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When Germany invaded Poland (which initiated WWII in Europe)
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Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact
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Daylight and night bombing raids on Britain (The Blitz) by the Luftwaffe were abandoned. Hitler also delayed and later abandoned plans to invade Britain.
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Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on US
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The SS Inspectorate of Concentration Camps establishes the Herzogenbusch concentration camp in Vught, the Netherlands.
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German authorities establish a “residence camp” at Bergen-Belsen for Jews suitable for prisoner exchanges with the western Allies. The SS Inspectorate of Concentration Camps later designates the “residence camp” as a concentration camp, where over 36,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, die.
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By the end of spring, German SS and police and military unites have killed at least 1,340,000 Jews and many other partisans, Roma, and officials of the Soviet State
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US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.
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German authorities kill the remaining 3,000-6,000 Jews of the Minsk ghetto in mobile gas vans and in shooting operations at the Maly Trostinec killing site
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SS and police units implement Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival), the murder of the Jewish laborers in concentration camp Lublin/Majdanek and the forced-labor camps Trawniki and Poniatowa. During this, SS and police units kill at least 42,000 Jews at Majdanek, Trawniki, and Poniatowa.
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British and US troops land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans
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The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat.
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US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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US drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki
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Japan agrees to unconditional surrender which soon ends WWII.
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