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Vladek is drafted into the Polish Army to fight against the Nazis.
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On August 25, two days after the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Polish-British Common Defence Pact was signed. The treaty contained promises of mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by another European country.
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Germany invades Poland, starting WWII in Europe.
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On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany because they had a treaty with Poland in which they had undertaken to help Poland if its independence was threatened by force.
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Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
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Through a family friend, Orbach, Vladek is able to escape murder and hide out.
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Vladek is reunited with his family after sneaking across the Poland-Germany Border.
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Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
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German troops invade Denmark, and German ships launch attacks and landings on Norway. Denmark surrenders within twelve hours.
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The Auschwitz concentration camp is established.
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In the World War II, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France.
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Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
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France signs an armistice with Nazi Germany.
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As Hitler plotted his next steps, Italy, an ally of Germany, expanded the war even further by invading Greece and North Africa. The Greek campaign was a failure, and Germany was forced to come to Italy’s assistance in early 1941.
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Elie starts to study Kabbalah
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War 2 that began on 22 June 1941.
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The United States enters the war in December.
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Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
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Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States
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Following the attack on Peal Harbor, Japanese armies rolled over Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the East Indies. The war in the Pacific was fought on land, at sea, and in the air. The turning point in the war in the Pacific came in June, 1942 at the Battle of Midway.
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Vladek's father is taken from the Ghetto during a mass inspection. He dies in an Auschwitz gas chamber.
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Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
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Stalingrad surrenders marking Germany's first major victory.
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Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
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Jews rise up in Warsaw against their Nazi oppressors. By the end of the year more than 4 million Jews are killed in Europe.
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Elie and the rest of the Jews are forced into the Ghettos in Sighet.
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Elie is 15 years old when him and his family is sent from Sighet to Auschwitz.
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On D-Day, June 6, 1944 , General Dwight Eisenhower led U.S. and Allied troops in an invasion of Normandy, France. The armies fought their way through France and Belgium and into Germany while Russian troops fought from the east. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered
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On January 29, 1945, Wiesel's father died after suffering from dysentery, and starvation.
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Elie and the other Jews held captive is finally liberated.
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In the summer of 1945, Vladek reaches the American run displaced persons camp, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
