February 26, 2016 - World War Two Begins

Important Note - The quiz on the second half of the World War Two reading notes (beginning with Invasion of Soviet Union) will be on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.

Homework - Use the following source materials on the beginning of World War Two to answer the assigned questions.

Source # 1 - Video of Nazi Germany's takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia - click here

Source # 2 - Graphic describing the tactic of Blitzkrieg

Source # 3 - Video of German victory against France and the Battle of Dunkirk - click here




Biography - Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle was born in 1890 in France. His father was a math teacher who had fought in the Franco-Prussian War which ended in defeat for France (it was at the end of the war the Otto von Bismarck had the King of Prussia crowned the Emperor of Germany at the Palace of Versailles). De Gaulle's father greatly influenced De Gaulle's life-long goal of restoring France to be the most powerful country in Europe.

In 1909, De Gaulle enrolled in a student in a military academy and graduated in 1912 a lieutenant in the French army. He led a frontline unit in World War One and awarded medals for bravery in battle. He was badly wounded in the battle of Verdun and was left for dead. However, he revived when his body was collected by the Germans to be buried. The Germans took him prisoner, and despite many escape attempts, he was held in a German maximum security prison for the rest of the war.

After the war de Gaulle returned to the French military. However, he got in trouble for constantly criticizing his superiors. They supported the ideas of trench warfare, which had been used in World War One. In contrast, De Gaulle thought the French army should become more modern in using armored tanks and in a strategy of mobile war (similar to the Blitzkrieg tactics designed by the Germans). The French military ignored De Gaulle's ideas - the Germans read them.

When Germany attacked France in 1940, De Gaulle was put in command of a tank unit which was able to slow the German attack. However, because other parts of the French army retreated, De Gaulle was also forced to retreat. After six weeks of fighting, the French government and military decided to surrender to the Germans instead of continuing to fight. However, while he was not a top French commander, De Gaulle refused to surrender. He said, "France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war." De Gaulle fled to England where he began to organize the Free French and support the British in their war against Germany by organizing soldiers from French colonies to fight on the Allied side. From England, De Gaulle was able to lead the French resistance to the German occupation of France and he spoke to the French people by radio broadcast from England.

After the Allied D-Day invasion of France in June 1944, De Gaulle returned to France as a hero and was elected the premier, or leader, of the country. However, De Gaulle often fought against the other national leaders, many of whom had worked with the Germans while they occupied France. In 1946, he resigned his position. However, he remained an active force in French politics and became the president of France from 1958 to 1969. He died in 1970.

Source # 4 - Video on the Battle of Britain - click here
Note - You will have to log into your BHS Google Account to access the video

Biography - Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was born in 1874 in England. His father was a member of the British Parliament and his mother was an American heiress. Churchill was sent to a military school where was popular, but not a good student and had a tendency to get in trouble. He went on to study at the Royal Military Academy and graduate to become a military officer. After graduating, Churchill traveled to Cuba, India, Sudan and South Africa as a war reporter for a British newspaper.

When he was 25, Churchill returned to England and was elected to British Parliament. As a young Member of Parliament, Churchill was very outspoken and active, working to both reduce taxes and improve the lives of the poor. As a result of his hard work, in 1911, he was promoted to be the First Lord of the Admiralty, which meant that he was in charge of the British Navy. Churchill was worried that the Germans were building a navy to be stronger than the British Navy and so he spent the next three years working to build up the strength of the British Navy. As a result, the British Navy was prepared for war when World War One began in 1914.

As the First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill was involved in planning the British strategy in World War One. The first significant setback in his life was his plan to attack the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Gallipoli. The Ottoman Empire was seen as being weak and Churchill thought it was would be easy to defeat them. However, the Ottoman defense to the British attack was strong and Churchill's plan turned into a military disaster for the British. Churchill was forced to resign his position in the government. Out of government, Churchill joined the British Army and served as the commander of a unit on the Western Front in France. While he did not participate in any major battles, he did spend a significant amount of time on the front line. In 1917, he returned to government and was made Minister of Munitions (weapons).

After World War One, Churchill was a leader in the Conservative Party and held different positions in the British Government. However, he spent more time on personal interests such a writing books, painting and even learning how to do masonry (build with bricks).

In the late 1930’s, Churchill began to speak out against Hitler and said that Britain needed to stand up to Nazi Germany. Churchill argued that the British policy of giving in to Hitler’s aggression would make Hitler stronger and would lead to war. The war Churchill feared began in 1939 when Germany attacked Poland. Churchill’s stance against Hitler and Nazi Germany made him very popular with the people of Britain.

After Germany attacked France in May 1940, Churchill became the Prime Minister and began to rally the British people to a long war against Germany. He gave many speeches to Parliament, such as his famous “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech to inspire the British to keep fighting against a seemingly invincible enemy. After the defeat of France, Britain was alone in its war against Germany. It was a time when Britain doggedly fought on against Germany even though seemed to be winning and German air force was bombing British cities in the Battle of Britain. It was during this period that Churchill proved to be a strong leader by telling the British people that Britain would “never surrender”. Churchill became known as the "British Bulldog".

In 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and declared war on the United States. After these events, Britain no longer stood alone against Nazi Germany.  From this point forward, Churchill worked closely with Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States, and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, to coordinate that Allies’ war against Nazi Germany. However, Churchill never fully trusted Stalin and tried to prevent Stalin from gaining too much territory at the end of the war.

As the war ended, Churchill saw that Britain was weak and was no longer the world power it had been before World War One. This realization caused Churchill to tried to get the United States to take on the role of standing up to Stalin and the Soviet Union. In 1946, Churchill visited the United States and famously used the term “Iron Curtin” to describe how the countries of Eastern Europe were now controlled by the Soviet Union and forced to become communist.

Churchill also argued for more unity among the countries of Europe to prevent another war. He said that the countries should form a “United States of Europe” and supported many of the early parts of building the European Union.

After the war, Churchill, who was then 70, resigned as Prime Minister. However, six years later, he was again elected Prime Minister and served until he was 80 years old, when because of poor health he had to retire. He continued to be very active, spending his time writing, speaking and painting. In his later life he won the Nobel Prize for Literature and was made a honorary citizen of the United States. He died in 1965 from a stroke.

Source # 5 - Except from Winston Churchill speech "Never Surrender" delivered to British Parliament on June 4, 1940

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. 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 fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…

Source # 6 - Cartoon of Winston Churchill published on June 8, 1940

February 25, 2016 - Hitler & Nazis Take Over Germany

Homework - Use the following source materials about Adolf Hitler and the Rise of the Nazis to answer the assigned questions.
Biography - Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, in Austria (a country south of Germany) to an extremely domineering father. After his father’s death in 1903 Hitler became rebellious and began failing at school. He dropped out of school and with dreaming of becoming an artist, he moved to Vienna to become a painter. However, he failed to be accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts and ended up living a lonely life as a poor street artist painting post cards. Antisemitism was common in Vienna, and it is believed that this is where Hitler first developed his extreme hatred toward Jewish people.

When World War I began in 1914, Hitler volunteered to enlist in the German army and fought on the Western Front. Hitler said he found acceptance and accomplishment fighting the war where he won several awards for bravery, including the highly respected Iron Cross First Class, and was wounded several times. Hitler was in a military hospital recovering from his wounds when he heard that Germany had signed the armistice that ended the war.

Like many German soldiers, Hitler had a difficult time readjusting to life after the war in the chaos of post-war Germany. He got a job in the army keeping track of radical political organization. This is how he first came in contact with the National Socialist German Workers Party, called the Nazis. He joined Nazi Party and soon became its most well known speaker. Hitler’s speeches drew more people into the Nazi Party and, in 1921, Hitler became the Fuhrer, or leader, of the party.

In 1923, Germany suffered terrible hyperinflation (a period where money quickly loses its value) and many Germans were unhappy with the democratic government in Germany. Hitler believed he could use this to take power in Germany. Hitler organized the Nazi Party to violently overthrow the government. However, the rebellion was quickly put down by the local police and Hitler was charged with treason and sentenced to a year in prison. It was during his time in prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mien Kampf or “My Struggle” which described his goals of expanding Germany to make an empire and to make it a racially pure society – it would only be for Germans. After his release from prison, Hitler continued to lead the Nazi Party, but it was a marginal party in German politics.

It was the economic crisis of the Great Depression in the early 1930’s that made the Nazi Party a major political force in Germany. By 1932, the Nazi Party was one of the largest political parties in Germany. The other large party was the communist party. Many Germans supported Hitler and the Nazis because they feared the communists. In 1932, Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany. When the President of Germany died in 1934, Hitler used Emergency Powers to make himself Fuhrer, or leader, of Germany. After taking power, Hitler moved ruthlessly to eliminate other political parties by having their leaders arrested and even had many of the leaders of the Nazi Party who could challenge him killed in an event called the Night of the Long Knives.

Once Hitler had full control over Germany, he began to prepare Germany for wars of conquest to enlarge Germany. He put millions of unemployed people to work on rebuilding the German military. In addition, he began to turn Germany into racially pure country by forcing Jews to leave the country. He did this by enacting laws that banned Jews from doing professional work and from attending school. He also allowed his supporters to attack Jews openly in the Night of Broken Glass.

Hitler began to take over other countries to achieve his goal of gaining “living space” for the Germans. He envisioned a future German Empire that would cover most of Europe in which the other peoples of Europe would either be killed or forced to work as slave labor for Germans. In the late 1930’s, Hitler took over Austria and Czechoslovakia without having to fire a single shot. Then, in 1939, he began World War Two by attacking Poland. Then the next year he conquered France and began to bomb Britain. The year after that, he attacked the Soviet Union and his army got all the way to Moscow, the Soviet capital city. By the end of 1942, it looked to the world as if Hitler might achieve his goal of building a Nazi Empire. In the areas that Germany had taken over, Hitler ordered the Nazi forces to round up people to be used as slave labor and sent out death squads to kill Jews.

However, at that point the war began to turn against Hitler. First, he had not fully defeated Britain and the Soviet Union. Both of these countries recovered from their earlier defeats and began to push back the German army. Second, Hitler had declared war on the United States and now the United States joined with Britain and the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany. Beginning in 1943, the Allies began to win victories on all fronts and began to push the Nazi forces back. However, even in the face of defeat, Hitler did not give up his dream of creating a racially pure Germany and ordered the speeding up of killing Jews in specially built death camps.

As the war turned against Hitler, he became more isolated. He did not appear in public, he refused to listen to his military advisers and began to put resources into "super" weapons that he believed would give him victory. In 1944, a group of military officers tried to kill Hitler with a bomb. After this, Hitler became increasing paranoid and determined to fight to the bitter end of the war, even if it meant the total destruction of Germany in the process. Under the slogan of "total victory or total ruin," Hitler ordered German army destroy everything as it retreated and that all men, even school boys and old men, be drafted into the army. Hitler’s secret police were ordered to kill any German who opposed these actions. Hitler spent the last few months of his life living in a bunker in the center of the bombed out ruins of Berlin, still desperately believing that he could win the war and build his Nazi Empire. However, as Russian soldiers attacked Berlin, Hitler recognized that all was lost and wrote his will in which he blamed the Jews for starting the war. After this, he married his long-time mistress Eva Braun and then committed suicide.

Source # 1 - Nazi poster from 1930 election.  "National-Sozialistische Deutsche-Arbeiter-Parti" means "National Socialist German Worker's Party". The red words coming from the snake are: usury, Versailles, unemployment, war guilt lie, Marxism, Bolshevism, lies and betrayal, inflation, Locarno, Dawes Pact, Young Plan, corruption, Barmat, Kutistker, Sklarek [the last three Jews involved in major financial scandals], prostitution, terror, civil war.

 























Source # 2 - Graphs showing the unemployment rate in Germany and the popularity of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's

Source # 3 - Excerpt from the graphic novel Berlin: City of Smoke that shows the street conflicts between the Nazis and communists in Berlin - click here (You need to be logged into your BHS Google account to access this source) 

Source # 4 - Video of Nazi Rule of Germany in the 1930's - click here



Source # 5 - Video of Nazi ideology and programs - click here

February 22, 2016 - Overview of World War Two

Homework - Answer the questions for the assignment "Overview of World War Two" and "Geography of World War Two".  The assignment sheets are on the class web page.

Geography of World War Two - Interactive map of World War Two in Europe - click here
Note - click "show/hide map" to show national borders on map

Reading - Overview of World War Two - click here

Video - The human cost of World War Two - click here

February 5, 2016 - Stalin's Soviet Union

Homework - Look at the following source materials about the Russian Revolution and answer the assigned questions.

Biography - Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was born in 1879 in Georgia (a country on the southern border of Russia) to a peasant family. His father was an abusive drunk who died when Stalin was young. His mother paid close attention to Stalin, who was the only one of her children to not die as an infant. As a teenager, Stalin studied to be a priest and learned to speak Russian (he would always speak Russian with a thick accent). However, in 1898 he was expelled from his religious school because of his interest in communist ideas. After this, Stalin became a revolutionary. He joined Lenin’s Bolshevik party and would spend several years exiled in Siberia after being arrested by the secret police for revolutionary activities.

Stalin participated in the October Revolution and became a member of the Politburo, the Bolshevik leaders who worked with Lenin to run the Soviet Union. In 1922, became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, which was one of the highest positions in the country. Holding this position made it easier for Stalin to take over the government when Lenin died. Soon after taking power, Stalin used the secret police force created by Lenin to have the other Bolshevik leaders who could challenge his power arrested and either killed or exiled from the Soviet Union. After this, Stalin used the secret police and control of all the media (newspapers and radio) to make himself a totalitarian dictator who controlled all parts the lives of the people in the Soviet Union. Stalin used this control to turn the Soviet Union into a command economy that would make the country into a communist society. Stalin would order millions of people killed to make this happen. In the 1930’s, Stalin ordered the Great Purge in which many of the communist and army leaders were arrested and killed. He even had all of the leaders of the secret police arrested and shot by other members of the secret police. Nobody was safe.

Stalin’s brutality extended to his own family. In the 1930’s, Stalin’s son attempted suicide after being treated badly by this father. However, he only wounded himself. Afterward, Stalin made fun of him by saying, "Ha! He couldn’t even shoot straight!" Soon after that, Stalin’s wife did commit suicide (there is some evidence that Stalin had her murdered).

The largest challenge Stalin faced in the 1930’s was Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Hitler spoke of a hatred of communism and plans to take over Russia in a future war. In 1939, Stalin signed a treaty with Hitler to give him some time to rebuild the Soviet Army after the Great Purge. However, in 1941, Hitler broke the treaty when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was a horrifically violent war that killed 20 million Soviet citizens. Stalin was ruthless in this war, issuing the order “Not one step back” to his soldiers – to enforce this rule, behind the Soviet soldiers were secret police men who would kill any soldier who tried to retreat.

During World War Two, Stalin and the Soviet Union was allied with the United States and Great Britain. The leaders of all three countries worked closely together to defeat Nazi Germany. However, Stalin distrusted the United States, which he believed was an enemy and as the war against Nazi Germany ended, Stalin used the Soviet Army to take over and set up communist governments in the countries of Eastern Europe. In addition, Stalin supported the expansion of communism into China and North Korea. The growth of communism after World War Two resulted in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Stalin died in 1953 from a brain hemorrhage (bleeding).

Source # 1 - Video about Stalin's building projects in the Soviet Union - click here



Source # 2 - Graphs showing how the Soviet Economy Grew under Stalin's Rule

Source # 3 - Soviet Propaganda Poster that reads "Glory to Stalin, Great Big Communism!"

Source # 4 - Soviet Propaganda Poster that reads "Great Stalin - Light of Communism!" (in the picture, Stalin is ready a book written by Lenin)

Source # 5 - Video about Collectivization and Famine in the Soviet Union - click here



Source # 6 - Video about the Great Purge and the GULAG labor camps - click here



Source # 7 - Population of GULAG during Stalin's rule of Soviet Union

Source # 8 - Map showing the location of GULAG labor camps in the Soviet Union and sources of natural resources.

Source # 9 - Video clip from the movie "The Way Back" that shows what the conditions were like in a GULAG camp - click here

(You will have to be logged into you BHS Google Account to watch the video clip)

Source # 10 - The graph below shows the results to a survey of Russians about their thoughts on Joseph Stalin.  You can read about the survey results and look at how Russians' view of Stalin have changed in this article in the Moscow Times.

February 3, 2016 - Russian Revolution

Homework - Look at the following source materials about the Russian Revolution and answer the assigned questions.

Source # 1 - Video about Czar Nicholas and Russia before the Revolution - click here

Source # 2 - Video about February Revolution in Russia - click here



Biography - Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin was born in Russia in 1870 to a well educated family, his father worked for the government inspecting schools. As a child, Lenin was a gifted student. Lenin’s interest in revolutionary politics was formed when his older brother was arrested and executed by secret police for being part of a revolutionary group that planning to execute the Russian czar or emperor of Russia. After this, Lenin began to work in political groups that were opposed to the rule of the czar. The secret police ordered Lenin to live in a rural village to keep him from working with other revolutionaries. With little to do in the village, Lenin read Karl’s Marx’s books and, in 1889, Lenin declared that he was a Marxist communist.

In 1892, Lenin was allowed to move to small city in central Russia where he worked as a lawyer trying to protect the rights of poor peasants. Seeing how badly the government treated the peasants made Lenin want to work to overthrow the czar. A few years later, he moved to the St. Petersburg, the Russian capital city, and joined up with revolutionary groups. However, he was only in St. Petersburg for a little while when he was arrested by the secret police and exiled for three years to Siberia. After returning from Siberia, Lenin was forced into exile outside of Russia for his continuing revolutionary activities. Lenin would spend the next twenty years mostly living in exile in Europe working with other Russian revolutionaries. In 1912, he was recognizes as the leader of the Bolsheviks, one of the most radical groups of Russian revolutionaries.

Lenin was living outside of Russia when World War One began. He believed that the war could result in the revolution he had been working for his whole life. In the spring of 1917, the Russian people, exhausted from the war, overthrew the czar. Still living outside of Russia, Lenin was unable to participate in this revolution. Lenin was able to return to Russia with help from the Germans, who wanted to create chaos in Russia to force it to drop out of the war. After returning to Russia, Lenin opposed the new Russian government and began to organize the Bolsheviks to overthrow it and make Russia a communist country. Within a few months of Lenin’s return, the Bolsheviks overthrew the government in the October Revolution. After overthrowing the government, Lenin and Bolsheviks fought a three year civil war for control of Russia. It was during the civil war that Lenin ordered the ruthless policies of War Communism and the Red Terror. In 1918, Lenin was nearly killed in an assassination attempt.

By 1921, Lenin and Bolsheviks had won the civil war. The Russia they ruled had been devastated by both World War One and the civil war – it was deeply impoverished and was suffering a terrible famine. This forced Lenin to delay his plans to turn Russia into a communist society because he believed it was first necessary to rebuild the country. Lenin ordered the New Economic Policy which allowed farmers and businesses to sell their goods in markets and keep the profits so as to help the country recover. The next year, Lenin suffered two strokes and his health began to fail. In the last year of his life he spoke of his regret that the Soviet Union had become so dictatorial and that he did not think that Joseph Stalin would be a good ruler. However, by this point he was too weak to have much effect on events in the Soviet Union. In January 1924, Lenin died and after a power struggle Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin ordered that Lenin’s body be preserved and put on permanent public display in Red Square at the center of Moscow. His body is still on display in Moscow, long after the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism.

Source # 3 - Video about the October Revolution in Russia - click here



Source # 4 - Soviet Poster that reads "Comrade Lenin Cleans the Earth of Filth"

Source # 5 - Soviet Poster that reads "Death of Capitalism or Death Under Capitalism"

Source # 6 - Soviet Poster that reads "Are you Enlisted"

Source # 7 - Map of Russia during the Revolution and Civil War

Source # 8 - Soviet Poster in support of the Red Army

Source # 9 - Soviet Poster that reads, "Soviet Union Under Siege - All to the Defense!"

Source # 10 - Video about the way Lenin and the Bolsheviks used Terror to win the Russian Civil War - click here



Source # 11 - Video about the early Soviet Union under Lenin - click here



Source # 12 - Soviet Poster that reads "We Destroyed Our Enemies with Weapons. We will now Earn Our Bread with Work, Comrades"