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On Adolf Hitler's orders, German troops enter the demilitarized Rhineland. A clear violation of the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno, this maneuver also deals a blow to collective security because Britain and Italy, who pledged aid to France in the 1925 Locarno Pact, do nothing.
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With his country largely overrun by Italian troops, Abyssinian leader Haile Selassie flees the capital of Addis Ababa.
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Italy began its World War II offensive when Benito Mussolini ordered his troops into Abyssinia in October 1935, then renounced its membership in the League of Nations in May 1936. The World War II timeline below summarizes these events and other important events that occurred from October 1935 to July 17, 1936
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A coup attempt led by General Francisco Franco against the Popular Front government launches the Spanish Civil War. The rebellion spreads like wildfire throughout Spain. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini send planes to fly Franco's troops from Spanish Morocco to Spain. They will later send planes and soldiers to help Franco fight the Spanish Republic.
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On November 5, 1937, Adolf Hitler held a secret conference in the Reich Chancellery during which he revealed his plans for the acquisition of Lebensraum, or living space, for the German people at the expense of other nations in Europe.
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Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, Hitler sacks political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther von Brauchitsch. Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neu
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Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, accepts salutes and cheers from the Nazi controlled Reichstag after announcing the Anschluss (union) with Austria. Immediately after the Anschluss, Nazis began a brutal crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them. Below:
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United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland
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Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech commemorating that event and also made a public threat against the Jews...
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Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Josef Stalin look on, while standing under a portrait of Lenin – August 23, 1939
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Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany
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Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
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Holland surrenders to the Nazis
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British soldiers captured by the Germans at Dunkirk, France, in June 1940.
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Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France
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Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place.
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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard a warship off the coast of Newfoundland during the Atlantic Conference. The conference took place from August 9-12, 1941, and resulted in the Atlantic Charter, a joint proclamation by the United States and Britain declaring that they were fighting the Axis powers to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom and to preserve the rights of man and justice."
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A Jewish man wearing the yellow star walks along a street in Germany. The policy of requiring Jews to wear the stars was also extended to occupied areas, including Jewish ghettos. Below: Five year old Avram Rosenthal and two year old brother Emanuel of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania are shown. Both boys were later deported to the death camp at Majdanek where they were murdered.
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On January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS organization, convened a conference in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. At the meeting, 15 top Nazi bureaucrats and members of the SS met to coordinate the "Final Solution" in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the 11 million Jews of Europe and the Soviet Union.
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Young Americans of Japanese descent who have just arrived at an assembly center, wait to have their bags inspected. Below left: The assembly center at Santa Anita, California, where Japanese-Americans stayed before being moved inland to the relocation center. Below right: A relocation center seen during a dust storm.
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The bodies of the men and boys over age 16 of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, murdered by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich. Below: SS officers sift through the rubble of Lidice.
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U.S. Army Air Force gunner Sgt. William Watts of Alexandria, Louisiana, fires his machine-gun at German fighter planes during a bombing run in 1942.
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On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer and manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, and his foreman, came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine. He gave the following eyewitness account:
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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Casablanca. Below: At the conclusion of the conference on January 24, French General Henri Giraud, Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill. Roosevelt surprisingly announced the Allies were now fighting for the "unconditional surrender" of Germany, Italy and Japan - a stand immediately endorsed by Churchill.
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British tanks and crews line up on Tripoli's waterfront after capturing the city.
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Jews arrested during the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in Poland by the SS, sent to be gassed at Treblinka extermination camp.
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During the invasion of Sicily, an American cargo ship is hit by a bomb from a German plane and its cargo of munitions explodes, off Gela, Sicily. July 1943.
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A 240-mm Howitzer of Battery B from the U.S. 697th Field Artillery Battalion prepares to fire into German-held territory near Cassino, Italy. January 1944.
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German prisoners at the Anzio beachhead below Rome, soon to be sent to prison camps. February 1944.
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Adolf Hitler, accompanied by other German officials, grimly inspects bomb damage in a German city in 1944.
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General Eisenhower gives the order of the day "Full victory - Nothing else" to paratroopers in England just before they board airplanes in the first D-Day assault
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On June 10, 1944, a Nazi SS Division (Das Reich) surrounded the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France then ordered everyone in the town, 652 persons, to assemble in the town square.
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A German V-1 bomb in flight about to crash and explode in London.
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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Leader Josef Stalin, attend the conference at Yalta. February 1945
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U.S. 1st Army soldiers and equipment pour across the Remagen bridge into Germany. Below: U.S. soldiers cross the Rhine River under heavy German fire.
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Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, along with Generals Bradley and Patton, inspect art treasures stolen by the Nazis and hidden in underground salt mines. Below: Reichsbank wealth, SS loot, and Berlin museum paintings that were removed from Berlin to a salt mine in Merkers, Germany.
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At Dachau concentration camp, two U.S. soldiers gaze at victims of Hitler's Final Solution who died on board a death train. Below: Americans conduct on-the-spot executions of Nazi SS guards at Dachau
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In April of 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker, located 50 feet below the Chancellery buildings in Berlin. In this surrender to the Americans.
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Moments after the atomic bomb was dropped by a U.S. B-29 Superfortress, a cloud forms over the Japanese city of Nagasaki rising over 60,000 feet. Below: After the bomb, a Catholic Cathedral on the hill is all that remains.
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Shortly after the end of World War II, the United Nations charter was ratified and the Nuremberg trials opened. The World War II timeline below details these and other events from late 1945 and early 1946.
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The former leaders of Hitler's Third Reich on trial in Nuremberg, Germany.
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Emperor Hirohito addresses his subjects and tells them that he is not, contrary to popular belief, a divine being.
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The United Nations Security Council convenes in London to agree on procedural rules for the international body.
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The International Atomic Energy Commission is established to help regulate emerging nuclear weapons technology.
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Shortly after the end of World War II, the United Nations charter was ratified and the Nuremberg trials opened. The World War II timeline below details these and other events from late 1945 and early 1946.
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