World War II: Americans At War (1941-1945)

1. World War II: Americans At War(1941-1945)

2. Section 1: Mobilization • After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the U.S. entered a war that they had already been preparing for.

3. Selective Training and Service Act • Even before entering the war, the U.S. was preparing for war. • In 1940, Congress authorized the first peacetime draft in American history. • Required males aged 21-36 to register for military service.

4. The GI War • Throughout the war, more than 16 million Americans worked in the military in some capacity. • Referred to as GIs, abbreviated from “Government Issue.”

5. Diversity in the Armed Forces • 25,000 Native Americans participated. • Navajo Code Talkers • 1 million African Americans joined the military. • The Tuskegee Airmen

6. Women and the War • 350,000 American women volunteered for military service. • Worked as clerks, typists, airfield control tower operators, etc. • More commonly, women entered the workforce to fill jobs abandoned by men who went war.

7. War Production • In 1942, government set up the War Production Board (WPB). • WPB stopped the production of consumer goods and encouraged companies to make goods for war instead.

8. Office of War Mobilization • In 1943, FDR appointed James F. Byrnes the head of the Office of War Mobilization. • The office played a powerful role in centralizing resources. • Byrnes was often called the “assistant president.”

9. Liberty Ships • Henry J. Kaiser introduced mass production techniques to shipbuilding. • Cut the time needed to build a ship from 200 days to 40. • Called these new vessels Liberty ships.

10. Wartime Work Force • Unemployment nearly vanished completely during the war. • Working wages rose by 50% • Union membership rose • Unions initially agreed to refrain from strikes after Pearl Harbor. • In 1943, some strikes started again.

11. Financing the War • Federal spending • 1939: $8.9 billion/year • 1945: $95.2 billion/year • Gross National Product (GNP) doubled during WWII. • Higher taxes paid for 41% of this cost, the rest was borrowed from banks, investors, and the public through war bonds.

12. Shortages and Controls • Consumer goods were scarce, as resources went to make war supplies. • In 1941, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) was formed to control inflation by limiting prices. • OPA rationed goods during the war by using a point value system.

13. Popular Culture • With less available goods, civilians looked for other recreation. • Americans began reading more books and magazines. • They still flocked baseball games. • 60% of the population went to the movies every week.

14. Enlisting Public Support • Government encouraged citizens to support the war. • Established the Office of War Information to work with magazines, advertising agencies, and radio stations. • Worked to create popular support for the war.

15. Victory Gardens • People began planting home vegetable gardens to increase food supply. • Became known as victory gardens. • People in the cities and suburbs were planting vegetables in their back yard.

16. More WWII Ads/Propaganda

17. Section 2: Retaking Europe • Although attacked by Japan, America focused first on winning the war in Europe.

18. Atlantic Charter • Before Pearl Harbor’s attack, FDR met with Churchill to establish the principles for which they fought. • Countries shouldn’t seek to expand territory. • Countries should allow other countries to choose their own government. • All nations of the world must abandon the use of force. • Became known as the Atlantic Charter

19. Battle of the Atlantic • Britain relied on shipments of food and supplies from the U.S. • German U-boats sought to destroy these convoys of shipments. • U-boats sunk 175 U.S. ships in June 1942 alone.

20. North Africa Campaign • British Troops fought the Italian Army in Egypt and Libya. • German forces joined them, led by General Erwin Rommel, “Desert Fox”. • In 1942, Britain won a victory at El Alamein, pushing Axis forces back. • By 1943, Axis forces surrendered in North Africa.

21. Invasion of Italy • U.S. invaded Sicily in July, 1943. • Italians lost faith in Mussolini and his own Fascist council voted him out. • Germans freed Mussolini and evacuated him to Northern Italy for protection.

22. Italy Surrenders • In September, 1943, Italy’s new government surrendered and, weeks later, even declared war on Germany. • German forces stayed in Italy, and continued to fight the Allies as they proceeded to invade the country.

23. Eastern Front: Soviet Union • In 1941, Hitler broke his agreement and attacked the Soviet Union, to gain access to key food and oil fields. • Germans surprised and dominated untrained and poorly equipped Soviet soldiers. • Germany pushed East rapidly.

24. Destruction • Stalin ordered his retreating soldiers to destroy anything that might be useful to the Germans. • The Soviet army destroyed fuel, grain, railcars, and buildings as they evacuated.

25. Siege of Leningrad • In Soviet City Leningrad, German troops surrounded the city and held it siege, not allowing supplies in. • Over 1 million civilians died due to starvation.

26. Stalingrad • In 1942, Germany firebombed the city of Stalingrad for two months. • Germany gained most of the city. • In the harsh winter that followed, Soviet forces launched a successful counterattack.

27. Stalingrad • Cut off from supplies, German forces began to starve and freeze. • In January, 90,000 Germans surrendered after roughly 330,000 Germans had died. • Soviet death estimates at Stalingrad are 1,100,000. • Stalingrad was the turning point of the war on the Eastern Front.

28. Allied Air War • By 1943, Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) developed a technique called carpet bombing, scattering lots of bombs across a wide area. • Bombed German infrastructure, factories, and railway lines so that they wouldn’t have access to new supplies.

29. Invasion of Western Europe • After experiencing some success in North Africa, Italy, and the USSR, the allies decided it was time to recapture France and take control of mainland Europe.

30. D-Day • On June 6, 1944 the Allies launched the largest landing by sea invasion in world history. • 150,000 soldiers landed on Normandy Beach; 23,000 parachuted in behind German lines. • 2,000 people died, but the Allies took control of the beach and soon had 2 million troops in France.

31. Battle of the Bulge • Hitler began drafting soldiers as young as 15. • In one massive counterattack in 1944, Germany pushed the U.S. Army back, forming a “bulge” in the Allied line. • General Eisenhower sent in more troops and eventually pushed the Germans back.

32. Soviet Forces Advance • There was much more action on the Eastern Front than the Western Front. • After the turning point at Stalingrad, Soviet Forces continued to push Germans back. • By April, 1945, they reached Berlin and began to destroy it.

33. Germany Surrenders • Losing the war on both fronts, Hitler chose to commit suicide on April 30, 1945. • Days later, on May 8, 1945, Germany officially surrendered. • Known as V-E Day, Victory in Europe.

34. Yalta Conference • In February 1945, months before the end of the war, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta, in the Soviet Union. • They met to agree on the terms at the conclusion of war. • Agreed to divide Germany into four zones, each under the control of a major Allied country.

35. Section 3: The Holocaust • Under Nazi Germany, 6 million European Jews were killed, 2/3 the European Jewish population.

36. 8 Stages of Genocide (Gregory Stanton) • 1. Classification • People are divided into "us and them". • 2. Symbolization • "When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups..." • 3. Dehumanization • "One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases." • 4. Organization • "Genocide is always organized... Special army units or militias are often trained and armed..." • 5. Polarization • "Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda..." • 6. Preparation • "Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity..." • 7. Extermination • "It is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human". • 8. Denial • "The perpetrators... deny that they committed any crimes..."

37. Anti-Semitism (classification, polarization) • Anti-Semitism is opposition, discrimination, or hostility towards Jews. • At the time of WWII, Europe, not merely Hitler, or even Germany, was highly anti-Semitic. • Jews have historically been a persecuted people group.

38. Hitler and Anti-Semitism (classification, dehumanization, polarization) • Hitler reflected and intensified anti-Semitism in his book, Mein Kampf. • “Let the desolation which Jewish hybridization daily visits on our nation be clearly seen, this blood-poisoning that can be removed from our body national only after centuries or nevermore; let it be pondered, further, how racial decay drags down, indeed often annuls, the final Aryan values of our German nation” –Adolf Hitler, excerpt from Mein Kampf

39. Symbolization, Polarization

40. Nazi Policies (Classification, Dehumanization, Polarization) • Nazi’s first began excluding German Jews from all aspects of life. • 1933- Nazis ordered a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses. • 1935- Stripped Jews of German citizenship, outlawed marriage between Jews and non-Jews. • 1938- Forced Jews to give up their businesses, students were expelled from public schools.

41. The Star (Symbolization) • Jews were forced to follow rigid identification laws. • Eventually, all Jews in Germany or German-occupied countries were forced to sew yellow stars marked “Jew” on their clothing.

42. Hitler’s Police (Organization) • Hitler formed… • The Gestapo- secret police • The SS, or Schutzstaffel- a private army of the Nazi party • By 1939, the Gestapo was a part of the SS. • The main role of the SS was to weed out “undesirables” of society. • Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, and homeless.

43. Kristallnacht (polarization, preparation) • In 1938, Nazi thugs looted and destroyed countless Jewish stores, houses, and synagogues. • Called Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken Glass” • Most synagogues were destroyed, and Jews themselves were given a fine to pay for the event.

44. Refugees Seek to Escape • During the 1930s, many Jews sought to leave Germany. • Most moved to neighboring European countries. • Some tried to go overseas, but most countries, including the U.S. refused immigrants due to the Depression.

45. Ghettos (Organization, Preparation, Extermination) • Early on, Nazis plan was to force all Jews into sealed, overcrowded ghettos. • In Warsaw, Poland, they put 400,000 Jews into an area where 50,000 people had lived. • They sealed it with a wall and barbed wire, guarded the perimeter, and let very little food in.

46. Einstazgruppen (extermination) • While invading the USSR, Hitler ordered the Einsatzgruppen, killing squads, to shoot all Jews and communist leaders. • Rounded up victims, had them dig pits, then shot them into the pits. • Shot 33,000 Jews in two days.

47. Death Camps (extermination) • To exterminate the Jews more discretely and efficiently, the Nazis implemented death camps. • Death camps had large gas chambers disguised as shower rooms. • Large numbers of Jews were squeezed into these chambers, gassed, and killed.

48. Death Camps: Auschwitz • Until they were gassed, prisoners worked forced to work in terrible conditions. • Life expectancy at Auschwitz, the largest of all death camps, was only several months. • Auschwitz alone gassed and cremated 12,000 people/day.

49. Liberation • In 1944, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board (WRB) to help people threatened by the Nazis. • Aid was minimal, until the war ended in 1945, and Allied soldiers arrived to liberate the death camps.

50. Nuremberg Trials • The Holocaust was more expansive than anyone had known during the war. • After the war, an International Military Tribunal held the Nuremberg Trials, to try Nazi soldiers involved in the genocide. • The soldiers argued that they were merely following orders. • The trials set a precedent of personal responsibility even during war.