World War II: Beginning & European Theater

Great Depression

A time of utter economic disaster that started in the United States in 1929.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the US during Great Depression and World War II.

lebensraum

Hitler's expansionist policy based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people.

appeasement

Giving in to an aggressor in order to keep the peace.

Axis Powers

Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

Blitzkrieg

Hitler's "Lighting war" which he used against Poland in 1939.

Pearl Harbor

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

Final Solution

Hitler's plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe.

D-Day

Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944 to take it back from Germany.

Harry Truman

Becomes president when FDR dies & only president to launch a nuclear weapon.

Fascism

A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Hyper-inflation in Germany

In 1921 Germany's economy suffered due to the Treaty of Versailles and prices in the country rose exponentially.

Pearl Harbor

United States military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan, bringing the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941.

Imperial Japan

A quasi-fascist, hyper-nationalist, militaristic absolute monarchy that dominated East Asia during the Second World War; one of the Axis Powers.

The Blitz

Sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1941

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII who was steadfast in his resistance to Hitler.

Stalingrad

Soviet city where the German army was forced to surrender after a battle that lasted for months

Holocaust

A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler that called for the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.

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.

Gestapo

Nazi secret police

Aryanization

Hitler's plan to create an entire race of Aryans, Jews were fired from their jobs and expelled from school in order to cleanse the community

Auschwitz

Nazi extermination camp in Poland, the largest center of mass murder during the Holocaust. Close to a million people were killed there.

Dunkirk

A city in northern France on the North Sea where in World War II (1940) 330,000 Allied troops had to be evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk in a desperate retreat under enemy fire.

Enigma Machine

German code machine broken by the Allies and used to predict what the Germans would do.

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Pioneering mathematician, considered the father of computer science. He helped break the Enigma Machine code and also designed one of the world's first computers.

Hiroshima

Japanese city that was hit by the USA with the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

Manhattan Project

A secret U.S. project for the construction of the atomic bomb.

Allied Powers

Alliance of Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States, and France during World War II.