World War II

appeasement policy

A policy advocated by the British and French toward the Germans following World War I. The hope was to maintain peace by allowing Hitler to annex the Sudentenland region of Czechoslovakia.

pacifism

opposition to all war

neutrality acts

4 laws passed in the late 1930s that were designed to keep the US out of international incidents

axis powers

Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

allied powers

Alliance of Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States, and France during World War II.

nazi soviet pact

agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 in which the two nations promised not to fight each other and to divide up land in Eastern Europe (Hitler breaks this agreement eventually

Sudetenland

Land that Germany thought was rightfully theirs due to the large German speaking population. A region of western czechoslovakia

Blitzkrieg

"Lighting war", typed of fast-moving warfare used by German forces against Poland in 1939

concentration camps

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.

Holocaust

A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler to ensure German supremacy. It called for the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.

genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group

collectives

large farms owned and operated by peasants as a group

lend lease acts

Allowing nations to borrow military equipment and pay for it after war is over

Yalta Conference

1945 Meeting with US president FDR, British Prime Minister(PM) Winston Churchill, and and Soviet Leader Stalin during WWII to plan for post-war

Potsdam Conference

July 26, 1945 - Allied leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Germany to set up zones of control and to inform the Japanese that if they refused to surrender at once, they would face total destruction.

Island Hopping

A military strategy used during World War II that involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others

kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots who loaded their planes with explosives and crashed them into American ships.

manhatten project

Secret American program during World War II to develop an atomic bomb

hiroshima

City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II.

Nagasaki

Japanese city devastated during World War II when the United States dropped the second atomic bomb on Aug 8th, 1945.

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws defining the status of Jews and withdrawing citizenship from persons of non-German blood.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of court proceedings held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, in which Nazi leaders were tried for aggression, violations of the rules of war, and crimes against humanity.

united nations

An international organization formed after WWII to promote international peace, security, and cooperation.

atomic bomb

bomb dropped by an American bomber on Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroying both cities. a nuclear weapon

D-Day

June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.