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World War II, 1939–1945

Connect History and Geography

The German invasion of Poland in 1939 set off World War II. Two
competing alliances, the Axis and the Allies, faced off in Europe,
Africa, and the Pacific. As the map at the right indicates, the early
years of the war favored the Axis powers. Use the map to help
you answer the following questions.

1. Which countries are shown on the map as Axis powers?

2. What gains had the Axis made by 1941?
3. Why would the Battle of Stalingrad have been important?
4. What do the battles shown in Western Europe have in common?
What might that indicate about the course of the war?

For more information about World War II . . .

CLASSZONE.COM

In 1939, construction began on Nazi

concentration camps to kill Jews and
members of other groups. Prisoners were to
die by hard labor, poor nutrition, and disease.
Impatient with the pace of the killing, Adolf
Hitler later had death camps built. In the
camps, millions were killed by poison gas.

1939 1940
Germany France surrenders to Germany;
invades Poland. Battle of Britain begins.

818
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European and African Battles, 1939–1945

60°N 15°W
N 0°

FINLAND
ATLANTIC NORWAY
Leningrad
OCEAN (Sept. 8, 1941-
Jan. 27, 1944)
ESTONIA
N. Ireland SWEDEN
UNITED LATVIA
KINGDOM DENMARK
IRELAND LITHUANIA SOVIET
Great
NETH.
Berlin EAST
UNION
Britain (Apr. 16, 1945- PRUSSIA
15°W Apr. 30, 1945) (Ger.)
Battle of Britain Warsaw
(July, 1940-Oct., 1940) (Sept. 1, 1939-
GERMANYDresden Sept. 27, 1939)
BELGIUM
Normandy (D-day) Battle of (Feb. 13, 1945- Battle of Stalingrad
(June 6, 1944) the Bulge Apr. 17, 1945) POLAND (Aug 23, 1942-
(Dec. 16, 1944- C Z Feb. 2, 1943)
Paris ECH
(Aug. 19, 1944- LUX. Jan. 16, 1945) O SL
45°N
Aug. 25, 1944)
O VA KIA
LIECH.
SWITZ. AUSTRIA HUNGARY
FR A N C E
ROMANIA

YUGOSLAVIA k Sea
PORTUGAL Blac
BULGARIA
ITALY
S PA I N
ALBANIA
TURKEY
GREECE

Sicily
(July 10, 1943-
Aug. 17, 1943)
MOROCCO ALGERIA M
e d i
TUNISIA t e r r a
n e a n S e a
Allied control
Tobruk
Axis nation (June 20, 1942-
Farthest extent of Axis control June 21, 1942)
Neutral nation El Alamein
(Oct. 23, 1942-
Major Battle Agheila Nov. 4, 1942)
(Mar. 24, 1941)
0 250 500 Miles
L I B YA EGYPT
0 250 500 Kilometers
Robinson Projection

1941 (June) Germans 1943 1944 1945 (May) Germany surrenders.

invade Soviet Union. (Dec.) Allies defeat Japan D-Day invasion (Aug.) Atomic bombs dropped;
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. at Guadalcanal. occurs. Japan surrenders.
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Interact with History

destroying the arms factories in the city, the war
W orld War II has been going on for several
years—at great cost in lives to your side
and the enemy’s. You are an air force commander
could be shortened. Thousands of lives could be
saved. On the other hand, the bombing will kill
who has just received a report from military hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians living near
intelligence. The report identifies a city in enemy the enemy factories. How do you weigh the lives
territory that is a major weapons manufacturing that will be saved against the lives that will be lost?
center. You and other officers know that by
One plane-load of bombs will
wipe out a vital enemy weapons
Would you factory, along with hundreds of
civilian homes around it.

bomb this
city? Radar tells the
pilot where to
drop the bombs,
This is a bomb
but at 10,000 feet,
factory in the
he cannot see
middle of a
the casualties
residential area.
they will cause.

This raid will probably

shorten the war by at
least two months.
EXAMINING the ISSUES

• Does shortening a war to save As a class, discuss these questions. In

lives justify killing civilians? your discussion, weigh the arguments
• How are civilians sometimes as for and against both choices.
much a part of a war effort as As you read about World War II, think
soldiers? about the role that civilians play in a
• What percentage of lives saved situation of total war. Think also about
would justify the deaths caused in the hard moral choices that people
the bombing? often face in times of war.
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TERMS & NAMES

1 Hitler’s Lightning War •
•
•
nonaggression pact
blitzkrieg
Charles de Gaulle
• Winston Churchill
• Battle of Britain
• Atlantic Charter
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Using the sudden, mass attack called Hitler’s actions set off World War II. The
the blitzkrieg, Germany overran much results of the war still affect the politics
of Europe and North Africa. and economics of today’s world.

SETTING THE STAGE During the 1930s, Hitler played on the hopes and fears of the
Western democracies. Each time the Nazi dictator grabbed new territory, he would
declare an end to his demands. Peace seemed guaranteed—until Hitler started
expanding again.

Germany Sparks a New War in Europe

After his moves into the Rhineland (March 1936), Austria (March 1938), and
Czechoslovakia (September 1938 and March 1939), the Führer turned his eyes to
Poland. On April 28, 1939, Hitler spoke before the Reichstag. He demanded that the
Polish Corridor, along with its port city of Danzig, be returned to Germany. After
World War I, the Allies had cut out the Polish Corridor from German territory to give
Poland access to the sea.
This time, Great Britain and France decided to resist
this threat of aggression. At this point, as was mentioned in
Chapter 31, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin signed a 10-year
nonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23. After being
excluded from the Munich Conference, Stalin was not
eager to join with the West. Also, Hitler was promising him
Background territory. In the public part of the pact, Germany and the
Hitler hated commu- Soviet Union promised not to attack each other. Secretly,
nism, as Stalin
despised fascism. however, they agreed that they would divide Poland
Nonetheless, Hitler between them. They also secretly agreed that the USSR
did not want to fight could take over Finland and the Baltic countries (Lithuania,
both the Allies and
the Soviet Union. And
Latvia, and Estonia).
Stalin wanted to keep
Germany’s Lightning Attack on Poland The new
his country out of a
costly European war. nonaggression pact removed the threat to Germany of a
Soviet attack from the east. Hitler then quickly moved
ahead with plans to conquer Poland. His surprise attack
took place at dawn on September 1, 1939. German war-
planes invaded Polish airspace, raining bombs and terror on
the Poles. At the same time, German tanks and troop trucks
rumbled across the Polish border. The trucks carried more
than 1.5 million soldiers into the assault. German aircraft
and artillery then began a merciless bombing of Poland’s
capital, Warsaw. The city crumbled under the assault. A
stunned world looked on. No one yet realized that the
Polish invasion had unleashed World War II. A propaganda
France and Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. But Poland fell poster proclaims to
three weeks before those nations could make any military response. After his victory, the German nation:
“One People, One
Hitler annexed the western half of Poland. That region had a large German population. Reich, One Führer!”

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World War II: German Advances,

The German invasion of Poland was
1939–1941 the first test of Germany’s newest mili-
tary strategy—the blitzkrieg

40° E
0°

FINLAND (BLIHTS kreeg), or “lightning war.” It

•

NORWAY
involved using fast-moving airplanes and
Leningrad
SWEDEN 60° N tanks, followed by massive infantry
ESTONIA
19
41 forces, to take the enemy by surprise.
194

LATVIA Moscow
0

GREAT North DENMARK

Baltic Then, blitzkrieg forces swiftly crushed all

1
Sea LITHUANIA

194
BRITAIN SOVIET
Sea EAST
UNION opposition with overwhelming force. In
IRELAND Berlin 1939PRUSSIA
London
NETH.
1941
the case of Poland, the strategy worked.
Dunkirk 1940 GERMANY1939 Warsaw
BE
LG POLAND
ish CZEC 1941
The Soviets Make Their Move On
E n g l n n e l Paris .
0
HOSL
OVAK
Cha 194 IA Stalingrad
FRANCE AUST
RIA GAR
Y
1941 September 17, after his secret agree-
SWITZ. HUN
1941

ment with Hitler, Stalin sent Soviet

19
1940

ROMANIA
41

VICHY ITALY
YUG
FRANCE OSL
AVI BULGARIA B l a c k
troops to occupy the eastern half of
(Unoccupied A Sea
Rome Poland. Stalin then began annexing the
1941
PORTUGAL

zone)
IA
N

SPAIN
regions in the second part of the agree-
ALBA

40° N
TURKEY
GREECE ment. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia fell
ALGERIA TUNISIA Crete SYRIA without a struggle, but Finland resisted.
(Fr.) (Fr.)
Mediterranean Sea LEBANON In November 1939, Stalin sent nearly
MOROCCO IRAQ
Axis
(Fr.) nations, 1938 PALESTINE
TRANS- 1 million Soviet troops into Finland. He
Axis-controlled, 1941 LIBYA JORDAN
Allies (It.) thought that his soldiers would win a
EGYPT
Neutral nations
0 500 Miles
SAUDI ARABIA
quick victory. So, Stalin did not worry
German advances about the Finnish winter. This was a
0 1,000 Kilometers
crucial mistake. The Finns were out-
GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER:
numbered and outgunned, but they
fiercely defended their country. In the THINK THROUGH HISTORY
Interpreting Maps
A. Analyzing
1. Region Which countries did Germany invade? freezing weather, they attacked on swift Motives What
2. Location In what way was Germany’s geographic location an skis. Meanwhile, the Soviets struggled would you say were
advantage when it was on the offensive in the war? through deep snow, crippled by frost- the political reasons
bite. Despite their losses, the Soviet behind Stalin’s actions
in Europe at the
invaders finally won through sheer force of numbers. By March 1940, Stalin had beginning of World
forced the Finns to accept his surrender terms. War II?
A. Possible Answer
The Phony War For almost seven months after the fall of Poland, there was a Stalin aimed at
strange calm in the land fighting in Europe. After their declaration of war, the French expanding the Soviet
Union’s territory and
and British had mobilized their armies. They stationed their troops along the Maginot power, while keeping
(MAZH uh noh) Line, a system of fortifications along France’s border with Germany.
• •
his country out of the
There they waited for Germans to attack—but nothing happened. With little to do, war. He seemed ready
the bored Allied soldiers stared eastward toward the enemy. Equally bored, German to make an agreement
with anybody, even
soldiers stared back from their Siegfried Line a few miles away. Germans jokingly Hitler, to achieve
called it the sitzkrieg, or “sitting war.” Some newspapers referred to it simply as “the those goals.
phony war.”
Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, the phony war ended. Hitler launched a surprise inva-
sion of Denmark and Norway. He planned to build bases along the Norwegian and
Danish coasts to strike at Great Britain. In just four hours after the attack, Denmark
fell. Two months later, Norway surrendered as well.

The Battle for France and Great Britain

In May of 1940, Hitler began a dramatic sweep through Holland, Belgium, and
Luxembourg. This was part of a strategy to strike at France. Keeping the Allies’
attention on those countries, Hitler then sent an even larger force of tanks
and troop trucks to slice through the Ardennes (ahr DEHN). This was a heavily •

wooded area in northeastern France and Luxembourg. Moving through the forest, the

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Germans “squeezed between” the Maginot Line.

From there, they moved across France and
reached France’s northern coast in 10 days.
France Battles Back When the Germans
reached the French coast, they swung north again
and joined forces with German troops in Belgium.
By May 26, 1940, the Germans had trapped the
Allied forces around the northern French city of
Lille (leel). With a German victory inevitable,
Belgium surrendered. Outnumbered, outgunned,
and pounded from the air, the Allies escaped to the
beaches of Dunkirk, a French port city on the
English Channel. They were trapped with their
backs to the sea.
In one of the most heroic acts of the war, Great
Britain set out to rescue the army. It sent a fleet of
some 850 ships across the English Channel to
Dunkirk. Along with Royal Navy ships, civilian
craft—yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steam-
ers, and fishing boats—joined the rescue effort.
From May 26 to June 4, this amateur armada,
under heavy fire from German bombers, sailed
back and forth from Britain to Dunkirk. The boats
carried an incredible 338,000 battle-weary soldiers
to safety. Hundreds of British
soldiers crowd
France Falls Following Dunkirk, France seemed doomed to defeat. On June 10, aboard ship during
sensing a quick victory, Italy’s Benito Mussolini joined forces with Hitler and declared the mass evacua-
war on both Great Britain and France. Italy then attacked France from the south. By tion at Dunkirk.
June 14, Paris had fallen to the Germans. Nazi troops marched triumphantly down
the city’s main boulevard.
Two days later, seeing defeat approaching, the French parliament asked Marshal
Henri Pétain (pay TAN), an aging hero from World War I, to become prime minister.
•

Background On June 22, 1940, France surrendered. The Germans took control of the northern
Hitler demanded that part of the country. They left the southern part to a puppet government headed by
the surrender take
place in the same rail-
Pétain. The headquarters of this government was in the city of Vichy (VEESH ee). •

road car where the After France fell, a French general named Charles de Gaulle (duh GOHL) fled
French had dictated to London. There, he set up a government-in-exile committed to reconquering
terms to the Germans
in World War I.
France. On June 18, 1940, he delivered a broadcast from England. He called on the
people of France to resist:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
It is the bounden [obligatory] duty of all Frenchmen who still bear arms to continue the
struggle. For them to lay down their arms, to evacuate any position of military impor-
tance, or agree to hand over any part of French territory, however small, to enemy con-
trol would be a crime against our country. . . .
GENERAL CHARLES DE GAULLE, quoted in Charles de Gaulle: A Biography

De Gaulle went on to organize the Free French military forces that battled the
Nazis until France was liberated in 1944.
Germany Attacks Great Britain With the fall of France, Great Britain stood alone
against the Nazis. Winston Churchill, the new British prime minister, had already
declared that his nation would never give in. In a speech, he said, “We shall fight on
the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets . . . we shall never surrender.”
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■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Hitler now turned his mind to an invasion of Great Britain. His

■HISTORY
■ ■ ■ ■MAKERS
■ ■ ■ ■
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ plan—Operation Sea Lion —was first to knock out the Royal Air
Force (RAF) and then to land 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores. Background
In the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe (LOOFT vahf uh), Germany’s
• • Luftwaffe in German
air force, began bombing Great Britain. Badly outnumbered, the means “air weapon.”

RAF had 2,900 planes to the Luftwaffe’s 4,500. At first, the Germans
targeted British airfields and aircraft factories. Then, on September
7, 1940, they began focusing on the cities, especially London—to Vocabulary
break British morale. Bombs exploded daily in city streets. They morale: state of
killed civilians and set buildings ablaze. However, despite the mind.

destruction and loss of life, the British fought on.

With the pressure off the airfields, the RAF hit back hard. Two
secret weapons helped turn the tide in their favor. One was an elec-
Winston Churchill tronic tracking system known as radar. Developed in the late 1930s,
1874–1965 radar could tell the number, speed, and direction of incoming war-
Probably the greatest weapon the planes. The other was a German code-making machine named
British had as they stood alone Enigma. A complete Enigma machine was smuggled to Great Britain
against Hitler’s Germany was the
nation’s prime minister—Winston
in 1938. With Enigma in their possession, the British had German
Churchill. “Big Winnie,” Londoners secret messages open to them. With information gathered by these
boasted, “was the lad for us. . . .” devices, RAF fliers could quickly get to their airplanes and inflict
Although as a youngster deadly harm on the enemy.
Churchill had a speech defect, he
To avoid the RAF’s attacks, the Germans gave up daylight raids in
grew to become one of the greatest
orators of all time. He used all his October 1940 in favor of night bombing. At sunset, the wail of sirens
gifts as a speaker to rally the people filled the air as Londoners flocked to the subways. There they spent
behind the effort to crush Germany. the night in air-raid shelters. Some rode out the blasts at home in
He declared that Britain would
basements or in smaller air-raid shelters.
. . . wage war, by sea, land, and The Battle of Britain continued until May 10, 1941. Stunned by
air, with all our might and with
all the strength that God can British resistance, Hitler decided to call off his attacks. Instead, he
give us . . . against monstrous focused his attention on Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
tyranny. The Battle of Britain had ended. And, from it, the Allies had learned
a crucial lesson: Hitler’s advances could be blocked.
B. Possible
Answers A few
The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean thousand Italian dead
The stubborn resistance of the British in the Battle of Britain caused a shift in Hitler’s would have meant
that Mussolini was
strategy in Europe. Although the resistance surprised Hitler, it did not defeat him. He serious about commit-
would deal with Great Britain later. Instead, he turned his attention east to the ting Italy to the war. A
Balkans and the Mediterranean area—and to the ultimate prize, the Soviet Union. few thousand enemy
dead would prove
Germany and Italy Attack North Africa Germany’s first objective in the Italy’s military effec-
tiveness to Hitler.
Mediterranean region was North Africa—mainly because of Hitler’s partner
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
Mussolini. Despite Italy’s alliance with Germany, the country had remained neutral at B. Drawing
the beginning of the war. With Hitler’s conquest of France, however, Mussolini knew Conclusions How
he had to take action. Otherwise, Italy would not share in Germany’s victories. “I could “a few thou-
sand dead” have
need a few thousand dead,” he told a member of his staff. After declaring war on
helped Mussolini’s
France and Great Britain, Italy became Germany’s most important Axis ally. Then, position in the Axis
Mussolini moved into France along with the Nazis. powers?
Mussolini took his next step in September 1940. While the Battle of Britain was
raging, he ordered Italy’s North African army to move east from Libya. His goal was
to seize British-controlled Egypt. Egypt’s Suez Canal was key to reaching the oil fields
of the Middle East. Within a week, Italian troops had pushed 60 miles inside Egypt, Background
The Middle East is an
forcing British units back. Then both sides dug in and waited. area that includes the
countries of Southwest
Great Britain Strikes Back Finally, in December, the British decided to strike
Asia and northeast
back. The result was a disaster for the Italians. By February 1941, the British had Africa.
swept 500 miles across North Africa. They had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners.
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Hitler had to step in to save his Axis partner. In February 1941, he sent General
Erwin Rommel, later known as the “Desert Fox,” to Libya. His mission was to com-
mand a newly formed tank corps, the Afrika Korps. Determined to take control of
Egypt and the Suez Canal, Rommel attacked the British at Agheila (uh GAY luh) on
• •

March 24. Caught by surprise, British forces retreated 500 miles east to Tobruk.
However, by mid-January 1942, after fierce fighting for Tobruk, the British drove
Rommel back to where he had started. By June, the tide of battle turned again.
Rommel regrouped, pushed the British back across the desert, and seized Tobruk. This
was a shattering loss for the Allies. Rommel later wrote, “To every man of us, Tobruk
was a symbol of British resistance, and we were now going to finish with it for good.”
The War in the Balkans While Rommel campaigned in North Africa, Hitler was
Background active in the Balkans. As early as the summer of 1940, Hitler had begun planning to
The Balkan countries attack his ally, the USSR, by the following spring. The Balkan countries of southeast-
include Albania,
Bulgaria, Greece, ern Europe were key to Hitler’s invasion plan. Hitler wanted to build bases in south-
parts of Romania and eastern Europe for the attack on the Soviet Union. He also wanted to make sure that
Turkey, and most of the British did not interfere.
the former Yugoslavia.
To prepare for his invasion, Hitler moved to expand his influence in the Balkans. In
the face of overwhelming German strength, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary cooper-
ated by joining the Axis powers in early 1941. Yugoslavia and Greece, which had pro-
British governments, resisted. On Sunday, April 6, 1941, Hitler invaded both
countries. Yugoslavia fell in 11 days. Greece surrendered in 17. In Athens, the Nazis
celebrated their victory by raising swastikas on the Acropolis.
Hitler Invades the Soviet Union With the Balkans firmly in control, Hitler could
move ahead with his plan to invade the Soviet Union. He called that plan Operation
Barbarossa. Early on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, the roar of German tanks and
aircraft announced the beginning of the blitzkrieg invasion. The Soviet Union was not
prepared for this attack. With its 5 million men, the Red Army was the largest in the
world. But it was neither well equipped nor well trained.
The invasion rolled on week after week until the Germans had pushed 500 miles
inside the Soviet Union. As the Russians retreated, they burned and destroyed every-
thing in the enemy’s path. Russians had used this same strategy against Napoleon.
By September 8, Germans had surrounded Leningrad and isolated the city from
the rest of the world. If necessary, Hitler would starve the city’s 2.5 million inhabi-
tants. German bombs destroyed warehouses where food was stored. Desperately hun-
gry, people began eating cattle and horse feed, as well as cats and dogs and, finally,
crows and rats. More than 1 million people died in Leningrad that terrible winter. Yet
the city refused to fall.
Seeing that Leningrad would not surrender, Hitler looked to Moscow, the capital
and heart of the Soviet Union. A Nazi drive on the capital began on October 2, 1941.
A Soviet photo
taken in 1942
shows the horrors
of the war in the
Soviet Union.
Civilians in the
Crimea search over
a barren field for
their dead loved
ones.

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By December, the Germans had advanced to the outskirts of Moscow. Soviet General THINK THROUGH HISTORY
Georgi Zhukov (ZHOO kuhf) counterattacked. He had 100 fresh Siberian divisions
•
C. Making
and the harsh Soviet winter on his side. Inferences What
does the fact that
As temperatures fell, the Germans, in summer uniforms, retreated. Their fuel and German armies were
oil froze. Tanks, trucks, and weapons became useless. Ignoring Napoleon’s winter not prepared for the
defeat 130 years before, the Führer sent his generals a stunning order: “No retreat!” Russian winter indi-
German troops dug in about 125 miles west of the capital. They held the line against cate about Hitler’s
expectations for the
the Soviets until March 1943. Nonetheless, Moscow had been saved and had cost the campaign in the
Germans 500,000 lives. Soviet Union?
C. Possible Answer
Hitler expected a
U.S. industry The United States Aids Its Allies quick victory in the
Soviet Union and did
achieved amazing As disturbing as these events were to Americans, bitter memories of World War I con- not think that his
rates of speed
vinced most people in the United States that their country should not get involved. fighting men would
when it began to
produce for the war Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. The laws made still be in combat by
effort. This ship, for it illegal to sell arms or lend money to nations at war. But President Roosevelt knew winter.
example, was that if the Allies fell, the United States would be drawn into the war. In September
produced in a U.S.
shipyard in only 10 1939, he persuaded Congress to allow the Allies to buy American arms. According to
days. his plan, they would pay cash and then carry the goods on their own ships.
Under the Lend-Lease Act, passed in March
1941, the president could lend or lease arms and
other supplies to any country vital to the United
States. By the summer of 1941, the U.S. Navy
was escorting British ships carrying U.S. arms.
In response, Hitler ordered his submarines to
sink any cargo ships they met.
Although the United States had not yet entered
the war, Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly on a
battleship off Newfoundland on August 9. The Background
two leaders issued a joint declaration called the Newfoundland is a
province of Canada.
Atlantic Charter. It upheld free trade among
nations and the right of people to choose their
own government. The charter later served as the
Allies’ peace plan at the end of World War II.
On September 4, a German U-boat suddenly
fired on a U.S. destroyer in the Atlantic.
Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to respond. They were to shoot German sub-
marines on sight. The United States was now involved in an undeclared naval war
with Hitler. To almost everyone’s surprise, however, the attack that actually drew the
United States into the war did not come from Germany. It came from Japan.

Section 1 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES 2. TAKING NOTES 3. MAKING INFERENCES 4. THEME ACTIVITY
Identify Create a chart like the one beIow. Great Britain and the Soviet city of Economics In groups of 3 or 4,
• nonaggression pact Identify the effects of each of Leningrad each fought off a prepare a dramatic scene for a
• blitzkrieg these early events of World War II. German invasion. Other countries play or film that focuses on an
• Charles de Gaulle gave in to the Germans without economic problem that might have
• Winston Churchill Cause Effect much resistance. What factors do been suffered by Europeans
• Battle of Britain First blitzkrieg
you think a country’s leaders during World War II.
• Atlantic Charter consider when deciding whether
Allies stranded at
Dunkirk to surrender or to fight?
British radar THINK ABOUT
detects German • the country’s ability to fight
aircraft
• the costs of resisting
Lend-Lease Act
• the costs of surrendering
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TERMS & NAMES

2 Japan Strikes • Isoroku
Yamamoto
• Pearl Harbor

in the Pacific • Battle of Midway

• Douglas
MacArthur
• Battle of
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Guadalcanal
Carving out an empire, Japan attacked World War II established the role of the
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and brought the United States as a leading player in
United States into World War II. international affairs.

SETTING THE STAGE Like Hitler, Japan’s military leaders also had dreams of empire.
Japan was overcrowded and faced shortages of raw materials. To solve these problems—
and to encourage nationalism—the Japanese began a program of empire building that
would lead to war.

Japan Seeks a Pacific Empire

Japan’s expansion began in 1931. In that year, Japanese troops took over Manchuria in
northeastern China. Six years later, Japanese armies swept into the heartland of
China. They expected quick victory. Chinese resistance, however, caused the war to
drag on. This caused a strain on Japan’s economy. To increase their resources,
Japanese leaders looked toward the rich European colonies of Southeast Asia.
The Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor By August 1940, Americans had cracked a
Japanese secret code. They were well aware of Japanese plans for Southeast Asia. If
Japan conquered European colonies there, it could also threaten the American-
controlled Philippine Islands and Guam. To
stop the Japanese advance, the U.S. govern-
ment sent aid to strengthen Chinese resis-
tance. And when the Japanese overran
Background French Indochina in July 1941, Roosevelt
French Indochina was cut off oil shipments to Japan.
an area now made up
by Vietnam, Cambodia, Despite an oil shortage, the Japanese con-
and Laos. tinued their conquests. They hoped to catch
the United States by surprise. So they
planned massive attacks in Southeast Asia
and in the Pacific—both at the same time.
Japan’s greatest naval strategist, Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto (ih soh ROO koo
• • •

yah muh MOH toh), also argued that the

• • •

U.S. fleet in Hawaii was “a dagger pointed at

our throat” and must be destroyed.
Early in the morning of December 7,
1941, American sailors at Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii awoke to the roar of explosives. A The U.S.S. West
Japanese attack was underway! The United States had known from a coded Japanese Virginia in flames
message that an attack might come. But they did not know when or where it would after taking a direct
hit during the
occur. Within two hours, the Japanese had sunk or damaged 18 ships, including 8 bat-
Japanese attack on
tleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. Some 2,400 Americans were killed— Pearl Harbor.
with more than 1,000 wounded. News of the attack stunned the American people.
The next day, Congress declared war on Japan. In his speech to Congress, President
Roosevelt described December 7 as “a date which will live in infamy.”

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The Tide of Japanese Victories The Japanese had planned a series of strikes at the
United States in the Pacific. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese seized
Guam and Wake Island in the western Pacific. They then launched an attack on the
Philippines. In January 1942, the Japanese marched into the Philippine capital of
Manila. They overwhelmed American and Filipino defenders on the Bataan Peninsula
(buh TAN) in April—and in May, on the island of Corregidor.
•

The Japanese also hit the British, seizing Hong Kong and invading Malaya. By
February 1942, the Japanese had reached Singapore. After a fierce pounding, the
colony surrendered. By March, the Japanese had conquered the resource-rich Dutch
East Indies (now Indonesia), including the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and
Celebes (SEHL uh beez). After Malaya, the Japanese took Burma, between China
• •

and India. China received supplies by way of the Burma Road. The Japanese could
now close off the road. Now they might force the Chinese to surrender.
By the time Burma fell, Japan had conquered more than 1 million square miles of
land with about 150 million people. Before these conquests, the Japanese had tried to
win the support of Asians with the anticolonialist idea of “Asia for the Asians.” After
victory, however, the Japanese quickly made it clear that they had come as conquerors.
Native peoples often received the same brutal treatment as the 150,000 prisoners
of war. On what is called the Bataan Death March, the Japanese subjected prisoners
to terrible cruelties. One American soldier reported: Background
According to the cen-
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T turies-old warrior
I was questioned by a Japanese officer who found out that I had been in a Philippine code called Bushido, a
Scout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts. . . . Anyway, they took me outside and Japanese soldier
I was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig their must commit suicide,
or hari-kari, rather
own graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head
than surrender. So
with shovels to stun them and piled earth on top.
Japanese soldiers had
LIEUTENANT JOHN SPAINHOWER, quoted in War Diary 1939–1945 contempt for Allied
prisoners of war.

160° W

120° W
World War II in Asia and the Pacific, 1941–1945 s
nd
sla
ia n I
S O VI E T U N I O N Aleut
120° E

160° E

C AN ADA
80° E

Kiska
. Aug. 1943
Is
MONGOLIA MANCHURIA r ile
Ku Japanese empire, 1931
Japanese gains by 1942
Hokkaido Extent of Japanese expansion U N ITED
40° N Allies S TATES
N

Beijing KOREA
PA

CHINA (Peking) Neutral nations

JA

Hiroshima Tokyo
Aug. 1945 Allied advances
PACIFIC OCEAN
Nanking
Nagasaki, Aug. 1945
Battle
Shanghai
Ha
wa
Okinawa Iwo Jima Midway I. iia
TAIWAN Apr.–July 1945 Feb.–Mar. 1945 nI
June 1942 sla
Tropic of Cancer (Formosa) nd
5

s(
194

U.
S.)
I ND I A BURMA Hong Kong Mariana Wake I.
(Br.) (Br.) Dec. 1941
19

Islands Pearl Harbor Dec. 1941

45

1945

FRENCH 1943
INDO- PHILIPPINES Saipan
4 0 1,000 Miles
CHINA June–July 1944 194
194

THAILAND Leyte Gulf 1944

5

Oct. 1944 Guam 0 2,000 Kilometers

July–Aug. 1944
Marshall
1943

Caroline Islands
Islands GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER:
MALAYA
19

Interpreting Maps
44

Singapore Tarawa
0° Equator Gilbert
Nov. 1943 1. Location Which battle was fought
DU TC H Islands in the most northern region?
19
19

EAS T IN DIES
43-

INDIAN OCEAN
43
-1

2. Movement From what two general

194 4

NEW GUINEA Solomon

94
4

Islands
directions did Allied forces move in on
Coral Sea Guadalcanal Japan?
May 1942 Aug. 1942–Feb. 1943
1942

Coral
AUSTRALIA
828 Sea
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The Allies Strike Back

After a string of victories, the Japanese seemed unbeatable. Nonetheless, the Allies—
mainly Americans and Australians—were anxious to strike back in the Pacific. In April
1942, the United States wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor. So the United States sent
16 B-25 bombers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle to
bomb Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. The bombs did little damage. The attack,
however, made an important psychological point: the Japanese could be attacked.
The Allies Turn the Tide of War Doolittle’s raid on Japan raised American morale
Vocabulary and shook the confidence of some Japanese. As one Japanese citizen described it, “We
invincible: started to doubt that we were invincible.” In addition, Japan had won a vast empire
unconquerable. that was becoming difficult to defend and control.
Slowly, the Allies began to turn the tide of war. Early in May 1942, an American fleet
with Australian support intercepted a Japanese strike force. The force had been about
to attack Port Moresby. The city housed a critical Allied air base in southeastern New
Guinea (GIHN ee). From this base, the Japanese could have easily invaded Australia.
•

In the battle that followed—the Battle of the Coral Sea—both fleets fought using a
new kind of naval warfare. The opposing ships did not fire a single shot. In fact, they
often could not see one other. Instead,
airplanes taking off from huge aircraft
carriers did all the fighting. In the end,
A. Possible
Answers Midway
the battle was something of a draw.
Island had an impor- The Allies lost more ships than the
tant U.S. air base, so Japanese, who claimed victory. But the
defending the island
Allies had stopped Japan’s southward
would be vital to the
Americans. Midway expansion for the first time.
was located just west
of Hawaii, so the The Battle of Midway Japan next
Americans would targeted Midway Island, west of Hawaii.
probably do as much The island was home to a key American
as they could to keep
the Japanese away
airfield. However, by June 1942, yet
from this important another Japanese code had been broken.
American territory. As a result, the new commander in chief
THINK THROUGH HISTORY of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral
A. Analyzing Chester Nimitz, knew that a force of
Motives What rea-
sons might Admiral
over 150 ships was heading toward
Yamamoto have had Midway. The Japanese fleet was the
for thinking the largest naval force ever assembled. It
Americans would As happened in
could also boast the world’s largest battleship, carrying Admiral Yamamoto himself. other battles of the
send their entire
Pacific fleet to defend Yamamoto hoped not only to seize Midway but also to finish off the U.S. Pacific fleet. Pacific war, U.S.
Midway Island? He hoped the American force would come from Pearl Harbor to defend the island. Marines destroy a
Nimitz was outnumbered four to one in ships and planes. Even so, he was prepar- cave connected to
a Japanese fort on
ing an ambush for the Japanese at Midway. On June 4, with American forces hidden the island of Iwo
beyond the horizon, Nimitz allowed the enemy to launch the first strike. As Japanese Jima.
planes roared over Midway Island, American carrier planes swooped in to attack
Japanese ships. Many Japanese planes were still on the decks of the ships. The strat-
egy was a success. American pilots destroyed 332 Japanese planes, all four aircraft car-
riers, and one support ship. Yamamoto ordered his crippled fleet to withdraw. By June
6, 1942, the battle was over. One Japanese official commented, “The Americans had
avenged Pearl Harbor.” The Battle of Midway had also turned the tide of war in the
Pacific against the Japanese.
The Allies Go on the Offensive With morale high after their Midway victory, the
Allies took the offensive. The Pacific war was one of vast distances. Japanese troops
had dug in on hundreds of islands across the ocean. General Douglas MacArthur was
World War II 829
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commander of the Allied land forces in the Pacific. He believed that storming each THINK THROUGH HISTORY
island would be a long, costly effort. Instead, he wanted to “island-hop” past Japanese B. Identifying
Problems If the vast
strongpoints. He would then seize islands that were not well defended but were closer distances of the
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ to Japan. After taking the islands, MacArthur would use air power to Pacific caused prob-
■HISTORY
■ ■ ■ ■MAKERS ■ ■ ■ ■ cut supply lines and starve enemy troops. “Hit ’em where they ain’t, lems for the Allies,
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ let ’em die on the vine,” MacArthur declared. how might they have
also caused problems
MacArthur’s first target soon presented itself. The U.S. government for the Japanese?
had learned that the Japanese were building a huge air base on the B. Possible Answer
Supplying their out-
island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The Allies had to strike posts over great dis-
fast before the base was completed and became another Japanese tances and keeping
strongpoint. At dawn on August 7, 1942, about 19,000 U.S. Marines, the Allies out of thou-
with Australian support, landed on Guadalcanal and a few nearby sands of square miles
of ocean would proba-
islands. Caught unprepared, the Japanese at Guadalcanal radioed, bly be problems for
“Enemy forces overwhelming. We will defend our posts to the death.” the Japanese.
The marines had easily taken the Japanese airfield. But the battle
for control of the island turned into a savage struggle as both sides THINK THROUGH HISTORY
C. Analyzing
poured in fresh troops. In February 1943, after six months of fight- Causes What rea-
Douglas MacArthur
1880–1964
ing on land and at sea, the Battle of Guadalcanal finally ended. sons could have made
Son of a Civil War army officer, After losing 23,000 men out of 36,000, the Japanese abandoned the the Japanese fight
until they lost 23,000
Douglas MacArthur said that his first island they came to call “the Island of Death.”
out of 36,000 defend-
memory was the “sound of bugles.” To war correspondent Ralph Martin and the soldiers who fought ing the island of
MacArthur yearned, even at an early there, Guadalcanal was simply “hell”: Guadalcanal?
age, for a life of action and adven- C. Possible
ture. With a strong will and his A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T Answers The mili-
mother’s encouragement, he grew to Hell was furry red spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as tary importance of the
become one of the most brilliant your leg, leeches falling from trees to suck blood, armies of white ants airfield; bravery;
military strategists of World War II. with bites of fire, scurrying scorpions inflaming any flesh they honor; blind obedi-
MacArthur believed that destiny touched, enormous rats and bats everywhere, and rivers with waiting ence; a belief in coun-
had called him to perform great try over an individual
crocodiles. Hell was the sour, foul smell of the squishy jungle, humid-
deeds. He once boasted, “All human life.
ity that rotted a body within hours. . . . Hell was an enemy . . . so
Germany cannot fabricate the shell
fanatic that it used its own dead as booby traps.
that will kill me.” The general had
his critics, but he also inspired deep RALPH G. MARTIN, quoted in The GI War
loyalty among his men. One
remarked, “His first thought was As Japan worked to establish a new order in Southeast Asia and
always for the soldier.” the Pacific, the Nazis moved ahead with Hitler’s plan for a new order
in Europe. Hitler’s goal was not only the conquest of Europe. He
also aimed at enslaving Europe’s people and forcing them to work for Germany’s pros-
perity. In particular, the Führer had plans for dealing with those he considered unfit
for the Third Reich. You will learn about Hitler’s plans in Section 3.

Section 2 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES 2. TAKING NOTES 3. EVALUATING DECISIONS 4. ANALYZING THEMES
Identify Create a chart like the one below. Judging from the effects of the Empire Building What do you
• Isoroku Yamamoto List four major events of the war attack on Pearl Harbor, do you think Yamamoto’s biggest
• Pearl Harbor in the Pacific between 1941 and think Yamamoto made a wise problems were in building the
• Battle of Midway 1943. decision in bombing Pearl Harbor? Japanese empire in the Pacific?
• Douglas MacArthur Why or why not? THINK ABOUT
• Battle of Guadalcanal Event 1:
THINK ABOUT • geographical problems
Event 2: • Yamamoto’s goals in the • European/American interests in
Event 3: bombing the Pacific
Event 4: • U.S. involvement in World War II • psychological factors
• the effects of the bombing
Which event was most important
in turning the tide of the war in the
Pacific against the Japanese?
Why?

830 Chapter 32
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Page 1 of 4

TERMS & NAMES

3 The Holocaust •
•
•
Aryans
Holocaust
Kristallnacht
• ghettos
• ”Final Solution“
• genocide
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW
During the Holocaust, Hitler’s Nazis The violence against Jews during the
killed 6 million Jews and 5 million Holocaust led to the founding of Israel
other ”non-Aryans.“ after World War II.

Background SETTING THE STAGE As part of their new order for Europe, Nazis proclaimed that
Hitler misused the
term Aryan to mean
Aryans, or Germanic peoples, were a “master race.” They claimed that Jews and
“Germanic.” In fact, other non-Aryan peoples were inferior. This racist message would eventually lead to
the term refers to the the Holocaust—the mass slaughter of civilians, especially Jews.
Indo-European peo-
ples. (See Chapter 3.)
The Holocaust Begins
Nazi propaganda started as an ugly campaign of anti-Semitism. It eventually flared
into persecution across Germany. Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jews
that had deep roots in European history.
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
For generations, many Germans, along with
A. Analyzing other Europeans, had targeted Jews as the
Motives Why might cause of their failures. The Nazis even
the people of a coun- blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in World
try want to blame a
minority group for War I and for its economic problems after
most of its problems? that war.
A. Possible In 1933, the Nazis made persecution a
Answers A minority
group may be differ-
government policy. They first passed laws
ent culturally, and forbidding Jews to hold public office. Then,
some people are in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews
afraid of differences;
targeting a minority
of their rights to German citizenship, jobs,
for blame takes and property. To make it easier for the Nazis
responsibility away to identify them, Jews had to wear a bright
from a country and its yellow star attached to their clothing.
leaders, so the major-
ity can feel better Kristallnacht: “Night of Broken Glass”
about itself.
Worse was yet to come. Early in November
1938, 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan
(GRIHN shpahn), a Jewish youth from
•

Germany, was visiting an uncle in Paris.

While Grynszpan was there, he received a
postcard. It said that after living in Germany
for 27 years, his father had been deported to Hitler’s special
his native Poland. On November 7, wishing to avenge his father’s deportation, troops helped
Grynszpan shot an employee of the German Embassy in Paris. spread the message
of the government’s
When Nazi leaders heard the news, they launched a violent attack on the Jewish anti-Semitic policy.
community. On November 9, Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, The sign these
and synagogues across Germany and murdered around 100 Jews. An American in troops are putting
up reads, “Germans!
Leipzig wrote, “Jewish shop windows by the hundreds were systematically . . . Protect yourselves!
smashed. . . . The main streets of the city were a positive litter of shattered plate Don’t buy in Jewish
glass.” It is for this reason that the night of November 9 became known as stores!”
Kristallnacht (krih STAHL NAHKT), or “Night of Broken Glass.”
• •

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Young M.I. Libau was only 14 years old when Nazis attacked his family’s home.
Libau described what the Nazis did:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
All the things for which my parents had worked for eighteen long years were destroyed
in less than ten minutes. Piles of valuable glasses, expensive furniture, linens—in short,
everything was destroyed. . . . The Nazis left us, yelling, “Don’t try to leave this house!
We’ll soon be back again and take you to a concentration camp to be shot.”
M.I. LIBAU, quoted in Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust

Kristallnacht marked a major step-up in the Nazi policy of Jewish persecution. The
future for Jews in Germany looked grim.
The Flood of Refugees After Kristallnacht, some Jews realized that violence against
them was bound to increase. By the end of 1939, a number of Jews in Germany had
fled for safety to other countries. Many of them, however, remained in Germany.
Later, there would be millions more in territories conquered by Hitler. At first, Hitler
favored emigration as a solution to what he called “the Jewish problem.” The Nazis
sped up the process. They forced Jews who did not want to leave into emigrating.
Getting other countries to continue admitting Germany’s Jews became a problem.
B. Possible
France had admitted 25,000 Jewish refugees and wanted no more. The British, who
Answers Poland
had accepted 80,000 Jews, worried about fueling anti-Semitism if that number was a weak, con-
increased. Some 40,000 Jews found homes in Latin America, but that region had quered country, so
closed its doors by the end of 1938. The United States took in around 100,000 Hitler could do what-
ever he wanted there;
refugees (including German scientist Albert Einstein). Many Americans, however, Hitler considered the
wanted U.S. doors closed. Germany’s foreign minister observed: “We all want to get Polish subhuman, so
rid of our Jews. The difficulty is that no country wishes to receive them.” he may have felt that
he could do whatever
This pile of shoes Isolating the Jews Hitler found that he could not get rid of Jews through emigra- he wanted in their
taken from Nazi country.
victims represents
tion. So he put another part of his plan into effect. Hitler ordered Jews in all countries
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
the murder of under his control to be moved into certain cities in Poland. In those cities, they were B. Analyzing
thousands of Jews. herded into dismal, overcrowded ghettos, or segregated Jewish areas. The Nazis then Causes Why might
The inset shows
sealed off the ghettos with barbed wire and stone walls. They wanted the Jews inside Hitler have chosen
the living inmates Poland to put his
at Auschwitz trying to starve or die from disease. One survivor wrote, “One sees people dying, lying with
ghetto policy for “the
to salvage shoes arms and legs outstretched in the middle of the road. Their legs are bloated, often Jewish problem” into
left by the dead. frostbitten, and their faces distorted with pain.” effect?
Even under these horrible conditions, the
Jews hung on. Some formed resistance organi-
zations within the ghettos. They smuggled in
food and other needed items. In the midst of
chaos, Jews also struggled to keep their tradi-
tions. Ghetto theaters produced plays and con-
certs. Teachers taught lessons in secret schools.
Scholars kept records so that one day people
would find out the truth.

832
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Page 3 of 4

Hitler’s “Final Solution”

Hitler soon grew impatient waiting for Jews to die from starvation or
disease in the ghettos. He decided to take more direct action. His
plan was called the “Final Solution.” It was actually a program of SPOTLIGHT ON
genocide, the systematic killing of an entire people. Nazi Medicine
Hitler believed that his plan of conquest depended on the purity Nazi doctors, such as the notorious
of the Aryan race. To protect racial purity, the Nazis not only had to Josef Mengele, used many
eliminate the Jews, but also other races, nationalities, or groups they concentration camp prisoners as
viewed as inferior—as “subhumans.” They included gypsies, Poles, guinea pigs for their experiments.
To promote “racial purity,” doctors
Russians, homosexuals, the insane, the disabled, and the incurably ill. tested sterilization methods on
But the Nazis focused especially on the Jews. some prisoners. Doctors infected
other prisoners with typhus and
The Mass Killings Begin After Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, it other deadly diseases to see how
was still not clear that the Führer meant to eliminate Jews totally. As long they could survive. To practice
Nazi armies swept across Eastern Europe, Hitler sent SS units from surgery, student doctors would
town to town to hunt Jews down. The SS (Hitler’s elite security force) operate on prisoners without
Vocabulary
anesthesia. In the hands of the
collaborators: and some thousands of collaborators rounded up Jews—men, women, Nazis, even medicine became an
people who assist an young children, and even babies—and took them to isolated spots.
occupying enemy
instrument of pain and destruction.
force. They then shot their prisoners in pits that became the prisoners’ grave.
Jews in communities not reached by the killing squads were
rounded up and taken to concentration camps, or slave-labor prisons. These camps
were located mainly in Germany and Poland. Later, Nazis built camps in other
countries they occupied. (See the map on page 847.) Hitler hoped that the horrible
conditions in the camps would speed the total elimination of the Jews.
The prisoners worked seven days a week as slaves for the SS or for German busi-
Background nesses. Guards severely beat or killed their prisoners for not working fast enough.
Nazis also slaugh- With meals of thin soup, a scrap of bread, and potato peelings, most prisoners lost 50
tered 5 million Poles, pounds the first month. “Hunger was so intense,” recalled one survivor, “that if a bit
Soviets, and others
they considered as of soup spilled over, prisoners would . . . dig their spoons into the mud and stuff the
“undesirables.” mess into their mouths.”
The Final Stage: Mass Extermination The “Final Solution” officially reached its
final stage in early 1942. At that time, the Nazis built extermination camps equipped
with gas chambers for mass murder. The Nazis built the first six death camps in
Poland. The first, Chelmno, actually began operating in late 1941. (See the map on

Slave workers in
the Buchenwald
concentration camp
in Germany. They
were among the
lucky to have sur-
vived to the end of
the war. The pris-
oner highlighted
with a circle is
Nobel Prize win-
ning author Elie
Wiesel. (See “A
Voice from the
Past,” page 834.)
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Jews Killed under Nazi Rule*

Original Jewish Jews Percent
Population Killed Surviving
Poland 3,300,000 3,000,000 10%

Soviet Union 2,850,000 1,252,000 56%

Hungary 650,000 450,000 30%

Romania 600,000 300,000 50%

Germany/Austria 240,000 200,000 16 2/3%
*Estimates
In 1941, Hitler’s
government page 847.) The huge gas chambers in the camps could kill as many as 6,000 human
required all Jews in
German-controlled
beings in a day.
territories to wear a When prisoners arrived at the largest of the death camps, Auschwitz (OUSH vihts), •
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
yellow Star of David they paraded before a committee of SS doctors. With a wave of the hand, these doc- C. Analyzing
when appearing in
tors separated the strong (mostly men) from the weak, who would die that day. Those Motives How could
public places. concentration camp
chosen to die (mostly women, young children, the elderly, and the sick) were told to
doctors and guards
undress for a shower. They were led into a chamber with fake showerheads, and the have justified to them-
doors closed. The prisoners were then poisoned with cyanide gas that poured from the selves the death and
showerheads. Later, the Nazis installed crematoriums, or ovens, to burn the bodies. suffering they caused
other human beings?
The Survivors Six million Jews died in the death camps and in C. Possible
SPOTLIGHT ON Nazi massacres. Fewer than 4 million European Jews survived the Answers If they
could convince them-
horrors of the Holocaust. Many had help from non-Jewish people selves that their pris-
Jewish Resistance
who were against the Nazis’ treatment of Jews. Swedish business- oners were subhuman,
The 700 members of the Jewish the doctors and
Fighting Organization in the Warsaw
man Raoul Wallenberg and Protestant religious thinker Dietrich
guards might tell
ghetto were among the Jews who Bonhoeffer are just two examples of Christians who risked their themselves that they
resisted the horrors of Nazism. In lives to oppose Hitler’s policies. These people risked their lives by were not actually
April 1943, most of these young hiding Jews or by helping them escape to neutral countries such as killing or torturing real
people lost their lives battling Nazi human beings; they
Switzerland or Sweden. might claim that they
tanks and troops who were
destroying the ghetto. Those who survived the camps were changed forever by what they were simply following
Even in the death camps, Jews had seen. For Elie Wiesel, 15 years old when he entered Auschwitz, orders and had no
rose up against the Nazis. In August choice.
the light had gone out:
1943 at Treblinka, Poland, a small
group of Jews revolted. Breaking into A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
the armory, they stole guns and Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw
grenades. They then attacked guards turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I
and set fire to the gas chambers. forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. . . . Never shall
Most of these brave fighters died. I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and
They had paid the highest price turned my dreams to dust. . . . Never.
possible to combat Nazi atrocities.
ELIE WIESEL, quoted in Night

Section 3 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES 2. TAKING NOTES 3. MAKING INFERENCES 4. THEME ACTIVITY
Identify Using a web diagram like the one Why do you think German soldiers Science and Technology In
• Aryans below, give examples of Nazi and the German people went groups of three or four students,
• Holocaust persecutions. along with the Nazi policy of discuss the ethical dilemmas of
• Kristallnacht persecution of the Jews? German scientists, engineers, and
• ghettos THINK ABOUT doctors asked to organize and
• “Final Solution” Nazi persecutions • Nazi treatment of those who participate in the Holocaust.
• genocide disagreed How might they have opposed
• Nazi propaganda Hitler’s policy? In public? In secret?
• the political and social What might have been the conse-
conditions in Germany quences of public opposition?
at the time
834 Chapter 32
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TERMS & NAMES

4 The Allies •
•
•
Erwin Rommel
Bernard Montgomery
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Are Victorious •
•
•
Battle of Stalingrad
D-Day
Battle of the Bulge
• kamikaze
MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Led by the United States, Great Britain, The Allies’ victory in World War II set
and the Soviet Union, the Allies scored up conditions for both the Cold War
key victories and won the war. and today’s post-Cold War world.

SETTING THE STAGE As 1941 came to an end, Hitler said, “Let’s hope 1942 brings
me as much good fortune as 1941.” Despite the Führer’s hopes, Germany’s victories
slowed considerably during 1942. The United States had entered the war, boosting
the Allies’ morale and strength.

The Allies Plan for Victory

On December 22, 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill and President
Roosevelt met at the White House to develop a joint war policy. Stalin had asked his
allies to relieve German pressure on his armies in the east. He wanted them to open a
second front in the west. The second front would split the Germans’
strength by forcing them to fight major battles in two regions instead ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
of one. Churchill agreed with Stalin’s strategy: The Allies would ■HISTORY
■ ■ ■ ■MAKERS
■ ■ ■ ■
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
weaken Germany on two fronts before dealing a deathblow. At first,
Roosevelt was torn, but ultimately he agreed.

The Tide Turns on Two Fronts

Churchill urged that Britain and the United States strike first at
North Africa and southern Europe. The strategy angered Stalin. He
wanted the Allies to open the second front in France. In the mean-
time, the Soviet Union would have to hold out on its own against the
Germans—with the help of some supplies from its partners.
Nevertheless, late in 1942, the Allies began to turn the tide of war
both in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front.
General Erwin Rommel
The North African Campaign German forces had been advancing 1891–1944
and retreating across the North African desert since early 1941. On July 20, 1944, a plot to
assassinate Hitler by a group of
Finally, General Erwin Rommel took the key port city of Tobruk in
German officers failed. Under
June 1942. With Tobruk’s fall, London sent General Bernard torture, one conspirator accused
Montgomery—“Monty” to his men—to take control of British war hero General Erwin Rommel of
forces in North Africa. By this time, the Germans had advanced to an involvement in the plot. The news
Egyptian village called El Alamein (al uh MAYN), west of Alexandria.
• •
shook and enraged Hitler, since
Rommel had always been devoted
They were dug in so well that British forces could not go around to him.
them. So, Montgomery had to launch the Battle of El Alamein with a Was Rommel actually involved?
Background massive attack from the front. On the night of October 23, the roar of Evidence indicates that he was
Montgomery, like more than 1,700 British guns took the Axis soldiers totally by surprise. ready to bypass Hitler and
Rommel himself, used personally negotiate for peace with
They fought back fiercely, but by November 3, Rommel’s army had the Allies. However, many believe
dummy regiments
built from timber and been beaten. He and his forces retreated westward. that he knew nothing of the plot.
canvas. They were As Rommel retreated west, the Allies launched Operation Torch. On Hitler believed that he did. He
intended to fool the November 8, an Allied force of more than 107,000 troops—mostly offered Rommel a choice—a public
enemy into thinking trial or suicide and a state funeral.
that forces were sta- Americans—landed in Morocco and Algeria. This force was led by On October 14, 1944, Rommel took
tioned where, in fact, American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Caught between the two poison and died.
they were not. armies, the Desert Fox’s Afrika Korps was finally smashed in May 1943.
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World War II: Allied Advances, Turning Point at Stalingrad As

1942–1945 Rommel suffered defeats in North
0 500 Miles Africa, German armies also met

40° E
Axis nations, 1938 their match in the Soviet Union.
Axis-controlled, 1942 0 1,000 Kilometers
NORWAY FINLAND They had stalled at Leningrad and
Allies
SWEDEN Leningrad
Neutral nations 60° N Moscow. Germans suffered heavy
Allied advances ESTONIA losses in battle because of the
LATVIA Moscow Russian winter. When the summer
0°

North DENMARK Baltic

GREAT
BRITAIN Sea LITH. of 1942 arrived, German tanks were
Sea EAST 44
PRUSSIA 19
SOVIET
again ready to roll. Hitler sent his
IRELAND Berlin 1945
NETH. 9 43 Sixth Army south to seize the rich oil
London 1 UNION
Dunkirk GERMANY Warsaw
BE D fields in the Caucasus Mountains.
1944

LG POLAND 1944 nie

h
E n g li s e l y 1944 . LUX. CZECHOSL per 1943 Stalingrad
C h a n nrmand Paris 1945 OVAKIA The army was also to capture
2
194

1944
R.
No 1944 1943
AUST
RIA
N G AR
Y
Stalingrad (now Volgograd) on the
FRANCE SWITZ. HU ROMANIA
ATLANTIC YU
G
Volga River. With its 500,000 people,
ITALY O
OCEAN SL Stalingrad was a major industrial
1944

194

AV
IA BULGARIA
Black Sea
center.
5

Rome
NIA
PORTUGAL

SPAIN 40° N The Battle of Stalingrad began

ALBA
1944

1943

GREECE TURKEY
IRAN
on August 23, 1942. The Luftwaffe
1942 Sicily
went on nightly bombing raids that
1943

Crete A. Possible
1942
Mediterranean Sea SYRIA set much of the city ablaze and
Answers The army
19

TUNISIA LEBANON
44

MOROCCO (Fr.) 1 943 Tobruk PALESTINE

IRAQ reduced the rest to rubble. The situ- fighting on its own
(Fr.) 1942
ALGERIA 194
2 TRANS- ation looked desperate. Nonetheless, soil would know the
(Fr.) LIBYA (It.) El Alamein JORDAN
Stalin had already told his comman- territory better than
EGYPT SAUDI the invading army; it
ARABIA ders to defend the city named after would have the sup-
him at all costs. “Not one step back- port of the local popu-
ward,” he ordered. lation, which the
invaders would not; it
By early November 1942, would have the addi-
G E O G R A P H Y S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Maps Germans controlled 90 percent of tional energy that
1. Region Which European countries remained neutral during
the ruined city. Stalingrad was an comes with defending
World War II? one’s own home.
2. Movement What seems to be the destination for most of the “enormous cloud of burning, blind-
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
Allied advances that took place in Europe during 1943–1944? ing smoke,” as one German officer A. Making
wrote. Then, another Russian winter Inferences What
set in. On November 19, Soviet troops outside the city launched a counterattack. advantages might a
weaker army fighting
Closing in around Stalingrad, they trapped the Germans inside and cut off their sup-
on its home soil have
plies. Hitler’s commander, General Friedrich von Paulus, begged him to order a over a stronger invad-
retreat. But Hitler refused, saying the city was “to be held at all costs.” ing army?
On February 2, 1943, some 90,000 frostbitten, half-starved German troops surren-
dered to the Soviets. These pitiful survivors were all that remained of an army of
330,000. Stalingrad’s defense had cost the Soviets over 1 million soldiers. The city they
defended was 99 percent destroyed. After Stalingrad, however, the Germans were on
the defensive, with the Soviets pushing them steadily westward.
The Invasion of Italy As the Battle of Stalingrad raged, Stalin continued to urge
the British and the Americans to invade France. In January 1943, Roosevelt and
Churchill met at Casablanca, Morocco, and decided to attack Italy first. On July 10,
1943, Allied forces of 180,000 soldiers landed on Sicily and captured it from Italian
and German troops by August. Background
The conquest of Sicily toppled Mussolini from power. On July 25, King Victor As the Allies
advanced, the Italian
Emmanuel III fired the dictator and had him arrested. On September 3, Italy surren- resistance aided them
dered. But the Germans seized control of northern Italy and put Mussolini back in by blowing up
charge. Finally, the Germans retreated northward, and the victorious Allies entered bridges, roads, and
rail lines; cutting tele-
Rome on June 4, 1944. Fighting in Italy, however, continued until Germany fell in phone lines; and
May 1945. On April 28, 1945, as the Germans were retreating from northern Italy, the ambushing German
Italian resistance ambushed some trucks. Inside one of them, resistance fighters trucks.
836 Chapter 32
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These dazed, freez-

found Mussolini disguised as a German soldier. The following day, he was shot, and ing, and starved
German prisoners
his body was hanged in the Milan town square. were actually lucky
to be alive. About
240,000 Germans
Life on Allied Home Fronts died during the bat-
Wherever Allied forces fought, people on the home fronts rallied to support them. In tle for the city of
war-torn countries like the Soviet Union or Great Britain, civilians lost their lives and Stalingrad.

endured extreme hardships. Except for a few of its territories, such as Hawaii, the
United States did not suffer invasion or bombing. Nonetheless, Americans at home
made a crucial contribution to the Allied war effort. Americans produced the weapons
and equipment that would help win the war.
Mobilizing for Total War Defeating the Axis powers required mobilizing for total
war. In the United States, factories converted their peacetime operations to wartime
production and made everything from machine guns to boots. Automobile factories
produced tanks. A U.S. typewriter company made armor-piercing shells. By 1944,
almost 18 million U.S. workers—many of them women—were working in war
industries.
With factories turning out products for the war, a shortage of consumer goods hit
the United States. From meat and sugar to tires and gasoline, from nylon stockings to
Vocabulary laundry soap, the American government rationed scarce items. Setting the speed limit
rationed: distributed
in limited amounts.
at 35 miles per hour also helped to save on gasoline and rubber. In European coun-
tries directly affected by the war, rationing was even more drastic.
To inspire their people to greater efforts, Allied governments conducted highly
B. Possible Answer effective propaganda campaigns. In the Soviet Union, a Moscow youngster collected
It would be easier to enough scrap metal to produce 14,000 artillery shells. Another Russian family, the
get Americans’ sup-
port to fight the Shirmanovs, used their life savings to buy a tank for the Red Army. In the United
Japanese if they States, youngsters saved their pennies and bought government war stamps and bonds
believed they were to help finance the war.
opposing evil.
THINK THROUGH HISTORY Civil Rights Curtailed by the War Government propaganda also had a negative
B. Analyzing effect. After Pearl Harbor, a wave of prejudice arose in the United States against the
Motives Why did
U.S. government pro- 127,000 Japanese Americans. Most lived in Hawaii and on the West Coast. The bomb-
paganda try to portray ing of Pearl Harbor frightened Americans. This fear, encouraged by government pro-
the Japanese as
sinister? paganda, was turned against Japanese Americans. They were suddenly seen as “the
Vocabulary enemy.” On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt set up a program of internment
internment: and loss of property, since Japanese Americans were considered a threat to the country.
detention.
In March, the military began rounding up “aliens” and shipping them to relocation
camps. Two-thirds of those interned were Nisei, or Japanese Americans who were
native-born American citizens. The camps were restricted military areas located away
World War II 837
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from the coast. With such a location, it was thought that the Nisei could not partici-
pate in an invasion. From 1941 until 1946, the United States imprisoned some 31,275
people it wrongly considered “enemy aliens (foreigners).” Most of those prisoners
were American citizens of Japanese descent.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
■HISTORY ■ ■ ■ ■ Allied
■ ■ ■ ■MAKERS Victory in Europe
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
While the Allies were dealing with issues on the home front, they
were preparing to push toward victory in Europe. By the end of
1942, the war had begun to turn in favor of the Allies. By 1943, the
Allies began secretly building a force in Great Britain. Their plan was
to attack the Germans across the English Channel.
The D-Day Invasion By May 1944, the invasion force was ready.
Thousands of planes, ships, tanks, landing craft, and 3.5 million troops
awaited orders to attack. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower,
the commander of this enormous force, planned to strike on the coast
of Normandy, in northwestern France. The Germans knew that an
General Dwight Eisenhower attack was coming. But they did not know where it would be
1890–1969
launched. To keep Hitler guessing, the Allies set up a huge dummy
In his career, U.S. General Dwight
Eisenhower had shown an
army with its own headquarters and equipment. They ordered the
uncommon ability to work with all make-believe army to attack at the French seaport of Calais (ka LAY). •

kinds of people—even competitive Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy was Background
Allies. His Chief of Staff said of the greatest land and sea attack in history. The day chosen for the The name D-Day
Eisenhower, “The sun rises and sets came from the words
invasion to begin—called D-Day—was June 6, 1944. designated + day.
on him for me.” He was also wildly
popular with the troops, who At dawn on June 6, British, American, French, and Canadian
affectionately called him “Uncle Ike.” troops fought their way onto a 60-mile stretch of beach in
So, it was not a surprise when in Normandy. The Germans had dug in with machine guns, rocket
December 1943, U.S. Army Chief of launchers, and cannons. They protected themselves behind concrete
Staff George Marshall named
Eisenhower as supreme walls three feet thick. Among the Americans alone, 3,000 soldiers
commander of the Allied forces in died on the beach that day. Captain Joseph Dawson said, “The beach
Europe. The new commander’s was a total chaos, with men’s bodies everywhere, with wounded men
“people skills” enabled him to join crying both in the water and on the shingle [coarse gravel].”
American and British forces Vocabulary
together to put a permanent end to Despite heavy casualties, the Allies held the beachheads. A month beachheads: enemy
later, more than 1 million additional troops had landed. On July 25, shoreline captured
Nazi aggression.
just before invading
the Allies punched a hole in the German defenses near Saint-Lô forces move inland.
(san LOH), and General George Patton’s Third Army raced through.
•

London
English Channel
The D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944 21st ARMY GROUP
GREAT BRITAIN
Portsmouth Dover
COMMANDER OF GROUND FORCES
Montgomery Torquay
50˚ N Portland
0 10 Miles annel
Quinéville U.S. 1st ARMY BRITISH 2nd ARMY
s h C h Cherbourg Calais
Bradley Dempsey Engli
0 20 Kilometers 0 100 Miles
UT ACH
BE
AH

FRANCE
Ste.-Mère Eglise
4˚ W

0 200 Kilometers
0˚

48˚ N
POINTE-DU-HOC OMAHA
La Madeleine BEACH
GOLD
Vierville BEACH JUNO
BEACH
Colleville Arromanches SWORD
Isigny Courseulles BEACH
Trévières Allied forces
to St.-Lô Bayeux Lion
Carentan
Flooded areas
Glider landing areas
G E O G R A P H Y S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Maps
1. Human–Environment Interaction What environmental problem might Caen Planned drop zones

have been encountered by 1st Army soldiers landing at Utah Beach?

2. Movement Looking at the map, what might have been the Allied
strategy behind parachuting troops into France?
835-841-0732s4 10/11/02 4:57 PM Page 839
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Soon, the Germans were retreating. On August 25, the Allies marched triumphantly
into Paris. By September, they had liberated France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and
much of the Netherlands. They then set their sights on Germany.
The Battle of the Bulge As Allied forces moved toward Germany from the west, the
Soviet army was advancing toward Germany from the east. Hitler now faced a war on
two fronts. In a desperate gamble, the Führer decided to counterattack in the west. The
Führer hoped a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied sup-
ply lines. Explaining the reasoning behind his plan, Hitler said, “This battle is to decide
whether we shall live or die. . . . All resistance must be broken in a wave of terror.”
On December 16, German tanks broke through weak American defenses along an
85-mile front in the Ardennes. The push into the Allied lines gave the campaign its
name—the Battle of the Bulge. Although caught off guard, the Allies eventually
pushed the Germans back and won. The Nazis could do little but retreat, since Hitler
had lost men that he could no longer replace.
Germany’s Unconditional Surrender After the Battle of the Bulge, the war in
Europe neared its end. In late March 1945, the Allies rolled across the Rhine River
into Germany. By the middle of April, a noose was closing around Berlin. Three
million Allied soldiers approached Berlin from the southwest. Six
million Soviet troops approached from the east—some of them just SPOTLIGHT N O
40 miles from the capital. By April 25, 1945, the Soviets had sur-
rounded the capital, as their artillery pounded the city. Dresden
While Soviet shells burst over Berlin, Hitler prepared for his end in On the night of February 13, 1945,
800 British and American bombers
an underground headquarters beneath the crumbling city. On April
launched a massive air attack on
29, he married his long-time companion, Eva Braun. He also wrote his Dresden, a German city southeast
final address to the German people. In it, he blamed Jews for starting of Berlin. During the bombing,
the war and his generals for losing it. “I myself and my wife choose to some 4,000 tons of explosives were
Vocabulary
capitulation: die in order to escape the disgrace of . . . capitulation,” he said. “I die dropped, creating raging
surrender. firestorms. One author described
with a happy heart aware of the immeasurable deeds of our soldiers at the city as a “furnace fueled by
the front.” Two days later, Hitler shot himself after taking poison. His people,” as its citizens—mostly
new wife simply swallowed poison. The bodies were then carried out- women, children, and the elderly—
side and burned. burned to death. Estimates of those
killed vary from 35,000 to 135,000.
On May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional The firestorm reduced Dresden
surrender of the Third Reich from the German military. President to rubble, accomplishing no
Roosevelt, however, did not live to witness the long-awaited victory. important military goals but killing
He had died suddenly on April 12, as Allied armies were advancing many civilians. Dresden has come
to symbolize the strategy of “total
toward Berlin. Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, received the war”: massive attacks on both
news of the Nazi surrender. On May 8, the surrender was officially military and civilian targets to
signed in Berlin. The United States and other Allied powers cele- break a country’s fighting spirit.
brated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe had
ended at last.

Victory in the Pacific

Although the war in Europe was over, the Allies were still fighting the Japanese in the
Pacific. With the Allied victory at Guadalcanal, however, the Japanese advances in the
Pacific had been stopped. For the rest of the war, the Japanese retreated before the
counterattack of the Allied powers.
The Japanese Retreat By the fall of 1944, the Allies were moving in on Japan. In
October, Allied forces landed on the island of Leyte (LAY tee) in the Philippines.
•

General MacArthur, who had been forced to surrender the islands in February 1942,
waded ashore. He then declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned.”
Actually, the takeover would not be quite that easy. The Japanese had decided to
destroy the American fleet. The Allies could not then resupply their ground troops. To
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The Atomic Bomb

On the eve of World War II, scientists in Germany succeeded in
splitting the nucleus of a uranium atom, releasing a huge amount of
energy. Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt and
warned him that Nazi Germany might be working to develop atomic
weapons. Roosevelt responded by giving his
approval for an American program, later
code-named the Manhattan Project, to
develop an atomic bomb. Roosevelt’s My body seemed all black,
decision set off a race to assure that everything seemed dark, dark
the United States would be the first to all over. . . . Then I thought,
develop the bomb.
“The world is ending.”
An
An Atomic
Atomic Bomb
Bomb Survivor
Survivor

A boy carries his brother through the leveled city of

Nagasaki. This is one of a series of photos taken by
Japanese photographer Yosuke Yamahata soon after
the atomic bomb devastated the city on August 9, 1945.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the B-29 Hiroshima: Day of Fire

bomber Enola Gay, flown by commander Colonel
Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., took off from Tinian Island in Effects of the bombing
the Mariana Islands. At precisely 8:16 A.M., the Ground temperatures 7,000°F
atomic bomb exploded above Hiroshima, a city Hurricane force winds 980 miles per hour
on the Japanese island of Honshu. Energy released 20,000 tons of TNT
Buildings destroyed 62,000 buildings
Killed immediately 70,000 people
Dead by the end of 1945 140,000 people
Total deaths related to A-bomb 210,000 people

The overwhelming destructive power of the Hiroshima

bomb, and of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days
later, changed the nature of war forever. Nuclear
destruction also led to questions about the ethics of
scientists and politicians who chose to use the bomb.

Patterns of Interaction
Just as in World War I, the conflicts of World War II spurred the development of Connect to History
ever more powerful weapons. Mightier tanks, more elusive submarines, faster Making Inferences What
fighter planes—all emerged from this period. From ancient times to the present advantages did the United States
day, the pattern remains the same: Every new weapon causes other countries to have over Germany in the race to
develop others of similar or greater force. This pattern results in a deadly race for develop the atomic bomb?
an ultimate weapon: for example, the atomic bomb. SEE SKILLBUILDER
HANDBOOK, PAGE R16
VIDEO Arming for War: Modern and Medieval Weapons
Connect to Today
Contrast If you had to design a
memorial to the victims of the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb-
ings, what symbol would you use?
Make a sketch of your memorial.

Nagasaki citizens trudge through the still smoldering ruins of

their city in another photo by Yosuke Yamahata.
840
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Page 7 of 7

carry out this strategy, the Japanese had to risk almost their entire fleet. They gambled
everything on October 23, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Within three days, the
Japanese navy had lost disastrously—eliminating it as a fighting force in the war. Now,
only the Japanese army and the feared kamikaze stood between the Allies and Japan.
The kamikaze were Japanese suicide pilots. They would sink Allied ships by crash-
diving into them in their bomb-filled planes.
In March 1945, after a month of bitter fighting and heavy losses, American Marines
took Iwo Jima (EE wuh JEE muh), an island 660 miles from Tokyo. On April 1, U.S.
• •

troops moved to the island of Okinawa, only about 350 miles from southern Japan.
The Japanese put up a desperate fight. Nevertheless, on June 22, the bloodiest land
battle of the war ended. The Japanese lost 110,000 troops, and the Americans, 12,500.
The Atomic Bomb Brings Japanese Surrender After Okinawa, the next stop had
C. Possible to be Japan. President Truman’s advisers had informed him that an invasion of the
Answers Yes—The
Japanese homeland might cost the Allies half a million lives. Truman had to make a
Japanese did not sur-
render until after the decision whether to use a powerful new weapon called the atomic bomb, or A-bomb.
second bomb was The A-bomb would bring the war to the quickest possible end. It had been developed
dropped. No—The by the top-secret Manhattan Project, headed by General Leslie Groves and chief sci-
death and destruction
caused by the first entist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Manhattan Project became a major spending item
bomb was enough to in U.S. military budgets. Truman only learned of the new bomb’s existence when he
prove to the became president.
Japanese what was
in store if they did not
The first atomic bomb was exploded in a desert in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
surrender. President Truman then warned the Japanese. He told them that unless they surrendered,
THINK THROUGH HISTORY they could expect a “rain of ruin from the air.” The Japanese did not reply. So, on August
C. Forming an 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city of
Opinion Was it
365,000 people. Almost 73,000 people died in the attack. Three days later, on August 9, a
necessary to drop the
second atomic bomb second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a city of 200,000. It killed about 37,500 people.
on Nagasaki? Radiation killed many more. A Japanese journalist described the horror in Hiroshima:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
Within a few seconds the thousands of people in the streets and the gardens in the cen-
ter of the town were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly,
others lay writhing on the ground, screaming in agony from the intolerable pain of their
burns. Everything standing upright in the way of the blast, walls, houses, factories, and
other buildings, was annihilated.
JAPANESE JOURNALIST, quoted in The American Heritage Picture History of World War II

The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2. The

surrender took place aboard the United States battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. With
Japan’s surrender, the war had ended. Now, countries faced the task of rebuilding a
war-torn world.

Section 4 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES 2. TAKING NOTES 3. SUMMARIZING 4. ANALYZING THEMES
Identify Create a chart like the one below, Based on what you have read in Science and Technology Do
• Erwin Rommel listing outcomes of the following this section, how do governments you think President Truman made
• Bernard Montgomery World War II battles. gather support for a war effort on the correct decision by ordering
• Dwight Eisenhower the home front? the atomic bomb dropped on
• Battle of Stalingrad Battle Outcome Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Why or
THINK ABOUT
• D-Day Battle of El Alamein
• the economy why not?
• Battle of the Bulge Battle of Stalingrad • forms of propaganda THINK ABOUT
• kamikaze • individual participation in the • the likely consequences if the
D-Day Invasion
war effort atomic bomb had not been
Battle of the Bulge
dropped
Which battle do you think was • the destruction caused by the
most important in turning the war atomic bomb
in favor of the Allies? Why? • World War II after the dropping
of the atomic bomb
World War II 841
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Page 1 of 4

TERMS & NAMES

5 The Devastation of • Nuremberg
Trials
• demilitarization

Europe and Japan

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW
World War II cost millions of human The United States survived World War II
lives and billions of dollars in damages. undamaged, allowing it to become a
It left Europe and Japan in ruins. world leader.

SETTING THE STAGE Allied victory in the war had been achieved at a high price.
World War II had caused more death and destruction than any other conflict in history.
It left 60 million dead, 50 million uprooted from their homes, and property damage
that ran into billions of U.S. dollars.

Europe in Ruins
By the end of World War II, Europe lay in ruins. Close to 40 million Europeans had
died—two-thirds of them civilians. Constant bombing and shelling had reduced hun- Background
dreds of cities to rubble. The ground war had destroyed much of the countryside. Two-thirds of the
deaths in the war
Displaced persons from many nations were struggling to get home. occurred in Europe,
A Harvest of Destruction A few of the great cities of Europe—Paris, Rome, making the war there
far bloodier than in
Brussels—remained undamaged by war. Many, however, had suffered terrible destruc- Asia.
tion. The Blitz left blackened ruins in London. Over five years, 60,595 London civilians
had died in the German bombings. Eastern Europe and Germany were far worse off.
Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was almost wiped from the face of the earth. In 1939,
Winston Churchill Warsaw had a population of 1,289,000 people. When the Soviets entered the city in
looks at Nazi
firebomb damage to January 1945, only 153,000 people remained. In Berlin, 25,000 tons of Allied bombs
the British House of had demolished 95 percent of the central city. One U.S. officer stationed in Berlin
Commons. reported, “Wherever we looked we saw desolation. It was like a city of the dead.”
After the bombings, many civilians
stayed where they were and tried to get
on with their lives. Some lived in partially
destroyed homes or apartments. Others
huddled in caves and cellars beneath the
rubble. They had no water, no electricity,
and very little food. Hunger was a con-
stant companion. With factories destroyed
or damaged, most people had no earnings
to buy the food that was available.
Although many remained in the cities,
a large number of city dwellers fled. They
joined the army of displaced persons wan-
dering Europe following the war. These
displaced persons included the survivors
of concentration camps, prisoners of war,
and refugees fleeing the Soviet army.
Millions found themselves in the wrong
country when the postwar treaties
changed national borders. They jammed
the roads trying to get home, hoping to
find their families or to find a safe place.
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Simon Weisenthal described the search made by survivors of the Holocaust:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
Across Europe a wild tide of frantic survivors was flowing. . . . Many of them didn’t really
know where to go. . . . And yet the survivors continued their pilgrimage of despair, sleep-
ing on highways or in railroad stations, waiting for another train, another horse-drawn
cart to come along, always driven to hope. “Perhaps someone is still alive. . . .” Someone
might tell where to find a wife, a mother, children, a brother—or whether they were
dead. . . . The desire to find one’s people was stronger than hunger, thirst, fatigue.
SIMON WEISENTHAL, quoted in Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust

Misery Continues After the War Although the war had ended, misery in Europe
continued for years. Europe lay ravaged by the fighting. Agriculture was disrupted. Most
able-bodied men had served in the military and the women had worked in war produc-
tion. Few remained to plant the fields. With the transportation system destroyed, the
meager harvests often did not reach the cities. Thousands died as famine and disease
Vocabulary spread through the bombed-out cities. In August 1945, 4,000 citizens of Berlin died
barter: to trade goods every day. To get a few potatoes, people would barter any valuable items they had left.
and services without The first post-war winter brought more suffering as people went without shoes and coats.
money.

Postwar Governments and Politics

Despairing Europeans often blamed their leaders for the war and its aftermath. Once
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
A. Identifying
the Germans had lost, some prewar governments—like those in Belgium, Holland,
Problems Why Denmark, and Norway—returned quickly. In countries like Germany, Italy, and
might it have been France, however, a return to the old leadership was not so simple. Hitler’s Nazi gov-
difficult to find demo-
ernment had brought Germany to ruins. Mussolini had led Italy to defeat. The Vichy
cratic government
leaders in post-Nazi government had collaborated with the Nazis. Much of the old leadership was in dis-
Germany? grace. Besides, in Italy and France, many resistance fighters were Communists.
A. Possible Answer After the war, the Communist Party promised change, and millions were ready to
Since Germany’s
entire leadership had listen. In both France and Italy, Communist Party membership skyrocketed. The
been Nazi for 12 Communists made huge gains in the first postwar elections. Anxious
years, no democratic to speed up a political takeover, the Communists staged a series of CONNECT to TODAY
leaders had been
allowed to develop.
violent strikes. Alarmed French and Italians reacted by voting for
anti-Communist parties. Communist membership and influence then Genocide in Rwanda
began to decline. And they declined even more so as the economies Genocide is a crime that human
beings have committed against one
of France and Italy began to recover. another throughout history. In April
An Attempt at Justice: The Nuremberg Trials While nations 1994, the president of the East
African nation of Rwanda died in a
were struggling to recover politically and economically, they also suspicious plane crash. The
were trying to deal with Germany’s guilt in the Holocaust. To make president was a member of the
sure that such crimes would never happen again, the Allies put Nazis Hutu tribe. In Rwanda, the Hutu and
on trial. In 1946, an International Military Tribunal representing 23 Tutsi tribes have long hated and
fought each other.
nations put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. In After the president’s death,
the first of the Nuremberg Trials, 22 Nazi leaders were charged about 1 million Tutsis were
with waging a war of aggression. They were also accused of violating slaughtered by the majority Hutus.
the laws of war and of committing “crimes against humanity”—the In the end, Tutsi rebels ended the
worst of the genocide.
murder of 11 million people.
The United Nations has set up
Führer Adolf Hitler, SS chief Heinrich Himmler, and Minister of an international war crimes
Propaganda Joseph Goebbels had escaped trial by committing sui- tribunal to judge the worst acts of
cide. However, Marshal Hermann Göring, Deputy Führer Rudolf genocide. Yet, many criminals are
Hess, and other high ranking Nazi leaders had to face the charges. still at large, and ethnic conflict in
Rwanda continues.
Of the 22 defendants, 12 were sentenced to death. Göring
cheated the executioner by killing himself. The rest were hanged on
October 16, 1946. Hans Frank, the “Slayer of Poles,” was the only convicted Nazi to
express remorse: “A thousand years will pass,” he said, “and still this guilt of Germany
World War II 843
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will not have been erased.” The bodies of those executed were burned at the concen-
tration camp of Dachau (DAHK ow). They were cremated in the same ovens that had
•

burned so many of their victims.

The Effects of Defeat in Japan

The defeat suffered by Japan in World War II left the country in ruins. Two million lives
Emperor Hirohito
had been lost in the war. The country’s major cities had been largely destroyed by Allied
and U.S. General
Douglas MacArthur bombing raids, including the capital, Tokyo. The atomic bomb had left Hiroshima and
look distant and Nagasaki as blackened wastelands. The Allies had stripped Japan of its colonial empire.
uncomfortable as They even took away areas that had belonged to the Japanese for centuries.
they pose for a
photo. The photo The United States Occupies Japan Even after these disasters, some Japanese mili-
was taken in the
American Embassy
tary leaders wanted to continue the fight. In a radio broadcast on August 15, 1945,
in Tokyo on Emperor Hirohito urged the Japanese people to lay down their arms and work
September 27, 1945. together to rebuild Japan. “Should we continue to fight,” he declared, “it would only
result in an ultimate collapse . . . of the Japanese
nation.” Two weeks after that broadcast, General
Douglas MacArthur, now supreme commander for
the Allied powers, accepted the Japanese surrender.
He took charge of the U.S. occupation.
Demilitarization in Japan MacArthur was deter-
mined to be fair and not to plant the seeds for a future
war. Nevertheless, to ensure that fighting would end,
he began a process of demilitarization—disbanding
the Japanese armed forces. He achieved this quickly, B. Possible Answer
leaving the Japanese with only a small police force. The reduced military
MacArthur also began bringing war criminals to trial. influence of military
leaders and increased
Out of 25 surviving defendants, former Premier economic power
Hideki Tojo and six others were condemned to hang. among the Japanese
The general then turned his attention to democ- people might result in
ratization—the process of creating a government a wider sharing of
power in Japan.
elected by the people. In February 1946, MacArthur THINK THROUGH HISTORY
and his American political advisers drew up a new B. Making
constitution. It changed the empire into a parlia- Inferences How
mentary democracy like that of Great Britain. The would demilitarization
and a revived econ-
Japanese accepted the constitution. It went into omy help Japan
effect on May 3, 1947. achieve democracy?
MacArthur was not told to revive the Japanese
economy. However, he was instructed to broaden
land ownership and increase the participation of workers and farmers in the new
democracy. Absentee landlords with huge estates had to sell land to tenant farmers at
reasonable prices. Workers could now create independent labor unions. Still bitter
over Pearl Harbor, Americans did not provide much aid for rebuilding Japan. The
United States did send 2 billion dollars in emergency relief. This was a small amount,
however, considering the task that lay ahead.

U.S. Occupation Brings Deep Changes

The new constitution was the most important achievement of the occupation. It
brought deep changes to Japanese society. In 1945, the Japanese had agreed to sur-
render. They insisted, however, that “the supreme power of the emperor not be com-
promised.” The Allies agreed, but now things had changed. A long Japanese tradition
had viewed the emperor as a god. He was also an absolute ruler whose divine will was
law. The emperor now had to declare that he was not a god. That admission was as
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Costs of World War II: Allies and Axis

Military
Direct War Costs Killed/Missing Civilians Killed
United States $288.0 billion* 292,131** —

Great Britain $117.0 billion 271,311 60,595

France $111.3 billion 205,707*** 173,260†

USSR $93.0 billion 13,600,000 7,720,000

Germany $212.3 billion 3,300,000 2,893,000††

Japan $41.3 billion 1,140,429 953,000

*In 1994 dollars.

**An additional 115,187 servicemen died from non-battle S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Charts
causes. 1. Which of the nations listed in the chart
***Before surrender to Nazis.
†Includes 65,000 murdered Jews.
suffered the greatest human costs?
††Includes about 170,000 murdered Jews and 56,000 2. How does U.S. spending on the war compare
C. Possible Answer foreign civilians in Germany. with the spending of Germany and Japan?
The Japanese were to
have a constitutional
monarch, just like the
British. The American shocking to the Japanese as defeat. His power was also dramatically reduced as he
system had no place became a constitutional monarch. Like the ruler of Great Britain, the emperor
for monarchs.
became largely a figurehead—a symbol of Japan.
THINK THROUGH HISTORY
C. Analyzing
The new constitution guaranteed that real political power in Japan rested with the
Causes Why did the people. The people elected a two-house parliament, called the Diet. All citizens over
Americans choose the the age of 20, including women, had the right to vote. The government was led by a
British system of gov-
prime minister chosen by a majority of the Diet. A constitutional bill of rights pro-
ernment for the
Japanese, instead of tected basic freedoms. One more key provision—Article 9—stated that the Japanese
the American system? could no longer make war. They could only fight if attacked.
In September 1951, the United States and 48 other nations signed a formal peace
treaty with Japan. The treaty officially ended the war. With no armed forces, the
Japanese also agreed to continuing U.S. military protection for their country. Six
months later, the U.S. occupation of Japan was over. Relieved of the burden of paying
for the occupation, Japan’s economy recovered more quickly. With the official end of
the war, the United States and Japan became allies.
In the postwar world, however, enemies not only became allies. Allies also became
enemies. World War II had changed the political landscape of Europe. It weakened
some nations and strengthened others. The Soviet Union and the United States had
come out of the war as allies. Nevertheless, once the fighting was over, the differences
in their postwar goals emerged. These differences stirred up conflicts that would
shape the modern world for decades.

Section 5 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES 2. TAKING NOTES 3. ANALYZING CAUSES 4. THEME ACTIVITY
Identify Using a Venn diagram like the one Why do you think that many Economics Draw a political
• Nuremberg Trials below, compare and contrast the Europeans favored communism cartoon from a Japanese
• demilitarization aftermath of World War II in directly following World War II? absentee landlord’s or
Europe and Japan. THINK ABOUT industrialist’s point of view on
• World War II destruction MacArthur’s postwar economic
• pre-World War II governments reforms. Remember that
• economic concerns MacArthur is an American making
Europe Both Japan important changes in a country
only only that is not his own.

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Visual Summary Chapter 32 Assessment

Events of World War II TERMS & NAMES
Briefly explain the importance of each of the following during and after
Europe Pacific World War II.

Aug. 1939 1. blitzkrieg 6. Final Solution

Nonaggression pact 2. Atlantic Charter 7. genocide
between Germany
and the Soviet Union 1939 3. Isoroku Yamamoto 8. D-Day
4. Battle of Midway 9. Nuremberg Trials
Sept. 1939 Germany
invades Poland; 5. Holocaust 10. demilitarization
World War II begins
May 1940
Evacuation of British REVIEW QUESTIONS
forces at Dunkirk
Jun. 1940 SECTION 1 (pages 821–826)
France surren- 1940
Hitler’s Lightning War
ders; the Battle of
Britain begins 11. What event finally unleashed World War II?
12. Why was capturing Egypt’s Suez Canal so important to the Axis
powers?

Dec. 1941 SECTION 2 (pages 827–830)

Jun. 1941 Japanese attack Pearl
Germany invades the 1941 Japan Strikes in the Pacific
Harbor; U.S. declares
Soviet Union war on Japan 13. What was Yamamoto’s objective at Pearl Harbor?
14. How did Japan try to win support from other Asian countries?
Apr. 1942
Allies surrender in SECTION 3 (pages 831–834)
Philippines; Bataan The Holocaust
Death March begins
Aug. 1942 15. Name two tactics that Hitler used to rid Germany of Jews before
Hitler orders attack May 1942 Allies turn
on Stalingrad 1942 back Japanese fleet creating his “Final Solution.”
in Battle of the 16. What tactics did Hitler use during the “Final Solution”?
Nov. 1942 Coral Sea
Allies land in SECTION 4 (pages 835–841)
North Africa Jun. 1942
Allies defeat Japan in The Allies Are Victorious
Feb. 1943 Battle of Midway
Germans surrender 17. Why were items rationed during the war?
at Stalingrad 18. What was Operation Overlord?
1943 Feb. 1943
Japanese abandon SECTION 5 (pages 842–845)
the island of The Devastation of Europe and Japan
Guadalcanal
19. Why did Europeans leave their homes following the war?
20. What were two of the most important steps that MacArthur took in
Japan following the war?
Jun. 1944 Oct. 1944
Allies invade Allies defeat Japan in
Europe on D-Day 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf Interact with History
On page 820, you had to decide
Dec. 1944 Battle of Mar. 1945 Allies whether to bomb the civilian popu-
the Bulge begins capture Iwo Jima lation in an enemy city to shorten a
Jun. 1945 Allies war. Now that you have read the
capture Okinawa chapter, what bombing incidents in
May 1945 Germany World War II seem to reflect a
surrenders 1945 Aug. 1945 decision to bomb civilians to speed
Atomic bombs victory? Remember to consider
dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki bombings carried out by both sides
in the war.
Sep. 1945 Japan
surrenders

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CRITICAL THINKING CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

1. WAR LEADERS 1. LIVING HISTORY: Unit Portfolio Project
Consider the personalities, tactics, and policies of THEME SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Your unit portfolio project focuses on how
Hitler, Rommel, MacArthur, and Churchill. What science and technology influence history. For Chapter 32, you might use one
qualities do you think make a good war leader? of the following ideas.
2. WORLD WAR II BATTLES • Do research and create a set of science and technology cards for
important inventions developed during World War II. Use the following
Below is a list of World War II battles/conflicts. Copy
categories: Name of Invention, Country, Year, Use in the War, Use Today.
the chart on your paper and specify for each whether
the Axis powers or the Allied powers gained an • Write a list of five questions that you would ask Robert Oppenheimer if
advantage over their enemies. you were on a committee deciding whether to develop an atomic bomb.
• Do research and create a science and technology time line for 1935–1945.
Battle/Conflict Allied or Axis Powers?
Include major war events and five scientific/technological developments.
Battle of Britain
War in the Balkans 2. CONNECT TO TODAY: Cooperative Learning
Pearl Harbor THEME ECONOMICS During World War II, many nations, including the United
Battle of the Coral Sea States, converted their consumer-goods factories to produce vital products
Battle of Midway for the war effort. Today many of those factories still exist but are back to
Battle of Stalingrad producing consumer goods.
Work with a team to prepare a short “company history.”
3. WAR GOALS Using the Internet, library, magazines, or Chamber of Commerce, do
THEME EMPIRE BUILDING Compare and contrast research on a consumer-goods company. (A consumer-goods
Japan’s and Germany’s goals in World War II. company makes products for personal use or enjoyment—for example, cars,
radios, clothing.) Look for a company that was around before 1945. (Several
4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
of today’s important car and appliance manufacturers, as well as
The following quotation comes from the August 29, manufacturers of steel, tires, detergents, etc., existed before 1945.)
1945, edition of The Christian Century, a prominent
As you come up with ideas, try to find answers to questions such as: What
Protestant journal. In this passage, the writer raises
products did the company make before World War II? During the war?
questions about the American use of the atomic
After? What were working conditions like during the war? After the war? In
bomb on the Japanese.
a two- to three-page paper, write your company history. Include copies of
any articles, photographs, or pictures that you find about the company.
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
Perhaps it was inevitable that the bomb would 3. INTERPRETING A TIME LINE
ultimately be employed to bring Japan to the Revisit the unit time line on pages 738–739. Which two leaders do you think
point of surrender. . . . But there was no military had the largest impact on events between 1939 and 1945? Why?
advantage in hurling the bomb upon Japan with-
out warning. The least we might have done was
to announce to our foe that we possessed the
FOCUS ON GEOGRAPHY
atomic bomb; that its destructive power was Notice the locations
16°E

LATVIA
beyond anything known in warfare; and that its in Europe of German Labor camp Jungfernhof
Death camp 1942
terrible effectiveness had been experimentally death camps and Baltic
1942 Date founded
demonstrated in this country. . . . If she [Japan] labor camps. Sea
8°E

Border, 1933
doubted the good faith of our representations, it • Which country had
EAST
PRUSSIA
would have been a simple matter to select a the most labor Neuengamme, 1940 Ravensbrück, 1936 Stutthof, 1939
demonstration target in the enemy’s own country camps?
Bergen-Belsen
Sachsenhausen, 1936
NETH. 1943
at a place where the loss of human life would be Treblinka
Vught, 1943 Chelmno 1942 Sobibor
• Which country had GERMANY 1941 1942
at a minimum. If, despite such warning, Japan Dora- Buchenwald
POLAND
had still held out, we would have been in a far the most death BELG. Mittelbau, 1943 1937
Gross-Rosen
1941 Majdanek
less questionable position had we then dropped camps? Theresienstadt 1942
1941 Belzec 50°N
Flossenbürg Plaszow
the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Connect to History LUX.
1938
CZECH.
Auschwitz 1938
1942
Natzweiler
In what year did 1941
1940
Dachau Mauthausen, 1941
• Does The Christian Century oppose all use of the most of the death FRANCE 1933
atomic bomb as a weapon of war? Explain. camps begin to SWITZ. AUSTRIA

• What advantages might the alternative proposed operate? Why?

Jasenovac, 1941
by the article have had in ending World War II?
Ad Jadovno, 1941
0 200 Miles ria
tic YUGOSLAVIA Sajmiste, 1941
Additional Test Practice, TEST PRACTICE Se
0 400 Kilometers a
pp. S1–S33 CL ASSZONE .COM

42°N