World War 2 Review
Adolf Hitler
• Leader of the Nazi Party
in Germany during
World War 2
• He is remembered for
his anti-Semetic views
and his desire for global
conquest.
Albert Einstein
• World famous scientist
who suggested to
President Roosevelt the
need to develop atomic
weapons.
Benito Mussolini
• Founder of the Fascist
Party and Italian
dictator.
Bracero
• Mexican laborers who
moved to the United
States to work in
agricultural jobs during
the war
Chester Nimitz
• Commander of the U.S.
Navy in the Pacific
Douglas MacArthur
American General who
served as commander of
U.S. armed forces in Asia.
Dwight Eisenhower
• American general and
commander of Allied
Forces. He would later
become president.
Emperor Hirohito
• Japanese leader who
was revered by his
people as a living god.
Erwin Rommel(aka Desert Fox)
• German general who
commanded forces in
North Africa
Franklin D. Roosevelt
• President of the United
States for most of
World War 2.
George S. Patton
• American general who
led forces in North
Africa (tank specialist)
Harry S. Truman
• U.S. President at the
end of World War 2. He
made the decision to
use the atomic
weapons
Heinrich Himmler
• Chief of Hitler’s
Gestapo. He helped to
implement the “final
solution”
Hideki Tojo
• Japanese general and
prime minister of Japan
during World War 2
J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Key leader of the
Manhattan Project
James Doolittle
• Colonel who organized
a surprise air raid on
Tokyo
Jesse Owens
• American who won 4
gold medals during the
1936 Olympic games in
Berlin.
• His victories countered
Hitler’s notion of Aryan
racial superiority.
Joseph Stalin
• Dictator and head of
the Communist Party in
Russia during World
War 2.
Neville Chamberlain
• British Prime Minister
who tried to follow a
policy of appeasement
by conceding territory
to Hitler in exchange for
“Peace in our time”
Winston Churchill
• Prime Minister of Great
Britain during much of
World War 2.
Anti-Semetic
• Prejudiced against the
Jewish people
Appeasement
• Policy of granting
concessions to a
potential enemy in the
hope that it will
maintain peace.
• This was seen most
notably in World War 2
with the signing of the
Munich Agreement.
Blitzkrieg
• Lighting War—German
strategy for quick,
decisive victories
• This inovolved
bombing, armored
vehicles and
overwhelming manpower
Genocide
• Willful annihilation of a
racial, political, or
cultural group
Holocaust
• Nazi attempt to kill Jews
and others considered
“undesirable”
Internment Camps
• Refers to Japanese
civilians who were put
into “prisons” in the
U.S. during the war.
Kamikaze
• Japanese pilots who
deliberately crashed
their planes into
American ships
• These pilots did so
because they were
giving their lives to their
Emporer.
Kristallnacht
• The Night of the Broken
Glass.
• This was a night of
terror brought upon
Jews as a result of
propaganda efforts and
the murder of a minor
German official by a
young Jewish man
Lend-Lease Act
• American law that
allowed the U.S. to
lend, lease, sell or
otherwise provide aid
to other nations if doing
so helped in the
defense of the U.S.
Munich Pact
• Agreement in which
Britain and France tried
to preserve peace by
allowing Hitler to take
more territory.
Nuremberg Laws
• German laws that
discriminated against the
Jews.
The Nuremberg Laws
• Denied Jews German
citizenship
• Banned marriage
between Jews and nonJews
• Segregated Jews at every
level of society
Nuremberg Trials
• The trials that led to the
conviction of some Nazi
war criminals.
Totalitarianism
• Theory of government
in which a single party
or leader controls the
economic, social, and
cultural lives of its
people
Unconditional Surrender
• Giving up completely
without any
concessions or
condition
Auschwitz
• Location of a Nazi death
camp within Poland
Bataan Death March
• Horrific treatment of
American soldiers took
place during this
“march of death” in the
Philippines
Battle of Britain
• Refers to the systematic
bombing of London and
other areas of Britain
during World War 2
Battle of the Bulge
• This was the last major
German counteroffensive of the war
D-Day
• This refers to the Allied
Invasion at Normandy
Hiroshima
• This Japanese city was
bombed with an atomic
weapon
Island Hopping
• This refers to the
strategic retaking of
territory acquired by
the Japanese
Leningrad
• This Russian city was
held under siege by the
Nazis for three years,
but never surrendered
Manhattan Project
• This was the code name
for the secret American
program to build the
atomic bomb
Midway
• This battle(fought by
ship) turned the tide of
the war in the Pacific
region
Nanjing
• This was a Chinese city
that experienced
Japanese barbarism
during World War 2.
Thousands were raped
and killed.
Pearl Harbor
• Location of the U.S.
Naval Base that was
bombed by Japan on
December 7, 1941
Stalingrad
• The victory of the
Russians in the battle
for this city turned the
tide of the war against
Nazi Germany in the
eastern front
Sudatenland
• Section of
Czechoslovakia that was
surrendered to
Germany as part of the
Munich Agreement
V-E Day
• Celebrated Allied
victory in Europe
V-J Day
• Celebrated Allied
victory in Japan
AXIS AND ALLIED
POWERS
Axis Powers
Allies
• Germany
• Britain
• Italy
• France
• Japan
• Soviet Union
• United States
• China
Overwhelming
problems led some to
turn to a new form of
government called
totalitarianism.
Hitler rebuilt the nation’s army. His economic policies
put people back to work. Many cheered his success.
Yet Hitler
ruled with
unlimited
power.
• Controlled the press and
education system
• Used propaganda to boost
his popularity
• Used the secret police to
silence opposition
Violently anti-Semitic, Hitler openly attacked Jews,
blaming them for all of the country’s problems.
As conditions worsened overseas, while
the U.S. was ISOLATIONIST Roosevelt
described what was at stake in an
address to Congress.
He highlighted
four freedoms
precious to
Americans.
• freedom of speech
• freedom of worship
• freedom from want
• freedom from fear
All of these freedoms, he argued, were
threatened by German, Italian and Japanese
militarism.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter
pilots attacked the American naval base
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This was done to
cripple the U.S. Navy in order to acquire
territory in the Pacific
In the early years of the war, the outlook for
the Allies was grim.
Japan’s Advantages
• Dominance of the Pacific
• Technologically advanced weapons
• Highly motivated and well-trained military
The peacetime
economy soon
shifted to a
wartime economy.
Companies that
once produced
consumer goods
mobilized to build
ships, planes, and
tanks.
The Allies viewed Germany as the
most dangerous Axis Power.
The German military
could:
• bomb Britain
• fight both the U.S. and
British navies
• invade the Soviet
Union
For these
reasons, the
Allies agreed to
a “Europe
First” strategy
to defeat Hitler.
In 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies. Italy was the first Axis power to surrender
Wartime America saw industries
gearing up to produce military goods.
With men joining
the army in huge
numbers, women
stepped into jobs
in businesses and
factories.
Unlike the past,
• Women worked in
both light and
heavy industries.
• Married and older
women worked.
As industries
cranked out
military goods,
consumer
goods became
scarce.
Americans made many sacrifices,
looking toward victory.
Americans were
urged to do all
they could to
support the war
effort, and they
responded to
the call.
• Shopped with
ration books
• Bought war bonds
• Planted victory
gardens
• Collected scrap metal
and other materials
Wartime fears also led to discrimination against
Americans from Germany, Italy, and Japan.
In time, suspicion focused on Japanese Americans.
They were targeted for a combination of reasons.
• Racism
• Lack of political clout
• Their fewer numbers and relative
isolation
By executive order,
more than 100,000
Japanese Americans
were forced to sell
their homes and
belongings.
They were then sent
to isolated
internment camps.
They remained in
the camps for the
rest of the war.
Some Japanese
Americans went
to court to fight
for their civil
liberties.
Their efforts failed.
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
The Facts
The Issue
The
Decision
• In 1942, FDR ordered
that select people
could be banned from
war zones.
• The army relocated
Japanese Americans
on the West Coast to
internment camps.
• Fred Korematsu was
arrested for resisting
the army’s orders.
Korematsu
argued that he
was denied
equal protection
under the law
because he was
a Japanese
American.
The court
held that the
military
order was
justified for
security
reasons.
HOLOCAUST FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
The Holocaust was not an overnight event. It was a gradual process. Hate speech was
the first sign of anti-Semitism in Germany. This included slander and blaming Jews for
the problems that Germany faced after World War 1.
This was followed by the passing of the Nuremberg Laws which segregated Jews as
second class citizens. They forbade Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans.
In order to convince the German people to follow along the ideas of Hitler and the
Nazi’s, the use of propaganda was rampant. The Nazi’s controlled all forms of visual,
audio, and printed media.
The next step in the process occurred with Kristallnacht or the Night of the Broken
Glass. During this horrific event, Jewish businesses were looted and destroyed,
Synagogues(Jewish houses of worship) were burned and scores of Jewish people were
killed.
At about this time, a passenger ship called the St. Louis attempted to seek political
asylum in the United States. Unfortunately for the refugees, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt denied access to these individuals. As a result nearly 2/3 of these refugees
perished at the hands of the Nazis.
As the persecution spread many Jews were moved into urban areas called ghettos. The
largest of these was in Warsaw, Poland. Conditions in these areas were bleak.
Starvation and disease were rampant.
While some Jews were being rounded up and put into ghettos, the Einsatzgruppen
specially trained killing squads were exterminating Jews and other “undesirables” in
lands conquered by Germany. However, killing individuals one at a time was
psychologically taxing on the soldiers and so another method was sought out.
Ultimately, in what was called the Final Solution the decision was
made to utilize death camps as a means to exterminate the Jewish “problem”.
The most famous of these killing centers was Auschwitz. In all, the holocaust
cost over 6 million lives. It is one of the darkest events in world history.
Fortunately, the world took notice. In the Nuremberg Trials some Nazi
leaders were put on trial for crimes against humanity. Some were convicted and
received punishment for their crimes. Unfortunately, many criminals did not receive
just punishment.
Response Question: Could something like the Holocaust happen today? What, if
anything could be done to prevent such a thing?
ATOMIC BOMB FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
The use of the atomic bomb by the United States was one of the most momentous
events in world history. During the war, all of the major powers sought to develop
this technology.
Albert Einstein a world famous scientist, first suggested the creation of the atomic
bomb to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Under orders from the President the
Manhattan Project was set up as a secret undertaking designed to create an
atomic weapon. Leading this effort was physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
In July of 1945 the first atomic bomb was successfully tested. U.S. President
Harry S. Truman who came to power upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt made
the decision to use this new weapon.
The President made the decision to use the bomb in order to save lives. It was
estimated that at least 1 million_ Americans could be killed if there was a
land invasion of Japan. In addition, severe fire bombing of Japanese cities like Tokyo
had failed to bring about Japanese surrender.
As a result, on August 6, 1945 the bomber named the Enola Gay and piloted
by Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima .
However, Japan refused to surrender.
As a result, a second atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945 on the city
of Nagasaki. Finally, after these two bombing Japan surrendered
unconditionally on August 15, 1945.
The legacy of this event remains controversial. The two atomic bombings cost
over 200,000 lives. Some would argue that the bombing was cruel and
inhumane. Others contend that the bombs actually saved lives in the long
run.
Response Question: Was the United States correct in using the bomb to end
the war? Provide arguments in support of your view.