History 346 Final Examination Study Questions

San Francisco State University

May 23, 2006

Part I:  Essay.  Worth 33% of the grade.  You will answer one of the following questions:

1. "How was it possible for a modern state to carry out the systematic murder of a whole people for no reason other than that they were Jews?  How was it possible for a whole people to allow itself to be destroyed?  How was it possible for the world to stand by without halting this destruction?"  (Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews.)

How did the decision for the Holocaust come into being?  Did Hitler emerge from World War I with a clear plan to exterminate physically the Jews of Europe, or was it a "twisted road" to Auschwitz?  Why were the Jews of some countries more likely to survive than others?  Why did the Nazis want to murder the Jews? 

2. "One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called.  I said at once 'the Unnecessary War.'  There never was a war more easy to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle."  (Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War.)

Do you agree?  Was the Second World War preventable, or is Churchill simply complimenting himself?  How could it have been prevented?  Consider arguments both for and against your thesis.

3.Russia, Italy and Germany all experienced the creation of dictatorships during the 1920s and 30s.  The state in all three countries was dedicated to remaking their societies in a fundamental way:  to create a "totalitarian" society.  Did they succeed?  How?  What did they have in common?  How did they differ?  Construct a clear argument comparing the experiences of the Russian, Italian and German societies, drawing from the readings, lectures and whatever other appropriate evidence you can use.

Part II:  Essay.  Worth 33% of the grade.  You will answer one of the following questions:

1. "We have so much to be thankful for!"  (American television commercial, December 1989).

"I want my Wall back!"  (German political button, December 1992).

Describe the causes and courses of the various revolutions of 1989-1991 in Eastern Europe.  Why did communism collapse?  Why did the year 1989 not join the years 1953, 1956, and 1968?  Does the world still have so much to be thankful for? 

2. After the First World War European politics were characterized by chronic instability, leading to the collapse of democratic institutions in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.  But politics following the Second World War have been much more stable.  What have been the sources of political stability in Europe after World War II?  When has that stability been threatened, and why?

Part III:  Identifications.  Worth 34% of the grade.  Briefly identify and explain the significance of six of the following names, words or acronyms.

Treaty of Rome                                                                        Saar

Operation Reinhard                                                                       “Grandeur”

Gleichschaltung                                                                         RPF

Lech Walesa                                                                            PDS

Alexander Dubcek                                                                        Morgenthau Plan

Sudetenland                                                                              samizdat

Potsdam Accords                                                                       Katyn Forest

"Long Telegram"                                                                     Pleven Plan

Glasnost                                                                                   Kristallnacht

épuration                                                                                  Pierre Poujade

Margaret Thatcher                                                                       Mendès-France

Beveridge Report                                                                    Henri-Philippe Petain

SED                                                                                         Nikolaikirche