Download Guided Notes – Holocaust and End of WWII

Name:____________________________________ Period:______________________Date:_________________
Guided Notes – Holocaust and End of WWII
Video Link: http://bit.ly/holoandendww2vid
Main Idea: During World War II, Germany’s Nazi government deliberately murdered some 6 million Jews and 5 million
others in Europe. These actions became known as the Holocaust. In 1945 the Allies finally triumphed over the Axis
powers in Europe and the Pacific, but the war left many nations in ruin.
Essential Question:


What was the Nazi government’s “final
solution?”
How did the war in Europe and the Pacific end?
Golden Hawk Historians will…


Explain and analyze the sequence of events that
led to the Holocaust and the result on Jewish
lives.
Explain and analyze the different factors that
led to the end of WWII in Europe and the
Pacific.
Nazi Anti-Semitism

At the time of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany there were approximately ______________________________
Jews living in Europe – most of whom lived outside of Germany.

Hitler blamed the ______________________ for many of Germany’s problems and promoted a belief in
the racial superiority of the German people.

There was a long history of ______________________________________________________ in Europe but
Hitler’s Germany took it to another level.

The ________________________________________________________________________________
created a separate legal status for Jews living in Germany.


Thousands of Jews were _________________________ from Germany, but many left on their own.
Many German Jews found themselves without money or property due to the Nuremberg laws and were
therefore unable to immigrate to other countries.

As many as 250,000 Jews were trapped in Germany at the start of WWII.
The “Final Solution”

Hitler and Nazi Germany adopted a plan they called _________________________________________________
or the deliberate mass execution of Jews.

The first phase of the plan required ________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
that were fenced in using barbed wire and walls to prevent the Jews from leaving.

Other Jews were sent to _________________________________________________________________
that were meant to hold the people that Hitler considered “enemies of the State.”

During the invasion of the Soviet Union Nazi’s established _____________________________________
to kill Jews living in the Soviet Union.

Lastly, Jews were sent to ______________________________________________________ that were
designed specifically for the purpose of killing mass numbers of Jews and destroying their bodies.

At concentration camps Jews were subjected to ____________________________________________________
or even used in ______________________________________________________________________________.


Many Jews in the concentration camps died of ______________________________________________.
Jews were not the only group targeted in the “Final Solution” – other groups they considered inferior were also
included such as the __________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________.


Jews, however, suffered the most during the Holocaust resulting in ________________________________dead.


Approximately __________________________ people other than Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
The mass murder of the Jews is known as the _______________________________________________
Other countries were aware of the Nazi’s anti-Semitism in the 1930s, but the full extent of Hitler’s crimes was
shielded from the outside world.

In 1942, people in the United States and other countries began to hear disturbing reports of widespread
killing of Jews in Europe.

The United States and Great Britain met to discuss possible responses but there were no decisions
made.

The United States and Great Britain were unwilling to do too much due to ______________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________.

As the war began to end United States and Soviet troops began to __________________ the
concentration and death camps.

The scenes of horror made the evidence clear of what the Nazi’s had done.
War Ends in Europe

By the end of the war Axis powers had suffered 2 million casualties and were ____________________________
and unable to stop the Allied advance.

The Soviets were able to end the Siege of Leningrad and drive the Axis forces out of the Soviet Union
and back into central Europe.

As the Soviet’s forced the Axis armies back toward ___________________________________________,
the other Allies were finalizing their plans for a massive invasion of Western Europe.

On June 6, 1944 American generals George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower led the Allied forces into an
invasion of France along the beaches of __________________________________________________________.

Casualties were high, but _____________________________ was a huge victory for the Allies.

With an entry point secured on the Normandy beaches Allied troops poured into France.

Allied forces were able to break through the German defenses by July – by the end of August they had
surrendered Paris.

In December 1944 Hitler ordered one last, massive counterattack in Belgium.

At first Germans made a solid advance, producing a bulge in the Allied battle lines – the battle became
known as the ___________________________________________.

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By January 1945, the Allies had crushed the German offensive at the Battle of the Bulge.

Germany’s ___________________ marked the end of major ___________________________________.
Three Allied leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Yalta to plan the end of the war and the peace to
follow, called the Yalta Conference where they agreed to three things:
1. _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.
2. _____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.
3. ____________________________________________________________________________________.

By the end of 1945 the Soviet and American troops advanced effortlessly to Berlin.

______________ was found dead on May 2, 1945 by Soviet troops, shortly following Berlin surrendered.

Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945 and became known as __________________________________.
War Ends in the Pacific

Although the Allies had achieved victory in Europe, war was still raging in the Pacific.

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By mid-1945 American bombers had begun regular bombing raids on Japanese cities.
In February 1945 Allied troops landed on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.

At the ________________________________ nearly 7,000 Americans died to ____________________
the tiny island.


All but a 1,000 Japanese died to protect the island.
After Iwo Jima the Americans invaded Okinawa – barely 350 miles from Japan.

At the ______________________________________________ lost nearly 12,000 American lives, but
the island was _______________________ for the Americans.

After Okinawa the Allies sought to take the island of Japan itself but the Allies had lost many troops at Iwo Jima
and Okinawa and did not want to ______________________________________________________________
believing that it would be too costly.

American leaders had been developing an _________________________________________ in the
_______________________________________________ in the United States and hoped that this
weapon would be able to bring the war to a quick halt.

On July 26, 1945 the Allies issued a _______________________________________________________,
when the Japanese refused the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of
__________________________ – yet the Japanese did not surrender.

On August 9, 1945 the Allies dropped the second atomic bomb on the city of ______________________
– finally the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945 on what became known as
_________________________________________________________________.
The Postwar World
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At the end of the war much of the world lay in ruins and millions of people had died.

Entire cities, villages, and farms had been destroyed.

Food, shelter, and medicine were scarce.

There were millions of displaced people in Europe and Asia due to being prisoners of war, survivors of
Nazi concentration camps, or people who had fled their homes during the war.

Roosevelt convinced Stalin to agree to join a new world organization proposed by the Allies call the
____________________________________________________________.

The United Nations (UN) was designed to __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________.

The United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and China formed the
____________________________________________________________________________________.

The UN issued the _____________________________________________________________________
that stated that all humans have equal and inalienable rights.

The _______________________________________________________ for Nazi and military officials were held
in Nuremberg, Germany between 1945 and 1949.

Several dozen Nazi leaders were sentenced to death for their roles in the Holocaust and in other war
crimes.

Three Allied leaders met to continue their work from the Yalta Conference at Potsdam in Germany, called the
____________________________________________________.

America was concerned about ____________________________________________________________
from the Soviet Union.

The Allies wanted to ensure _____________________ would live up to his promises from
__________________.