1. As you read the introduction, make a list of the ways World War II transformed Europe and world.
2. What did Germany and the Soviet Union agree to in the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?
3. How did the world react to news of the pact?
4. What did the Soviet Union do after Germany invaded Poland?
5. How was Poland divided up by Germany and the Soviet Union?
6. Why did the German government create the General Government and who was its leader?
7. How did the Germans treat the Polish people in the General Government?
8. How did the Germans treat the Jews in the General Government?
9. How did the state of war affect what the Nazi government could do?
10. Who was Reinhard Heydrich? (There is a lot of information in this document, so try to learn the most important details of his life dealing with the Holocaust.)
11. What were the Judenräte and what purpose did they serve? (Again, there is a lot of information in this document, so try to pick out the important details.)
12. What were the short-term and long-term goals in Heydrich's so-called Schnellbrief?
13. What did the Germans do to Polish Jews as they conquered Poland?
14. What other countries did the Germans capture between September 1939 and June 1941?
15. What did Germany's allies in Southern and Eastern Europe do with regards to Jews in their country?
16. Why did German anti-Jewish policies differ from country to country and, in particular, in Eastern Europe and Western Europe?
17. What were the ways in which the Germans persecuted Jews throughout Europe?