Alabama Social Studies SS24.HOS.11

SS24.HOS.11 is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• SS24.HOS.11a

  Analyze Hitler’s motivations for the annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland and the invasion of Poland.

• SS24.HOS.11b

  Evaluate the significance of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and how the “Commissar Order” reflected an extension of Nazi racial policies.*

01

What Students Need to Do

Students put Germany’s moves from rearmament to the invasion of the Soviet Union in order. They explain which actions broke treaty limits, why Hitler took territory, and what changed when Germany attacked the Soviet Union.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Students identify rearmament, troops entering the Rhineland, and the annexation of Austria as treaty breaches. They explain Hitler’s claims about German speakers in Austria and the Sudetenland, and his aim to gain land in Poland. They explain that the Soviet invasion opened a huge eastern front and that the Commissar Order called for killing captured Soviet political officers as part of Nazi racial and ideological violence.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may call every German takeover a direct breach of the treaty, including the Sudetenland. They may treat the invasion of Poland as another negotiated annexation. Some think the Commissar Order applied to every Soviet prisoner, rather than captured political commissars.

04

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: Why did Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union change the war? What did the Commissar Order tell German troops to do?

1. 01

   Give pairs event cards and treaty excerpts on troop limits, the Rhineland, and Austrian independence; have them mark each breach.

2. 02

   Ask students to compare Hitler’s stated reason for taking the Sudetenland with his goal of gaining land in Poland.

3. 03

   Run a timeline relay with 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1941 event cards; teams place them and explain two turning points.

4. 04

   Compare a current European map with a 1938 map; have students locate Austria, the Sudetenland, and Poland.

• SS24.5.5

  Summarize the primary causes and consequences of World War I.

• SS24.HOS.4a

  Analyze the Treaty of Versailles as a causal factor for the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party), and explain how the Nazis appropr...

• SS24.HOS.4

  Outline the historical events that allowed for the breakdown of democracy in Germany from 1929 to 1939.*

• SS24.US2.6

  Trace the progression of events and policies leading to World War II and the United States’ entry into the war.