Ch 16 & 17 Ch 16 & 17 Test Preparation Test Preparation

At the 1942 Wannsee Conference, Reinhard Heydrich

– Decided to invade large territories that were home to millions of Jews.

– Planned to carry out bogus medical experiments on prisoners.

– Determined the need to build additional concentration camps

– Outlined a plan to exterminate about 11,000,000 Jews.

Political Parties of WWII

• Nazi party - Hitler’s German party

• Fascist Party – Mussolini’s Italian party

• Communist Party – Stalin’s USSR party

• Who was winning in Europe at the end of 1940?

• The Neutrality Acts demonstrate our isolationist policies prior to WWII.

• Japan’s goal in attack Pearl Harbor was to prevent the US from interfering in their planned expansion.

Which two nations emerged as the strongest following World War II?– Britain and France– The Soviet Union and the United States– China and Japan– Germany and Poland

British leader who said that Nazi aggression threatened all

democracies

• Hideki Tojo

• Dwight Eisenhower

• Winston Churchill

• Adolph Hitler

• Benito Mussolini

Pacific Battles of WWII• Turning point in the Pacific = Battle of

Midway• Surprise Japanese attack on United States

= Pearl Harbor (brought US into war)• US strategy of clearing Japanese off islands

= island hopping (get us close enough to invade Japan proper)

• Japanese battles had high casualties (Why?) Japanese fought to the death

• Atomic Bomb decision =made by H. Truman; priority was to save US lives

European Battles• D-Day what did it want to accomplish?

Allies invading German controlled France @ Normandy.

• Battle of the Bulge? Germany’s last offensive, used up Hitler’s resources/discouraged his men.

• Battle of Stalingrad=turning pt. of war in Eastern Europe (stopped Hitler’s continued expansion)

• Why Europe First?= Hitler/Mussolini the greatest threat.

Holocaust

• Death camps =special camps Hitler had set up for the mass murder of the Jews, et al.

• Final solution = code name for Hitler’s planned extermination of the Jews, et. al.

• Auschwitz= largest of Nazi death camps (killed the most)

Ending the war

The Yalta Conference = little satisfactory decisions made by Big Three; one agreement was to allow free elections in Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania but Stalin will later renege on his promise.

Home front

• War Refugee Board = created by FDR in 1944 to try to save Eastern European Jews from Hitler.

• Philip Randolph= threatens FDR w/ march on Washington for fair hiring practices;FDR issues 8802= fair hiring practices

• Rationing=govt controlled thru coupon books.

Terms/people to know

• W.A.C

• Appeasement

• Tripartite Pact

• Bracero Program