Did you know ...
the 1943 German Donbas Operations led to the destruction of 52 Soviet divisions, and the recapture of the cities of Kharkov and Belgorod from the Red Army ?
the 1945 loss of German U-boat U-864 during Operation Caesar , a secret mission to deliver technology to Japan , is the only known incident of one submerged submarine sinking another?
the 450 aircraft that conducted the opening aerial bombardment during the Battle of Aachen failed to hit a single German pillbox ?
some claim World War II German fighter ace Walter Zellot was killed in September 1942 by friendly fire ?
research on U.S. compulsory sterilization legislation by American eugenicist E.S. Gosney was cited by officials in Nazi Germany as the basis of their own forced sterilization policy?
newspaper illustrator Salo Grenning became an honorary citizen of Middelburg , Netherlands , after helping liberate the city from Germany in 1944?
physicist Siegfried Flügge collaborated with Fritz Houtermans , Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , and others in an effort to create an atomic weapon for Nazi Germany ?
the 1944 German film Große Freiheit Nr. 7 was banned in Nazi Germany and only permitted by the Allies in late 1945?
the German Grossdeutschland division, located 50 miles (80 km) east of Târgu Frumos , repelled three Soviet divisions and recaptured the town 48 hours after receiving its initial order?
the SS in Nazi Germany were above civilian law, answering only to the SS-run Hauptamt SS Gericht ?
the Soviet Union provided a site in northern Russia for the secret Nazi German naval base Basis Nord as a part of a broader bilateral relation which included strategic and commercial agreements ?
the Nazi operation Gross Aktion resulted in the destruction of the Jewish population of Warsaw ?
the Nazi concentration camp Grini was built as a women's prison?
the German submarine U-777 was sunk in October 1944, less than 7 months after being launched?
the German 502nd heavy tank battalion was the first unit to be issued the famous Tiger I heavy tank?
it is thought that Rochdale Town Hall (pictured) was so admired by Adolf Hitler that he wanted to ship it, brick-by-brick, to Nazi Germany had the UK been defeated in World War II ?
in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact , the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed three economic agreements: in 1939 , in 1940 and in 1941 ?
from March 1940, Edvard Sylou-Crantz worked in Germany as a Norwegian-language propagandistic radio news reader?
future Maltese diplomat Arvid Pardo was successively detained by Fascist Italian , Nazi German , and Soviet authorities between 1940 and 1945?
four artillery submarines were among many uncompleted U-boat projects planned by Nazi Germany ?
former professional footballer Charlie Sillett was one of two Royal Navy gunners killed when the Norwegian steamship SS Corvus was sunk by a torpedo launched from the German U-boat U-1018 ?
during World War II , the Czech comics illustrator Kája Saudek was imprisoned in a German concentration camp ?
during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine , a secret synod of Ukrainian bishops in Pochaiv Lavra created the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church , canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate ?
in 1935, Nicolaas Wilhelmus Posthumus founded the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands to avoid destruction of socialist history documents by Nazi Germany ?
in 1940 the unarmed Norwegian steamship Dronning Maud was sunk by German aircraft while she was flying Red Cross flags and carrying a company of medical personnel?
in combat areas of the Eastern Front of World War II , German soldiers were ordered to shoot any dog because it might be an anti-tank dog ?
in light of the Nazi Germany attempt to destroy Polish culture , the Secret Teaching Organization created an underground education system with over a million students?
in February 1944, the retreating forces of Nazi Germany razed the Gdov Kremlin almost entirely with only its walls remaining?
in February 1943, German General Hubert Lanz plotted to arrest Hitler during a visit to his headquarters?
in 1965, East German politician Albert Norden accused 1,900 politicians and other prominent personalities in West Germany of having worked for the Nazi regime ?
in 1944 a railway ferry on the Norwegian railway Rjukanbanen (pictured) was sunk to 430 meters depth to prevent Nazi Germany from developing nuclear weapons ?
the troop transport USS Wakefield , a former luxury liner , operated in World War II as a "lone wolf" by relying on her speed to avoid Nazi U-Boats?
the Edsall -class destroyer escort USS Fiske (pictured) was torpedoed and sunk in 1944 by the German submarine she was hunting?
the day after Nazi Germany declared war on the U.S., Adolf Hitler announced the extermination of the Jewish race to party leaders in a private meeting in the Reich Chancellery ?
the game between FC Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich on 23 April 1945 in the Gauliga Bayern , ending 3–2, was the last official football game played in Nazi Germany ?
the logo of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring , an industrial conglomerate of Nazi Germany , remained in use until the 1980s?
the brief Dodecanese Campaign in 1943 resulted in one of the last major German victories in World War II ?
the massacre in Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD in the purges of 1937-1938 was investigated in 1943 during the German invasion of Ukraine and used in the propaganda war against the Soviet Union?
the USS Cortland (APA-75) was the object of a failed Nazi sabotage attempt in World War II ?
the Urakami class destroyer Kawakaze of the Imperial Japanese Navy was built in Scotland , sold to the Regia Marina of Italy and sunk as a ship of the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany ?
the most successful of Nazi Germany 's anti-partisan operations of the Second World War was Operation Hannover ?
the physicist Stefan Meyer led the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna before and after the Nazi regime ?
when the Nazis began requiring all Jews in the occupied Netherlands to wear the yellow badge , Dutch Christian Casper ten Boom voluntarily wore one also?
when the commander of the German forces in the Dodecanese came to surrender aboard HMS Kimberley , he did so aboard a captured British Motor Launch ?
when interned by Nazi Germany in World War II , Sofka Skipwith and a friend smuggled a Jewish baby out of the camp in a Red Cross box and so saved its life?
when Nazi Germany invaded Poland , Polish-Jewish poet Rajzel Żychlińsky fled by taking a taxicab?
the two attacks on Nauru Island during December 1940 were the greatest success achieved by German auxiliary cruisers in the Pacific Ocean during World War II ?
the writer Mikhail Mikhalkov , brother of Sergei Mikhalkov , who wrote the Soviet anthem , was an NKVD agent acting in Nazi Germany and later a GULAG inmate?
the Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a key part of Allied efforts to prevent Nazi Germany from developing nuclear weapons ?
the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in Warsaw (pictured) was inspired by a comment made by Napoleon , and was nearly melted down by Nazi Germany after the Warsaw Uprising ?
the Battle of San Marino was fought between Allied and German forces inside a neutral country ?
the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service?
the Battle of Dombås was a German attempt during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign at using Fallschirmjägers to cut rail and road links in central Norway ?
the Arado Ar 197 plane was designed by Germany before World War II for a never completed aircraft carrier ?
the British motor tanker SS Atheltempler , part of Convoy PQ-18 to aid the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany , was sunk north of Bear Island ?
the first public anti-smoking campaign in modern history was launched in Nazi Germany ?
the Zentrale Stelle (Central Office) was established in 1958 by the West German government to investigate war crimes committed outside Germany by Nazi forces ?
the Dehousing Paper , presented to the British War Cabinet in 1942, advocated for a strategic bombing campaign of German cities?
the Hungarian Gold Train was a 1944 Nazi operated freight train that carried stolen Hungarian valuables to Berlin , but never reached its destination?
the Liverpool Blitz was a sustained bombing campaign on the city of Liverpool , United Kingdom , by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War ?
the Heinkel He 50 , designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1931, was used operationally by Germany almost until the end of World War II ?
the German Mine Sweeping Administration , a naval mine sweeping organisation made up of former members of the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany , was under command of the Royal Navy ?
the French Committee of National Liberation formed by Gens. Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle officially became the provisional government of France after its liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944?
the Gauliga was a German football league system introduced by the Nazis after they took over the country in 1933?
during World War II the British military successfully airdropped homing pigeons into German -occupied France so that they might carry the locals' intelligence reports back to England?
despite the Allied siege , La Rochelle was the last French city to be liberated from German occupation in 1945?
Battle of the Border refers to the series of battles in the opening stage of the Nazi Germany invasion of Poland in September 1939?
Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg , Prussia ?
Diego von Bergen , who was the ambassador to the Holy See for the Kingdom of Prussia until 1918, continued to serve in this position for the Weimar Republic as well as Nazi Germany ?
Anton Reinthaller , the first leader of the post-World War II Freedom Party of Austria , had been a Nazi politician and Undersecretary in Nazi Germany 's Ministry of Food and Agriculture?
Adolf Pilch , Polish resistance fighter trained by SOE during WWII , fought against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union ?
Abbot's Palace , a roccoco palace in Oliwa funded by the last Cistercian abbot of the Oliwa monastery, Jacek Rybiński , was burned down by German troops during World War II?
Abraham Esau was the head of the physics section of the Reich Research Council , Nazi Germany 's centralized planning institution for almost all basic and applied research?
Edward Kossoy represented about sixty thousand Jews , Roma and Poles in cases for reparations from Germany for Nazi terror?
forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered as part of war reparations to cover the damages inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during the World War II ?
Michał Klepfisz , a hero of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , saved his comrades' lives by throwing himself on a German machine gun ?
National Political Institutes of Education , elite secondary schools in Nazi Germany , only accepted students considered to be "racially flawless" and therefore did not admit pupils who needed glasses or had bad hearing ?
Karl Schnibbe was one of a group of three Hamburg teenagers arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany during World War II for distributing anti-Hitler pamphlets?
Jan Piekałkiewicz , a leading Polish statistician , became the Polish Underground State 's Government Delegate , and died at the hands of Nazi Germany ?
Frithjof Sælen was known for the book Snorri the Seal , banned during the German occupation of Norway for being a subtle satire on Nazi Germany ?
Ilse Stanley (pictured) , a German Jewish actress, secured the release of 412 prisoners in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1938?
World War II German fighter ace Heinrich Hoffmann was the first non-commissioned officer and first posthumous recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves ?
U.S. Army major William Stewart Walker was credited with leading 380 of his fellow soldiers to safety in Belgium from behind German lines during World War II ?
Karl Wahl , the leader of the Nazi Gau Schwaben , was the only Bavarian Gauleiter without a university degree ?
Lithuanians initially viewed Nazi Germany 's invasion in June 1941 as a liberation from Soviet rule, but soon began to resist, forming the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania ?
Heinz Guderian (pictured) and Adolf Hitler had heated arguments while planning for Operation Solstice , one of the major German offensive operations on the Eastern Front during WWII ?
French soprano Germaine Lubin was imprisoned for three years after World War II for her alleged support of Nazi Germany ?
ACLU director Aryeh Neier , a refugee from Nazi Germany , supported the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America in its efforts to march in Skokie, Illinois , an area with many Holocaust survivors?
French Roman Catholic archbishop Marcel Lefebvre 's father René Lefebvre died in a Nazi concentration camp ?
Max Manus referred to the release of Norwegian resistance member Kolbein Lauring from Grini concentration camp in 1943 as a "miraculous mistake" by the German authorities?
German Luftwaffe fighter ace Walther Dahl shot down 128 enemy aircraft in the Second World War , including a USAAF B-17 that he rammed in 1944?
American spy Allen Dulles ran an intelligence organization from his house on Herrengasse , a street in the Old City of Berne , Switzerland , collecting information on the Nazis during World War II ?
Pope Pius XII appointed Hilarius Breitinger as Apostolic Administrator to the Reichsgau Wartheland , the portion of Poland annexed by Nazi Germany ?
Nazi admiral Karl Dönitz advocated tonnage wars —military attacks on commercial vessels?
Nazi Germany planned to starve tens of millions of Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens in order to simultaneously eliminate "surplus population" and feed German citizens and their army?
Nazi German leaders, including Heinrich Himmler , briefly fell for Heinz Kurschildgen 's claims to be able to make petrol from water?
Nazi Germany used thousands of Polish laborers to build infrastructure for their invasion of the Soviet Union ?
Nikolaus Riehl researched the production of uranium in Nazi Germany , nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union , and the civil use of nuclear power in West Germany ?
Norman Williams shot down eight German aircraft while serving as an air gunner in Halifax bombers in the Second World War , becoming the most highly decorated non-commissioned officer in the RAAF and its only "ace " who was not a fighter pilot?
King Farouk I of Egypt secretly communicated with representatives of Nazi Germany during World War II through his father-in-law Youssef Zulficar Pasha , Egypt's first ambassador to Iran ?
Major Sir Hamish Forbes, 7th Baronet was awarded the MBE (Military Division) for his many escape attempts while a prisoner-of-war in Germany from 1940 to 1945, and was later patron of the Lonach Highlanders ?
Norwegian SOE agent Odd Starheim was killed in 1943 when the coastal steamer he and his team had seized off the coast of occupied Norway was sunk by German bombers ?
German nuclear physicist Heinz Barwich had illegal contacts to the Soviet secret police NKVD during Nazi rule , and then spied on the Soviet Union for the West while working in the East ?
Dr. Jay Katz , who escaped from Nazi Germany to the U.S. in the 1930s, opposed use of data from Nazi human experimentation , because "we cannot separate the data from the way they were obtained"?
destructive creativity is a social theory that has been used to explain Nazi Germany , and the Enron and Watergate scandals ?
Dimitry Laptev worked for Nazi Germany , the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union under different names?
a small Allied rearguard at the strategic pass of Thermopylae held off German forces invading Greece in 1941 at the most recent Battle of Thermopylae ?
after Nazi Germany 's annexation of Austria in 1938, the parliamentarians of the German Christian Social People's Party in Czechoslovakia joined the Sudeten German Party ?
approximately 10,000 young Germans known as the Ritchie Boys served in the United States Army in World War II helping conduct psychological warfare against Nazi Germany ?
despite losing Belgium to the Allies , Nazi Germany declared Flanders a reichsgau in 1944?
aircraft from 825 Naval Air Squadron (aircraft pictured) carried out attacks against several German battleships during the Second World War ?
after the defeat of Nazi Germany , the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg existed for some time in an area that Allied forces neglected to occupy?
after being captured by the Germans during World War II , Soviet soldier Baymirza Hayit joined the pro-Nazi Turkestan Legion and became a leading Turkestani nationalist?
after the Soviet battleship Marat (pictured) was sunk during World War II by German Stukas , it was raised and used as a floating artillery battery ?
Witold Dzierżykraj-Morawski , a colonel of the Polish Army , was one of the many prisoners murdered by Nazi Germany in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp ?
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb led the successful German assault on Leningrad in 1941 , but was relieved of duty by a distrustful Hitler ?
Rupprecht Gerngroß is considered the leader of the only successful putsch against Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany ?
SS Empire Simba , a British cargo ship , was severely damaged in port by a land mine dropped by a German bomber during the World War II ?
pockets of resistance created during the German invasions of France in 1940 and Yugoslavia in 1941 developed into resistance movements that tied down several German divisions?
Pitomnik Airfield was the primary German airfield within the city during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II ?
Operation Himmler was a Nazi Germany false flag operation, intended to create an appearance that the German invasion of Poland was a defensive war provoked by a Polish attack on Germany?
Operation Winter Storm was an attempt by German Army Group Don to relieve the trapped Sixth Army in Stalingrad , during World War II ?
Samuel Brand , a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany , was officially the first immigrant to enter Israel after its creation?
Skorpa prisoner of war camp was the main Norwegian POW camp in Northern Norway during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign , holding some 500 German military and civilian prisoners?
Władysław Filipkowski , a Polish resistance fighter and commander of the Lwów Uprising against Nazi Germany occupiers in 1944, was soon afterwards arrested by the Soviet NKVD and imprisoned for three years?
Western Local Escort Force was organized by the Royal Canadian Navy in February 1942 as a response to German U-boat raids known as the Second Happy Time ?
U-256 was one of seven German World War II submarines converted into anti-aircraft submarines, and the last German submarine to leave Brest, France ?
U-106 was one of Germany's most successful submarines, sinking twenty-two Allied ships in World War II ?
Tadeusz Adamowski , a pioneer of ice hockey in interwar Poland , played the sport at Harvard , coached the Polish national team , and was imprisoned in a German Oflag during World War II ?
U-F2 was a French submarine that was taken as a prize by the Germans in 1940 from a dockyard, and was later converted for German usage?
3–5.5 million OST-Arbeiters , slave laborers from Eastern Europe , worked in Nazi Germany during WWII ?
More interesting facts on Nazi Germany
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Question 1 : The import of foreign films was legally restricted after 1936 and the German industry, which was effectively ________ in 1937, had to make up for the missing foreign films (above all American productions).
Question 2 : In 1941, Germany's invasion of ________ resulted in that state's splintering.
Question 3 : How is Martin Heidegger described?
Question 4 : Furthermore, to coerce popular obedience to the state, the Nazis established the ________ secret state police — independent of civil authority.
Question 5 : Two important issues were administration of the Polish corridor and ________ 's incorporation into the Reich.
Question 6 : Most of the judicial structures and legal codes of the ________ remained in use during the Third Reich, but significant changes within the judicial codes occurred, as well as significant changes in court rulings.
Question 7 : Modern ________ and avant-garde art was removed from museums and put on special display as "degenerate art ", where it was to be ridiculed.
Question 8 : Operation Barbarossa was supposed to begin earlier than it did; however, failed Italian ventures in North Africa and the ________ concerned Hitler.
Question 9 : Which is the largest city in Nazi Germany?
Question 10 : The Nazis rationalized that the ________ , being a super human (Übermenschlich ) race, had a biological right to displace, eliminate and enslave inferiors.