WW2

Adolf Hitler

Führer of Nazi Germany, instigator of the conflict and responsible for the Holocaust.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the United States during WWII, played a crucial role in establishing Allied strategy.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who rallied British resistance against Nazi Germany.

Joseph Stalin

Leader of the Soviet Union, he oversaw significant military victories on the Eastern Front.

Non-Aggression Pact

Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union not to attack each other.

Blitzkrieg

"Lightning war," a German military strategy using rapid, coordinated attacks.

Erwin Rommel

German field marshal known as the "Desert Fox."

Battle of Britain

Air campaign by Germany to defeat the British Royal Air Force.

Atlantic Charter

Declaration of principles between the U.S. and Britain for a post-war world.

Operation Barbarossa

Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.

Dunkirk

Site of the evacuation of Allied soldiers trapped by German forces in France.

Axis Powers

Coalition of Germany, Italy, and Japan during WWII.

Maginot Line

French defensive fortifications along the German border.

Phony War

Period of inactivity after the German invasion of Poland.

Pearl Harbor

Site of the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii.

Doolittle Raid

U.S. bombing raid on Tokyo in 1942.

Nuremberg Laws

Nazi laws that stripped Jews of their citizenship and rights.

Holocaust

Systematic persecution and murder of Jews and other groups by the Nazis.

Final Solution

Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews.

Auschwitz

Largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

Executive Order 9066

U.S. presidential order that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.

Battle of Midway

Turning point in the Pacific War, a U.S. naval victory.

Bataan Death March

Forced march of American and Filipino POWs by the Japanese.

Island Hopping

U.S. strategy of selectively attacking Japanese-held islands.

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass," Nazi-organized attack on Jewish businesses and synagogues.

Ghetto

Segregated area where Jews were forced to live.

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially of a particular ethnic group.

Charles de Gaulle

Leader of the Free French forces in exile.

Henri Petain

Leader of Vichy France, the Nazi-puppet state.

Luftwaffe/RAF

German Air Force/British Royal Air Force.

Operation Sea Lion

Germany's planned invasion of Britain, never carried out.

D-Day

Allied invasion of Normandy.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

U.S. atomic bombings of Japan.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials of major war criminals held after WWII.