Unit 8 - World War II and the Holocaust -1939-1945
In 1939, Hitler and the Nazis invaded Poland. Just two decades after the end of the First World War, scores of countries were on the brink of war again. How could this happen? Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the flawed peace of WWI only exacerbated the problems of the in-between war years. To further complicate matters, the economic and political upheaval of the intervening years had created the opportunity for several totalitarian leaders to grasp control of their countries. By the 1930’s, totalitarian leaders were in control of Germany (Hitler-Nazis), U.S.S.R. (Stalin-Communists), Italy (Fascists-Mussolini) and Japan (Militarists-Hirohito).
The policies of isolationism and appeasement followed by powerful democratic countries of the 1930’s (U.S.A., Great Britain, France) succeeded in delaying the outbreak of military confrontation, but failed to satiate the appetite of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito for land, power and influence. The war would come to involve more than 100 countries two oceans and four continents.
Improvements in aircraft, tanks, submarines and other weapons of war were immediately put to use. Inventions of radar, aircraft carriers, and especially the atomic bomb during WWII, also changed the nature of warfare forever.
WWII would end in Europe with the defeat of Germany, this time by a simultaneous Western and Eastern advance. In East Asia, Japan would succumb to the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before they would agree to an unconditional surrender. After six years of fighting, and the lives of 60 million human beings, the Allied victory led to a fundamental shift in the global balance of power and to the emergence of the U.S. as a super power.
With lessons learned, and the allies once again victorious, a course was set for a new era of “Cold War” peace. The Charter to the United Nations was signed in San Francisco in 1945, and in 1946, an International Tribunal for Nazis accused of “crimes against humanity” was held in Nuremberg, Germany.
Ultimately, a new world order would rise from the most devastating and significant event in the history of the 20th Century.
Themes
Terms
1923 Beer Hall Putsch
Adolf Hitler
Allied Powers
Annexation
Anti-Semitism
Appeasement
Aryan Race
Atlantic Charter
Atomic bomb
Axis Powers
Battle of Britain
Battle of Guadalcanal
Battle of Midway
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of the Bulge
Benito Mussolini
Blitzkrieg
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Chamberlain
Charles de Gaulle
Communism
Concentration camps
Crisis in Czechoslovakia
D-Day
Death camp
Fascism
Final Solution
Francisco Franco
Genocide
Gestapo
Ghettos
Great Depression
Great Purge
Guernica
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
History of Anti-Semitism
Holocaust
Invasion of Poland
Isolationism
Israel’s creation
Japan
Kristallnacht
Lebensraum
Liberation
Long March
Luftwaffe
Mao Zedong
Mein Kampf
Munich Conference
Mussolini
Nazi Youth
Nazism
Neville Chamberlain
Nonaggression pact
Nuremburg Trials
Operation Overlord
Pearl Harbor
Rape of Nanking
Resistance
Rhineland
Scapegoating
Stalin
Sudetenland
Swastika
Third Reich
Totalitarianism
Treaty of Versailles
Vichy government
Weimar Republic
Winston Churchill
In 1939, Hitler and the Nazis invaded Poland. Just two decades after the end of the First World War, scores of countries were on the brink of war again. How could this happen? Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the flawed peace of WWI only exacerbated the problems of the in-between war years. To further complicate matters, the economic and political upheaval of the intervening years had created the opportunity for several totalitarian leaders to grasp control of their countries. By the 1930’s, totalitarian leaders were in control of Germany (Hitler-Nazis), U.S.S.R. (Stalin-Communists), Italy (Fascists-Mussolini) and Japan (Militarists-Hirohito).
The policies of isolationism and appeasement followed by powerful democratic countries of the 1930’s (U.S.A., Great Britain, France) succeeded in delaying the outbreak of military confrontation, but failed to satiate the appetite of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito for land, power and influence. The war would come to involve more than 100 countries two oceans and four continents.
Improvements in aircraft, tanks, submarines and other weapons of war were immediately put to use. Inventions of radar, aircraft carriers, and especially the atomic bomb during WWII, also changed the nature of warfare forever.
WWII would end in Europe with the defeat of Germany, this time by a simultaneous Western and Eastern advance. In East Asia, Japan would succumb to the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before they would agree to an unconditional surrender. After six years of fighting, and the lives of 60 million human beings, the Allied victory led to a fundamental shift in the global balance of power and to the emergence of the U.S. as a super power.
With lessons learned, and the allies once again victorious, a course was set for a new era of “Cold War” peace. The Charter to the United Nations was signed in San Francisco in 1945, and in 1946, an International Tribunal for Nazis accused of “crimes against humanity” was held in Nuremberg, Germany.
Ultimately, a new world order would rise from the most devastating and significant event in the history of the 20th Century.
Themes
- How did the events of the 1930s lead to the outbreak of war?
- Describe the policies of isolationism and appeasement as causes of WWII
- What factors led up to the Holocaust? How and why is genocide possible?
- What was the role of various individual leaders in the war and resulting peace?
- What were the human costs of the war?
- How did World War II affect economics, politics and society?
- What impact did total war have on civilians during World War II?
- Compare the post-WWI and post-WWII peacekeeping efforts…. What have we learned?
- How did the role of the U.S. evolve as a result of World War II?
Terms
1923 Beer Hall Putsch
Adolf Hitler
Allied Powers
Annexation
Anti-Semitism
Appeasement
Aryan Race
Atlantic Charter
Atomic bomb
Axis Powers
Battle of Britain
Battle of Guadalcanal
Battle of Midway
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of the Bulge
Benito Mussolini
Blitzkrieg
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Chamberlain
Charles de Gaulle
Communism
Concentration camps
Crisis in Czechoslovakia
D-Day
Death camp
Fascism
Final Solution
Francisco Franco
Genocide
Gestapo
Ghettos
Great Depression
Great Purge
Guernica
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
History of Anti-Semitism
Holocaust
Invasion of Poland
Isolationism
Israel’s creation
Japan
Kristallnacht
Lebensraum
Liberation
Long March
Luftwaffe
Mao Zedong
Mein Kampf
Munich Conference
Mussolini
Nazi Youth
Nazism
Neville Chamberlain
Nonaggression pact
Nuremburg Trials
Operation Overlord
Pearl Harbor
Rape of Nanking
Resistance
Rhineland
Scapegoating
Stalin
Sudetenland
Swastika
Third Reich
Totalitarianism
Treaty of Versailles
Vichy government
Weimar Republic
Winston Churchill