World War II: 5 Things You Should Know

Question: Germany lost World War I in 1918, yet just 15 years later Adolf Hitler rose to power. What helped Germans turn to his Nazi Party?

Answer: Harsh punishments from World War I and a crushing economic collapse left Germans desperate for change. Hitler used that anger to seize power and rebuild Germany’s military.

Question: The U.S. stayed neutral for over two years after World War II began in 1939. What finally pulled America into the fighting?

Answer: On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, hoping to cripple American power in the Pacific. Instead, it brought the world’s largest industrial economy into the war on the Allied side.

Question: On June 6, 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. Why was the D-Day invasion so important?

Answer: D-Day forced Germany to fight the Americans and British in the west while the Soviet Union pushed from the east. Less than a year later, Germany surrendered.

Question: Nazi Germany built camps like Auschwitz across occupied Europe. Why is Auschwitz now remembered as a symbol of the Holocaust?

Answer: During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany systematically murdered six million Jews, along with millions of others it targeted. Auschwitz was the largest killing center and stands today as a warning about where hatred can lead.

Question: Germany surrendered in May 1945, but war with Japan raged on. What brought World War II to a sudden end that August?

Answer: In August 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered days later. The war ended, but the nuclear age had begun.