# WW2: What did the Axis Powers call the Allies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855 "2020-01-23T18:12:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/1 "2020-01-23T18:12:26Z")
I’ve seen online that Mussolini made a speech in which he called the German/Italian alliance “the axis upon which the world will turn,” and the name stuck. But what did the Axis Powers call the Allies? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/2 "2020-01-23T18:55:39Z")
In [this poster](https://www.ushmm.org/m/img/17401A-500x700.jpg) (warning: Nazism) they’re called den Feindmächten, which means the enemy powers. (The poster translate to “Behind the enemy powers: The Jew”) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/3 "2020-01-23T19:05:58Z")
Found some more uses of the term Feindmächten: > [@](#): > > Der russisch’finnische Konflikt wurde von den Feindmächten zum Vorwand genommen, um gegen Deutschland Anklagen zu erheben, und nicht nur von den Feindmächten, sondern auch von der öffentlichen Meinung der nordischen Staaten. > > The Russian-Finnish conflict was used as a pretext by the enemy powers to bring charges against Germany, and not only by the enemy powers, but also by the public opinion of the Nordic countries. > [@](#): > > Wirth ebenfalls durch seine politische Betätigung Verbindung zu führenden Männern in England und Nordamerika haben würden, über die man mit den westlichen Feindmächten in Friedensgespräche kommen könne. > > Through his political activities, Wirth would also have contact with leading men in England and North America, through whom one could enter into peace talks with the Western enemy powers. > [@](#): > > Diese Duldung und Förderung der Betätigung von Emissären im Auslande hat bei den Feindmächten selbstverständlich den Eindruck entstehen lassen, daß die ungarische Regierung kriegsmüde und entschlossen sei, die erste Gelegenheit … > > This tolerance and promotion of the activities of emissaries abroad naturally gave the enemy forces the impression that the Hungarian government was tired of war and determined to take the first opportunity … > [@](#): > > wir ehemaligen Soldaten ohne Unterschied von unseren ehemaligen Feindmächten als Verbrecher bezeichnet worden. Nicht nur die ehemaligen SS-Verbände. Nun steht die Aufstellung einer neuen Streitmacht bevor. Obwohl keiner unserer … > > we former soldiers without distinction have been called criminals by our former enemy powers. Not just the former SS associations. Now a new force is about to be formed. Although none of our … ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/4 "2020-01-23T19:31:44Z")
Nice work. But…cite(s)? Just in general, not cold biblio. (Historian nerd here.) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/5 "2020-01-23T19:42:49Z")
That begs the question; what did the non-German speaking Axis nations call the Allies? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/6 "2020-01-23T19:44:23Z")
Double post ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/7 "2020-01-23T20:42:59Z")
I don‘t recollect reading a phrase other than _die Feindmächte_ either (nitpick: it is _die Feindmächte_ in the nominative case; _den Feindmächten_ is the dative.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/8 "2020-01-23T23:02:21Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > That begs the question; what did the non-German speaking Axis nations call the Allies? [_Oni_ was common in Japan.](http://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/visual-puppeteer-japanese-propaganda-during-world-war-ii) ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/9 "2020-01-23T23:32:19Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [_Oni_ was common in Japan.](http://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/visual-puppeteer-japanese-propaganda-during-world-war-ii) Means demon/devil. I think it was most common for the Allies as in the Anglo-Americans to be referred to by abbreviating the Chinese derived word for each country, Beiei, 米英, America-Britain, which you also see on propaganda posters but in a more hostile context also kichikubiei 鬼畜米英 Devil US/British. The first character is pronounced ‘oni’ when by itself. It doesn’t seem the Japanese had a common term which included China as part of ‘the Allies’. I don’t think the literal terms for ‘allies’ or ‘allied countries’, dōmeikuni 同盟国 was used much in Pacific War context either. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/10 "2020-01-24T05:18:36Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Nice work. But…cite(s)? Just in general, not cold biblio. (Historian nerd here.) I just did a search on Google books for works that used the term Feindmächten. I then checked which ones were referring to its use during World War II (the term seems to have also been used during World War I and I may have screwed up on the third one). _“Der russisch’finnische Konflikt wurde…”_ Deutschland im kampf, Issues 1-8 - Page 27 _“Wirth ebenfalls durch seine…”_ Die Angeklagten des 20. Juli vor dem Volksgerichtshof - Bengt von Zur Mühlen, ‎Andreas von Klewitz - Page 324 _“Diese Duldung und Förderung…”_ Ursachen und Folgen: Vom deutschen Zusammenbruch 1918 - Herbert Michaelis - Page 430 _“wir ehemaligen Soldaten ohne…”_ Hochverehrter Herr Bundespräsident! - Theodor Heuss, ‎Wolfram Werner - Page 412 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-what-did-the-axis-powers-call-the-allies/846855/11 "2020-01-24T12:48:21Z")
I had no luck finding an Italian term for the Allies, but did discover a slightly less fearsome term for the Axis: Roberto (ROme, BERlin, TOkyo)