Economic Depression And the Rise of Nazism

Depression: A period of low economic activity when many people lose their jobs and there is a decline

in output of goods and services.

GREAT DEPRESSION

0 March 1929: Herbert Hoover declared that the end of poverty was in sight

0 People invested more and more in the stock market (usually by borrowing the money they invested)

0 October 24, 1929: stock prices suddenly dropped, 13 million shares sold

0 October 29, 1929: “Black Tuesday,” a complete crash occurred, 16 million shares sold

Depression in Germany & the RISE OF NAZISM

0 2.5 Million Germans lost their lives in world war 1.

0 Industries, farms, highways, bridges and railroads were destroyed.

0 Military was forced to down size so many military people lost their jobs.

0 Government tried hard to solve problems but were preoccupied trying to pay back the allies.

0 Germans blamed the government for scarce goods and not helping the economy.

0 Stock market crash in US just made things worse.

0 The German People were desperate for a leader….

0So Welcome….

The Nazi leader: Adolf Hitler

Hitler forms the Nazi Party and becomes dictator of Germany in

1933 (National Socialist German Workers Party)

Adolf Hitler (Axis) - Germany

WWI veteran, Hitler took over Germany in 1933 when he was elected Chancellor (Prime Minister) and later appointed himself Dictator.

Took the title “Fuhrer,” which means Leader

Blamed the Jews, Russians, French and British for all of the hardships facing Germany during the Great Depression.

Hit ler's Dictatorship 0 As president he changed all the laws to give him all the power (Autocracy). Turned Germany into a Totalitarian state.

0 He began work on rebuilding Germany’s military 0 Opened factories and people were able to work, but 0 Personal freedoms were taken. 0 People who spoke out against Hit ler were murdered or imprisoned.

0 By 1938, Hit ler and the German Military had regained control of some of the territories it lost after WW1: Austria and Czechoslovakia.

0 In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and GB and France declared war.

World War II Images (Europe)

Benito Mussolini (Axis) - Italy

0 The dictator of Italy during the 1920’s and 30’s, called “Il Duce” – The Leader

0 Wanted to found a new Roman Empire, began by invading Ethiopia in 1935 and Albania in 1939

0 Was the mentor to Adolf Hitler and later became his ally when Hitler took over Germany

Hideki Tojo (Axis) - Japan

Was War Minister under Emperor

Hirohito and later became Prime

Minister of Japan as well

Very aggressive, led the

campaigns into Manchuria,

China, and was a main proponent

of attacking America

Later attempted to commit

suicide but failed, arrested by

American forces at end of war,

tried and hung for war crimes

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Allied) – U.S.

Elected president in 1932, elected again in 1936, 1940 and 1944

Was the only president elected to 4 terms, ran for the last 2 terms because the USA was in the middle of WWII

Died in April 1945, one month after being inaugurated for the 4th time

Winston Churchill (Allied)–Great Britain

0 During his more than 50 in political office, he served as a Member of Parliament, Minister of Munitions, First Lord Admiral of the Navy, Home Secretary (Domestic Affairs), Chancellor of the Exchequer, Minister of War and Prime Minister

0 Replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in June 1940

0 Became the guiding light of the British defense against the Nazis

Josef Stalin (Allied) – Russia (USSR)

0 Took over the Soviet Union

after Vladimir Lenin died in 1921

0 Was a paranoid leader who had

millions of his own citizens

massacred or sent to the

gulags in Siberia

0 Signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact

with Hitler in August 1939,

Stalin did not trust Hitler but

needed a non-aggression treaty

World War II Timeline (Europe)

0 1935: Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

0 1936: Germany takes back control of the Rhineland

0 1938: Germany annexes Austria in what is called the “Anchluss”

0 1939: Germany annexes the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, the annexation come about from the Munich Conference

0 1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact signed

0 1939: Germany invades Poland, Italy invades Albania, war declared throughout Europe

0 1940: German invasion of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France, all of these countries are defeated, Britain is the only Allied Force left

0 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union

World War II Timeline (Europe)

0 1943: American and British forces drive Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps out of Africa

0 1943: American and British forces invade Sicily and Italy 0 1944: June 6, “D-Day,” American, British and Canadian forces invade France at Normandy; this opens the Western Front that the Soviets had wanted for several years

0 1944-5: Batt le of the Bulge – the last German counterattack, 101st Airborne is surrounded but holds on at Bastogne during the coldest part of the year, insuring an Allied victory in the batt le

0 1945: after Berlin is surrounded by the Soviet Army, Hit ler commits suicide on April 30, Germany surrenders on May 8 (V-E Day)

At Yalta, The Big Three decided how the war would end: Roosevelt,

Churchill, & Stalin

World War II Images (Asia)

Holocaust 0 1935: Nuremburg Racial Laws – no Jew is a citizen in Germany

0 1935: there is a permanent boycott on Jewish stores, by 1938 all Jewish businesses are sold to Aryans

0 Mongrelization: racial mixing, inter-marrying, Hitler believed that Germany lost WWI because of mongrelization

0 Who is a Jew (by German law)? You were a Jew if: 3 out of 4 grandparents were Jewish, you had a Jewish last name, if you went to temple, if your parents were Jewish, if you were married to a Jew, or if you were an illegitimate child of a Jew

0 1936 Olympics – Jews had a short period of relief when the Olympics were held in Berlin, all anti-Semitic signs were removed and a “brotherhood of men” was declared, this brotherhood lasted 16 days

Holocaust

1938: Kristallnacht (Night of the Glass): a night of violence and vandalism aimed at Jewish stores and synagogues, hundreds of businesses and synagogues destroyed

By 1939 there were some in Germany that were thinking of the “Jewish problem” and how to solve it. One answer was to send them overseas…Reinhard Heydrich was assigned to head the Office of Jewish Immigration – focused on Jewish immigration to two places: German East Africa (Uganda) and Madagascar

By start of war in 1939, 60% of German Jews had left the country

After the German invasion of Poland, millions of Jews became part of Greater Germany

Jews were forced to live in ghettos

Eventually, Jews were rounded up and taken to concentration camps

Holocaust Images

Jewish people were forced to identify themselves as Jews

Holocaust 0 “ The extermination of the Jews would be an unwritten and never to be written page of our history.” – Heinrich Himmler

0 What is Himmler saying in the quotation above? 0 There were two schools of thought as to how the Holocaust came about, intentionalism and functionalism…

0 Intentionalism: it is believed that it was Hit ler’s intention to commit genocide from the beginning

0 Functionalism: People are not convinced that Hit ler planned it long before, it is believed that the Holocaust just happened, the original intention was to negate the Jewish presence in Germany but with war this plan was unworkable…policy went from immigration to isolation to genocide over time

Holocaust 0 1941: it is decided that the easiest way to deal with the Jews is to

exterminate them

0 1941 also sees the building of concentration camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka and Dachau

0 Concentration camps served two purposes, they were death camps and labor camps

0 There was a quick judgment of those getting off the trains as to who was strong enough to work and who would be executed immediately

Holocaust: Those that Lived

Received no breaks during the day, 12 hour work shifts: if you tried to stand up or use the restroom you were shot

Given senseless tasks like moving piles of rocks back and forth until your spirit broke

Roll call would last all night If you were unable to share

your food it was a sign you would not survive

Holocaust: Those that Died

Prisoners were shaved and told they were being deloused and showered, led into the gas chambers with a bar of soap

Once in the chamber, doors would be locked and gas would be pumped, guards knew they were dead when the screaming stopped

Other prisoners would rifle through the bodies looking for gold filling or valuables, bodies would be cremated

Holocaust: Liberation 0 Jewish deaths were estimated to be between 5 and 6 million 0 Within Germany, Poland and the Baltic countries 90% of all Jews were killed

0 2 out of every 3 Jews in Europe were killed 0 The Nuremburg Trials were set up to try the Nazi war criminals for crimes and crimes against humanity

0 War crimes: the murder of civilians and POW’s, the conscription of slave labor

0 Crimes against humanity: deliberate extermination of people on political, racial or religious grounds

0 Jews wanted a state in palestine, their ancient home in the Middle east. In 1947, the united nations divided Palestine into a Arab state and a Jewish state, Israel. Israel officially opened its borders to Jews in 1948.