Enduring Understandings
- Western democracies responded to Axis aggression with appeasement until the Nazi invasion of Poland.
- Early in World War II, Axis forces overran most of Europe and the Pacific, then the tide began to turn in favor of the Allies.
- Neutral at first, the United States joined the Allies after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
- The Nazis carried out a plan to exterminate European Jews, now known as the Holocaust.
- After the failed Nazi siege of Stalingrad and the D-Day landings at Normandy, Allied troops closed in on Germany.
- The dropping of atomic bombs on Japan ended the war, but the decision was controversial.
Watch the My Story Video
to witness an interview with a survivor of the bombing of Britain.