World War II Review

Flashcards for reviewing key concepts and terms for a World War II test.

Treaty of Versailles

Caused depression in Europe and economic ruin for many countries.

Isolationism

Many Americans promoted this idea to keep the US out of armed conflict.

Neutrality Acts

Passed by Congress to keep the United States out of armed conflict.

Long-range causes of World War II

Dictatorships, militarism, and the failure of appeasement.

One problem with the League of Nations

The failure of the United States to join.

How inflation increased in Germany

The German government printed more paper money.

Why dictators gained power during the Great Depression

People were looking for leaders to solve their problems.

The New Deal

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policy of active government intervention in the economy.

Full name of the Nazi party

The National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Night of the Long Knives

The night that Hitler had many of his enemies murdered.

What Hitler did in 1935 that violated the Treaty of Versailles

Created an air force that was outside the boundaries of what the treaty called for.

The Rhineland

A demilitarized portion of Western Germany and the first territory that Germans invaded.

Why it was easy for Hitler to make the promise with Stalin in the non-aggression pact

He planned to break his promise anyway.

Specific sanctions The US intended to impose on Japan

Stop selling them scrap iron and oil.

Japan's response to US sanctions

Launched their surprise attack on The US and other colonies in Southeast Asia, specifically Pearl Harbor.

Countries that made up the Grand Alliance

Great Britain, United States, and Soviet Union.

Countries that made up the Axis powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Where did the Germans focus their attacks?

They focus them on cities, mostly London, particularly civilians.

Enigma machine

German code-making machine smuggled into Britain used to decode secret German messages.

Maginot Line

System of fortifications along the French-German border.

Battle of Britain

The German attack on England, specifically in London.

Operation Barbarossa

Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union.

What many leaders believed would force governments to make peace in the war

Bombing of civilian populations.

The first English city to suffer from civilian bombings

London.

Einsatzgruppen

Special Strike Force carried out Nazi plans, rounded up Polish Jews and put them in ghettos and later, they were actually the killing units or the death squads.

Meaning of the Greek words which 'Holocaust' is derived from

All burned

Master race or the Aryan people were superior

This way of thinking led to the Holocaust.

1935 German Nuremberg Laws

Jews were stripped of their citizenship.

Kristallnacht

Knight of broken glass: Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.

A flood of refugees in Germany

After Kristallnacht, Jews realized that the violence was only going to increase and that the Jews that could fled the country where they immigrated.

The purpose of German Ghettos

Hitler ordered all Jews in Germany and occupied territories to move to designated cities. Jews were then herded into overcrowded ghettos.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

How killers seek out their victims

The SS or the killing squads unfollowed the military and cleared out the people that were deemed subhuman or non-German.

Concentration camps

For those who did not die of starvation or disease in the ghettos.

Final stage of the Holocaust

People arrive from all over Europe in cattle cars or trains, and doctors make selections of who can work and who cannot.

Holocaust

The systematic mass slaughter of Jews and other people groups judged inferior by the Nazis.

Holocaust Begins

The Nazis made the targeting of Jews a government policy.The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 deprived Jews of their rights to German citizenship.

What three things led to the Cold War after WWII?

Political tensions, suspicions, and conflict of ideas.

Name of the top secret project scientists were working on towards the end of World War two

The Manhattan Project.

Truman's dilemma regarding WWII

Should he use the atomic bomb or not to stop the war?

Cities bombed by the U.S. during WWII

Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Where did the allies try Nazi leaders for war crimes?

Nuremberg, Germany.

Winston Churchill's Quote regarding Europe being divided

An Iron Curtain had descended across the continent.

United Nations (UN)

This international organization was intended to protect members against aggression based in New York.

Cold War

A cold war is a struggle over political differences carried on by means short of military action or war.