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About This Quiz
In 1939, an expansionist Nazi regime invaded Poland - and the dominoes began to fall. The events of World War II didn't arise out of nowhere. Recent history, especially the outcome of the first world war, had a lot to do with the rise of Hitler. Understanding such things remains key to ensuring it never happens again.
What caused this European nation to follow a dangerous demagogue into a war and a genocide? Why were Germans so hungry for "lebensraum" that they attacked their neighbors unprovoked? What events of the preceding years helped shape the powder keg that was Europe in the 1930's? What were the name and terms of the punitive peace treaty signed after Germany lost WWI? What about the name of the failed coup that Adolf Hitler attempted in the 1920's, before his eventual rise to power?
Our quiz doesn't just cover the beginnings of WWII. It also covers Germany's actions throughout, to the bitter last days and the suicides of Nazi leaders, including Hitler. Was there, in fact, a resistance movement within Germany? What role did weather play in Hitler's decision to invade the USSR? And was Eva Braun, who died with Hitler in the bunker, his mistress or his wife?
There's a lot to dig into here. See how well you remember history class, with our quiz!
According to most historians, what was the root of German military aggression?
Anti-American sentiment
High food and beer prices
The loss of WWI
Though the causes of the Nazis' rise were complex, most historians agree that the loss of WWI, including territory loss and the levying of reparations, was the main reason the average German supported Hitler's military ambitions.
High unemployment
After WWI, peace terms between Germany and Allied nations were dictated by the Treaty of ________ .
Gothenburg
Nicea
Trent
Versailles
The treaty, signed at the famous French palace, required Germany to make large reparation payments to nations like France and to drastically reduce its military. Hitler would violate the Treaty of Versailles when he introduced military conscription in Germany, which began to swell the size of the army beyond what the treaty allowed.
The Nazis believed in a master race that is commonly called the ______ race.
Aryan
This term is not actually from the German language. It's based in Sanskrit, in which the Arya were a group of people speaking an early Indo-European language. The German word that Hitler used was "Herrenvolk."
New
Nordic
Prussian
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What was Germany's Reichstag?
A domestic police organization
A military reserve corps
The legislative body
Hitler rose to power by increasingly bypassing the Reichstag's authority. In particular, the "Enabling Act of 1933" gave him power to pass laws without the Reichstag's approval.
A major newspaper
What is the name of the small region adjacent to Czechoslovakia that Germany also annexed?
Andorra
Archenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland had a high number of ethnic German and German-speaking people. After the rest of Europe did not respond to Germany annexing the Sudetenland, Hitler felt empowered to invade Czechoslovakia, and did so.
Transylvania
Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, was part of a failed coup attempt in 1923. What was it called?
The Beer Hall Putsch
This attempt to overthrow the government was named for a Munich beer hall, the "Burgerbraukeller." Hitler and about 600 followers converged there, interrupting a political speech and announcing that "the German Revolution has begun!" The announcement turned out to be a bit premature.
The Ride of the Valkyries
The Night of Long Knives
The Night of Shattered Glass
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What did Hitler do with the time he served in prison for the coup attempt?
Corresponded with Mussolini
Learned to paint
Lifted weights strenuously
Wrote a book
In a better world, being sent to prison would have taken the revolutionary zeal out of Hitler. But he used it to write "Mein Kampf," refining his ideas about race and politics.
The "Anschluss" refers to the German annexation of which country?
Austria
Perhaps "union" would be a better word for "annexation" here. The musical/movie, "The Sound of Music," has given people the idea that most Austrians objected to being part of a greater Germany. But many of them wanted to be part of a strong, united nation; Austria even had its own Nazi party.
Italy
Poland
Switzerland
Which nation did Germany invade in 1939, sparking WWII?
Austria
Poland
Germany had annexed Austria and other formerly German territories by this point, but the response from the rest of Europe was appeasement. That ended with the advance into Poland, which caused Britain and France to declare war.
Russia
the United States
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Which nation did Germany overrun in May 1940?
Luxembourg
Belgium
The Netherlands
all of these
The northern European nations were attempting to remain neutral -- like Norway, which had already fallen. But whenever Hitler saw a tactical advantage to capturing territory, he did so.
One key motivation behind Germany's invasions was gaining "lebensraum" for German people. What was "lebensraum"?
Precious metals
Living space
"Lebensraum" was one of Hitler's justifications for territorial expansion. Less romantically put, it was colonization.
National pride
Spending money
The German non-aggression pact with the USSR was called the ______-Ribbentrop pact.
Leningrad
Sokolov
Molotov
This non-aggression agreement was named after its two chief negotiators. The Nazis did not want to fight a war on two fronts, and so they played softball with the Soviets (at least in 1939). The two nations agreed to essentially divide up Eastern Europe and not interfere in each other's terrain.
Trotsky
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Which of these is considered the creator of the concentration camp system?
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Heinrich Himmler
Himmler was responsible for two of the most troubling developments in the Third Reich. In addition to the concentration camps (also called extermination camps or death camps), Himmler developed the Einsatzgruppen, or death squads, which committed brutal killings outside the confines of the camps.
Erwin Rommel
Eva Braun
Which of these nations was NOT a German ally?
Italy
Japan
China
China was never part of the Axis powers. It was Japan who invaded China, making the region of Manchuria into a puppet state, "Manchuko."
None of these were German allies
Other than Jews, which of these groups were sent to the camps?
Gay men
Jehovah's witnesses
Romani (gypsies)
All of these
Though the term "the Holocaust" is reserved for the murder of 6 million Jews, the Nazis sent gays, ethnic Slavs, prisoners of war, black people, trade unionists and more to the camps. Many were used as slave labor; some died there.
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In what country were the infamous camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka?
Germany, of course
Austria
Poland
One reason camps were located in Poland was because of the large number of Jews deported from the ghettos in that country. There were also camps in the occupied Soviet Union and in Hungary.
Bulgaria
The death toll of the extermination camps might be as high as _____ million.
6
8
11
17
The low estimate tends to be about 11 million, but could be as high as 17 million. An exact figure will never be known, due to the chaos of war and destruction of records.
True or false: Was there a resistance movement within Germany?
True
Resistance efforts in Germany were less united than those in, for example, Yugoslavia (which had a strong anti-fascist resistance.) Instead, small groups of students, Communists, Catholics and others worked to hide Jews from capture, evade military service, and otherwise oppose the Nazi agenda.
False
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What was the Tripartite Pact?
The agreement that created the Axis powers
Germany, Italy and Japan were the three nations that made the Tripartite Pact and became the Axis powers. The agreement was signed in September, 1940.
A mutual-defense agreement between Britain, France and the US
The agreement between Australia, Canada and the US to join the war
A plan to divide France into three parts, as Caesar did
Which of these was commander of Germany's Luftwaffe?
Heinrich Bruning
Hermann Goring
Goring had been a fighter pilot in WWI. As such, he was well-positioned to take command of the nation's air force.
Franz von Papen
Erwin Rommel
The German tactic of "blitzkrieg" means what?
Dawn raid
Midnight raid
Lightning war
Blitzkrieg was a strategy of making quick, fierce attacks to break through an enemy's defenses. Historians suggest it wasn't unique to the German military, but an inevitable adaptation to the new military technology of the time.
Shock and awe
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Joseph Goebbels was in charge of what?
Domestic law enforcement
The navy
Propaganda
Goebbels was the Reich's Minister of Propaganda. He was rejected for military service due to a deformed foot, and walked with a limp all his life -- something which might have gotten him eliminated under the Third Reich, were he not so well-connected and useful.
The education system
Operation Sea Lion was Germany's code name for what?
Naval support for the North African campaign
The plan to invade Britain
After successfully taking France, Germany's next target was Britain. It failed, in part, because Germany underestimated England's capacity to hold off the Luftwaffe with its own air defenses.
The plan to control the Mediterranean
The plan to control the Suez Canal
Operation Margarethe was the German occupation of which nation?
Finland
Hungary
The occupation of Hungary was nonviolent; its regent gave in and created a puppet government rather than fight the Germans and lose. However, for the Hungarian Jews, the capitulation was disastrous, as many were rounded up and sent to the camps.
Italy
Serbia
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In June 1941, Hitler made the risky decision to invade which country?
France
Greece
The Soviet Union
It wasn't coincidental that Hitler wanted to invade in June. No one wanted to fight the Russians on their own frozen territory in midwinter. Actually, as Germany would learn, fighting them at any time was no easy prospect.
Spain
The invasion of the Soviet Union was codenamed Operation ________.
Barbarossa
The operation was named after Frederick Barbarossa, a German king who became a Roman emperor in the 12th century. Which shows you what can happen when military leaders are looking too much at history books and not enough at the challenging terrain ahead.
Invicta
Impossible
Lenin
Who was in charge of Germany's North African campaign?
Heinrich Himmler
Joseph Goebbels
Erwin Rommel
Italy, Germany's ally, had colonial interests in North Africa. After the Italian army proved unable to defend those interests, Rommel was dispatched to lead "Operation Sonnenblume" there.
Claus von Stauffenberg
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What was Rommel's nickname?
Desert Fox
Rommel earned this nickname in the North African theater. He initially led the small Afrika Korps, but with added troops, soon turned a defensive campaign into an outright offensive.
Right Hand
Sharpshooter
Thinker
Why (mainly) was North Africa important to the Axis powers?
They wanted to cleanse the region of "undesirables"
They wanted it as "living space" for their people
They wanted access to the Suez Canal
There were several reasons for colonial occupation of North African countries by European nations. But a main reason the region was important was access to the Suez Canal, which provided passage to the oil-rich Middle East.
They wanted to terraform it into agricultural land
What was the JU-87 Stuka?
A dive-bombing plane
The Stuka was outfitted with sirens on its wings. The banshee wail made by the diving planes served to intimidate Germany's enemies.
A machine gun
A tank
A bayonet
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Where did Germany attack stranded Allied forces in 1940?
Dover
Dunkirk
Dunkirk was on the north coast of France, where British and other Allied soldiers were surrounded by German forces. Despite an attack by the Luftwaffe, more than 330,000 were rescued by a valiant evacuation effort in the English Channel.
Normandy
Vichy
What was a German "U-boat"?
An aircraft carrier
A fuel tanker
A submarine
The full German name is "untersee boot." That was shortened to "U Boot" in German, or "U-Boat" in English.
A battleship
Which island did Germany attack in May 1941?
Crete
When mainland Greece fell to a combined German-Italian assault, its forces retreated to this sizable Mediterranean island. Germany attacked using paratroopers, an uncommon move for the time, but a successful one.
England
Ireland
Sicily
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What was the Kriegsmarine?
Plans for an amphibious assault on France
Germany's navy
The Kriegsmarine was a key part of German warfare against Britain, which was protected by the English Channel. Winston Churchill later said that the thing that scared him most about the German military was the threat posed by its submarines.
A civilian ship sunk by the Allies
A body of water contested by Germany and France
What was Germany's carpet bombing of British cities called?
The Blitz
In the Blitz, Germany drew on its powerful Luftwaffe to intimidate the British people, as bombings didn't just destroy strategic targets but also homes, shops and churches. The fear factor wasn't as great as the Germans hoped, though. This was the period of British history which gave us the famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" sign.
The Campaign
The Leveling
The Siege
What was Operation Valkyrie?
An air war against Britain
An air war against the United States
The invasion of Norway
An attempt to assassinate Hitler
Operation Valkyrie, or the July 20 Plot, was an attempt chiefly by Claus von Stauffenberg to kill Hitler in 1944. Civilian and military leaders had grown alarmed by Hitler's oversized ambitions and apparently felt that nothing short of killing him would allow them to take back control of the nation.
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Which of these immediately preceded Germany's surrender?
The Battle of Berlin
The Soviets had already captured other German cities, like Hamburg and Nuremberg, and they had Berlin surrounded. It was then that the Nazi High Command realized victory was no longer possible.
The Normandy Invasion
Mussolini's death
The assassination attempt on Hitler
What was the name of the trials held for Nazi war criminals?
Council of Nicea
Hague trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Allies tried 24 Third Reich leaders in the German city of Nuremberg. It was the trials in Nuremberg that gave rise to the World Court now located in The Hague, in the Netherlands.
Vichy trials
How did Adolf Hitler die?
By suicide in his bunker
Hitler and several other Nazi leaders, including Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Burgdorf, killed themselves in the bunker in Berlin. Eva Braun, whom Hitler had only just married, killed herself there as well.
He was hanged for war crimes in Nuremberg
He was shot by Yugoslavian partisans in a visit there
He escaped to Argentina and was never found
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