7-16 The Axis Triumph

Unit Guide

Social Studies 7

Overall Purpose:

Explain the factors that led to the Nazi conquest of Europe between 1939-1941. Describe the process that led to the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust.

Main Ideas:

A) How did the blitzkrieg defeat the defensive tactics that dominated World War I?

B) Explain the factors that enabled Germany to defeat Poland in only one month.

C) What effect did the conquest of Poland have on the Holocaust? Describe the process of ghettoization.

D) Describe France’s strategy to protect against a German invasion. Why did this fail? Describe the Nazi conquests of 1940.

E) Explain the importance of Dunkirk.

F) How did the Battle of Britain differ from other battles? Explain why the British were able to win the battle.

G) What was the Battle of the Atlantic?

H) Explain why the fighting in North Africa began. Describe the first three phases of the war in the desert.

I) Why did Germany invade the Balkans in 1941? What impact did this have on the war?

J) Why did Germany decide to invade the Soviet Union in June of 1941?

K) What was the initial result of this attack? What factors halted the German invasion?

L) What effect did the invasion of the Soviet Union have on the Holocaust?

M) Describe the methods of the Einsatzgrüppen. Why was this policy discontinued?

N) Explain the importance of the Wannsee Conference. Describe in detail how the decisions made at Wannsee were implemented.

O) Describe the various ways that European Jews responded to the Holocaust.

P) Describe the role that geographical factors played in the Holocaust.

Items from Between the Wars Study Guide:

A) Explain the effect that the following periods had on the Jewish people:

1. Roman Conquest of Judea

2. Conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity

3. The Crusades

4. The Reformation

5. The French Revolution

B) Describe at least four Anti-Semitic practices usually associated with the Nazis that actually had their antecedents in earlier European history.

C) Identify the major actions that the Nazis took against German Jews between 1933-1939.

D) Identify non-Jewish groups that were persecuted by the Nazis.

E) Explain why Hitler was immensely popular with most Germans in 1938.

Key Terms:

1) Luftwaffe

2) Judenrat

3) Phony War

4) Winter War

5) Maginot Line

6) Ardennes

7) Allies

8) Winston Churchill

9) Herman Göring

10) Vichy

11) Charles DeGaulle

12) Blitz

13) Tobruk

14) Erwin Rommel

15) Einsatzgrüppen

16) Babi Yar

17) Adolf Eichmann

18) Auschwitz-Birkenau

19) Holocaust

From Between the Wars:

1. Diaspora

2. pogrom

3. eugenics

4. Dreyfus Case

5. Nuremberg Laws

6. Kristallnacht

7. Heinrich Himmler