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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht means "NIght of the Broken Glass" in German. Thousands of Jews were arrested, Jewish shop windows were destroyed, and nearly every synagugue was destroyed. Afterward, Jews had to pay for the damage. -
Wannsee Conference
This was the meeting of Nazi officials outside Berlin in which they decided to eact Jewish genocide. They called it the "final solution to the Jewish question." -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Red Army made their stand there against the Germans. They engaged the enemy in house-to-house combat. The German army was surrounded, and they surrendered on Jan. 31, 1943 -
Casablanca Conference
Churchill andRoosevelt met in Casablanca to map out their strategy for the rest of the war. They decided to deal with Europe first. -
Italy Declares War on Germany
The German Army still in Italy continued to resist the new Italian government. They continued to cause damage as they retreated. -
Anzio Invasion
Allied soldiers landed behind German lines 35 miles south of Rome. They finally broke through German defenses in May 1944 after four months of being fiercely attacked by the German army. -
Operation Overlord
This is the codename for the Normandy Invasion, or D-Day. The Allies invaded Normandy from the English Channel along 60 miles of the coast. It was the largest landing by sea in history. -
Liberation of Paris
Paris was freed form German control when an uprising was started by the French Resistance. Officially, the city was liberated by the U.S. First Army on this date. -
Battle of the Bulge
Germans were launching a counterattack in Belgium and Luxembourg. The Germans formed a bulge in the Allied line by pushing back the U.S. First Army. This was the largest battle ever faught by the United States Army. -
Yalta Conference
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta in the Soviet Union to discuss the final defeat of Germany and the shape of the postwar world. They decided to divide Berlin into four zones that would be put under the control of one of the major Allies. The same type of division would go through all of Germany. -
V-E Day
Hitler commited suicide on April 30, 1945 after the Soviet army surrounded Berlin. A few days later, Germany finally surrendered, thus ending the war in Europe. -
Nuremburg Trials
24 Nazi defendants were selected by an International Military Tribunal, composed of members from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France. Of the defendants, 12 recieved the death sentence.
