World War II to the COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union

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World War II to the COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union
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The Rise of Nazism

• Adolf Hitler
• Elected in 1933
• Led the National Socialist German Workers Party
  (NAZIS)

• Who to Blame for Germanys Problems?
• Germanys enemies in WWI
• 2. Previous German government
• 3. Jewish people

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Treatment of Jews

• Hitlers government passed many laws
  discriminating against Jews.
• Nazis persecuted Jews.
• Denied them their rights as German citizens.

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World War II

• They are at it again
• WWII began when Hitler invaded Poland, France,
  the Soviet Union, and several other European
  nations.
• The United States eventually joined the war.
  They sided with Great Britain, Soviet Union, and
  several others.
• The Allies were once again victorious and Germany
  was defeated.

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The HolocaustHow were Jews treated?

• Hitler tried to kill all the Jews living in Nazi
  areas.
• The Nazis removed millions of people from their
  homes and sent them to prison camps.
• Jews were used as forced labor and died from
  starvation and abuse.
• Nearly 6 million Jews were killed.

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What did they find?

• When Allied troops marched on Germany they
  discovered concentration camps throughout Germany
  filled with Jews.
• They also found mass graves where Nazis had
  dumped bodies.

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What Happened Next?

• A special court tried and hanged a number of Nazi
  leaders for their crimes after the war.
• Hitler killed himself in the final days of the
  war before he could be captured.

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Helping the JewisH People

• People around the world were horrified by the
  treatment of Jews and were very supportive.
• A new organization is formedthe United Nations.
• The UN granted part of Palestine in Southwest
  Asia to the Jewish people.
• This area became the Jewish state of Israel.

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A Divided Europe

• After the war, the Soviet Union and the United
  States did not trust each other.

UNITED STATES DEMOCRACY GOVERNMENT
SOVIET UNION COMMUNISM GOVERNMENT
The U.S. was concerned because they believed that
the Soviets wanted to spread communism all
through Europe.
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Germany Divided
WEST GERMANY Controlled by Great Britain,
France, and the United States
EAST GERMANY Controlled by the Soviet Union
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Dividing up Berlin

• THE ALLIES ALSO DIVIDED UP THE GERMAN CAPITAL OF
  BERLIN.

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EUROPE DIVIDED

• WESTERN EUROPE
• Remained or became free democracies.
• West Germany became a free democracy and sided
  with the U.S. and other Western European nations.

• EASTERN EUROPE
• Became Communist
• East Germany became a Communist nation allied
  with the USSR.

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IRON CURTAIN

• An Iron Curtain has descended on Europe
• Winston Churchill
• Iron Curtain came to
• symbolize the dividing
• line that separated
• Western Europe and
• Eastern Europe.

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THE COLD WAR

• After WWI, 2 superpowers emerged in the world.
  They were the United States and the Soviet Union.
• Both had nuclear weapons.
• Neither trusted each other.
• Great tension existed between the two.
• People feared that this tension would one day
  result in nuclear war.
• Cold War the tension between the US and the
  Soviet Union that many feared would lead to war.
• It divided most of the world into 2 camps.
• Those that supported free democracy.
• Those that supported the USSR and communism.

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The Berlin Wall

• Many east Germans were fleeing to West Germany.
• In the 1960s, the communist leaders built the
  Berlin Wall.
• The wall made it hard for people
• to escape from communist
• East Berlin to free West Berlin.
• Anyone that tried to scale
• the wall was shot.
• It stood until 1989.

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Collapse of the Soviet Union

• The U.S. built up their military and made more
  nuclear weapons.
• The Soviets were unable to keep up with the U.S
  due to their economy.
• Soon communist governments fell throughout
  Europe.
• By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union ceased to be
  a country.
• It divided into Russia and several other
  countries.

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End of the Cold War

• In 1990, Germans voted to reunify Germany.
• For the first time since WWI, Germany became one
  country.
• Europe is no longer divided by the Iron Curtain.