Essential Question 1: How did politics change under the pressures of war and economic hardships?
1. How did economic conditions of the 1930's give rise to certain political systems? (SAS # 405) 2. What are the powers and characteristics of a totalitarian dictator and how does that mirror the rise of Adolf Hitler (SAS # 1295) and the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NAZI's)? 3. In what way did Adolf Hitler violate the Treaty of Versailles? 4. What events by Nazi Germany occurred prior to the invasion of Poland in 1939? Students will create a timeline 5. If any time remains, visit the hyperlinked website to the left and discuss as a small group
Essential Question 2: Why is propaganda successful in shaping public opinion?
1. What types of propaganda were used by Adolf Hitler and the NAZI party to build a sense of nationalism for the German People? 2. In what ways was the propaganda of WWII alike and different from WWI? Create a compare and contrast graphic organizer and include picture examples 3. If any time remains, view the website hyperlinked to the left
Essential Question 3: How did the Allied Powers work together to defeat the Axis Powers in Europe and the Pacific?
1. How did the D-Day invasion of France change the tide of WWII? (independent Research) 2. What events led up to the ultimate defeat of the Axis powers? Complete the following: Worksheet # 1 and Worksheet # 2 3. What were the reasons for and against the use of nuclear weapons by the United States on Japan at the end of WWII? Visit the website and compare all perspectives. login: GougeHistory Password: Historyalive17, additional helpful website 1 and additional helpful website 2 4. If any time remains, view the website hyperlinked to the left and discuss in small group
Essential Question 4: How did the Great Depression and WWII cause the Holocaust?
1. What was the Great Depression (site 1) (site 2) and what effect did it have on the world? 2. How did economic hardships in Germany lead to the creation of concentration camps and events of the Final Solution? (Group Research Activity) 3. Complete the SAS Curriculum Pathways Activity # 613 on the Holocaust 4. View and discuss the Discovery Channel video: "One Day in Auschwitz" complete worksheet 5. If any time remains, view the hyperlinked website to the left and discuss in small group setting
Essential Question 5: In what ways was the United Nations more successful than the League of Nations?
1. What is the United Nations and why was it created? Complete Worksheet to see how the UN was directly responsible for keeping peace after WWII 2. How does the UN compare to the League of Nations? Create a compare/contrast chart 3. What are the positives and negatives of UN membership? Take a look at what the UN is doing in today's world and argue both sides of UN membership on a separate piece of paper 4. If any time remains, view the hyperlinked website to the left and discuss in small group setting
Additional Learnings
Operation Barbarossa: On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies began a massive invasion of the Soviet Union named Operation Barbarossa -- some 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack deployed from German-controlled Poland, Finland, and Romania.
The Battle of Midway: The Americans had surprise on their side, and luck. On June 4, they discovered the Japanese fleet northeast of Midway. An air battle quickly developed. The turning point came at mid-morning. The Japanese fighters were drawn down to sea level by attacking American torpedo bombers, the vast majority of which were destroyed. Their sacrifice cleared the skies above for the American dive-bombers. Within minutes three Japanese carriers were ablaze.
Hiroshima & Nagasaki: August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber named the Enola Gay left the island of Tinian for Hiroshima, Japan. The uranium 235 gun-type bomb, named Little Boy, exploded at 8:16 a.m. In an instant 80,000 to 140,000 people were killed and 100,000 more were seriously injured. The blast wave shattered windows for a distance of ten miles and was felt as far away as 37 miles. Hiroshima had disappeared under a thick, churning foam of flames and smoke. The co-pilot, Captain Robert Lewis, commented, "My God, what have we done?"
The Attack at Pearl Harbor: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, stunned virtually everyone in the United States military. Japan’s carrier-launched bombers found Pearl Harbor totally unprepared. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly addressed Congress to ask for a declaration of war as illustrated in this audio excerpt. Although he never mentioned Europe or the fact that Germany had by then declared war on the United States, the Pearl Harbor attack allowed him to begin the larger intervention in the European war he had long wanted.
The Battle of Britain: Day after day the Germans sent armadas of bombers and fighters over England hoping to lure the RAF into battle and annihilate the defenders. Day after day the RAF scrambled their pilots into the sky to do battle often three, four or five times a day. Britain's air defense bent but did not break. By September, the Germans lost enthusiasm for the assault. Hitler postponed and then canceled invasion plans, turning his attention to the defeat of Russia. In appreciation of the RAF pilots' heroic effort, Winston Churchill declared: "Never before in human history was so much owed by so many to so few."
The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis: The heavy cruiser Indianapolis steamed out of San Francisco Bay just after dawn on July 16 wrapped in a heavy cloak of secrecy. In her belly, she carried the atomic bomb that three weeks later would be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. She raced, unescorted, to the island of Tinian where she unloaded her lethal cargo on July 26. Her mission accomplished, the Indianapolis then began a journey into Hell that would end with the worst naval disaster in U.S. history.
Iwo Jima: At approximately 10:20 a.m., the flag was hoisted on a steel pipe above the island. The sight of the small American flag flying from atop Mount Suribachi thrilled men all over the island. And for the first time during WWII, an American flag was flying above what was considered traditional Japanese territory. This symbol of victory sent a wave of strength to the battle-weary fighting men below, and struck a further mental blow against the island's defenders.
2nd Battle of El Alamein: Second Battle of El Alamein was a turning point in the North African campaign. It ended the long fight for the Western Desert, and was the only great land battle won by the British and Commonwealth forces without direct American participation. The victory also persuaded the French to start cooperating in the North African campaign.
The Invasion of Normandy: On June 6, 1944, a date known ever since as D-Day, a mighty armada crossed a narrow strip of sea from England to Normandy, France, and cracked the Nazi grip on western Europe.
The Bataan Death March: The Japanese immediately began to march some 76,000 prisoners (12,000 Americans, the remainder Filipinos) northward into captivity along a route of death. When three American officers escaped a year later, the world learned of the unspeakable atrocities suffered along the 60-mile journey that became known as the Bataan Death March.
The Battle of the Bulge: By late 1944, Germany was unmistakably losing the war. The Soviet Red Army was closing in on the Eastern front, while strategic Allied bombing was wreaking havoc on German cities. The Italian peninsula had been captured and liberated, and the Allied armies were advancing rapidly through France from west to east. Therefore, Adolph Hitler knew that the end was near if something could not be done to slow the Allies' advance.
The Battle of Berlin: The final chapter in the destruction of Hitler's Third Reich began on April 16, 1945 when Stalin unleashed the brutal power of 20 armies, 6,300 tanks and 8,500 aircraft with the objective of crushing German resistance and capturing Berlin.
PBS presents America and the Holocaust: In 1937, a 17-year-old German Jew named Kurt Klein emigrated to the US to escape the growing discrimination against Jews that had become a terrible fact of life following Hitler's rise in 1933. Together with his brother and sister, who had emigrated previously, Klein worked to establish himself so that he could obtain safe passage for his parents out of Germany. America and the Holocaust uses the moving tale of Klein's struggles against a wall of bureaucracy to free his parents to explore the complex social and political factors that led the American government to turn its back on the plight of the Jews.
History Channel presents The Holocaust: The word “Holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” (whole) and “kaustos” (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the mass murder of some 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community. After years of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were consistently persecuted, Hitler’s “final solution”–now known as the Holocaust–came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland.
PBS presents WWII in color: WWII in Color is made up of a large WWII photograph collection of over 31,000 images which have been viewed over 60 million times in total over the last few years.
Overview of the Holocaust from the US National Holocaust Museum
Understanding Nazi views on Mental Illness, specifically the treatment of Helene Lebel.
PBS Teachers Guide on Anne Frank Diaries, great for cross curricular studies with ELA teachers.
VE Day Lesson Plan complete with images, information, research starters, etc.