When Did World War 2 End?

World War II ended with the Allied victory and the defeat of Hitler and the German and Japanese armys in 1945. So much had been on the line for the countries involved - their families, their armies and their leaders.

Factors Which Ended the War

No one factor was the sole reason for the end of World War 2. There were several key actions which stopped the war:

April 27, 1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured and killed.
April 30, 1945 - German dictator Adolph Hitler committed suicide. Over the next week (from May 1 through 6) German forces started to surrender in Europe.
May 8, 1945 - Germans commanders agreed to an unconditional surrender by all troops.
August 2, 1945 - The Potsdam Agreement was signed, giving the Allies authority over Germany.
August 6, 1945 - The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 8th, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
August 15, 1945 - Emperor Hirohito of Japan surrendered.
September 2, 1945 - The Japanese signed the surrender papers, ending World War II.

Start of World War 2

On September 1, 1939, Poland was in for the surprise of a lifetime. Unsuspecting Poland had been invaded from the west by the army of Nazi Germany and by the Soviet army from the east.

Hitler was convinced that the land of Poland was the land of “birthright” for every German. He felt that Germans had been denied access to a land that was rightfully theirs. All this happened because of the outcome of WWI.

At the end of WWI, a political agreement determined that Poland no longer belonged to greater Germany, the place where Hitler and his Nazi party resided. This, plus the idea that the Polish nation was an “inferior,” non-Aryan race was all the motivation he needed to attempt to invade Poland.

Many mark this invasion as the start of World War II.

The United States, France, the British and the Soviet Union formed the Allied forces with the Germans, Japanese and Italians forming the Axis forces.

Japan's Goal in World War II

The Japanese saw World War II as their opportunity to gain power, particularly in East and Southeastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean. In 1942, at the peak of its dominence, Japan had control of almost three million square miles of land.

Impact of the Holocaust

The Holocaust was also an integral part of World War II. The Holocaust is regarded as one of the world’s most horrific events of all time. During the course of this evil, six-year episode of Jewish extinction, Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party were responsible for the lives of more than six million Jewish men, women, boys, girls, infants, and elderly. This means that more than 83,000 Jews were killed every month - more than 21,000 per week.

In short, Hitler murdered at least 3000 Jews every single day in his atrocious murder chambers. Hitler cared not who, how, or when he would accomplish his malicious goals to bring to notice a supreme human race that was superior to all others. World War II was a conflict that was surrounded by the political, spiritual, personal, and global aspiration of every nation on the earth.

Mein Kampf: A Political Documentary

None of Hitler’s ambitions had meaning without the help of his right-hand man; Rudolph Hess, who transcribed his thoughts into a book which eventually became famous only after his two-year imprisonment which began in 1923.

Mein Kampf, interpreted as My Struggles, is a book about the life, thoughts, and ambitions of Hitler between the period of WWI and WWII. It describes the feelings, frustrations, and the wicked ambitions of a man who had a vision, but no morals about his past and present life.

Mein Kampf is an uneducated documentary about the life of a man who had set out to convince the world that his point of view about politics and life were worth their time.