German Vocabulary for WW2

• Third Reich = Hitler’s empire (reich) that would last for 1,000.

• Der Fuhrer = Hitler’s title; a strong man or leader.• Nazi = National Socialist German Worker’s Party• Mein Kampf = My Struggle; Hitler’s book that details

his plans for a new Germany• Heil Hitler = mandatory greeting for all citizens in

the Nazi party; means “hail Hitler.”• Wermacht = war machine• Luftawaffe = German air force• Blitzkrieg = “lightning war”; type of warfare

developed by Germans in WW2

• Lebensraum = “living space”; Hitler’s reason for conquering territory in Europe.

• Anschluss = unification of Austria with Germany.• Kristallnacht = “Night of Broken Glass”; first incident

of anti-Semitism in Germany & Austria (November 9 & 10, 1938)

• Schutzstaffel = SS; elite troops of the German army; black shirts

• Gestapo = secret police• Hitler Jugend = “Hitler Youth”; like the Boy Scouts

only a Nazi version.• Nuremburg Laws = stripped Jews of their civil rights

Non-German Words for WW2• Holocaust = the destruction of millions of Jews

during Nazi power.• Anti-Semitism = hatred of Jewish people