World War II Aim: What happens when you break the rules?

Motivation Activity

PBS Legacy of War

Viewing Questions:

What crimes were the Nazis accused of?

Nuremberg Trials “The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so

calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated….It is hard now to perceive in these miserable men…the power by which as Nazi leaders they once dominated much the world and terrified most of it. Merely as individuals, their fate is of little consequence to the world. What makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. They are living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power….Civilization can afford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom those forces now survive.”

Opening address to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial

I. Crime of Waging Aggressive War 1936: Rhineland: Treaty

of Versailles demilitarized zone occupied by Hitler’s forces

1938: Annexation of Austria

1938: Sudentenland: part of Czechoslovakia, where most people were German-speaking

1939: Invasion of Poland 1940: Defeat of France 1941: Invasion of Soviet

Union

Map of Nazi Occupied Europe 1941-1942

Blitzkrieg (lightning attack) in Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France

Racial Justification: Land for the Aryan Nation

II. Crimes of the Battlefield

Vengeance-1 and V-2 Rockets Invented in 1944 Used to

indiscriminately bomb Great Britain

Same technology used by US and Soviet Space Race in the post-war period

III. Crimes Against Humanity Hitler’s “Final

Solution:” policy of genocide and systematic killing of an entire population

Concentration/Death Camps

Group Roles

Leader: Makes sure that everyone is doing work; delegates duties and a game plan.

Scribe: Writes down answers on worksheet.

Speaker: Will share main conclusions at the end of class.

Activity Should the U.S. stand trial for War Crimes? Directions:

In group of 4, open the collection of documents. The documents discuss Japanese internment, the firebombing of Dresden/Tokyo and the dropping of the Atomic Bomb.

Divide the work amongst your group and individually analyze the documents. Each document has guiding questions to help you analyze.

Go around the group and share your conclusions about your documents.

Based on the documents, answer the question on the final worksheet together.

Presentations: Present your groups findings at the end of class.

December 7, 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor

Dresden, Germany (Feb. 13th-14th 1945)

Tokyo, Japan (March 9, 1945)

Bombing at night to kill civilian population

Strategic bombing to break morale

Firebombing

Blamed for Pearl Harbor

127,000 on West Coast (none on Hawaii) interned by Executive Order 9066 60,000 American

citizens

Japanese Internment

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

Underlying Causes of World War II

War begets War Failures of WWI’s

Treaty of Versailles Weimar Republic in

Germany Worldwide Depression

The Rise of Fascism Fascism: stresses

nationalism over individualism

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

Japanese imperialism and aggression