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Stock market crashed in October 29, 1929. Lasted more than a decade and people all over the world were desperate, especially Germany. ¾ Americans couldn’t find jobs.
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In 1932 Hitler was voted Chancellor of Germany. He then overthrew the constitution of the government. He led the fascist Nazi Party.
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On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president during the Great Depression. Because of the Depression, he came up with the New Deal programs. He also led the U.S. through WWII.
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The “Final Solution” was a solution that the Nazis came up with about how to get rid of the Jews and many other groups. It put mainly Jews into extermination camps to later be killed or worked to death. It all started when Hitler seized power in 1933. The first concentration camp was also established on March 20, 1933.
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The Nuremberg Laws started on September 15, 1935. These laws told Jews—and others—that they could not vote or hold public office. They also said that they could not marry or have relations with persons of “German or German-related blood.”
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Prime Minister of Great Britain Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in 1938. The Munich Agreement that they made was that Germany would gain control of Sudetenland and Hitler stopped seeking more territory. It was part of the British and French appeasement, meeting Germany’s demands in order to avoid war. The agreement was broken by Hitler in March of 1939.
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In 1938, Hitler invaded Austria. After taking over Austria, Hitler had his sight on Czechoslovakia who did not want to give up their land. France and the Soviet Union supported the country afterwards, putting Europe close to another war.
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Kristallnacht was a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany. It got its name by the shards of glass that lined the streets of Germany.
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In September of 1939, Germany invaded Poland. While invading Poland, Germany used a tactic called blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. It caused the battle, or war, to go by quickly. The invasion of Poland caused France and Britain to declare war on Germany when they warned Germany that invading Poland would mean war.
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In 1941, Congress approved the Lend-Lease act, which Roosevelt had also supported. The act allowed the U.S. to lend resources and equipment to the Allies. The United States sent the Allies about $50 billion worth of goods.
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During WWII, there were about 1 million black servicemen that were segregated because of racial prejudice. One of these groups was the Tuskegee Airman. The Tuskegee Airman was a famous unit of African American pilots. It served in North Africa and Europe.
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On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor. About 2,400 Americans died. The U.S. fleet was devastated due the damage of American warplanes and ships. On December 11, four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan’s allies declared war on the United States.
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In 1942, the United States government had planned a top-secret program to build an atomic bomb. The team worked for three years to create it and was led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. After the bomb was tested, President Truman warned the Japanese that if they did not surrender then they faced destruction. Since the Japanese refused to give in, the U.S. dropped the bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The project led to the Japanese surrendering and the end of WWII.
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In 1940, because the men were in war, about 14 million women worked. But by 1945, that number grew up to 19 million. They worked in munitions factories, shipyards, and offices. Because of this, the nation promoted Rosie the Riveter which was an image of a tough woman hard at work at an arms factory.
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In February of 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order called for the removal of more than 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans from the pacific coast. They were forced to give up everything and live in prison-like camps. About two-thirds of the Japanese taken were Nisei, American-born Japanese. Some people thought that the order was unconstitutional because it was based on race.
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In April of 1942, more than 70,000 Filipino and American troops were forced to march by the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula over 65 miles to a prison camp. On the way to the destination, about 10,000 prisoners died from shooting, beatings, or starvation.
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In June of 1942, the Japanese and the U.S. Navy clashed off the island of Midway. The U.S. destroyed four Japanese carriers and at least 250 Japanese planes. The U.S. lost one carrier and about 150 planes. The battle was a major victory and the turning point of the war.
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In August of 1942 through February of 1943, the U.S. fought for their first major land victory against the Japanese. At the beginning of the battle, U.S. Marines marched ashore of the island, then fighting for six months. The Navajo Indians played a key role in the victory. They were recruited by the U.S. Marines to transmit messages so the Japanese couldn’t break their codes.
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In February of 1943, after months of fighting, the German troops fighting at Stalingrad, an industrial, Soviet city, surrendered. Both sides of the battle had staggering loses, but it was the turning point of the war or the Allies. The Soviet troops began to push the Germans westward toward Germany and out of the Soviet Union.
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On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded France. Shortly after midnight, Allied paratroopers and gliders landed behind the German in Normandy. Then in the morning, more 5,000 ships and landing craft carried more than 150,000 British, Canadian, and American soldiers to Normandy. It was the largest land-sea-air operation in history. Even though the location and size of the attack surprised the Germans, the Allies had over 10,000 soldiers killed or wounded, but by the end of the day, the Allies had secu
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In December of 1944, Hitler launched the Battle of the Bulge. German troops pushed Allied forces back into the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg. After that, U.S. forces regrouped and defeated the Germans. There were about 120,000 German casualties and 80,000 American casualties.
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In February of 1945, Allied leaders met in Yalta to discuss made plans for the end of the war and the future of Europe. The “Big Three”, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill attended the conference. Stalin promised to declare war on Japan after Germany surrendered. The three also agreed to establish a postwar international peacekeeping organization.
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In February of 1945, the Allies invaded the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima so they could successfully bomb Japan. Later that month, American soldiers planted the U.S. flag at the top of Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima, signaling their victory even though they continued to fight for several days afterward. It lasted till the 26 of March.
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In April of 1945, the Allies invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa so they could successfully bomb Japan. The U.S. lost 18,000 men trying to conquer Iwo Jima and Okinawa, but the Japanese lost more than 120,000 men trying to stop the U.S. from conquering the islands. The battle lasted till mid-June.
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On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler sensed the war was near and end and committed suicide. The Russians had also reached Berlin in late April. On May 2, the Soviet Army captured Berlin. Five days later, German leaders signed an unconditional surrender at General Eisenhower’s headquarters in France. The next day, May 8, the Allies declared the war to be over.
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April 25, 1945-50 nations meet in San Francisco to discuss a new peacekeeping organization to replace the weak and effective League of Nations
June 26, 1945-all 50 nations ratified the charter, creating a new international peacekeeping body known as the United Nations
President Roosevelt had urged Americans not to turn their backs on the world again.
Unlike the League of Nations, the United States is a member of the United Nations. -
The Allies got together after the war in Europe.to decide to put Nazi war criminals on trial, and to plan what happens with Germany, The war in the Pacific was still going on
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On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima after the Japanese refused to surrender. The bomb killed more than 75,000 people and turned five square miles into nothing. The Japanese still didn’t surrender. On August 9, a few days after Hiroshima, the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. It killed 40,000 Japanese.
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24 defendants, including some of Hitler’s top officials; Hitler committed suicide
Hermann Goring-creator and head of Gestapo (secret police); to Nazi official that gets trial; a main defendant; gets sentenced to death
Charged with crimes against humanity
19 found guilty, 12 sentenced to death
People are responsible for their actions, even in wartime -
Congress approved Secretary of State George Marshall’s plan to help boost European economies. The U.S. gave more than $13 billion to help the nations of Europe get back on their feet.
