As you learned in the Windows On (The Holocaust) box on page 825, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism, war, and modern technology combined in the genocidal policies known as the Holocaust. In a sense, the "Final Solution" was just that, the logical culmination of the Nazi's doctrine of racial purity. Once Germany's leaders determined that the Jews could hold no place in German society, the only questions left to answer were when and how the genocide would be carried out. Assess the evidence relating to the origins and course of World War II below and then respond to the essay question that follows. Examine the map on page 798 detailing the political configuration of Europe, 1919-1937. How would explain the patterns the map reveals? Is it accurate to say that authoritarianism was "exported" from Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union to the states of eastern Europe and the Balkans? Read the speeches on page 800 by Joseph Stalin and V. Zazubrin. Why was industrialization so important to Soviet leaders? Can you think of any non-economic reasons for the focus on industrialization? Read the documents relating to repression and terror in the Soviet Union on page 804 and then read a 1926 letter from prisoners in the Solovetsky concentration camp to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik). Should historians see the Holocaust and the state-sponsored terror under Stalin as comparable events? Why or why not? Examine the images of Joseph Stalin on page 806, Benito Mussolini on page 808, and Adolph Hitler on page 814. What do these images have in common? What similarities do they suggest between the prevailing political ideologies in the Soviet Union, Italy, and Germany? The documents on page 810 and the graph on page 812 testify to the popularity and emotional appeal of fascism. Why was fascism so well-received in the 1920s and 1930s? What strategies did fascists use to head-off public analysis and debate of their programs and claims? The map on page 815 reveal the aggressive and expansionist nature of German, Italian, and Japanese foreign policy. What connections can you make between the political ideologies of these three countries and their foreign policies? Take a look at the graph on page 816 and the cartoon of Hitler and Stalin on page 818. Does the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, and the subsequent partition of Poland, support the theory that communism and fascism are closely related phenomena? Why or why not? Examine the map of concentration camps on page 824. Is it credible that the non-Jewish population of the German Reich knew nothing of the Holocaust? Why or why not? Read Harry Truman's account of the dropping of the atomic bomb on page 827 and examine the graph on page 828 showing the casualties that resulted from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. How did Truman explain his decision to use atomic weapons? In your opinion, did race play any role in the decision-making process? When you have finished reviewing the evidence, write a well-organized essay on the relationship between authoritarianism, war, and genocide in the period 1917-1945. What connections would you draw between the rise of authoritarian governments in Europe and the internal and external violence which such governments propagated? Use the evidence you have just examined to support your claims and observations.