Download WHAP Teacher Copy The Largest Costliest and Deadliest Conflict

The Largest, Costliest, and Deadliest Conflict
WHAP/Napp
Objective: To identify and explain significant causes and
effects of the Second World War
Do Now: Define fascism and explain how fascist powers
in the Second World War sought to remake the world.
Cues:
Notes:
I. World War II (September 1939 – September 1945)
A. Largest, costliest, and deadliest armed conflict in human history
B. The Axis Powers – Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Japan
C. The Allied Powers were Great Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, the Soviet Union, and the United States
D. Between 55 million and 60 million people were killed during war
E. World War II involved yet another ugly trend of 20th century, genocide
F. Twelve million victims – 6 million Jewish, 6 million non-Jewish – perished
in the German campaign of racial extermination known as the Holocaust
G. When war was over, only two nations, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. became known
as superpowers Cold War ensued
H. And from 1940s through 1970s, a massive wave of decolonization
I. World War II resulted from straightforward pattern of aggression on part
of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and militaristic Japan
J. Hamstrung by Great Depression, anxious to avoid another global conflict,
or simply hoping that each aggressive move would be last, countries such as
France, Britain, and U.S. did little to stop the aggression
K. Policy of letting aggressors have what they wanted, in the hope that they
would demand no more, became known as appeasement
L. League of Nations proved almost useless when it came to dealing with
foreign-policy crises
M. And by 1933, Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations
N. In 1935, Hitler openly rebuilt German army and navy, violating
disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles
O. In 1936, Hitler sent German troops into Rhineland, which was supposed to
remain a demilitarized zone
P. In 1937, Hitler signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Italy and Japan
Q. Hitler made public desire for Lebensraum or “living space” for Germany
R. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss (“union”)
S. Hitler also announced plans to take over Sudetenland which had formerly
been German territory and given to Czechoslovakia after World War I
T. In 1939, Germany took the rest of Czechoslovakia, demonstrating the
foolishness of appeasement
U. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began
V. Meanwhile, by 1936, Italy had completed its conquest of Ethiopia
W. Spain experienced civil war (1936-1939)Franco came to power until 1975
X. Japan invaded ChinaRape of Nanking
Y. In 1939, Hitler and StalinNazi-Soviet Pact, keeping the USSR neutral
Summaries:
Cues:
II. A Different Kind of War
A. Germany’s innovative method of warfare, Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), used
tanks and airplanes to penetrate deeply and quickly into enemy territory
B. Britain and France waited for Germany to attack them, relying on an
outdated World War I mentality that viewed war as primarily defensive
C. Historians refer to winter of 1939 and 1940 as the Sliztkrieg, or “phony
war” due to British and French strategy of waiting
D. Germans attacked France on May 10By June 22, the largest and most
powerful democracy on the European continent had surrendered
E. French had been confident that chain of border fortifications, Maginot
Line, would protect them but German Blitzkrieg sidestepped it
F. But Hitler’s attempt to knock Britain out of war failedRoyal Navy
protected British isles from invasion
G. And Royal Air Force defended England’s skies against Hitler’s bombers
H. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, starting the largest
ground war in historyOperation Barbarossa
I. German forces surrounded Leningrad, USSR’s second largest city, placing
it under worst siege in modern times
III. The Changing Tide of War
A. Japan’s goal was to establish its Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
B. U.S.A.’s response to Japanese aggressionimposing economic sanctions
C. Japanese viewed this embargo as an act of warDecember 7, 1941Pearl
Harborbrought U.S. into war
D. The second half of the war, 1942 through 1945, had a much different
character than the first
E. Battle of Midway (June 1942), Battle of El Alamein (fall 1942), Battle of
Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943), Allies experienced victories
F. June 1944, in the famous D-Day invasion, British, Canadian, and American
troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the coast of France
G. In 1945, the Axis surrendered
H. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic
bomb on Hiroshimathree days laterNagasakiunconditional surrender
IV. Crimes Against Humanity
A. Even before war, Nazis operated apparatus of terror, formation of a secret
police (the Gestapo), concentration camps (such as Dachau)
B. Nazis passed a number of anti-Semitic policies that grew worse over time
C. Nuremberg Laws of 1935, deprived all German Jews of their civil rights
D. November 1938, Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), Jewish shops,
synagogues, and homes throughout Germany and Austria were attacked
E. Sometime in 1941 that order for genocide came down from above
F. Final Solution resulted in 12 million deathsOf Europe’s 11 million Jews,
approximately 6 million were killed and 6 million non-Jewish victims
G. Nuremberg Trials (1946), to try remaining Nazi leadership
H. U.N. General AssemblyUniversal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
I. Second World War brought fundamental shifts in thinking
Summaries:
Questions:
 Describe Hitler’s acts of aggression which led to the Second World War.
 Explain the policy of appeasement and its failure.
 Discuss the changing relationship between the Nazis and the Soviets.
 Discuss the changing nature of the war.
 Discuss the crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War.
1. Which of the following had NOT
4. Which member of the victorious
experienced fascist aggression or
Allies emerged most dissatisfied from
takeover prior to World War II?
the Versailles settlement?
(A) Ethiopia
(A) Germany
(B) Czechoslovakia
(B) France
(C) Great Britain
(C) United States
(D) Spain
(D) Japan
(E) China
(E) Great Britain
2. The invasion of which country led to
the slowing and eventual reversal of
the German blitzkrieg?
(A) France
(B) Belgium
(C) The USSR
(D) Great Britain
(E) Spain
3. Which is NOT true of the Nazi death
camps?
(A) Most were located in Poland.
(B) Escape was impossible.
(C) A variety of methods were
employed in carrying out
executions.
(D) They were staffed by German
and non-German guards.
(E) They were carefully planned and
constructed.
5. Which belligerent power of the First
World War carried out an early exit
from the hostilities and negotiated a
separate peace treaty?
(A) France
(B) The United States
(C) Russia
(D) Austria-Hungary
(E) Germany
6. Which of the following periods have
been grouped together by world
historians into a time called an “Age
of Catastrophe” lasting from 1914 to
1945?
(A) World War I, Great Depression,
Cold War
(B) Napoleonic Wars, World War I,
World War II
(C) World War I, Great Depression,
World War II
(D) World War II, Cold War, postCold War era
(E) Great Depression, World War II,
Cold War
Excerpt from ushmm.org
In the early years of the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established
concentration camps to detain real and imagined political and ideological opponents.
Increasingly in the years before the outbreak of war, SS and police officials incarcerated
Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps. To concentrate
and monitor the Jewish population as well as to facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the
Germans and their collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps
for Jews during the war years. The German authorities also established numerous forcedlabor camps, both in the so-called Greater German Reich and in German-occupied
territory, for non-Jews whose labor the Germans sought to exploit.
Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing
units) and, later, militarized battalions of Order Police officials, moved behind German
lines to carry out mass-murder operations against Jews, Roma, and Soviet state and
Communist Party officials. German SS and police units, supported by units of the
Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than a million Jewish men, women, and
children, and hundreds of thousands of others. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German
authorities deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from
the countries of many of its Axis allies to ghettos and to killing centers, often called
extermination camps, where they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities.
In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced
marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of
large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives
against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as
well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches
continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered
unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in
Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory
Day” on May 9, 1945.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced
persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost
700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe.
Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp
closed in 1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European
Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied Eastern
Europe entirely.
Thesis Statement: Change Over Time: Germany 1914 – 1945
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