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The Begining of the Holocaust
The Holocaust was when Hitler and the Germans killed about six million Jews. Hitler beleived that Germans were "racially superior" and that Jews were "unworthy of life." During the Holocaust, the Germans also targeted other groups of people. -
Hitler's Enabling Act
On this date the newly elected members of the German Parliament (the Reichstag) met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich. If passed, it would effectively mean the end of democracy in and give Adolf Hitler dictatorship over Germany. Earlier, Nazis burned the Reichstag, making it look like this was the work of the communists. To many, it then felt right to elect Hitler. -
Germany leave the League of Nations.
Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, also left in 1933, following the league's refusal to end arms limitations imposed on Germany after World War I. After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s by the League, they ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain and others. -
Germany Invades Poland
When Hitler and the Germans invaded Poland, France and Britain attacked Germany. After destroying Poland, Germany attacked France. France fell in June 1940, and soon Nazis overan most of the rest of Europe, and North Africa. Only Britain, led by Winston Churchill, was left standing. -
Axis Formed
The Axis Powers or Axis Alliance is formed. Germany signs a treaty with Italy and Japan. The alliance would later be the main protagonists during WWII. On this day in 1939, Italy and Germany agree to a military and political alliance, giving birth formally to the Axis powers, which will ultimately include Japan. It was nicknamed the "Pact of Steel." -
Stalingrad
On June 22, 1941, four million troops poured over the Russian border. Within one month, over two and half million Russians had been killed, wounded or captured. The Germans made huge invasions on Stalingrad and Leningrad. Then winter came. The Germans were stuck in summer uniforms, and it was a bitter, cold winter year. -
Battle of Midway
Following the attack on Peal Harbor, Japanese armies rolled over Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the East Indies. The war in the Pacific was fought on land, sea, and air. The turning point in the war in the Pacific came in June, 1942 at the Battle of Midway. In a four day battle fought between aircraft based on giant aircraft carriers, the U.S. destroyed hundreds of Japanese planes and regained control of the Pacific Ocean. -
D-Day
On this date American troops attacked Normandy, France. 160,000 ally troops stormed the heavily armed France beach. More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion. Even though more than 9,000 soldiers were killed, or wounded on the beach, more than 100,000 soldiers made it through, and took a foot-hold, which was a step closer to defeating Hitler and the Nazis. -
Hitler's Death
Hitler commited suicide with a gun, followed by his wife a few hours later. That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. The Soviet Archives Record, has their burnt remains. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Japenese kept fighting after the war ended. To keep from letting Japan kill more American citizens, killing about 78,000 people, and injuring 100,000 more. On August 9, another bomb was dropped killing 40,000 more people.
