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Totalitarianism
Form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual’s life to the authority of the government. By the beginning of World War II, “totalitarian” had become synonymous with absolute and oppressive single-party government. -
Adolf Hitler
As leader of the Third Reich, he invaded Poland, which started World War II. He orchestrated the Holocaust, which resulted in the death of 6 million Jews. -
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. Very similar to Jim Crow laws, replacing blacks with Jews. -
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Spanish Civil War
The war increased tensions in the lead-up to World War II and was largely seen as a possible war by proxy between the Communist Soviet Union and the Fascist Axis of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In particular, tanks and bombing of cities from the air were features of the later war in Europe. -
Anti-Semitic
Born in Austria in 1889, he served in the German army during World War I. Like many anti-Semites in Germany, he blamed the Jews for the country’s defeat in 1918. (Anti-Semitism) -
Munich Pact
The Munich Pact was an agreement made and signed by Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom in Munich, Germany, September 29, 1938. This pact established the acceptance by the United Kingdom and France from Adolf Hitler's demand. -
Joesph Stalin
In August 1939, Joseph Stalin freed Hitler from his fear of the possibility of a war on two fronts by signing a pact of non-aggression with Germany. As a result, a month later, Hitler invaded Poland and precipitated the Second World War. -
Tripartite Pact
The connections among the Axis powers were strengthened by a full military and political alliance between Germany and Italy by the Tripartite Pact, signed by all three powers on September 27, 1940, one year after Germany’s invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act of March 11, 1941, was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. The act 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.” -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued on 14 August 1941, that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States drafted the work and all the Allies of World War II later confirmed it. -
Pearl Harbor
On Sunday 7 December 1941, the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft launched a devastating attack on the US Pacific Fleet, moored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On 11 December 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, thus bringing America into World War II. -
Hideki Tojo
Became for Allied propagandists one of the most commonly caricatured members of Japan’s military dictatorship throughout the Pacific war, as well as a national leader for the Japanese army as they bombed Pearl Harbor and caused the U.S. to declare war. -
Dwight D. Eisenhower
As supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that began on D-Day -
Harry S. Truman
Truman served as president of the United States during World War II. He was in charge of the United States military during the final months of World War II. Under his command, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs (the first to be used in warfare) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, effectively ending the war.
