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Concentration Camps
This was a place where a vast amount of people were imprisoned and mistreated, in thos case Jewish people were the victims. The prisoners worked in poorly taken care of factories and were forced into labor. Nazi's later began to make these camps killing camps. -
European Theater
Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Germany didn’t have the ability to make their own army. The main reason the war was started in Europe was because Germany took all the undesirables. -
Euthanasia Program
Nazi Euphemism was when Adolf Hitler signed a secret order to kill physically, mentally, and emotionally handicapped children under the age of five, then later on to older people. The purpose of this was to ‘cleanse’ the race to make a better society. -
Blitzkrieg
Germany uses quick strikes called Blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war, to take over much of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern France. -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese attack the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. The next day the US entered World War II on the side of the Allies. When Pearl Harbor was attacked many Americans died and 180 U.S. aircrafts sank. Japan just really wanted victory over Japan. -
Japanese Americans
Japanese Americans were not trusted and feared by Americans after the Pearl Harbor bombing. Since they could not be trusted FDR feared they would be working for the other side as spies or planning more crime. He ordered that all people from Japanese descent be taken from their home into internment camps in the west coast. They were forced to leave everything. After the war in 1988 the survivors from the camps were given an apology from president at the time, George Bush, and a reward of $20,000. -
Wartime Consumers
During this time many people had jobs which were helping them win the war, as a way to lend money to the government they bought War Bonds. These were used to pay for any war equipment. The Government used posters to convince people into buying War Bonds, which worked by them saying to paying an amount and after the war they would mostly double that amount. Later FDR issued the Office of Price, which was when items were rationed.The government only allowed certain portions of food to be served. -
African Americans
During this time African Americans were not treated like normal people. They were thought as unskilled people, so they received unskilled work at home and the military. In 1941 less than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military and only twelve became officers. Later,the Double V. Campaign was started for two victories for African Americans which was a victory at home and a victory abroad. They were looked at like an experiment, later on became the first all black fighter pilots. -
Jewish Resistance
This was a form of aid like a rescue team of Jewish people to help others. They would do this by having armed resistance to over one hundred ghettos. -
Women in WWII
During the war many war goods were needed for the military. Since men were the people who did many of the factory jobs and they were all fighting women had to step up. Rosie the Riveter was created to encourage women to help their men fight by making war goods. Many propaganda posters were made to persuade women into working like using phrases like “We can do it.” Later on women started working and made up one third of all factory workers. -
Navajo Code Talkers
The Navajo language is an unwritten language and only a few people know the language. During the war the Marines used Navajo people to create a code with their language. The Navajo people didn’t have many military words in their language so they had to come up with their own dialect. They translates the messages with telephones and voice-radios. The Marines were only taking a few Navajos and 1,000 Navajos were able to help during the war but only a few were chosen. -
Wartime Production Board
This was established in 1942 by president Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. American companies started making war goods. This was when people started drives for any scrap metal, cooking fat, paper or anything that was useful to make war goods. $183 billion dollars of weapons were made during the time period of 1942- 1945. -
Bataan Death March
This was a long walk that took up five to ten days and was a 60- 80 mile walk. Americans and Filipinos were in this walk and 10,000- 13,000 died. During this march they couldn’t do anything out of the walk so if they were to get out of the walk they would be shot. -
Battle of Midway
Many Japanese sodliers died, 4 aircraft ships sank and 322 planes were shot down. This battle was the turning point of the war. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Germany made a second attempt to take over Russia but the snow from the winter trapped them. From the winter this lead them to be short on resources needed. Also, 20 millions Russians died and the main reason this space was needed was for a living space. -
Battle of the Bulge
In this battle Germany won but lost several of their soldiers lives, about 81,000 lives. Germany tried misleading American and won at that when they tried taking over Belgian City, Antwerp. -
Yalta Conference
This was a meeting of three people who were Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. They were seeing if they should split Germany into four occupied zones which allowed free elections, they all agreed. Later on, Stalin broke his promise and let Soviet rule. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
This was a small island right off of Japan and it was used because the U.S. needed a base near the Japanese coast. The U.S. fought for this spot and after a month of fighting the Marines used defending forces. -
Okinawa
Durning the last battle of World War Two the Americans had 287,000 troops and the Japanese had 130,000 troops. Many Japanese and American soldiers died, the United States ended up winning the last large scale battle. -
V-E- Day
This was the day Germany surrendered and there was victory in Europe. This was when everyone was able to celebrate their victory because it finally ended WWII in Europe. -
Hiroshima
The United States drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the city was devastated. This bomb was very powerful and caused a death of 80,000 people. The bomb was named 'Little Boy.'