Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

Stalingrad is a city, located in the Southwest part of Russia. The city was named after the Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin, a communist known as "Man of Steel." The city's resources attracted Hitler, knowing it was a very important city in Russia.

 Germany invaded Russia in the winter months. Germany was very unprepared, they only had their summer uniforms and were very slow in getting the military their winter uniforms. Many soldiers died from hypothermia while battling in the snow. Others died simply because they were starving didn't have much food left. Hitler's plan was to go into Caucasus, which is located along the Volga River, and take the oil fields so he could seize Stalin. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the worst battles in history with about 2 millions casualties and was a huge turning point in WWII.

This battle took place in Russia from August 23, 1942- February 2, 1943. Lasting for about five months, one week, and three days. About 300,000 soldiers died in Germany and about 500,000 died in Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-W0506-316,_Russland,_Kampf_um_Stalingrad,_Siegesflagge.jpg

http://www.google.com/urlsa=i&rct=j&q=battle+of+stalingrad&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.britannica.com%2FEBchecked%2Ftopic%2F562720%2FBattle-of-Stalingrad&ei=_BhaVdb6D8exyASa1YKoBg&bvm=bv.93564037,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNF2LhdxYRzOlPJrl3bIBWm9SCbNjA&ust=1432054390385616

Questions:
1. What was Hitler's plan?
2. Why was the Battle of Stalingrad so important? 

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) was an attack by the Nazi officers on the Jews of Germany and Austria. This took place on the 9-10th of November, 1938. The Nazi officers marched down the streets and burned down Jewish Synagogues (shown below) burned Jewish stores, and killed many Jews on this night too. They arrested 30,000 Jews and took them to concentration camps, like the one shown down below.

Auschwitz concentration camp entrance, in Poland.
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CConcentrationcamps.htm

Adolf Hitler started out as a leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, otherwise known as the NAZI Party. Hindenburg (The president of Germany), had elected Hitler as chancellor. When Hindenburg died, Hitler was automatically appointed as leader of Germany. He started by taking over smaller countries / small parts of countries, and eventually, his army was big enough to take on whole countries. Hitler had a very big hatred of Jews. He eventually forced people into becoming members of the NAZI party. This built up his army, and he started taking control over Jewish communities, sending large communities to concentration camps, or just killing them on the spot. Most Jews died while in the concentration camps, while some were able to survive. The mass killing of all the Jews later sparked the beginning of the Holocaust. Jews were burned, shot, beat, overworked, and placed in gas chambers, shown in the video and picture below:


https://youtu.be/uYpd3VtjeFs

http://voiceseducation.org/content/gas-chamber

Questions

1. What happened during Kristallnacht?
2. What does Kristallnacht mean?