[Homer_J_Simpson]

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.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Soviet Summer and Fall Offensives: Operations, 17 July-1 December 1943
Allied Advance to Volturno River, Reorganization, and Attack on Gustav Line (17 January-11 May 1944)
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
New Guinea and Alamo Force Operations: Clearing the Huon Peninsula and Securing the Straits, 19 September 1943-26 April 1944
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944

[fso301]

An interesting assessment by the French on their postwar experience operating the Panther tank. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3072238/posts

[MN.Gruber06]

Wow. Totem Lodge & Country Club is still running in Averill Park under the name of "Burden Lake". Wasn't aware it was that old.
I am astonished how few advertisements appear in these papers as opposed to today.

[BroJoeK]

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September 28, 1943:

• September 25: "The Red Army captures Smolensk, Russia.

• "Only about 2,000 Jews, scattered among four labor camps, remain in Vilna, Lithuania.

• "Eliahu Barzilai, the chief rabbi of Athens, Greece, disguises himself as a peasant and escapes from the city.

• September 26: "At the Novogrudok, Belorussia, labor camp, Jews complete secret work on a tunnel dug under the wire.
  Of the 220 Jews who use the tunnel to attempt escape, 120 are killed or captured.

• September 28-29: "Five thousand Jews from Amsterdam are deported to the Westerbork, Holland, transit camp.

• "The Jewish community from Split, Yugoslavia, is killed at the Sajmiste, Yugoslavia, concentration camp.

• "Roman Jews deliver 50 kilograms* of gold to the Gestapo in Rome, as ordered.
  Pope Pius XII had offered to lend the Italian Jews 15 kilograms of gold if they could not collect the full amount themselves."

"Even music was subverted by the Nazis.
To calm arrivals and delude them into thinking that they were in a safe haven, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp orchestra played cheerful and familiar melodies as people descended from the trains.
Music also provided a macabre accompaniment to death, as shown in this photo from Mauthausen.
Prisoners are marched to the gallows while accompanied by the violins and accordion of the camp orchestra.
The inmates referred to this as the Symphonia Diabolica, the Devil's Symphony."

"While some 4000 Belgian-Jewish children were kept safe in hiding throughout the war, others were not so fortunate.
An estimated 65,000 Jews were living in Belgium at the time of the Nazi invasion.
The first deportation of Jews began in July 1942; they were sent via Malines to Auschwitz.
Eventually, some 25,000 Jews were deported to their deaths, including all of these children."

*in today's values, 50 kg gold = circa $2 million.

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