United States History Study ListWORLD WAR II

Page 808-8111. Axis - It is one of the sides in World War II. This side had the dictatorships of

Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy.2. Allies – It is one of side in World War II. This side had the democracies of Great

Britain, United States and Australia, plus the communist dictatorship of the USSR.

3. Lend-Lease Act – It was one of Roosevelt’ 1940 measures barely short of getting the U.S. into World War II. With Great Britain almost bankrupt, he convinced Congress to pass a law allowing it (and soon after the Soviets) to obtain military equipment and supplies on almost giveaway terms. These supplies helped them stave off defeat.

4. Battle of the Atlantic - It was the contest in the ocean between Britain (with U.S. help) and the Nazis. The German wolfpacks preying on merchant ships tried to close the supply lines from the New World to Britain.

5. “Scorched Earth” – It was the Russian policy of destroying everything - even their first great hydroelectric structure, the Dnieper dam, - that could be of use to the advancing Germans.

6. “Wolf Packs” - They were groups of 15 to 20 submarines that Hitler used to try and close the supply lines from the New World to Britain.

7. “Pocket Battleships” - They were warships the size of cruisers, but with the firepower of battleships.

8. Atlantic Charter - It was a general statement of war aims that came out of the Roosevelt/Churchill meeting on a warship off the coast of Newfoundland in 1941. It also contained six principles for a post war world that later became the basis for the United Nations.

9. Russian Invasion - It was Hitler’s biggest mistake in World War II. Leaving Britain undefeated he attacked the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in June 1941 under the code name Operation Barbarossa. For months the German army won success after success along their 1000-mile front as the Soviets lost whole armies and retreated. But the USSR was a large country and by December just 25 miles short of Moscow the drive stalled. The terrible Russian winter and Siberian troops then inflicted great losses on the Nazi army.

10. Pearl Harbor - It is “a date which will live in infamy.” It is Sunday December 7, 1941 when Japan successfully attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at anchor at Pearl Harbor. The fleet was mostly destroyed. The U.S., the next day declared war on Japan and entered World War II.

Page 816-82011. Liberty Ships - They were mass produced cargo ships that could be turned out of

the shipyards in a record 56 days.12. Selective Service System - It was the draft. In World War II 16.5 million men

were added to the armed forces in this way.13. Women’s Army Corps (WACS) - They are women who volunteered for the

armed forces during World War II. Most of the 216,000 enlisted in the Army and

served in non-combat units as accountants, bakers, bookkeepers, clerk-typists, drivers and radio operators. Women also joined the Army Air Corp and Navy to serve in non-combat roles.

14. Black Americans in World War II - They were about one million Americans of African descent serving in the Armed Forces mostly in non-combat service jobs, such as cooks, messengers, mess halt attendants, etc. A few saw combat such as those in the Merchant Marine and the all colored 761st Tank Battalion.

15. Nisei - They are Americans of Japanese ancestry. During World War II these Americans were rounded up and sent to interment camps in the western states. They lost their homes, businesses, and other property because of the doubt about their loyalty. 17,000 joined the military and fought with valor in Europe and put shame to the rest of Americans for their prejudice.

16. “Rosie the Riveter” - She was 2 million women who replaced men In the nation’s war manufacturing plants. She received 60% less pay than a man and had little job security. She knew she would be laid off as soon as the war was over and the servicemen returned to claim their old jobs.

17. Increased WWII Government Economic Involvement - It was the organization by the government of allocation of raw material for war time production; drives for collection of scrap iron, tin cans and fats; rationing of gasoline; supervision of government buying and contracts; tax rate changes and price controls to limit inflation; bond sales; etc.

18. OPA - It was the Office of Price Administration. It had the power to fix rents and set maximum prices on goods. It set up the rationing system.

19. Ration Stamps - They were the coupons given to Americans during World War II to help the government control the supply and demand for items needed by the armed forces. To buy staples such as meat, shoes, butter, sugar, coffee etc. these coupons must be presented to the store at tine of purchase. Inflation was kept below 30% for the war years.

20. “Black Market” - It was the term for cheating when people managed to shop and buy rationed goods for higher prices than was set by the OPA. Individuals and regular stores which accepted ration stamps sometimes would cheat on the side, when opportunity or greed arose.

21. World War II Technology Advances - It was the application of science to war. It was the use of radar by the RAF in the Battle of Britain; use of antibiotics such as penicillin; use of insecticide DDT, invention of the jet engine airplane by the Germans and use of rockets in war, etc. The biggest achievement was the creation of the atomic bomb.

22. Manhattan Project - It was the secret U.S. government project to develop the atomic bomb. The project’s success was reported to President Truman at Potsdam in July 1945. The first and second atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945.

Video United States History 19: World War II23. “Arsenal of Democracy” - It was the United States industrial production of war

material to supply our allies and ourselves.24. Navajo Code Talkers - They were Native American’s from a certain Western

U.S. tribe that operated as scouts and message senders with the troops in the

Pacific. They made a simple code from their native language that the Japanese were never able to break.

Page 811-812 and 821-82325. Partisans - They were the members of the underground resistance movement in

Nazi-held countries. They hid Allied airmen who were shot down, derailed trains, sabotaged factories, smuggled Jews to safety, and did other things to help defeat the Nazis. Italian ones in 1945 captured Mussolini.

26. Afrika Korps - They were Rommel’s Nazi troops attempting to defeat the British in North Africa and take the Suez Canal. They were defeated at El Alamein in Egypt and eventually their remnants surrendered to the Allies in 1943.

27. Amphibious - It is the coordinated land and sea invasion forces used in military operations. Examples include their use in the invasion of North Africa by the Allies in November 1942, their use in the invasion of Italy in 1943 and their use in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

28. Polar Bear Route - It was the sea route to Murmansk from Iceland around the North Cape of Norway, above the Artic Circle to Russia. It was a dangerous route as the amount of ships sunk and sailors killed proved.

29. Europe First - It was the most far-reaching decision reached early in the war. Despite the U.S. entering the war because of the Japanese, it was decided that the priority was to give more effort to defeat Hitler. The all out effort against the Japanese had to wait, in our two front war.

30. Battle of Stalingrad - It was one of the turning point battles of World War II. It was a city battle in the USSR. Here the Nazis in the fall and winter of 1942 fought a nasty building-by-building battle for the city named after the Soviet leader. In February 1943 when they almost had control of the city they were surrounded and cut off from German lines in a surprise attack by two Soviet armies. In the end the starved Nazis surrendered.

31. Erwin Rommel - He was a German tank Corp commander who became a Nazi hero during the invasion of France. In North Africa, he commanded the Afrika Corp against the British in a back and forth warfare across the vast desert expanses. When he lost the Battle of El Alamein, his threat to the Suez Canal was ended. His final retreat across North Africa was masterful. Once back in Europe, he was placed in charge of building the coastal defense in France against the coming Allied invasion.

32. Battle of El Alamein - It was the decisive battle of World War II in North Africa. It was really two battles with the first being a draw and the second a clear defeat for the German commander. The British, under Montgomery won this desert battle using American Sherman tanks and thereafter pushed the Germans back from endangering the Suez Canal and across North Africa. Some German’s escaped Africa and others were captured.

33. Italian Invasion - It was the attack by the Allies on the soft underbelly of Europe. It opened a second front against the Axis powers in 1943, but despite the surrender of the Italians it proved to be a long bloody grind up the peninsula against stiff German defenses.

34. Flying Fortress - It was the four-engine heavy bomber airplane relied on for much of World War II. The B-17 could carry four tons of bombs and had a range

of 1,100 miles. During 1943, it was used for the unprotected deep penetration raids into Germany and could take a pounding and keep on flying.

35. General Dwight Eisenhower - He was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. This American general headed up the planning of Operation Overlord and made the critical and successful D-Day decisions. He is credited with the winning of the war in Western Europe after the successful campaigns in 1944 and 1945.

36. D-Day - It was ‘The Longest Day. It was June 6, 1944 when Operation Overlord was put into action with the invasion of Normandy, France to open the Western Front against Nazi held Europe. It was the largest combined sea and land military operation in history. Despite enormous German defenses the Allies were successful and held six beaches by the end of the day.

37. Battle of the Bulge - It was Hitler’s desperate gamble conceived to defeat the Allies on the Western Front and force them out of Europe. The German attack in foggy mid-December 1944 caught the Allies by surprise and broke through the American lines in a huge offensive. The Germans created a huge dent in the front 60 miles deep and 50 miles wide, but were unable to reach the vital port of Antwerp, Belgium. The American counterattack and air superiority, after the weather cleared, forced the Germans back to their earlier lines by January 21, 1945. It was our greatest and battle.

38. Russian Offensive - It was the success on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union especially from 1942-1945 of stopping the Nazi’s and forcing them from Soviet soil. As the Nazi’s were slowly pushed back, the Red Army liberated Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc. The Soviets eventually invaded Germany from the east and took Berlin itself.

39. German Surrender - It was the end of the war in Europe when General Jodl signed the Nazi surrender on May 7, 1945. With Hitler dead, the Nazi’s fleeing, the continent destroyed, Germany’s second attempt to dominate Europe and Western Asia had failed.

Holocaust1. Holocaust - It was referred to as “the final solution of the Jewish question.” It

was the systematic killing of Jews (about 6 million) and other ethnic groups (almost 6 million) by the Nazis. This planned slaughter became very efficient in the death camps as World War II went on.

2. Concentration Camps - They were prisons in which “enemies of the German nation” were taken to, beginning in 1933. Before the end of World War II, more than one hundred such camps had been set up.

3. Dachau - It was the first Nazi concentration camp. It was neat Munich, Germany. As elsewhere, Jews were not the only victims. At this camp 2,771 Catholic priests were killed.

4. Final Solution - It is the Nazi term for their plan to murder every Jew in Europe.5. Labor Camps - They were Nazi concentration camps in which the prisoners were

used as slave laborers.

6. Death Camps - They were camps built to kill Jews and other “enemies of the German nation.” There were six of then: Auschwitz, Belzec, Cheimno, Maidanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

7. Deportation - It is the forced relocation of Jews from their homes to other places, usually ghettos or Nazi camps.

8. Genocide - It is the systematic killing of a nation or race of people.9. Righteous of the Nations - It is the term used for people who risked their lives to

save Jews from Nazi persecution.10. Auschwitz-Birkenau - It was a Nazi concentration camp. It was a double camp

combining slave-labor industries with a death camp. At east two million people were murdered here and it held the record of 6000 in one day. It was one of the first camps to install a crematorium due to the large numbers of dead. It was located in southern Po1and near the German and Czechoslovakian border.

11. Selection - It is the process of deciding which prisoners in Nazi camps would be sent to their deaths immediately and which would be spared.

12. Gas Chambers - They were sealed rooms in the death camps. Jewish prisoners were crowded into these rooms and poison gas was released, killing the prisoners.

13. Zyklon B - It was the gas used to kill Jews in the death camps.14. Crematorium - It is the oven in which death-camp victim’s bodies were burned.15. Death Marches - It was the removal of prisoners from Polish concentration

camps and their transfer to ones in Germany. The Nazi SS made prisoners move toward the end of the war as the Soviet army closed in.

16. Total War - War was once mostly confined to fights between soldiers. That changed in the second half of the 1800s. This phrase describes how war came to be fought in the 20th Century. General Sherman of Civil War fame started it during the Civil War. By the time of World War II, civilians were being killed in greater numbers than soldiers.

17. Costs of World War II - It was the damage to the world done by World War II. It was 55 million deaths worldwide — 45.5% military and 54.5% civilian. The U.S. lost 400 thousand, Soviet Union 9 million, Germany 2 million and Japan 1.5 million. The estimated worldwide cost of the war was over one trillion dollars.

World History Quiz Study ListWORLD WAR II

Western Man… Fascism/Rise of Hitler Part I and pages 628-6321. Fascism - It is the belief that the state in more important then the people and that

a nation should have a strong central government headed by a dictator with absolute power. Individuals have no rights and all opposition to the dictator is suppressed by force. Examples of countries with this belief are Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini.

2. Benito Mussolini - He was the leader of the Fascist party who became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and then dictator. Il Duce conquered Ethiopia in Africa, intervened in the Spanish Civil War, signed an alliance pact with Germany and Japan, and helped arrange the Munich Pact. His military failures in early World

War II, especially in conquering North Africa set the stage for the Allied invasion of Italy and his being forced from office. He fled to Nazi protection. He was killed after being recognized, while fleeing the victorious Allies, in April 1945.

3. Italy Attacked Ethiopia - It was the military aggression, which killed off the League of Nations. In October 1935 Mussolini attacked Ethiopia and by May 1936 conquered it. The disagreement among the Democratic powers about applying sanctions and helping of Italy’s war machine by France and Britain made clear the League of Nations was useless as a means of preventing war.

4. Treaty of Versailles - It was the peace treaty ending World War I, which punished Germany for starting the war. It disarmed Germany, stripped her of her overseas colonies, reduced the size of the nation itself and levied $33 billion for war damages.

5. Weimar Republic - It is the elected government of Germany during the 1920s. The Kaiser fled at the end of World War I ending the First Reich (empire). Hitler’s taking of power in 1933 ended this government.

6. Adolf Hitler - He was a poor Austrian failed artist who became a Corporal in the German Army. After World War I he learned politics in Munich, Germany and tried a putsch in the early 1920s. After he got out of jail, with help of friends, he built up Nazi strength.

7. Aryan - They were Hitler’s supposed master race. They were the blond haired blue-eyed Nordic people who were descended from the ancient Indo-European speakers who migrated into Europe during prehistoric times.

8. Putsch - It is a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.

9. Mein Kampf - It is Adolf Hitler’s book meaning in English “My Struggle”. Hitler wrote about his goals for Germany including his plan to conquer Europe, that the German people were the “Superior Race,” and that Jews were the blame for all of Germany’s problems and ought to be killed.

Part II10. Adolf Hitler - He was poor Austrian failed artist who became a Corporal in the

German Army. After World War I he learned politics in Munich, Germany and tried a putsch in the early 1920s. After he got out of jail, with the help of some friends, he built up Nazi strength. He became chancellor in 1933 and had conquered most of Europe by 1941. He committed suicide in 1945 to avoid being captured by the Soviets toward the end of World War II.

11. Nazi Party - They are the National Socialist Democratic Workers Party in Germany. They were the leaders of Germany from 1933-1945. Their top leader was Adolf Hitler. They are generally thought of in a negative way because they are responsible of millions of people being killed.

12. Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts - The SA (Sturmabteilung) were the military part of the Nazis. They were one of two private armies of Hitler who helped him gain power. Their leader was Ernst Roehm. Hitler considered Roehm a threat to his power and he purged the SA leadership having over 2000 killed. Hitler personally arrested Roehm and had him executed.

Part III13. SS - They are the Schutzstaffel or Hitler’s protective group. They are the

blackshirts. They ran the concentration camps and were the group who carried out the actual killing of the 6 million Jews and five to six million other people.

14. Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts - The SA (Sturmabteilung) were the military part of the Nazis. They were one of two private armies of Hitler who helped him gain power.

15. Joseph Goebbels - He was the chief of Nazi propaganda. He committed suicide in 1945.

16. Hermann Goring or Hermann Goering - He was the commander of the German Air Force and Deputy Chancellor of Nazi Germany. He was sentenced to death at Nuremberg Trials. He committed suicide in 1946.

17. Kristallnacht - It was “the night of broken glass.” It was the night of November 9-11, 1938 in Nazi Germany when Nazi gangs burned most of the Jewish synagogues. They also broke into Jewish homes and businesses looting and vandalizing. They beat up, killed, and imprisoned many Jews.

18. Concentration Camps - They were prisons in which “enemies of the German nation” were taken to, beginning in 1933. Before the end of World War II, more than one hundred such camps had been set up.

19. Anschluss - It was the union of Austria with Germany on March 12,1938. German troops marched into Austria without opposition and annexed it to Germany. Austria vanished as a country.

20. Sudetenland - It was the western part of Czechoslovakia along its border with Germany. This mountainous area had a large German minority which Hitler claimed were being persecuted. The Nazis first occupied this area in 1938 while promising to leave the rest of Czechoslovakia alone.

21.Munich Pact - It is the agreement that Hitler made with France and Britain in 1938. In return for Hitler’s promise to not take any more territory, Chamberlain and Daladler turned over the Sudetenland part of Czechoslovakia to Germany. Chamberlain proudly proclaimed “Peace in our time”. Six months later Hitler’s troops took control of the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Video: World At War 2: Distant War, 1939-4022. Start of World War II - It is the events of September 1, 1939, when Germany

attacked Poland with planes, tanks, ships, and almost two million troops. This time Britain and France, instead of backing out again, kept their word and declared war on Germany.

23. Blitzkrieg - It is “lightning war.” The Germans used this military tactic very effectively against Poland in 1939. In 1940 they did so against Denmark,

Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Nazi panzers and troops moved so quickly that they defeated each country before it was ready to respond.

24. Panzer - It was a tank. This use of the weapons enabled the Nazi’s to quickly overrun Poland, Norway, and other nations. The Blitzkrieg was made possible by the tank division tactics.

25. Phony War - It was the time period after the start of World War II where, despite the declaration of war, no fighting took place. Britain and France called up troops in a leisurely way, but didn’t increase arms output. Britain sent troops to France, who trained for a World War I style war. More people were killed by the nightly blackout than the non-help given Poland.

26. Neville Chamberlain - He was the Prime Minister who gave into Hitler and by doing so encouraged the coming of World War II.

27. Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact - It was an agreement signed on August 23, 1939 by Hitler and Stalin to not attack each other. They secretly agreed to attack and divide Poland between themselves. Starting September 1st they did so.

28. Maginot Line - It was the defense fortification built by the French for defense against Germany. It ran along the German-French border and ended at the Belgium border. When the Nazi’s attacked in 1940, they simply went around the barrier and defeated France in just four weeks.

29. Winston Churchill - He was the World War II Prime Minister of Great Britain. He took over when Chamberlain resigned just before the 1940 defeat of France. He was a great public speaker and urged his countrymen to resist the Nazi conquest with such words as, “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We will never surrender.” In alliance, he led Great Britain to victory by 1945.

Video: World at War 3: France Falls30. Maginot Line - It was the defense fortification built by the French for defense

against Germany. It ran along the German-French border and ended at the Belgium border. When the Nazi’s attacked in 1940, they simply went around the barrier and defeated France in just four weeks.

31. Blitzkrieg - It is “lightning war”. The Germans used this military tactic very effectively against Poland in 1939. In 1940 they did so against Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Nazi panzers and troops moved so quickly that they defeated each country before it was ready to respond.

32. May 10,1940 - It is the date the Nazi attack on Holland and France was launched. The Germans attacked in the Ardennes Forest where the French had their least prepared troops.

33. Fifth Column - They are the secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that spy on and sabotage their own nation’s defenses.

34. Battle of France - It was the five weeks it took for Germany to defeat France. The Nazi attack against Holland and Belgium drew the best British and French troops into the German trap set for them in the north. The Germans cut through

the “impenetrable” Ardennes Forest, crossed the Meuse River, and dashed for the coast cutting off the Allied armies in the north. The French government gave up easily as the panzers ranged through their heartland and Paris fell.

35. Vichy France - It was the 2/5s of France not occupied by the Germans. The French government here lasted from June 1940 to November 1942. The puppet government under Marshall Petain hunted Jews and sent them to the German death camps, plus provided French labor for the Nazis.

36. Dunkirk - It was one of Hitler’s mistakes and on of the greatest rescues of all time. While Hitler, for some unknown reason, held back his panzers, England used every craft that would float to take trapped soldiers off the beaches and transported them back to England. 330,000 out of 1 million troops were saved. Because of this, England had some troops to guard against the expected Nazi sea invasion.

Western Man ..: City Under Fire (London) Part I37. Phony War or “Sitzkrieg” - It was the time period after the start of World War

II where, despite the declaration of war, no fighting took place. Britain and France called up troops in a leisurely way, but didn’t increase arms output. Britain sent troops to France, who trained for a World War I style war. More people were killed by the nightly blackout than the non-help given Poland.

38. Winston Churchill - He was the World War II Prime Minister of Great Britain. He took over when Chamberlain resigned just before the 1940 defeat of France. He was a great public speaker and urged his countrymen to resist the Nazi conquest with such words as, “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We will never surrender.” In alliance, he led Great Britain to victory by 1945.

39. Operation Dynamo - It was the name of the British operation to rescue their soldiers from Dunkirk and some equipment.

40. Operation Sea Lion - It was Hitler’s plan for the invasion of Britain. The first step was to be the destruction of the Royal Air Force then a sea invasion across the channel.

Part II41. Blitz - It was the British term for the aerial pounding of England by the German

Airforce. Throughout the summer and fall of 1940 Germany bombed RAF airfields, aircraft factories and London in their attempt to establish air superiority.

42. Jerry - It was the British Term for Germans.43. Battle of Britain - It was the British term for the aerial pounding of England by

the German Airforce. Throughout the summer and fall of 1940 Germany bombed RAF airfields, aircraft factories and London in their attempt to establish air superiority. Aided by radar, the outnumbered RAF managed to shoot down the Germans two for every one they lost. When Hitler switched tactics to terror bombing of cities, the RAF knew it had staved off the defeat of Britain.

44. Battle of the Atlantic - It was the contest in the ocean between Britain (with U.S. help) and the Nazis. The German wolf packs preying on merchant ships tried to close the supply lines from the New World to Britain.

Video: World at War 5:Barbarossa

45. Operation Barbarossa - It was the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 in betrayal of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939. The Nazis caught the Stalin by surprise, but the quick total conquest wasn’t accomplished despite huge Soviet losses at the start. The three German armies did conquer vast areas of the USSR until winter set in during December 1941.

46. Russian Losses - They were 2000 Soviet planes destroyed in the first two days. They were three whole armies of the USSR destroyed and five infantry divisions cut to pieces. They were city after city and 100 km a day lost to the Nazi advance. They were 6000 tanks lost in July 1941 during two engagements. They were half a million killed and one million prisoners at the start. They were after three months, three million men dead. The Soviets despite all of this didn’t give up.

47. Trade Space For Time - It was the strategy the Soviets employed against the invading Nazi’s during the first months of the invasion. They retreated saving what they could before the Nazis arrived. They prayed for a hard winter and in December 1941 they stopped retreating just outside of Moscow and used the Siberian cold of winter to their advantage. Their strategy worked because they were a big country and their fighting tactics used the winter weather to their advantage.

48. Russian Winter - It was snow in October and then it’s melting which turned the roads to quagmires. It was next the freezing of ground by early November. It was temperatures so low that the oil and lubes in the Nazi’s tanks, vehicles, and guns froze making them inoperable. It was cold and snow giving severe frostbite and death to unprepared Nazi soldiers. It was weather gladly welcomed by the Russians who were used to its bite and who used it for advantage in their successful counterattack on the invading Nazis.

49. Marshall Konstantinovich Zhukov - He was an effective Soviet general. He was put in charge of the defense of Moscow and he masterminded the right time counterattack on the Germans in December 1941. He also engineered the German defeat at Stalingrad and captured two whole German armies in the process. He was in charge of the defense of Leningrad and organized its successful defense despite all odds. He lead the Russian armies in their successful repelling of the Nazis from Soviet soil in 1943 and 1944 and pursued them all the way to Berlin. He captured the German capital with Hitler in it in 1945. He is one of the best generals of the 20th century.

Video: World at War 9:Stalingrad50. Battle of Stalingrad - It was a vicious city battle where the Nazis attempted to

take, building by building, the industrial city, which was key to the division of Russia along the Volga River in southern Russia. It was a battle lasting from September 1941 to February 1942. The Russians turned this bombed out city into a fortress and attacked the Nazis using gangster methods. The Russians turned

their city into a vast grave for Nazis killing and wounding 20,000 a week. After capturing 9/10ths of the city, the Nazis lost it and two Nazi armies to the Russian winter and the Soviet counterattack.

51. General Friedrich Von Paulus - He was the Nazi general in charge of the capture of southern Russia. He was ordered to keep attacking at Stalingrad despite the coming Russian winter when he knew his equipment would freeze. After being surrounded by two Soviet Armies in November 1942, he held out against seven armies until February 1943. He became the first German Field Marshall to surrender and Hitler killed his family in revenge.

52. Adolf Hitler, Dictator - He is one of the great dictators of the 20th century. He led Nazi Germany in the conquest of most of Europe. He was stopped in Russia by that country’s refusal to give up. In the end he lost his empire and he took his life to avoid capture.

Video: World at War: Red Star, the Soviet Union 1941-194353. Battle for Leningrad - It was the Nazi siege of the Northern Soviet city renamed

after the first communist ruler of the USSR. The German attempt to starve the city into surrender failed because of the ice road built across Lake Lavita to resupply the city. Thousands died of starvation, but the city refused to surrender.

54. Scorched Earth - The Russians did it when they were in retreat. The Nazis did it when they were in retreat. It is the destruction of everything useful to the enemy before it can fall into their hands. Fields were burned, dams, trains, etc. blown up, everything that can’t be saved is destroyed.

55. Mein Kampf - It is Hitler’s book written during the 1920s where he laid out his master plan for the future. He detailed his goals of destruction of the Jewish race, conquest of the Soviet Union, extermination of all communists, and the creation of a breadbasket heartland from the conquered lands for Germany’s benefit.

56. Partisans - They are citizens who wage war behind the lines against the enemy who conquered their country. The Soviets waged guerrilla warfare against the Nazis behind the Nazi line starting in 1941. They camped in the forests and struck Nazi supply lines and in time became a major threat to Hitler’s forces.

57. Collaborators - They are citizens who help the enemy who conquered their country. The Russians killed them as they recovered lost territory.

58. Nazi Retreat - It is the result of the failure of the 1943 war plan by the Nazis in Russia. Once their last advance was stopped the Nazis were in continuous withdrawal from their conquered lands being pushed out by the advancing Russians. It was a fighting withdrawal. By spring 1945 they lost even their capital of Berlin to the Russian advance and they lost the war.

Page 648-6521. Final Solution - It is the Nazi term for their plan to murder every Jew in Europe.2. Death Camps - They were camps built to kill Jews and other “enemies of the

German nation.” There were six of them: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Maldanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

3. Auschwitz-Birkenau - It was a double camp combining slave-labor industries with a death camp. At least two million people were murdered here and it held the record of 6000 in one day. It was one of the first camps to install a crematorium due to the large numbers of dead. It was located in southern Poland near the German and Czechoslovakia border

4. Holocaust - It is the term for which the Nazi systematic murder of nearly 6 million Jews and nearly 6 million others like homosexuals, Gypsies, etc. is remembered. It was referring to as “ the final solution of the Jewish question.” This planned slaughter became very efficient in the death camps as World War II went on.

59. Battle of El Alamein - It was the decisive battle of World War II in North Africa. It was really two battles with the first being a draw and the second a clear defeat for the German commander. The British, under Montgomery won this desert battle using American Sherman tanks and thereafter pushed the Germans back from endangering the Suez Canal and across North Africa. Some Germans escaped Africa and others were captured.

60. Italian Invasion - It was the attack by the Allies on “the soft underbelly of Europe.” It opened a second front against the Axis powers in 1943, but despite the surrender of the Italians it proved to be a long bloody grind up the peninsula against stiff German defenses.

61. General Dwight Eisenhower - He was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. This American general headed up the planning of Operation Overlord and made the critical and successful D-Day decisions. He is credited with the winning of the war in Western Europe after the successful campaigns in 1944 and 1945.

62. D-Day - It was “The Longest Day.” It was June 6, 1944 when Operation Overlord was put into action with the invasion of Normandy, France to open the Western Front against Nazi held Europe. It was the largest combined sea and land military operation in history. Despite enormous German defenses the Allies were successful and held six beaches by the end of the day.

63. Battle of the Bulge - It was Hitler’s desperate gamble conceived to defeat the Allies on the Western Front and force them out of Europe. The German attack in foggy mid-December 1944 caught the Allies by surprise and broke through the American lines in a huge offensive. The Germans created a huge dent in the front 60 miles deep and 50 miles wide, but were unable to reach the vital port of Antwerp, Belgium. The American counterattack and air superiority, after the weather cleared, forced the Germans back to their earlier lines by January 21, 1945. It was our greatest land battle.

64. Russian Offensive - It was the success on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union especially from 1942-1945 of stopping the Nazis and forcing them from Soviet

soil. As the Nazis were slowly pushed back, the Red Army “liberated” Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc. The Soviets eventually invaded Germany from the east and took Berlin itself.

65. German Surrender - It was the end of the war in Europe when General Jodl signed the Nazi surrender on May 7, 1945. With Hitler dead, the Nazis fleeing, the continent destroyed, Germany’s second attempt to dominate Europe and Western Asia had failed.

66. Yalta - It was the meeting of the Big Three. They met in the USSR on the Black Sea to plan the post war look of Europe. Franklin Roosevelt may have misjudged Joseph Stalin, as Stalin never kept his promise of free elections in eastern European countries after World War II.

67. Total War - War was once mostly confined to fights between soldiers. That changed in the second half of the 1800s. It is how war came to be fought in the 20th Century. General Sherman of Civil War fame started it during the Civil War. By the time of World War II, civilians were being killed in greater numbers than soldiers.

68. Costs of World War II - It was the damage to the World done by World War II. It was 55 million deaths worldwide- 45.5% military and 54.5% civilian. The U.S. lost 400 thousand, Soviet Union 9 million, Germany 2 million, and Japan 1.5 million. The estimated cost of the war was over one trillion dollars.

Holocaust1. Holocaust - It is the term for which the Nazi systematic murder of nearly 6

million Jews and nearly 6 million others like homosexuals, Gypsies, etc. is remembered. It was referring to as “ the final solution of the Jewish question.” This planned slaughter became very efficient in the death camps as World War II went on.

2. Concentration Camps - They were prisons in which “enemies of the German nation” were taken to, beginning in 1933. Before the end of World War II, more than one hundred such camps had been set up.

3. Dachau - It was the first Nazi concentration camp. It was near Munich, Germany. As elsewhere, Jews were not the only victims. At this camp 2,771 Catholic priests were killed.

4. Final Solution - It is the Nazi term for their plan to murder every Jew in Europe.5. Labor Camps - They were Nazi concentration camps in which the prisoners were

used as slave laborers.6. Death Camps - They were camps built to kill Jews and other “enemies of the

German nation.” There were six of them: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Maldanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

7. Deportation - It is the forced relocation of Jews from their homes to other places, usually ghettos or Nazi camps.

8. Genocide - It is the systematic killing of a nation or race of people.9. Righteous of the Nations - It is the term used for people who risked their lives to

save Jews from Nazi persecution.

10. Auschwitz-Birkenau - It was a double camp combining slave-labor industries with a death camp. At least two million people were murdered here and it held the record of 6000 in one day. It was one of the first camps to install a crematorium due to the large numbers of dead. It was located in southern Poland near the German and Czechoslovakia border

11. Selection - It is the process of deciding which prisoners in Nazi camps would be sent to their deaths immediately and which would be spared.

12. Gas Chambers - They were sealed rooms in the death camps. Jewish prisoners were crowded into these rooms and poison gas was released, killing the prisoners.

13. Zyklon B - It was the gas used to kill Jews in the death camps.14. Crematorium - It is the oven in which death-camp victim’s bodies were burned.

15. Death Marches - It was the removal of prisoners from Polish concentration camps to ones in Germany. The Nazi SS made prisoners move toward the end of the war as the Soviet army closed in.

16. Nuremberg War Crimes Trials - It was the court trial of Nazi leaders and others accused of gross wrong doing during World War II. These trials were held in 1945 and 1946 resulting in twelve death sentences, seven prison terms, and three found innocent. Later trials convicted over 500,000 Nazis.

Raoul Wallenberg17. Raoul Wallenberg - He was the businessman who worked at the Swedish embassy

in Budapest, Hungary, and saved the lives of at least 20 thousand Jews. He distributed Swedish passports to Jews in deportation trains and on death marches, won diplomatic protection for whole neighborhoods, organized food and medical supplies etc. He was captured by the Soviet troops in January 1945 and was accused of spying. He was rumored to lived for years in Soviet prisons until December 2000, when the Russian government declared he had been a victim of Soviet repression. The Russians admitted he had died after two and a half years in Soviet prisons.