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Content Warning: This timeline contains photos and descriptions that show violence, hanging, suicide, mass murder, racism, and other sensitive events that some may find disturbing. Feel free to look away if you are not comfortable with the photos shown and descriptions written.

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Content Warning: This timeline contains photos and descriptions that show violence, hanging, suicide, mass murder, racism, and other sensitive events that some may find disturbing. Feel free to look away if you are not comfortable with the photos shown and descriptions written.

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September 1, 1939: The Invasion of Poland

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September 1, 1939: The Invasion of Poland

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The official start of World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. This act prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of a global conflict that would last until 1945.

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September 17, 1939: Soviet Invasion of Poland

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September 17, 1939: Soviet Invasion of Poland

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Working with Hitler, Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin ordered the invasion of Poland, securing their share of the Polish territory.

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December 13, 1939: Battle of the River Plate

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December 13, 1939: Battle of the River Plate

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British cruisers defeated a German pocket battleship at the Battle of the River Plate. It was the first major naval engagement of World War II.

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June to December 1941: Operation Barbarossa

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June to December 1941: Operation Barbarossa

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On June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest military operation in history, by invading the Soviet Union. This marked a pivotal turn in the war, opening the Eastern Front, which became one of the deadliest theaters of combat.

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December 7, 1941, marked a significant event in World War II history - the surprise attack by the Japanese Empire on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This led the United States to officially enter the war.

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The Japanese attacked and conquered the Philippines, Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), and British Singapore.

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1942 to 1945: Japanese Occupation in the Philippines

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1942 to 1945: Japanese Occupation in the Philippines

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The invasion of the Philippines started on December 8. 1941, ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Filipino defenders in Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, and were forced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March in which 7,000 to 10,000 people died or were murdered.

Throughout the Philippines more than a thousand Filipinos, composed of mothers, girls, and gay men, some as young as 10, were imprisoned, forcibly taken as "comfort women", and kept in sexual slavery for Japanese military personnel during the occupation. The Japanese also sent "doctors" and "surgeons" to the Philippines, who performed human experimentation of native Filipinos. Some of these experiments included amputations, dissections, and suturing blood vessels of live humans.

Japan occupied the Philippines and committed many atrocities there for over three years, until the surrender of Japan in 1945.

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After the Wannsee Conference where Nazi leaders discussed and finalized the Wannsee Protocol, also known as Germany's Final Solution, the Nazis started the genocide or the mass murder of European Jews.

During the Holocaust, approximately 2.7 million Jews were murdered at killing centers, about 2 million Jews were murdered in mass shooting operations and related massacres, between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Jews were murdered in ghettos, labor camps, and concentration camps, and at least 250,000 Jews were murdered in other acts of violence outside of camps and ghettos.

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During these Holocaust years, a teenager named Anne Frank was able to write in her diary her daily life as a Jew in hiding in the Netherlands. She, her family, and some other relatives, hid in a cramped space she called in her diary as the Secret Annex. Anne wrote about events in the Secret Annex, but also about her feelings and thoughts at that time. On August 4, 1944, she and the other people in hiding were discovered and arrested by police officers. Despite the raid, part of Anne’s writing was preserved: two other helpers took the documents before the Secret Annex was emptied by order of the Nazis.

The people from the Secret Annex were transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, where the living conditions were inhumane. In early November 1944, Anne was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The conditions in Bergen-Belsen were horrible too. There was a lack of food there and it was cold, wet and there were contagious diseases. Anne contracted typhus and died in February 1945.

After the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, Anne's father, who survived the Holocaust, published Anne's writing. The book was later translated into around 70 languages, making more people aware of the horrors of the Holocaust.

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The Battle of Midway, which took place in June 1942, is considered a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It was a decisive naval battle that significantly weakened the Japanese forces.

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The Battle of Stalingrad, from July 17, 1942, to February 2, 1943, was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with significant losses on both sides. It marked a turning point in the war, with the Soviet Union gaining the upper hand over Nazi Germany.

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June 6, 1944, D-Day, saw the Allied forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, France. This massive amphibious invasion was a significant stride towards the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control.

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The Battle of the Bulge, fought in December 1944, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front. It was an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium.

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1944 to 1945: Liberation of major Nazi camps

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1944 to 1945: Liberation of major Nazi camps

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As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives on Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, many of whom had survived death marches.

Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. Surprised by the rapid Soviet advance, the Germans attempted to demolish the camp in an effort to hide the evidence of mass murder.

The Soviets also liberated major Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück. US forces liberated the Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen camps. British forces liberated camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen.

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February 4 to 11, 1945: Yalta Conference

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February 4 to 11, 1945: Yalta Conference

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The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, was a meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin to discuss Europe's post-war reorganization. It played a crucial role in the establishment of the United Nations and setting the stage for the Cold War.

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April 28, 1945: Death of Benito Mussolini

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April 28, 1945: Death of Benito Mussolini

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During the last days of World War II in Italy, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini tried to escape from the Allied troops who were hunting him down. On, April 25, he and his mistress Clara Petacci left Milan in disguise to hide in the town of Como. On their way there, they were captured by an armed patrol of Communist partisans.

On April 28, while in custody of Communist leaders of the Committee for National Liberation, Mussolini and Petacci were mobbed by communist soldiers. After a partisan named Walter Audisio killed Petacci, he shot Mussolini in the chest, instantly killing him.

The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Milan, where they were dumped onto the street and then hanged upside down in front of a garage. Other known Fascists were executed nearby and a crowd gathered. The corpses were beaten and abused almost beyond recognition.

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In April 1945, Soviet soldiers scoured the streets of Berlin to search for Hitler. On April 29, he had finished writing his will and last political testament, and married his longtime mistress, Eva Braun. On the same day, he received the news that Benito Mussolini, Italy's leader, had died an ignoble death.

On April 30, Hitler began his normal work routine in his underground bunker at the Reich Chancellery building. He had a quiet last lunch, shook hands with the remaining staff, and in the afternoon, committed suicide with his wife on a couch in his private sitting room. They did it by swallowing cyanide capsules and shooting themselves in the head.

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On April 16, 1945, the Soviet forces started the final offensive against Berlin, Germany. They took 4 days and many casualties before they entered Berlin on April 21. The Soviet soldiers fought the German resistance on land and also had air attacks to support their ground offensive.

On May 2, the Berlin garrison surrendered to the Soviet army. The human cost of the battle of Berlin had been enormous. The Soviets counted over 80,000 dead while German losses were estimated at almost 50,000.

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On May 8, 1945, known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day, celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe.

Before that, two surrender signings happened. The first was on May 7, when German Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl signed Germany's surrender on all fronts in Reims, France, and the second was by German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on May 8 in Berlin.

V-E Day marked the end of most of the fighting in Europe, where tens of millions of service members and civilians were killed since the start of hostilities.

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August 6 and 9, 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings

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August 6 and 9, 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings

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In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to get them to surrender and to finally end the war.

Around 200,000 people died because of the bombing at Hiroshima. Over the next two to four months after the bombing at Hiroshima, between 90,000 to 146,000 people died in the area because of the extreme radiation from the atomic bomb and other aftereffects of the attack.

Meanwhile, around 40,000 people died due to the bombing at Nagasaki and around 25,000 people were injured.

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With the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan finally surrendered on August 14, 1945, marking the end of World War II.

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V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, marked the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. When US President Harry S. Truman announced on August 14 that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, citizens around the world erupted in celebration.

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September 2, 1945: Instrument of Surrender

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September 2, 1945: Instrument of Surrender

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On September 2, 1945, Japanese representatives signed the official Instrument of Surrender, prepared by the War Department and approved by President Harry S. Truman. This is a document that formally declared the Japan's surrender. This marked the official end of World War II.

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World War II caused several severe hunger crises which led to many casualties. Worldwide casualty estimates vary widely in several sources, however, these are the worldwide estimates:

Deaths due to battles:

Over 15 MILLION

Injured due to battles:

Over 25 MILLION

Civilian deaths due to genocide, massacres, mass bombings, disease, and starvation: Over 45 MILLION

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Between July and October of 1940, the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces unfolded as the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe.