Vocabulary
Vocabulary
Anschluss - The annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938.
Anti-Comintern Pact - Between Hitler and Japan; offered security against Russia.
Atlantic Charter - August 1941; called for peace without territorial expansion or secret agreements, and for free elections, and self - determination for all liberated nations.
Casablanca Conference - Resolved to accept nothing less than unconditional surrender of Axis powers.
Neville Chamberlain - 1938; gullible British Prime Minister; declared that Britain and France would fight if Hitler attacked Poland.
Winston Churchill - 1874 to 1965; greatest wartime leader; rallied the British with his speeches, infectious confidence, and bulldog determination; known for his "iron curtain" speech; led the British during World War II; agreed Hitler should be conquered; was thrown out by his own people.
D-Day - June 6, 1944; Americans and British forces under General Dwight Eisenhower landed on the beaches of Normandy; this was history’s greatest naval invasion.
Battle of Stalingrad - Turning point for Germany in the war.
Edouard Daladier - French leader of the radical socialists; accepted Hitler’s terms for peace.
Francisco Franco - Spanish General; organized the revolt in Morocco, which led to the Spanish Civil War. Leader of the Nationalists - right wing, supported by Hitler and Mussolini, won the Civil War after three years of fighting.
Lebensaum - Room to move. Phrase used by Hitler to justify invasion of other countries.
Lend-Lease Program - In 1941, the US lent money and resources to the European states to help reconstruction.
Maginot Line - Line of defense built by France to protect against German invasion. Stretched from Belgium to Switzerland.
Munich Conference - 1938; Chamberlain, France and other countries (not the USSR); they agreed that Sudentenland should be ceded to Germany; Chamberlain secured peace with Germany.
Pacificism - Anabaptists laid great stress on this; they would not run for office or serve in the armed forces; not being involved in many wars.
Potsdam Conference - Brought forward many differences over east Europe; postwar conference in July of 1945; Stalin would not allow any type of freely elected government in east European countries; Roosevelt had died and was succeeded by Harry Truman, who demanded free elections.
Rome-Berlin Axis - 1936; close cooperation between Italy and Germany, and soon Japan joined; resulted from Hitler; who had supported Ethiopia and Italy, he overcame Mussolini’s lingering doubts about the Nazis.
Erwin Rommel - "Desert Fox"-May 1942; German and Italian armies were led by him and attacked British occupied Egypt and the Suez Canal for the second time; were defeated at the Battle of El Alamein; was moved to France to oversee the defenses before D-Day; tried to assassinate Hitler.
Russo-German Nonaggression Pact - Hitler and Stalin promised to remain neutral if either country were to become involved in war; August 1939. Was supposed to last 10 years, but Hitler invaded Russia in 1941.
Joseph Stalin - Communist statesman; leader of Bolshevik Party; became ruler of USSR after Lenin; assumed full military and political leadership.
Sudetenland - Hitler wanted German speaking people in West Czech; this would be given to Germany.
Teheran Conference - Meeting in 1943; Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill; confirmed their defense to crush Hitler.
Yalta Conference - On the Black Sea; the Big Three met in February 1945 in southern Russia; it was agreed that Germany would be divided into zones of occupation and would pay heavy reparations to the soviet Union in the form of agricultural and industrial goods; when the Big Three met in 1945 at Yalta in southern Russia they agreed that east European governments were to be freely elected but pro-soviet.
Konrad Adenauer - Chancellor of Germany in 1949; the former mayor of Cologne and a long-time anti-Nazi, who began his long highly successful democratic rule; West Germany had a majority of Christian Democrats; helped regain respect for Germany
