Unit 3 WW2 Flashcards
Ghettos
The largest ghetto in Poland was the Warsaw ghetto. Ghettos were usually established in the poor sections of a city, where most of the Jews from the city and surrounding areas were subsequently forced to reside.
Concentration Camps
a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution.
Swastika
Swastika: symbol of the Aryan race, taken from Hinduism, represents the Third Reich, white: the national idea, red: the social idea of the Nazi movement, black: aryan struggle
Nazism
Nazism: an extreme form of fascism that emphasizes not only national but racial superiority
Anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism: prejudice and hatred against people of the Jewish faith
Anton Drexler
Anton Drexler: founded the German Workers Party
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler: Leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSAP), Dictator of Germany
German Workers Party (DAP)
German Workers Party (DAP): original Nazi party, renamed the Nationalist Socialist Workers party
The Third Reich
The Third Reich: Hitler believed that his reign would last 1000 years
Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)
Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch): Failed Nazi attempt to overthrow the government. Hitler imprisoned and writes Mein Kampf
Reichstag
Reichstag: German Parliament
SS “The Black Shirts”
Hitler’s personal force
Gestapo (The SA): aka “The Brown Shirts”
Nazi party force
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf: translates into: my struggle, outlines Hitler’s racial ideology and visions for Germany
- Some races create civilization and other races destroy it
- Survival of the fittest based on the “master Aryan race”
- Anti-Semitism: Hatred of the Jews
Benito Mussolini
leader of the National Fascist Party, promised: Great Italian empire & to end economic hardships
Rome-Berlin Axis
Rome-Berlin Axis: Hitler and Mussolini made an agreement to respect each other’s area of influence and protect each other
Reichstag Fire
Reichstag Fire: Hitler orders some of his men to light the Reichstag on fire, blamed communists and appoints himself dictator so that something like the Reichstag fire won’t happen again, gave Hitler justification to appoint himself dictator
Lebensraum
Lebensraum: “living space” Hitler believed that that Germany was to cramped and that the country needed more “Lebensraum”
Appeasement
Appeasement: a policy of trying to stop aggressive behaviour by giving the oppressor what they want, to “give in” to the demands of a nation, group, or person in order to avoid conflict and ensure peace
In the 1930’s, Western Europe “appeased” Hitler with the hopes of avoiding another world war
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill: British Prime Minister (1940-1945 during WWII), wanted a hard stance against Hitler, against appeasement, rallied German people against British
Rhineland
Rhineland: a non-military zone and region between France and Germany, acted as a “buffer” between the two countries , Hitler orders German forces into the Rhineland takes over factories and begins using them to make war weapons
Sudetenland
Sudetenland: A border region between Germany and Czechoslovakia where many Germans lived, Hitler argued the unification of German and German speaking Czechs with the rest of the country, was important for Czech defences
Phony War
Phony War: The period between the allies declaring of war against Germany and the beginning of actual fighting, when no fighting took place, Allies: were not ready. Continues recruiting training soldiers, expanding air force, Nazis: continued to take over much of Europe
Allied v. Axis Powers
Allied v. Axis Powers: Allied- Canada, Great Britain, The United States, China, and the Soviet Union Axis Powers- Germany, Japan and Italy
Josef Stalin
Josef Stalin: leader of the Soviet Union
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg: German term: “lighting warfare”, German military strategy, “overwhelm” the enemy by attacking a specific area of the battleground with the combined support of air and ground forces: planes, tanks, and artillery, troops in order to penetrate deep into enemy territory and dispute enemy defences and communications
Maginot Line
Maginot Line: allies were not ready for Blitzkrieg, expected another long, drawn out defensive war with very little movement, much like WWI, A series of concrete, “French like” defences along the French-German border
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa: Code name for Germany’s planned invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler disregarded the warnings of the Schlieffen Plan by invading the Soviet Union with over 3 million troops and 3000 tanks
The Blitz
The Blitz: Hitler rejected bombing raid from British airfields to the capital city of London of 57 nights, Hitler believed that the Blitz would crust the moral of the English, and force Britain out of the war, but instead gave the RAF time to breath and re-coup
Royal Air Force (RAF)
Royal Air Force (RAF): the United Kingdom’s aerial warfare force
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe: German air force
Black Christmas
Black Christmas: Canadians fought hard but were forced to surrender on Christmas Day, 1941
Red Army
Red Army: The army of the Soviet Union
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord: code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied plan to launch a successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II
V-E Day
V-E Day: Germany surrenders, officially ending the war in Europe
V-P Day
V-P Day: The Enola Gay drops Little boy on the city of Hiroshima
The Enola Gay
The Enola Gay: first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb
Holocaust
Holocaust: a term used to describe the systematic mass murder of European Jews during WWII by Nazi Germany and its collaborators
Nuremburg Laws (purpose and specific laws)
a series of anti-semitic laws passed by the Nazis that provided ‘scientific’ justification for discrimination against the jews, marriage and/or sexual relation between a German and a Jew was forbidden and illegal, Jewish people are no longer considered ‘citizens’ of the German state, become subjects of the state SIGNIFICANCE: all human rights are taken away
Kristallnacht (Crystal Night)
anti-jewish riots in cities across Germany and Austria, nearly 100 Jews killed, Jewish businesses and synagogues destroyed, jews were banned from public parks and forced to pay reparations
Final Solution
Final Solution: Nazi organized a systematic execution of ALL European Jews, Method: Concentrations Camps and Gas Chambers, Gas: Zyclon B
Dr.Josef Mengele
aka “The Angel of Death”, Nazi SS officer and “doctor”, conducted experiments such as the sterilization of women, mutilation and amputation, the question practice, many jews killed in the process
Anschluss
To this end, he had designs on re-uniting Germany with his native homeland, Austria.