World War II Vocabulary

• World War II study topics for Honors World Studies

Vocabulary

• Genocide refers to the systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group
• Hyperinflation, is extreme and rapid inflation that erodes a countries currency
• Anti-Semitism is a hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people
• Holocaust refers to the mass annihilation of Jews and other groups by the Nazis during World War II
• Appeasement is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict
• Non-Aggression Pact is a treaty between two or more states including a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other
• Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war," is a military tactic of rapid attack using coordinated air and land forces
• Nuremberg Laws were anti-Semitic laws enacted in Nazi Germany
• Final Solution refers to the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish people
• D-Day was the day Allied forces invaded northern France, a critical turning point in World War II which took place on June 6, 1944
• Island Hopping, also known as leapfrogging, is a military strategy of selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others
• United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War
• Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces after World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of Nazi Germany

Important Figures

• Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany
• Benito Mussolini was the Italian dictator
• Hideki Tojo was a Japanese prime minister and general
• Emperor Hirohito was the emperor of Japan during World War II
• Franklin Roosevelt was the US President during World War II until his death in 1945
• Harry Truman was the US President who succeeded Roosevelt and authorized the use of atomic bombs
• Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister known for his policy of appeasement toward Hitler
• Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister who led Britain through World War II
• Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union

Key Concepts

• The effect of the Great Depression was a contributing cause of the start of the Second World War
• The impact of the Treaty of Versailles was a contributing cause of the start of the Second World War
• Italian, German and Japanese aggression were also causes of the start of the Second World War
• Failures of the League of Nations contributed to WWII
• WWII had a great impact on colonial empires
• The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
• The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks
• French Resistance were French resistant movements against Nazi Germany
• Nuremberg Laws were a series of anti-semitic laws in Nazi Germany
• The Final Solution was the Nazi government's plan to annihilate Jewish people
• The Nuremberg Trials were military tribunals held by the Allied forces after WWII
• Destroyers for Bases and Lend-Lease Act (US & UK) was a policy to provide war materials to countries whose defense was vital to the US
• The Atlantic Charter and United Nations were agreements between the Allied powers
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii
• The North Africa Campaign involved the Western Desert Campaign and the Morocco and Algeria campaign
• D-Day was the day the Allied forces invaded northern France on June 6, 1944
• The Island Hopping Campaign was a military strategy of selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others
• Yalta, Tehran, and Potsdam were key conferences held by Allied leaders
• The Manhattan Project & use of the Atomic Bomb was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons