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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) was a series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria. Jewish homes, shops, towns and villages were ransacked as SA storm troopers and civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed windows. Ninety-one Jews were killed and 30,000 Jewish men—a quarter of all Jewish men in Germany—were taken to concentration camps. -
Wannsee Conference
The meeting for senior officials of the Nazi German regime was held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. It informed leaders, that Reinhard Heydrich was appointed as the chief executor of the "Final solution to the Jewish question". Heydrich's presented plan was for the deportation of the Jewish population of Europe and French North Africa to German-occupied areas in eastern Europe and focused on the extinction of Jews. -
Battle of Stalingrad
A major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle was marked by its brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties. The outcome was disastrous for Germany, and proved to be a turning point in the war for the Allies, making a German victory in the East impossible. -
Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco (Jan. 14-24) to plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II. Present were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The conference's Casablanca Declaration called for the Allies to seek the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. It also called for Allied aid to the Soviet Union, the invasion of Sicily and Italy, and the recognition of joint leadership of the Free French by de Gaulle and Giraud. -
Battle of Stalingrad Ends
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Italy Declares War on Germany
King Victor Emmanuel, leader of post-Fascist Italy, declared war on Germany Oct. 13, 1943. The part of Italy that Victor Emmanuel controlled was only the part that the Allies had liberated by that date. But as Allied Forces moved up the boot of Italy, more and more of Italy's resources were utilized in the Allied war effort towards Italy's former partner in the Axis. -
Anzio Invasion.
Operation Shingle, during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an attack on Rome. The resulting combat is commonly called the Anzio Invasion. -
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (commonly known as D-Day). A 12,000-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving almost 7,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June; more than 3 million troops were in France by the end of August. -
Liberation of Paris
The Liberation of Paris (August 19-25, 1944) is accounted as the last battle in the Campaign for Normandy and the transitional conclusion of the Allied invasion breakout in Operation Overlord into a broad-fronted general offensive. The capital region of France had been administered by Nazi Germany since the Second Compiègne armistice in June 1940 when Germany occupied the north and west of France and when the Vichy regime was created in city of Vichy in central France. -
Battle of the Bulge
The battle was a major German offensive launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes Mountains region of Wallonia in Belgium, and France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. It is known to the English-speaking general public simply as the Battle of the Bulge, the "bulge" being the initial incursion the Germans put into the Allies' line of advance. -
Battle of the Bulge Ends
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (February 4–11) was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, it was intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. It was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin). -
Victory in Europe Day
V-E Day commemorates the date when the WWII Allies formally accepted the surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not until May 9, 1945. The surrender of Germany was authorized by Hitler's replacement, President of Germany Karl Dönitz. -
Nuremberg Trials
A series of military trials held by the main victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. The first of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals, which tried 22 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany, though several key architects of the war had committed suicide before the trials began.
