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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
Eastern Europe, 1941: Russian Leningrad and Ukraine Offensives – Operations, 2 December 1943-30 April 1944
Allied Advance to Volturno River, Reorganization, and Attack on Gustav Line (17 January-11 May 1944)
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
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Original Allied Strategic Concept, May 1943; Situation in Pacific, 1 November 1943

December 24, 1943:

December 21: "Hersz Kurcweig, a Jew, and Stanislaw Dorosiewicz, a non-Jew, escape from Auschwitz after killing an SS guard.
December 22: "The Gestapo discovers 62 Jews hiding in a cellar of a building on Krolewska Street in Warsaw.
All are murdered.
"United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau confronts U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long, telling him to his face that 'the impression is all around that you, particularly, are antisemitic!'
December 23: "The Jewish community at Pinsk, Poland, is liquidated.
"U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau is informed by his staff that, 'when you get through with it, the [State Department's] attitude to date is no different from Hitler's attitude.' "
December 24: "Of 64 Jews who escape the Ninth Fort near Kovno, Lithuania, 32 are quickly recaptured, five are shot down, and eight more are captured near the Kovno Ghetto.
Nineteen enter the ghetto, but one, Rabbi Gabriel Shusterman, dies of frostbite.
"At Borki, Poland, 60 Jews working on an exhumation squad attempt to escape through a tunnel, but few of them are successful."

"This December 1943 photograph shows Bosnian SS volunteers, called Handoza.
These troopers are standing at attention, looking professional--if not as intimidating as their German counterparts.
The uniform of each is adorned with the swastika, German eagle, and SS Totenkopf (Death's Head)."

"Edward R. Murrow was a distinguished American war correspondent with CBS radio who reported on Germany's extermination policy against Jews.
Murrow had already brought reliable and dramatic eyewitness reports to America of German events: the prewar occupation of Austria, the Munich Conference, the German takeover of Czechoslovakia, and the wartime Battle of Britain.
His courageous reporting was an exception to the American media's often cynical reaction to Holocaust reports."

"The Nazi propaganda effort stretched beyond the shores of Europe to America.
Allegedly broadcasting from Iowa, the Nazi radio station "Station Debunk" urged pacificism and condemned the policies of President Franklin Roosevelt.
To build public support for the American war effort, well-known writers and broadcasters joined forces against Axis propaganda.
Rex Stout (pictured), best known as the author of the Nero Wolfe detective stories, hosted the CBS radio program The Secret Weapon and served as spokesman for The Voice of Freedom."