Photo Gallery From One Catastrophe to the Next
Many historians refer to the two wars together as the "Second Thirty Years' War." The connections between the two conflicts are clear. Many in Germany wanted to avenge the Versailles Treaty by defeating France. But there was also unsettled business elsewhere. Here, a plaque celebrating Gavrilo Princip as a hero is given to Adolf Hitler after the Wehrmacht marched into Sarajevo in 1941.
Following the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to send massive amounts of money, materiel, raw materials and industrial machinery to France. Here, a shipment heading for France in 1920.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Initially, Roosevelt was in favor of punishing Germany as France had done following World War I. Ultimately, however, fear of Soviet dominance in Russia led Washington to reconsider that stance.
Germany celebrating reunification day in 2009. Throughout the Cold War, it was East Germany that largely had to bear the burden of the loss of World War II. The country became a model of democracy in the decades following 1945.
