Rosenbusch,+Weidel,+Adami

__**The Great Depression**__ The Great Depression was a time of hardships and despair. The time before the depression was very prosperous and joyful. On October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed "triggering the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world(1)." This crashing of the stock market had a domino effect on the entire world. The Great Depression caused depressions all over the entire world bringing the world to despair.

Effects of the Great Depression ~ over 15 million people lost their job and became unemployed ~ crime rate increased rapidly ~ suicide rates grew ~ malnutrition swept the nation ~ usage of tobacco and alcoholic substances rose ~ the manufacturing goods greatly declined

Franklin Roosevelt offered America a new deal to get the U.S. out of this rut they had dug themselves in. The new deal was "a series of economic measures designed to alleviate the worst effects of the depression, reinvigorate the economy, and restore the confidence of the American people in their banks and other key institutions(2)." These new deal programs and reforms helped fix the broken and desperate Unites States. After these programs, laws, reforms, etc. we're instituted, America started to grow back to the Country it was once before. Roosevelt went to the radio to convince Americans that hope was in sight and to restore confidence in the United States. He had many fireside chats on the radio to restore this confidence and hope. //Franklin Roosevelt during one of his Fireside Chats// __**Rise of Dictators in Europe**__ During WWII many dictators had risen within Europe. A dictator is a person who is given full control over a group of people, usually pertaining to government control. Many of these dictators had risen after WWI in Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, and of course Germany. Germany was hit very hard after WWI as the Germans had much of their land taken away and had to disarm their army. In addition to that they even had to pay for the damages of the war. Because WWI was very expensive ad new technology was being created, a worldwide depression started. To try and get the world out of this depression, new leaders were appointed in many countries. As mentioned before, this means that some of those countries relied on dictators. The major dictators of WWII were names most of us have heard already; Benito Mussolini, an infamous dictator from Italy, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, and infamous Adolf Hitler from Germany.

Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini was the Italian dictator infamous for his preaching of government known as Fascism. Fascism is "an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization." [Defined by Google] Born on July 29th of 1883, Benito was put in a spot where job opportunities were scarce. Because of this he moved to Switzerland for two years in 1902 to become involved in socialist politics. He returned to Italy where he became a journalist for the socialist press. His support for entry into WWI caused led to this break from the socialist party. In 1915 he was then drafted into the Italian army. In 1919 Mussolini had created the Fascist party, which was then asked to join the coalition government in 1921. One year after that the government was sent into complete chaos, and a new leader was needed. In 1925 Benito had named himself dictator and was called Il Duce. Benito was incredibly racist, which affected Italy's social ladder. Superiority was then based majorly on culture.

Adolf Hitler Born on April 20th of 1889, Adolf Hitler was a dictator in Germany, and was also the most infamous dictator for his views on religious groups and skin color. Hitler, like Mussolini, was also very racist and superiority was based on race and beliefs. Hitler had fought in WWI and wanted to get revenge for the things Germany had lost in the war. After creating the nazi party, Hitler had control over the army in Germany. Hitler was actually anti-communist and partially focused on defeating soviet Russia. He had day to day control and convinced Germany that only he could succeed. He commanded the armies from thousands of miles away from the actual battle. At Stalingrad, Germany was the problem of Germany not being able to hold the city. Hitler refused to surrender, but the generals at the battle thought otherwise. later on when the german forces retreated to the east, Hitler was angry because of this denial of order. He fell asleep in his eagles nest and the german army suffered for it. unable to make a move because of this, Germany suffered greatly and hitler had to kill himself or the opposing armies would do it for him.

Joseph Stalin Born on December 18, 1878, Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union ever since Russia had be come communist after WWI. Joseph had extremely harsh conditions in Russia as his authority was extremely strict. He had control over everyone's life in the Soviet Union and anyone that opposed him or tried to compete for leadership was killed so that he could stay in power. He made a non-aggression act with Hitler and then annexed parts within Romania, Poland, The Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Lithuania. Germany broke the nonaggression pact and invaded the USSR. He (Much later) gave North Korea the green light to invade the U.S which ultimately created the Korean War.

//Adolf Hitler// __**The Beginning of WWII**__ World War Two is said to have officially started on September first 1939 when hitler invaded Poland. But, in reality tensions had been building for several years. It started when Hitler annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia. Hitler then signed a nonaggression pack with Russia. After invading Poland Hitler used a new form of warfare called Blitzkrieg or "Lightning War" in conjunction with Herman Görings elite Fallschirmjagers "Parachute Hunters" to take over Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and the Netherlands, and then swung down into northern France. He was able to overwhelm the French Defenders and their BEF "British Expeditionary Force" allies. After capturing France HItler invaded Norway. During the fighting in France and Norway the USSR was waging a war of its own against the Japanese and its puppet state Manchuria in the East while they were trying to invade Finland. Germany then launched Operation Barbarossa aka the invasion of the Soviet Union. While also trying to take the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean, Tobruk in Africa, and Tunisia. The Axis Powers looked unstoppable until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Russians turned back the German Army at the gates of Moscow.

__**Major Battles in WWII**__ The Battle of Berlin- The Battle of Berlin was the last major battle of the Second World War. The German Army was in shambles and all that stood between the Red Army was a small coalition of German units and some Volksturm platoons. The Red Army took the city in a mater of days and lead to the unconditional surrender of German.

The Siege of Lenningrad- The attack started in June 1941 and ended in January 1944. The Germans where assisted by Italian and Finnish forces. The Germans where stopped 62 miles south of the city. The German with their allies encircled the city and bombarded it, but they where never able to capture it. Finally in 1944 Soviet forces broken through and relieved the city.

The Siege of Sevastopol- The Siege began in June 1941 through July 1942. The German also had allied assistance in this siege too. The Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Bulgarian forces all participated in the siege. The Siege lasted for a year until the soviet navy pulled the defenders and any civilians out by sea.

__**Japan's Role in WWII**__ Japan was working on industrializing itself after WWI. Japan had planned on expanding their military and educating Japanese citizens further to try and get started with the new technologies that were being created. These attempts ultimately failed because of the events of WW1. Japanese military expansion was limited because of the five power naval limitation agreement of 1922, and the Japanese Exclusion Act prohibited any Japanese citizens from going into the U.S. Japan had already been going through a depression and economic collapse was ruining the country. The Prime Minister, Hamaguchi Osachi, was also shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist. This caused Japan to be ruled over by admirals in 1932, and lasted until 1936. The admirals had created what was called the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" which was said to have created unification with the western countries, but was ultimately a lie, as its true intention was to have domination in the East. Japan then made a full on attack against China which had caught them by surprise. Japan quickly took over much of China and had made their way to Nanking, where 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered. The U.S. then decided they would cut off any kind of trade with Japan, and their supply of Oil and Steel would quickly decrease. Japan needed to act fast, so with the supplies they had left they bombed Pearl Harbor.

//Japan in WWII//

__**U.S. Involvement**__ The Great Depression, along with the the effects of World War I, fueled World War II. Many say that the war started with the invasion of Germany into Poland. The U.S. wanted to stay out of the war and signed a series of Neutrality Acts to remain free from the war. The U.S. had been involved in the war by supplying Europe with weapons and other tools for war. It was the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. completely into the war. Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor in hoping to expand. This outraged Americans bringing them to join the war. President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. The U.S. Supplied troops for the war effort in Europe and the East. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, America had been in many naval battles including the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the Battle of Okinawa. They also bad been in and contributed to many land battle durng World War II. (3)

//Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor// __**The Holocaust**__ The holocaust was mainly started because of anti-semitism, or hatred and prejudice toward Jews. The man behind the holocaust was Adolf Hitler. After World War I, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or NSDAP, which is commonly known as the Nazis. Hitler had a passion for the idea of purity of race in Germany. The two goals of Hitler were racial purity and spatial expansion.

The first concentration camp opened in March 1933, near Dachau. Those who were sent their were mostly communist or social democrats. While targeting Jewish citizens to put in concentration camps, Germany burned Jewish synagogues, destroyed Jewish stores and shops, and killed about 100 Jews and thousands were arrested. Germany occupied the Western half of Poland. The Germans raided the Polish Jews homes and took their belongings. They put the Polish Jews into ghettoes where famine set in. The Germans chose tens of thousands of institutionalized Jews to be gassed to death. Germany conquered many other counties and placed their Jews into the Polish ghettoes. At Auschwitz, a concentration camp, mass murder methods were being experimented. Jews from the Polish ghettoes were being transported to concentration camps for mass murder. Concentration camps all over were killing Jews by gassing, starvation, disease, etc.. Millions upon millions of people were murdered during the time of the holocaust. (8)

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__**The Allied Victory**__ The Allied Victory in Europe was pretty much Guarantied by the summer of 1944. Soldier were told the war in Europe would be over by Christmas. While the war in the Pacific was predicted to continue for another year because on fierce Japanese resistance. In December 1944 the Germans launched a daring offensive to push American Army out of the Ardennes and off the doorstep of the German homeland. The Offensive started on the 16th of December 1944 and lasted 9 days. The Germans wanted to Secure Allied Supply/Fuel Dumps, Bridge Heads and split the British and American Forces in half. The Americans were able to halt the German offensive, the Americans in June crossed the Rhine and on May 8th, 1945. The on August 6th 1945 the American dropped the first Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Then on August 9th, 1945 another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. And finally, on September 2nd, 1945 Japan surrendered.

__**Europe and Japan in Ruins**__ Europe After the years of devastation that was WWII, Europe had won, and Germany was crumbling. This victory was not in vein, as Europe was in ruins from the war. Farms had been destroyed from the bombs that had landed and many of the roads had been torn apart from being used by soldiers running over them and tanks making the ground uneven. Buildings had been destroyed, and because of how expensive the war was, a worldwide depression started again. With little to no hope of getting that money back, new money was printed in many countries. This did not help as this only caused inflation, making the money have little to no value. Gold reserves were depleted and everyone was in an awful situation.

Japan WWII had ended, but the death rate in Japan did not see any declines because of it. With most of the major cities and industries completely devastated, millions of people were out of jobs, had no shelter, and food was scarce. Any territory claimed in 1894 was taken away. Many of the generals in the Japanese army committed suicide after the surrender of Japan. Japan is still trying to recover some parts of their territory and is still cleaning up the events of WWII today.

//Postwar Japan// Michael Wittman was born on April 22nd, 1914 in Bavaria. His military started in 1934 when he joined the German Heer (Army) as an infantry soldier. He soon become interested in tanks and in 1936 near the end of his enlistment he joined the elite German SS. When the war started he was still in training as an Armoured car commander, and was quickly sent to Poland. After a small amount of time in Poland he was assigned to a Sturmgeschütz (StuG) assault gun. He was sent to the Balkans to assist in the Balkans Campaign. After the Balkans Campaign he was sent to Russia. In his first summer in Russia he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class soon followed by the Iron Cross First Class and finally in the spring of 1943 he joined the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Divisions 13th Schwere Panzer Kompanie (Heavy Tank Company). He was promoted to Company Commander and assigned a company of Tiger IE's. He was then sent to Normandy by Villers-Bocage slightly North of the Panzer Lehr Division. And, in a single day he stopped almost an entire British Armored Division and Single-handed saved the flank of the Panzer Lehr Division. He was then awarded the Knights Cross with swords. He was then killed in action on August 8th, 1944 near Caen, France.
 * __Micheal Wittman (The Normandy Tiger Ace)__**

__**Works Cited**__ (1) http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression (2) http://rooseveltinstitute.org/policy-and-ideasroosevelt-historyfdr/new-deal (3) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/history/wwii_timeline.html (4) http://www2.waterforduhs.k12.wi.us/staffweb/belot/Chapter%2013%20-%20Section%201.ppt (5) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mussolini_benito.shtml (6) http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zsmm6sg (6 1/2) Matthew Adami, Historical Expert (7) http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-stalin (8) http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust (9) [] (10) http://study.com/academy/lesson/economic-reconstruction-in-europe-after-wwii-recovery-programs-their-effect.html (11) http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2124.html