Term | Definition |
totalitarianism | is a term used by some political scientists to describe a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. |
anti-semitic | relating to or characterized by anti-Semitism; hating Jews |
Spanish civil war | fought from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the established Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. |
appeasement | political context, is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to a (potential) enemy power (or powers) in order to avoid a threatened conflict. |
anschluss | This was in contrast with the Anschluss movement which had been attempted since as early as 1918 when the Republic of German-Austria attempted union with Germany but was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Versailles peace treaties. |
Munich pact | was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. |
blitzkrieg | an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory. |
axis powers | were the nations that fought in the Second World War against the Allied forces |
allies | are people, groups, or states that have joined in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them. |
neutrality act of 1939 | passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II |
tripartite pact | was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II. |
lend-lease act | a program under which the United States supplied Great Britain, the USSR, Republic of China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and August 1945 |
Atlantic charter | a pivotal policy statement issued in August 1941 that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. |
pearl harbor | is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. |
wac | the women's branch of the United States Army. |
Bataan death march | the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. |
442 regimental combat team | was a regimental size fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese descent who fought in World War II, despite the fact many of their families were subject to internment. |
rationing | allow each person to have only a fixed amount of (a particular commodity). |
owl | was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. |
D-day | was used for the day of the actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. |
battle of the bulge | was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. |
island hopping | means crossing an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between islands, as opposed to a single journey directly across the ocean to the destination. |
kamikaze | were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks. |
Manhattan project | was a research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. |
holocaust | was the mass murder or genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, throughout the German Reich and German-occupied territories. |
antisemitism | is prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage |
Nuremberg laws | were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating antisemitism as a form of scientific racism. |
kristallnacht | was a pogrom (a series of coordinated attacks) against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. |
genocide | the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, caste, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. |
concentration camp | a camp where people are kept under very crowded, harsh conditions. |
death camp | were camps during World War II (1939–45) built primarily but not exclusively by Nazi Germany to systematically kill millions of people by execution (primarily by gassing) and extreme work under starvation conditions. |
battle of coral sea | was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. |
unconditional surrender | is a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. |
saturation bombing | a large aerial bombing done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in the same way that a carpet covers a floor. |
strategic bombing | a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces. |
Tuskegee airmen | a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. |
battle of midway | naval battle of World War II (June 1942); American planes based on land and on carriers decisively defeated a Japanese fleet on its way to invade the Midway Islands |
executive order 8802 | was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit racial discrimination in the national defense industry. |
bracero program | was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. |
internment | is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. |
korematsu v united states | was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship. |
war refugee broad | established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis powers. |
Yalta conference | the meeting of the heads of government of the U.S,U.K. and Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively, to discuss Europe's post-war reorganization. |
superpower | is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests. |
gatt | was a multilateral agreement regulating international trade. According to its preamble, its purpose was the "substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis |
united nations | is an intergovernmental organisation created in 1945 to promote world peace, economic and social development, and other forms of international cooperation |
universal declaration of human rights | is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. |
Geneva convention | comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of war |
Nuremberg trails | were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany |