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Anschluss

Meaning “union.” The annexation of Austria by Germany in March 1938

appeasement

The Anglo-French policy of making concessions to Germany in the 1930s to avoid a crisis that would lead to war, and that assumed that Germany had real grievances and Hitler’s aims were limited and ultimately acceptable

Axis

The alliance between Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Also called the pack of steel.

Battle of Stalingrad

A ferocious battle in summer 1942 that marked the turning point of the Russian campaign against the Nazis, in which Hitler lost an entire German army when he refused to allow a retreat

blitzkrieg

meaning “lightning war.” The German tactic in early World War II of employing Fast moving, massed armored columns, supported by air power to overwhelmed the enemy

Dwight D Eisenhower

American Army General and the Commander of the allied forces who was responsible for the “D-day” landing of American, British, and Canadian troops on the coast of Normandy

El Alamein

A town on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, where a decisive battle took place in 1942 between British and German forces, and in which the Allied victory led to the German surrender in North Africa

Erwin Rommel

German general and military theorist known as the desert fox for his capable leadership of the German in Italian forces in north African Campaign; also commanded the German forces opposing the allied invasion of Normandy

Franklin D Roosevelt

US president who supported the British before the United States entered the war, despite strong political opposition at home

Harry S Truman

The US president at the end of the war, following the death of Franklin D Roosevelt, and who supported attacking Japan with atomic bombs to end the war

Holocaust

The Nazi extermination of millions of European Jews between 1940 and 1945; also called “final solution to the Jewish problem”

lebensraum

meaning “living space.” The Nazi plan to colonize and exploit the Slavic areas of Eastern Europe For the benefit of Germany

Locarno Agreements

The seven agreements of 1925 designed to secure the territorial settlement after World War I between the western European Allied powers and the new states of central and eastern Europe

luftwaffe

The German Air Force in World War II

Maginot Line

Built in the 1930s on the French side of its borders with Switzerland, Germany, and Luxembourg, and designed by the French with concrete concrete, fortifications, obstacles and weapons installations to deter invasions by Germany

neville Chamberlain

The British Prime Minister, who sought to prevent britain going to war through the policy of a appeasement with Hitler

operation Barbarossa

The code name for the axis invasion of Russia, which aimed to destroy Russia before winter could sit in

Third Reich

Hitler’s regime in Germany, which lasted from 1933 to 1945

vichy

The French resort city, where Marshall Pétain set up tutorial regime in collaborated with the Germans in hopes of preserving as much autonomy as possible