The Second World War and Uzbekistan

In 1933 a party led by Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. It considered Germans superior to other peoples and aimed to take revenge for the defeat in the First World War and to dominate Europe. Germany made an alliance with Italy and Japan. Other states did not answer this danger firmly in time, and trust among them was lacking. In August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed an agreement not to attack each other. On 1 September 1939 Germany attacked Poland; Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War began. On 17 September Soviet troops entered eastern Poland. In 1940 Germany defeated France. On 22 June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union; in December Japan began war against the USA. The Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain joined against Germany. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945 (in the Soviet Union 9 May is Victory Day), and on 2 September Japan signed the surrender document. The war lasted six years; more than 60 million people died. Millions of civilians, among them about six million Jews, were killed in camps. In 1945–1946 an international tribunal in Nuremberg tried war criminals.