European history

1.What was the policy of appeasement?

1. Britain adopted this policy of appeasement by granting Hitler everything he could reasonably want and more, including Czechoslovakia, to avoid war.

13.Which countries signed a nonaggression pact in 1939 that led to war?

13. Hitler and Stalin, sworn enemies, signed a nonaggression pact that paved the way to war. Each dictator promised to remain neutral if the other became involved in open hostilities. An attached secret protocol divided Poland, the Baltic nations, Finland, and a part of Romania into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

2.What was Germany's goal in the Battle of Britain?

2. Germany's main goal in the Battle of Britain, which began in 1940, was to gain control of the air, and break British morale.

4.What was the purpose of the Enabling Act in 1933?

4. The Enabling Act gave Hitler absolute dictatorial power for four years.

8.How did the Nazi Party seek to promote the idea of Volksgemeinschaft?

8. Volksgemeinschaft = a "people's community" for racially pure Germans. The party set up mass organizations to spread Nazi ideology and enlist volunteers for the Nazi cause. Mass rallies, such as annual May Day celebrations and Nazi Party convention in Nuremberg, brought together thousands of participants. The Nazi-controlled press had glowing reports of such events that brought the message home to millions more.

9.Why did the Soviet army stop its advance on Warsaw in August 1944?

9. The Soviets had reached the outskirts of Warsaw in 1944; anticipating German defeat, the Polish underground Home Army ordered an uprising, so that the Poles might take the city on their own and establish independence from the Soviets. The Warsaw uprising was a tragic miscalculations. Citing military pressure, the Red Army refused to enter the city. Stalin and Soviet leaders thus allowed the Germans to destroy the Polish insurgents, a move that paved the way for the establishment of a postwar Communist regime. Only after the Home Army surrendered did the Red Army continue its advance.

9.What was the primary goal of the opponents of the Nazis in the Protestant and Catholic churches?

9. Their efforts were directed primarily at preserving religious life, not at overthrowing Hitler.

7.How did the Nazis seek to legitimize their racial policies?

7. Through science and law. The German Society for Racial Research wrote studies that measured and defined racial differences; prejudice was thus presented in the guise of enlightened science, a means for creating a national race.

10.Why did Britain adopt a policy of appeasement in its relationship with Hitler?

10. British appeasement was motivated by the pacifism of a population still horrified by the memory of the First World War. Many powerful conservatives in Britain underestimated Hitler; they believed Soviet communism was the real danger and that Hitler could be used to stop it.

10.What was the first target of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in 1945?

10. Hiroshima; Nagasaki soon followed in what was the mass bombing of cities and civilians.

1.What battle was the decisive turning point in the class between the Soviet Union and Germany?

1.The Battle of Stalingrad; in November of 1942 the Soviets surrounded and systematically destroyed the entire German Sixth Army of 300,000 men. In January 1943 only 123,000 soldiers were left to surrender. Hitler had refused to retreat and suffered a catastrophic defeat. For the first time, German public opinion turned decisively against the war.

11.At what point does Britain and France finally confront Hitler with the threat of war?

11. After Hitler invaded and occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler had justified taking Sudetenland because most of its inhabitants were ethnic Germans (self-determination), but the occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia meant holding ethnic Slaves and Czechs captive. Hitler next used the question of German minorities in Danzig as a pretext to confront Poland, and Chamberlain (British PM) declared that Britain and France would fight if Hitler attacked his eastern neighbor. On September 1, 1939, German armies and warplanes smashed into Poland, and two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany.

5.Where did Nazi administrators initially gain experience in mass murder?

5. The Holocaust: the effort of the Nazi state to exterminate all European Jews and others groups deemed racially inferior during WWII.

11.Why did the Allies adopt the principle of "unconditional surrender" of Germany and Japan?

11. To further encourage mutual trust. Unconditional surrender cemented the Grand Alliance because it denied Hitler any hope of dividing his foes.

12.What was the effect of the 1935 Nuremberg Law?

12. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 classified as Jewish anyone having three or more Jewish grandparents, outlawed marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans, and deprived Jews of all rights of citizenship.

2.How did German chancellor Heinrich Bruning try to cope with the Great Depression?

2. Brüning tried to cope with the Great Depression by cutting back government spending and ruthlessly forcing down prices and wages. His conservative policies intensified Germany's economic collapse and convinced many voters that the country's republican leaders were stupid and corrupt, adding to Hitler's appeal.

3.How did the Nazis manage the northern European states that they conquered?

3. Occupied peoples in northern Europe were treated according to their place in the Nazi racial hierarchy. The Nordic peoples (Dutch, Norwegians, and Danes) received preferential treatments, for the Germans believed them related to the Aryan master race. In Holland, Norway and Denmark, the Nazis established puppet governments of various kinds. France was divided into two parts and the Germans occupied the north, including Paris. Occupied nations were forced to pay for the costs of war and for the occupations itself. Nazi administrators stole foods and money from local Jews, and set currency exchange at favorable rates.

3.In the late 1920s, how did Adolf Hitler shape the Nazi Party's message to appeal to middle class voters?

3. To appeal to middle class voters, Hitler de-emphasized the anti capitalist elements of National Socialism and vowed to fight communism.

4.What problem was faced by most of the underground resistance groups who opposed the Nazis?

4. They were hardly unified. Communists and socialists often disagreed with more centrist or nationalist groups on long-term goals and short-term tactics. In Yugoslavia, for example, Communist and royalist military resistance groups attacked the Germans, but also each other.

5.Why did Hitler have the leadership of the SA storm troopers killed in 1934?

5. He wanted to purge the Nazi Party of its more extremist members. The SA members, who had fought communists and beaten up Jews before the Nazis took power, now expected top positions in the army. Some SA radicals even talked of a "second revolution" that would create equality among all Germans by sweeping away capitalism. Now that he was in power, Hitler wanted to win the support of the traditional military and maintain social order.

6.What was the Nazi Party policy of "coordination"?

6. "Coordination" forced existing institutions to conform to National Socialist ideology. Professionals - doctors, and lawyers, teachers and engineers - saw their previously independent organizations swallowed up by Nazi associations. Charity and civic organizations were also put under Nazi control, and universities, publishers, and writers were quickly brought into line. Democratic, socialist, and Jewish literature was put on blacklists. Students and radical professionals burned forbidden books. Modern art and architecture - which the Nazis considered "degenerate" - were prohibited. Life became violently anti-intellectual under a brutal dictatorship characterized by frightening dynamism and obedience to Hitler.

6.What were the duties of the German Einsatzgruppen?

6. The Einsatzgruppen was three military death squads known as Specials Task Forces; along with other military units, followed the advancing German armies. They moved from town to town shooting and Jews and other target populations.Victims often forced to dig their own grave before they were shot. In this way the German armed forces killed some 2 million civilians.

7.According to Hitler's New Order, which European race was considered subhuman along with the Jews?

7. According to Hitler's New Order, along with the Jews, the Slavs were considered subhuman. The Nazi's set to build a vast colonial empires where Jews would be exterminated and Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians would be enslaved and forced to die-out.

8.What was the "Europe First" policy?

8. An agreement made by the Grand Alliance stating that only after Hitler was defeated would the Allies mount an all-out attack on Japan, the lesser threat.