WW2 Vocab
This is a study sheet for anyone who needs help studying words for the WWII vocab test!
Terms
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- Pearl Harbor
- US military base on Hawaii that was bombed by Japan, bringing the US into WWII. December 7,1941
- Maginot Line
- string of steel and concrete bunkers along the German border from Belgium to Switzerland set up by the British and French
- Nuremberg Laws
- established legal basis in Nazi Germany for discrimination against Jews
- Concentration Camps
- Prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhumane, and prisoners, mostly Jews, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.
- Dunkirk
- city in northwest corner of France where the allied troops were trapped by the advancing German Army. 800 British ships, ranging from warships to fishing boats, crossed the channel from England to rescue over 300,000 British and French troops
- Disarmament
- giving up military weapons
- Ethiopia
- African nation invaded by fascist Italy in 1935
- Blitzkrieg
- German lightning warfare- Characterized by highly mobility and concentrated forces at point of attack
- Mobilization
- the gathering of resources and preparation for war
- Neutrality Acts
- Originally designed to avoid American involvement in WWII by preventing loans to those countries taking part in the war, they were later modified in 1939 to allow aid to Great Britain and other Allied nations
- Nazism
- /the doctrines of nationalism, racial purity and anti-communism and the all-powerful role of the state. the national socialism German workers party (Nazis) \Nazism was advocated by Hitler in Germany
- Axis Powers
- Japan, Germany and Italy
- Operation Overload
- the allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944
- National War Labor Board
- helped resolve labor disputes that might slow down war production
- Battle of Britain
- An aerial battle fought in WWII in 1940 between German Luftwaffe which carried out extensive bombing in Britain and the British Royal Air Force, which offered successful resistance
- Korematsu v. US
- 194- supreme court case where the court upheld the order providing for the relocation of Japanese Americans. It wasn't until 1988 that congress formally apologized and agreed to pay $20,000 to each survivor
- Dictator
- Political leader who rules a country with absolute power, usually force
- Code Talker
- Used a special code based on the Navajo language to send messages. Japanese never broke the code.
- Allied Nations
- Those countries fighting against the Axis powers (ie. Britain, France, USA, Canada, USSR, etc...)
- Magic
- code name from US code breaking operations against the Japanese
- Appeasement
- policy by which Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, and France agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in agreement for not taking any additional Czech territory.
- Munich Conference
- 1938 conference at which Euro leaders attempted to appease Hitler by turning over the Sudetenland to him in exchange for promise that Germany would not expand Germany's territory any more
- Office of War Information
- established by the government to promote patriotism and help keep Americans united behind the war effort
- Office of Price Administration
- sets limits on consumer process and rent to prevent inflation
- Kamikaze
- Japanese suicide pilots who loaded their planes with explosives and crashed them into American ships
- Bataan Death March
- April 1942- American soldiers forced to march 65 miles to prison camps by Japanese captors. (called the death march because so many died en route.)
- Potsdam Declaration
- Ultimatum from the Potsdam Conference that was issued by the US, GB, and China to Japan offering that country the choice between unconditional surrender and total annihilation
- Lend-Lease act
- Approved by congress March 1941- The act allowed Americans to sell, lend, or lease arms or supplies to any countries considered vital to American defense
- Nisei
- American born children of Japanese immigrants; second generation of Japanese Americans
- Atlantic Charter
- Anglo-American declaration that stated the countries aims for the outcome of the war. Stated people of every nation should be free to choose their ow form of government and live free of fear and want, disarmament, and permanent system of general security.
- Battle of the Bulge
- Term used to describe the actions following the German offensive through Ardennes forests in December 1944.
- Internment camps
- detention centers where more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were relocated during WWII by order of the President
- Annex
- Process by which a government gains control over a territory not presently under their jurisdiction.
- Fair Employment Practices Commission
- established to combat discrimination in industries that held government contracts
- IL Duce
- Benito Mussolini
- Bracero Program
- US labor agents recruited thousands of farm and railroad workers from Mexico. The program stimulated emigration for Mexico
- Holocaust
- The systematic extermination of millions of European Jews as well as Roma, Slavs, intellectuals, homosexuals, and political dissidents by the Nazis and their allies during WWII
- Death Camps
- Camps used under the control of Hitler in Nazi Germany for the purpose of killing prisoners immediately
- D-Day
- June 6, 1944- The day on which Allied forces landed in Normandy, France to begin massive offense agains tthe Germans in the occupied territory of Europe.
- American First Committee
- Organization created by isolationists who argued that the US should keep out of Europe's business.
- Anti-Semitism
- Policies, views, or actions that harm or discriminate against Jews
- Island hopping
- the American navy attacked islands held by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. The capture of each successive island from Japan brough American navy closer to an invasion of Japan
- Manhattan Project
- code name for the US effort during WWII to produce the atomic bomb. much of the early research was done in NYC by refugee physicists in the US
- Genocide
- wiping out an entire group of people
- Fascism
- any movement, ideology, or attitude that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprises, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism
- Civil Defense
- Protective measures in case of attack- In WWII, volunteers scanned the skies for enemy aircraft and coastal cities enforced blackouts.