-
Early Nazi persecution aimed to exclude Germany's Jews from all aspects of the country's political, social, anf economic life. On April 1 1933, the Nazis orderd a one-day boycott of businesses owned by Jews.
Nazi-controlled newspapers and radio constantly attacked and caricatured Jews as enemies of Germany. -
Span's democratic government held what would be the country's last free elections unde the old republic.
-
German troops entered the Rhineland, a region in weatern Germany.
-
German dictator Adolf Hitler called hundreds of tousands of his followes to a week-long rally in the German city of Numberg.
-
Hitler hiter ordered german troops int the cauntry.
-
Many jews believed they could endure persecution until Hitler lost power. Older people believed staying i Germany was safer than starting a new lige. Their illusions were destroyed on the night of November 9, 1938, when Nazi thugs throughout Germany and Austria looted and destroyed Jewish stores and synagogues.
-
the Nationalist army finally took the Spanish capiral of Madrid and ended the civil war.
-
After Hitler took Czechslovakia, British and French leaders warned him that any further German expanion would risk war. They formally pledged their support to Poland, agreeing to come to its aid if Germany invaded. But Hitler didn't believe their warning.
-
A secret document attached to the pact devided up the idepedent states of eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. One week later, Hitler invaded Poland.
-
ritain and France declared war on Germany. Britain, France and Poland together made an impressive alliance. They had more soldiers and more infantry divisions than Germany.
-
The phony war came to an end as Hitler began a successful attack on Denmark and Norway.
-
Germany troops launched a litzrieg on the Netherlands, Belgim,and Luxembourg. Althouh British and French troops rused to Belfium to defend their neighbor, they were too late.
-
German troops entered Paris, and on June 22 France and its more than 1.5 million soldiers officially surrendered. Hitler traveled to France to join the armistice negotiations and to make a rief victory tour of Paris.
-
hitler turned to the "Luftwaffe" to destroy Britain's air defenses. In Aufust 1940, he launched the greatest air assault the world had yat seen.
-
U.S were to enter the war on the side of the Allies. In September 1940, Congress authorized the first peacetime draft in the nation's history. The Selective Training and Service act required a;; males aged 21 to 36 to refister for military service.
-
Worried that shortages would cause price increases, the government used tough measures to head off inflation. In April 1941, the Office of Price Administration(OPA) was eatabilisheede by an executive order. THe OPA's jop was to control inflation by limiting prices and rents.
-
Finally, on June 25, 1941, the President signed Executive Order 8802, opening jobs and job training programs in defense plants to all American "without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national orifin". The order also created the Fair Employment Practices Committee(FEPC) to hear complaints about job discrimination in defense industries and government.
-
China joined the Allies on December 9, 1941, by officially declaring war on Germany, Italy, and its longtime foe, Japan. The U.S had already sent military advisors and Lend-Lease arms and equipment to China.
-
Nazi officials met at the Wennsee Conference outside Berlin to agree on a new approach. They developed a plan to achieve what one Nazi leader called the "final solution to the Jewish question". The plan would lead to the construction of spesial camps in Poland whre genoside.
Nazis chose poison gas as the most rffective way to kill people.
Nazis killed about 1.5 million people, some 90 percent of them Jews. -
The ovenment set up the War Production Board(WPB) to direct the conversion of peacetime industries to industries that produced war goods. It quickly halted the production of hundreds of civilian consumer goods, from cars to lawn mowers to bird cagr, and ecouraged companies to make goods for the war.
-
As a result of prejudices and fears, the government decided to remove all"aliens" from the West Coast. President Roosevelt signed Excutive Order 9066. It authorizes the Secretary of War to establish military zones on the West Coast and remove any or all persons from such zones.
Relocation took place so fast that Japanese American had little time to sesure their property before they left. They lost their business, farms, homes and other valuable assets. -
The Battle of Midway opened on June 4, 1942, with a wave of Japanese bomber attacks on the island and a simultaneous, unsuccessful amercan strike on the Japanese fleet. As Battel of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway was fought entirely from the air.
-
Roosevelt established the Office of War Information in June 1942 to work with magazine publishers, advertising agencies, and radio stations. It hired writers and artists to create posters and ads that stirred Americans' patriotic feelings.
-
In mid-September 1942, the Germans began a campaign of firebombing and shelling that lasted more than two months. Soviet fighters took up positions in the charred rubble that remained of Stalingrad.
On January 31, 1943, more than 90,000 surviving Germans surrendered. In all, Germany lost some 330,000troops at Stalingrad. -
Over the objection of the State Department, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board to try to help people threatened by the Nazis. Despite its late start, the WRB's programs helped save some 200,00 lives.
-
In August 1942, the 2,200 Japanese who were defending the island fled into the jungle. Teh battle of Guadalcanal provided the marines with their first taste of jungle warfare.
In Februry 1943, Japan's outnumbered forces finally slipped off the island. -
In 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality was established in Chicago to end racism.
In May 1943, it organized its first sit-in at a restaurant called the Jack Spratt Coffee House. The CORE members, including at least one Afirican American, filled the restaurant's counter and booths. -
The Prsident appointed James F. Byrnes, a longtime member of Congress and a close presidential advisor, to head the Offici of war mobilization. The office would serve as a superagency in the centralization of resources.
-
Early in June 1943, the street fighting grew into full-scale riots. Local newspapers usually blamed Mexican Americans for the violence. Police often arrested the victims rather than the sailors sho had begun the attacks. Army and navy officials finally intervened by restricting GIs' off-duty access to Los Angeles.
-
Workers and homewners often feared and resented the newcomers. Resentments escalated into violence in some cities. In June 1943, a race riot in Detroit killed 34 people and caused millions of dollars worth of damage. Later that summer, a riot also broke out in New York City.
-
The day the invasion of western Europe began, allied war ships in the channel began a massve shelling of the coats.
-
In Paris, an uprising started by the French Resistance freed the city from German control. On August 25, 1944, a French division of the U.S First Army officially liberated Paris. That same day, General Charles de Gaulle arrived in the city, prepared to take charge of theFrench government.
-
Hitler reinforced the army with thousands of additional draftees, some as young as 15. Then, in mid-December 1944, Germany launched a counterattack in Belium and Luxembourg. The German attack smashed into the U.S> First Army and pushed it back, forming a bulge in the Allied line.
The Battel of the Bulge was the largest battle in Western Europe ever fought by the United States Army. It involved some 600,000 GIs, of whom about 80,000 were killed, or captured. German losses totaled about 100,000. -
Soviet leaders considered tha capture of Berlin, Germany's capital, a matter of honor. In late April 1945 Soviet troops fought their way into Berlin.
While some Soviet troops attacked Berlin, other elements of the Red Army continued to drive west. On April 25, at the Elbe River, they connected with American troops pushing east. -
As the Soviet army surrounded Berlin, Hitler refused to take his generals'advice to flee the city. Instead, he chose to commit suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945.
A few days later, on May 8 , 1945, Germany's remaining troops surrendered.
American soldiers rejoiced, and civilianson the home front celebrated V-E Day. That the war would not be over until the Aliies had defeated Japan. -
On August 6, 1945, an American plane, the Enola Gay, Dropped a single stomic bomb on Hiroshima, a city in southern Japan and the site of a large army base.
At least 90 percent of the city's buildings were damaged or totally destroyed. A hiroshima resident described the scene after the bombing. -
On Augus 14, the government of Japan accepted the American terms for surrender. The next day, Americans celebrated V-J Day( Victory in Japan Day).
-
An International Military Tribunal composed of mumbers selected by the U.S, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and Trance conducted the Nuremberg Trials in November 1945. Of the 24 Nazi defendants, 12 received the death sentence.
