TT List 3

Priority Event/Person/Term Brief Description Justification 1 The Holocaust Began in 1941. After occupying Poland in 1939 the Nazis also expanded concentration camps into forced labor camps where overwork starvation and disease killed thousands of thousands of Jews Gypsies’, Poles, Russians, and others the Nazis classified as “subhuman”. The defeat of Germany revealed appalling evidence of the evil at the heart of the Nazi ideology of racial superiority. This was a turning point in history in general due to eyes being opened to the horrific encounters that had been happening in Germany. 2 The Atomic Bombs August 1945 Japans ferocious defense of Okinawa had confirmed American fears that the Japanese would fight to the death. Americans wondered if unconditional surrender was worth another six or nine months of bitter fighting in contrast using the bomb to end the conflict quickly would ensure that the United States could occupy Japan without Soviet participation. 3 The Great Depression August 1929 – March 1933 The Wall Street crash marked the beginning of the depression, but it did not cause it. The depression stemmed from the weaknesses in the new era. Most damaging was the unequal distribution of wealth and income, workers’ wages, and farmers’ incomes had fallen far behind industrial productivity and corporate profits. By 1929 the richest 0.1% of American families had as much total income as the bottom 42% with more than half the nation's people living at or below the subsistence level. 4 North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) April 10, 1949 10 European nations, the United States, and Canada signed the North Atlantic treaty as a mutual defense pact. American commitments to the NATO included military aid and deployment of U.S. troops in Western Union Europe. NATO was the entangling alliance that the United States had worked for