Almost 80 years ago the world was plunged into a war started by Adolf Hitler which its purpose was to rid Europe of two elements the Nazis wanted gone were “Jews” and communism. The Nazis thought that (based on pseudo-science that was made up) the world could be divided by “race” in which in their eyes the supposed superior race was the “Aryan” race which made up of coincidently Germans. They identified this race as the following: white skin color, blue eyes, blond hair, tall stature and many other genetic featured which most people in the world do not have. This ideology is the reason why Germany invaded Poland in September 1, 1939, directly starting the war as a violation of the treaty the world powers gave to Germany after they lost ww1, the Nazis at first seemed to have been winning the war as they were winning any many battles; however, that came to a halt when they invaded France and Britain refused to surrender.
Later, along in June 1940, Italy joins the war and sides with Germany and a year later in June 1941 Germany invades Russia (called the Soviet Union/the Ussr at the time) and basically gave a ally to Britain Japan enters the war on December 7, 1911, Japan bombs pearl harbor and this brought six major powers in which three aligned with each other against the other 3. The allies were: Great Britain, The United States of America, and The Soviet Union. The axis were: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the empire of Japan. The axis were extremely racist and killed others for their supposed “inferiority” the most infamous being the holocaust where 6 million Jews, and other minority races were killed by the Nazis; however, while being lesser known and having lesser deaths was just as horrific was Japan’s Nanking occupation where the Chinese were killed and the women were raped, Fascist Italy while not as bad as the other two, were still pretty horrific nonetheless.
So anyway, back to the war, after pearl harbor it was pretty much defeat for the AXIS as they were pretty much against the power houses of the USA and the Ussr along with the used to be dominate British empire. Italy was divided in a civil war where the allied supported partisans were victorious against the axis supported remnants of Fascist Italy. The Nazis were defeated in berlin by the allies and Japan surrendered to the USA because the USA dropped two atomic bombs the Ussr invaded Manchuria ending the war exactly seven years and one day after it started.
The reason I even brought this war up at all despite happening almost 80 years ago after it ended is because of a few things. The destructive nature of man, how things like racism and antisemitism can bring horrible atrocities and how it is still relevant today. During the war a lot of atrocities took place as I’ve mentioned with both sides being guilty of them. 72 million lives were lost because of the war which is dubbed “the deadliest conflict in human history”. The axis extreme ideology based on racism was catastrophic, especially the holocaust.
While the war was tragic some good things did come out of it. It made humanity more cautious with starting another global conflict and at least the west and Europe saw just how devastating racism and anti Semitism and eugenics were and still could be. The holocaust alone gave birth to many human rights declarations in developed countries after the war. The war indirectly led to many rights to minorities being granted and indirectly influenced public opinion on racism and antisemitism and most importantly war itself and this is relevant today because some more minority groups (like trans people) are trying to be recognized as humans who have rights in public opinion. It has also influenced today with war because now whenever a war starts a global conflict which involves nuclear warheads is being averted like the invasion of Ukraine. The threat of nuclear is a big one because it can lead to the destruction of humanity. However, a good thing does come out of it: the human race will now try to avoid war as best as it can.