WWII Flashcards

Invasion of Poland

Invasion of Poland

Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by doing this; caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany and sparked the start of WWII

Island hopping

moving from island to island, getting closer to Japan; Allied strategy for winning WWII in the Pacific

Atomic Bomb

dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; caused thousands of deaths with the initial blast then thousands more with the lasting radiation

Harry S. Truman

American President who decided the one way to defeat Japan without stepping on their soil was to drop the atomic bomb

European Theatre and Pacific Theatre

two theatres of World War II

Pearl Harbor

Japan led a surprise attack in Hawaii; led to the US declaring war on Japan and joining WWII

D-Day

another name for when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944

V-E Day

Nickname given to the date that the city of Berlin unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Forces.

Holocaust

Hitler's campaign of murdering Jews in Death camps; included forced labor, extermination camps, and cremations and mass graves

Nazism

based on the belief that the Aryan race was superior to all of races

Adolf Hitler

known for promoting Anti-Semitism and the Nazi ideology

Final Solution

Hitler's plan to kill all the Jews in Europe

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass" when Germans destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues; the purpose was to attack and drive Jews out of Germany

"Big Three"

Joseph Stalin-Soviet Union

Franklin D. Roosevelt-United States

Winston Churchill-Great Britain

Tehran Conference

Allied powers got together and discussed opening a second front against Nazi Germany (D-Day)

Yalta Conference

Allied powers discussed and agreed that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan, all would join the United Nations, and Germany would be divided into four zones; they disagreed on what to do about Poland

Potsdam Conference

After Germany's defeat, Allies had successfully tested the atomic bomb, and the leaders disagreed with the Soviet policy in Eastern Europe

Marshall Plan

European Recovery Program where the US sent $13 billion in aid over 4 years; benefited the United States because it helped European economies recover and therefore the sale of US goods would increase

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization; created to unify all the members nations against communist aggression

Warsaw Pact

formed in response to NATO; included the Soviet Union and its 7 satellite states in Eastern Europe

MacArthur's Plan for Japan

to occupy Japan to disarm, liberalize, and democratize

United Nations

formed out of WWII, promoted peace and had the permission to deploy armies of member nations to keep international peace

Battle of Midway

Battle that was first major Allied victory in the Pacific

Battle of the Bulge

Last major offensive from the Axis powers; resulted in defeat for Germany

Battle of Stalingrad

Unsuccessful German attack on the city of Stalingrad during World War II from 1942 to 1943; led to Soviets pushing Germany out of Soviet territory