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CHAPTER 27
THE DEEPENING OF THE EUROPEAN CRISIS:
WORLD WAR II
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
Essays:
1. Discuss the major steps taken by Hitler from 1933 to 1939 that ultimately led to war. Could Hitler have
been prevented from plunging Europe into war? When and how?
2. How do you account for the early successes of the Germans from 1939 to 1941? To what degree did
Blitzkrieg play a role in these successes?
3. When and why did the initiative in World War II pass out of Germany's hands?
4. Compare in your text the maps of the fighting fronts in World War I and World War II and discuss
what this comparison reveals about the nature of fighting in the two wars. How do you explain the
differences you find?
5. Why did Germany lose the war? Was it a foregone conclusion?
6. How did the Nazis attempt to establish a new Order in Europe after their military victories? What were
the results of their efforts?
7. Discuss the “Final Solution.” What was it? Who was responsible for it? How did it work? How
committed was the entire German war machine to this murderous campaign? If so many ordinary
Germans took part in this crime, can its perpetration merely be attributed only to the evil (and aberrant)
mind of Hitler?
8. Compare the home fronts of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Germany. What
differences and similarities do you find? How did the organization of each home front affect the outcome
of the war?
9. How did the attempt to arrive at a peace settlement after World War II lead to the beginning of the new
conflict known as the Cold War?
10. What, in essence, was the Cold War?
Identifications:
1. Aryans
2. Lebensraum
3. “diplomatic revolution”
4. Anglo-German Naval Pact
5. Rhineland
6. Rome-Berlin Axis
7. appeasement
8. Neville Chamberlain
9. Sudentenland
10. Munich Conference
11. “peace in our time”
12. 1939 non-aggression pact
13. Blitzkrieg
14. Maginot Line
15. Dunkirk
16. Winston Churchill
17. Battle of Britain
18. Pearl Harbor
19. Manchukuo
20. Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
21. Grand Alliance
22. Stalingrad
23. Battle of Midway
24. Normandy
25. Battle of Kursk
26. Nazi New Order
27. Claus von Stauffenberg
28. the Holocaust
29. Madagascar Plan
30. Final Solution
31. Einsatzgruppen
32. Auschwitz
33. Wannsee Conference
34. gas chambers
35. “land girls”
36. “Dig for Victory”
37. Great Patriotic War
38. “Night Witches”
39. Albert Speer
40. bushido and kamikaze
41. Luftwaffe
42. the Blitz
43. Arthur Harris
44. Dresden
45. Allied Strategic Bombing Survey
46. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
47. Big Three
48. Yalta
49. Potsdam
50. “an iron curtain”
Multiple Choice:
1. World War II was largely made possible by
a. Great Britain’s aggressive plans on Europe.
b. the failure of Britain and France to strongly oppose flagrant German violations of the
Versailles treaty.
c. Soviet expansionism and interference in Western Europe's affairs.
d. the weakness of the League of Nations.
e. the rampant militarism of the democracies.
(page 784)
2. The idea of Lebensraum maintained that
a. a nation’s power depended on the amount and kind of land it occupied.
b. only large populations could maintain a powerful country.
c. authority must be dictated from a powerful leader.
d. air power was the key to a successful military.
e. a pure race was necessary for national survival.
(p. 783)
3. For Hitler to achieve his goals, he thought
a. he must follow a strict time schedule and order of events.
b. he must gain the confidence of the United States.
c. careful consideration must be given to the desires of the nationalists.
d. his basic plan of racial supremacy and empire over “inferior” peoples was most critical.
e. he needed an alliance with France in order to protect his western flank when he invaded Russia.
(p. 783)
4. Hitler settled on acquiring German Lebensraum in the east in Russian territory in part because of his
racist belief that
a. the Slavs were an “inferior” people now governed by impotent Jews among the Bolsheviks and
worthy of enslavement.
b. the weakened Aryan “race” could only be rejuvenated and made better through war against the
ancient enemies of the Fatherland.
c. the Anglo-Saxons were now a decadent race and would never come to the aid of eastern
Europeans.
d. Germany must rapidly conquer all of Europe before the great American race dominated the
globe.
e. there would be no opposition to the German takeover of Russia territory as the inferior Slavs
would eagerly welcome their racial superiors.
(p. 783)
5. The British policy of appeasement was based on
a. Britain’s cowardly nature in world politics.
b. a general admiration of the Germans and their accomplishments.
c. a hatred and distrust of France.
d. a belief that it would maintain peace and stability in Europe, avoiding another catastrophic
conflict like World War I.
e. rivalry between Britain’s Conservative and Labour parties.
(p. 785)
6. Hitler’s first act of aggression took place in 1936 when the Germans occupied what area?
a. Austria
b. Sudetenland
c. Bavaria
d. Rhineland
e. East Tyrol
(p. 785)
7. By the end of 1937, Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, was
a. a strong advocate of appeasement.
b. calling for Britain to declare war on Germany.
c. working with Hitler to divide Europe into spheres of influence.
d. busy denouncing all changes in the status of central Europe.
e. allying Britain with the Soviet Union against the threat of Nazi Germany.
(p. 785)
8. The Munich Conference was
a. applauded by Winston Churchill as a "wise and noble agreement."
b. formulated with the idea that if Germany wanted the Sudentenland war with the western
powers was inevitable.
c. criticized by Winston Churchill as a tragic outcome of appeasement.
d. a severe setback for Hitler.
e. a victory for cautious and considered diplomacy.
(p. 787)
9. Following the Munich Conference, Hitler quickly
a. had Germany relinquish its claims to Czechoslovakia.
b. systematically took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
c. attacked France.
d. launched an attach on the Soviet Union.
e. invaded Belgium.
(p. 787)
10. Hitler’s first dramatic acts as head of the German state were
a. a failed attack on Hungary and obedience to sanctions imposed by the League.
b. withdrawal of Germany from the Geneva Disarmament Conference and from the League of
Nations.
c. legal action before the World Court in the Hague to revoke key provisions of the Versailles
Treaty and bribery of the judges involved.
d. fanatical decrees outlawing the marriage of Jews and the internment of Jewish orphans in death
camps.
e. the murder of President Hindenberg and the shutting down of the autobahn.
(p. 784)
11. Hitler took Poland in 1939
a. despite interference by the Soviet Union.
b. in a long protracted struggle that cost Germany dearly.
c. upon Poland’s request for a restructured government.
d. using Blitzkrieg or “lightening war” tactics and with active support from Joseph Stalin.
e. peacefully, with the reluctant acquiescence of Britain and France.
(pp. 787-788)
12. Immediately following the fall of Poland
a. France and Britain declared war and started an offensive against Germany.
b. France and Britain decided to continue to appease Hitler.
c. France and Britain declared war, but remained relatively inactive militarily.
d. Germany turned on its Russian allies.
e. France was invaded by Franco’s Spain.
(p. 790)
13. The Maginot Line was
a. a sophisticated line of defenses in eastern France.
b. the temporary demarcation line between France and the German Rhineland imposed by the
Versailles Treaty.
c. fortifications built by Mussolini to defend Rome.
d. England’s first line of coastal defense against possible German invasion.
e. the railroad that extended from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps.
(p. 790)
14. Following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk, France
a. soon surrendered and the Vichy government was set up as a German puppet state.
b. went on the offensive and bogged Germany down in Normandy.
c. benefited when Italian forces assisted Allied defenses, giving France time to regroup.
d. benefited when the United States declared war on Germany.
e. constitutionally became a temporary part of the British Empire.
(p. 790)
15. Hitler’s plan for defeating Britain relied on
a. the support of Soviet troops in a massive amphibious invasion.
b. Germany’s Luftwaffe gaining control of the skies.
c. V-2 rockets to destroy British industrial power.
d. a giant tunnel, the “chunnel”, under the English channel.
e. the support of Irish fifth-columnists.
(p. 790)
16. Serious conflict in Asia contributing to the outbreak of World War Two in the Pacific began with
Japan’s 1937 attack on
a. the Philippines.
b. Korea.
c. China.
d. Malaysia.
e. Kauai.
(p. 788)
17. The ancient “way of the warrior” that was revived during the 1930s was
a. samurai.
b. kamikaze.
c. dual-Shinto.
d. zen.
e. bushido.
(p. 805)
18. Chief among the reasons for Japanese expansion in the 1930s were
a. an expanding population and severe lack of natural resources on the island nation.
b. intense hatreds for the Chinese and Chinese culture.
c. desires by ruling military leaders to test their newly developed and newly organized armed
forces.
d. beliefs among the Japanese that they were a "master race" destined to rule all of Asia.
e. fear of Chinese imperial aggression unless the Japanese struck first.
(p. 788)
19. The Grand Alliance included all of the following countries except
a. Britain.
b. the Soviet Union.
c. France.
d. the United States.
e. b and c
(pp. 792-793)
20. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the main priority for the United States was
a. defeating Japan as quickly as possible.
b. recovering the Hawaiian Islands.
c. defeating Germany first and then turning its great naval war machine against Japan.
d. to remain neutral, while buying time to build up industrial and military supplies.
e. defending “Fortress America” from the expected combined Japanese and German invasion of
the United States.
(p. 793)
21. It can be argued that this key decision early in the war by Adolf Hitler made the defeat of Germany
inevitable:
a. abandoning the Battle of Britain
b. dividing France into a zone of German occupation and a French national puppet government at
Vichy
c. immediately declaring war on the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
d. snubbing British proposals for an armistice in 1941
e. invading Scandinavia.
(p. 792)
22. The turning point of the North African campaign came
a. at El Alamein where the British stopped Rommel in the summer of 1942.
b. when South African troops crossed the Sahara and overwhelmed Rommel.
c. with the revolt of the Vichy French in North Africa.
d. when the Italians joined the Allied cause in 1942.
e. when Cairo and the Suez Canal were recaptured by the British and the Americans.
(p. 794)
23. The decisive Battle of Stalingrad was best characterized by
a. the Russians fighting to the last man until an exhausted German army took the city.
b. a gradual breakdown in German morale until the Germans were surrounded and forced to
surrender.
c. the lack of conviction on the part of the Russians to defend their city.
d. the decisive role that the Soviet air force played in halting the German advance.
e. the complete destruction of both armies, leading to a temporary armistice.
(pp. 794-795)
24. The naval battle in the Pacific that is considered the turning point of the war and established U.S.
naval supremacy in the area was
a. Guadalcanal.
b. Coral Sea.
c. Siam.
d. Midway.
e. Dutch Harbor.
(p. 794)
25. In order to open up a “second front” in Western Europe, the Allies
a. quickly advanced through Italy into France in 1943.
b. invaded Normandy in June 1944, carrying out the greatest naval invasion in history.
c. landed on the Iberian peninsula and advanced through southern France.
d. lured German forces south to Italy and invaded the north German coast.
e. secretly landed a large invading force in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
(p. 795)
26. In pursuing the war against the Axis powers, the Grand Alliance demanded of its opponents
a. unconditional surrender.
b. the maintenance of diplomatic contacts for the earliest arrangement of an armistice.
c. the exchange of promises regarding post-war spheres of influence around the globe.
d. careful accounting of all sums spent on armaments so that war reparations from the guilty
parties could be more accurately determined once the war was over.
e. that reparations would be required, but there would be no concerted efforts at “regime change.”
(p. 793)
27. The final human death toll of World War II may have numbered as high as
a. 3.5 million.
b. 5 million.
c. 23.5 million.
d. 50 million.
e. 100 million.
(p. 796)
28. The Nazi Empire was
a. strictly organized into efficient states that paid tribute to Germany.
b. never much larger than the size of present-day Germany and Austria.
c. never organized systematically or governed efficiently despite German claims to the contrary.
d. for the most part composed of independent states that collaborated with Hitler.
e. a and d
(p. 797)
29. The Nazi rule of Europe was most ruthless in
a. Eastern Europe because the Slavs were considered racially inferior.
b. France due to the long rivalry between France and Germany.
c. Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands due to their close proximity to Germany.
d. Italy because the Italians were generally considered to be disloyal.
e. Greece and Yugoslavia, because of the strategic nature of the Balkans region.
(p. 797)
30. Demonstrating again that ever-higher military technology was crucial to the conduct and outcome of
World War Two, the greatest tank battle of all time was fought in this conflict at
a. Stalingrad.
b. Moscow.
c. Leningrad.
d. Kursk.
e. Kiev.
(pp. 795-796)
31. Germany’s policy of forced labor of conquered people
a. helped cause more resistance to the Nazis.
b. crushed the morale of peoples so they could not revolt.
c. gave Germany a critical advantage in industrial production.
d. was really quite exaggerated and was no more brutal than Allied practices.
e. failed because of the immediate intervention of the League of Nations.
(p. 797)
32. A major source of resistance to the Nazis came from
a. the German people who became effective at internal sabotage of Nazi plans.
b. Communists throughout Europe, especially after the German invasion of Russia in 1941.
c. the Vichy regime in France.
d. the Austrians who felt that they should be the leaders of the Aryan race in Europe.
e. escapees from the internment camps who organized resistance movements against the
Germans.
(p. 798)
33. The conference that established the procedures for the “Final Solution” occurred at
a. Munich.
b. Nuremburg.
c. Berlin.
d. Wannsee.
e. Wittenberg.
(p. 800)
34. Hitler's “Final Solution” to the Jewish problem called for
a. the extermination of all European Jews.
b. the forced deportation of the Jews to Madagascar.
c. the resettlement of Jews in ghettos, isolated from other Europeans.
d. breeding “Jewish genes” out of the Jewish population itself.
e. the expulsion of the Jews from Germany and the rest of Central Europe.
(pp. 800-801)
35. In the Holocaust, the Germans killed six million or more people who were Jewish as well as other
victims deemed “undesirable.” To murder so many innocent civilians in so short a time, the Germans
a. used specially trained army units to round up “undesirables” and execute them by machine gun
fire.
b. sent opponents to prison and then starved them to death.
c. created vast death camps where victims were systematically murdered in gas chambers and
their bodies then burned in huge ovens.
d. circulated the plague and other diseases in Europe to kill as many as possible.
e. loaded them on ships and sunk the ships in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
(p. 801)
36. Besides the Jews, another group singled out by the Nazis for extermination were the
a. Poles.
b. Ukrainians.
c. Gypsies.
d. Czechs.
e. Belgians.
(p. 801)
37. The Nazi Einsatzgruppen were
a. corrupt German journalists who worked to fill European newspapers with pro-Nazi
propaganda.
b. special commando units sent to infiltrate Britain.
c. special strike forces used in eastern Europe that proceeded to round up and kill Jewish men,
women, and children.
d. highly mobile tank forces used to fight against Russian tank armies.
e. an internal police force that kept order among Germany’s restless population.
(p. 799)
38. The only country to use women as combatants in World War II was
a. Germany.
b. the Soviet Union.
c. Japan.
d. Britain.
e. Italy.
(p. 804)
39. The brunt of the Soviet war effort was borne by
a. small factory owners and craftsmen.
b. heavy industry and factory laborers.
c. the peasants.
d. communist party officials.
e. conscripted women.
(p. 804)
40. The mobilization of the United States for war included all of the following except
a. full employment by mid-1943.
b. substantial internal migration of the population.
c. the racially motivated internment of Japanese-Americans in guarded camps.
d. the shutdown of some smaller factories.
e. the movement of industrial factors from the coasts to the interior heartland.
(pp. 804-805)
41. In the Soviet Union, the pressures of mobilization for total war produced
a. a nearly complete breakdown in the supply of munitions.
b. the “supercentralization” of government authority and planning in the hands of Stalin and the
Communist bureaucracy.
c. essential decentralization of planning by region so that local resources could be more
efficiently used.
d. no significant internal migration of workers or peasants.
e. the relocation of industrial factories from eastern Russia to the west in order to be closer to the
military front lines.
(p. 804)
42. When Germany went to war in 1939
a. the populace was euphoric as in 1914.
b. the populace feared that it would spell disaster for Germany.
c. consumer goods were cut in favor of war materials.
d. war production was tripled.
e. there was an immediate highly organized secret attempt to assassinate Hitler, but unfortunately
it failed.
(p. 805)
43. Civilian bombing was done mainly
a. to reduce the number of people available to participate in war.
b. to exact revenge on the people.
c. to break the will of a people to resist.
d. by the Germans and was never an Allied strategy.
e. to test new weapons.
(p. 806)
44. Atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of
a. Osaka and Kyoto.
b. Kyoto and Tokyo.
c. Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
d. Osaka and Kobe.
e. Nagoya and Yokohama.
(p. 808)
45. In the Allied bombing strategy, Americans participated
a. primarily in the nighttime saturation bombing of civilian populations.
b. only when British bomber wings needed reinforcements.
c. primarily in daytime, precision bombing of German strategic targets.
d. primarily as fighter pilots assigned to guard British bomber wings.
e. in bombing only belligerent nations, but never occupied territories.
(p. 806)
46. Allied bombing raids on German civilians
a. contrary to expectations, produced stubborn resistance from the German people.
b. destroyed the average German's will to fight.
c. were only done to retaliate for German bombing.
d. occurred mostly by accident when bombing strategic targets.
e. never occurred.
(p. 807)
47. The official reason for dropping atomic bombs on Japan was
a. to punish Japan for Pearl Harbor.
b. to test out the new weapon to see how powerful it was.
c. a shortage of conventional explosive materials in the United States.
d. to save the hundreds of thousands of American lives it was calculated that a U.S.-led invasion
of Japan would cost.
e. to force the Japanese emperor to give up his claims to divinity and to abdicate.
(pp. 807-808)
48. The chief concern of the Allies at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences was
a. how to end the war on favorable terms should any one of them be defeated.
b. determining spheres of influence for the individual allied powers in post-war Europe.
c. how to rebuild the German economy after the war so as to extract maximum war reparations.
d. whether China and other lesser allies deserved any territorial rewards in any post-war
settlement.
e. to establish the new League of Nations.
(pp. 808-810)
49. Following the Second World War, Germany was
a. divided into two zones of occupation: east and west.
b. separated into twenty small security districts policed by the United Nations.
c. divided into four zones of occupation under U.S., British, French, and Russian administration.
d. dismembered and replaced by three new smaller states determined by the ethnicity of their
inhabitants.
e. ruled and controlled by a single Allied government entity.
(p. 809)
50. The chief argument between Truman and Stalin at Potsdam in July of 1945 was over
a. free elections in eastern Europe.
b. the numbers of tanks Americans and Russians could keep in Europe.
c. what to do with German prisoners of war.
d. whether or not the Soviet Union would be in the United Nations.
e. whether the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.
(p. 810)
True-False:
1. Hitler’s unilateral repudiation of the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty in 1935 resulted in
verbal condemnation but no concrete responses from either Britain or France.
(page 784)
2. The Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 included the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy.
(p. 785)
3. The policy adopted by Neville Chamberlain at Munich in 1938 in response to Hitler’s demand for
Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland is known as “containment.”
(p. 787)
4. In World War II, Japan’s first opponent was China.
(p. 788)
5. One advantage that the Nazis had in the Battle of Britain was their radar system, which gave them early
warning of British attacks on Germany.
(p. 790)
6. On the eastern front, the turning point in World War II was the Battle of Leningrad.
(p. 794)
7. In Asia, the turning point in World War II was the Battle of Midway.
(p. 794)
8. Because of fear of the ferocity of the SS and other Nazi groups, there was almost no resistance to
German rule in World War II, either in the conquered countries or in Germany itself.
(pp. 798-799)
9. Most of the Holocaust death camps were in Germany.
(p. 800)
10. In 1946, the American president, Harry Truman, declared that “an iron curtain” had “descended
across the continent,” dividing Europe into two hostile camps.
(p. 811)