WWII

yeah...

Pearl Harbor

A Japanese military attack where they bombed Pear Harbor in Hawaii

Lend-Lease Act

Allowing the president to aid any nation believed to be vital for defense

Allied Powers

Britan, France, USSR, (USA later). An alliance between them

Winston Churchill

The prime minister of GB

Appeasement

A policy of avoiding war with an aggressive nation by giving in to its demands

Axis Powers

An alliance with Italy, Japan, and Germany

Joseph Stalin

Dictator of the USSR. Terrorized those he saw as political enemies. Killing or imprisoning millions of Soviet citizens

Nazis

Hitler’s political party

Adolf Hitler

A Nazi leader in Germany. Chancellor. Would control with censorship, gestapos, and SS

Fascism

A political system in which the state, or gov, is all controlling, and promotes nationalism and racism.

Benito Mussolini

A fascist dictator who gained complete control of Italy in 1922.

Totalitarianism

A political system. in which the gov controls every aspect of citizen’s lives

Tuskegee Airmen

Group of African American pilots who trained at the Tuskegee flying school and fought in World War II

Blitzkrieg

“Lightning War”; Germany’s method of offensive warfare designed to take a swift, focused blow at the enemy

European Theater

Series of battlefronts in WWII that stretched across the European continent, from the Atlantic ocean to the Ural Mines

Pearl Harbor

US military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan on December 7th, 1941, and the brought the US into WWII

Operation Barbarossa

The name of the German invasion of the Soviet Union WWII-largest land offensive in human history (10M combatants)

Manhatten Project

Code name for the US effort to build an atomic bomb during WWII-led by Oppenheimer

Operation Overlord

The official name for the Allied Invasion of Normandy in June of 1944 (Also known as D-Day)

Pacific Theater

Series of battlefronts in WWII that took place in SE Asia and most of the fighting took place over an ocean.

Island Hopping

American strategy in which their navy attacked and captured islands in the Pacific Ocean on their way to Japan

Interment Camp

Detention centers where over 100,000 Japanese Americans were relocated during WWII by order of the president.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Allied Powers

USA, GB, USSR

Totalitarianism

A form of gov where one person has all the powers, controls the quality of life, the military, etc. Life is very restrictive

Anti-Semitism

A hatred of Jewish people

Fascism

Where one person has all the power and it promotes nationalism and racism

Nazism

Far-right totalitarian ideologies associated with Hitler

Appeasement

Giving a country whatever they won’t so they won’t start a war

Non-Agression Pact

A pact between Germany and the USSR that let them both take half of Poland and be non-aggressive with each other

Final Solution

Hitler’s three step plan to eliminate everyone he considered undesirable in Europe

Nuremberg Laws

The laws that revoked the citizenships of Jews

Nuremberg Trials

Trials for the defeated leaders of Nazi Germany. Held by France, the UK, the USA, and the USSR

Holocaust

A time between 1933 and 1945 that killed millions of Jews and anyone else Hitler did not approve of in concentration camps

Genocide

A mass murder with the intention of an “ethnic cleansing”

VE Day

The day celebrating Nazi Germany’s surrender during WWII

VJ Day

A day celebrating the victory over Japan

United Nations

All the nations of the world coming together to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, and also to make rules for future wars. All nations trying to make peace

Potsdam

Conference that allowed the allies to plan peace out

Yalta

Conference held to discuss the post-war reorganization of Germany