European History Quiz - How Much Do You Know About WWII?
Written by Jessica Holom
Last updated · 7 min play time
Are you a history buff? Then test your knowledge with this WWII European history quiz! Identify the people, places, dates, and facts regarding one of the most devastating wars of all time.
Quiz written by
Jessica HolomJessica Holom is a freelance writer and digital nomad with a background in literature, art, and writing. She believes curiosity never killed a single cat and enjoys learning, world-exploring, and writing about both.
European History Quiz Questions
20 Questions · 3.7K Plays · 2 Comments
Question 1
Who spoke these famous words: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields…”?
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AJoseph Stalin
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BDwight Eisenhower
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CFranklin D. Roosevelt
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DWinston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Churchill's famous speech, "We shall fight on the beaches," was delivered to the House of Commons of the Parliament on June 4, 1940. Churchill had just taken over as Prime Minister on May 10, shortly after WWII broke out in Europe. Needless to say, he had to make this speech memorable. And he did.
Question 2
Which of the “Big Three” Allied leaders didn’t see the end of the war?
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AJoseph Stalin
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BAdolf Hitler
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CFranklin D. Roosevelt
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DWinston Churchill
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Although Hitler didn't live to see the end of the war either, he wasn't part of the "Big Three." That title would belong to the famous trio: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. Unfortunately, it was Roosevelt who never saw the war's end, as he died of a stroke on April 12, 1945, less than a month before Germany surrendered. The war with Japan wouldn't end until months later.
Question 3
Although he didn't really like Hitler, which fascist leader allied Italy with Germany?
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ABenito Mussolini
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BSilvio Berlusconi
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CJoseph Stalin
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DQueen Victoria
Benito Mussolini
While Hitler and Mussolini looked like best buds, the fascist Italian leader told his son-in-law in June of 1941: "I’ve had my fill of Hitler. These conferences called by a ringing of a bell are not to my liking; the bell is rung when people call their servants. And besides, what kind of conferences are these? For five hours I am forced to listen to a monologue which is quite fruitless and boring."
Question 4
Which leader made a nonaggression pact with Hitler, which was later broken?
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AJoseph Stalin
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BCharles de Gaulle
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CWinston Churchill
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DFranklin D. Roosevelt
Joseph Stalin
Before Stalin joined the "Big Three," he was in cahoots with Nazi Germany. He signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23, 1939, right before the war broke out in Europe, with a secret plan on how the pair of would-be conquerors might split Eastern Europe. The duo agreed that, for the next decade, neither would take military action against the other, but not two years later, Hitler broke his pinky promise by invading the Soviet Union in June of 1941. What would you expect from a dictator?
Question 5
A failed artist authored this book that became the best-selling book in Germany, second only to the Bible. What was its title in English?
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AMy Failure
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BMy Crippling Ego
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CMy Struggle
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DMy Life
My Struggle
Mein Kampf – or "My Struggle," in English – was Hitler's magnum opus. The autobiographical struggle spelled out Hitler's nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideology and his vision for the future.
Question 6
Who attended the Yalta Conference in 1945?
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AWinston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and Joseph Stalin
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BVladimir Lenin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
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CDwight Eisenhower, Vladimir Lenin, and Neville Chamberlain
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DJoseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill
Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill
In February of 1945, the "Big Three" had a party in Yalta. Well, it wasn't so much a party as a conference to decide what to do about their mutual enemy, Hitler. Their decision? To require his unconditional surrender. They also agreed on a few other things that did not play out as well as one might have hoped...*cough* the Cold War.
Question 7
In what year did the U.S. enter the war?
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A1939
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B1940
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C1941
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D1945
1941
It took a while for the U.S. to get their head in the game. It wasn't until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, that Roosevelt changed America's neutral status to "all systems go!" Four days after the attack, Hitler declared war on the U.S., and the rest is history.
Question 8
Which country was NOT one of the Allied powers?
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AGreat Britain
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BFrance
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CChina
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DGermany
Germany
There were two teams in WWII: the Allied and the Axis. Apart from the "Big Three" (Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the U.S.), the chief Allied powers included France and China. Germany was one of the Axis powers, along with Italy and Japan.
Question 9
More than a million war victims were killed here. Where was the notorious Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, located?
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AAustria
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BUnited Kingdom
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CPoland
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DGermany
Poland
The largest concentration camp was located in Oświęcim in southern Poland. Dedicated to the "final solution," Auschwitz was a slave-labor camp, a prison camp, and an extermination camp, rolled into one, the last of which led to between 1.1 to 1.5 million people dead.
Question 10
Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party. What is he famous for?
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ABuilding war tanks
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BSaving more than a thousand Jews
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CInventing nuclear power
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DHis industrial company
Saving more than a thousand Jews
Schindler was a savvy guy. Although he initially wanted to profit from the war by producing goods for the German military, when he saw what the Nazis were capable of, he started employing more Jews in his factories to save them from a dark fate. By the end of the war, he'd saved 1,100 Jews from death, and he lost his entire fortune doing it.
Question 11
Initiating the world to Nazi Germany's "blitzkrieg" strategy, what country did Germany invade to launch WWII in Europe?
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AFrance
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BSoviet Union
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CAustria
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DPoland
Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland by land and air. Adolf wanted to regain lost territory and, in doing so, initiated WWII. This first run at another country revealed Hitler's "blitzkrieg" strategy, which involved demolishing all communication, transportation, and munition by bombing the life out of territory, before sending in a large number of troops to pick the rest off.
Question 12
Hitler wasn't the only one land-grabbin'. Where did Stalin's "Winter War" take place?
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AFinland
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BSwitzerland
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CSweden
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DAustria
Finland
Stalin wasn't sitting around eating bonbons during WWII. He was land-grabbin'. The Soviets invaded Finland on November 30, 1939, starting off the "Winter War." Nearly four months later, the short war ended with Finland ceding 11 percent of its territory to the Soviet Union, in the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Sounds like a raw deal. But as it would turn out, that wasn't the end of it; the Continuation War between the Finns and the Soviets started 15 months later.
Question 13
Which country did Italy first invade when entering the war?
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ASpain
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BGermany
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CCzech Republic
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DFrance
France
Mussolini got his groove back in the Battle of the Alps. As Italy's first major WWII engagement, the Italian leader wanted more power in the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Africa. And so, Italy declared war on France and Britain on June 10, 1940.
Question 14
What pact was signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan in 1940?
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AFriendship Pact
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BAxis Pact
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CTripartite Pact
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DTreaty of War
Tripartite Pact
In September 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan flew to Berlin to become blood brothers. The Axis powers drew up the Tripartite Pact, a defensive military alliance. The pact was really a big nani-nani-nani to the United States.
Question 15
After killing millions, how did Hitler die?
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AExecuted by the Allies
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BWas tried at the Nuremberg Proceedings and died in prison
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CCommitted suicide
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DSuffered a stroke
Committed suicide
Hitler didn't want to live to see his failure or face justice. A week before Germany surrendered to Soviet troops on May 7, 1945, he took his life in a Berlin bunker. He shot himself, while his wife, Eva Braun, took poison. His so-called "Thousand-Year Reich" barely broke a decade, but it damaged the world forever.
Question 16
Don't look the other way. Which of these European countries was NOT neutral during WWII?
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AIreland
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BSwitzerland
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CSweden
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DAustria
Austria
Austria was annexed on March 12, 1938, so the country wasn't so much neutral as in the middle of things. However, Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland (among several other countries that include Turkey, Portugal, and Spain) weren't interested in getting involved.
Question 17
Where did D-Day unfold?
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ADover
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BMoscow
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CBerlin
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DNormandy
Normandy
On June 6, 1944, Operation Neptune began. This largest seaborne invasion in world history saw France liberated from Nazi control and the Allies secure the Western Front. If you were wondering what D-Day stands for, it disappointingly doesn't stand for anything. It's just military talk – the first "D" is a stand-in for a particular calendar day, enabling the military to keep that date under wraps.
Question 18
After being ambushed on all fronts, when did Germany surrender?
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AMay 1945
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BJune 1944
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CSeptember 1945
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DMarch 1940
May 1945
On May 7, 1945 , Nazi Germany surrendered to the western Allies, and on May 9, 1945, they surrendered to the Soviets. That's why "Victory Day" is celebrated on May 9 in the fifteen former republics of the Soviet Union. But it wasn't until September 2, 1945, that Japan formally surrendered to the US, officially ending WWII.
Question 19
What was NOT a tenant of Adolf Hitler's fascist ideology?
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AAryan supremacy
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BNationalism
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CDemocracy
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DAnti-semitism
Democracy
Hitler laid out his ideas in Mein Kampf, expanding upon his obsession with ethnic "purity" and the so-called supremacy of the "Aryan race." He also believed this all required "living space" (Lebensraum) in order to play out as planned; hence, the land-grabbing.
Question 20
When WWII concluded, where did the trials of war criminals take place?
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ANuremberg
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BThe Hague
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CBerlin
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DParis
Nuremberg
The Nuremberg Trials saw 24 high-ranking Nazi officials face sentencing for the war crimes and atrocities of WWII. Reps from Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States headed the international tribunal. The Nazi officials were tried for crimes of war, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity, with some hanged, others sentenced from ten years to life, and one who committed suicide. Those Nazis of lower stature also underwent trials, resulting in 5,025 more convictions and 806 executions.
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