A
- AfD: “Alternative for Germany”, far-right political party in Germany, founded in 2013
- AFŽ: Antifascist Women’s Front of Yugoslavia, created in 1942 by the Partisan Movement
- Allies: Great Britain, USA and USSR and other countries which were allied against the Axis powers
- Anschluss: Annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938
- Antifascism: Opposition to fascist ideologies and groups.
- Antisemitism: Prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews.
- April War: War led by the Axis powers against Yugoslavia in April 1941
- Armistice: End of armed hostilities, for example after the defeat of France in June 1940
- Auschwitz: Concentration and extermination camp established by the Nazis in occupied Poland during WW2
- Axis: Coalition headed by Germany, Italy, and Japan, as opposed to the Allies
- AVNOJ: Anti-Fascist Council for the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia, the legislative body created by the Partisan Movement in 1942
B
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation, UK’s public service broadcaster.
- BDM: Bund Deutscher Mädel – League of German Girls, the female youth organization of the Nazi Party.
C
- Caritas: Catholic relief and humanitarian organization.
- Chetnik: Serb royalist and nationalist movement which first opposed and then collaborated with occupying powers
- Collaboration: Cooperation of governments, groups and inhabitants with occupying forces
- Combat: French Resistance movement and newspaper.
- Concentration Camp: Centers established by Nazis and collaboration regimes to detain political opponents, Jews, and other groups under cruel conditions.
D
- D-Day: Landing of Allied armies in Normandy on 6 June 1944
- De Gaulle: Charles de Gaulle, founder and leader of Free France and later President of France.
- Demarcation line: Border designed by the Axis powers within Yugoslvia and France
- Deportation: Forced removal of people from their country, often used in the context of Nazi actions during WWII.
- DSO: Distinguished Service Order, military decoration of the United Kingdom
E
- Eastern Front: The theater of war between the European Axis powers and the Soviet Union from 1941 onwards
- Enemy offensive: Term designing major Axis attacks against Yugoslav Partisans between 1941 and 1944
- Extermination Camp: Nazi camps used for systematic mass murder mostly of Jews, also called Death camps
F
- Fascism: Far-right, authoritarian ultranationalist political ideology and movement.
- FFI: Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur, French Resistance forces within metropolitan France
- FFL / Free France: Forces Françaises Libres, Free French Forces created by Charles de Gaulle in London in 1940
- Forced laborer: Person forced by occupation or collaboration forces for economic gain
- Foreign Legion: Military service branch of the French Army established for foreign recruits.
- France combattante: Fighting France, other name for Free France / Free French forces
- Franco: Franciso Franco, Spanish general who led the nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War, from 1939 zo 1975 dictator of Spain
- FRG: Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), created in 1949
- French Internment Camp: Camps in France where political prisoners, Jews, and other persecuted groups were detained
- Free zone: official name for the southern part of France from 1940 – 1942, under control of Vichy-regime
- FTP: Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, communist resistance movement in France
- FTP-MOI: Francs-Tireurs et Partisans – Main-d’Œuvre Immigrée, organisation of immigrants in France linked to FTP
- Führer: “leader”, term used in Nazi language to design Adolf Hitler
G
- Gauleiter: Regional leader of the Nazi Party in Germany
- GDR: German Democratic Republic (East Germany), 1949 – 1990.
- Gestapo: Secret State Police, the secret police of Nazi Germany.
- German paratroopers: Elite airborne infantry units of the German Wehrmacht
- Giraud: Henri Giraud, French military officer who was leader of Free French Forces in Africa and rival of de Gaulle
- Goebbels: Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the German Reich
- Göring: Hermann Göring, leading member in the Nazi Party
- Guerilla: Warfare conducted by groups using tactics like ambushes.
- Gulag: Soviet labor camps where many political prisoners were detained and killed.
H
- Hereditary enemy: Traditional adversary; often used to describe the historical French-German rivalry.
- Himmler: Heinrich Himmler, leading member of the Nazi Party, leader of the SS
- Holocaust: The extermination of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and their helpers during WWII.
- Home Guard: Regular Croatian army created in 1941 in the NDH.
I
- Illegals: Term used by the KPJ to design resisters in the underground
- Independent State of Croatia: Puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, 1941-1945, led by the Ustasha, englobing most of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (NDH)
- International Brigades: Military units set up by the Communist International to fight against the nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War.
- Internment Camp: Detention centers where individuals are forcibly confined, especially during wartime.
- International Brigades: Volunteer military units that fought for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
J
- Jasenovac: Concentration and extermination camp established by the Ustasha on the Croatian-Bosnian border, 1941-1945
K
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Yugoslav country and regime that existed from 1918 to 1941.
- KL: Konzentrationslager, German for concentration camp.
- KPD: Communist Party of Germany, founded in 1919, banned by the Nazis in 1933.
- KPJ: Communist Party of Yugoslavia, founded in 1919, leader of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement
L
- Liberated territory: Formerly occupied area now under the control of resistance movement
- LICA: Ligue Internationale Contre l’Antisémitisme, international league against anti-Semitism.
M
- Maquis: Rural guerrilla groups and camps of the French Resistance.
- Marianne: French allegorical figure of Liberty and the Republic,
- Marseillaise: National anthem of France, song dating from the French Revolution
- Marxism: Social, political, and economic theory by Karl Marx, advocating for class struggle and socialism.
N
- National Socialism: Political doctrine of the Nazi Party, featuring extreme nationalism, racism and antisemitism.
- National liberation army of Yugoslavia: Communist-led Partisan military force under the command of Josip Broz Tito
- Nationalsocialist: Member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party, NSDAP) in Germany led by Adolf Hitler
- Nazi: Member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)
- NDH: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska / Independent State of Croatia, puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, 1941-1945, led by the Ustasha, englobing most of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
- „Nacht und Nebel“: “Night and Fog,” a Nazi directive to make political prisoners vanish without a trace.
- NOB: Narodno-Oslobodilačka Borba / People’s Liberation Struggle, name given by the Yugoslav Partisans to their struggle
- NOP: Narodno-Oslobodilački Pokret /People’s Liberation Movement, name of the communist-led Yugoslav Partisan movement
- NOPOJ: Narodno-Oslobodilačkih Partizanskih Odreda Jugoslavije / People’s Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, name of the Yugoslav Partisan military forces 1941-1942
- NOR: Narodnooslobodilački rat / People’s Liberation War, name given by the Yugoslav Partisans to their struggle
- NOVJ: Narodnooslobodilačka vojska Jugoslavije / People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia: name of Yugoslav Partisan military forces 1942-1945
- NSDAP: National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the Nazi Party.
O
- Occupied zone: Northern part of France under German military control from 1940 onwards
- Operation Rösselsprung: 1944 German military operation in Western Bosnia aimed at capturing Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito.
- Operation Schwarz: Axis military operations in 1943 against Yugoslav Partisans, also known as Fifth Enemy Offensive, including the battle of Sutjeska
- Operation Weiss: Axis military operations against Yugoslav Partisans in 1943, also known as Fourth Enemy Offensive, including the battle of Neretva
- Ordinary heroes/ silent heroes: Individuals who performed acts of bravery and resistance during wartime but are often not widely recognized.
P
- Pacifist: Someone who believes in and promotes peace, opposing war and violence.
- Panthéon: Monument in Paris where prominent French citizens are buried.
- Partisan: Member of an armed resistance group fighting against occupying forces.
- Partisan Movement: Resistance and liberation movement in Yugoslavia led by the KPJ
- Pavelić: Ante Pavelić, leader of the Ustaša and head of the Independent State of Croatia.
- PCF: Communist Party of France, founded in 1920
- People’s Hero: Award created in 1941 by Yugoslav Partisan movement
- People’s Liberation Committee: Local governing bodies set up by Yugoslav Partisans during WWII.
- Petainist: Supporter of Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime in France.
- Pétain: Philippe Pétain, French general during WW1, President of Vichy France during WWII
- Pogrom: Organized massacre of an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews
Q
- Quisling: synonym for traitor and collaborator, named after Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling
R
- Red Army: Army and air force of the Soviet Union.
- Résistance: Collective name for French movements that fought against the Nazi occupation.
- Righteous Among the Nations: Non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
- Roma: Ethnic group living mostly in Europe, also known as Romani.
S
- SAP: Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany, left-wing political party active during the Weimar Republic and the early Nazi era.
- Sicherheitsdienst: Intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party.
- Shoah: Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
- SKOJ: Communist Youth League of Yugoslavia.
- Socialist Yugoslavia: Federal state led by the KPJ and consisting of six republics, formed after World War II, 1945 to 1992.
- SOE: Special Operations Executive, secret British WWII organization conducting espionage and sabotage in occupied Europe
- Spanish Civil War: War in Spain from 1936 to 1939 between Republicans and Nationalists.
- Spaniard: Partisans / resistance fighters who had participated in the Spanish Civil War
- SS: Schutzstaffel, major paramilitary organization under the Nazi Party.
- STO: Service de Travail Obligatoire, compulsory work service for young men established in France in 1943
- Swastika: Ancient symbol used by the Nazis as their emblem.
T
- Third Reich: Nazi designation of Germany and its regime 1933 to 1945
- Tito: Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Yugoslav Partisan movement and then President of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980
- Ustasha: Croatian nationalist and fascist organization which led the NDH from 1941 to 1945.
- USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, state that existed from 1922 to 1991
V
- Vichy: Synonym for the French regime collaborating with Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944, and whose government was based in the city of Vichy
W
- Walter: code-name of Vladimir Peric, leader of underground resistance in occupied Sarajevo, spelled Valter in BiH
- Wehrmacht: Armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945.
- Weimar Republic: First German Republic, 1918 – 1933
- WWII: World War II, 1939 – 1945
Y
- Yad Vashem: Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located in Jerusalem.
Z
- ZAVNOBIH: Zemaljsko antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Bosne i Hercegovine / State Anti-fascist Council for the People’s Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, created in 1943 as legislative body for BiH
- ZAVNOH: Zemaljsko antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Hrvatske / State Anti-fascist Council for the People’s Liberation of Croatia, created in 1943 as legislative body for Croatia