War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of Key Battles of World War II in Europe, our 10,000-foot

survey of the Second World War in Europe and the areas around it. I'm your host, James

Early, as always, and my co-host, as always, is Sean McIra.

Now, we're in the midst of a series of individual episodes, topical episodes, and as we

warned you last time, we are now going to discuss a very depressing and very heavy topic,

and that is the Holocaust. I really think you

cannot discuss World War II in Europe without discussing this topic. It is extremely important,

but let me throw out a disclaimer before we get going. As you can imagine, this episode contains

extremely difficult material, very disturbing things, and it may not be

appropriate for all listeners.

So if you have any younger listeners, like, you know, your son, daughter, or somebody

else that's younger that's, you may want to listen to it first, grownups, and then make

a decision on whether or not the young ones should listen to it or not.

I also want to acknowledge Dr. David Stone, the World War II scholar,

who his material on this topic was very helpful to me in compiling this episode.

Well, we'll go ahead and get started.

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