Materials

• Resources on the League of Nations and the United Nations
• Map of divided Germany

Instructional Activities

1. Instruct students to develop a list of possible outcomes of WWII. Possible responses may include the following:
   • Creation of a United Nations
   • The Cold War
   • Creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
   • Implementation of Iron Curtain (the term Churchill coined for those eastern European countries that had fallen to communism)
   • Creation of two super powers— the United States and the Soviet Union
   • Marshall Plan (rebuilding of western Europe to prevent the spread of communism; founded on the concept that communism feeds on poverty and turmoil)
   • Nuremberg war trials
   
   
2. Have students research the terms Cold War and Iron Curtain and write definitions in their own words.
   
   
3. Instruct students to compare and contrast the League of Nations and the United Nations.
   
   
4. Have students debate whether leaders of defeated countries should be placed on trial as war criminals.
   
   
5. Discuss with the class how the Allies dealt with Germany after World War II ended. Possible responses include the following:
   • At conferences held by the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) during the war, it was decided that Germany would be divided into east and west. The west would be occupied by America, Britain, and France and the east by the Soviet Union. Berlin would be divided in a similar manner.
   • West Germany soon began to have an economic revival while the east lagged behind.
   • Divided Germany and later the Berlin Wall became the symbol of the Cold War.
   
   
6. Have students look at a map of Germany to see how it was divided and suggest problems that might develop. Possible responses include the following:
   • Families split.
   • The east and west became economic and political rivals.
   • People tried to flee to the west, where conditions were better.