End Of WW2 And The Holocaust Flashcards
Gestapo
German secret police
J. Goebbels
Head of propaganda (cyanide suicide)
R. Heydrich
Head of Gestapo: led the Wannsee conference- shot by Czech resistance, died a few days later
Adolf Eichmann
Took over after Heydrich, head of Gestapo
Handled transport of Jews
Flees to Argentina and captured by Israeli secret police in 1961
H. Himmler
Head of SS- responsible for “final solution” and committed suicide before his trial
J. Mengele
“Dr. Death” Doctor in prison camps, did horrible experiments (twin experiments, cold etc.)
Found dead in pool in Brazil 1979
SA
Storm Troopers: “brown shirts” members of special branch nazi party
SS
Protection squad “blackshirts”
Hitlers personal bodyguard under Himmler
Yiddish
Hebrew-German language spoken by Jewish
Hermann Goering
Head of Luftwaffe, committed suicide before execution
Kristallnacht
Night of the broken glass
Herschel Grynszpan shoots and kills a German diplomat in revenge for being deported, Germans retaliate by destroying 7,500 businesses and 180 synagogues led by Joseph Goebbels.
July 20 plot
July 20, 1944 Operation Valkyrie
After failed attempt to assassinate Hitler on his likable colonol Stauffenberg was to travel to Hitlers “wolf lair” and place a suitcas with two bombs under the table in his briefing room. This would kill Hitler and arrest the high ranking officials around him.
Unfortunately only one bomb was armed in time and the suitcase was kicked under the tables leg, reducing the explosion. Some conspirators were executed day of.
Wannsee Conference
Jan 20, 1942
15 nazi officers gather to discuss and coordinate a “final solution”… genocide
“Work will set you free” motto
Election of 1944
FDR wins 4th term but dies in 1945, harry truman becomes president
Yalta Conference
February 1945
Before WWII ends— US (FDR), UK (Churchill), Russia (Stalin)
Churchill wants strong Germany, FDR and Stalin want spheres of influence and weak Germany, and FDR mentions United Nations
Main discussion; how the Allie’s would handle the defeated /liberated countries of Europe
Decisions: Germany denazified, Nuremberg trials, Germany quartered and divide among GB, FR, RS, US, soviets join the u.n. With 50 other countries, soviets agree to invade Japan in exchange for land lost during Russo-Japanese war, free elections in Eastern Europe- Stalin unable to upkeep, countries turn communist
V-E Day
Victory in Europe day- May 8, 1945
Potsdam Conference
On V-E day, Truman, Churchill (dies and then Atlee), Stalin
Discussions: reinstating Yalta, Stalin agrees to fight vs. Japanese, atomic bomb mentioned casually to Stalin, war criminals brought to trial, unconditional surrender for Japan (allowed to keep their emperor) they deny and bomb dropped, council of foreign ministers was agreed upon (big 3 + China and France), Poland boundary redrawn
Operation cornet
Plan to invade Japan (Tokyo)
Manhattan project
Secret plan to develop atomic bomb in New Mexico
Robert Oppenheimer
American physicist who tested trinity site, creates 3 bombs with the help of Albert Einstein called gadget, little boy, and fat man.
USS Indianapolis
American ship carrying atomic bomb sunk on way home. So secret no coordinates, escorts, etc. 4 days in water, sharks ate about 600 people— only 300 survivors.
Hiroshima
August 6th, 1945
Paul tibbits plane “Enola Gay” drops little boy bomb
Nagasaki
August 9th, 1945
Charles Sweeney drops fat man bomb
Japanese surrender
September 2nd, 1945
aboard the USS Missouri to general MacArthur
