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Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

"Harmon took Safi at 0515, but we did not get the message until noon. It was a complete surprise. He captured a battalion of the Foreign Legion, three tanks, and a lot of guns." - George S. Patton
Admiral Jean Darlan is appointed commander of French forces in North Africa, much to the dismay of the British public who considers him a Vichy turncoat.
Allied forces land in Northwest Africa in operation TORCH.
Eisenhower receives word at Gibraltar that Patton had re-embarked under a flag of truce having been repulsed. Eisenhower rejected this message stating that it had to be false "unless my opinion of George is 100% wrong."

November 8, 1942:

"The Jews from Drancy, France, arrive by train at Auschwitz, where 227 are assigned to forced labor and 773 are gassed.
"Allied Operation Torch landings take place on the Algerian coast and incidentally ensure the safety of 117,000 Algerian Jews.
Algerian-Jewish resistance, armed by the United States, helps prevent a Vichy French response to the Allied landings.
"In Tripoli, Libya, German occupiers press 2,600 Jews into forced labor to build military roads."

"An early and vocal opponent of the Nazis, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver urged Americans to join in a boycott of German goods.
He chaired the United Palestine Appeal before joining Rabbi Stephen Wise as co-chair of the American Zionist Emergency Council.
Born in Lithuania and a rabbi for decades in Cleveland, Ohio, Silver parted company with Wise and others by arguing vociferously for the urgent need for a Jewish homeland in Palestine."

"A German soldier stands beside bodies of Jews murdered at the slave-labor camp at Skarzysko-Kamienna, Poland.
Well after the ghettos in Occupied Poland were liquidated, the Nazis continued to ship prisoners to this work camp."

"A sculpture by the American artist Gideon offers a moving image of human suffering.
Gideon joined the Army at age 18 and spent much of the war in Europe. Exposure to pain and suffering profoundly affected the artist and had a marked influence on his work."