World war II was a tragic event, beginning on September 1st, 1939. It started because of the leader, Adolf Hitler, began to invade the country of Poland and after his refusal to stop this process, Britain and France declared war on Germany, beginning world war II. Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi’s. He “rose to power” in 1933 as a dictator, his reign of terror beginning then, though many did not see it. On September 1st, the Nazi’s invaded Poland, quickly defeating their army, which caused Britain and France to declare ware due to Poland being one of their Allies. Germany then continued their invasions, moving to Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. During this invasion period everyone had surrendered, everyone but France. Within the next month, France ends up surrendering as well. Not long after this, Germany began their attack on Britain, bombing their country. Italy and Japan soon join Germany and they are then known as the “Axis Powers” After the Axis powers are now officially working with each other, they try to invade the Soviet Union, this results in the Soviet Union joined the Allied nations.
On December 7th, 1941 Japan launches an attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing 2,300+ American soldiers and sailors, and 1,100+ are left wounded. After this tragic event, Franklin D. Roosevelt decides to go to war against Japan. Once the Congress approves of this action they go to war. Due to the Axis powers and their agreement of working together, they all declare war together against the United states. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls the Internment order into action, ordering all the Japanese-Americans that were in the united states be captured. This resulted in over 100,000 people residing in the united states to be captured. After they do this, the united states. After a bit of back and forth warfare, Japan ends up getting the Philippines after some of the last allied troops end up giving in. A lot of fighting and war continues to spread throughout the world, until Italy, a big part of the Axis powers, announces the surrender into the Allies. In 1945, August 6th, the united states finally gets back at Japan for bombing the Pearl Harbor, dropping an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. It affected a mass amount of people, said to be from 60,000-80,000. Only days after the attack on Hiroshima, the united states also bombs Nagasaki, another Japanese city. It kills 40,000-75,000 people in the process. Soon after this happens, on September 2nd, 1945 Japan ends up surrendering, thus ending the world war.
While all of this war was breaking out, we can take a look closer into what was happening to the people inside of these countries. People from all around Europe, were being sent to concentration camps located in Germany, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Latavia, Ukraine, and more were being sent to concentration camps. This is where people would go, and basically kept prisoner. They were worked in harsh conditions for hours on end, starved, and beat. This is where people would await their execution, usually happening in mass deals at a time. The people targeted to be sent to these camps were political prisoners, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, Jews, and Roma. The Jewish and Roma were widely targeted during this time because during world war 1, they were thought to have been spies, causing the Nazis to take them, in fear of this still being true, once they rose to power along with Adolf Hitler. People of all ages would be sent to these camps, but they were usually killing off adults and infants/toddlers, due to their incapability to work as well as others. They were usually fed, if lucky, some bread and possibly soup, though it didn’t help them much. Some of the prisoners, very few people, were able to bribe a guard into giving them more rations, which is very lucky and rare. As to be expected, many people tried to break out of these camps, which never ended up going well. It usually resulted in them being shot and killed. Prisoners of these camps often had to endure very, very harsh conditions, such as the extreme heat or cold, being stuffed into very full train cars for hours, as long as walking for days at a time without stopping usually. All of these things resulted in bodies dropping to the ground.
Lastly, I am going to be talking about the man who started this all, Adolf Hitler. He was born April 20th, 1889. During his lifetime he wrote a book called Mein Kampf, and became a political leader, for his country and a army. He was very good at deceiving people, he did for a long time, which is why he got so far into his war, because people were blindsided at first, unaware of the damage he was causing. He led a group/army known as the Nazi’s. As time goes on the Nazi party opens more concentration camps and continue going to war. Finally, on April 30th, 1945 Adolf Hitler ends up committing suicide in Berlin, Germany because he did not want to be captured by the Allied forces.
CITATIONS:
“World War Two Timeline.” History, 15 Nov. 2018, www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-2-timeline-2.
History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nazi-party.