World War II Study Guide and PowerPoint Topics

I. The societies fighting the war

A. Know the characteristics of each government and society:

Ø Germany and Italy

- fascism

- Mussolini

- totalitarianism

Ø The United States, Britain and France

- democracy and capitalism

- isolationism

Ø The Soviet Union

- Joseph Stalin

- totalitarianism

- communism

Ø Japan

II. Hitler and Germany before the war

A. The Treaty of Versailles

B. Adolph Hitler's life

Uprising of 1924

Mien Kampf

C. The Nazi Party

Ø Their beliefs

Ø Their rise to power

Ø Lebensraum

Ø The Third Reich

D. The election of 1933

E. The Burning of the Reichstag

III. German Aggression

A. German re-militarization

B. The Sudetenland

C. Czechoslovakia, 1938

D. Appeasement (Avoiding War)

E. Conference of Munich

F. The Russo-German Non-aggression Pact.

G. Blitzkrieg

H. Poland, 1939

IV. The Holocaust

A. The Nuremberg Laws

Ø The Star of David

B. Kristallnacht

C. The S.S. and the Gestapo

D. Ghettos

E. Concentration Camps

F. Railroads to Poland

G. The Final Solution

H. Genocide

I. Auschwitz

J. 6 million Jews and 5 million homosexuals, communists, gypsies, resistors, and handicapped

V. The European War

A. A general knowledge of the order of Hitler's conquests.

B. Rome, Tokyo, Berlin Alliance

C. German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact

D. The fall of France

Ø The Maginot line

E. The Battle of Britain

Ø Luftwaffe vs. R.A.F.

F. Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941

G. The Eastern Front and Stalingrad

H. D-Day and the allied victory.

I. Total War

V. The Pacific War

A. US "opens" Japan

B. Japanese Modernization and Zibatzu

C. Emperor Hirohito

D. Japanese Aggression

Ø The Rape of Nanjing

E. Pearl Harbor

F. Naval Warfare

G. Island Hopping

H. Kamikaze

I. Fire-bombing of Tokyo

J. The Manhattan Project

K. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

L. Surrender