By: Anna Yike

World War II

Questions to Ponder1. How do world leaders influence international

politics?2. What factors influenced the US decision to

become involved in WWII?3. What are some similarities and dissimilarities

between the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific?

4. How did private civilian leadership influence the development of the atom bomb?

5. How did the Treaty of Versailles define the peace settlements post WW II and how are modern nations still influenced by these terms of peace?

Who was involved? Two Major

Alliances The Axis Powers

Japan, Italy, and Germany

The Allied Powers France, Great

Britain (includes the Commonwealth allies), Soviet Union, China, and the United States (includes allies in Latin America)

Important People Adolf Hitler: Nazi Germany Benito Mussolini: Italy Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S.

Truman: United States Joseph Stalin: The Soviet Union Neville Chamberlain and Winston

Churchill: Great Britain Hirohito (emperor) and Yamamoto

Isoroku: Japan

Adolf Hitler Born in Austria Orphaned at a young

age Clearly involved in World

War I Anti-Marxist and anti-

Semitist—Nationalist (German)

Spent a number of years in Vienna Jews had an elite presence

in Vienna He was anti-Jewish

because of this

Important Events Blitzkrieg: Germany Conquers Europe The Fall of France The Battle of Britain Operation Barbarossa The Holocaust Pearl Harbor Dropping of the atomic bomb on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Holocaust By the end of World War II,

the Nazi regime and its accomplices had physically annihilated millions of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communists, and others targeted as undesirables.

Jews were the primary target because of Hitler’s racially motivated genocidal policies

Nazi leadership committed to the “final solution” A solution that would attempt

to murder every Jew living in Europe

Allied Victory in Europe By 1943, German forces in Russia lost momentum and

faced bleak prospects as the Soviets retook territory. Moscow never fell. The battle for Stalingrad ended in February 1943. This

marked the first large-scale victory for Soviet forces. British and U.S. forces attacked the Germans from north

Africa and then through Italy. In August 1944 the Allies forced Italy to withdraw from the

Axis and to join them. On D-Day (June 6, 1944), British and U.S. troops landed on

the French coast of Normandy, overwhelming the Germans.

On May 8, 1945, Germany was forced to unconditional surrender.

Timeline