WWII Vocabulary

Depression

a period of low economic activity and rising unemployment

Collective Bargaining

the right of unions to negotiate with employers over awges and hours

Deficit Spending

when a government pays out more money that it takes in through taxation and other revenues, thus going into debt

Surrealism

an artistic movement that seeks to depict the world of the unconscious

Uncertainty Principle

the idea put forth by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that the behavior of subatomic particles is uncertain, suggesting that all of the physical laws governing the universe are based on uncertainty

Totalitarian State

a government that aims to control the politic, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural lives of its citizens

Fascism

a political philosophy that glorifies the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a strong central government led by a dictatorial ruler

Collectivization

a system in which private farms are eliminated and peasants work land owned by the government

Nazi

shortened form of the German Nazional, or the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, a member of such party

Concentration Camp

a camp where prisoners or war, political prisoners, or members of minority groups are confined, typically under harsh conditions

Aryan

a term used to identify people speaking Indo-European languages; Nazi misused the term, treating it as a racial designation and identifying the Aryans with the ancient Greeks and Romans and 20th century Germans and Scandinavians

Demilitarized

elimination or prohibition of weapons, fortifications, and other military installations

Appeasement

satisfying reasonable demands of dissatisfied powers in an effort to maintain peace and stability

Sanctions

restrictions intended to enforce international law

Blitzkrieg

German for “lightning war”, a swift and sudden military attack, used by the Germans during World War II

Isolationism

a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other internatinal political and economic relations

Neutrality

refusal to take sides or become involved in wars between other nations

Mobilization

the process of assembling troops and supplies and making them ready for war

Kamikaze

Japanese for “divine wind”, a suicide mission in which young Japanese pilots intentionally flew their airplanes into US fighting ships at sea

Blitz

the British term for the German air raids on British cities and towns during WWII

Genocide

the deliberate mass murder or physical extinction of a particular racial, political, or cultural group

Collaborator

a person who assists the enemy

Partisan

a resistance fighter in WWII

Cold War

the period of political tension following WWII and ending with the fall of communism in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s.