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Concentration Camps and Death Camps
Concentration camps, or death camps, were first thought of in Jan. of 1933. These camps were designed to kill and torture Jews. Death by starvation and disease were an everyday occurence in these camps. The largest one was Auschwitz. Nazi's forced prisoners into death chambers and pumped in carbon monoxide slowly poisoning them all to death. They even took what they wanted from the Jews and victims and then burned the bodies in crematoriums. -
Nuremberg Laws
Laws were first declared at the annual Nazi rally held in Nuremberg. Hitler delivered a speech about the Jewish controversy to deal with the Jewish issue. The laws excluded the Jews from German life and even took away their natural rights. Hitler hoped by taking away their rights they would leave. They forbid marriage between Jews and non- Jews and also forbid German women under the age of forty-five from working in Jewish homes. This was just the beginning of Hitler's "final solution" for Jews. -
Germany Invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany decided to begin to invade Poland. German units broke through the Polish defenses along the border and on Warsaw in a huge attack with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes. Within weeks of the massive battle the Polish army was defeated after heavy shelling and bombing. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 17, 1939 and both Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was the U.S. Navy's main Pacific Base. The Japanese sent 6 aircraft carriers, 360 planes (28 ships in all and several subs) to attack Pearl Harbor in the attempt to prevent the U.S. from influencing Japan's war effort in Southeast Asia. They attacked in 2 ways, the first attack being the main attack, and the second finishing off whatever was left. Luckily most of our ships were out on patrol, and not in the harbor. -
The Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a new way for how the Nazi’s planned to deal with the Jews. In Wannsee, Berlin the “Final Solution” was decided, the Nazi plan for the total elimination of all Jewish people. This document stating that all Jews should be killed was signed by sixteen upper ministries of the German establishment. The Wannsee Conference would soon be the plan for the murder of 11 million Jews.Before Hitler committed suicide he apologized to the German people for not finishing the job. -
Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle of all. It began on August 23, 1942 and was the true turning point of the war in Europe. This battle ended any realistic plans of Hitler dominating Europe. The Nazi Army was forced to retreat toward Germany. After the Battle of Stalingrad the Soviet Union went on the offensive. -
D-Day
General Dwight Eisenhower led the U.S. and Allied troops in an invasion along the beaches of Normandy, France. With more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircrafts the Allies fought their way through France and Belgium and into Germany. Meanwhile, Russian troops were fighting from the East in order to defeat Hitler. D- Day killed, or wounded more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers, but more than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler. Germany finally surrendered on May 7, 1945. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a desperate attempt to drive a wedge between British and American forces and it was Hitler's counterattack, which almost succeeded. The German's caught the Allies by surprise, created a bulge in the American line and captured several key towns. Despite frostbit and brutal German assaults the Americans held the line in Bastogne, a town in Belgium. On Dec. 23, the Allied bombers attacked and steadily pushed the Germans out of France. -
Hitler Dies
By the time the Americans, British, and Russians finally reached Berlin Hitler was a wreck. He was shaken by tremors, paranoid by drugs, and kept alive by mad dreams of a final victory. Hiter kept giving orders that no one would follow and planned campaigns that no one would fight because they knew he was messed up. Finally, on April 30, he and a few of his closest associates, including his beloved dogs, commited suicide. -
Atomic Bombing
Japan continued to fight on even after the war in Europe ended, so Truman decided, after long months of discussing, that it was the best thing to use the newly developed atomic bomb in order to end the war quickly and save American lives. The first bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, in Hiroshima, Japan killing 78,000 people. A second bomb was dropped on Aug. 9, 1945, in Nagasaki, Japan, killing another 40,000 people. Months following the bombing around 100,000 more died of radiaton poisoning.
