WW2

• genocide meaning:


  the deliberate killing of people of a particular nation or ethnic group
• How many Jews were there in Poland when G occupied in 1939?

  3 million
• What were 2 effects on Jews of the Nazi policy of ghettoisation?


  1. many jews suffered in ghettos

  - these were walled-off areas where they were crammed into poor housing

  - food was restricted & starvation was common

  - conditions were crowded & diseases such as typhus spread rapidly

  - in Warsaw the ghetto was surrounded by a 3.5 metre high wall topped w barbed wire & broken glass

  --- wall was built by a G company, but the Jews were forced to pay for its construction

  - between JAN 1941 - JULY 1943: average of almost 4,000 Jews died each month from disease & starvation

  
  

  2. jews were then transported to conc. camps

  - in JULY 1942 (after intro of 'Final Solution') the G's announced that the Warsaw jews were to be 'resettled' in the east of Poland

  - over 250,000 were transported to camps

  - here most of them were put to death

  - in total, 6 mill were killed in the Holocaust in conc. camps
• When did the Germans invade the Soviet Union & what happened as a result?


  June 1941

  - 1000s more Jews came under NZ control
• What was the role of the Einsatzgruppen (death squads)?


  - they followed the G army & had orders to put Jews to death

  - rounded up all Jewish men, women & children & confiscated any valuables they owned

  - the victims were then ordered to take off their clothes & are marched to fields/forests were they were shot or gassed & their bodies thrown into mass graves

  - Einsatzgruppen murdered over 1.2 mill civilians in Soviet Union by 1943
• What were 2 effects of the Final Solution?


  1. Jews were sent to conc. camps for forced labour

  - built in eastern Poland

  - those fit enough to work were given jobs to do until they were to weak to perform them

  - some were forced to take part in medical experiments

  
  

  2. Undesirables & those unfit for work were killed

  - from Jan 1942: NZs decided to turn camps into extermination camps

  - 6 mill Jews were put to death (Holocaust) & it is believed that 5 mill non-Jews (including gypsies, homosexuals, priests etc.) also died in camps

  - huge showers were built & up to 2,000 Jews @ a time were sent in supposedly for 'delousing' - however poison gas was then released into the chambers
• How did they cover up the extermination camps to the G people & Jews?


  - made propaganda films showing that the resettlement camps were no more than labour camps - videos showed people were treated well & lived in good conditions

  --- this stopped the G people from reacting badly & so they were happy to support the camps

  --- meant Jewish people were willing to help organise the resettlement of fellow Jews - making the whole process go smoothly
• What countries did the NZs conquer between 1939-41


  - Poland

  - Denmark

  - Norway

  - france

  - Belgium

  - Netherlands

  - Luxembourg

  - Yugoslavia

  - Greece
• Explain 2 effects of rationing on the German people from 1939


  1. G people had limited allowances

  - from Aug 1939: food stamps were introduced to buy food (meat, dairy, soap)

  - from Nov: clothing restrictions & people had a basic level of nutrition but it was not ideal & so many turned to black market for supplies

  - theft of stamps was serious w a punishment of going to a labour camp

  
  

  2. there were shortages of products

  - tobacco was rare & could be traded 4 other good

  - 1939-40: shortages of coal & shoes so people were cold & discontented

  - May 1942: gov cut rations - bread was restricted to half a loaf per person a day
• What happened with Operation Barbarossa?


  - June 1941: H launched Operation Barbarossa - invasion of the Soviet Union

  - however in late Nov temps dropped & G soldiers were short of both winter equipment & supplies so came to a halt

  - soviet forces had adopted a scorched earth policy as they retreated - destroying anything that might have been useful to the G's

  - " G's found themselves caught in a prolonged & fierce battle (over 2 mill G soldiers died)
• What is a scorched earth policy?

  a military strategy of burning/destroying crops or other resources that might be useful to an invading enemy force
• After the failure of Operation Barbarossa, what did Goebbels announce to the German people?


  - Feb 1943: bc of the failures in the Soviet Union & defeats elsewhere in the war, G had been placed under a great strain

  - G was now involved in 'total war'

  --- meant all of G's resources & all of its people had to be fully committed to fighting for victory - everything had to be used for winning the war
• What measures were taken to try to deal with the shortage of labour to work in factories?


  - Oct 1941: H announced Russian prisoners of war could be transported to G to act as slave labour

  --- by 1944: over 7 mill prisoners were working for G industry

  - from Jan 1943: all men 16-65 & women 17-45 had to register as available for work

  --- small businesses that weren't needed for war effort were closed & employees taking into war effort

  - Aug 1944: ban on holidays 4 workers was introduced & working week increased to 60 hours

  - by 1943: labour shortage was so serious that H had to allow women to help the war effort
• What other measures were taken to help fight G's 'total war'?


  - professional sports teams & places of entertainment shut down

  - postal services were reduced to save fuel

  - Home Guard was formed to help protect G from any invasion

  --- by end of war boys as young as 12 were being forced to join this
• Explain 2 effects of Allied Bombing


  1. G moral deteriorated

  - RAF bombed civilian targets like cities w big pops to destroy G moral

  - March-July 1943: 43 cities bombed & 42,600 died in Hamburg

  - gov used propaganda to increase moral & set up welfare organisation but many felt the strains of war very strongly

  
  

  2. war production decreased

  - from 1944: allies focused on targets like railway lines, bridges, motorway (transport)

  - 1944: raids on Ruhr valley reduced metal production by 40% (less metal for guns)

  - by destroying railway lines, war production was reduced by only 1% (although some goods didn't make it to front line)
• Explain 2 effects of the changing role of women during WW2


  1. women were reluctantly encourage to return to workforce to help in war effort

  - June 1941: Goering ordered childless women to come back to work

  - after total war declared (1943) all women 17-45 had to register to work & they made up 60% of labour force by 1945

  - many were in ancillaries in armed forces, operation searchlights & anti-aircraft guns

  - helped immensely with war effort

  
  

  2. war had a psychological impact on women

  - many lived in constant fear of hearing that husbands/sons had been killed & others struggled to raise their family w all that was going on

  - many women killed in air raids, made homeless

  - NZ propaganda had led G's to believe that Soviets would treat women brutally so when war came to an end the women had to cope w fear that Soviet army was nearing G

  - known that Soviet soldiers did rape mills of G women in East Prussia & Berlin

  - 10,000s of women died from these attacks or committed suicide to avoid it
• Explain 2 effects of the Edelweiss Pirates


  1. many youths engaged in anti-NZ activities

  - produced anti-NZ graffiti, listened to forbidden music, constantly found ways 2 criticise NZ culture

  - by 1939: 2000 members & they objected to army conscription

  - hated members of H youth & bullied them as they hated military training

  
  

  2. they helped the Allies

  - sheltered army deserters/escaped prisoners from camps & distributed Allied propaganda

  - after rationing increased, they stole food from trains alongside guns

  - whilst they were never a serious threat to NZs, several young people were publicly hanged in 1944
• Explain 2 effects of the White Rose Group


  1. leaflets were sent out to spread anti-NZ messages

  - 1941: Hans & Sophie Scholl (+others) sent these to lectures & business owners in Munich

  - criticised NZs & promoted democracy - said H would be defeated in the war

  - campaigned against the war & persecution of Jews

  
  

  2. NZs made an example of the Scholls

  - 1943: Gestapo tortured the Scholls who confessed to treason against NZs & H

  - were executed in private & 80 associates were arrested too - reminding public not to go against NZs
• What was the July Bomb Plot?


  - 20 July 1944: army leader von Stauffenberg took a bomb in a briefcase into a meeting @ H's military HQ in East Prussia

  - then said he had an urgent call to make & left

  - however when he left 1 of the other army leaders moved the briefcase

  - 4 people were killed but H survived

  - von Stauffenberg & General Beck tried to seize control of Berlin but fails

  - 7000 people arrested & almost 6000 killed including von Stauffenberg & Beck
• How did the end of the Third Reich come about?


  -by 1945: G was close to defeat

  - Allied forces were advancing from west & Soviet Red Army was approaching from east

  - Allies increased their bombing of cities

  - G troops fought bravely & believed more soldiers died in the last 4 months than in the whole of 1942-43

  - huge no.s of refugees fled & up to a mill civilians died from hunger, disease, cold

  
  

  28 APRIL: H married Eva Braun

  30 APRIL: H shot himself & Eva took cyanide pill

  - control was left to Admiral Doenitz

  --- surrendered to Allies on 7 May 1945