Unit 13: World War II and the Holocaust, 1939-1945

Rome-Berlin Axis Pact

Alliance created after WWI between Germany and Italy.

Anti-Comintern Pact

Treaty between Germany and Japan promising a common front against communism.

Appeasement

A policy of making concessions to an aggressor in the hopes of avoiding war. Associated with Neville Chamberlain's policy of making concessions to Adolf Hitler.

Munich Agreement

Agreement between Germany and Great Britain in which Hitler is given the Sudetenland in return for agreeing not to take any more territory.

Non-Aggression Pact

Secret agreement between German leader Hitler and Soviet Leader Stalin not to attack one another and to divide Poland.

Blitzkrieg

"Lighting war", typed of fast-moving warfare used by German forces against Poland and other conquered territories in World War II.

Wolf Pack Tactic

A group of submarines operating together in hunting down and attacking enemy convoys.

Luftwaffe

The German air force before and during World War II.

Radar

Radio detection and ranging, a system that uses reflected radio waves to determine the velocity and location of objects.

Enigma

German code machine that was decoded by British mathematicians.

Lend-Lease Act

The laws passed by the U.S. allowing us to give aid to our Allies in early WWII.

Atlantic Charter

Pledge signed by US president FDR and British prime minister Winston Churchill not to acquire new territory as a result of WWII amd to work for peace after the war.

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots who loaded their planes with explosives and crashed them into American ships.

Aryan

To the Nazis, the Germanic peoples who formed a "master race."

Holocaust

The Nazi program of exterminating Jews under Hitler.

Royal Air Force (RAF)

British Air Force.

Ghetto

Separate section of a city where members of a minority group are forced to live; Jews forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

Final Solution

Hitler's program of systematically killing the entire Jewish people.

Genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of court proceedings held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, in which Nazi leaders were tried for aggression, violations of the rules of war, and crimes against humanity.

Adolf Hitler

Austrian born Dictator of Germany, implement Fascism and caused WWII and Holocoust.

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922-1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.

Hideki Tojo

This general was premier of Japan during World War II while this man was dictator of the country. He gave his approval for the attack on Pearl Harbor and played a major role in Japan's military decisions until he resigned in 1944.

Emperor Hirohito

Emperor of Japan during WWII. his people viewed him as a god.

Joseph Stalin

Bolshevik revolutionary, head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953. He led the Soviet Union with an iron fist, using Five-Year Plans to increase industrial production and terror to crush opposition; leader of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the United States during most of the Depression and most of World War II.

Harry Truman

Became president when FDR died; gave the order to drop the atomic bomb.

Neville Chamberlain

Great British prime minister who advocated peace and a policy of appeasement prior to World War II.

Charles de Gaulle

French general and statesman who became very popular during World War II as the leader of the Free French forces in exile.

Erwin Rommel

German field marshal noted for brilliant generalship in North Africa during World War II; he was known as the "Desert Fox".

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe.

Bernard Montgomery

British general who in an attack at El Alamein was able to drive the Germans away from the Suez Canal.

George Patton

Allied Commander of the Third Army. Was instrumental in winning the Battle of the Bulge. Considered one of the best military commanders in American history; Famous American General who fought in North Africa and Europe.

Isoroku Yamamoto

Commander in Chief of the combined Japanese fleet, led invasion of Pearl Harbor and Battle of Midway.

James H. Doolittle

An American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War, after first earning the Medal of Honor as commander of the Doolittle Raid while a lieutenant colonel; bombing Japan.

Douglas MacArthur

U.S. general. Commander of U.S. (later Allied) forces in the southwestern Pacific during World War II, he accepted Japan's surrender in 1945. He promised to return to the Philippines after Japan conquered the Philippines in World War II.

Fall of France (1940)

Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. France surrendered and was divided into German occupation zones in the north and west.

Battle of the Atlantic

Germany's naval attempt to cut off British supply ships by using u-boats. It was the longest, continous military campaign of World War II. After this battle, the Allies won control of the seas, allowing them to control supply transfer, which ultimately determined the war.

The Winter War (1939-1940)

The Soviet Union attacks Finland to get more territory; six months of resistance by Finland before signing a treaty in March of 1940.

Dunkirk Evacuation

Mass effort of British citizens to evacuate soldiers from the shores of France.

Battle of Britain (1940)

A series of air strikes on Britain by Germany from August to November of 1940 in an attempt to gain air supremacy; Hitler fails to take Britain; British RAF decimate Nazi pilots.

Operation Barbarossa

Codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Battle of Stalingrad

Unsuccessful German attack on the city of Stalingrad during World War II from 1942 to 1943, that was the furthest extent of German advance into the Soviet Union; turned the tide of the War in favor of Allies in Europe.

Battle of El Alamein

British victory in WWII that stopped the Axis forces from advancing into Northern Africa.

Operation Torch

Codename for allied invasion of North Africa from Novermber 1942 to September 1943.

Battle for Italy

Allied troops under command of Patton and British General Montgomery, captured the city of Palermo in Italy.

D-Day Invasion

Allied troops landed at Normandy Beach to start liberating France from German control; United States landed on the beaches of Omaha and Utah.

Battle of the Bulge

A 1944-1945 battle in which Allied forces turned back the last major German offensive of World War II.

Battle of Berlin

Final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II; before the battle was over, Hitler and many of his followers committed suicide.

VE Day

May 8, 1945; victory in Europe Day when the Germans surrendered.

Pearl Harbor

Base in Hawaii that was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941, which brought America to enter the war.

Doolittle Raid

The retaliatory attack by American bombers after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, led by James H. Doolittle.

Battle of Coral Sea

A battle between Japanese and American naval forces that stopped the Japanese advance on Australia.

Battle of Midway

1942 World War II battle between the United States and Japan, a turning point in the war in the Pacific.

Battle of Guadalcanal

World War II battle in the Pacific; it represented the first Allied counter-attack against Japanese forces; Allied victory forced Japanese forces to abandon the island.

Battle of the Philippines

The first time the US lost control of the Philippines to Japan, 2nd battle was the battle at which MacArthur defeated Japan and ended its power in the Pacific.

Battle of Iwo Jima

Lasted 6 weeks, several thousand marines, and more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, this battle is also notable for the famous photograph of US marines lifting the American flag to a standpoint.

Battle of Okinawa

World War II victory for the Allied troops that resulted in the deaths of almost all of the 100,000 Japanese defenders; the battle claimed 12,000 American lives; Allied victory over Japan on an island 350 miles from mainland Japan.

Hiroshima

City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II.

Nagasaki

Japanese city in which the second atomic bomb was dropped (August 9, 1945).

Joseph Goebbels

Chief minister of the Nazi propaganda, and organizer of Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

Heinrich Himmler

German Nazi who was chief of the SS and the Gestapo and who oversaw the genocide of six million Jews.

Reinhard Heydrich

German General of the SS Security Force who created the special strike forces to carry out Nazi plans to round up the Jews, steal their valuables, and execute them.

Einsatzgruppen

SS killing units that sought out and slaughtered Jews in the Soviet Union.

Mein Kampf

"My Struggle"-a book written by Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment in 1923-1924, in which he set forth his beliefs and his goals for Germany.

Schutzstaffel

A special police force in Nazi Germany founded as a personal bodyguard for Adolf Hitler in 1925.

Nuremberg Laws

Placed severe restrictions of Jews, prohibited from marrying non- Jews, attending schools or universities, holding government jobs, practicing law or medicine or publishing books.

Josef Mengele

The "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz known for his medical experimentation, especially on twins, and his decisions as to who would die.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Located in Poland, largest death camp built by the Nazis; over 2,000,000 people died there by means of starvation, diease, and gassing; Birkenau is often referred to as Auschwitz II.

Dachau

First concentration camp in Germany.