Download Interwar Period Guided Reading Packet

McKenna: World History II
Name: ______________________________________________________
THE INTERWAR PERIOD:
THE GREAT DEPRESSION,
THE RISE OF TOTALITARIAN LEADERS,
THE HOLOCAUST,
AND OTHER 20th CENTURY GENOCIDES,
Directions: Reach each section independently and answer the questions that follow. You will turn
this packet in for classwork credit at the end of each class period. If you don’t finish the assigned
section during class, you will be responsible for completing it for homework.
1
McKenna: World History II
THE GREAT DEPRESSION &
THE RISE OF TOTALITARIAN LEADERS
Essential Understanding: A period of prosperity, or financial success, in the decade following
World War I (the 1920’s) was followed by worldwide depression in the 1930’s. Depression
weakened western democracies, making it difficult for them to challenge the threat of
totalitarianism.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Causes of Worldwide Depression
• Dominance of the United States in the global economy
-Germany relied on loans from the U.S. to pay its reparations
-France and Britain relied on German reparations to rebuild
• Better technologies led to overproduction
• Excessive expansion of credit (people spending money they don’t have)
• Stock Market Crash of 1929
The Great Depression began in the United States and quickly spread to Europe and the rest of the
world. Panic spread from bank to bank and from country to country. Around the world,
business slowed down, unemployment rose, trade fell, and the living standard of millions
declined.
Impact of Worldwide Depression
• High unemployment
• Bank failures and collapse of credit
• Collapse of world trade
• Inability of the League of Nations to stop aggression and enforce the terms of the Treaty
of Versailles led to the Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany
2
McKenna: World History II
After WWI, many countries faced severe economic problems. By 1930, mass unemployment
and economic depression led to bitter poverty in Germany, Britain, Japan, Italy, and the United
States, as well as other countries around the world. In Italy and Germany, the economic
depression weakened the existing governments. As people demanded change, a political
movement that believed in an extremely strong, national government, called fascism, became
popular in these countries. Fascism included a strong sense of nationalism (a powerful sense of
patriotism). Leaders were often dictatorial, ruthless in suppressing opposition, interested in
centralizing power, and they rejected democracy. However, because Fascist leaders promised
the change that people were demanding, they came to power without much difficulty.
1. How did the 1920s differ from the 1930s?
2. Identify three causes of worldwide depression:
-
3. Identify three impacts of worldwide depression:
-
4. In Italy and Germany, what did the economic depression weaken?
5. What is fascism? Identify two characteristics of fascism:
6. Why were Fascist leaders able to obtain power without much difficulty?
3
McKenna: World History II
THE RISE OF TOTALITARIAN LEADERS
ITALY
Italy faced many problems after World War I. After switching sides and joining the Allies
during WWI, Italian nationalists were outraged that they did not receive lands that the Allies had
promised them. Peasants seized land, workers went on strike, and veterans faced unemployment.
Also, trade declined and taxes rose.
Into this chaos stepped Benito Mussolini, a leader who promised order. His Fascist party
rejected democracy and favored violence to solve problems. Mussolini’s special supporters, the
Black Shirts, were an all-volunteer militia who used terror to oust elected officials. In the 1922
March on Rome, thousands of Fascists swarmed the capital. Fearing civil war, the king asked
Mussolini to become prime minister.
Mussolini went on to crush rival parties, silence the press, rig elections, and replace elected
officials with Fascists. Critics were imprisoned, exiled, or murdered. Secret police and
propaganda, or information used to promote or publicize a political cause, strengthened
Mussolini’s rule. In Mussolini’s new system, loyalty to the state replaced individual goals.
Loudspeakers blared and posters proclaimed “Believe! Obey! Fight!” Fascist youth groups
chanted slogans. Italians supported Mussolini because he brought order to the country.
7. Who rose to power in Italy? What was his political party?
8. How did the conditions in Italy after World War I help Mussolini come to power?
4
McKenna: World History II
9. Who were the Black Shirts?
10. How, and in what year, did Mussolini come to power?
11. What did Mussolini do to those who criticized him?
12. What is propaganda?
13. What two things strengthened Mussolini’s rule?
14. In Mussolini’s new system, what was most important – loyalty to the state or individual
goals?
5
McKenna: World History II
Swastika – symbol of the Nazi party
GERMANY
After WWI, Germany, in particular, faced serious political and economic problems. The new
government, known as the Weimar Republic, was very unstable. Huge war reparations were
another problem. According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was required to pay large
sums of money, or reparations, to the countries that had won the conflict to repair the damages
caused by the war. However, Germany could not pay its reparations.
Beginning in the 1930s, many Germans started supporting the Nazi Party, a violently
nationalistic political organization. The Nazi Party declared that Germany had been unfairly
treated after World War I and that the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, caused the economic
depression. Many Germans believed that the Nazi Party’s energetic leader, Adolf Hitler, would
solve Germany’s problems. As head of the Nazi Party, Hitler promised to end reparations, create
jobs, and rearm Germany.
In 1933, Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany and within a year he was dictator over the
new Fascist government in Germany. Hitler called his new government the Third Reich. He
provided jobs for thousands of people, rearmed Germany, and boasted that Germans would soon
rule Europe. Hitler was a brilliant orator (public speaker), and the Gestapo, or secret police,
used terror to help the Nazis gain control over all parts of German life.
Hitler believed that the western powers had no intention of using force to maintain the Treaty of
Versailles. Subsequently, Hitler rearmed, or built up the military forces in Germany in violation
of the Treaty. In 1936, Hitler sent troops to the Rhineland, an old section of Germany along
the Rhine River, which had been declared a demilitarized zone. This act, another violation of the
Treaty, was a clear indication that Hitler wanted to prove his own superiority over the western
leaders and create a German empire. Many Germans and Austrians were proud of this violation
of the hated treaty and other countries did nothing to stop it. Most Germans believed that Hitler
brought strength and courage back to their country, as well as prosperity.
6
McKenna: World History II
15. After WWI, what political and economic problems did Germany face?
16. What was the Nazi party?
17. Who was the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany?
18. What three things did Hitler promise the German people?
19. How, and in what year, did Hitler rise to power?
20. What was the name of Hitler’s new government?
21. How did Hitler gain control over all aspects of German life?
22. In what two ways did Hitler violate the Treaty of Versailles?
7
McKenna: World History II
Hammer & Sickle – Flag of the Communist Soviet Union
THE SOVIET UNION
Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union grew into a Communist totalitarian state that controlled
all aspects of life. The government developed a command economy, in which it made all
economic decisions. Stalin used his five-year plans to try to increase productivity. He pushed
for rapid industrialization in order to catch up with the west. He forced changes in agriculture
too. Through collectivization, Stalin seized goods from peasant farmers and sold the goods for
profit. He used the capital (money) gained from collectivization to finance his industrialization
drive. Some peasants refused to participate in collective farming. Stalin believed that kulaks, or
wealthy farmers, were behind this. He took their land and sent them to the Gulag, a system of
brutal labor camps where many died. His actions led to a terrible famine in 1932.
Stalin’s Communist government used its secret police (the KGB), torture, and bloody purges to
force people to obey. Fearing that rival party leaders were plotting against him, Stalin launched
the Great Purge in 1934. During the Great Purge, the KGB killed thousands of army officers
and prominent Bolsheviks who opposed Stalin. Among the victims of this and other purges were
some of the brightest and most talented people in the country.
Despite these terrible realities, Communism provided free medical care, day care for children,
cheaper housing, and public recreation. Also, women were equal under the law.
Stalin feared the growing power of Nazi Germany (and Hitler hated Communism). This rivalry
would lead the Soviet Union to side with the Allies in World War II.
23. Who became a totalitarian leader in the Soviet Union? What was his political party?
24. What is a command economy?
25. What did Stalin do with the profits he gained from collectivization?
8
McKenna: World History II
26. What was the Gulag?
27. What three methods did the Communist party use to force people to obey?
28. Why did Stalin launch the Great Purge in 1934?
29. Identify two of the positive benefits of Communism in the Soviet Union.
30. A rivalry developed between what two countries? What was each country’s political
ideology?
9
McKenna: World History II
JAPAN
Like Germany, Japan was intent on creating an empire. This small island nation resented the
way western countries determined that Japan should not expand. Although Japan had an
emperor, Hirohito (Hero-hee-toe), the military had taken control of the government. Despite
being worshipped by the people, Emperor Hirohito could not stand up to the powerful military
generals.
Like the Germans, the Japanese shared a strong military tradition. The army, navy, and air force
grew in size and strength, and serving in the armed forces became an even more desirable and
honorable goal for young men than it had been previously.
Just as it had in Europe, industrialization in Japan led to a need for raw materials. How would
Japan, a small island nation in the Pacific, obtain raw materials that it did not have access to?
Imperialism! Japan was the first of the fascist countries to successfully expand its empire by
invading Manchuria (in northern China) in 1931. By 1938, Japan occupied most of eastern
China and sought to bring all of Asia and the Pacific Ocean under its control. Japan’s aggressive
imperialistic policies in Asia were ignored by the League of Nations, which did not have the
power to stop the militaristic government.
31. What two things did Japan and Germany have in common?
32. Although Japan had an emperor, who controlled the government?
33. How did Japan obtain the raw materials needed for industrialization?
34. Why was Japan’s invasion of Manchuria significant?
35. How did the League of Nations respond to Japan’s invasion of Manchuria? Why?
10
McKenna: World History II
THE HOLOCAUST
Terms to Know:
• Genocide - The organized and purposeful destruction or elimination of a racial, political,
religious, or cultural group
• Anti-Semitism - Prejudice against or hostility toward Jews, often rooted in hatred of their
ethnic background, culture, and/or religion. In its extreme form, it defames Jews as an
inferior group and denies their being part of the nation(s) in which they reside.
• Holocaust - Systematic, government-sponsored, persecution and murder of approximately 6
million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Means “sacrifice by fire.”
Prior to 1933
In 1925, while serving time in jail for treason, Adolph
Hitler wrote his autobiography, Mein Kampf, which means
“My Struggle.” Mein Kampf was considered the Bible of
Naziism and presented Hitler’s two main goals: the
advancement of what he believed to be the superior Aryan
race (white, northern European) and the creation of a new
German empire. It also outlined his radical beliefs, which
included: anti-semitism (persecution or hatred of Jews),
extreme German nationalism, aggression (occupying
nearby countries to create a German empire), Lebensraum
(“living space” for the union of all German nations),
Anschluss (German union with Austria), and hatred of
Communism. The importance of the book is that it calls
for German domination of Europe.
1933-1939
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor, the most powerful position in the
German government. As the leader of the Nazi political party and now chancellor of the new
Third Reich, Hitler took dictatorial control. He suspended individual freedoms of press, speech,
and assembly. Special security forces - the Gestapo (secret police), the Storm Troopers (SA),
and the SS (Hitler’s personal bodyguards) - murdered or arrested leaders of opposition political
parts. Between 1933 and 1936, thousands of people, mainly political prisoners, were imprisoned
in labors camps, also known as concentration camps. With total control over Germany, this
brutal, ruthless, and powerful government was now ready to implement steps to achieve Hitler’s
goals.
In 1933, the Nazis began to put into practice their racial ideology. The Nazis believed that the
Aryan race was superior and that there was a struggle for survival between them and inferior
races. Hitler described a social hierarchy with the master race (Aryans) - the culture-producing
11
McKenna: World History II
race - at the top… and Jews, Africans, Gypsies, the mentally and physically disabled, and other
minorities - the culture-destroying races - at the bottom.
Known as der Fuhrer (the Leader), Hitler went to great lengths to make sure that young people
were loyal to him and to the Nazi party because they were the future of his Nazi policies. He
wanted to make children believe in the superiority of the Aryan race. He wanted young men to
value the ideas of discipline, sacrifice, and obedience. The most important was Hitler himself –
the Fuhrer. All young Germans were taught to see him as a father figure who should be given
unquestioned loyalty from his people. In schools, textbooks were rewritten to paint a good
picture of the Nazis. The teaching of school subjects changed to indoctrinate pupils. History
was distorted to celebrate great German victories and all disasters were blamed on the
Communists and the Jews.
Jews, who numbered about 525,000 in Germany, were the primary target of Nazi hatred. Hitler’s
spell-binding effect as a public speaker and his use of propaganda convinced his followers that
Jews were not only inferior but were also the root of Germany’s defeat in World War I and
subsequent economic problems. In 1933, new German laws forced Jews out of their civil service
jobs and a boycott of Jewish businesses was instituted. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws stripped
Jews of their German citizenship. Between 1937 and 1939, new anti-Jewish regulations
segregated Jews further and made daily life very difficult for them: Jews could not attend public
schools, go to theaters, cinemas, or vacation resorts, or reside in or even walk through certain
sections of German cities. In November 1938, the Nazis organized a riot known as
Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass”. This attack against German and Austrian Jews
included the physical destruction of synagogues and Jewish-owned stores, the arrest of Jewish
men, the vandalization of homes, and the murder of individuals.
Although Jews were the main target of Nazi hatred, the Nazis persecuted other groups they
viewed as racially or genetically inferior. Nazi racial ideology was influenced by scientists who
advocated selective breeding (eugenics) to improve the human race. Laws passed between 1933
and 1935 aimed to reduce the future number of genetic inferiors through involuntary
sterilization programs: 320,000 to 350,000 individuals judged physically or mentally
handicapped were subjected to surgical or radiation procedures so they could not have children.
Between 1933 and 1939, about half the German-Jewish population and more than two-thirds of
Austrian Jews fled Nazi persecution. They emigrated mainly to the United States, Palestine,
elsewhere in Europe (where many would later be trapped by Nazi conquests during the World
War II), Latin America, and Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Jews who remained under Nazi rule
were either unwilling to uproot themselves or unable to obtain visas, sponsors in host countries,
or funds for emigration. Most foreign countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain,
and France, were unwilling to admit very large numbers of refugees.
12
McKenna: World History II
36. What was Mein Kampf?
37. What were Hitler’s two main goals?
38. What is meant by Aryan race?
39. Identify the six radical beliefs (of Hitler) discussed in Mein Kampf.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
40. How did Hitler come to power in Germany?
41. Identify two examples of Hitler’s dictatorial power (what did he do?).
42. What three groups made up the Nazis’ special security forces?
13
McKenna: World History II
43. Where did Hitler send political prisoners?
44. In Hitler’s social hierarchy, what group was at the top? What groups were at the bottom?
45. What was Hitler known as (his title)?
46. Why did Hitler want to ensure that young people were loyal to him and the Nazi party?
47. What ideas did Hitler want young men to value?
48. What group was the main target of Nazi hatred?
49. Hitler’s effect as a public speaker and his use of propaganda convinced his followers of what
two things?
50. Identify three ways that German Jews were mistreated between 1933 and 1939.
51. What was Kristallnacht? What happened during Kristallnacht?
52. Explain eugenics and the Nazi sterilization program.
14
McKenna: World History II
53. What did some German and Austrian Jews do to flee Nazi persecution?
1939-1945
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Within weeks, the
Polish army was defeated, and the Nazis began their campaign to create lebensraum, or new
living space for the superior German race. Large segments of the Polish population were
resettled, and German families moved into the emptied lands. Other Poles, including many Jews,
were imprisoned in concentration camps.
As the war began in 1939, Hitler initialed an order to kill institutionalized,
handicapped patients deemed incurable. The doomed were transferred to
institutions in Germany and Austria where specially constructed gas chambers
were used to kill them. After public protests in 1941, the Nazi leadership
continued this euthanasia program in secret. Babies, small children, and other
victims were thereafter killed by lethal injection and pills and by forced
starvation. Before being euthanized, some children were used for medical
experiments.
In the months following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, many people
were killed in mass shootings. Most of those killed were Jews. These murders
were carried out at improvised sites throughout the Soviet Union by members
of mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) who followed in the wake of the
invading German army. The most famous of these sites was Babi Yar, near Kiev, where an
estimated 33,000 persons, mostly Jews, were murdered over two days.
During the war, ghettos were created by the Germans and their collaborators to imprison Jews
and other victims of Nazi hatred. In Polish cities under Nazi occupation, like Warsaw and Lodz,
Jews were confined in sealed ghettos where starvation, overcrowding, exposure to cold, and
contagious diseases killed tens of thousands of people.
Between 1942 and 1944, the Germans moved to eliminate the ghettos in occupied Poland and
elsewhere, deporting ghetto residents to extermination camps - killing centers equipped with
gassing facilities - located in Poland. After the meeting in late January 1942 at a villa in the
Berlin suburb of Wannsee, Hitler informed senior German government officials of the decision
to implement “the final solution of the Jewish question.” In his statement, Hitler announced
that Jews would be systematically evacuated from all over occupied Europe to camps in the east
(mainly Poland), where the entire Jewish population would be exterminated. The “Final
Solution” was the Nazi regime’s code name for the deliberate, planned mass murder of all
European Jews.
15
Einsatzgruppen executions in the Ukraine
McKenna: World History II
The six killing sites, chosen because of their
closeness to rail lines and their location in semi rural
areas, were at Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno,
Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. AuschwitzBirkenau, which also served as a concentration camp,
became a killing center where the largest number of
European Jews and Gypsies were killed. Mass
murder became a daily routine; more than 1 million
people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 9 out of
10 of them Jews.
The methods of murder were similar in the killing
centers, which were operated by the SS. Jewish
victims arrived in railroad freight cars and passenger
trains, mostly from ghettos and camps in occupied Poland, but also from almost every other
The gas chamber
eastern and western European country. On arrival, men were separated from women and
children. Prisoners were forced to undress and hand
over their valuables. They were then forced naked into
the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower
rooms, and either carbon monoxide or Zyklon B acid
was used to asphyxiate them. The minority of people,
who were selected for forced labor, were vulnerable to
malnutrition, exposure, epidemics, medical
experiments, and brutality. Many died as a result.
The Germans carried out their systematic murderous
activities with the active help of local collaborators in
many countries and the acquiescence or indifference of
millions of bystanders. However, resistance existed in
almost every concentration camp and ghetto of Europe.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: April - May 1943
In addition to armed revolts at Sobibor and Treblinka,
Jewish families being arrested by Nazis during the
Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto led to a
destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, and sent to be
courageous uprising in April and May 1943, despite a
gassed at Treblinka extermination camp.
predictable doomed outcome because of superior German force. In general, rescue or aid to
16
McKenna: World History II
Holocaust victims was not a priority of resistance organizations or of the United States
government, whose principal goal was to fight the
war against the Germans. U.S. political and military
leaders argued that winning the war was the top
priority and would bring an end to Nazi terror.
After the war turned against Germany, and the Allied
armies approached German soil in late 1944, the SS
decided to evacuate outlying concentration camps.
The Germans tried to cover up the evidence of
genocide and deported prisoners to camps inside
Germany to prevent their liberation. Many inmates
died during the long journeys on foot known as
death marches. During the final days, in the spring
of 1945, conditions in the remaining concentration
Mass grave site at Bergen-Belsen. The British
camps exacted a terrible toll in human lives. Even
found many dead when they liberated the camp. concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen, never
intended for extermination, became death traps for thousands, including Anne Frank, who died
there of typhus in March 1945. In May 1945, Nazi Germany collapsed, the SS guards fled, and
the camps ceased to exist.
54. After Germany and Austria, what country did the Germans focus their efforts on controlling?
55. What is lebensraum?
56. Explain the euthanasia program.
57. What killing method led to public protests?
58. What was the Einsatzgruppen? What killing method did they use in the Soviet Union?
17
McKenna: World History II
59. Identify what happened as a result of Jews being confined in sealed ghettos.
60. How did extermination camps differ from concentration camps?
61. What was the Final Solution?
62. How were the six killing sites chosen?
63. At which camp were the largest number of Jews and Gypsies killed?
64. Explain what happened when Jewish victims arrived at the killing center.
65. Why wasn’t rescue or aid to Holocaust victims a priority of the United States government?
66. Identify two things the Germans did when the Allied armies approached German soil in late
1944.
18
McKenna: World History II
Aftermath of the Holocaust
The Allied victors of World War II (Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet
Union) faced two serious problems following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945: to
bring Nazi war criminals to justice and to ensure that all people are protected from human rights
violations.
Following the war, the best-known war crimes trial was the trial of major war criminals, held in
Nuremberg, Germany, between November 1945 and August 1946. Known as the Nuremberg
Trials, leading officials of the Nazi regime were prosecuted for war crimes. Thirteen of those
sentenced were convicted to death and seven more defendants were sentenced to life
imprisonment or to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. The judges also found three of six
Nazi organizations (the SS, the Gestapo, and the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party) to be
criminal organizations.
In the three years following this major trial, twelve subsequent trials were conducted. The
proceedings were directed at the prosecution of second- and third-ranking officials of the Nazi
regime, which included concentration camp administrators, commanders of the Einsatzgruppen
(mobile killing units), physicians and public health officials, the SS leadership, German army
field commanders and staff officers, and officials in the justice, interior, and foreign ministries.
In response to the Nazis’ horrible treatment of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. The declaration sets out for the
first time fundamental human rights, or the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are
entitled, to be universally protected. Included in the declaration is freedom from slavery,
freedom of religion, right to education, right to work, right to an adequate standard of living, and
equal protection of the law, among others. The declaration has played an important role in
encouraging governments to provide these rights to their citizens.
Centuries of religious prejudice against Jews in Christian Europe, reinforced by modern political
anti-semitism developing from a complex mixture of extreme nationalism, financial insecurity,
fear of communism, and so-called race science, provide the backdrop for the Holocaust. Hitler
and other Nazis regarded Jews as a dangerous race whose very existence threatened the
biological purity and strength of the superior Aryan race. As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has
written, “While not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims.”
67. What was the purpose of the Nuremberg Trials and who was prosecuted?
68. Identify two categories of officials who were prosecuted during the twelve subsequent trials.
19
McKenna: World History II
69. Identify two of the rights or freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
20
McKenna: World History II
OTHER 20th CENTURY GENOCIDES
21
McKenna: World History II
22
McKenna: World History II
GENOCIDE STATISTICS
# KILLED
Per Minute
Per Hour
Per Day
Total
HOLOCAUST
3
171
4,110
6 million
in 1,460 days (4 years)
RWANDA
6-7
334-447
8,000-10,710
800,000-1.07 million
in 100 days (4 months)
DARFUR
1
15
366
400,000
in 1,095 days (3 years)
23