| 1945 |
- In April, Buchenwald liberated by American troops. President Roosevelt died and Truman became President.
- On April 13, Soviet forces entered Vienna and two days later Concentration camp BergenBelsen was liberated by British troops.
- In late April, American troops occupied Nuremberg and Soviet troops reached the front at Berlin.
- As a result of negotiations between Swedish count Folke Bernadotte and SS chief Heinrich Himmler, the SS turns over 7,000 women prisoners from Ravensbrück concentration camp to the Swedish Red Cross. The Swedish Red Cross takes the prisoners to neutral Sweden for care.
- On April 25, American and Soviet troops meet on the Elbe River.
- Mussolini captured and killed by Italian partisans.
- On April 29, American troops liberated Dachau. The next day, Hitler commits suicide.
- Ravensbrück concentration camp liberated by Soviet forces. They discover between 2,000 and 3,000 sick and dying prisoners in the camp. Between 1939 and 1945, more than 120,000 prisoners, nearly 100,000 of them women, passed through the Ravensbrück camp system. Ravensbrück camp records indicate that about 90,000 prisoners died in the camp. Thousands more died without being recorded.
- On May 2, Berlin capitulates. Representatives of International Red Cross take over at Theresienstadt. Three days later, Mauthausen
camp was liberated.
- Between May 7 and 9, unconditional surrender of Germany: End
of war in Europe.
- On May 8, V-E Day (Victory in Europe) celebrated.
- In late June, the United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco.
- On July 16, the Postdam Conference began.
- On August 6, 9:15 AM, the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
- On August 15, Japan surrenders: End of World War II.
- In October, the Nuremburg trials began and The United Nations was officially born.
- On December 22, President Truman issues a directive giving preference to Displaced Persons for visas to enter the United States.
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