HIST 2112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Victory In Europe Day
Document Summary
Early 1942: hitler controlled almost all of europe, german troops moved deep into russia, germans controlled much of northern africa. After the battle of midway (june 1942), allies went on the offensive. Debate over strategy: britain: focus on bombing raids, ussr: wanted second front as soon as possible. Roosevelt agreed to offensive in north africa in 1942. Sound military strategy but alienated the ussr. Secured rome june 1944; never fully occupied italy. Germans halted + pushed back at stalingrad. Soviets: 5 million casualties in first 15 months. Germany surrendered may 8, 1945 (v-e day) Soviet sphere of influence in eastern europe. Nazis killed 6 million jews and 6 million other undesirables . Nazi persecution of jews was widely known in u. s. in 1930s. Nov. 1942: confirmed information about the final solution . Only 21,000 jews allowed to enter during wwii, 10% of the allowed quota.
