Vocab Flashcards
Weimar Republic
A democratic government founded in Germany.
Nazi
A German Socialist Worker’s party. Short for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.
Anti-Semitism
To dislike or hate Jewish people.
Enabling Act
An amendment to the Weimar Consitution that gave the German Cabinet (aka Hitler) the power to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag.
Night of the Long Knives
June 1934
Hitler murdered 1000 people who were “his enemies”
Nuremburg Laws
Hitler enacted his draconian measures against Jews:
- Jews had to wear the Star of David all times
- lost professional careers, property, and citizenship
- can’t mingle with German population
Kristallnacht
“Crystal Night”
Nazi encouraged Germans to attack Jews and their property. Shops attacked, Jews beaten in public, imprisoned for no reason.
Gestapo
Secret Nazi police force. Can do anything if Hitler thinks they’re serving the state.
The Great Terror
Anyone who opposed Stalin was executed. Millions of Soviet citizens lost their lives.
Appeasement
Occurs when a certain country becomes aggressive, and other countries give the aggressor what it wants to prevent war.
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Aug 23 1939
Pact whereby both sides promise to not attack each other, and will divide Poland between them.
Blitzkrieg
“Lightning War”
Airplanes led the attack designed to knock out key enemy positions. then is followed by tanks and infantry motor unit attacks. They will close in behind the enemy, trapping them.
Conscription
Compulsory military service.
Phony War
Everyone expected Germany to attack Western Europe, but bad weather and indecision prevented this from happening. Allied troops and Canadians waited for attack.
Radar
Use of radio waves to detect location of things.
Sonar
Use of sounds pulses to detect objects underwater.
Scorched Earth Policy
When an army retreats, but destroys everything (food, supplies etc) so enemies will have nothing to use.
Corvettes
A small warship designed for convoy escort duty.
V-E Day
“Victory in Europe”
The day the last of German troops surrendered.
Prisoners of War (POW)
Soldiers who are captured by enemy forces during armed conflict.
Island Hopping
Selecting key islands 400 miles apart to take over.
The Manhattan Project
A very secret and expensive project to determine if it was possible to create and atomic bomb.
V-J Day
Aug 14 1945
Japanese government sued for peace (surrendered). WWII is over.
War Supply Board
An agency of the US government that supervised war production.
Hyde park Declaration
Sates that the US would buy more raw material from Canada and would supply Canada with American parts for weapons production.
Propaganda
Information that is spread for the purpose of promoting a particular cause, often stretching the truth in a bias way.
Camp X
Special spy training facility at Oshawa, Ontario
National Resource Mobilization Act
Requires all men to help with war effort, but not to serve overseas.
Internment Camps
A prisoner camp for the confinement of the enemy aliens, POW and etc…
St. Louis Incident
A ship to take Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba, but was rejected by Cuba then Florida and Canada to land.
The ship returned to Europe and many died in Nazi concentration camps.
Ghettos
Designated areas in the city where Jews were compelled to live.
Final Solution
Hitler ordered that all Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe to be rounded up and sent to extermination camps to be killed in groups in gas chambers.
Genocide
The systematic extermination of a religious or racial group.
Auschwitz
A concentration/death camp where millions were executed.
Nuremberg Trials
1946
Allies set up a war crimes court at Nuremberg.
Leaders legally charged other leaders for their immoral actions.
