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The carnage of World War II was unprecedented and brought the world closest to the term "total warfare." On average 27,000 people were killed each day between September 1, 1939, until the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Western technological advances had turned upon itself, bringing about the most destructive war in human history. The primary combatants were the Axis nations of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and the Allied nations, Great Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), the Soviet Union, and the United States. Seven days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 7, 1945. The Japanese would go on to fight for nearly four more months until their surrender on September 2, which was brought on by the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Despite winning the war, Britain largely lost much of its empire, which was outlined in the basis of the Atlantic Charter. The war precipitated the revival of the U.S. economy, and by the war's end, the nation would have a gross national product that was nearly greater than all the Allied and Axis powers combined. The USA and USSR emerged from World War II as global superpowers. The fundamentally disparate, one-time allies became engaged in what was to be called the Cold War, which dominated world politics for the latter half of the 20th century.
What Happened in WWII?
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September 1, 1939

September 2, 1945

Latest Stories about World War II

What Happened in World War II:

When did World War II begin?

Some say it was simply a continuation of the First World War that had theoretically ended in 1918. Others point to 1931, when Japan seized Manchuria from China. Others to Italy's invasion and defeat of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, Adolf Hitler's re-militarization of Germany's Rhineland in 1936, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 are sometimes cited. The two dates most often mentioned as "the beginning of World War II" are July 7, 1937, when the " Marco Polo Bridge Incident" led to a prolonged war between Japan and China, and September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler's Nazi state in retaliation. From the invasion of Poland until the war ended with Japan's surrender in September 1945, most nations around the world were engaged in armed combat.

Origins of World War II

No one historic event can be said to have been the origin of World War II. Japan's unexpected victory over czarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) left open the door for Japanese expansion in Asia and the Pacific. The United States U.S. Navy first developed plans in preparation for a naval war with Japan in 1890. War Plan Orange, as it was called, would be updated continually as technology advanced and greatly aided the U.S. during World War II.

The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability. The Great Depression that began on Black Tuesday, 1929 plunged the worldwide recession. Coming to power in 1933, Hitler capitalized on this economic decline and the deep German resentment due to the emasculating Treaty of Versailles, signed following the armistice of 1918. Declaring that Germany needed Lebensraum or "living space," Hitler began to test the Western powers and their willingness to monitor the treaty's provision. By 1935 Hitler had established the Luftwaffe, a direct violation of the 1919 treaty. Remilitarizing the Rhineland in 1936 violated Versailles and the Locarno Treaties (which defined the borders of Europe) once again. The Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of the rump of Czechoslovakia was a further extension of Hitler's desire for Lebensraum. Italy's desire to create the Third Rome pushed the nation to closer ties with Nazi Germany. Likewise, Japan, angered by their exclusion in Paris in 1919, sought to create a Pan-Asian sphere with Japan in order to create a self-sufficient state.

Competing ideologies further fanned the flames of international tension. The Bolshevik Revolution in czarist Russia during the First World War, followed by the Russian Civil War, had established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a sprawling communist state. Western republics and capitalists feared the spread of Bolshevism. In some nations, such as Italy, Germany and Romania, ultra-conservative groups rose to power, in part in reaction to communism.

Germany, Italy and Japan signed agreements of mutual support but, unlike the Allied nations they would face, they never developed a comprehensive or coordinated plan of action.

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World War II: Facts & Info About the Bloodiest War in History

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Facts, information, and stories about World War II, the global conflict that killed tens of millions between 1939 and 1945.

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When Joachim Seifert talks about his life, he begins in 1864, "Anno 1864," as he says. His concise, pithy sentences are peppered with anachronisms and the regional pronunciations of a bygone era. He pronounces the German word for "day" (Tag) as Tach, and the word for mountain (Berg) as Berch, and when he mentions the weather (Wetter), he refers to it as Wetta.

"A helmet keeps you warmer than a cap," he says. As if to prove his point, this winter he is wearing a white miner's helmet with his parka. It's the same model that protected his head for 30 years, underground and above ground, and now, just as Seifert is about to turn 75, Germany's erstwhile industrial Ruhr region has been named Europe's Capital of Culture -- and the former life of this retired miner has become an item on the program.

He has already explained to thousands of visitors how he and his fellow miners brought tons of coal out of the earth, from hundreds of meters below ground, until the Zollverein coal mine was finally closed. And when they ask why he chose such a difficult line of work, he replies that it all goes back to the year 1864. "That was when my wife's grandpa came here. He was the first member of the family to work at Zollverein."

It is a first this year, that an entire region in Germany is being honored as a Capital of Culture. The jury also awarded the title to Istanbul and the Hungarian city of Pécs. When they were making their decision, the jurors were impressed by the way the Ruhr region has struggled and come to grips with its structural transformation -- from coal to culture.

A Garden and a Pig

But even though hardly any coal is mined in the region today, coal mining still shapes the culture and development of a region that, in its current form, is only about 170 years old.

This special year began at the Zollverein mine with a snowstorm, dancing and speeches, but many years earlier, Joachim Seifert's grandfather was riding a coal train to the cargo ships in the harbor. The manager had assigned him a small apartment, which came with a garden and pig. The mine, in the northern section of the city of Essen, soon became the largest, most modern and most productive coalmine in the world. And when Joachim Seifert, a machinist, married into the family in 1958 -- at a time when Germany needed coal and steel -- he too was drawn into the coalmining way of life.

Now all of that has become part of what is referred to as culture in the Ruhr. The miners' apartments have become historic landmarks, and the Zollverein, once a hot, noisy place, is now a monument to the community and has even been named a World Cultural Heritage site.

Nowadays, Seifert leads groups of tourists along a new "landmark path" through old machine shops. The equipment that was once part of the ordinary life of a mine worker is now considered part of Germany's cultural heritage: screening drums the size of trucks, Allen wrenches as thick as a man's forearm, the pads miners wore to protect their buttocks while working in rocky sections of the mine, which they called "ass leather." Seifert remembers the breaks the miners took every four hours, when they would talk about their gardens, soccer and politics.

No More Coal Dust

The officials in charge of the commemorative year are quick to point out that culture in the Ruhr region is much more than industrial history, more than decommissioned smokestacks and blast furnaces. They list 120 theaters and the annual music and arts festival known as the Ruhrtriennale, as well as the region's five universities and hundreds of research institutes. The Folkwang Museum in Essen reopened last month after renovations, in a new exhibition building designed by London architect David Chipperfield, and Norman Foster has designed a new city center in Duisburg. The Ruhr, say its promoters, is a modern metropolitan region, Europe's third-largest, whose population of 5.3 million no longer breathes coal dust, but looks to the future instead.

But the Ruhr region, with its postwar architecture, discount stores, allotment gardens and large numbers of lakes and hospitals, is also home to 275,000 unemployed. Only four out of 200 coalmines are still in operation, and in two years the German parliament, the Bundestag, will decide whether those few mines should also be shut down. Carmaker Opel expects to lay off 1,800 workers at its plant in Bochum, and the region is plagued by high levels of child poverty.

There are 53 cities in the region, which comprises an area of 4,435 square kilometers (1,711 square miles) between the cities of Hamm and Wesel, and almost all of them face, or are about to face, budget shortfalls. As a result, cities have been forced to introduce austerity measures, such as lowering the water temperature in public swimming pools in Bochum and Duisburg, or mowing lawns in public parks less frequently in Oberhausen. This winter, not all communities provided snow removal services. Streetlights are being shut off, school renovations have been put on hold and youth programs have been cancelled. The city of Dortmund has determined that it will have to cut €80 million ($108 million) in costs each year for the foreseeable future, while the city of Oberhausen will end the year €1.8 billion in the red.

Mayors are fighting for money and recognition, as are the state officials who manage the entire region, which is divided into three administrative districts. There is no sense of identity that encompasses all of the region's cities. Streetcars run on varying track widths throughout the region. Even the power of football is a dividing rather than a uniting factor in a region that is home to five first- and second-league football teams. It is a region where loyalty to one's football club trumps loyalty to the region, and where residents are more likely to identify themselves as Schalke fans or Dortmund fans than as Ruhr residents. Even the dialect sounds different on every corner, despite sounding more or less the same to outsiders, with some residents speaking with a stronger Westphalian accent, while others have a touch of the Lower Rhine region or even Poland in their speech. The Ruhr region is not a city, but a complex megalopolis with one thing in common: its mining past.

Model of Renewal

Many people have tried many things to support the Ruhr's rise. The region has received €120 billion for the coal industry alone since 1958. And when it became clear that the mining industry was on the wane, all governments struggled to create a model region of renewal.

Those efforts have left visible traces, including the results of the "Emscher Park International Building Exhibition." Between 1989 and 1999, abandoned industrial plants were turned into cultural centers and former railroad lines into bike paths. Canoers now paddle the Ruhr River, once considered a cesspool. The sulfurous air of yore is but a memory. A 400-kilometer "Route of Industrial Culture" passes alongside historic factory buildings that have been turned into museums, office buildings and artists' studios. The Zollverein coal mine is one of them. The region has generated 300,000 new jobs since 1989.

But now the Ruhr region needs help again, and the title "Capital of Culture" is intended as the vehicle.

There were immense hopes for the region. The experiences of Liverpool, which was designated a European Capital of Culture two years ago, suggested that the effort would be worth it. In the end, revenues in Great Britain's version of the Ruhr region were five times as high as expenditures, and Liverpool shed its image as a drab working-class city in northwestern England. A study conducted by a management-consulting firm after Liverpool's year in the spotlight concluded that art and culture were more important as economic factors than previously assumed.

This is precisely what the organizers of "Ruhr 2010" intend to create: an image of change and cohesion. The team includes experts in creating images. Managing Director Fritz Pleitgen is a former television reporter and was the director of Westdeutsche Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting) for many years, while Artistic Director Dieter Gorny founded the Viva music television network.

Ready for the Creative Economy

As part of this image-creating process, in May yellow balloons will rise into the air over 350 former mineshafts, places where workers once descended into the earth. In July, 20,000 tables will be joined together to form the "longest table in the world" along a stretch of the permanently jammed A40 Autobahn, which traverses the region. Residents who live along the highway, people who normally have little in common, will sit down for lunch in a gesture of triumph over the traffic that has become one of the region's biggest problems.

Images have emerged of theatergoers traveling with ships and buses to six places in the Ruhr region, an event set to Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey." Photos will be printed of tens of thousands of people singing a song at the same time. There will be 2,000 events, hundreds of projects and several research ventures. Organizers had long hoped that this approach would convince the rest of the world that the people of the Ruhr region are finally ready for the creative economy, the knowledge economy and all other modern versions of work.

But now those hopes have been replaced by doubts. In the midst of the economic crisis, sponsors have reneged on their commitments, leading to a decline in the budget from €80 million to €62.5 million.

Major projects have remained incomplete. The Bochum Symphony, directed by Steven Sloane, a group of outstanding musicians, will not get a new concert hall, despite having raised €7 million in donations. The regional administration put a stop to the construction project, arguing that the city of Bochum would be unable to pay the subsequent costs. Another project, a planned artists' district in Oberhausen's Industrieturm tower, has also been cancelled.

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Culture of Steel: Germany's Ruhr Valley Looks Back to Its Future - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International

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When Joachim Seifert talks about his life, he begins in 1864, "Anno 1864," as he says. His concise, pithy sentences are peppered with anachronisms and the regional pronunciations of a bygone era. He pronounces the German word for "day" (Tag) as Tach, and the word for mountain (Berg) as Berch, and when he mentions the weather (Wetter), he refers to it as Wetta.

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World GDP Ranking 2019 - StatisticsTimes.com

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This list contains projected GDP (Nominal and PPP) of top 50 Countries/Economies in current prices of year 2019 and 2023 by IMF. World rank and % share in world economy.

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Introduction

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the Nazi era, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples ( Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and Black people. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

What Was the Holocaust?

In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By the end of the war in 1945, the Germans and their allies and collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the " Final Solution."

The Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race that posed the deadliest menace to the German . Soon after they came to power, the Nazis adopted measures to exclude Jews from German economic, social and cultural life and to pressure them to emigrate. World War II provided Nazi officials with the opportunity to pursue a comprehensive, "final solution to the Jewish question": the murder of all the Jews in Europe.

While Jews were the priority target of Nazi racism, other groups within Germany were persecuted for racial reasons, including Roma (then commonly called "Gypsies"), Afro-Germans, and people with mental or physical disabilities. By the end of the war, the Germans and their Axis partners murdered between 250,000 and 500,000 Roma. And between 1939 and 1945, they murdered at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly German and living in institutions, in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people seen as biologically inferior or dangerous. Approximately 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or brutal treatment. The Germans shot tens of thousands of non-Jewish members of the Polish intelligentsia, murdered the inhabitants of hundreds of villages in "pacification" raids in Poland and the Soviet Union, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians to perform forced labor under conditions that caused many to die.

From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and other Germans whose behavior did not conform to prescribed social norms (such as beggars, alcoholics, and prostitutes), incarcerating tens of thousands of them in prisons and concentration camps. German police officials similarly persecuted tens of thousands of Germans viewed as political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, Freemasons, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah's Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of maltreatment and murder.

Implementation of the "Final Solution"

World War II provided Nazi officials the opportunity to adopt more radical measures against the Jews under the pretext that they posed a threat to Germany. After occupying Poland, German authorities confined the Jewish population to ghettos, to which they also later deported thousands of Jews from the Third Reich. Hundreds of thousands of Jews died from the horrendous conditions in the ghettos in German-occupied Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, SS and police units perpetrated mass shootings of Jews and Roma, as well as Soviet Communist Party and state officials in eastern Europe. The German units involved in these massacres included Einsatzgruppen, Order Police battalions, and Waffen-SS units. As they moved through eastern Europe, these units relied on logistical support from the German military (the Wehrmacht). In addition to shootings, these units also used specially designed mobile gas vans as a means of killing. Mass shootings of Jews in eastern Europe continued throughout the war. Of the approximately 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, at least 1.5 million and possibly more than 2 million died in mass shootings or gas vans in Soviet territory.

In late 1941, Nazi officials opted to employ an additional method to kill Jews, one originally developed for the "Euthanasia" Program: stationary gas chambers. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi Germany and its allies deported Jews from areas under their control to killing centers. These killing centers, often called extermination camps in English, were located in German-occupied Poland. Poison gas was the primary means of murder at these camps. Nearly 2.7 million Jews were murdered at the five killing centers:

Some able-bodied Jewish deportees were temporarily spared to perform forced labor in ghettos, forced labor camps for Jews, or concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union. Most of these workers died from starvation and disease or were killed when they became too weak to work.

My mother ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me "Leibele, I'm not going to see you no more. Take care of your brother."
- Leo Schneiderman describing arrival at Auschwitz, selection, and separation from his family

The End of the Holocaust

In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called " death marches," in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

On May 7, 1945, German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. World War II officially ended in most parts of Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day). Because of the time difference, Soviet forces announced their "Victory Day" on May 9, 1945.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, an estimated 250,000 Jewish survivors found shelter in displaced persons camps run by the Allied powers and the United Nations Refugee and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Between 1948 and 1951, most Jewish displaced persons immigrated to Israel, the United States, and other nations outside Europe. The last camp for Jewish displaced persons closed in 1957.

The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated or completely destroyed Jewish communities across Europe.

Last Edited: Mar 2, 2021

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Introduction to the Holocaust: What was the Holocaust?

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The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.