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World War II in Europe
Germany rapidly conquered much of Europe and the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1942. Soviet victories over German forces reversed the course of the war in 1942–1943. With the Allies advancing from both the east and west, Germany surrendered in 1945.
German troops parade through Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland. This photo was most likely taken on October 1, 1939. On that day, Adolf Hitler came to Warsaw to review German troops during a military parade. Warsaw, Poland.
John, who was born to a non-Jewish Polish family, graduated from an art academy. Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, John was in Krakow. Food became scarce in Krakow, with long lines of people waiting for whatever food was available. John decided to join the resistance against the Germans. By early 1940, he and two of his friends felt that they were in danger and decided to try to escape to France. John was caught and arrested during this escape attempt. He survived imprisonment in the Auschwitz camp, where he was classified as a political prisoner and his uniform was marked with a red triangle.
Lucine was born to a Jewish family in Lublin. Her father was a court interpreter and her mother was a dentist. War began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Lucine's home was raided by German forces shortly thereafter. Soon after the German occupation of Lublin, Jews there were forced to wear a compulsory badge identifying them as Jews. A ghetto in Lublin was closed off in January 1942. Lucine survived a series of killing campaigns and deportations from the ghetto during March and April of the same year. Those who held valid labor cards were moved to a new ghetto in April 1942—the Majdan Tatarski ghetto, near the Majdanek killing center. Lucine escaped from Majdan Tatarski in November 1942, the month the Germans liquidated the ghetto. She eventually made her way to Warsaw where she first entered the ghetto and then went into hiding on the "Aryan" side.
Although Julian's Polish Catholic parents had immigrated to the United States before World War I, his mother had returned to Poland and Julian was born in a village not far from the large town of Tarnow in southern Poland. Julian was raised in Skrzynka by his mother on her four-acre farm while his father remained in the United States.
1933-39: At 16 Julian left home and worked as a dishwasher in an elegant Jewish club in downtown Tarnow. When the Germans invaded in September 1939, he returned to his village. There, 27 of Skrzynka's Jews--people Julian knew--were forced to dig their own graves and then shot. In some nearby woods he found and hid a rifle abandoned by a retreating Polish soldier. But Julian was betrayed, and deported to Austria to do farm labor for a rich landowner near Linz.
1940-44: Julian fell in love with Frieda, the landowner's daughter, and she loved him too. When her father objected, she moved to another farm. They continued to meet secretly even though Nazi law forbad romance between Poles and Germans. The Gestapo warned Julian, "If you see Frieda again, you're going to be hanged." He was reassigned to another farm, but they continued to see one another until he was arrested on September 19, 1941. He was imprisoned nearby, then transferred to Flossenbürg to do backbreaking work at a quarry.
Julian was liberated on April 23, 1945, while on a forced march out of Flossenbürg. Reunited after the war, Julian and Frieda married and immigrated to the United States.
Niels was raised in a religious Jewish household. In 1932, the family fled to Copenhagen, Denmark, where Niels's father opened an antique store in the mid-1930s. The Germans invaded Denmark in April 1940, but to Niels, little seemed to change during three years of occupation. Upon hearing of German plans to round up Jews in October 1943, Niels and his family decided to flee. A member of the resistance took them to the fishing village of Snekkersten, from where they were able to cross by boat to Sweden. Niels returned to Denmark in May 1945.
Units of a German armored division on the eastern front in February 1944. Soviet forces, largely on the offensive since the battle of Stalingrad, pushed German troops to the borders of East Prussia by the end of 1944. Soviet Union, February 1944.
British troops land on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, the beginning of the Allied invasion of France to establish a second front against German forces in Europe. Normandy, France, June 6, 1944.
During World War II, Germany overran much of Europe using a new tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg involved the massing of planes, tanks, and artillery. These forces would break through enemy defenses along a narrow front. Air power prevented the enemy from closing the breach. German forces encircled opposing troops, forcing them to surrender.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. The Polish army was defeated within weeks. In 1940, Germany defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. In April 1941, Germany defeated Yugoslavia and Greece. Yet Germany did not defeat Great Britain, which was protected from ground attack by the English Channel.
German forces attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, pushing more than 600 miles to the outskirts of Moscow. A second German offensive in 1942 brought German soldiers to the shores of the Volga River and the city of Stalingrad. But the Soviet Union, together with Great Britain and the United States, which had entered the war against Germany in December 1941, turned the tide of battle against Germany.
In the east, the battle for Stalingrad proved a decisive turning point. After the defeat at Stalingrad in winter of 1942–1943, German troops began the long retreat. In April 1945, Soviet forces entered Berlin. In the west, Allied soldiers landed on June 6, 1944 (known as D-Day) in Normandy, France. More than two million Allied soldiers poured into France. In July, Allied forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead. The Allies continued the attack into Germany. In March 1945, Allied forces crossed the Rhine, advancing into the heart of Germany.
Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.
Last Edited: Sep 23, 2025
Author(s):
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
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