Second World War (1939-1945) Practice Flashcards

This flashcard set covers the vocabulary and key conceptual terms from the Second World War lecture, including diplomatic policies, major conflicts, the Holocaust, and post-war peace organizations.

Appeasement

The foreign policy adopted by France and Great Britain toward Nazi Germany during the road to war.

Stresa Front

A 1934 agreement formed between Great Britain, France, and Italy.

Anglo-German Naval Treaty

A June 1935 agreement that implicitly legitimized Germany's violation of the Treaty of Versailles regarding its navy.

Anschluss

The 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.

Munich Conference

A meeting between Britain, France, Italy, and Germany that confirmed German rule over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

Autarky

The solution of economic self-sufficiency sought by Japan after the 1929 crash through military conquest and the search for its own resources.

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Japan's slogan 'Asia for the Asians' aimed at creating this bloc to act as a liberator from Western colonialism.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

A 1939 agreement that divided Eastern Europe between Germany and Russia.

Allies

The side of the war composed of the UK, France, the USA (from 1941), and the USSR (from 1943).

Axis Powers

The alliance of Germany (including Austria and conquered territories), Italy (until 1943), and Japan (from 1940).

Collaborationists

People in territories occupied by Germans who acted in favor of the occupiers, leading to internal struggles with resistance groups.

White Rose

A famous German resistance group that engaged in internal struggle against the Nazi regime.

Night of Broken Glass

Also known as the Kristallnacht, the event on 9 November 1938 where the S.A. perpetrated murders, rapes, and burned synagogues and Jewish businesses.

Einsatzgruppen

A specialized sub-group in the SS tasked with killing Jews, responsible for the massacre of 35,000 victims at Babi Yar.

Wannsee Conference

A January 1942 meeting where the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, involving extermination centers in Poland, was decided.

Vichy France

The satellite government set up in the South of France under Laval and Pétain after Germany defeated France in 1940.

Blitzkrieg

A 'lightning war' strategy used by Germany to quickly conquer Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium between 1939 and 1941.

Winter War

The conflict where the USSR invaded Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Operation Barbarossa

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Battle of Stalingrad

A turning point in the war (1942-1943) where the Soviet Union defeated Germany, marking the start of German decline on the Eastern Front.

D-Day

The June 6, 1944, Normandy landing that initiated the Allied counteroffensive and the liberation of France.

Yalta Conference

A 1945 meeting where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed on dividing Germany into four occupation zones and establishing the UN.

Potsdam Conference

A 1945 meeting where the 'denazification' of Germany, the division of Berlin, and war reparations were decided.

Nuremberg Trials

Legal proceedings that began on 20 November 1945 to prosecute war crimes committed during WWII.

Marshall Plan

A 1947 economic recovery program aimed at rebuilding European cities destroyed during the war.

Zionism

A movement initiated by Theodore Herzl in the 19th century promoting the creation of a land for Jews in Palestine.

Balfour Declaration

A 1917 statement by Britain supporting Jewish colonization of Palestine without harming Arab communities.

Haganah

The Israeli army formed in the 1920s led by David Ben Gurion.

Security Council

The UN body where China, France, Russia, the UK, and the USA are permanent members with the right to veto.