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The first concentration camp was opened outside of Berlin in Oranienburg. The SA was eventually replaced by Himmler's SS as the concentration camp system expanded to house and ever increasing number of political opponents and Jews. the first campls included Dachau in southern Germany near Munich, Buchenwald in central Germany near Weimar, aand Sachenhausen near Berlin in the north.
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Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact.
Desirous of strengthening the cause of peace between Germany and the U.S.S.R., and proceeding from the fundamental provisions of the Neutrality Agreement concluded in April, 1926 between Germany and the U.S.S.R., have reached the following Agreement:... -
The German Army invades Poland and annexes the free city of Danzig.Then there was the first use of Blitzkrieg. Britain and France the gave Germany an ultimatum to leave and blackout and evacuation plans were put into place in Britain.
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Germany ignored the ultimatum and Britain and Frnace declared war on Germany. British tropps (the BEF) were sent to France. The passenger liner "Athenia" was sunk by U-30 off of Ireland. 112 of the passengers were killed.
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On 7 September 1940, the air raid sirens went off as the German Air Force, the luftwaffe, launched a massive raid on London. Over 350 bombers flew across the Channel from airfields in France and dropped 300 tons of bombs on the docks and streets of the East End of London.
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Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. The legislation gave President Franklin D. Roosevelt the powers to sell, transfer, exchange, lend equipment to any country to help it defend itself against the Axis powers.
A sum of $50 billion was appropriated by Congress for Lend-Lease. The money went to 38 different countries with Britain receiving over $31 billion. Over the next few years the British government repaid $650 million of this sum. -
Operation Barbarossa was based on a massive attack based on blitzkrieg. Hitler had said of such an attack that "when the attck on Russia starts, the world will hold its breath." Three army groups attacked Russia on June 22nd 1941. Army Group North, led by von Leeb, Army Group Centre, commanded by von Bock and Army Group South commanded by von Rundstedt.
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On this day, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad surrender, despite Hitler's earlier declaration that "Surrender is out of the question. The troops will defend themselves to the last!"
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The D-Day Invasion of Normandy laid a beachhead for the Allies on the Western Front of Europe. This battle was the single most important battle on the Western front because a defeat would have been tragic for Allied morale. D-Day is the military codeword for the paratrooper operations on the night of June 5 and the beach landings on the morning of June 6 in Normandy.
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This war conference is where the Big Three, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin issued the Yalta Agreement, their "Declaration on Liberated Europe."
The conference at Yalta attempted to deal with the fate of postwar Europe, specifically the borders of Poland where the war began six years before, and the fate of Japan, whose ongoing tenacity kept America at war after the fall of Germany. -
Tuesday 8 May 1945 was 'Victory in Europe' (VE) Day, and it marked the formal end of Hitler's war. With it came the end of six years of misery, suffering, courage and endurance across the world.
