[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

[MN.Gruber06]

The rate of the Soviet advance into Poland and Germany is simply staggering. It makes the Western Front look completely insignificant when the scope and magnitude of them both are compared and contrasted. Half of Germany's total military deaths (50%) during the Second World War occurred on the Eastern Front. This doesn't even count the battles against the Soviets in land considered ethnically German.

In comparison, German casualties in the West and Italy COMBINED account for only 10%. If we add North Africa, Northern Europe and attribute every single Kriegsmarine sailor death to that of Western Allied military action, that still only accounts for 12% of Germany's total military deaths. That is absolutely inconceivable.

[BroJoeK]

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October 3, 1943:

• "On a routine barracks inspection at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, an SS doctor judges 139 inmates unfit to work.
  These inmates are promptly gassed."

"Near Minsk, Belorussia, a German soldier aims his pistol at a Jew, perhaps suspecting him to be a partisan.
Following the deportation of 4,000 Jews from Minsk in October 1943, only the few Jews who had managed to hide remained in the ghetto.
Beginning in spring 1942 many had fled the ghetto for the surrounding forests, where they joined partisan groups such as the Shalom Zorin unit, which eventually included 800 fighters."

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