WWII Terms

Adolf Hitler

Austrian born Dictator of Germany, implement Fascism and caused WWII and Holocoust.

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition

Joseph Goebbels

Chief minister of the Nazi propaganda, and organizer of Kristallnacht

Rudolf Hess

Deputy to Hitler in the Nazi party person who dictated Mein Kampf

Joseph Mengele

Nazi doctor at Auschwitz who performed experiments on the Jews, especially twins

Heinrich Himmler

Chief of the SS and the Gestapo. Hitler's right hand man.

Neville Chamberlain

1938; gullible British Prime Minister; declared that Britain and France would fight if Hitler attacked Poland.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII

Benito Mussolini

Fascist Dictator of Italy that at first used bullying to gain power, then never had full power.

Mackenzie King

Canadian Prime Minister during WWII

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the US during Great Depression and World War II

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe.

Harry Truman

33rd President of the United States. Led the U.S. to victory in WWII making the ultimate decision to use atomic weapons for the first time. Shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war.

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty particularly known for its harsh reparations towards the Germans after World War I.

Blitzkrieg

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

The Blitz

the British term for the German air raids on British cities and towns during World War II

Evacuation of Dunkirk

British and French troops retreated to the French beaches when Belgium was taken; Approximately 1000 ships sailed from England and rescued 340, 000 soldiers; Significant because it was a victory for the Allies and saved many to fight another day

Battle of Britain

An aerial battle fought in World War II in 1940 between the German Luftwaffe (air force), which carried out extensive bombing in Britain, and the British Royal Air Force, which offered successful resistance.

Dieppe Raid

the 1942 trial raid by Canadian troops against Germany's occupation of Dieppe; Canada suffered heavy losses

Operation Barbarossa

Codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Battle of the Atlantic

Germany's naval attempt to cut off British supply ships by using u-boats. Caused Britain and the US to officially join the war after their ships were sunk. After this battle, the Allies won control of the seas, allowing them to control supply transfer, which ultimately determined the war. 1939-1945

Battle of Stalingrad

Unsuccessful German attack on the city of Stalingrad during World War II from 1942 to 1943, that was the furthest extent of German advance into the Soviet Union.

Phoney War

period between Sept 1939 and Apr 1940 when British/ French/ Canadian alliance and Germany were officially in war but neither sides attacked.

Battle of Hong Kong

Canadians helped the British try to defend Hong Kong from the Japanese in WW2 Canadians were badly defeated and Canadian POW's were tortured and abused

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Two Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs to end World War II.

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

D-Day

Allied invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944

Rape of Nanjing (Nanking)

The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Juno Beach

Canadian landing beach during the Normandy invasion. Canadians penetrated about 9 km inland by the end of D-Day.

Battle of Iwo Jima

A battle in February and March 1945 in which U.S. forces took Iwo Jima, a small but strategically important island off the Japanese coast. During the battle, an Associated Press photographer took a world-famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the summit of Mt. Suribachi.

Battle of Ortona

-The Battle of Ortona took place between December 20th and 28th of 1943. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign.

-Using armour (tanks) and infantry the Canadians took the town after 8 days of horrific house to house combat.

Battle of Monte Cassino

series of 4 battles in Allied attempt to reach Rome. Monastery was flattened by allied bombers. 1944

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.

Camp X

Spy camp set up in Ontario after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Trained Allied spies.

Schutzstaffel (SS)

special police force in Nazi Germany founded as a personal bodyguard for Adolf Hitler in 1925

Gestapo

Nazi secret police

Mein Kampf

book 'My Struggle' by hitler, later became the basic book of nazi goals and ideology, reflected obsession

Weimar Republic

German republic founded after the WWI and the downfall of the German Empire's monarchy.

Wojtek the Polish Bear

Trained bear who carried ammunition to the front

-drank beer & ate cigarettes

Fascism

A political system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and racism and no tolerance of opposition

Communism

A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

Anschluss

The union of Austria with Germany, resulting from the occupation of Austria by the German army in 1938.

Auschwitz

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and others were killed there.

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.

League of Nations

A world organization established in 1920 to promote international cooperation and peace. It was first proposed in 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson, although the United States never joined the League. Essentially powerless, it was officially dissolved in 1946.

Luftwaffe

German Air Force

Policy of Appeasement

policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace; wanted to avoid war

Manhattan Project

A secret U.S. project for the construction of the atomic bomb.

Wannsee Conference

1942 conference in Germany concerning the plan to murder European Jews

Battle of El Alamein

1942-British victory in WWII that stopped the Axis forces from advancing into Northern Africa

Battle of the Bulge

December, 1944-January, 1945 - After recapturing France, the Allied advance became stalled along the German border. In the winter of 1944, Germany staged a massive counterattack in Belgium and Luxembourg which pushed a 30 mile "bulge" into the Allied lines. The Allies stopped the German advance and threw them back across the Rhine with heavy losses.

Battle of Berlin

final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II; before the battle was over, Hitler and many of his followers committed suicide

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

Julius Streicher

Editor of Der Sturmer

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.

Holodomor

1932 killing of 7 million poor peasants in Ukraine by Joseph Stalin. Most were starved to death(Famine).

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Japan on December 7, 1941. The Japanese were hoping to cripple the American fleet, which had been enforcing Embargo, which denied Japan the raw materials it needed to increase their power and this attack failed leading to Japan's defeat.

Maginot Line

Line of defense built by France to protect against German invasion. Stretched from Belgium to Switzerland.

Katyn Massacre

Soviet Union murdered 22,000 polish officers to destroy polands leadership class

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan

Allied Powers

Great Britain, France, Russia

Kulak

A Russian peasant farmer who owns land. Late imperial and early Soviet eras.

Gulag

in the Soviet Union, a system of forced labor camps in which millions of criminals and political prisoners were held under Stalin

Great Purge

A campaign of terror directed at eliminating anyone who threatened Stalin's power

Battle of Bowmanville

Nazi rebellion at Camp X where prisoners fought with baseball bats, hockey sticks, and jam jars.

GERMANS LOST

Operation Torch

Codename for allied invasion of North Africa from Novermber 1942 to September 1943

Operation Husky

Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy;

Ghost Army

was a United States Army tactical deception unit during World War II . impersonated the Army units with inflatable tanks to deceive the enemy.

Hitler Youth

Organizations set up under Hitler to train an educate German young people in Nazi beliefs

Night of the Long Knives (1934)

The arrest and murder of many of Hitler's political opponents

Babi Yar Massacre

1941. First killing of the Jews in the Holocaust in western Soviet Union. Jews forced to dig a ditch before they were killed. This was difficult for the Nazi soldiers who had to murder these Jews as well as time consuming, leading to the creation of more efficient Nazi death camps that allowed Nazi soldiers to somewhat distance themselves from the killing.

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

SS St. Louis

ship that left germany in may 1939 with 936 jews on board it was bound for cuba where it was denied entry from there the ship tried to enter the US and Canada but was denied returned to europe where four nations took in refugees

Bletchley Park

The place where British had a code breaking center, helped save Britain

Lebensraum

Hitler's expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people

Alan Turing

English mathematician who conceived of the Turing machine and broke German codes during World War II (1912-1954)

Policy of Isolation

Avoiding contact with other countries both economically and politically

Beer Hall Putsch

In 1923 the Nazis attempted to overthrow the government in Munich. It was a total failure, and Hitler received a brief prison sentence during which time he wrote Mein Kampf.

Reinhard Heydrich

Gestapo deputy chief who set out to gain the final solution to the Jewish Question.

Einsatzgruppen

SS killing units that sought out and slaughtered Jews in the Soviet Union

Battle of Leningrad

In the Soviet Union, was a three year siege. 660,000 Soviets died of starvation and disease before Germans retreated. The battle was significant for the bravery of the Soviets against the Germans.

Operation Paperclip

recruitment of scientists from Nazi Germany to the U.S.

Enigma

German code making machine

Operation Ultra

Was used to decipher the enigma codes for communication. This allowed the Allies to know where the German troops were, and where they were going. It also allowed them to know that the Germans believed that they were invading at Calais.

Night Witches

Nickname of the female pilots who helped defeat the Germans at Stalingrad

War Measures Act

an Act that gives the federal government emergency powers during wartime, including the right to detain people without laying charges

Elsie MacGill

An aeronautical engineer from World War 2. She was considered he "Queen of Hurricanes" due to her oustanding designs.

Rosie the Riveter

A propaganda character designed to increase production of female workers in the factories. It became a rallying symbol for women to do their part.

Leo Major (Canada)

Canadian soldier who liberated the town of Zwolle, Netherlands all by himself.

United Nations

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

Red Cross

An international organization dedicated to the medical care of the sick or wounded in wars and natural disasters

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929; date of the worst stock-market crash in American history and beginning of the Great Depression.

Great Depression

the economic crisis beginning with the stock market crash in 1929 and continuing through the 1930s

Pogey

government relief payments that were purposefully low and hard to get, you had to prove you were being evicted from your home and owned nothing of value.

Prohibition

A law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages

Anti-Semitism

hostility to or prejudice against Jews.

Populism

the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite

Warsaw Ghetto

An area of Warsaw sealed off by the Nazis to confine the Jewish population, forcing them into poor, unsanitary conditions

Statute of Westminster

1931 act of parliament that recognized canada, australia, new zealand, and south africa as completely independent. the four nations joined with great britain as equal parters in a loose organization called the british commonwealth of nations.