I remember more facts about WWII than WW1. Still, I thought it would good to add a refresher.

A major factor in WWII was the unresolved issues from WWI. The treaty of Versailles had harsh penalties on Germany. Penalties included territory losses, military restrictions and reparations. Germans were economically depressed, humiliated, resented the treaty, and wanted revenge.

To me one of the key points between WWI and WWII was that the Great Depression hit and politics did not keep in check what was going on.

The Nazi Party came to rise and with it came Adolf Hitler. Hitler promoted aggressive expansion politics that was not kept in check by other European countries. The following actions started the war.

• Mid 1930s Hitler started the buildup of the German army
• 1938 Germany signed alliances with Japan and Italy against the Soviet Union
• Japan wanted to expand through Asia
• 1938 Germany annexed Austria
• 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non aggression pact. This meant that Germany could attack Poland and Soviet Union would not respond. They agreed that Poland would be split between the Soviet Union and Germany.
• England and France had an existing agreement that they would support Poland if it was attacked
• Sept. 1, 1939 Germany attacked Poland.
• Sept 3, 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany.

See link: https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-ii-history for additional details on what happened next that resulted in WWII

WWII Facts:

• Largest and deadliest conflict in history
• >50 nations involved
• 60 to 80 million people died up to 55 million of the number was civilians
• 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitlers “final solution”
• Resulted in the creation of the United Nations and the Cold War

The global population in 1939 was around 2.3 billion. That means 2.61% of the global population died in WWII. Wow!! I tried comparing WWII to Covid 19. The issue is that the numbers widely vary between websites and organization. As a result, I cannot provide a comparison.

When we first arrived at the memorial, the area consisted mostly of routine visitors. As the day progressed, bus loads of veterans arrived from Honor Flights and were at the Memorial. Each person had a guardian and was lined up in front of the memorial. When possible the person would hold a picture of them from their service days.

These pictures were taken before the Honor Flight Veterans arrived.

Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth century father and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle during the second world war and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: a nation conceived in liberty and justice.

Each state is represented on the monument.

Best for last

You can read more about it on the NPS website here.