the French easily repelled the Italians, Paris fell to the Germans on June 14th.
After only five weeks of combat, French political leaders decided to sign an armistice. The French Assembly turned over power to Marshal Philippe Petain (1856-1951), a hero of World War I, who established an authoritarian government.
The armistice was signed on June 22, 1940 in the same railway car in which Germany was forced to sign in 1918.
The Vichy regime was named after the city Petain chose as his capital. The armistice demonstrated collaboration with the Nazi regime.
The Vichy regime was confined to the south of France and to the French colonial regions.
As of June 1940, Germany occupied western and northern France, but with its other territories, it controlled most of the continent.
The battle of Britain
After the fall of France, Hitler believed that Britain would accept the new world order of German domination and negotiate a peace settlement.
Winston Churchill became Prime Minster of Britain in May of 1940.
He was an opponent of appeasement, and he urged the British public to remain steadfast despite the odds. In his first speech as prime minister, he promised, “victory at all costs.”
On July 10th, 1940, the German air force, began to attack British naval and military installations in preparation for a mainland invasion. Destroying the RAF was a priority.
Britain responded with a vigorous bombing of German cites.
The British had three advantages in this battle. First, RAF pilots were in the skies over Britain. If they were shot down and survived, they could be rescued to fight again. German pilots were held as prisoners of war.
Second, a rearmament program started in 1934 led to the development of anti-aircraft gun installations and radar sites to protect the British Isles.
Finally, Britain’s industrial strength out matched Germanys. Factories produced twice the number of aircraft as their German counterparts.
Germany bombed London every night for two months to gain an advantage. As a result of British determination, and the loss of countless aircraft, Hitler altered his war plan.
The British were united under the leadership of Churchill. Even the monarchy, king George VI and queen Elizabeth remained at Buckingham Palace as bombs fell on London.
They visited the bombed portions of the city on a regular basis inspiring British patriotism. The Queens radio addresses along with Churchill’s brought comfort and resolve in a dark hour.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
The invasion of the soviet union
Hitler’s dreams of an empire that lasted for a thousand years centered on the agricultural resources of the Soviet Union.
Hitler always planned to attack the Soviets despite his signing of the non-aggression pact with Stalin.
He saw this conflict as Good verses Evil: The Superior Germans against the evils of “Judeo-Bolshevism.”
He wanted to occupy the Russian lands, because the majority of European Jews lived in eastern Polish lands or in the Soviet Union.
A crucial postponement
Hitler ordered his military generals to plan an invasion of the Soviet Union in July of 1940. The original plan was to begin in April of 1941.
This plan was postponed for two months because Mussolini, was becoming an incompetent ally.
Mussolini desired to expand his Mediterranean empire. He ordered Italian troops into territories controlled by Britain in North Africa in July of 1940. In October Italy invaded Greece.
Italy was not prepared for total war; there budget and industrial base was ill equipped. The British pushed the Italians back into Libya and the Greeks were strongly resisting.
Hitler feared a consolidation of British power in Africa and he was concerned over a British advance into eastern Europe. A build up of British air bases in Greece would threaten the German war effort.
Hitler sent his best commander, General Erwin Rommel to North Africa to help the Italians.
Rommel and his tank command drove the British back from Libya into Egypt. Their main goal was to control the Suez Canal, cutting off the British supply line to its South Asian Empire.
The Nazi forces also conquered Greece and Romania and forced Hungary and Romania to join the Axis.
Hitler needed the Romanian oil fields to supply the German war effort.
Rommel
Although it was not part of his original plan, he turned his army east towards the Soviets without first knocking the British out of the war.
His massive land and air assault was called Operation Barbarossa and it began on June 22, 1941.
Hitler sent his blitzkrieg of over three million men, plus tanks and aircraft.
His generals promised Hitler that the Soviets would be defeated within 6 weeks.
The Russians were caught off guard, because Stalin had failed to believe that Hitler would violate the Non-Aggression Pact.
More importantly, the initial German invasions occurred in areas where Soviet rule had brought suffering. The population had little reason to defend the state.
The German Luftwaffe destroyed thousands of Stalin’s planes before they could get off the ground.
Three million Russian soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured as German Panzer tanks constantly smashed through the Russian lines.
The Russians did resist, and in the winter of 1941-42 the German advance stalled. Three obstacles halted the invasion:
1. German atrocities strengthened local resistance. For example, the German soldiers in occupied Soviet territory, murdered at will.
2. Germany’s overstretched supply line was the second factor in this failure.
3.The most critical obstacle was the Russian winter. Snow in October turned to mud, and then subzero temps caused German soldiers to get frostbite. By the end of the winter, the Germans casualties included 30% of the German East Army.
The World at War 1941-1945
In the United States, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was torn between isolationism and the need and desire to help our allies.
In constant talks with Churchill in Britain, Roosevelt new that at some point the U.S. military would have to get involved.
The common people of the country however had spoken. In pole after pole the American people demanded that the United States stay out of any other foreign entanglements.
As early as 1937, Roosevelt gave his famous quarantine speech, in which he stated, to mothers, “your boys will not be sent to die in another foreign war.”
By early 1941 however, Roosevelt was beginning to understand the overall gravity of the situation.
If Britain fell, and Hitler controlled all of Europe, the United States would be next on his list.
A foreign invader had not been on the shores of the U.S. coast since the British in the war of 1812.
Roosevelt in the Spring of 1941, established the Lend-Lease Act.
This was designed to send American goods and services, including military hardware to any country in which whose defense the president deemed vital to American security.
Congress approved the program for 7 billion dollars.
American naval ships began patrolling the Atlantic to assist the British with German submarines.
Hitler saw the United States as an undeclared enemy. Nevertheless, Lend-Lease helped Britain to defy Germany throughout 1941.
The Japanese were allies of Germany and Italy after the outbreak of war in Europe.
They like the Germans had signed a treaty of neutrality with the Russians.
When France was knocked out of the war, the Japanese moved into French Indochina and threatened the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and British Malaya.
The United State then froze all Japanese assets and placed a complete economic embargo on Japan.
Britain and the Netherlands did the same.
The Japanese needed oil to run their economy, and this embargo threatened their territorial expansion plans.
General Hideki Tojo planned a quick and decisive strike against the American naval fleet in the Pacific.
His hope was that the strike would give the Japanese time to secure the Dutch East Indian oil reserves.
Pearl Harbor
On Sunday December 7th, 1941, the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The attack came just before 7A.M. and a large portion of the American fleet and hundreds of airplanes were destroyed.
Around 2,500 Americans were killed.
The attack put a quick end to American isolationism.
On December 8th, 1941 President Roosevelt makes a speech for the declaration of war against Japan to the United States Congress.
It is the most important speech he ever makes.
Three days later, Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the United States.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized Americans behind President Roosevelt’s war strategy.
Even those who were opposed to war in the beginning saw victory now as the only option.
The Grand Alliance, now opposing the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and Nationalist China.
The United States sent huge amounts of military aid n the form of trucks, tanks, planes, and weapons.
The Turning Point: Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad
The Japanese quickly forced the American forces out of the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island.
Early in 1942, they overran, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies.
Finally, in May 1942, the Americans slowed the advance of the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea.
In June 1,000 miles north of Hawaii, the momentum quickly shifted. At the Battle of Midway, American planes sank four Japanese aircraft carriers. This dealt the Japanese a huge blow.
Coral Sea/Midway
The battle of el alamein
The Battle of El Alamein occurred only 70 miles from Egypt, and it marked the culmination of over two years of fighting in North Africa.
In October 1942, the British under the command of General Bernard Montgomery were able to defeat Rommel and push the Germans back across the dessert.
The following month, a joint Anglo-American army landed in both Morocco and Algeria attacked Rommel and the Germans from the west.
The Italians and the Germans were forced to surrender the following May of 1943.
Form here, the British and the Americans used bases in Africa to invade Italy in 1943.
General Bernard Montgomery
Battle of Stalingrad
When the Germans failed to take Leningrad and Moscow, Hitler ordered his Generals to advance on Stalingrad. Hitler divided his army to widen his offensive. His front stretched from 500 to 2,500 miles.
When the Germans reached Stalingrad on August 23rd, their resources were overstretched. An epic battle ensued. The fighting was intense often hand to hand in the ruins of the city.
Two Russian armies counterattacked from the north and the south and surrounded the Germans.
The Germans surrendered in January of 1943, and they were never able to make up the losses of Stalingrad.
Just as in the previous war, World War II saw governments begin to regulate the production of goods, and even wages and prices were controlled to further the war effort. Rationing became the norm.
Civil liberties were violated even in democratic countries.
For example in the United States, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 100,000 Japanese Americans were placed in detention camps beginning in 1942.
Governments sponsored propaganda programs to display the Nazis in the harshest light possible.
The invasion of Italy
Stalin wanted the allies to open a “second front” to relieve his troops. On July 10, 1943, British and American forces invaded Sicily.
Within fifteen days of the invasion, King Victor Emmanuel dismissed Mussolini and set up a new government under Marshal Pietro Badoglio.
An armistice was signed with the allies in September of 1943.
German troops attacked Rome and controlled it as well as the northern half of Italy.
Hitler set up Mussolini as a puppet ruler. For a year and a half the Americans and the British fought to liberate Italy. This finally occurred in 1944.
Marshal Pietro Badoglio
The fall of Germany
Stalin resented the fact that the allies invaded North Africa and then Italy. He wanted an invasion of France.
On June 6th, 1944, the Allies carried out the largest amphibious operation in history. It was planned by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower and called Operation Overlord. It came to be known as the D-Day invasion of France.
The fighting was fierce, and it took the allies some time and many casualties before they established a beach head.
The Allies were eventually able to land over two million men.
Paris was liberated on August 25-26th, 1944, with the help of the Free French led by General Charles de Gaulle.
The Nazi’s had occupied France for four long years.
When they were liberated, French citizens kissed American soldiers as they paraded through the cities.
Constant bombing of Germany, both day and night had leveled major cities and killed more than 600,000 civilians.
The bombing of civilians was controversial, and it was relentless around the clock.
Many allied planes were shot down over Germany, but by early 1945, the German air force (Luftwaffe) was all but destroyed.
The allies continued west from France towards the Rhine River into German soil.
The Russians moved from the east and mounted Operation Bagration. By early August, the Soviets were within reach of Warsaw and Hitler’s dream was collapsing.
The Germans mounted one last offensive in the Ardennes Forest.
The Battle of the Bulge was some of the worst and bloodiest fighting of the war.
General George S. Patton led his third army to victory.
The allies crossed into Germany in March 1945.
Patton
By April of 1945, the Red Army had captured Vienna and they were approaching Berlin.
Hitler and his girl friend Eva Braun, committed suicide in an under ground bunker.
Other high ranking Germans, Goebels, and Himmler did the same.
The Italians shot Mussolini, and on May 7th, the Germans surrendered. This became known as V.E. Day.
Eva Braun
The atom Bomb and the fall of Japan
In the Pacific, the war against the Japanese took longer.
It was difficult fighting and it was costly to both the Japanese and the Americans in terms of lives lost.
The United States strategy was an island hoping campaign that began in late 1942.
Japanese soldiers and pilots preferred death to surrender and on each island, the loss of life was colossal for both side.
The Battle of Okinawa saw Japanese pilots dive bomb into American ships. These were known as Kamikaze pilots.
The Battle of Iwo Jima was costly for both countries.
The Japanese were so entrenched, that Americans literally had to drag the Japanese soldiers out of their hiding places when they were sure they were out of ammunition.
Once Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell to the Americans in 1945, they could inflict heavy bombing damage on the Japanese mainland.
These bombing runs killed thousands of people.
Despite the bombing and the military power of the United States, Japan refused to surrender.
It seemed, that an invasion of Japan would be the only solution to end the war.
The Manhattan project
The creation of the worlds first atomic weapon fell under the code name The Manhattan Project. This consisted of a group of British, American, and Canadian scientists. Originally the bomb was intended for Germany, because of a fear that Hitler would create one first.
By the time of its testing in June 1945, two significant events had occurred. First, Germany was no longer a threat. Second, President Roosevelt died in office, and the new president was Harry Truman. He wanted to end the war with Japan.
An invasion of Japan could cost upward of one-million American lives. On August 6th, 1945, an American plane dropped a bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
Estimates indicate, that 80,000 died instantly, with 140,000 perishing over a five-year period.
Hiroshima
On August 8th, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. The following day, American forces dropped a bomb on the city of Nagasaki and killed 70,000. Another 70,000 died over a five-year period.
Radiation was also a lingering affect that held lasting consequences.
Finally on September 2nd, 1945, the Japanese surrendered aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri.
The war was finally over.
The war against the Jews
Hitler’s hatred of the Jews was evident in his book Mein Kampf.
His racial purification program called for complete extermination and the war give him ample opportunity.
Hitler’s belief was that an entire race of people had conspired to destroy the German race.
Hitler employed modern technology, bureaucracy, and propaganda to murder millions.
His chief agent for this task was Himmler.
In 1941, Himmler used firing squads in Poland and Russia, and then mobile gas vans to exterminate the Jews.
Concentration camps were opened in 1942, and by the end of the war in 1945 around six-million Jews were killed in what Hitler called the “final solution.”
German SS soldiers would round up Jewish people and herd them into rail cars for the ride to these camps.
Many died of dehydration or starvation on the way to places like Auschwitz or Buchenwald.
When they arrived at camps, they were separated into two groups: Those fit to be slaves, and those who were to be executed immediately.
Those to be executed, included, young children, pregnant women, the old and the sick.
Slaves were worked to death and sent to the gas chamber when they could no longer work.
In Poland, an estimated 1 million were killed in gas chambers.
Another half million died of disease or starvation.
Some who survived were used for radical medical experiments.
Those that died, were used for various other things, such as fertilizer made from the ashes.
Gold was extracted from the teeth of the dead, and bones were crushed to make phosphates.
As the war began to falter for the Germans, they intensified the extermination efforts.
When the Reich collapsed in 1945, two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population had been annihilated.
The Nazis completed their work with moral indifference to the human suffering that was all around them.
The allies could have bombed the camps and the railroads, but they claimed that other targets took priority in the struggle to defeat the Nazis.
Some intellectuals called this a unique form of Western anti-Semitism.
In other words, the world overlooked the Holocaust as it was happening.
This was due in part to a centuries old sickness that spread its hatred across Christian culture.
Under occupation and on the home front
When the Germans conquered a territory or country, and did not rule directly, they set up a puppet government in place to assist their war effort.
Armaments, manufactured goods, oil, and coal, all flowed into Germany from the defeated states.
He forced millions of people to come to Germany and work in the factories, mines, and farms, as German slaves.
The German army also looted treasures and gold from these defeated countries and forced the inhabitants to pay for the troops occupying them.
In the occupied German lands, innocent people in the thousands were jailed, tortured, or killed.
Schools and churches were shut down, and local political leaders were killed in Poland, were some of the worst abuses occurred.
The harshest treatment however was reserved for the Russians.
Himmler and his SS guard captured Soviet leaders and murdered them, while the general population starved.
Himmler
The Russians who would survive the war would be enslaved or forced into Asia to make room for German settlers.
Himmler preferred to eliminate 30 million Slavs to provide Germany with living space.
Women once again had to enter the work force, as men were drafted, or enlisted and sent to the front lines.
Around six-million entered the workforce in the United States and most worked in the manufacturing sector.
In Britain, women joined the armed forces and took up duty on the home front.
In Russia, women took up arms and became many of the 16 million Russian war dead.
Only Germany insisted that women stay home.
Hitler wanted women to raise children for Reich.
He employed forced labor to run German factories.
The air war brought destruction to the population that was unimaginable 20 years earlier.
Because of their efforts during the war, women were seen as patriots. By the end of the war in 1945, those who participated in the workforce and helped to defeat Nazism, found it hard to return to the domestic life they had known before.
The post war world would see a strong women's movement begin the struggle to win equality and find opportunities in both education and the workforce.
Bibliography
Frankforter, A. Daniel., and W. M. Spellman. The West: A Narrative History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2013.
Google Images. Accessed July 2, 2019.
Levack, Brian, Edward Muir, and Merredith Veldman. "Chapter 27 World War II" In The West Encounters and Transformations 5th Edition, Combined Volume, 748 - 778. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2017.
