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Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was an Italian dictator that rose to power in the wake of World War I as a leading proponent of Facism. He forged the paramilitary Fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922. Mussolini’s military expenditures in Libya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Albania made Italy predominant in the Mediterranean region, though they exhausted his armed forces by the late 1930s. Mussolini allied himself with Hitle. -
FDR
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to be elected four times. He led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II. He greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal. -
Nazism
Nazism (or National Socialism; German: Nationalsozialismus) is a set of political beliefs associated with the Nazi Party of Germany. It started in the 1920s. The Party gained power in 1933, starting the Third Reich. They lasted in Germany until 1945, at the end of World War II. -
Rape of Nanking
In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. -
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force. Famous dicators include; Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong Un and Fidel Castro. -
Fascism
A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce. -
U.S. declares Neutrality
As war broke out in Europe, American sentiment heavily favored isolationism. With the nation still skeptical of Allied propaganda after it had lured the U.S. into the first World War, the United States declares its neutrality in the European War. -
Propaganda
Ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a government, -
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was one of the most powerful and infamous dictators of the 20th century. After World War I, he rose to power in the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis), taking control of the German government in 1933. His establishment of concentration camps to inter Jews and other groups he believed to be a threat to Aryan supremacy resulted in the death of more than 6 million people in the Holocaust. -
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was the British prime minister during WWII, and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill helped lead a successful Allied strategy with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Secretary Joseph Stalin during WWII to defeat the Axis powers and craft post-war peace. After the breakdown of the alliance, he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of Soviet Communism. -
Women’s Roles in WWII
During World War II, some 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both at home and abroad. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. -
Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy returned home a hero and became an actor, starring in his own story, To Hell and Back. -
Vernon Baker
Vernon Baker was a highly decorated soldier and the only living black WWII veteran to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. In 1941, Vernon Baker was assigned to the segregated 270th Regiment of the 92nd Infantry Division, the first black unit to go into combat in WWII. Baker, one of the most decorated black soldiers in the Mediterranean Theater. He earned a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Distinguished Service Cross. -
Lend Lease Act
Proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to “the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” -
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Victory Gardens
Victory gardens, also called war gardenswere vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II. -
War Bonds
The bonds sold at 75 percent of their face value in denominations of $25 up to $10,000, with some limitations. The war bonds actually were a loan to the government to help finance the war effort. -
Rationing
During WW2 you couldn't just walk into a shop and buy as much sugar or butter or meat as you wanted, nor could you fill up your car with gasoline whenever you liked. All these things were rationed, which meant you were only allowed to buy a small amount (even if you could afford more). The government introduced rationing because certain things were in short supply during the war, and rationing was the only way to make sure everyone got their fair share. -
Japanese-American Interment Camps
Succumbing to bad advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 ordering the relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to concentrtion camps in the interior of the United States. Evacuation orders were posted in Japanese-American communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their homes, their stores, and most of their assets. -
Office of War Information
To attract U.S. citizens to jobs in support of the war effort, the government created the Office of War Information (OWI) on June 13, 1942, some six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. OWI photographers documented American life and culture by showing aircraft factories, members of the armed forces, and women in the workforce. -
Harry S. Truman
Harry Truman was sworn in as the 33rd president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt's sudden death, Harry S. Truman presided over the end of WWII and dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. -
Fire Bombing of Dresden
On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war.
