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Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia sign a mutual non-aggression pact.
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Vladeck Spiegelman is called to serve in the Polish Army
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German troops and aircraft attack Poland.
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The British ship Athenia is sunk by German U-boats off the coast of Ireland,
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Vladeck Spiegelman becomes a prisoner of war
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German troops invaded the Ukraine and kill between 50,000 and 96,000 Ukranians with machine guns.
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President Roosevelt declared American neutrality in the war in Europe, a Neutrality Act is signed that allows the US to send arms and other aid to Britain and France.
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Vladeck Spiegelman is released from being a POW
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Mussolini and Hitler announce Italy's alliance with Germany against England and France.
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Italy declares war on Britain and France, and U.S. President Roosevelt announces a shift from neutrality to "non-belligerency," giving more active support for the Allies against the Axis.
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German troops enter Paris and the French fortress at Verdun falls to the Germans.
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German air attacks over Britain and the British Royal Air Force bomb German targets at night.
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Greece and Yugoslavia are invaded by German troops.
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Britain receives its first American "Lend-Lease" aid shipments of food. By December, millions of tons of food will have arrived from the U.S.
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British troops arrive in Iraq and will prevent Axis from taking over their government.
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German troops invade Soviet Russia, and broke the "nonaggression" pact signed in 1939. Two days later, President Roosevelt promises US aid to Russia.
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Eliezer Wiesel meets Moiske and Beadle
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The Kearny, a U.S. destroyer, is torpedoed off the coast of Iceland by a German U-boat.
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Around 8 a.m., Honolulu time, 360 Japanese planes attack Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military base on the Hawiian island of Oahu. The attack crippled the U.S. Pacific fleet, and killed more than 2,300 American soldiers, sailors, and civilians.
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Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S. President Roosevelt calls an end to official U.S. neutrality in the war in Europe, declaring war on Germany and Italy.
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Eliezer Wiesel and his family are taken from the ghetto and moved to Birkenau.
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Vladeck Spiegelman is sent to Auschwitz
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Eliezer Wiesel and his father arrive at Auschwitz
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Eliezer Wiesel and his father are moved to Buma
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The Battle of the Bulge begins. This was the last major German counteroffensive. The allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name.
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Vladeck Spiegelman is sent to Dachau
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Iwo Jima, a month-long struggle comes to an end, as U.S. forces capture the 8-square-mile island which was Japan's last line of radar defense to warn against American air attacks, Iwo Jima is significant to the invasion of Okinawa.
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Eliezer Wiesel is liberated from his concentration camp
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The U.S B-29 Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The city is leveled, and an estimated 100,000 people are killed.
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The U.S. drops a second bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.