1-16-45
Soviet troops liberate 800 Jews at Czestochowa and 870 in Lodz.

1-17-45
Soviet troops liberate Warsaw.

1-17-45
Liberation of 80,000 Jews in Budapest.

1-17-45
Evacuation of Auschwitz. The "Death March" of prisoners begins.

1-27-45
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.

2-4-45
Conference in Yalta, Crimea.

3-3-45
American troops on the Rhine River.

3-19-45
Hitler orders the destruction of all German military, industrial, transportation, and communications facilities to prevent them from falling into enemy control.

4-6/10-45
Evacuation of 15,000 Jews from Buchenwald.

4-11-45
Buchenwald liberated by American troops.

4-15-45
Concentration camp Bergen-Belsen liberated by British troops.

4-20-45
American troops occupy Nuremberg.

4-23-45
Soviet troops in front of Berlin.

4-23/5-4-45
Evacuation of inmates from concentration camps Sachsenhausen (Berlin) and Ravensbruck. Last massacre of Jews by SS guards.

4-25-45
Meeting of American and Soviet troops on the Elbe River.

4-28-45
American troops liberate Dachau.

4-30-45
Hitler commits suicide.

5-2-45
Berlin capitulates. Representatives of International Red Cross take over at Theresienstadt.

5-5-45
Liberation of Mauthausen.

5-7/9-45
Unconditional surrender of Germany: end of war in Europe.

5-23-45
Himmler captured and commits suicide.

8-6-45
First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

8-15-45
Japan surrenders: End of World War II.

11-22-45
Start of the Nuremberg Trials. Trials ended 10-1-46 with 12 defendants sentenced to death, 3 to life imprisonment, 4 to various prison terms, and 3 acquitted.