World War II Web Quest

The following webquest encompasses several important aspects of the Second World War.

1. Go to the following site and scroll through the timeline.

A. What year did Adolph Hitler become the leader of the National Socialist Nazi Party? (Hint - look in the 1920's)

B. Go to 1925. Click on Mein Kampf. What does Mein Kampf mean? (Third or fourth paragraph)

C. What is an Aryan, according to Hitler? (Around the fourth paragraph)

D. Look at the bottom of the article, when did this book become hugely popular? To answer this, you have to read the article, and then go back to the timeline to find out when Hitler became Chancellor.

E. What year did the Nazis hold a book burning? List some authors whose works were destroyed.

F. Scroll down to 1941. Look at December. What happened on Dec. 8 and Dec. 11?

G. Scroll to the very end. Click on the Statistics of World War II. Which country had the most fatalities?

2. Look at this website and write the definition of Fascism in your own words. What countries were fascist during the WW2 era?

3. Now go to

A. Where were the Internment camps in Arizona located?

B.

Why was Fred Korematsuarrested?

What was the Supreme Court decision in 1944 in the case of Korematsu v. United States?

4. The next website is about a female spy during the war.

  1. What was her name at birth? Where was she born? How old was she when she died?
  2. She was an SOE. What do the initials stand for? What was her code name? Why were her wireless reports to SOE headquarters so important?

5. Navajo code talkers.

  1. Go to

This site has information about the Navajo code talkers. Who came up with the idea to use the Navajo language? Why? Why were the code talkers heroes?

  1. Go to this website to find Navajo code words used in WWII:

What was the Navajo code word for submarine? (Hint: it means “iron fish” when translated into English).

What was the Navajo code word for fighter plane? (Hint: it means “hummingbird” when translated into English).

6. Concentration camps.

  1. Go to

This site has a map of all the concentration and extermination camps.

What was the camp to the furthest point north?

Which was the closest extermination camp to the city of Warsaw, Poland?

What was the name of the concentration camp in France?

  1. Go to

The site shows a timeline of the holocaust. Go to the year 1941 and find the word Einsatzgruppen, then click on the definition box (DEFN). From which two groups did the Einsatzgruppen get selected? What was their responsibility?

Go to the year 1942 and find a (WEBLINK) box that refers to the “Final Solution”, and click on it. What was the Madagascar Plan? On the same WEBLINK, look at the section titles “Nazi Murder of Non-Jews”. List 5 other groups the Nazis murdered during the Holocaust.

After the Japanese victory at Pearl Harbor, the United States Pacific fleet was so badly damaged that it took 6 months for it to recover its battle readiness. From December 1941 to April 1942, the Japanese war machine conquered many areas in Asia. These included Burma, Singapore, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines, were they again defeated the United States. The Doolittle Raid marks the first offensive military action taken by the U.S. again Japan since Pearl Harbor. It was a psychological shock to Japan, because it proved that they were not protected from invasion as they believed.

7. The Fall of the Philippines

  1. Go to

Who was the American general in command at the Philippines? How many Americans were killed, wounded, and captured?

.

  1. Go to

After reading the introductory paragraph, click on “Animation”. Click on all the blue animation squares to look at the animations and to hear historic radio broadcasts. When you get to the blue square called “The Death March”, listen carefully to the audio as you watch the animation. How many U.S. and Philippine soldiers died on the death march? In 3 – 5 sentences, describe the experience of the U.S. soldiers using examples from the audio. How does this make you feel?

Congratulations! You have reached the end of this web quest and are now a certified expert on World War II!!!

World War II Webquest