* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Victory and Tragedy in Europe
Allied plans for German industry after World War II wikipedia , lookup
Historiography of the Battle of France wikipedia , lookup
German military administration in occupied France during World War II wikipedia , lookup
Foreign relations of the Axis powers wikipedia , lookup
Nazi Germany wikipedia , lookup
Allied war crimes during World War II wikipedia , lookup
Military history of Greece during World War II wikipedia , lookup
World War II by country wikipedia , lookup
Wehrmacht forces for the Ardennes Offensive wikipedia , lookup
Operation Bodyguard wikipedia , lookup
Banjica concentration camp wikipedia , lookup
Pursuit of Nazi collaborators wikipedia , lookup
Economy of Nazi Germany wikipedia , lookup
Collaboration with the Axis Powers wikipedia , lookup
Allies of World War II wikipedia , lookup
Technology during World War II wikipedia , lookup
Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II wikipedia , lookup
Écouché in the Second World War wikipedia , lookup
Invasion of Normandy wikipedia , lookup
Sh'erit ha-Pletah wikipedia , lookup
Consequences of Nazism wikipedia , lookup
Allied Control Council wikipedia , lookup
Victory and Tragedy in Europe Turning the Tide in Europe • Operation Torch – Nov. 8, 1942: British & American forces under command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower attack German forces in North Africa • Battle of the Kasserine Pass – German counter offensive • Axis forces surrendered North Africa in May of 1943 • July – August 1943: British and American armies attacked Sicily, Italy Turning the Tide in Europe • Italian King & army forced Mussolini from power & negotiated peace with allies • Germany occupied most of Italy while allied forces landed in Southern Italy • Bitter fighting lasted until the surrender of Germany in 1945. • Eastern Front: German offensive stopped at the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union Operation Overload • D-Day: June 6, 1944 – major amphibious invasion at Normandy, France • Allied forces landed 500,000 men and 100,000 vehicles within 2 weeks • Break-through of the German line at St. Lo • This led to the encirclement of German army at Falaise Operation Overload • Germans lost 250,000 men • Allies liberated Paris on August 25th • Eastern Front: by end of 1944 – Red Army entered the Balkans & reached central Poland Operation Overload • Russians suffered over 20 million casualties (6000 Vista Murrietas, 195 Murrietas) • Equivalent to the deaths of everyone in Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming Victory & Tragedy in Europe • Allied air strikes – by end of 1944, bombing raids crippled German war production, transportation, and its economy • Dresden – allied air raid using fire bombs destroyed the undefended city killing over 50,000 civilians • Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 16, 1944 – Hitler attempted to break British and American lines by capturing the port city of Antwerp A pile of bodies awaits cremation after the firebombing of Dresden, February 1945 City of Dresden, Germany, after an Allied bombing, February 1945 Victory & Tragedy in Europe • German offensive ran out of gas before it could reach the allied fuel supplies • Collapse of German forces – allied armies crossed the Rhine River in March capturing the industrial center of Germany • On April 25, 1945 – American and Soviet troops met at the Elba River • On April 30 – Hitler committed suicide (Yay! Though 20 years too late.) Victory & Tragedy in Europe • Berlin surrendered to the Soviets on May 2 • VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) – May 8th: Nazi state formally capitulated (unconditional surrender = no “stab in the back” myth) Holocaust • “Final solution” to what Hitler saw as “the Jewish problem” – starting in 1942, Hitler’s SS began a campaign of genocide which focused on the elimination of the Jewish population in Europe. • Death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka were used to murder over 6 million Jews and 1 million Poles, Gypsies, and others deemed inferior by the Nazis Berga Concentration Camp Survivors, 1945 A pile of human remains at the site of Nazi concentration camp Majdanek, 1944, Lublin Corpses at Buchenwald, April 1945 Corpses at Buchenwald, April 1945 Einsatzgruppe A members shoot Jews on the outskirts of Kovno, 1941-1942 Executions of Kiev Jews by German army mobile killing units, 1942 Eyeglasses from Auschwitz prisoners, 1945 German SS guards executed after the liberation of Dachau by Allied forces, 1945 German woman forced to see death camps, 1945 Mass Grave Bergen Belsen, May 1945 Members of the Sonderkommando burning corpses on fires in pits at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 1944 Rows of bodies of dead inmates fill the yard of Lager Nordhausen, a Gestapo concentration camp, 1945 Senator Alben W. Barkley views the evidence at first hand at Buchenwald concentration camp, April 1945 The last Jew in Vinnitsa, 1941 Three emaciated survivors liberated from Buchenwald, April 1945 Ustaše militia execute prisoners at Jasenovac concentration camp Young German boy walks beside corpses of hundreds of prisoners from Bergen Belsen, April 20 1945 Wedding Rings stolen From Buchenwald Inmates, May 5, 1945