Rise of Totalitarianism, WWII and the Holocaust Test

Vladimir Lenin

Revolutionary who will lead the Russian Revolution and the eventual transformation of Russia into a communist state

Leon Trotsky

Leader of the Red Army, but later labeled as enemy of the state and forced into exile. Will die in Mex

Joseph Stalin

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1924-1953

Gulag

Soviet network of forced labor camps established by the Communist Party for political opponents and perceived enemies of the state

Collectivization

A policy of forced abandonment of individual and family farms in favor of large-scale, communal agriculture

Kulak

Wealthier Russian peasants during the late Russian Empire and early years of the Soviet Union

Holodomor

A term meaning “death by starvation.” Ukrainians utilize this word to describe the famile orchestrated by the Communist Party from 1932-1934

Gareth Jones

British reporter who at the risk of his own life snuck into Ukraine to report on the devastating forced-famine occurring there

Weimar Republic

German gov’t established post- WWI

Reparations

the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.

Hyperinflation

rapid and unrestrained price increases in an economy, typically at rates exceeding 50% each month over time.

Brownshirts

the early Nazi militia founded by Hitler in Munich in 1921, known by the color of their uniforms.

Beer Hall Putsch

Failed coup d’état by Hitler and the Nazis in 1923

Reichstag

Lower house of the German parliament

Fascism

mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of both the nation and the single, powerful leader over the individual citizen.

Totalitarianism

a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life.

Eugenics

the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.

Appeasement

a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict.

Anschluss

Union with Austria

Sudetenland

Region of Czechoslovakia that Germany annexed in 1938

Lebensraum

German term for living space; A Nazi concept of expansionism & nationalism to establish a sustainable empire to last 1,000 years.

Anti-seminitism

Hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people

Deicide

Act of killing God

Ghetto

Designated area of a city/ town where a religious or ethnic minority is forced to reside

Nuremberg Laws

legislation passed in 1935 that formerly established who was considered a Jew & stripped Jews of their German citizenship & other basic rights.

Kristallnacht

“Night of broken glass.” A pogrom that killed hundreds of Jews, destroyed many more synagogues and Jewish businesses within the 3rd Reich.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

A non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union with a secret protocol that partitioned Central and Eastern Europe

Blizkrieg

Meaning “lightning war,” an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory

Einstazgruppen

Meaning “mobile killing units,” paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during WWII in German occupied Europe.

Katyn Massacre

A series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union during the spring of 1940.

Phoney War

Term historians give to the 8 month period at the start of WWII During which there was very limited land military operations on the Western Front.

Maginot Line

A series of fortifications along the French border with Germany designed to prevent any land invasion by the Germans into French territory

Operation Dynamo

The evacuation of mover 338,000 British and other Allied soldiers during WWII from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France.

America First Commitee

The foremost United States isolationist pressure group against American entry into WWII, surpassing 800,000 members and 450 chapters across the country

Would agree with appeasment

Operation Barbarossa

The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941; the largest land offensive in human history

Generalplan Ost

Nazi Germany’s starvation plan for large-scale ethnic cleansing, extermination and genocide of Slavs, Eastern European Jews and other ethnic groups.

Rape of Nanking

An attack on Nanking civilians by the Japanese military that included looting, arson, rape and mass murder

Pearl Harbor

The home base for the US Pacific fleet, this naval station was hit by a surprise Japanese attack on the morning of December 7, 1941 that ultimately was the primary reason for U.S. intervention in WWII

T4 Program

A Nazi operation that executed in secret roughly 300,000 German and Austrian citizens with a mental/ physical disability or form of mental illness

Ghetto

A designated area of a city or town where a religious or ethnic minority is forced to reside

Operation Torch

an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War in 1942-1943.

The Battle of Midway

a pivotal naval battle in the Pacific that resulted in a crushing defeat for Japan just 6 months after Pearl Harbor

GI Bill

a law that provided a range of benefits for many of the returning World War II veterans including free college tuition and low-interest mortgages

Dorothea Lange

one of America’s most celebrated photographers; she is best known for chronicling American workers during the Great Depression and Japanese- Americans interned at camps

Operation Overlord

the British & American invasion of continental Europe to liberate France & other countries under Nazi occupation

Manhattan Project

a joint British & American program of research and development undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons

Historiography

the analysis of how often interpretations of past events, people, themes, & values can change over time

Island Hopping

a key Allied tactic in the Pacific theater, focusing on capturing strategically important islands to gain airbases and cut off Japanese supply lines, while bypassing heavily fortified Japanese strongholds

Rape of Berlin

Mass rape of German women by Soviet soldiers near the end of the war

List & explain three problems/issues that were plaguing the Russian Empire on the eve of their revolution.

1. Peace, land, and bread

   1. Internal turmoil and anger about Treaty of Versailles

      1. Government corruption/ weak democratic government that society had no faith in

      2. Post WW1: low morale, economic strain, casualties, etc.

   2. Lost land in Treaty of Versailles and wanted to expand. Plus peasants wanted land distribution, because most farmland was controlled by nobility, while they were starving

   3. Food shortages fueled protests and strikes

Describe what the Five-Year Plan was along with its goals.

• Stalins’ plan aimed to industrialize Soviet Union

• Traded surplus of food to get modern machinery and technology

  • Forcefully took grain from towns and villages, starving soviet citizens, especially non-Russians (kazakhs and Ukrainians)

• Collectivization of family farms and private lands

• Kulaks (more fortunate peasants) persecuted

• Suppression to take away nationalistic feelings

List & describe two reasons why Stalin targeted & persecuted Ukraine in 1932-1933.

1. Grain to fund industrialization

   1. “Bread Basket of Europe”

   2. Collectivization

   3. Starvation/ famine (Holodomor)

      1. Physiological impact (not selves, even eat children!)

2. Destroy Ukrainian nationalist/ independence sentiments

   1. Saw collectivization refusal as threat to Soviet authority

   2. Avoid uprising

After the deaths of millions in Ukraine, Stalin will initiate a resettlement program that forced hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians to reside in southern & eastern Ukraine. What implications does this have in the present-day?

Stalin moved ethnic Russians into Ukraine who would be less resistant to soviet occupation. Today Russia continues to try to take over Ukraine, seeing it as theirs because of the many Russian people living there.

List & explain two issues plaguing the Weimar Republic during the early 1920s. 

1. Far left and right groups looked to bring down the Republic

   1. Republic forced on them after WW1

   2. Ex. Spartacist uprising/communist revolution (left)

   3. Ex. Kapp Putsch (right)

   4. Believed they’d been stabbed in back after WW1

2. Bad economy/ hyperinflation

   1. Printed more money for reparations, leading to hyperinflation

Analyze Hitler’s rise from a messenger boy in WWI to the leader of Germany by 1933.

• Young soldier in WW1, increasing anti Semitic views and desire to lead government

• Hired by government to spy on German Workers Party, but realized their interest aligned with his so joined them and quickly rises up within the group

• In 1923 Hitler and the brownshirts launch the Beer Hall Putsch to overthrow government

  • Fails and Hitler sentenced to prison, but only serves 9 months

    • Writes Mein Kampf

• Effects of Great Depressions cause support for him to skyrocket

• Becomes most popular party and Hitler sworn in as chancellor in 1933

List & briefly describe three core pillars of totalitarian regimes.

1. One political party (all others illegal)

   1. Ex. Nazi party

2. State over the individual

   1. Good for whole country over individualism

   2. Complete control over persons life (media, beliefs, etc.)

3. Extreme censorship and propaganda

   1. Ex. Anti Semitic mass media

4. Intimidation and violence to coerce citizens to obey

   1. Suppression and forced famine in Soviet Union

How did eugenics and race play a large role in Nazism?

• Believed Germans were superior and tried to make Germany great again

• Hitler desired pure German bloodline

  • Nurnberg laws

• Violence against Jews and other minorities

  • Kristallnacht

Explain the concept of appeasement, and do you believe it is a useful aspect of foreign policy & diplomacy.

• Appeasement is giving someone what they want, so they stop asking/ attacking

• Western leaders, led by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appease Hitler instead of punishing him for violating treaty of Versailles

  • Give him Sudetenland and he says he won’t try to take more land (but does anyway)

• Not useful, because at some point it will a country will probably want more

*List & explain three ways Hitler & Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles in the 1930s.

1. Remilitarization of Rhineland

   1. Rhineland banned from containing armed forces/ fortification under Treaty of Versailles

   2. After Franco-Soviet pact Hitler sent 3 battalions into Rhineland, claiming it a defensive move

   3. Ordered immediate withdrawal if France retaliated, but France refused to do so without Britains approval, so no opposition

2. Anshulss

   1. Versailles said Germany couldn’t have alliance with Austria

   2. Germany marches fro Germany to Austria

   3. School children salute armored cars and Austrian guards welcomed Germans

   4. Hitler desired to annex Austria

3. Annexation of Sudetenland (and Czechoslovakia)

   1. Hitler wanted Czechoslovakias good army, equipment and munition plant

      1. Used Sudetenland, where many of German decent lived, as an excuse (wanted German speakers under Reich)

   2. Hitler assured if got Sudetenland wouldn’t try to get more land, but did

Describe the key takeaways from the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

• Defined Jew as a person with 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents and people with 1 or 2 Jewish grandparents as mischilnge (mixed/ neither German nor Jewish)

• Jews, Roma and Black people could not be citizens of Germany nor marry or have sexual relations people of German or related blood

• Made Jews legally different from Germans

• Gave way to Law on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names (Jews could only be named certain names), Decree of Passports of Jews (passport mush state they’re a Jew), and Police Regulation of Marking of Jews (Jews must wear star on clothes saying they’re Jewish)

Explain how propaganda played a large role in the Nazi machine to help disseminate their ideas.

• Rallies use propaganda to create new community

  • Manufacture adoration, bask in it and broadcast it

• Media controlled by governmeny

• Newspapers, radios, movies, etc. spread false claims faster than ever

  • Expand facism and anti-semitism

Describe the significance of Kristallnacht.

• State sponsored violence, vandalism and arson

  • Broke into homes, set fire to synagogues, beat Jews, arrested Jews etc.

• Many Jewish died and around 30,000 Jews were arrested/ sent to concentration camps and were only released if agreed to leave Germany with families

• Many Jews concluded there was no future for them in Germany

• Increased anti-semitism

• US recalled US ambassador to Germany

How could 2 sworn enemies (Germany and Soviet Union) come to sign a non-aggression pact? Explain what both sides got out of this agreement.

• Molotove-Ribbentrop Pact: A non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union with a secret protocol that partitioned Central and Eastern Europe (Poland and Romania)

  • Hitler invade Poland 1st, Stalin would invade a few weeks later

  • Stalin took eastern Poland, Hitler took Western Poland

  • Allowed expansion without intervention from the other

    • Hitler able to invade Poland without Soviet intervention, so he could focus on attacking the western front

    • Hitler later did invade Russia, against the pact

    • Originally gave Soviets time to rebuild/ strengthen military and economy

    • Soviets gained territory lost in WWI

  • Lebensraum because expansion for German Empire

Following the military conquest of Poland, who did the Nazis and Soviets target within Polish society? Why?

• The elites (intellectuals, military officials, etc.)

  • Believed without elites, Poland could not run and therefore would be easily taken over

  • Einsatzgruppen murdered around 60,000 Polish leaders

  • Soviets kill around 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia prisoners of war

Explain why military historians and scholars refer to the 1st 8 months of WWII following the conquest of Poland as the Phoney War.

• No major engagements b/w France, Britain and Germany occur from September 1939-May 1940

  • Germany invading Norway, Denmark and Holland

  • Ends in 1940 when Germany invades France

Describe the fall of France

• New tech= Germany flew over Maginot line (and through Ardennes)

  • Aircrafts

  • Radios in all tanks

  • Lighter/ faster tanks

• Even with the help of British forces, lose to Hitler within 6 weeks

• Blitzkreig

*Describe the miracle at Dunkirk, referred to in military operations as Operation Dynamo.

• British soldiers stranded on beaches of Dunkirk, France after Germany defeats France (England was ally of France)

• British rescue over 300,000 British soldiers trapped at Dunkirk using civilian ships

• Small victory for British

Why did tension between the U.S. and Japan increase during the 1st half of the 1900’s?

• Japan had imperial ambitions conflict w/ U.S. interests in the Pacific, as Japan’s empire grew

• FDR imposed severe economic sanctions of Japan after the Rape of Nanking

Explain the significance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Japan surprise attacked Pearl Harbor, where most of the naval fleet was

• Led to U.S. entering into the war

Explain the difference between a concentration camp and a death/ extermination camp.

• Concentration camps were labor camps

  • Mostly younger, healthy Jews

  • Horrible conditions = many die

  • Ex. Part of Auschwitz

• People were sent to extermination/ death camps to be killed

  • Children, disable, elderly, etc. (people who couldn’t work)

  • Gas chambers

  • Ex. Treblinka, Belzec, part of Auschwitz

How did the Nazi vision of the Final Solution change during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s?

Jewish colony in Eastern Poland → Exile Jews to Madagascar → Exile Jews to Siberia/ the Far East → Extermination

How does reading Ordinary Men impact your understanding of the Holocaust?

• Makes German soldiers more human

  • Some stepped out right away when asked to kill, others asked after killing a few, officers allowed soldiers to be move to roles in which they did not directly kill

  • Many felt nervous, repulsed, nauseated because of their actions

  • Experiments showed similar results in non-Nazi German populations

    • Conformity, obiedience

  • However, some German soldiers did enjoy killing

Pick and describe 3 specific ways WWII sparked tremendous change in our country?

• End of the Great Depression, as war production created jobs and boosted industrial output, leading to a strong post-war economy.

• With many men enlisted, women took on factory and office jobs, paving the way for greater gender equality in the workforce.

• War highlighted racial inequality, and the participation of African Americans in the military and workforce helped fuel the push for civil rights reforms in the post-war years.

*Stalingrad and D-Day were 2 of the most significant events that led to the fall of the 3rd Reich. Describe which one you feel was most vital for the destruction of the Nazi Germany.

Stalingrad

• Originally by Hitler to destroy Stalingrad and gain resources, like access to Volga River

• Soviet win=turning point in war

  • Brutal and bloody battle using encirclement

  • German 6th army essentially destroyed

  • Cut of German resources

  • Halted German advance as Soviets pushed westward leading to liberation of Eastern Europe

  • Increased Red Army/ Soviet morale, decreased German morale (1st failure Hitler publicly acknowledged)

*Explain the Japanese view of surrender during WWII and how this influenced U.S. military strategy in the Pacific.

Japanese saw surrender as dishonorable, willing to kill themselves instead of being captured. In war they would rush as the people shooting at them, used Owkinawan kids as human shields, etc. This influenced island hopping, cutting off Japan’s supplies instead of directly fighting them. This also led to the atomic bombing, as the American’s believed a land invasion would lead to too many casualties and Japan would not surrender.

Basics of Japanese internment.

• People of Japanese decent forced to move to internment camps

• Fueled by fear and racism

• Harsh living facilities with cramped and disgusting rooms, non-cultural foods and little privacy

Describe the basics of end of war in Europe and the Pacific.

Europe

• War over less than a year after D-Day (June 6, 1944)

• Stalingrad turning point in war

• Stalin, Churchill and FDR met multiple times to discuss postwar future

  • April 12, 1945: FDR dies

• Soviet attacked Berlin, leading millions of Germans attempted to flee to the U.S./Britain

  • Suffer greatly with Rape of Berlin by Soviets and Firebombing of Dresden by Britain and U.S.

• Battle of Berlin

  • German kids as young as 8 quickly drafted to defend capital

  • As Soviets surround city, Hitler commits suicide

    • Germany surrenders a week later

Pacific

• After victories at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, U.S. capable of land invasion of main Japanese isalnds

• U.S. and Britain began working on developing atomic weapon under Manhattan Project

  • Originally supposed to be used for Germany who were also said to be making one

  • During summer of 1945 U.S. implores Japan to surrender or face quick and utter destructuion

  • Early AugustL Dropping of atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    • Japan surrenders a week later