HOW

WORLD WAR II
BEGAN
1918
World War I ends with Germany’s defeat
1919
The Treaty of Versailles is signed by Germany
and the Allied Powers. Germany is forced to
accept responsibility for WWI and pay huge
reparations to the countries in the Allied Powers
As a result millions of Germans lose their jobs
and are reduced to living in poverty
 1923
Inflation in Germany
soars and the currency is
practically worthless

Many Germans are

bitter and harbour feelings
of revenge

A small political party

under Adolf Hitler seems
to have the solution to all
these problems
 1929
The Great Depression makes
life even harder for Germans
and many are drawn to
radical parties to make
drastic changes

Hitler’s party promises to

rebuild the economy, tear up
the hated Treaty of Versailles
and rebuild the military

1933
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
Hitler becomes a Dictator
Soon after he is elected Chancellor,
Hitler begins to build a dictatorship

He allows only one political party—the

Nazis. The party seizes control of the
nation's courts, newspapers, police, and
schools

People who oppose the new government

are murdered, imprisoned in
concentration camps, forced to leave
Germany, or beaten up by the Nazis'
private army called storm troopers
1934
Hitler declares himself der Fuhrer (the leader) of
Germany. The Nazis call their government the
Third Reich (Third Empire).
The first was the Holy Roman Empire, and the
second was the German Empire (1871 to 1918)
Hitler had two goals:
1. To create a Superpower/
Master Race
Hitler wanted to make Germans the most
powerful and ‘pure’ people on Earth.

He believed Germans were superior to other

races, and in order to create the perfect
“Aryan” race, he began to eliminate anyone
who wasn’t ‘perfect’ – including Jews,
Homosexuals, Physically and mentally
handicapped people.

Anne Frank’s Diary, and The Boy in the

Striped Pyjamas both tell us what it was like to
be hunted and condemned to death for being
Jewish.
 2. To gain more territory
§ Hitler wanted his country to be powerful, and for his
citizens to have more living space or ‘lebensraum’
§ Unlike New Zealand, Germany is only defined by the
borders of countries around it.
§ To the east of Germany lies Poland, and beyond that the
powerful nation of the USSR (Russia today).
§ By creating an alliance with the USSR, both nations
agreed to invade Poland, evict all the people living there,
and divide the land between the two powerful countries.
§ Krystyna’s Story tells us what it was like to be a Polish
child suddenly evicted from her home and sent to a
Siberian labour camp so that the Germans could take
her family’s land.
The Start of World War II
1939
Germany and the USSR agree to remain
neutral to each other if either party becomes
involved in a war

They also secretly plan to divide Poland and

most of the rest of eastern Europe between
themselves, so that Germany (and the USSR)
can have more ‘lebensraum’
 September 1, 1939
Germany and the USSR invade Poland and World
War II begins
 Why were the Jewish
people hated by Hitler?
Racism
Jewish people have the subject of anti-Semitism for many
centuries. Some Christian religions blamed the death of Christ
on the Jews.

Jealousy
Some Jews were successful and held influential positions
in Austria and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Germany
was hit the hardest by the Depression and successful Jews
were envied.

Revenge
Hitler saw Jewish people as scapegoats for the economic
crisis at that time. Some Germans believed that Jewish
bankers had plunged the world into the Depression for their
own profit by determining the value of money.
 Hitler’s opinion
of The “Jew”…
"His is no master people; he is an
exploiter: the Jews are a people of
robbers. He has never founded any
civilisation, though he has destroyed
civilisations by the hundred...everything
he has stolen. Foreign people, foreign
workmen build him his temples, it is
foreigners who create and work for him,
it is foreigners who shed their blood for
him.“
- Adolf Hitler, July 1922, Munich
Being Jewish in Nazi
Germany
“Even as a Jewish boy of fourteen I was
somewhat fascinated by everything that was
going on. The media were completely in thrall
to the Nazi party. It took hold of you, whether
you liked it or not. It was so nationalistic…
feeling ‘German’ and identifying with the
fatherland were extremely appealing, now that
the country was scrambling to its feet after the
defeat of 1918.

Scary? Absolutely! Especially when you

knew that you were Jewish and that all the
problems were being blamed on you.”
- Otto Treumann
Author of “Anne Frank; a History for Today”
 Key Words
Allied Powers - a group of countries that included Great Britain (and NZ)
in the WWI
League of Nations - a larger group of countries that formed as a result of
the Treaty of Versailles.
Treaty of Versailles – a contract signed by the Allied Powers and Germany,
that forced Germany to pay reparations for WWI
Dictatorship -
Aryan -
Scapegoat -
Concentration camps: Prisons set up by German Nazis where Jews and
other people considered “undesirable” were starved, tortured, killed, or left
to die of disease.
Discrimination: treating people differently because they belong to a certain
race, religion, gender, or other group.
Gas Chambers: buildings constructed to allow poisonous gas to be used
for the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust.
 Key Words
Genocide: the intentional killing of people who belong to a
particular race, religion, culture, or other group.
Holocaust: refers to the mass killing by German Nazis of six million
Jews in Europe during World War 2.
Prejudice: biased attitude toward individuals based solely on their
race, religion, nationality, or other characteristic.
Propaganda: information purposely distorted to sway people’s
thinking in a particular direction.
Fatherland: is the nation of one's "fathers", "forefathers" or
"patriarchs"(head of the family/group). It can be viewed as a
nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations. German Nazis
believed they could create a new “Fatherland” made up of blonde
haired and blue eyed people.
Auschwitz: a Nazi concentration camp for Jews in South Western
Poland during World War 2.
Anti-Semitism: Semite means Jew. Anti-Semitism, or to be Anti-
Semitic refers to the hatred and prejudice against Jewish people.