This war involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–1945. The conflict was mainly between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied forces (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China). The war was in many ways a continuation of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. Between 40-50 million people were killed, making World War II the bloodiest and largest war in history.
Hitler’s racist ideology and brutal concept of power caused him to set certain goals in Europe, such as slave labor and genocide. The German military—the Wehrmacht—participated in Nazi crimes and facilitated the genocide of Europe’s Jews.
Prussia - a former German state on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, currently part of present day Germany, Poland, and Russia.
Operation Hannibal: a large naval evacuation, transporting German troops and over one million civilians across the Baltic Sea, fleeing the advancing Soviet Russian Army. See Baltic Sea on map.
Hitler Youth: organization that educated and trained young German boys in Nazi principles. All young “Aryan” Germans were expected to join. (“Aryan”: white non-Jewish northern European people, having blonde hair and blue eyes, regarded as a “superior racial group” according to Nazi ideology.)
The novel is partially set on the ship Wilhelm Gustloff during WWII. Pick ONE of the two links below
Write 3-5 bullet notes of important or surprising information that you learned from one of the videos: