2020: 75th

75th Anniversary:

January 17, 1945:  Warsaw, Poland liberated from the Germans by the Soviets. It was occupied since 1939.

January 17, 1945:  Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets in Hungary and last seen alive.

January 18, 1945: : Krakow, Poland was liberated from the Germans by the Soviets. It was occupied since 1939.

January 19, 1945: Lodz Ghetto in Poland liberated from the Germans by the Soviets with 877 inmates still alive out of the 210,000 who passed through the Ghetto since 1940.

January 27, 1945: The Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland was liberated from the Germans by the Soviets with 7,500 people found alive including 700 children and 600 unburied corpses out of the 1.3 million men, women and children sent to Auschwitz since 1940. 58,000 people were forced on a Death March by the Germans shortly before the Soviets arrived.

January 30, 1945: The Wilhelm Gustloff ship, with German soldiers and refugees, was sunk by the Soviets killing 9,400 people of the 10,600 on-board – making it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.

January 30, 1945: The Great Raid occurred when the US rescued 552 Allied POWs and civilians from the Japanese camp in the Philippines.

January 31, 1945: Eddie Slovik was executed. He is the first and only US soldier executed for desertion since the US Civil War.

February 4, 1945: The Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines was liberated from the Japanese by the Americans. 3,785 Allied POWs and Civilians  - 2,870 of them Americans – were alive. It was created in 1942.

February 4, 1945: The Yalta Conference between the USSR, the UK and the US began in Crimea, RSFSR, Soviet Union. The Allies agreed to: the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and that Germany and Berlin would be split into four occupied zones.

February 13, 1945:  Budapest, Hungary is liberated from the Germans by the Soviets. It was occupied since 1944.

February 19, 1945: The Battle of Iwo Jima, Japan began. It lasted a month until the Americans won. 6,821 American soldiers were killed, 19,217 American soldiers were wounded. 18,375 Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded.

March 3, 1945: Manila, the Philippines was liberated from the Japanese by the Americans. It was occupied since 1942.

March 6, 1945: Cologne, Germany was captured by the Americans.

March 7, 1945: The Bridge at Remagen over the Rhine River in Germany was captured by the Americans.

March 10, 1945: The Great Tokyo Air Raid in Japan by the Americans. 100,000 Japanese died.

March 14, 1945: The British Royal Air Force (RAF) used the first Grand Slam Bomb weighing 22,000 lbs.

March 29, 1945: The last German V-1 Flying Bomb fell on England. From 1944-1945 9,521 V-1 Flying Bombs were sent by the Germans to England.

March 30, 1945: Vienna, Austria was captured from the Germans by the Soviets. It had been incorporated into Nazi Germany in 1938. It was divided into Soviet, British, French and American Zones of Occupation until 1955.

April 1, 1945: The Battle of Okinawa in Japan began. It lasted for 2 months until the Americans won on June 21, 1945. 20,1995 Americans were killed and 55,162 Americans were wounded. 110,000 Japanese soldiers died.

April 4, 1945: The Ohrduf Concentration Camp (part of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp) in Germany was liberated by the Americans. It was created in 1944. Around 3,000 people were murdered in the camp itself and another 4,000 people were murdered on the forced Death March from the camp out of the 20,000 prisoners that went through this camp. It was the first Concentration Camp liberated by the Americans. General (and later US President) Eisenhower visited the camp and had member of Congress and journalists visit to document the atrocities.

April 6, 1945: Sarajevo, Bosnia, Yugoslavia was liberated from the Germans by the Soviets. It had been occupied since 1941.

April 9, 1945: German Pastor, Theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis at the Flossenburg Concentration Camp in Germany.

April 9, 1945: After a 3 month siege the German city of Konigsburg in East Prussia (today: Kaliningrad, Russia)  was captured by the Soviets. 42,000 German soldiers and civilians died, 90,000 German soldiers were captured. 12,000 German civilians were later expelled in 1949 from the then-Soviet territory where many died before reaching East Germany or West Germany. 3,700 Soviet soldiers were killed. 14,000 Soviet soldiers were wounded.

April 11, 1945: The Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany was liberated from the Germans by the Americans who found 21,000 people still alive. 56,545 people were murdered here out of the 280,000 that passed through the camp since it was established in 1937.

April 15, 1945: : The Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany was liberated from the Germans by the British with 60,000 people still alive and 13,000 unburied corpses. Originally built to be an “Exchange Camp” where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German Prisoners of War held overseas it later held prisoners evacuating from other Concentration Camps (including Anne and Margot Frank who were sent to Belsen from Auschwitz where they died.) 50,000 men, women and children were murdered here out of 120,000 people that passed through since it opened in 1940.

April 16, 1945: The Colditz Prisoner Of War Castle in Germany (housing Allied Officers) was liberated from the Germans by the Americans. It was opened in 1939.

April 22, 1945: The Jasenovac revolt occurred. 600 people (Serbs, Jews and Gypsies) revolted at the Jasenovac Concentration Camp in Croatia, Yugoslavia run by the Croatian Ustase (German collaborators.) 516 people were killed and 84 escaped. The Ustase killed the remaining inmates after the revolt. A few days later the Yugoslav Partisans liberated the ruins.  100,000 men, women and children were murdered here through burning people alive and by gas since it opened in 1941.

April 25, 1945: The Soviet Red Army and the American Army met for the first time at the Elbe River near Torgau, Germany. The two Allied Armies meeting up meant that Germany was now cut in half.

April 28, 1945: Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Dictator of Italy since 1922, was shot (along with his mistress, Claretta Petacci) by Italian Partisans while attempting to flee to Switzerland. Their bodies were then brought to Milan and publicly hung upside down.

April 29, 1945: Operation Manna began. The  Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Polish and British Air Forces, with prior German approval, used Operation Manna to airdrop food to the starving citizens in German-occupied the Netherlands (known as the Hunger Winter in which 22,000 Dutch starved to death.)  It lasted until May 7, 1945.

April 29, 1945: The Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany was liberated from the Germans by the Americans. 7,000 people were forced on a Death March before the Americans arrived where 1,071 were shot and left by the side of the road. 30,000 people were still alive in the camp when the Americans liberated it.  An estimated 41,500 people were murdered at the camp out of the 188,000 that passed through it since 1933.

April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany since 1933, (along with his wife of 40 hours, Eva Braun) committed suicide in the Führerbunker in Berlin as the Soviet Red Army was enclosing on his location. His death was announced on German radio on May 1, 1945.

May 1, 1945: Operation Chowhound began. The American Army Air Corps., with prior German approval, used Operation Chowhound to airdrop food to the starving citizens in German-occupied the Netherlands (known as the Hunger Winter in which 22,000 Dutch starved to death.) It lasted until May 8, 1945.

May 2, 1945: The Battle of Berlin (which began on April 16, 1945) ended with a Soviet victory. 81,116 Soviet Soldiers were killed, 280,251 Soviet Soldiers were wounded (out of 2,300,000 taking part in the Battle.) 100,000 German Soldiers and Volkssturm died; 220,000 Germans Soldiers and Volkssturm were wounded and 480,000 German Soldiers and Volkssurm were captured (out of the 806,750 taking part in the Battle.) 125,000 German Civilians died.

May 3, 1945: Hamburg, Germany was captured from the Germans by the British.

May 4, 1945: The Neuengamme Concentration Camp in Germany was liberated from the Germans by the British.  42,900 people were murdered here out of the 106,000 people that passed through the camp since 1938.

May 5, 1945: The Prague Uprising began in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak Partisans liberated part of the city from the Germans (who had occupied the city since 1938.) 2,898 Czechoslovak Partisans were killed and 3,000 Czechoslovak Partisans were wounded. 2,000 Czechoslovak citizens were killed. 953 German Soldiers died. The city was fully liberated from the Germans by the Soviets on May 9, 1945.

May 5, 1945: Japanese Balloon Bomb on Bly, Oregon. Elsie Mitchell (the pregnant wife of Pastor Archie Mitchell) and 5 of their Sunday School students (aged 11 to 14) were killed by a hydrogen balloon with a 33 lbs. antipersonnel bomb and four 11 lbs. incendiary devices attached, sent from Japan – becoming the only deaths from these Balloon Bombs.  From 1944-1945 the Japanese sent 9,300 fire balloons, of which 300 were found or observed in the U.S. (in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Others were also observed in Mexico and in Canada (in British Colombia and the Yukon Territory.)

May 8, 1945: Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day.) Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies ending the European Theater of World War 2.

May 9, 1945: The British Channel Islands were liberated from the Germans by the British. They had been occupied since 1940.

May 9, 1945: Victory Day Over Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union. It was made a non-working holiday in 1965. It is still an official holiday in parts of the former USSR (Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.)

June 10, 1945: Brunei was liberated from the Japanese by the Australians. It had been occupied since 1941.

June 26, 1945: The United Nations Charter was signed. The UN Charter articulated a commitment to uphold human rights of citizens and outlined a broad set of principles relating to achieving ‘higher standards of living’, addressing ‘economic, social, health, and related problems,’ and ‘universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.’ As a charter, it is a constituent treaty, and all members are bound by its articles. Furthermore, Article 103 of the Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations. Today, all 193 UN member countries have signed, and must follow, the Charter.

July 5, 1945: The Philippines was liberated from the Japanese by the Americans. It had bee occupied since 1941. 527,000 Filipinos, both military and civilians were killed (27,000 military dead, 141,000 massacred, 22,500 forced labor deaths and 336,500 deaths due war related famine.) 10,380 US soldiers were killed and 36,550 US soldiers were wounded. 255,795 Japanese soldiers died.

July 17, 1945: The Potsdam Conference began. The Conference lasted until August 2, 1945 and was attended by the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill), the Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin) and the United States (Harry Truman). The Conference dealt with how to administer postwar Germany, the establishment of postwar order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.

August 6, 1945: Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. 70,000–80,000 Japanese died including 20,000 Japanese soldiers immediately with a total of 166,000 Japanese dead by the end of the year from radiation (around 30% of the population of Hiroshima at the time. 70,000 Japanese were injured.  69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged.

August 9, 1945: Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The US dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki (days after the Hiroshima bombing because the Japanese Government refused to surrender.) 39,000–80,000 Japanese civilians died; 150 Japanese soldiers died. 68–80% of the city was destroyed.

August 11, 1945: The Krakow Pogrom occurred. 80,000 Jews lived in Krakow, Poland before the German invasion in 1939. After the Holocaust and the War ended in May 1945 there were 6,637 Jews in the city. The returning Holocaust survivors faced anti-Semitic backlash from the Poles. While Polish civilians took part in the Pogrom Polish policemen and soldiers also actively participate. Among 25 of those accused of inciting racial hatred, robberies, and violence against Jews, 12 were officers. One Jewish woman was killed (56-year-old Auschwitz survivor Róża Berger, shot while standing behind closed doors.) and 5 others wounded. The Kupa Synagogue was set on fire. The Pogrom was part of the larger anti-Jewish violence in Poland that immediately followed the end of World War II in Europe which led many Polish Holocaust Survivors to flee Communist Poland.

August 14, 1945; Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day.) The Japanese Empire unconditionally surrendered to the Allies marking the end of the Pacific Theater and all of World War 2.

August 30, 1945: Hong Kong (then a British Colony) was liberated from the Japanese. It had been occupied since 1941. 10,000 Hong Kong civilians were killed by the Japanese during the occupation and the Western civilians (the British, Canadians, etc.) were imprisoned in internment camps.

September 7, 1945: The Berlin Victory Parade was held in French, British, Soviet and American occupied Berlin, Germany. 2,000 Soviet troops marched and 3,000 British, French and American troops marched in the parade.

October 12, 1945: Desmond Doss received the Medal of Honor. He was a United States Army Corporal who served as a combat medic with an Infantry Company in World War II. He was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions in Guam and the Philippines. Doss further distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving 75 men, becoming the only Conscientious Objector to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Second World War. His life has been the subject of books, the documentary “The Conscientious Objector”, and the 2016 film “Hacksaw Ridge.” He died in 2006.

October 21, 1945: French women won the right to vote for the first time.

October 25, 1945: Taiwan (known as Formosa)  gained its independence from Japan. It had been part of Japan since 1895.

November 16, 1945: UNESCO was formed. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is an agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris, France. Its declared purpose is to contribute to promoting international collaboration in education, sciences, and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. Today, it has 193 member countries and 11 associate members. The United States left UNESCO in 2018.

November 20, 1945: The first of the Nuremburg Trials started.  They were a series of military tribunals held after World War II by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, and their decisions marked a turning point between classical and contemporary international law.

November 27, 1945: CARE was formed. CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) is a major international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. CARE is nonsectarian, impartial, and non-governmental. It is one of the largest and oldest humanitarian aid organizations focused on fighting global poverty. In 2016, CARE reported working in 94 countries, supporting 962 poverty-fighting projects and humanitarian aid projects, and reaching over 80 million people and 256 million people indirectly. It is also known for its CARE Packages. Started right after World War 2 the first 20,000 packages reached the port of Le Havre, France, on May 11, 1946. Over the course of the next two decades 100 million more packages were delivered, initially in Europe and later in Asia and other parts of the developing world.

December 27, 1945: The IMF was formed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), also known as the Fund, is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world while periodically depending on World Bank for its resources. It came into formal existence in 1945 with 29 member countries and the goal of reconstructing the international payment system. It now plays a central role in the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises.