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Kristallnacht
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was announced a government-sanctioned reprisal against the Jews. Synagogues were ravaged and then burned, Jewish shop windows were broken. Jews were beaten, raped, arrested, and murdered. -
Wannsee Conference
Reinhard Heydrich, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution. Which the Nazis attempted to get rid of the entire Jewish population of Europe, which was an estimated 11 million people. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe. Germanys seemingly unstoppable offense was finally defeated. -
Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference was the meeting of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French generals, Henri H. Giraud and Charles de Gaulle. A declaration pledged that the war would end only with the surrender of the Axis states. They were never able to reach an agreement. -
Italy declares war on Germany
The government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the Allies. The Itialians invade Rome to gain from the Germans and after a slow period of time they succeeded. -
Anzio Invasion
The Anzio Invasion concluded the falling of Rome on June 5th. The Germans took over. -
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code-name given to the Allied invasion of France scheduled for June 1944. It is also known as D-Day. 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 wasnt the biggest or most important battle, but it did a lot. This battle marked the end of Operation Overlord, the liberation of France by the Allies, the restoration of the French Republic and the exile of the Vichy government to Sigmaringen in Germany. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive that was launched toward the end of WWII through the densely forested Ardennes Mountains region of Wallonia in Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest battle that the U.S. fought in WWII. -
Yalta Conference
With WWII in Europe drawing to a close, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed to meet to discuss war strategy and issues that would affect the postwar world. The Yalta conference confirmed the policy adopted at the Casablanca Conference of demanding Germany's unconditional surrender. -
Nuremburg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials is the basic name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in crimes committed during the Holocaust of World War II. The first trial was It was entitled the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, which tried the most important leaders of Nazi Germany. The second set of trials, for lesser war criminals, was conducted under Control Council Law at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals. -
V-E Day
Both the U.S. and Great Britain celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out banners and flags, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.
