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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.

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Kursk and Vicinity 1943: Battle of Kursk, 4 July-1 August 1943
Sicily, 1943: Italo-German Counterattack, 11 July and Allied Advance, 12 July-17 August 1943
South Pacific Area Operations: Capture of New Georgia, 21 June-27 August 1943
New Guinea Force Operations: Capture of Salamaua and Lae, 29 June-16 September 1943
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944

July 14, 1943:

July 11: "Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary, issues a top-level directive on Hitler's behalf, instructing that public discussion of Jews must not mention 'a future overall solution,' but only that Jews are being assembled for labor.
July 14-17: "The 'Krasnodar Trial' of 13 alleged Soviet collaborators opens in the Caucasus region of Russia.
Eight are sentenced to death; three are sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment; two are acquitted.
Mid-July: "Germans execute Professor Kurt Huber, an anti-Nazi activist and part of the Munich-based White Rose student resistance group."

"With gun held at the ready, Vitka Kempner (right) stands with fellow partisans Zelda Treger and Raizel Kartshak.
Even among the partisans, Kempner was regarded as exceptionally daring.
In early July 1943 she sneaked out of the Vilna (Lithuania) Ghetto with a homemade bomb, which she used to blow up a German munitions train.
Although wounded, she walked three days and nights to return to the ghetto.
She later carried on her heroic activities from the forests, helping Jewish slave laborers to escape from Keilis, near Vilna, and joining with other partisans to destroy a factory."

"The pro-Axis grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, inspects the rifle of a Bosnian-Moslem Waffen-SS volunteer.
As a leader of Arabs and Moslems, al-Husseini saw the Axis powers as the means to gain Arab independence and to destroy the Jews.
Although he failed to achieve his dream of an independent Arab legion, he was more successful in persuading some 20,000 Bosnian Moslems to join volunteer units called the Handjar (Sword).
Incorporated into the Waffen-SS, these troops proved effective in hunting Jews and partisans."