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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
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Adolf Hitler
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leader of the Nazi party; electrifying speaker; upset with the Treaty of Versailles; blamed Weimar leaders for accepting it. Believed that Germans were a superior “Aryan” race as that they should rule the world. Hated the Jewish people; blamed them for causing Germany’s defeat in World War I. Called the “Fuhrer”; blamed the Communists for the burning of the Reichstag building; murdered his rivals; restored full employment and German military power; demanded Austria and Poland; refused to surrender; committed suicide
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Albert Einstein
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German Jewish physicist; played key role in developing atom bomb; published several papers claiming space and time were relative and a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter. Fled to the United States after Hitler came into power; thought/feared that Germany was developing an atomic weapon. Encouraged President Rooseve
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Allied Powers
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The alliance between Britain, the Soviet Union, France, China and the United States.
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Anti-Semitism
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Hatred of Jews because of their unique beliefs and custom that made them an easy target in times of social unrest and economic difficulty. This was a popular feeling across Europe
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Appeasement
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Granting concessions to an aggressor. An example of this is Prime Minister Chamberlin agreed to Hitler’s demand for western Czechoslovakia. This was all to try and prevent war.
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Atlantic Charter
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This was a meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill in August 1941. The purpose of this was to issue a vision of post-war Europe.
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Auschwitz
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Nazi Germany largest concentration and extermination camp located in Southern Poland. There was three camps in one: a prison, an extermination, and a slave- labour camp. This camp played a central role in the Final Solution because it was located at a railway junction with 44 parallel tracks.
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Axis Powers
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The alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan.
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Battle of Midway
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A turning point for the war in the Pacific. The US regained naval superiority here and began to execute a plan of Island Hopping, which liberated the Pacific Islands from the Japanese
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Benito Mussolini
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former Socialist; fascist; leader of Italy; copied some Bolshevik practices; had a party newspaper; a party organization and a private army of party members known as “Black Shirts”; took over after the “March on Rome”; passed laws controlling the press; unions were abolished; strikes were outlawed; used violence against opponents; murdered opposition leaders; created a totalitarian state; invaded Ethiopia
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Black Shirts
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Mussolini’s private army members were known as this. Members pledged their absolute obedience to their leader.
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Blitzkrieg
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The German army developed this. This is the use of planes, tanks, and motorized troop carriers to advance rapidly into enemy territory.
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D-Day
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June 6, 1944 allied troops landed off the coast of Northern France. This was largest amphibious assault in history. The tide of war now turned in favor of the allies.
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Douglas MacArthur
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General during the Pacific campaign; assigned the task of rebuilding post-war Japan. Helped to make important reforms in Japan that made them less imperialistic and less aggressive
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Fascism
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refers to a new political system that appeared in Europe formed by Benito Mussolini. It is made up of nationalism, unity of all social classes, all powerful leaders, and extreme militarism.
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Franklin D Roosevelt
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President; created the New Deal; increased public spending and introduced massive public works project; pushed Congress for the creation of new government programs and social security to help combat the Great Depression; authorized the Manhattan Project
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Genocide
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Is an effort to murder an entire people of the same nationality
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Gestapo
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abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, ("Secret State Police") was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. Any suspected opponents of Adolf Hitler were arrested, thrown into concentration camps, mistreated, tortured, and killed.
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Great Depression
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On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed in New York and started a chain reaction that sent the world economy into a downward spiral. A large number of businesses failed and workers quickly became unemployed. American banks and investors recalled their loans from Europe, and the depression quickly spread world-wide. 40 million people were soon unemployed in many industrialized countries.
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Hideki Tojo
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1941, a general from the Manchurian campaign, was appointed the 40th Prime Minister of Japan. Tojo and other Japanese leaders convinced Emperor Hirohito to attack the United States. Their plan was to negotiate a treaty with the U.S. that would finally give them full control over East Asia. He ruled his country as a dictator during World War II and was executed (hanged) as a war criminal.
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Hiroshima
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Leading scientists gathered in New Mexico to develop a “powerful bomb of a new type,” entitled the Manhattan Project, under the auspice of President Roosevelt. After, his death, President Truman authorized the use of the new atomic bomb against Japan. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, an industrial, port city.
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Holocaust
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Refers to the attempted genocide (murder of an entire ethnic group/nation) of the Jews of Europe during WWII. Hitler’s “Final Solution” was initially designed to machine gun/murder Jews next to open trenches that they had first dug for themselves. Later, Hitler built Concentration Camps all over Europe, where they were killed with poison gas and their bodies burned in large ovens. It was estimated that 6 million Jews were killed.
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Joseph Stalin
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Russian leader who succeeded Vladimir Lenin, after his death, in 1924. Stalin became the leader and developer of a true totalitarian state. Stalin would quickly and decisively eliminate or “purge” any rivals, accusing them of disloyalty to Communist ideals. His mannerisms were extremely similar to those of Adolf Hitler.
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Manhattan Project
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research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. Albert Einstein was the initiator of this project. He wrote a letter urging President Roosevelt to support research into an “extremely powerful bomb of a new type.”
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Mein Kampf
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Meaning "My Struggle;" it was the ideological base for the Nazi Party's racist beliefs and murderous acts. This was published in 1925; a very detailed account of Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism, Anti-Semitism, anti-Bolshevism, and Social Darwinism which advocated survival of the fittest.
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Nagasaki
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Three days after the United States bombed Hiroshima, with no subsequent surrender by Japan, on August 9, 1945; President Truman, hoping to avoid a land invasion, decided to drop the second atomic bomb on this industrial, port city. Japanese leaders convinced the emperor to surrender with WWII finally coming to an end.
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Nazism
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National Socialism; German: Nationalsozialismus) is a set of political, fascist beliefs associated with the Nazi Party of Germany, with Hitler as their leader (later Hitler became the Chancellor Germany). The Nazi Party started in the 1920s; later, gaining power in 1933, starting the Third Reich. They lasted in Germany until 1945, at the end of World War II.
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New Deal
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A group of government programs and policies established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s, to help combat the economic woes of the Great Depression; the New Deal was designed to improve conditions, for persons suffering in the Great Depression. His plan was an attempt to put many people to work in public works projects.
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Nuremberg Trials
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these were a series of trials, held between 1945-1949, in which the Allies prosecuted German military leaders, political officials, industrialists, and financiers. They were tried on “crimes against humanity,” that were committed during WWII. These trials affirmed that a nation’s leaders could be held accountable for violations of international law.
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Pearl Harbor
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The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States Naval Base and fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. More than 2,400 Americans were killed in this attack and initiated U.S. involvement in WWII.
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Reparations
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the making of amends for a wrong action someone (country) has done, by paying money to those that have been wronged. In other words, the compensation for war damage paid by a defeated state.
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Social Darminism
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A theory arising in the late nineteenth century that the laws of evolution, which Charles Darwin had observed in nature, also apply to society. Racism and anti-Semitism were made respectable by applying Darwin’s theory of evolution that all human groups competed for survival and that stronger groups had the right to succeed over the weaker groups.
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Totalitatianism
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of or relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.
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United Nations
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An international organization formed in 1945 to increase political and economic cooperation among member countries. The organization works on economic and social development programs, improving human rights and reducing global conflicts.
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Weimar Republic
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A name used to describe the democratic government of Germany between the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the assumption of power by Adolf Hitler in 1933; Weimar, Germany, was where its constitution was drawn up. Hitler blamed the leaders of the Weimar Republic for the demise of Germany.
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Winston Churchill
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Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; took over for Chamberlain; brilliant speaker; inspired citizens through public broadcasts; helped British resistance of German invasion
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