A global war that took place from 1939 to 1945 and was fought between the Allies (chiefly Britain, France, and, from 1941, the Soviet Union and the United States) and the Axis (chiefly Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan). The war was mainly fought in Europe, North Africa, the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, and ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945 and of Japan in August 1945. During the war, an estimated six million European Jews were killed by the Germans and their collaborators, in what became known as the Holocaust. The was also generated hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees, with many of them eventually immigrating to Palestine.