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9 Questions About World War II Answered

(Read Sir John Keegan’s Britannica entry on the Normandy Invasion.)

What was the cause of World War II?

World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland . Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3. The war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany began on June 22, 1941, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa . The war in the Pacific began on December 7/8, 1941, when Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and other American, Dutch, and British military installations throughout Asia.

What countries fought in World War II?

The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China). 

What were the turning points of World War II?

The war in the Pacific turned against Japan during the Battle of Midway (June 3–6, 1942), an American victory that destroyed the Japanese first-line carrier force and, together with the Battle of Guadalcanal , ended Japan’s ability to prosecute an offensive war.

The tide of the war in Europe shifted with the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943). More than one million Soviet troops and tens of thousands of civilians died in the defense of the city, but the destruction of two entire German armies marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich . 

Why did Adolf Hitler start World War II?

Adolf Hitler had an overriding ambition for territorial expansion, which was largely driven by his desire to reunify the German peoples and his pursuit of Lebensraum , “living space” that would enable Germans to become economically self-sufficient and militarily secure. Such goals were greeted with support by many within Germany who resented the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles , which had ended World War I. Through various means he was able to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia with little resistance in 1938–39. Then on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which had been guaranteed French and British military support should such an event occur. Two days later both countries declared war on Germany, launching World War II. 

Did the Pearl Harbor attack signal the beginning of World War II for the United States?

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor marked the beginning of the Pacific war for the U.S., but it did not necessarily mean that the U.S. had become a combatant in the war in Europe. By December 1941, German armies had stalled on the Eastern Front, and it seemed foolhardy for Adolf Hitler to declare war on yet another great power under such circumstances. The Tripartite Pact only obligated Germany to defend Japan if the latter was attacked, not if it was the aggressor. Nevertheless, Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Later that month, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met U.S. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, D.C., and the two agreed on a “Europe first” policy for the defeat of Nazi Germany.

What was Benito Mussolini’s role in World War II?

Benito Mussolini was the less dominant half of the Rome-Berlin axis, formalized by the 1939 Pact of Steel between Adolf Hitler and himself. World War II broke out between Germany and the rest of Europe later that year, but Italy—its resources already stretched thin by preexisting economic issues and Mussolini’s Ethiopian conquest in 1935—was hesitant to join. Anxious that he would lose claim to conquered European lands as Hitler advanced, Mussolini entered the war in 1940. Italy fared poorly from the outset, with ignominious defeats in North Africa, Greece, and the Soviet Union. When the Allies touched down in Sicily in 1943, Mussolini’s own government arrested him.

What did Winston Churchill do during World War II?

As prime minister (1940–45) during most of World War II, Winston Churchill rallied the British people and led the country from the brink of defeat to victory. He shaped Allied strategy in the war, and in the war’s later stages he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. 

What was the significance of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II?

The Battle of the Bulge marked the last German offense on the Western Front . The catastrophic losses on the German side prevented Germany from resisting the advance of Allied forces following the Normandy Invasion. Less than four months after the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany surrendered to Allied forces.

How did World War II end?

The Allied landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, opened a second front in Europe, and Germany’s abortive offensive at the Ardennes in the winter of 1944–45 marked the Third Reich’s final push in the west. The Red Army advanced from the east and effectively claimed all the territory under its control for the Soviet sphere. The Allied armies converged on Berlin. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and the war in Europe ended on May 8. 

The American “island hopping” campaign had destroyed key Japanese installations throughout the Pacific theatre while allowing bypassed islands to wither on the vine. Hundreds of thousands were killed in firebombings of Japanese cities, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 knocked Japan out of the war. 

Critical Thinking Questions

How did some Americans turn their wartime experiences into lasting personal gains (i.e. better employment, a new home, or an education) after the war was over? Why did others miss out on these opportunities?

What was the reason for the breakdown in friendly relations between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II? What were the results of this conflict?

How did fear of the Soviet Union and Communism affect American culture and society?

What social changes took place in the United States after World War II? What role did the war play in those changes?

How did the wartime experiences of African Americans contribute to the drive for greater civil rights after the war?

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• Publication date: Dec 30, 2014
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Chapter 22: Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914

Critical Thinking Questions

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What conditions, ideologies, and ideas made the Holocaust possible?

The leaders of Nazi Germany, a modern, educated society, aimed to destroy millions of men, women, and children because of their Jewish identity. Understanding this process may help us to better understand the conditions under which mass violence is possible and to take steps to prevent such conditions from developing. 

Explore fundamental questions about how and why the Holocaust was possible. 

See related articles for background information related to this discussion.

World War I

• Nazi rise to power
• antisemitism

World War II

[caption=f9d1a81f-69da-456d-a3b5-c6ea27b4238a] - [credit=f9d1a81f-69da-456d-a3b5-c6ea27b4238a]

The Holocaust was not a single event. It did not happen all at once. It was the result of circumstances and events, as well as individual decisions, played out over years. Key political, moral, and psychological lines were crossed until the Nazi leadership eventually set in motion the unimaginable—a concrete, systematic plan to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews.

What were the conditions that made the Holocaust possible?

Impact of world war i.

The mass destruction and loss of life caused by World War I (1914-1918) ushered in a new era of instability. In the wake of this instability, extremist movements such as Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism emerged.

Centuries-old monarchies dissolved in the face of widespread social unrest. The Russian Revolution of 1917 that led to the downfall of the Russian tsar stoked fears of communist revolution in middle- and upper-class circles in western societies. The Russian communist rulers abolished private property and banned religious worship. They also aimed to start revolutions all over the world, especially Germany.

The worldwide economic Depression, starting in 1929, hit Germany particularly hard. The inability of the old political parties to give the unemployed, hungry, and desperate Germans hope gave the Nazi Party its chance. The leader of this young, extremist, and openly anti-democratic party, Adolf Hitler, skillfully played on the fears and grievances of Germans to win popular support. In 1933, leading conservatives, who supported authoritarian or non-democratic rule, lobbied for Hitler’s appointment as head of government (Chancellor). They wrongly assumed they could control him.

Having lost faith in the ability of democratic institutions to improve their lives, many Germans went along when the Nazis suspended the constitution, replaced the German republic with a dictatorship, and allowed Hitler alone to become the highest law of the land. In exchange for a loss of individual rights and freedoms, they hoped that Hitler would improve the economy, put an end to the Communist threat, and make Germany a powerful and proud nation again.

The Holocaust could not have happened without the Nazis’ rise to power and their destruction of German democracy.

When Adolf Hitler took power in January 1933, Germany was a republic with democratic institutions. Its constitution recognized and protected the equal rights of all individuals, including Jews. The Nazis established a dictatorship that limited basic rights and freedoms. They promoted the ideal of a “national community” made up of “German-blooded” people. Excluded from this community and viewed as threats to it were Jews, Roma, individuals with physical and mental disabilities, and others seen as racially inferior or whose beliefs or behavior were not tolerated by the Nazis.

Before World War II, the ultimate aim of the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Jews was to drive them to emigrate. Many Jews looked for safe havens abroad, including the United States. But emigration was difficult, costly, and complicated, and few countries even offered chances to relocate. However, World War II all but cut off the possibility of flight. And, under the cover of war, the Nazis' ideological hatred of Jews became genocidal. 

Antisemitism

Jews, a small religious and ethnic minority in Christian Europe and a very tiny minority in Germany (less than one percent of the population), had faced longstanding discrimination and persecution. They suffered periods of violence in Russia and other parts of eastern Europe, where the population was concentrated in the early twentieth century. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, millions of Jews left Russia. Many of them were seeking better lives in the United States.

Before the Nazis took power, their intolerance of Jews and other minorities was well known. Yet most Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in the early 1930s did not do so primarily because of antisemitism.

The constant barrage of antisemitic propaganda had its intended effect. It contributed to a climate of indifference toward the persecution of Jews in Germany. German Jews, who had been granted equal rights in Germany in 1871 and who had seen those rights protected by the state until 1933, were quickly transformed from citizens into outcasts. During the war, the Nazis used propaganda and other means to stir up existing anti-Jewish prejudices in countries that came under their rule. These actions helped them when they needed local support in persecuting Jews.

Nazi beliefs or ideology were based on extreme forms of racism and antisemitism. The Nazis claimed that humankind is divided into groups, and the members of each group share the same “blood” or racial characteristics. “German-blooded” people were “superior” to the other groups, while some groups were so “inferior” as to be “subhuman.” According to the Nazis, “the Jews” (people of Jewish descent, regardless of whether they practiced Judaism) made up a group that was not only “subhuman” but also “the most dangerous enemy of the German people.” Without these beliefs, the Nazis’ development of a program of genocide could not have happened.

The Nazi drive to develop the Germans into a “master race” that would dominate Europe for generations to come involved several requirements. One was to ensure that the Germans were racially “pure” and healthy. This meant barring Germans from marrying persons viewed as inferior, especially Jews, or as defective, such as persons with physical or mental disabilities. Another requirement was to conquer territory that would serve as “living space” for the German master race. The results were persecution and, during wartime, the murder of civilians seen as threats to this quest for long-term survival and domination.

The genocide of Europe’s Jews and murder of other targeted groups could not have happened without World War II and German military successes. The war, which Hitler declared was for the survival of the Germans, provided the Nazi regime with the motive as well as the opportunity to commit systematic mass murder. This began with disabled patients living in mental health facilities and other care institutions in Germany, whom Nazis considered to be a drain on resources and "life unworthy of life."

Because the Nazis believed the Jews were the Germans’ most dangerous enemy, the Nazis undertook efforts to destroy them entirely. Germany’s military victories extended its reach to almost all the Jews in Europe. There were fewer than 300,000 Jews in Germany when the war began; the vast majority of the almost six million Jews who were killed lived in territory Germany conquered.

What was the role of leaders and ordinary people?

Nazi leaders received the active help of countless officials and ordinary people in Germany and the 17 other countries where the victims lived.

Reasons for the help of non-Germans included self-interest and involved political and personal calculations. Foreign leaders, officials, and ordinary people were more cooperative when it looked like Germany would win the war and be the master of Europe for the future. Most people stood by as Jews were rounded up to be shot or transported “to the East.” They witnessed the suffering of their neighbors. Sometimes, they benefited, as they looted property and took over homes after the owners were gone. A few tried to help the victims.

Related Articles: Conditions after World War I

Treaty of Versailles

The Weimar Republic

The Great Depression

Related articles: ideology.

Adolf Hitler

What is Antisemitism?

Nazi Racism: An Overview

Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology

Related articles: destruction of democracy.

Reichstag Fire Decree

Arrests without Warrant or Judicial Review

The Enabling Act

Law for the Imposition and Implementation of the Death Penalty

Law against the Founding of New Parties

Oaths of Loyalty for All State Officials

Related articles: world war ii.

Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939

World War II in Europe

Invasion of the Soviet Union, June 1941

The holocaust and world war ii: key dates, related articles: leaders and ordinary people.

Perpetrators

Collaboration

Introduction to the Holocaust

Switch topic, critical thinking questions.

Discuss why it is important to learn about how and why the Holocaust happened.

Were there warning signs of what was to come before the Nazis came to power in 1933? Before the start of mass killing in 1941?

How do the events leading up to 1933 and the early years of the Nazi regime illustrate the fragility of democracy and the many threats to its existence?

How can knowledge of the events in Germany and Europe before the Nazis came to power help citizens today respond to threats of genocide and mass atrocity?

Thank you for supporting our work

We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement .

Critical Thinking Questions

13. What were some of the long-term effects of the Reagan Revolution and the rise of conservatives?

14. What events led to the end of the Cold War? What impact did the end of the Cold War have on American politics and foreign policy concerns?

15. Which issues divided Americans most significantly during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s?

16. In what ways was Bill Clinton a traditional Democrat in the style of Kennedy and Johnson? In what ways was he a conservative, like Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush?

17. Describe American involvement in global affairs during this period. How did American foreign policy change and evolve between 1980 and 2000, in both its focus and its approach?

American History from Reconstruction to the Present Copyright © 2022 by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Lesson Plan: Was using the atomic bomb on Japan necessary for ending World War II?

The Development of the Atomic Bomb

The Pare Lorentz Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum added narration to archival film, photographs and audio recordings to tell the story of FDR during World War II. This segment explains the events that led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Description

This lesson looks at President Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Students will view videos to understand the origins of the atomic bomb, American military strategy in the Pacific and the historical debate over the decision to use nuclear weapons on Japans. Students will explore arguments in this debate and answer the question: Was using the atomic bomb on Japan necessary for ending World War II?

To begin class, have the students brainstorm answers to the following question:

Describe the fighting and important battles that took place between Japan and the Allied forces during World War II.

• Describe what you know about the atomic bomb.

INTRODUCTION:

Review the students’ answers to the warm-up and provide a brief overview of the atomic bomb, the Allied strategy in the Pacific and significant battles prior to 1945.

To provide with a fuller understanding of the Manhattan Project and the War in the Pacific, have the students view each of the following introductory video clips and answer the questions associated with each. Students can use the handout linked below to access the videos and answer the questions.

HANDOUT: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (Google Doc)

VIDEO CLIP 1: The Development of the Atomic Bomb (2:36)

Describe the origins of the atomic bomb in the United States.

What was the plan for using the atomic bomb in World War II? What events caused this plan to change?

• Describe the devastation caused by dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

VIDEO CLIP 2: The Interim Committee and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (5:22)

What was the Interim Committee? What was its purpose?

What would be the benefit of a demonstration of the atomic bomb?

Describe the recommendation made by the Interim Committee.

Explain Harry Truman’s role in the atomic bomb prior to becoming president.

• What factors influenced the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan?

VIDEO CLIP 3: The End of World War II in Japan (3:55)

Describe the fighting that occurred in the Pacific in 1945 as American forces approached the Japanese home islands.

How do the artifacts in the museum reflect the impact of the war on families in the United States?

What factors contributed to the different American plans to end the war?

What was the Manhattan Project?

• Describe the timeline of events that occurred in August 1945.

EXPLORATION:

After answering the previous questions, students should use the chart on the handout to take notes to help them answer the following question: Was using the atomic bomb on Japan necessary for ending World War II?

VIDEO CLIP 4: The Debate over the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan (3:17)

What are the two competing theories on the use of the atomic bomb?

Describe the “traditional” arguments for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

• Describe the “revisionist” arguments for not dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

VIDEO CLIP 5: Reasons for Dropping the Atomic Bomb (4:15)

VIDEO CLIP 6: The Soviet Invasion of Manchuria

VIDEO CLIP 7: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II (1:43)

VIDEO CLIP 8: Alternatives to Using the Atomic Bomb (3:23)

APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION:

Using their notes on the handout, the students will respond to the following prompt:

Was the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary to end World War II?

Teachers can choose to have students address this prompt using the following options:

Written essay

Speech or presentation

Short video

• Infographic or poster

EXTENSION/ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES:

Online Discussion Board- Using the same prompt listed above, have the students write a post explaining their position. They should explain the reasons why they believe this. Once students have posted their arguments, each student should respond to at least three other students’ posts and explain why they agree or disagree with their arguments. They should use examples and information from the videos when they respond.

Primary Source Interpretation- View the video clips linked below of a Hiroshima survivor, American veterans and a U.S. Department of War film. Answer the questions listed below.

Clip: Hiroshima Survivor and Activist Setsuko Thurlow (4:53)

Clip: Tale of Two Cities- The Bombing of Nagasaki (3:45)

Clip: The Atomic Bomb and the Invasion of Japan (2:57)

How does each clip describe the bombings?

• How do the these perspectives compare to each other?

ADDITIONAL PROMPTS:

How did the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki change the world?

In what ways did the use of the atomic bomb contribute to the Cold War between the U.S and Soviet Union?

• How has the interpretation of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed since 1945? Why do you think this is?

Related Article

• Harry S Truman’s Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (U.S. National Park Service)

Additional Resources

• Lesson Plan: World War II
• On This Day: The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb
• On This Day: The Yalta Conference
• Atomic Bomb
• Battle Of Okinawa
• Battle Of Saipan
• Harry Truman
• Japanese Home Islands
• Joseph Stalin
• Kwantung Army
• Manhattan Project
• Revisionist
• Robert Oppenheimer
• Soviet Union
• Winston Churchill
• World War 2
• Yalta Conference

US History Questions: World War II

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