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Dachau
This was the day the first concentration camp opened. This is important because it is the first camp of many that will aid in the killing of around 6 million Jews and 400,000 mentally or physically handicapped, Polish, and Gypsies. It also shows how much force, control, and power Hitler had over Germany. This camp also led to the construction of Auschwitz, the most brutal camp of them all. These camps show how cruel and heartless the Nazis were to these innocent people. -
Nuemburg Laws
The Nuremburg Laws were created by Hitler that started to takeaway some Jews' rights. They took away their citizenship and forbid Jews from marrying non-Jews. They eventually were made even tighter and took away their voting rights, and made them unable to hold public office. This was just a step in Hitlers multi-step goal to slowly turn the public against Jews, without the public realizing it. These caused the discrimination to slowly rise and he created more and more laws. -
Pearl Harbor
This attack from the Japanese took us completely by surprise. It nearly destroyed an important US Naval base. The bomb is what kept us from remaining neutral in the war, since we were just watching from the sidelines until we were suprise-attacked. It jump-started our massive role in the war. -
D-Day
This was the day the Americans invaded Normandy. It marked the beginning of the end of Hitler's reign. It marked the start of the Allies' invasion of western Europe. The beaches were near impossible to invade, since the Germans sat above them on a cliff and our soldiers had to run through water and hundreds of yards of open beach to even reach the Germans, yet it gave us a very important foothold in the war. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was Gemany's last attempt on the offensive. It was Hitler's Hail Mary, just throwing some troops and reinforcements into the west hoping maybe this attack would be successful, and it almost was. They had created a pocket in the American line of soldiers. Their defeat meant they had nothing left against preventing the Americans and the British from invading them. It was what really pointed toward HItler falling from power, and we had lots of hope after this. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was when The Big Three met up and made any important decisions. They decided to split Germany into three zones of occupation. They decided to make Germany pay reparations and try German war criminals. They made all the important decisions on postwar Europe at the Yalta Conference. -
Iwo Jima
This was one of the most important islands for the US to capture while working their way to Japan. It was an incredibly bloody battle, since Japanese fight until they die. It had a very important, very large airfields on it that we could use to bomb Japan. It also helped to make the decision to bomb Hiroshima in the future due to have many American lives were lost in attempt to get this island -
Unconditional Surrender
Germany unconditionally surrendered to Britian, Russia, and America. This essentially ended the war. Unconditional surrender was a policy made by FDR and Churchill that they decided to demand from Germany. This means Germany had no input on what the terms of surrendering were, they just had to agree. -
Potsdam
At the Potsdam Conference, they addressed similar issues addressed at the Yalta. Stalin, Truman, Churchill and eventually Attlee met up to discuss what to do with Germany. They decided to split it under the control of America, Britian, Russia and France. The Allies set up a whole new system of rule that got rid of all Nazi ideas. Germany was to take down monopolies, work n its economy, and focus on more democratic ideas. They also elaborated on the reparations they had to pay. -
Hiroshima
Truman had just become President when he found out about the Manhattan Project. He knew this was the biggest bomb ever made, and how much destruction it could cause. He knew Japanese would necer settle for unconditional surrender, so maybe a massive bomb could get them to agree to conditional surrender? After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, they surrendered.
