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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.

June 21, 1943:

"SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in the Soviet Union.
"The Jews remaining in the Lvov (Ukraine) Ghetto are hunted and killed, including 350 of 500 discovered in the city's sewer system.
"All Jewish workers at municipal factories in Drogobych, Ukraine, are killed.
"German Professor August Hirt chooses 103 Jewish men and women at Auschwitz to be transported to the Natzweiler-Struthof camp near Strasbourg, France.
There they are gassed.
The soft tissues of their bodies are removed, and their skeletons are strung up as exhibits in the Reich Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg for the study of the Jewish race; See October 25, 1943."

"The initial success of Operation Barbarossa generated huge numbers of Soviet prisoners-of-war, whom the Nazis treated as subhuman.
Many were executed or died on long death marches; all suffered extreme hunger and deprivation.
If their identities were discovered, Jewish soldiers were singled out for death or sent to stalags and extermination camps such as Sobibór.
This emaciated Jewish POW is identified by the Star of David he was forced to wear."

"A footbridge over Paneriu Street connected the large and small ghettos of Kovno, Lithuania.
In June 1943 the Kovno Ghetto was converted to a concentration camp, and the 4000 inhabitants were transferred to small camps situated outside Kovno.
At the same time, a Resistance group known as the Jewish Fighting Organization was formed to facilitate the departure of Jews from the ghetto and train them for partisan activities."