Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
The first atomic bomb ever used against a civilian population was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The city was chosen because it was a major port and a manufacturing center for aircraft and synthetic fuel. The detonation killed 78,150 people and wounded 64,000. The downtown area was totally destroyed; tens of thousands were left homeless. On August 9, 1945, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 and wounding 25,000. One week later, on August 14,
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Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
The great finale of the war, the battle for Berlin, began on April 21. Stalin suspected that the Western armies would attempt to jump the gun and claim the city before him. He also believed that the Germans preferred to surrender to the Western forces. Therefore, he instructed his two best generals, Georgi Zhukov and Ivan Stepanovich Konev, to occupy the city before the Western powers could. As they subjected Berlin to heavy bombardment, Konev and Zhukov´s troops occupied the
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Written by zachor_foundation on May 7, 2014
Military forces liberated Antwerp on September 4. The last Jews in this city -aliens who were staying there as refugees – had been banished to the death camps in September 1943. According to initial estimates, some 3,000 men and women and 300 children were in hiding in and around the town. After the fact, these numbers turned out to have been overstated. Precise figures are unavailable.
