1. Germany Invades Poland
1.1. Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939
1.1.1. Ended on 6 October 1939
1.1.1.1. German-Soviet Frontier Treaty
1.1.1.1.1. Germany and Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland
1.2. France and Britain declared war on Germany
1.2.1. France fell in June 1940
1.2.2. Britain was not defeated
1.2.2.1. Led by Winston Churchill
1.3. Nazis overran most of the rest of Europe and North Africa
1.4. Hitler uses "blitzkrieg" strategy
1.4.1. Extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy
1.4.2. Followed by a massive land invasion
1.5. Polish forces were severely under-equipped and outnumbered
2. Battle of Midway
2.1. Between 4 and 7 June 1942
2.2. A decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of WWII
2.2.1. Fought between aircraft based on giant aircraft carriers
2.2.2. U.S. destroyed hundreds of Japanese planes
2.2.3. U.S regained control of the Pacific
2.3. Japanese sought to eliminate the U.S. as a strategic power in the Pacific
2.3.1. Japanese continued to fight on even after the war ended
2.4. U.S was able to determine the date and location of the attack
3. D-Day
3.1. Started June 6, 1944
3.1.1. 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches
3.2. May 7, 1945
3.2.1. Germany surrendered
3.3. General Dwight Eisenhower
3.3.1. Led U.S. and Allied troops in an invasion of Normandy, France
3.4. Erwin Rommel
3.4.1. In charge of German defensive forces
3.4.2. Assigned to France’s northern coast
3.5. One of the largest amphibious military assaults in history
3.6. Late August 1944
3.6.1. All of northern France had been liberated
3.7. "Operation Overlord"
3.8. Beginning of the end of war in Europe
4. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
4.1. Japanese fought on even after the war in Europe ended
4.2. President Truman
4.2.1. Decided to use the new atomic bomb
4.2.1.1. Ended the war quickly and prevented more U.S. casualties
4.3. August 6, 1945
4.3.1. Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
4.3.2. About 78,000 people killed and 100,000 injured
4.4. August 9, 1945
4.4.1. 2nd bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
4.4.2. 40,000 people killed
5. The Holocaust
5.1. Nazis
5.1.1. Persecuted and murdered approximately 6 million Jews
5.1.1.1. Nazis targeted others because of their "racial inferiority"
5.1.1.1.1. Roma (Gypsies)
5.1.1.1.2. The handicapped
5.1.1.1.3. Some of the Slavic peoples
5.1.2. Came to power in Germany in January 1933
5.2. Germans were "racially superior"
5.2.1. Jews were deemed "inferior"
5.3. Jewish population of Europe was nine million in 1933
5.3.1. By 1944, 2/3 European Jews had been killed
5.4. "Final Solution"
5.4.1. Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe
5.5. Concentration camps
5.5.1. Gas chambers used to kill Jews
5.5.2. Jews were dehumanized
5.6. Over a hundred armed Jewish uprisings took place
5.6.1. Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943
5.6.1.1. Jewish fighters attacked the Waffen-SS
5.6.2. 20,000–30,000 Jewish partisans actively fought against the Nazis
6. Stalingrad
6.1. June 22, 1941
6.1.1. 4 million troops poured over the Russian border
6.2. Germans made tremendous advances into Russia
6.2.1. Winter caused sever problems for the Germans
6.3. Stalin
6.3.1. Used sheer force of number to hold off Germans