WW2 Test

nonaggression pact

agreement signed between Hitler and Stalin to not fight each other

Significance: Hitler used this to bide time to invade Poland and then France before having to fight the Soviet Union.

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan alliance

Significance: Fought against the Allies in WWII; all militarist countries that wanted to imperialize

Allies

France, Britian, China, the Soviet Union, and later the US.

Significance: Fought against Axis Powers and successfully ended the war by D-day, Battle of the Bulge, Battle of El Alamein, and the bombing of Japan, which got the Axis to surrender

Bliztkrieg

Hitler’s lightning war that used Luftwaffe (planes) and panzers (tanks) to quickly take over countries

Significance: This strategy worked very well and Hitler was able to invade Poland, Dutch, France, ect.

Holocaust

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

Significance: The germans used concentration camps and ghettos that used gas in showers, overworking, starvation, or execution to kill Jews/other minorities; six million died; jews had to flee or be hidden by non jewish families; nobody outside of countries taken by Germans (not everyone in these countries either) knew what was really happening to the jews.

“Jewish Problem”

Term used by Hitler to describe how he thought Jews should be removed from the world.

Significance: Hitler originally liked the idea of emmigration as a solution, but after tens of thousands of Jews were refugees in other countries, countries like the US, France, and Britian closed their door to the immigrants; Hitler began confining Jews into cities.

Ghetto

Hitler ordered jews into designated cities with overcrowded ghettos , or segregated Jewish areas that were sealed with stone walls or barbed wire.

Significance: Another way to murder jews bc Hitler hoped they’d starve or die of disease.

“Final Solution”

Hitler’s plan of mass genocide

Significance: Hitler grew impatient of waiting for jews to die and instead wanted more direct action; 

Genocide

the systematic killing of an entire people.

Significance: Hitler strategy to get rid of Jews by using concentration camps.

Nanking Atrocities/Rape of Nanking

the japanese army’s looting, rape, and murder of the Chinese in Nanking, China

Significance: Japanese thought they were racially superior and this is another example of the target of civilians during WWII

Kamikaze

War strategy where the pilots flew in one way, suicide missions in planes and used the planes as weapons.

Significance: The Japanese used this to fight against the US as the ppl of Japan had a cult of personality where it was honored to do anything for Japan and the emperor including suicide.

island hopping

 War strat in the pacific to attack and take over individual islands until reaching the mainland.

Significane: The US did this with the idea that they would eventually attack mainland Japan, but after the Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa they lost a lot more men and decided to atomic bomb Japan. 

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Two cities in Japan

Significance: They were atomic bombed by the US because the US didn’t want to lose anymore men. Hiroshima- August 6 1945, Nagasaki- August 9 1945. Killed 200,000 civilians and resulted in Japan’s unconditional surrender.

Nuremberg Trials

Trials put on to punish those who committed war crimes in Nuremberg, Germany.

Significance: 22 Nazi leaders were put on trial and charged for waging war aggression and crimes against humanity (the murder of 11 million ppl). Many were sentenced to life in prison or death

Demilitarization

disbanding of armed forces, leaving only a small police force.

Significance: General Douglas MacArthur quickly removed Japanese armed forces Japan to ensure peace.

democratization

the process of creating a government elected by the people

Significance: General Douglas MacArthur implemented a government in Japan and created their own constitution; Japan became a constitutional monarchy like Britian.

unconditional surrender

when the surrendering country surrenders without guarantees leaving the other country to make the terms and have all the power to do what they want

Significance: Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped killing thousands, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the US to avoid more loss. Japan’s surrender ended the war.

Atlantic Charter

The joint declaration Roosevelt and Churchill issued in secret

Significance: upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government; charter later served as the Allies’ peace plan at the end of World War II.

Winston Churchill

Prime minister of Great Britian during WWII

Significance: Against the German forces in the Battle of Britian he made a speech that Britian will never surrender, which led to Hitler turning his army to attack the Meditterainian and Eastern Europe.

Adolf Hitler

Dictator of Germany

Significance: While practicing antisemitism with the Holocaust, he used Bliztkrieg to quickly take over several countries and then tried to invade Britian, but after that failure he turned to assist Mussolini in North Africa and break the non aggression pact by trying to invade the USSR, but ultimately left defeated because of the winter (lost 500,000 ppl).

Joseph Stalin

Dictator of communist Russia

Significance: Sign non aggression pact with Hitler and when Hitler attacked Russia he was successful to prevent Hitler from taking Russia, but lost many lives in the process bc he told his army to fight till the death over the city named after him. He also started to push Hitler westward bc the winter weather had depleted Germany’s strength.

Harry S. Truman

President of the US after Roosevelt died

Significance: Made the call to release the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which resulted in the end of the war bc of Japan’s unconditional surrender.

Isoroku Yamamoto

Admiral of Japanese Navy and Commander-in-Chief of combined fleet during WWII

Significance: Mastermind behind Pearl Harbor; launched an air raid against the Americans at Midway Island that was shot down by the Americans

 Be able to describe the German war strategy between 1939 and 1941 (refer to map packet).   Also be able to describe the significance of the turning point battles from your chart.

The German war strategy was Bliztkrieg (lightning war) that used luftwaffe (planes) and panzers (tanks) in order to quickly take over countries. The turning point battles included the Battle of Stalingrad, which was when Hitler attempted to take over a significant city in Russia, but was surrounded by Soviet forces and his soldiers died bc of the winter weather and Hitler had to turn his attention else where. This battle led to German defeat bc the Russians were able to start invading Germany. D-Day was when the Allies made the Germans think they were getting attacked from Southeast england, but they really attacked from Normany France and successfully were able to regain control of France and force Hitler back to Germany. The Battle of the Bulge occured when Germans attacked the western front and created a bulge but were then forced back bc American forces joined the fight, which ultimately resulted in the defeat of Germany. The Battle of El Alamein was when Axis troops tried to take Egypt but were forced to a halt at the railroad station of El Alamein by the Allies; marked the end of Axis control in North Africa; enabled allies to take control of North Africa and end the fight over land and gave them the opportunity to liberate Italy.

Be able to describe the weapons of WWII

 Luftwaffe (planes used by the Germans with bombs), panzers (tanks used by the Germans), atomic bombs (made by the US and used on Japan to kill 200,000 ppl and destroy 2 cities), raidors (used by British to detect the Luftwaffe), infladable tanks/ships (used by Allies as a decoy to trick the Germans), Aircraft carriers/battleships/submarines (used in naval warfare to carry planes, attack other ships with bombs and guns, release underwater torpedos), Kamikaze (one way flight to use the plane as a weapon; suicide mission; used by Japanese).

Be able to describe the progression of solutions the Nazis implemented to resolve their so-called  “Jewish Problem.”

 At first, Hitler liked the idea of emmigration, but eventually countries like the US, France, and Britian stopped taking Jewish refugees. So Hitler implemented ghettos (overcrowded designated cities surrounded by a stone wall or barbed wire fence) to starve ppl to death or have them die of disease. But this took to long for Hitler and made him impatient, so he created concentration camps or slave-work camps too kill ppl by overworking, starving, executing, beating, or gasing them. He made certian camps like Auschwitz extermination camps made for more efficient killing. The gas showers could kill 6,000 jews in one minute. In the end he killed about 6 million jews. The camps also included massive sites to burn the bodies.

How did WWII involve civilians in a new and horrific way?

In WWII the use of bombs was originally a strategy to destroy buildings like factories, but then planes flew at night to avoid being seen, so they would target cities and civilians. In the Battle of Britian many ppl were killed bc the Germans would bomb cities like London. Even the US that had a no murder of civilians intentionally policy used the killing of civilians to get a country to surrender. In the germans occupation of Leninberg Russia they removed all the food to try to make Russia surrender because of the deaths of a million citizens. In that case the killing of civilians failed. But when the US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan killing 200,000 civilians the Japanese surrendered.

How were the perpetrators of crimes against civilians brought to justice?

 The perpetrators of crimes against civilians, mostly the nazis, were brought to justice by life time sentence or death. 22 of nazi leaders were put on the nuremberg trials and 10 were hung by death sentence. Seven japanese leaders were also sentenced to death.

How did the war end?  Describe the states of both Europe and Japan after the war.

Japan had lost 2 million ppl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, there was damage to Tokyo, US demilitarized/democratized Japan, Japan was given constitutional monarchy, and the US gave more ppl jobs. Germany, Italy, and France struggled to have a new government set up as Hitler and Mussolini caused suffering and France’s govt collaborated with the nazis. France and Italy chose anticommunist govts. Europe was left in ruins as well and many ppl lived in destroyed homes, apartments, or in the rubble. Many struggled for food and famine was present. Ppl also wandered between countries in search for their families or word of ppls deaths. Govts also tried to deal with war crimes as seen in the Nuremberg trials.