WORLD WAR II TO THE

COLLAPSE OF THE
SOVIET UNION
 THE RISE OF NAZISM

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

Who to Blame for Germany’s Problems?

1. Germany’s enemies in WWI

2. Previous German government

3. Jewish people
 TREATMENT OF JEWS

Hitler’s government passed many

laws discriminating against Jews.

Nazis persecuted Jews.

Denied them their rights as German

citizens.
 THE HOLOCAUST
H O W W E R E J E W S T R E AT E D ?

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.

 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.
 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.
 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.
 HELPING THE JEWISH PEOPLE

People around the world were horrified by the

treatment of Jews and were very supportive.

A new organization is formed…the United

Nations.

The UN granted part of Palestine in Southwest

Asia to the Jewish people.

Explain the impact of WWII in terms of the

 A DIVIDED EUROPE

After the war, the Soviet Union and the United

States did not trust each other.
UNITED STATES SOVIET UNION

DEMOCRACY COMMUNISM
GOVERNMENT GOVERNMENT
The U.S. was concerned because they believed that the
Soviets wanted to spread communism all through Europe.
 GERMANY DIVIDED

WEST GERMANY EAST GERMANY

Controlled by Controlled by the

Great Britain, Soviet Union
France, and the
United States
 DIVIDING UP BERLIN

THE ALLIES ALSO DIVIDED UP THE GERMAN

CAPITAL OF BERLIN.
 EUROPE DIVIDED

WESTERN EASTERN
EUROPE EUROPE

• Remained or • Became
became free Communist
democracies.
• East Germany
• West became a
Germany Communist
became a free nation allied
democracy with the
and sided USSR.
with the U.S.
and other
Western
European
nations.
 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.
 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.
1. Those that supported free democracy.
2. Those that supported the USSR and communism .
 THE BERLIN WALL

 Many east Germans were fleeing to West Germany.

 In the 1960’s, 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.

 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 collapsed.

 It divided into Russia into several other countries.

 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.”