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12 Facts From WWII History We Don't Hear Enough

September 02, 2021

We all (hopefully) learned the basics of World War II in school. But for as much as we learn about the incredibly complex history, there's plenty of information that was left out or misconstrued.

12

Jewish resistance fighters fought against Nazi persecution From rescue missions to underground railroads to launching attacks even within camps, many Jewish people risked their lives to save others. CRACKED.COM — More: 17 Stories Of Women Who Fought Against The Nazis

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American Stats

In the US, 70% of codebreakers were women 11,000 women were in the Army and Navy as codebreakers. In 1944, they intercepted 30,000 water-transport messages a month, enabling the Navy to sink almost every transport ship to the South Pacific. CRACKED.COM — Source: Washington Post and WNYC

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The US military was segregated Black men and women fought for their country but were denied basic human rights. For example, Black servicemen could not enter Southern restaurants where their German prisoners were served meals. CRACKED.COM — Source: National WWII Museum

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No Black person was given a Medal of Honor for WWII until 1997 Vernon Baker was the only living recepient of the seven Black people who were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in WWII decades later. CRACKED.COM — Source: National WWII Museum

8

Japanese internment camp residents lost $400 million in property Around 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry were ripped from their homes and imprisoned. Congress only provided $38 million in reparations and then $20,000 to surviving individuals 40 years later. CRACKED.COM — Source: National WWII Museum

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There was only one German mass protest against the deportation of Jewish people In 1943, the Rosenstrasse Protest was started by -Jewish wives of Jewish men who were to be deported. Because of the protest, intermarried Jewish people were largely permited to remain with their family, and 35 people who were deported to Auschwitz were returned to their families. CRACKED.COM — Source: Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

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The Nazis had a lot of help to set up camps FRET BEIT A historian says of the Auschwitz blueprints, ...everyone who had even anything remotely to do with the planning and construction of the concentration camp must have know that people were to be gassed to death in assembly-line fashion. CRACKED.COM — Source: Reuters

5

The US government turned away thousands of Jewish refugees Government officials accused the Jewish asylum seekers, fleeing from the Nazi regime, of being Nazi spies. For example, in June 1939, the US sent away all 937 passengers of the German ship St. Louis. 254 of those passengers died in the Holocaust. CRACKED.COM — Source: Smithsonian Magazine

4

The firebombing of Tokyo was as deadly as an atomic bomb Over 100,000 civilians died during the firebombing by the U.S. Army. Compare that to the estimated 140,000 civilians who died in Hiroshima and 000 people who died in Nagasaki, and it's a tragedy that it doesn't make our history books. CRACKED.COM — Source: New York Times and BBC

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Nuclear Weapons

Testing nuclear bombs in the U.S. has killed over 10, 000 Americans The U.S. government had 1,000 nuclear tests in Nevada, with another 67 in the Marshall Islands. The tests caused cancer, resulting in a very low estimate of the fatalities being in the thousands. CRACKED.COM — Source: Washington Post

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Churchill’s Famine

During WWII, Britain caused three million deaths in India Despite being painted as a hero against genocide, Churchill's policies caused the Bengal famine of 1943. He redirected food from starving Indian civilians to well-supplied British soldiers. CRACKED.COM — Source: Al Jazeera

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Wernher von Braun

The first man-made item to travel in space was a Nazi war missile Nazi Wernher von Braun was responsible for both the deadly V-2 rocket and NASA's Saturn V, which took Apollo 11 to the moon. CRACKED.COM — Source: Al Jazeera

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