World War II
By Ethan Roberts
1939
1940
The war began on September 1, 1939, when the Nazis, led by Hitler himself invaded Poland starting the war in Europe. Soon after he would take the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Greece, Norway, Western Poland, and Northern Africa, countries with all together millions of Jewish peoples. Before this however, France and England had enough and declared war on Hitler and later his allies Japan, and Italy, otherwise known as the "axis alliance" (London Jewish Cultural Center). Early on in the war, France was defeated by the axis power of Germany. The battle for Paris would end after declaring an armistice while surrounded by the Large Nazi forces. French President called it “the most embarrassing armistice in our history”. By the end of 1940, the future of the world was piggybacking on and Great Britain.
Part Two
1941
1942-1943
A series of battles and political conflicts signified a slow moving war with already millions of casualties. The Jews in Europe had still been housed and sent to die in the Nazi’s mass quantity of concentration camps. But slowly the Allies were gaining onto the main objective in Berlin. On one side of the Atlantic, the United States lost the Philippine islands to the Japanese in Amphibious assaults, this being the most dangerous type of assault, the United States had in the Early years around fifty thousand casualties. But the Japanese were suffering hundreds of thousands especially after the humiliating loss at midway, that would have given them bombing positions in California. United States soldiers saying that after Japanese cities were conquered, they would see men, women, and children jumping of cliffs in large numbers to escape their fears of the Marines. “Finally there putting their suicide to good use”, said a United States soldier (speaking on Kamikaze attacks). On the other side of the ocean, the allies were making their way through Northern Africa, and up Italy. Squeezing the Nazis in to a gradually smaller territory. Rescue for the Jews would still take two more years.
1944
1944 was the most productive year for the Allies during World War II. United States and British forces captured Rome, giving them a perfect path for their bombers to attack Germany. Hitler was encircled by the United States forces in Italy, The British forces to the North, and Soviet troops from the East. Now the Allies could begin the liberation of German concentration camps. Soldiers said they saw bodies put into piles as human death created a nauseous scent in the air, the doctors saying that you had to shake each person a little bit, to see if they were still alive. Behind the scenes Hitler was becoming less popular in the public eye. In July, German military leaders attempted to assassinate him. (Holocaust Timeline, 1997) Hitler executing two hundred suspects from the attempt. This stating to the world that in more ways than one, Germany was practically dissolving. Victory for those who had deserved it so much, would come in just a few months.
1945
News reached the allies that U.S president Franklin Roosevelt died. A leader and a figure for the world died of Cerebral Hemorrhage after being the only President to serve three terms. And much to the despair of Great Britain and the United States, the soviet troops would be engaging Berlin. Hitler knowing his days on earth were numbered, he proposed to his love a week before the attack on Berlin. And Two blocks away from Soviet troops while they march through the streets he shoot himself in his bunker. Ending the war in Europe, liberating concentration camps and freeing Europe of Nazi influence. But World War II was not over. On the opposite side of the world U.S. forces began diplomatic relations, asking for Japan's unconditional surrender. Japan, refused the offer. The United States gave consent with the United Kingdom in the “Quebec agreement” to for the first time in history, drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Thus on August 6, 1945 the United States bombed Hiroshima, with one hundred and thirty four thousand casualties. Yet no surrender from Japan. Three days later, the United States launched a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, causing sixty four thousand casualties. Japan Finally realized they were hopeless. On September 2, 1945, Emperor of Japan Hirohito after hearing a plan to invade Japan in November, surrendered on ship USS Missouri. (Invasion of Japan would be the deadliest battle of the whole war). This concluding the worst war in history.