| Term | Definition |
| World War II | A time period from 1939-1945 during which world powers fought in part due to Germany and Japan’s desire to expand their empires. |
| Holocaust | Term used for the systematic destruction of the Jewish people of Eastern Europe by Hitler |
| genocide | The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic or religious group. |
| ghetto | An area of a city to which Jews were restricted and from which they were forbidden to leave |
| concentration camp | Work or death camps located in Germany and Poland to incarcerate and exterminate Jews and other “undesirables” |
| philosophies | Ideas attributed to a particular group or culture |
| superpowers | Term used to describe the United States and the Soviet Union as they entered the Cold War |
| Cold War | A struggle that erupted between the Soviet Union and its former allies over ideas about freedom, government and economics. It is called this because there was no shooting |
| reunification | The process in which East and West Germany reunited into one country |
| capitalism | An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state/government. |
| anti-Semistism | Racial bias or prejudice against Jews |
| Axis Powers | The countries of Germany, Italy, and Japan that were defeated by the Allied Powers in World War II. |
| Allied Powers | The countries of Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union who fought against the Axis Powers. |
| Iron Curtain | A symbolic line that divided the communist countries in Eastern Europe and capitalist democracies in Western Europe. |
