5699–5705 AM · 1939 CE — 1945 CE · world history
The Second World War
The most destructive war in history: some sixty million dead.
Germany's attack on Poland begins a war that engulfs Europe, Asia, Africa and the oceans. For the first time most victims are civilians: bombed cities, sieges, occupation and deliberate extermination. In these years the Nazis carry out the Shoah, murdering six million European Jews. The war ends with Germany and Japan defeated.