Name: ________________________________________ Date: __________ Period: ____
Holocaust and WWII Test Study Guide
Test Date: __________
Not everything on the test is reviewed on this study guide, so be sure to review all of the
handouts, notes, and activities from the unit.
Handouts to Review: The Holocaust Overview articles, Holocaust vocabulary, “How Did Hitler
Happen” article and activities, Elie Wiesel video notes, Nazi propaganda handout, Brainpop notes
and quizzes, and any other papers/activities you may have in your social studies section.
1919-1939 – Hitler’s Rise to Power
At the end of WWI, Germany had to sign the _________________________. This document
blamed Germany for starting the war and said they needed to be punished. The treaty took away
German land, required them to pay billions of dollars in _________________, and left them a poor
and weak country. Adolph Hitler became the leader of the ____________________. Hitler used
Jewish people as ____________________, blaming them for Germany’s problems. In 1929, the
stock market crashed, launching the United States and Europe into the ____________________
___________________. This caused even more economic problems and anxiety among the German
people, and more people began to follow Hitler and the Nazis.
In 1933, President_____________________, the leader of the Weimar Republic, which was a
____________________ government, was struggling. He decided to name Hitler
___________________ of Germany, his second in command. He needed the rising popularity of the
Nazi party to help him. When he died in 1934, Hitler and his party easily took control of Germany.
He ________________________ against the Jewish people and excluded them from public life.
Anyone who was Jewish was forced to wear the _______________________ on their clothing. The
German government denied German citizenship to anyone who was Jewish. During
___________________ in November of 1938, Jewish businesses were vandalized and many
synagogues were burned.
Although Hitler had already annexed Austria and taken part of _______________________,
WWII didn’t officially begin until September 1939 when __________________ invaded
______________. ___________________, ________________, and ______________ formed the
Axis Powers. _________________, _______________, and _______________ were known as the
Allied Powers. The ______________ did not enter the war until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy”.
1940-1945 – The “Final Solution” and Liberation
Hitler’s plan to murder all of the Jews in Europe as well as other groups he saw as inferior
was known as the ________________________. Many Jews were forced to leave their homes and
live in ___________________ under horrible conditions. Many people were taken on cattle cars to
_________________________ where they were either murdered or forced to work in a labor camp.
__________________ was the largest and most notorious concentration camp. The average life span
of a person sent there was _______ months.
Although many people committed terrible crimes against other human beings, and others were
bystanders who didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, that groups were being wrongly and unfairly
persecuted, there are some stories of hope. The citizens of _____________worked together to try to
save their Jewish citizens, and many people throughout countries in Europe were part of
___________________ groups that worked to fight against Hitler and the Nazis. There are even
stories of former Nazis, or members of the _________________, the Nazi party’s training group for
kids, who realized the wrongness of what was happening and risked their lives to fight the Nazis,
using their own propaganda as well as sabotage.
At the end of WWII, the _____________________ troops _________________, or freed, the
remaining prisoners at the concentration camps. Over ________ million people, ______ million Jews
and _____ million others, had perished in the __________________.
“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
Ellie Wiesel (survivor of Auschwitz)
Why is it important to study the Holocaust? What important lessons can we learn from this
time period?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________