Holocaust and War in the Pacific.

The Holocaust.

The Nuremberg Laws were the first in a long line of laws, policies, and activities which resulted in the repression of the Jews and later other minorities. In the early 30s, certain groups, primarily among them the Jews and the Communists, were being rounded up and sent to labor camps. These camps were designed to work inmates until they were released or until they died from overwork, inadequate nutrition, or disease. Hitler considered early attempts to wipe out the Jewish race as slow and inadequate. In the initial stages, Hitler authorized the Einzatsgruppen to follow the German troops into Russia. Their job was to go into towns, round up the Jews and take them a mile outside of town where they would be shot and their bodies dumped in a trench. This began to take a psychological toll on the German soldiers, due to the close contact nature of the killing, and took longer than expected. Hitler then authorized the "Final Solution", a systematic process of rounding up and exterminating all the Jews in Europe.

Heinrich Himmler and the SS were placed in charge of implementing the Final Solution and did so with tragic efficiency. Death camps were designed for the express purpose of killing as many Jews as physically possible. "Shower" rooms were built which were used to gas hundreds of people at a time and the camps included giant ovens for cremating the corpses. Camps such as Auschwitz, Dachau, and Buchenwald were responsible for millions of deaths. In the end, over 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust which was roughly 2/3rds of the entire Jewish population of Europe. 90% of the Jews in Pre-war Poland and Germany were slaughtered as a result of the German's Final Solution.

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Watch John Green's Crash Course European History video over The Holocaust. There is a wealth of information that will assist you in your notes. You can access the video from the link below; you will need access to Youtube to view. Please note that this is a difficult subject but one of great importance to learn.

Click here to watch Crash Course European History - The Holocaust.

You may view the only surviving photographic record of the killing process (every step up to the gas chambers is depicted) here.

It is from Yad Vashem - the World Holocaust Museum. An album from the same time period with pictures of the German perpetrators can be accessed here. This album is available from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The War in the Pacific.

Japan, an imperialistic state, had been encroaching on Chinese territory throughout the years in between the wars. When the war in Europe began, there was really only one major power that was in a position to stop the Japanese from controlling the countries in the Pacific. The US, in an attempt to force the Japanese's hand, placed economic sanctions against Japan. While in the process of negotiating, the Japanese launched an air attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The intent of the attack was to destroy the US's Pacific fleet to render them unable to physically stop the Japanese and their ambitions. While the results of this attack were devastating, it did not destroy the entire fleet leaving some ships, especially the aircraft carrier, Yorktown, unscathed. As a result of the air attack, the United States declared war on Japan. Days later Germany, an ally of Japan, declared war on the United States pulling the US into two theaters of war (the Pacific without its European allies' help). The turning point in this war was the Battle of Midway, a substantial Allied victory in that from that point on the Allies pushed the Japanese further and further east. The strategy of this war was Island hopping, the process of taking every other island in the Pacific leaving those in the middle alone as their supply lines would dry up. Once the US was in a position to invade the home islands of Japan, the Japanese were, for all practical purposes, a defeated people. Yet, they refused to surrender. Estimating 6 million potential casualties in the event of an Allied invasion of the main island, Harry Truman (who had only recently replaced FDR after FDR's death) made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the bomb was dropped. On August 7th, the Soviet Union joins the war in the Pacific by declaring war against Japan. On August 9th, the second US bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. By September 1st, the Japanese Emperor addressed the nation on the radio, announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan.

Photograph of island of Iwo Jima after a battle

"Surveying wreckage after Iwo Jima"

An Overview of the War.

View the activity below,

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