Not exactly a proud, or even legal, moment for the state.
Sarah Sundin notes something grim on her blog:
Today in World War II History—February 5, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 5, 1943: Nazis begin liquidating Bialystok ghetto; 1,000 Jews are killed and 10,000 are sent to Treblinka extermination camp.
Events such as these accelerated and climbed in scale following the German defeat at Stalingrad. The focus of the war began to turn less on Eastern European colonization and more on murder.
Mel Brooks, oddly enough, made Bialystok a name that's at least recognizable to fans of his comedy, as one of the two principal characters in The Producers bears that as his last name. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but it's interesting.
The Polish city remains a significant one in Poland today. Prior to World War Two, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe. Germany's was actually relatively small. 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland, not all of whom claimed a Jewish identity, although many did. By the war's end, approximately 380,000 Polish Jews remained. Many would subsequently emigrate out of the country. Polish Jews would undergo a renewed wave of repression following World War Two, following the same in the Soviet Union, during which Jewish Poles were accused of being in league with the United States and Israel against Communism, and the state officially worked to eliminate the unique distinction of Jews as particular victims of German atrocities.
Mussolini fired his Foreign Minister, his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, along with most of his cabinet. Il Duce took over the position of Foreign Minister, along with being Interior Minister, War Minister, and Air Minister.
Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews.
Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews was appointed commander of U.S. Forces in Europe, relieving Gen. Dwight Eisenhower of that post in a little noted change of command. Eisenhower was, at that time, engaged in the combat command in North Africa.
Andrews was the grandson of a Confederate cavalryman and was a cavalryman himself, having been commissioned in that branch in 1906. His career benefited from him having married well. He switched to Army aviation during World War One, although he returned briefly to the cavalry after the war.
Lt. Col Georges Doriot, a later pioneer in venture capitalism, an immigrant from France, and a wartime volunteer, convinced Gen. George Marshall to adopt what would become the M1943 combat boot, which would replace the Army Service Shoe and leggings, for the most part, by the end of the war. The M1943 would also officially replace the Army paratrooper boot as well. In reality, the Service Shoe and the jump boot were never fully replaced by the M1943, and paratroopers resisted adopting the M1943.
How the U.S. Army imagined its troops to look in an official painting illustrating the Army in Europe, late war. The tankers in this painting are probably wearing the overalls that were issued to tankers, but for coats they are wearing the Winter Combat Jacket. It wasn't a tanker only item, but it became heavily associated with them. Originally they were part of the overall winter uniform and were popular with soldiers. You can find photographic evidence of officers having some altered by tailors to include epaulets for rank insignia, which they otherwise lacked. The Thompson submachine gun is correct for an armored crewman. The walking Colonel is an officer of the 5th Infantry Division and is shown wearing the M1943 Field Jacket, and he is wearing the M1943 Combat Boots. These solders are wearing the M1943 cotton trousers, which were issued, but often solders in the winter continued to wear their wool service pattern trousers, and indeed did so even in warmer months. Both walking soldiers are shown wearing helmet covers, which were rarely worn in Europe as it caused confusion with German snipers, who also did. Helmet netting was much more common.
The reason for the adoption was that Service Shoes were not lasting long, with a reported thirteen days of durability, although that is likely explained by materials rather than the design itself, which had an extremely long run and which survives as a very tough civilian pattern to this day. The M1943 was in fact based on the Service Shoe, but incorporating cuff buckles which had been used on prior civilian hunting and outdoors boots. It was also made of rough out leather, as "Pershing Boots" had been during World War One, which was known to be highly durable, but which was resistant to polishing.
One solder comforting another during the Korean War. All of these men wear the M1943 Combat Boot. They're also wearing Field Pants, modeled on the trousers worn by U.S. paratroopers in World War Two and which have continued to be the pattern to the present day.
The M1943 was seen as a huge improvement by soldiers when they came out, save for paratroopers, but it was replaced in 1948, theoretically, by a boot based on the theoretically replaced jump boot. In reality, however, M1943s would be in use well into the late 1950s. They also saw use in other armies, which adopted the pattern, and which used them for many years.
U.S. troosp in Italy during World War Two. The sniper in the center of the photo is wearing a helmet cover, rare for U.S. troops during the war, and he's wearing M1942 Jump Boots, which were hugely popular with U.S. servicemen during the war, and for decades thereafter. Made on the Munson Last, they were very comfortable boots. His rifle is a M1903A5. To the right, as we view the photo, an infantryman is equipped also with the bolt action M1903, as are two of the men behind him. The number of M1903s in this photo is not uncommon, but there are too many to be explained by their being scout snipers or grenadiers, both of which used the M1903 throughout the war.
The M1943 boots came in as part of the M1943 Combat Uniform, which featured not only new boots, but a new field jacket, the M1943, which formed the distinctive appearance of the American soldier for decades thereafter. The Field Jacket was a huge improvement over prior patterns, and it did successfully replace the various competing variants, although examples of the earlier patterns did endure throughout the war. Through various updates and modifications, the basic M1943 style of uniform remained in general service up until the adoption of the Battle Dress Uniform in the early 1980s, which was itself ironically patterned on the earlier M1941 Paratroopers Uniform which had inspired Vietnam era jungle fatigues. The successor of the M1943 Field Jacket would remain in use until the very recently, and is still an acceptable private purchase item.
U.S. Army officers during the Korean War wearing the pattern of uniform closely based on the M1943 uniform. The officer on the right wears the M1951 Field Jacket, which was of a greener color than the M1943. Both men are wearing russet M1948 Combat Boots, a pattern that had been introduced after the war and which was based on the M1942 Paratrooper Boot, but which was in fact slightly different, even though by this time the M1942 had been reintroduced. The boots should be black, but many were russet as that had been the color they were first adopted in and soldiers were expected to die them black, something that wasn't easy to do. Both men are wearing "patrol caps", which also came in with the M1943 uniform as the M1943 Field Cap. The Army has retained the Patrol Cap to this day, after briefly toying with replacing it.
It might be noted that the M1943 uniform was only an Army uniform during World War Two. The Marine Corps adopted the field jacket after the war, but only the field jacket.
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