The Second World War and the Holocaust · KS3 History

Causes and early war

Many Germans resented the Treaty of Versailles. The Great Depression helped Hitler and the Nazis come to power in 1933.
Britain and France tried appeasement: giving in to Hitler's demands to avoid war (the Munich Agreement, 1938).
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and Britain and France declared war on 3 September.
In 1940, over 300,000 Allied soldiers were rescued from Dunkirk. The RAF won the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz bombed British cities until 1941.

Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing the USA into the war.
The Soviet victory at Stalingrad (1942 to 1943) was a turning point. The Allies landed in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944.
Germany surrendered: VE Day was 8 May 1945. After atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Japan surrendered.
The home front: children were evacuated from 1939, food was rationed from 1940, and women worked in factories, on farms (the Land Army) and in the armed forces.

The Holocaust was the Nazis' persecution and murder of about six million Jews. Roma and Sinti people, disabled people and others were also murdered.
Persecution grew step by step: boycotts of Jewish shops (1933), the Nuremberg Laws took away Jews' rights (1935), and Kristallnacht (November 1938) saw synagogues, shops and homes attacked.
During the war, Jews were forced into ghettos, shot in mass killings, and sent to death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Wannsee Conference (1942) planned the "Final Solution".
Holocaust Memorial Day is held on 27 January, the date Auschwitz was liberated in 1945.

Appeasement: Giving in to demands to avoid war.
Evacuation: Moving people, especially children, away from danger.
Blitz: The German bombing of British cities in 1940 and 1941.
Rationing: Limiting the amount of food and goods each person can buy.
D-Day: The Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.
VE Day: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945.
Holocaust: The Nazis' murder of about six million Jews and millions of others.
Persecution: Treating people cruelly because of who they are.
Ghetto: A closed area of a city where Jews were forced to live.
Death camp: A camp built to murder people, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.