WWII
1. Treaty of Versailles - one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of
war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years
after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
2. Diktat - a harsh penalty or settlement imposed upon a defeated party by the victor, or a dogmatic
decree. Historically, it was particularly used in Germany to refer to the Treaty of Versailles.
3. Totalitarianism - a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and
strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible
4. Fascism - a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek rejuvenation of their nation based on commitment to an organic national community where its individuals are united together as one people in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood through a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through discipline, indoctrination, physical education, and eugenics
5. National Socialist German Workers’ Party - commonly known in English in short form as
the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the
German Workers' Party (DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920.
6. Rome-Berlin Axis - a military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, with the Tripartite Pact of
1940 leading to the integration of the military aims of Germany and its two treaty-bound allies.
At their zenith during World War II, the Axis powers presided over empires that occupied large
parts of Europe, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and islands of the Pacific Ocean.
7. Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact - named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the
German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty
of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late
hours of 23 August 1939. It was a non-aggression pact under which the Soviet Union and Nazi
Germany each pledged to remain neutral in the event that either nation were attacked by a third
party.
8. Appeasement - a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to an
aggressor. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany between 1937 and 1939. His policies of avoiding
war with Germany have been the subject of intense debate for seventy years among academics,
politicians and diplomats.
9. Munich Pact - The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation
of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly
inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich,
Germany, among the major powers of Europe without the presence of Czechoslovakia.
10. Manchurian Crisis - a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for
invading the northern part of China, known as Manchuria, in 1931
11. Abyssinian Crisis - a crisis during the interwar period originating in the "Walwal incident." This
incident resulted from the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) and
the Empire of Ethiopia (then commonly known as "Abyssinia" in Europe). Its effects were to
undermine the credibility of the League of Nations and to encourage Fascist Italy to ally itself
with Nazi Germany. The crisis brought an end to peace in Europe and it was clear by 1937 there
were two defining sides in Europe.
12. Communism - a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless
social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social,
political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order.
13. Capitalism - an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production,
creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive
markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor
14. Miracle at Dunkirk- the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War
15. Blitzkrieg- describing all-motorisedforce concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken, proceeding without regard to its flank. Through constant motion, the blitzkrieg attempts to keep its enemy off-balance, making it difficult to respond effectively at any given point before the front has already moved on
16. Lend-Lease Act-  the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 but nine months before the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. Formally titled An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States, the Act effectively ended the United States' pretense of neutrality
17. Luftwaffe-  a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, theWehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.
18. Office of Scientific Research- an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by Executive Order 8807 on June 28, 1941. It superseded the work of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), was given almost unlimited access to funding and resources, and was directed by Vannevar Bush, who reported only to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
19. Manhattan Project-  a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major GeneralLeslie Groves of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
20. "little boy" & "fat man"- the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date (the other being "Little Boy").
21. Fort Campbell- a United States Army installation located astraddle the Kentucky-Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky, andClarksville, Tennessee. Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
22. Oak Ridge National Laboratory- a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) by UT-Battelle. ORNL is the largest science and energy national laboratory in the Department of Energy system.[1] ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville. ORNL's scientific programs focus on materials, neutron science, energy, high-performance computing, systems biology and national security. The facility that later became Oak Ridge National Laboratory was established as part of theClinton Engineer Works for the Manhattan Project in 1943 during World War II, when American scientists feared that Nazi Germany was rapidly developing an atomic bomb.
23. Cordell Hull- an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II. Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations, and was referred to by President Roosevelt as the "Father of the United Nations".
24. anti-Semitism- suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage.
25. Dr. Josef Mengele- a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He earned doctorates in anthropologyfrom Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University. He initially gained notoriety for being one of the SS physicians who supervised the selection of arriving transports of prisoners, determining who was to be killed and who was to become a forced laborer, but is far more infamous for performing human experiments on camp inmates, including children, for which Mengele was called the "Angel of Death".
26. Arbeit Macht Frei- a German phrase, literally "work makes (one) free," meaning "work sets you free" or "work liberates".[1] The slogan is known for having been placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, including most infamouslyAuschwitz I, where it was made by prisoners with metalwork skills and erected by order of the Nazis in June 1940.
27. Aushwitz-a network of concentrationand extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II
28. Zyklon B-was the trade name of a cyanide-basedpesticide infamous for its use by Nazi Germany to kill human beings in gas chambers of extermination camps during the Holocaust
29. Holocaust- was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, throughout Nazi-occupied territory Of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds perished
30. Genocide- the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, ornational group
31. Nuremberg War Crime Tribunals- a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, in 1945–46, at the Palace of Justice
32. rationing- the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time. Used in US during WWII for certain supplies.
33. internment- is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial
34. “Rosie the Riveter”- is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories duringWorld War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military
35. It was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States. The WPB converted and expanded peacetime industries to meet war needs, allocated scarce materials vital to war production, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such things as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper and plastics
36. National War Labor Board- a federal agency created in April 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson. It was composed of twelve representatives from business and labor, and co-chaired by Former President William Howard Taft. Its purpose was to arbitrate disputes between workers and employers in order to ensure labor reliability and productivity during the war. It was disbanded after the war in May, 1919.
37. Revenue Act of 1942 - The United States Revenue Act of 1942, Pub. L. 753, Ch.
619, 56 Stat. 798 (Oct. 21, 1942), increased individual income tax rates, increased
corporate tax rates (top rate rose from 31 % to 40 %), and reduced the personal
exemption amount from $1,500 to $1,200 (married couples). The exemption amount
for each dependent was reduced from $400 to $350. A 5 % Victory tax on all
individual incomes over $624 was created, with postwar credit. The 35-60 %
graduated rate schedule for excess profits tax was replaced with a flat 90 % rate.
The Act also created deductions for medical expenses.
38. G.I. Bill of Rights - The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (P.L. 78-346, 58
Stat. 284m), known informally as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of
benefits for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). benefits
included low-cost mortgages, loans to start a business or farm, cash payments of
tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, as
well as one year of unemployment compensation.
39. Globalization - refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and
economic activity. It is generally used to refer to economic globalization: the global
distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to
international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas and the reduction
of restrictions on the movement of capital and on investment.
40. Deficit Spending - amount by which a government, private company, or individual's
spending exceeds income over a particular period of time, also called simply
"deficit", or "budget deficit", the opposite of budget surplus.
41. Military-Industrial Complex - concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary
relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the defense industrial
base that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political
approval for defense spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and beneficial
legislation and oversight of the industry. It is a type of iron triangle.
Allies
42. England - London became the largest and most populous metropolitan area in the
world during the Victorian era, and trade within the British Empire—as well as the
standing of the British military and navy—was prestigious. Political agitation at home
from radicals such as the Chartists and the suffragettes enabled legislative reform
and universal suffrage. Power shifts in east-central Europe led to World War I;
hundreds of thousands of English soldiers died fighting for the United Kingdom as
part of the Allies. Two decades later, in World War II, the United Kingdom was again
one of the Allies.
43. France - France was a member of the Triple Entente when World War I broke out. A
small part of Northern France was occupied, but France and its allies eventually
emerged victorious against the Central Powers, at a tremendous human and
material cost: the first war left 1.4 million French soldiers dead. The interbellum
phase was marked by intense international tensions an a variety of social reforms
introduced by the Popular Front government (Annual leave,working time reduction,
women in Government...).
44. Russia - The 1941–45 period of World War II is known in Russia as the Great
Patriotic War. In this conflict, which included many of the most lethal battle
operations in human history, Soviet military and civilian deaths were 10.6 million and
15.9 million respectively, accounting for about a third of all World War II casualties.
The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater. The Soviet
economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation but the Soviet Union
emerged as an acknowledged superpower.
45. Norway - Norway also proclaimed its neutrality during World War II, but Norway was
invaded by German forces on 9 April 1940. Norway was unprepared for the German
surprise attack (see: Battle of Drøbak Sound, Norwegian Campaign, and Invasion of
Norway), but military and naval resistance lasted for two months. The armed forces
in the north launched an offensive against the German forces in the Battles of
Narvik, until they were forced to surrender on June 10 after losing British help
diverted to France during the German Invasion of France. King Haakon and the
Norwegian government escaped to Rotherhithe, London, England, and they
supported the fight through inspirational radio speeches from London and by
supporting clandestine military actions in Norway against the Nazis.
46. United States - The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early
stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, began
supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On
December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor,
prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers as well as the
internment of Japanese Americans by the thousands. Participation in the war
spurred capital investment and industrial capacity.
47. Germany - The UK and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of
World War II. As the war progressed, Germany and its allies quickly gained control
of most of continental Europe andNorth Africa, though plans to force the United
Kingdom to an armistice or surrender failed. On 22 June 1941, Germany broke the
Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and invaded the Soviet Union. Japan's attack on Pearl
Harbor led Germany to declare war on the United States. The Battle of Stalingrad
forced the German army to retreat on the Eastern front.
48. Italy - Italy allied with Nazi Germany and Empire of Japan and strongly supported
Franco in the Spanish civil war. In 1939, Italy occupied Albania, a de facto
protectorate for decades, and entered World War II in June 1940 on the side of the
Axis powers. Mussolini, wanting a quick victory like Hitler's Blitzkriegs in Poland and
France, invaded Greece in October 1940, but was forced to accept a humiliating
stalemate after a few months.
49. Japan - On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor
and declared war, bringing the US intoWorld War II. After the Soviet invasion of
Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan
agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 15. The war cost Japan and the rest
of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere millions of lives and left much of the
nation's industry and infrastructure destroyed. TheAllies (led by the US) repatriated
millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia,
largely eliminating the Japanese empire and restoring the independence of its
conquered territories.
50. Hideki Tojo - Japanese military leader and statesman; prime minister 1941–44. He
initiated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and by 1944 had assumed virtual
control of all political and military decision-making. After Japan's surrender, he was
tried and hanged as a war criminal.
51. Francisco Franco - Spanish general and dictator; head of state 1939–75. Leader of
the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, he became head of the Falange Party in
1937 and proclaimed himself Caudillo (“leader”) of Spain. With the defeat of the
republic in 1939, he took control of the government and established a dictatorship
that ruled Spain until his death.
52. Benito Mussolini: an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is
credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of fascism. Mussolini
became the 40th Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by
1925. After 1936, his official title was Sua Eccellenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del
Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell'Impero ("His Excellency Benito
Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire")
Mussolini also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the
Empire along with King Victor Emmanuel III, which gave him and the King joint
supreme control over the military of Italy.
53.  Adolf Hitler: an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National
Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was
chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer
und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is commonly associated with the rise
of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust. A decorated veteran of
World War I, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, precursor of the Nazi Party,
in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup
d'état, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich.
54.  Josef Stalin: the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953.
He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October
Revolution in Russia in 1917 and later held the position of General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death
in 1953. While the office of the General Secretary was officially elective and not
initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, Stalin managed to use it to
consolidate more and more power in his hands after the death of Vladimir Lenin in
1924 and gradually put down all opposition groups within the Communist Party.
55.  Battle of Britain: the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the
German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and
autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over
the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from
a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of
Commons: "...the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about
to begin."
56. Pearl Harbor: a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy
against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of
December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive
action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions
the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories
of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. The attack came
as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry
into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters.
57. Island Hopping: a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War
against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. The idea was to bypass
heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied
resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable
of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan.
58. Operation Torch: was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in
World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942.
The Soviet Union had pressed the U.S. and Britain to start operations in Europe and
open a second front to reduce the pressure of German forces on the Soviet troops.
While the American commanders favored Operation Sledgehammer, landing in
Occupied Europe as soon as possible, the British commanders believed that such a
course would end in disaster.
59. Operation Husky: a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily
from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and
airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian
Campaign. Husky began on the night of 9–10 July 1943, and ended 17 August.
Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners.
60. Operation Shingle: (January 22, 1944), during the Italian Campaign of World War
II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and
Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and
was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an attack on
Rome. The resulting combat is commonly called the Battle of Anzio.
61. Operation Overlord: the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that
launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II
by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy
landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day).
62. Battle of the Bulge: (also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Von Rundstedt
Offensive to the Germans) (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major
German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive), launched toward the end of World War
II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium,
hence its French name (Bataille des Ardennes), and France and Luxembourg
on the Western Front.
63. Big Three: After 1941, the leaders of the British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union,
and the United States of America, known as the "Big Three", held leadership of the
allied powers. China, held leadership of the allied powers. China.
64. Casablanca: Casablanca was an important strategic port during World War II
and hosted the Casablanca Conference in 1943, in which Churchill and Roosevelt
discussed the progress of the war. Casablanca was the site of a large American air
base, which was the staging area for all American aircraft for the European Theater
of Operations during World War II.
65. Teheran: was a strategy meeting held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was
held in the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran and was the first of the World War II
conferences held between all of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union,
the United States, and the United Kingdom).
66. Yalta: held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads
of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union,
represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and
General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's
post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta,
in the Crimea. The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the
nations of war-torn Europe.