Adolf Hitler
(1889–1945)German chancellor and Nazi leader (1933–45). One of the most powerful and evil leaders in the history of the world, he achieved a following in Germany and his native Austria that enabled ...
Albania
One of the poorest of the former communist states, Albania is now moving towards the European UnionThough Albania is a coastal country, not much of its territory is at sea level. Mountains make up ...
Albert Speer
(1905–81)German Nazi leader. He was the official architect for the Nazi Party, designing the grandiose stadium at Nuremberg (1934). An efficient organizer, he became (1942) Minister for Armaments and ...
Alfred Rosenberg
(b. 12 Jan. 1893, d. 16 Oct. 1946).Chief Nazi ideologist A refugee of German descent from Estonia, he joined the Nazi Party in 1919 and became editor of the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter ...
Alsace
The territory between the Vosges Mountains, Rhine river, and Jura Mountains, known by the 7th century as ‘Alsace’. Roman military settlement in the area included a base at what would ...
America First Committee
An isolationist group organized in September 1940 to fight President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies. The group conducted its own polls, showing, in contrast to official polls, that the American ...
anti-Semitism
Hostility towards and discrimination against Jewish people (although there are other Semitic peoples, notably the Arabs, anti‐Semitism is only used to refer to prejudice against Jewish people). In ...
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
(b. 22 July 1892, d. 16 Oct. 1946).Austrian Nazi leader Born into the German minority in Stannern (Moravia), he qualified and practised as a lawyer in Vienna. As an active member of various Fascist ...
Atlantic Charter
A joint declaration of principles to guide a post‐World War II peace settlement. It resulted from a meeting at sea between Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt on 14 August 1941. It stipulated freely chosen ...
Auschwitz
A Nazi concentration camp in the Second World War, near the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) in Poland. It may be referred to as a symbol of the Holocaust.
Austria
The resurgence of the far right has abated and Austria has returned to consensus politicsAustria is one of Western Europe's most mountainous countries. The western two-thirds of the country fall ...
Baldur von Schirach
(1907–74)German Nazi youth leader. An enthusiastic Nazi while still a student, from 1933–1945 he led the Hitler Youth. In 1940 he was appointed governor of Vienna, where he took part in plans to ship ...
battle of Tannenberg
(1410),also known as the battle of Grünwald, the decisive engagement of the ‘Great War’ of 1409–11, in which Polish-Lithuanian-Russian forces defeated the military monastic order of the Teutonic ...
Benito Mussolini
(1883–1945) Italian Fascist statesman, Prime Minister (1922–43); known as Il Duce ('the leader'). He founded the Italian Fascist Party in 1919. He annexed Abyssinia in 1936 and entered World War ...
Bernadotte, Folke, Count
(b. 2 Jan. 1895, d. 17 Sept. 1948).Swedish international mediator Born in Stockholm, the nephew of King Gustav V of Sweden, he was involved in work for humanitarian causes for most of his life, ...
Bertrand Russell
(third Earl Russell) (1872–1970), wrote voluminously on philosophy, logic, education, economics, and politics, and throughout his life was the champion of advanced political and social causes. While ...
Boris III
(b. 30 Jan. 1894, d. 28 Aug. 1943).King of Bulgaria 1918–43 As Crown Prince he commanded Bulgarian troops on the Macedonian front in World War I, and was defeated by Franchet d'Esperey's Allied ...
Brazil
Destined by size to be the leading country of South America, Brazil is only just starting to realize its potentialBrazil's huge landmass occupies almost half the continent of South America. ...
Carl Schmitt
(1888–1985)German political theorist. Schmitt was influential as a conservative or reactionary critic of liberalism, and enthusiast for conflict and antagonism as perennial conditions of politics. A ...
Carol II
(b. 15 Oct. 1893, d. 4 Apr. 1953).King of Romania 1930–40 As crown prince, he was forced by a liberal regime to renounce the succession to the throne on the pretext of his relationship with a ...
