On June 22, 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invadedthe USSR.
It was the largest military operation of World War II. It opened the Eastern Front, which would stretch from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact has been broken. This breach is a source of great satisfaction to all anti-fascist and anti-Nazi fighters. In the June 25, 1941, issue, *Unzer Wort* and *Notre Parole*, underground publications, called for support of the USSR, which was under attack by the Nazis, and warned of the threats targeting Jews in particular.
Despite the enormous losses suffered by the Soviet army—which was ill-prepared and decimated by Stalin’s purges of 1938—German troops were slowed down and then halted during the Battle of Moscow. The German army failed to defeat the Soviet troops, but Hitler, confident of his invincibility, planned new offensives against the USSR.
At the same time, in Eastern Europe, he stepped up his program to exterminate the Jews.
In December 1941, the conflict expanded with the entry of the United States into the war, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. fought alongside the United Kingdom, the USSR, China, and Free France. These Allied forces faced Germany and the Axis powers allied with the Nazi regime, such as Italy and Japan.
From that point on, the war became a world war.
