foreign policy and the Second World War

Question 1

What were Hitlers foreign policy aims?

Answer 1

Hitlers foreign policy aims:
Unification of all Germans in a Greater Germany
Conquest of land in the east - lebensraum (living space)
Abolition of the treaty of Versaille
Re-armament
To become a great world power

Question 2

What were the effects of bombing? How many people killed, injured, how many houses destroyed, when was the Hamburg firestorm and how many did it kill?

Answer 2

400,000 germans were killed
500,000 were severely injured
3.6 million homes were destroyed
Hamburg firestorm 24th July 1943 killed 40,000 civilians

Question 3

When did the invasion of the USSR start?

Answer 3

1941

Question 4

During the Nazi invasion of ussr how many more Jews came under German control?

Answer 4

3 million jewish people

Question 5

Why was the invasion of the USSR a turning point in foreign policy in regards to policies towards Jews?

Answer 5

The invasion the the USSR in 1941 was a turning point in Nazi policy; it brought another 3 million jewish people under Nazi control and Einsatzgruppen killed large numbers of Jewish people. This was an escalation of Nazi policy and prepared the way for the ‘final solution’ as Nazis faced the practcial problem of fighting a war and dealing with increasing number of Jewish people.

Question 6

What percentage of the German army invaded the USSR

Answer 6

80%

Question 7

When did Hitler take the rest of Czechoslovakia?

Answer 7

march 1937

Question 8

When was the tripartite pact and who was it between

Answer 8

Tripartite pact japan italy germany 1940

Question 9

How did Stalin sum up the war?

Answer 9

Stalin summing up the war- ‘Britain gave the time; america the money; and russia the blood’

Question 10

What economic factors counted against Germany in the war?

Answer 10

What economic factors that counted against Germany -
Planning
Anglo-american bombing
Shortage of labour
Germany's debt
The power of the us economy
Soviet resources

Question 11

Write down everything about the impact of the war on workers

Answer 11

Workers -
Some benefits - labour in high demand so no shortage of jobs, workers in war industries were exempt from conscription, bonus and overtime payments introduced to maintain productivity
Didn’t feel much real benefit though because there were increases in income taxes, and taxes on beer, tobacco, cinemas and travel
‘Total war’ created pressures - working hours increased from 52 in 1940 to 60 in 1944
Skilled labour was in short supply
Millions of foreign workers were mobilised to work
Non-essential business were closed in 1943 and all workers ages 16-65 had to register for vital work
After 1944 holidays were banned, bonuses stopped and rewards were limited to just an increase in rations

Question 12

Write down everything about the impact of the war on the peasantry

Answer 12

Peasantry -
Pressure - growing shortage of agriculture labour, had to use forced labour from peasants from estern europe, shortage of farm machinery and animal feed supplies
Ways they were not affected - largely self suffiencnet and did not suffer such adversty and levles of bombing

Question 13

Write down everything about the impact of the war on women

Answer 13

Conscription of women used sparingly. Decline in consumer industries. And less of an incentive as families of conscripted workers received benefit

Speer wanted an increase of conscription for women workers, but Hitler wanted to retain traditional roles for women to increase moral

Conscriptions for women introduced in 1943 women aged 17-45. Many exemptions.
By 1945 60% of the workforce were women

They had more responsibilities in and out the home and (in cities) had long hours working in factories, and often the dual responsibility of working and bringing up children.

In the countryside they had the pressure of running farms on their own

Question 14

Write down everything about the impact of the war on children

Answer 14

Many teachers were conscripted, standard of education greatly affected by war
Formal exams ended in 1943 and by late 1944 any teaching in schools had all but petered out

Stronger focus on militarism for the youth -
The age of military service was reduced to 17 in 1943 and 16 in 1945. Increasing numbers of teeangerrs used for defence work such as manning anti-aircraft batteries

The German youth became very polarised between those committed to the Nazi cause and those disaffected. Many were repelled by the military training of the Hitler youth and felt alienated. Some counter groups formed like the edelweiss pirates but this was a minority

Nazis response to opposition -
various gangs were rounded up by the gestapo and had their heads shaved, in some cases young people were sent to camps, twelve edelweiss pirates were publicly hanged in cologne.

Question 15

When was The Wannsee Conference

Answer 15

20th January 1942

Question 16

By the end of the war how many jewish people had been murdered?

Answer 16

By the end of the war an estimated 6 million jewish people had been murdered.

Question 17

In Auschwitz how many jews died?

Answer 17

In Auschwitz 1 million Jews died.

Question 18

Early foreign policy -
When did Germany leave the League of Nations?
When was conscription re-introduced and how large did they want the army to become?

Answer 18

1933

March 1935, building up to an army of 550,000

Question 19

Early foreign policy -
When was the remilitarisation of the Rhineland?
When was the Hossbach conference and what was it?

Answer 19

7th March 1936

November 1937, a meeting in which Hitler outlined his foreign policy aims

Question 20

Early foreign policy -
When was Anschluss?
When was the Czech crisis?
When was the non-aggression pact with the soviets?

Answer 20

March 1938
1938-1939
August 1939