Module 11 SS Study Guide

Joseph Stalin

totalitarian dictator of the Soviet Union; he led the Soviet Union through World War II and created a powerful Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe after the war

Totalitarian

characteristic of a political system in which the government exercises complete control over its citizens' lives

Benito Mussolini

Italian Fascist leader; he ruled as Italy's dictator for more than 20 years beginning in 1922 and made Italy a totalitarian state

Fascism

a political philosophy that advocates a strong, centralized, nationalistic government headed by a powerful dictator

Adolf Hitler

totalitarian dictator of Germany whose invasion of European countries led to World War II; he believed in the supremacy of the German Aryan race and was responsible for the mass murder of millions of Jews and others in the Holocaust

Nazism

the German brand of fascism

Hideki Tojo

Japanese nationalist and general

Neville Chamberlain

British prime minister at the beginning of World War II

Winston Churchill

British prime minister during World War II; he opposed the policy of appeasement and led Great Britain through World War II

Appeasement

the granting of concessions to a hostile power in order to keep the peace

Nonaggression Pact

an agreement in which two nations promise not to go to war with each other. Stalin+Hilter signed one

Blitzkrieg

a sudden, massive attack with combined air and ground forces, intended to achieve a quick victory

Holocaust

the systematic murder of Jews and other groups in Europe by the Nazis before and during World War II

Kristallnacht

"night of broken glass," a name given to the night of November 9, 1938, when gangs of Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in Germany

Genocide

the deliberate and systematic extermination of a particular racial, national, or religious group

Ghetto

a city neighborhood in which a certain minority group is pressured or forced to live

Concentration Camp

a prison camp operated by Nazi Germany in which Jews and other groups considered to be enemies of Adolf Hitler were starved while doing slave labor or were murdered

Neutrality Acts

a series of laws enacted in the 1930s to prevent US arms sales and loans to nations at war.

Axis Powers

the group of nations that opposed the Allies in World War II. Germany, Italy, and Japan

Selective Training and Service Act

a US law passed in 1940 that enacted the nation's first peacetime military draft

Lend-Lease Act

a law, passed in 1941, the allowed the United States to ship arms and other supplies, without immediate payment, to nations fighting the Axis powers

Atlantic Charter

a 1941 declaration of principles in which the US and Great Britain set forth their goals in opposing the Axis powers

Allies

the group of nations that opposed the Axis powers

George Marshall

American general and politician

WAAC

Women's Auxiliary Army Corps US army unit created during World War II to enable women to serve in noncombat positions

OPA

Office of Price Administration. an agency established by Congress to control inflation during World War II

WPB

War Production Board. an agency established during World War II to coordinate the production of military supplies by US industries

Rationing

a restriction of people's right to buy unlimited amounts of particular foods and other goods, often implemented during wartime to ensure adequate supplies for the military

Manhattan Project

the US program to develop an atomic bomb for use in World War II

A. Philip Randolph

African American union and civil rights leader

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality. an interracial group founded in 1942 by James Farmer to work against segregation in northern cities

internment

confinement or a restriction in movement of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1% of Hawaii's Japanese American population

JACL

Japanese American Citizens League. an organization that pushed the US government to compensate Japanese Americans for property they had lost when they were interned during World War II

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American general who led the Allied invasion of North Africa and commanded the Allied forces in Europe during World War II

Omar Bradley

American general who led the American troops in Operation Overlord during World War II and went on to command all US ground troops invading Europe from the west

D-Day

a name given to June 6, 1944-the day on which the Allies launched an invasion of European mainland during World War II

George Patton

American general of the Third Army who was involved in North Africa, Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge during World War II

Battle of the Bulge

a month-long battle of World War II, in which the Allies succeeded in turning back the last major German offensive of the war

Douglas MacArthur

American general; he commanded US troops in the Southwest Pacific islands during World War II and administered occupied Japan after the war ended

Bataan Death March

5 days. a forced march of American and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese along the Bataan Peninsula during World War II

Chester Nimitz

American admiral; commander of American naval forces in the Pacific. stopping the Japanese advance during World War II

Battle of Midway

a World War II battle that took place in early June 1942, in which the Allies decimated the Japanese fleet at Midway, an island northwest of Hawaii

Island Hopping

the Allied strategy in the Pacific theater during World War II of capturing and securing selected islands and using them as bases to advance closer to Japan while avoiding the heaviest concentrations of enemy forces

Kamikaze

engaging in the deliberate crashing of a bomb-filled airplane into a military target

V-E Day

a name given to May 8, 1945, "Victory in Europe Day" on which General Eisenhower's acceptance of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany marked the end of World War II in Europe

Harry S. Truman

president of the US who took office upon the death of President FDR; he led the US through the end of World War II

J. Robert Oppenheimer

American physicist; he led the Manhattan Project laboratory in Los Amos, which developed the first nuclear bomb

Hiroshima

a Japanese city and important military center that was destroyed by the first atomic bomb used in World War II

Nagasaki

a Japanese city destroyed by the second atomic bomb used in World War II

UN

United Nations. an international peacekeeping organization to which most nations in the world belong, founded in 1945 to promote world peace, security, and economic development

Nuremberg Trials

the court proceedings held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, in which Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes

GI Bill of Rights

a name given to the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, a 1944 law that provided financial and educational benefits for World War II benefits