1939-1945


 * World War II in Europe (timeline and maps may be helpful) [|World War II in Europe Animated Map] **
 * **1939** - Germans takes over Czechoslovakia and invade Poland. Britan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Germany. Soviets invade Poland.
 * **1940** - Germans invade Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France. Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
 * **1941** - Germans attack Russian Cities, Soviets fight back, Japanese bomb pearl harbor, United States and Britain declare war on Japan, Germans declare war on the United States.
 * **1942** - Soviets defeat Italian troops, Germans air raid Stalingrad, Britan cities, and Sevastapol.
 * **1943** - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa. Italians surrender, and Germans take over. Italians declare war on Germany.
 * **1944** - Germans retreat from Russian and and Polish cities.
 * **1945** - The U.S. drops two atomic bombs on Japan, Japan surrenders, soon after the Germans surrender, the United Nations, UN, is born.

**Further Nazi Persecution** **Jew****ish and Non-Jewish Resistance**
 * In 1942, government officials met in Berlin to discuss the "final solution" which was killing all of the Jews in Europe. Soon after, there is a report of 229,052 murders of Jews in the Baltic, which is about 2/3 Jews in Europe. The Nazis would not hesitate to kill Jews, homosexuals, minorities, catholics, gypsies, the mentally disabled, and many more. They would take these innocent people to concentration camps and torture them. Eventually, they were killed or starved to death.

**United States** **Liberation**
 * Jewish Resistance
 * Some Jews in concentration camps escaped and resisted by hiding in the woods. People being deported to concentration camps put up a fight for their honor and their religion.
 * Resistance by Jews was also in the form of rescue and aid. Parachutists were sometimes sent down to give what the could to Jews in hiding.
 * Jews in concentration camps resisted by still observing their religions and publishing underground newspapers.
 * In 3 killing camps, the prisoners rose against guards using stolen weapons and then escaped. Unfortunately, most, if not all of the escaped Jews were later hunted down and killed.
 * Non-Jew Resistance
 * In Germany, occupied European people resisted by refusing to swear alliance to Hitler. In many countries, there was armed resistance such as assassinations and sabotage.
 * Religions like Jehovah's Witnesses defied the Nazi's by refusing to do what they said such as joining the army, and they created illegal study groups in concentration camps. Gypsies also resisted by refusing to leave their barracks and wielding axes and knifes and they warded them off.
 * Anti-Nazi papers were produced in secret and there were illegal radio broadcasts supporting the resistance.
 * A man named [|Georg Elser] tried to murder by planting a bomb in a beer cellar at a place where Hitler spoke every year. Elser probably would have succeeded if Hitler had not left earlier then planed. Elser was later caught and secretly murdered by soldiers.
 * European cou ntries start w ar, but the United States declares neutrality until Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1940.
 * By 1942, the key combat a rea for the Americans was in Rabaul, Japan.
 * By December of that year, Great Britain, Costa Rica, Australia, and many other countries had declared war on Japan.
 * On August 7th, the Americans landed in Guadalcanal.
 * On October of 1944, the U S invaded the Philippines.
 * Japan surren ders on Aug ust of 1945.
 * The liberation was an event that lead to the freeing of Jews from concentration camps.
 * When the Allied Forces moved across Europe, they found many Concentration camp prisoners
 * The Soviets
 * The Soviets were the first to see a major Concentration camp, which was near Lublin, Poland.
 * The Germans were surprised by the Soviet's advance and tried to demolish the camp to hide the evidence.
 * They burned the dead bodies of the prisoners, but left the gas chambers standing in the rush to hide the evidence.
 * The Soviets also overran the [|Belzec], [|Sobibor] , and [|Treblinka] - which were killing centrers.
 * In January 1945, the Soviets released [|Auschwitz] --the largest concentration camp for the Germans.
 * They also liberated [|Stutthof], [|Sachsenhausen] , and [|Ravensbrueck] which are concentration camps
 * The British
 * The British destroyed many German concentration camps in northern Germany.
 * Liberated [|Neuengamme]  and [|Bergen-Belsen].
 * Entered Bergen-Belsen and found 60,000 prisoners in horrible conditions.
 * Over 10,00 prisoners died in the next week by malnutrition or disease
 * The U.S.
 * The U.S. liberated the [|Buchenwald] concentration camp on April 11, 1945.
 * The Germans were evacuating the camp a few days before the U.S. came.
 * liberated 20,000 prisoners there.
 * also liberated [|Dora-Mittelbau], [|Flossenbürg] , [|Dachau] , and [|Mauthausen].

**Resources:** **

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWusaA.htm http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001288.html http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007332 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005213 http://lernen-aus-der-geschichte.de/resmedia/document/document/A007T08E.PDF http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131 http://www.religionstudy.com/holocaust/concentration_camps_map.htm