WW2 Definitions Ch4 Flashcards
totalitarianism
- used to describe dictatorship
- dictators controlled their populations (could seize power and strictly control the populations under rule)
benito mussolini
- formed political party called fascisti (facist)
- threatened to overthrow italian gov during march on rome 1922 when unable to achieve election victory
- formed blackshirts (quasi-military group) as his political goons (26,000 men)
- demanded italian gov be handed over to him
weimar republic
- new democratic german government
- formed by new leaders after kaiser (former german leader) gave up power on nov 9 1918
- thought it would help germans in peacemaking process and that it would please the americans to want a more lenient settlement regarding germany
- sacrificed democracy after 14 years
inflation
-economic condition when currency of a country becomes less and less valuable
adolf hitler
- political party nazi’s leader
- tried to overthrow german gov during inflation crisis
- gained popularity by promising he would destroy democracy and stated that germans would never be victims of such events again
nazi
- german name for the german socialist workers party
- shortened version (first word) of “nationalsozialistische deutsche arbeiterpartei”
anti-semitism
- to dislike or even hate jewish people
- (blamed for germany’s difficulties)
scapegoat
- someone blamed or punished for the errors of others
- (jews were germany’s scapegoat)
enabling act
- made hitler all powerful
- brought an end to democracy in germany and beginning of totalitarianism
night of the long knives
- june 1934
- hitler had about 1000 people murdered
- victims were enemies of the state by the nazis
nuremberg laws
- package of laws between 1933-1939 that outlines hitlers harsh and unjust measures against the jews
- passed without resistance and supposed to warn world about hitlers intentions but worked to reinforce anti-semitism
kristallnacht
- name of infamous event on nov 9, 1938 nazis encouraged germans toattack jews
- jewish shops attacked, windows smashed, jews were publicy beaten, many imprisoned for no reason
- literally translates as “crystal night” referred as “night of broken glass”
gestapo
- german secret police
- could do anything as long as hitlers believed they were serving the state
joseph stalin
- gained complete control of soviet union in 1928
- shaped country with his vision of communism
- was a totaliratian dictator
- wanted to modernize the economy of the soviet union
- feared foreign country invasion
five year plans
- introduced by stalin to achieve his goal of ensured industrialization
- was stalins attempt to completely take control of all aspects of economy
the great terror
- introduced by stalin during era of 1930s
- anyone who was considered an enemy of stalin’s goal would be executed
appeasement
-occurs when a certain country becomes aggressive and other countries give the aggressor what it wants to prevent a war
nazi-soviet non-agression pact
- signed august 23, 1939
- hitler approached stalin to make pact
- (deal where both countries would promised not to attack each other and divide poland between them)
- in reality it was made to gain/stall time
blitzkrieg
- used by nazis
- “lightning war”
- attacks led by airplanes by knocking key enemy positions which were followed by tanks and motorized infantry attacks
- attacking forces would sweep past enemy and close in from behind trapping the enemy
conscription
-compulsory military service
phony war
- october 1939-april 1940
- people expected germamy to attack western europe but it didnt due to weather and indecision
- allied soldiers waited for the attack
- period where there was little fighting
evacuation of dunkirk
- 1940
- collapse of belgium, british and french troops retreated to french beaches of dunkirk on english channel (became trapped)
- 900 ships arrived to rescue 340,000 soldiers
- represented moral victory for allies-saved best british forces
battle of britain
- summer of 1940
- british royal airforce (raf) and german luftwaffle (air force) fought in airspace over britain
radar and sonar
- radar: similar to method called echolocation (locate things with great accuracy like blind bats) -uses radio waves to detect locations of things allowing britain to detect german bombers and fighter squadrons from far away
- sonar: works in water using sound. sound waves travel through water and bounce off enemy submarines alerting allies of their presence
the blitz
-hitler abandoned assault on raf airfields and orderd daylight bombing raids on london
dieppe
- august 1942
- about 5000 can soldiers landed in dieppe (coast of france)
- objective to take beach and town of dieppe back from germans
scorched earth policy
- used by stalin against nazis when german troops smashed into soviet union
- soviet union (red army) destroyed everything as they retreated so nazis would have nothing to use
battle of el alamein
- battle of control of egypt
- (230 kilomaters west of cairo, egypt capital city)
- victory for british (oct 1942) was turning point for the war:first time allies defeated forces of facist countries
battle of the atlantic
- longest campaign of WW2
- atlantic fought for control of shipping lanes between north america and britain
corvettes
-warships provided by royal canadian navy for protection against german uboats (convoy system)
royal canadian navy
-consisted of 13 ships and about 3000 sailors, expanded to 370 ships and almost 100,000 personnel after WW2
battle of stalingrad
- soviet union lauched attack on germans to prove they could fight through the winter
- sept 1942-jan 1943
- soviets won victory by capturing/killing all of german troops/army that were in the region
- stalin proved that german war maching could be defeated and germans suffered defeat after defeat after
italian campaign
- 1943 germans defeated in north africa and retreating from eastern front
- allies wanted to eliminate germans plans before the reinvastion of western front
- allies planned to take island of sicily just off coast of mainland italy
operation overlord
- 1944
- allied invasions of german-held europe
- allies planned to use naval and aerial bombardment to knock out german defences
juno beach
- target assigned to can forces
- beachfront code-name
- consist of eight km of coastline
- one of five such targets at normandy
v-e day
- may 8 1945
- victory in europe
- announced when last of german troops surrendered
pearl harbour
- december 7, 1941
- japanese launched surprise attack on american naval base in pearl harbour hawai’i
- attack intended to give jap naval control of pacific in preparation of future attacks
prisoner of war (pow)
- japanese camps that held can soldiers who were captured after surrendering to hong kong
- treated very harshly and many died (267 can)
battle of midway
- june 1942
- turning point in pacific theatre -jap victories over
- jap preparing to conquer northwest hawai’i islands
- plan intercepted by americans
island hopping
-american strategy to select and take key islands about 400 miles (640km) apart instead of targeting every single island
the manhattan project
- since march 1943
- US secret expensive funded project to determine the possiblity of creating an atomic bomb
hiroshima
- city that was the target of the first atomic bomb
- little boy dropped aug 6 1945
nagasaki
- city that was the target of the second atomic bomb
- fat man dropped aug 9 1945
v-j day
- victory in japan
- august 14, 1945, jap gov sued for peace
- WW2 over
war supply board
- created to show gov commitment to war production
- managed by C.D. Howe
- goal was to organize canadian industry towards the singular purpose of supplying the front
hyde park declaration
- stated that US would buy more raw materials from canada and would supply canada with american parts for weapons production
- issued bc cananda was worried allied countries would no longer buy from canada after lend lease act 1941 was introduced
propaganda
- term used to describe information that is spread for the purpose of promoting a particular cause
- stetches the truth in a heavily biased way on the cause side
british commonwealth air training plan
- developed by canada in 1939
- created facilities in canada to train pilots an dother crew members from CW countries
camp x
- special spy training facility located outside of oshawa ontario
- opened few days after bombing of pearl harbour
- can, br, and am, spies trained here -trained 500 agents to work around the world
national resource mobilization act
- implemented by king 1940
- required all men to help with war effort but not to serve overseas
enemy aliens
- canadians whose ancestry was one of the enemy countries
- labelled bc can feared they were spies, or might commit acts of sabotage
operation oblivion
- planned as a dangeroud, top secret infiltration on jap soil
- chinese canadians enlisted to perform sabotage but were not allowed to return
- given cyanide pill to help with suicide
- last minute mission was cancelled for reason unknown
- soldiers sent to borneo alive
internment camps
-camps in remote areas where members would do labour work
custodian of aliens act
- law passed in 1943 by canadian gov
- allowed possessions of jap can to be sold without their permission
holocaust
- comes from greek words holos (whole) kaustos (burnt)
- used to describe hitlers massive attempt to exterminate all the jewish people in europe during WW2
st louis incident
- ocean liner st louis presented oppurtunity for many that it was their last of hope of escape
- ship take jewish refugees from germany to cuba where they wait for their quota number before entering the US
ghettos
- designated areas in city where jews were compelled to live
- 1939, 80,000 jew forced to live in ghettos
final solution
- 1941, hitlers obsession with complete annihilation of jewish race became horrible reality
- hitler ordered all jews in nazi occupied europe be gathered and sent to extermination camps and be killed in a group in gas chambers
genocide
-systematic extermination of a religious or racial groups
auschwitz
- dealth camp located in modern day poland
- 1mil+ killed by nazis
nuremberg trials
-war crime court at nuremberg set up by allies in 1946 for the nazis
tehran conference
- held in iran capital city
- first time big three (roosevelt, churchill, and stalin) met
- cordial relations established
yalta conference
- held in south of soviet union on crimean peninsula
- made number of decisions regarding germany’s future
potsdam conference
- held near berlin
- former war allies were to make decisions reagarding future of germany and europe
- supposed to be peace conference planning session but all trust from during the war was gone
- conference was a setting of the stage for next war (cold war)
