Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the 20th Century
Watch: Two Hundred Years Since the Birth of Karl Marx
By Nick Beams, 31 October 2018
This lecture was delivered by Nick Beams, a member of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site, at several Australian universities during September and October 2018.
Nick Beams delivers successful lectures on the contemporary relevance of Karl Marx at Australian universities
By our reporters, 31 October 2018
Beams’ lectures were the only events on Australian university campuses outlining the revolutionary perspective of Karl Marx, two hundred years after his birth.
SEP (Australia) meeting outlines political issues behind coup against Malcolm Turnbull
By our reporters, 4 October 2018
The speakers explained that the instability of official politics was an expression of the deepening social, economic and geo-political crises of Australian and world capitalism.
Vadim Rogovin and the sociology of Stalinism
By Andrea Peters, 25 September 2018
September 18 marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Soviet Marxist historian and sociologist Vadim Rogovin, the author of a seven-volume series on Stalinism and the Marxist opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy.
David Harvey’s Jacobin interview on Marx’s Capital
A promotion of the “life-style” politics of the pseudo-left
By Nick Beams, 21 July 2018
As with all of Harvey’s work, the interview does not provide a clarification or guide to Marx but serves to prevent an understanding of his masterwork, seeking to render him suitable to the political and life-style sensibilities of a middle class “left” audience.
The Demise of Savas Michael’s “New Era”
By David North, 7 June 2018
This examination and exposure of the inveterate opportunism of Savas Michael-Matsas, was originally published on August 11, 1989 and appeared in the Fourth International magazine.
An aging liar peddles his wares
By David North, 17 May 2018
Alex Steiner attempts to justify his repudiation of Trotskyism by slandering the International Committee.
Lenin, Trotsky and the Marxism of the October Revolution
By David North, 19 March 2018
David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and of the Socialist Equality Party (US), delivered this lecture at the University of Leipzig on March 16.
Marx’s analysis of the laws of capital and the share market crisis
By Nick Beams, 17 February 2018
The largest fall in markets since the crisis of 2008 has provided a damning exposure of the entire framework of bourgeois economics and a living confirmation of the analysis of Karl Marx.
Nothing learned from Auschwitz
By Johannes Stern, 6 February 2018
Just a cursory glance at the politicians assembled in the German parliament to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz makes clear the same ruling class that made Hitler chancellor 85 years ago is returning to its infamous traditions.
An interview with David North
Socialism or Barbarism: Reflections on Global Disorder
6 February 2018
In October 2017, David North delivered a lecture on the centenary of the October Revolution at St. Andrews College in Scotland. Prior to the lecture, he was interviewed by Adam Stromme, the editor in chief of the St Andrews Economist, the official publication of the St Andrews Economics Society.
The bicentenary of Marx’s birth, socialism and the resurgence of the international class struggle
3 January 2018
The year 2018—the bicentenary of Marx’s birth—will be characterized, above all, by an immense intensification of social tensions and an escalation of class conflict around the world.
On the Centenary of the October Revolution
By David North, 7 November 2017
The October Revolution ranks among the greatest and most progressive events in world history.
From the July Days to the Kornilov coup: Lenin’s The State and Revolution
By Barry Grey, 17 October 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered Saturday, October 14, by Barry Grey, the US national editor of the World Socialist Web Site. Watch the lecture online.
Professor Sean McMeekin revives discredited anti-Lenin slanders (Part I)
By David North, 30 June 2017
The century-old lie that the leader of the October Revolution was acting on behalf of German imperialism is revived in an Op-Ed piece published by the New York Times.
This week in the Russian Revolution
May 29 – June 4: Lenin and Trotsky move toward unity as calls for Soviet power spread
29 May 2017
Lenin and Trotsky have been brought together politically by the imperialist world war and the course of the Russian Revolution. Both insist on the transfer of power to the Soviets and for a final break with the nationalist and opportunist socialist tendencies.
Lecture on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Lenin’s Return to Russia and the April Theses
By James Cogan, 8 May 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered on Saturday, May 6, by James Cogan, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia). The audio for the lecture is embedded in the text.
May Day 2017: Lessons of history and the fight for socialism
By David North, 1 May 2017
This speech was delivered by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North to open the 2017 International May Day Online Rally, held on April 30.
This week in the Russian Revolution
May 1-7: April Crisis breaks out in Petrograd
1 May 2017
Newspapers in Petrograd publish a telegram by the Provisional Government’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, promising to abide by the tsar’s secret treaties and “fight the world war out to a decisive victory.” Workers and soldiers in Petrograd respond with massive anti-government demonstrations.
Lecture on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Spontaneity and Consciousness in The February Revolution
By Joseph Kishore, 26 April 2017
This is an edited version of a lecture delivered live on April 22, 2017 by Joseph Kishore, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US). The audio and slides for the lecture are embedded in the text. To register for the lecture series, visit wsws.org/1917.
Series on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Online lecture Saturday: The February Revolution
20 April 2017
Joseph Kishore, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, will be delivering the lecture on Saturday, April 22 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Register for the series at wsws.org/1917.
War and Revolution: 1914–1917
By Nick Beams, 10 April 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered Saturday, April 8 by Nick Beams, a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site. This is the third in a series of five international online lectures being presented by the International Committee of the Fourth International to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
From Whom and How to Defend the Revolution
By Leon Trotsky, 21 March 2017
In this article, Trotsky writes, ‘“The gentry’s lands, but not Constantinople!’—the soldier-proletarian will say to the soldier-peasant, explaining to him who is served by the imperialist war and what its aims are.”
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
War or Peace? (Internal Forces of the Revolution)
By Leon Trotsky, 20 March 2017
In this article, Trotsky writes, “The international struggle against world-wide slaughter and imperialism is now our task more than ever before.”
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
Under the Banner of the Commune
By Leon Trotsky, 17 March 2017
In this article, Trotsky writes, “In the trenches overflowing with blood and mud, in the starving cities and villages, millions of hearts are filled with indignation, despair and rage. And these feelings, when combined with socialist thought, are turning into revolutionary enthusiasm.”
The Revolution in Russia
By Leon Trotsky, 16 March 2017
In this article, translated for the first time, Trotsky writes, “Our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will speak of these days as the beginning of a new epoch in the history of mankind.”
Large global turnout for online lecture, “Why Study the Russian Revolution?”
13 March 2017
A large audience from more than 60 countries listened live to the lecture delivered by WSWS chairman David North, the first in a series marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution.
Why Study the Russian Revolution?
By David North, 13 March 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered Saturday, March 11 by David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site. This is the first in a series of five international online lectures being presented by the International Committee of the Fourth International to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Registrations from throughout the world for Russian Revolution centenary online lectures
Workers and students in India express strong support
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 10 March 2017
People from more than 55 countries have signed up to participate in the ICFI’s online lecture series, which begins on March 11 with a lecture by David North, “Why Study the Russian Revolution?”
“We are still fighting the same things they fought out 100 years ago”
Registrations from throughout the world as interest in Russian Revolution centenary lectures grows
7 March 2017
Individuals from more than 50 countries have registered to participate in the International Committee of the Fourth International’s online lecture series that begins on March 11.
Socialism and defence of the free movement of labour: Part two
By Julie Hyland, 10 February 2017
The support of the pseudo-left for immigration controls is the outcome of their perspective of national economic regulation under capitalism.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones denounces the Russian Revolution and its art
By Chris Marsden and Paul Mitchell, 8 February 2017
Jones paints a lying picture of gratuitous violence by the Bolsheviks, but fails to mention the intervention of the imperialist powers, or to detail the White terror they helped sustain.
Seventy-five years since the Wannsee Conference
By Clara Weiss, 25 January 2017
Last Friday, January 20, marked the 75th anniversary of the notorious Wannsee Conference, in which 15 influential representatives of the Nazi regime discussed the so-called “final solution of the Jewish question.”
Hitler’s Professors: A documentation of war crimes by German academics against the Jewish people
By Clara Weiss, 16 January 2017
Max Weinreich’s classic study, Hitler’s Professors, first published in 1946, documents the role of leading German academics in the murder of Europe’s Jewish population.
Socialism and the centenary of the Russian Revolution: 1917-2017
By David North and Joseph Kishore, 3 January 2017
A specter is haunting world capitalism: the specter of the Russian Revolution. This year marks the centenary of the world-historical events of 1917, which began with the February Revolution in Russia and culminated in October with the conquest of political power by the Bolshevik Party, under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky.
The End of the USSR
By David North, 30 December 2016
On January 4, 1992, David North, national secretary of the Workers League (predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party), delivered a report which explained the historical background and significance of the end of the USSR. To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of this critical event, the World Socialist Web Site is posting North's report.
100 Years since the Russian Revolution
Mehring Books announces centenary edition of landmark documentary, Tsar to Lenin
12 December 2016
Produced by the legendary Herman Axelbank and narrated by Max Eastman, Tsar to Lenin is the definitive documentary of a revolution that “shook the world” and changed the course of history.
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856–1918): His Place in the History of Marxism
By David North and Vladimir Volkov, 5 December 2016
On December 11, the international socialist movement marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of the “father of Russian Marxism,” Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov.
Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today—the 1948 documentary restored
By Clara Weiss, 5 December 2016
The film, written and directed by Stuart Schulberg, was intended to advertise the principles underlying the indictment of the Nazi criminals at the Nuremberg Trials.
Hundreds attend lecture by David North in Frankfurt, Germany
By our correspondents, 25 October 2016
In a lecture titled “Philosophy and Politics in Times of War and Revolution,” David North presented his book The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left.
New book by David North
A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony 1990–2016
By David North, 11 July 2016
We publish here the preface to A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony, 1990-2016 by David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site. The book is available for preorder today at Mehring Books.
German court sentences former SS Auschwitz guard to five years imprisonment
By Sybille Fuchs, 24 June 2016
A court in Detmold found 94-year-old Reinhold Hanning guilty of complicity in the murders of 170,000 people.
Ninety years since the coup of Piłsudski
The Strategy of the Intermarium—Part 4
NATO’s preparations for war with Russia
By Clara Weiss, 3 June 2016
This is the final part of a series reviewing the history of the Intermarium, which was developed as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe as proposed by Leon Trotsky.
Ninety Years Since the Coup of Piłsudski
The Strategy of the Intermarium—Part 3
The Intermarium and Poland’s integration into the US war alliance against Russia
By Clara Weiss, 2 June 2016
This is the third part of a series reviewing the history of the Intermarium, which was developed as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe as proposed by Leon Trotsky.
May Day 2016: Introductory report by David North
By David North, 2 May 2016
We are publishing here the introductory remarks to the International Online May Day Rally by David North, chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US).
A comment on demoralized opportunists
By David North, 19 April 2016
The anti-Trotskyist blog site of Alex Steiner and Frank Brenner recently reported on a meeting that they hosted in Brooklyn, New York, on April 12.
Behind the designation of Russia and China as “imperialist”: A case study in theoretical charlatanry
By Johannes Stern, 14 April 2016
The politically reactionary implications of the definition of Russia and China as imperialist powers are exposed by the positions of the German-based Revolutionary Communist International Tendency.
Marxism and the pseudo-left: David North interviewed at Leipzig Book Fair
1 April 2016
Following a presentation of the new German edition of The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left, North was interviewed by the newspaper Schattenblick on the theoretical and political issues addressed in his book.
The political economy of endless austerity
By Nick Beams, 31 March 2016
The imposition of austerity is determined not by a lack of economic resources, but by the relentless logic of the profit system.
David North addresses Sri Lankan SEP launch of Sinhala edition of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By David North, 22 March 2016
Publication of this new translation of David North’s The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century will contribute significantly to the education of workers and youth in Sri Lanka.
Colombo meeting launches Sinhala translation of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By our correspondents, 22 March 2016
SEP general secretary Wije Dias stressed that the book’s exposure of historical falsifications was “a weapon in the revolutionary struggles of the future.”
Who would celebrate Hitler today?: The German satirical film Look Who’s Back
By Bernd Reinhardt, 16 December 2015
The satirical film, based on the novel of the same title by Timur Vermes, has been seen by over two million people, making it one of the most watched in Germany this year.
Seventy years since the Nuremberg Trials
By Verena Nees, 3 December 2015
The post-World War II trials led to the adoption of the Nuremberg principles, forbidding aggressive war as the greatest international crime.
Meetings in Germany mark the 75th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky
By our correspondents, 23 November 2015
Over 200 people participated in meetings organised by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality in the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Bochum.
Security and the Fourth International, the Gelfand Case and the deposition of Mark Zborowski
An open letter from David North to Susan Weissman
10 November 2015
Netanyahu’s apology for Hitler
By Jean Shaoul, 23 October 2015
The Israeli prime minister has foully slandered the Palestinian people by attributing to them the responsibility for the Holocaust.
A world convulsed by crises
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey, 12 September 2015
Crisis is not the exception, but the rule. The very speed of events, with virtually no intervals of calm between the storms, denotes an intensifying general crisis.
IYSSE, SEP (Australia) lectures: 100 years since the Zimmerwald conference
6 August 2015
The issues that erupted at Zimmerwald a century ago have the most decisive contemporary significance.
What is the pseudo-left?
By The WSWS Editorial Board, 30 July 2015
Political developments in Greece in recent months are a striking confirmation of the WSWS's analysis of “pseudo-left” tendencies.
Foreword to The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left: A Marxist Critique
Part Three
By David North, 23 July 2015
The polemical essays in this volume examine the complex interaction between history, philosophy and politics. It is vital reading for those who wish to deepen their knowledge of classical Marxism.
A review of Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928: Part one
By Fred Williams, 1 June 2015
Stephen Kotkin’s first volume of a projected three-volume biography of Stalin, published by Penguin Press, is a travesty of historical writing.
Germany: Auschwitz survivors testify against former SS officer
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 12 May 2015
The prosecution of former SS officer Oskar Gröning has highlighted his role in crimes against humanity.
The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century published in German
By Peter Schwarz, 2 March 2015
David North’s book is essential in providing a political orientation and formulating a socialist response to the global crisis of capitalism.
The 100th anniversary of the World War I Christmas truce
By Julie Hyland, 24 December 2014
The enduring lesson of the Christmas truce, which has burning relevance today, is that the spontaneous international solidarity of the working class soldiers had been betrayed months before by the collapse of the Second International.
Wide audience for online interview with David North, author of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By our reporter, 15 December 2014
Many hundreds of people from over thirty countries listened to the interview held December 13.
The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century now available in eBook format
3 December 2014
This book by David North is an essential addition to every Marxist library.
Small audiences mark Remembrance Day in Australia
By James Cogan, 13 November 2014
The “Eleventh of the Eleventh” is considered of secondary importance by the Australian ruling elite in promoting patriotism.
German intellectuals in World War I
By Verena Nees, 20 October 2014
In 1914, German intellectuals launched an “Appeal to the Civilized World” to justify imperialist war. Today, their heirs hypocritically invoke “human rights” to build popular support for war.
Australian government “celebrates” first WWI military action
By Richard Phillips, 19 August 2014
The seizure of Germany’s Pacific colonies underlined the real character of World War I as an imperialist war.
One hundred years since the outbreak of World War I
By Nick Beams, 5 August 2014
The only progressive solution was not the victory of one or another imperialist power, but the overthrow of the capitalist system.
The lessons of August 4, 1914
By Ulrich Rippert, 4 August 2014
One hundred years ago, the social democracy’s vote for war credits in World War I sounded the death knell of the epoch of national programs for the working class.
One hundred years since Sarajevo
By David North, 28 June 2014
Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the event that triggered the outbreak of World War I.
The diary of Lena Mukhina: An important document on the Leningrad blockade
Lenas Tagebuch, translated by Lena Gorelik and Gero Fedtke, Munich, 2013
By Clara Weiss, 11 June 2014
Lena’s Diary is an important historical document relating to one of most horrific, although often forgotten, war crimes of German imperialism.
Nationalism and fascism in Ukraine: A historical overview
Part two
By Konrad Kreft and Clara Weiss, 10 June 2014
The collaboration of Germany and the US with Ukrainian fascists has historical precedents reaching back 100 years.
Nationalism and fascism in Ukraine: A historical overview
Part one
By Konrad Kreft and Clara Weiss, 9 June 2014
The collaboration of Germany and the US with Ukrainian fascists has historical precedents reaching back 100 years.
D-Day anniversary: Commemorating the Second World War and preparing the Third
By Bill Van Auken, 7 June 2014
The presence of a dwindling band of survivors of World War II—the greatest exercise in mass killing in the history of the planet—only underscored the boundless hypocrisy of the official ceremonies.
Financial Times’ attack on Piketty under fire
By Nick Beams, 30 May 2014
The Financial Times’ scurrilous attack on Thomas Piketty has been opposed by those working in the field of economic and social inequality.
As geopolitical tensions grow with China
Australian columnist lauds World War I as a “just war”
By James Cogan, 12 May 2014
The language used by Sheridan resonates with his portrayal of US and Australian foreign policy as a justified response to China’s “military build-up.”
French TV documentary: “Shoah by Shooting—SS Death Squads in Ukraine”
By Clara Weiss, 22 April 2014
Earlier this year, the French television documentary “Shoah by Shooting—Death Squads in Ukraine” was released on DVD in Germany.
Paul Keating’s Remembrance Day address: Nationalist myth-making to glorify World War I
By James Cogan, 28 November 2013
Keating’s speech was an attempt to explain away any concerns about commemorating the war and glorify Australia’s involvement.
Eighty years since Hitler’s coming to power
By Peter Schwarz, 2 February 2013
Leon Trotsky drew far-reaching conclusions from the disastrous defeat of the German working class in 1933.
A reader reviews Tsar to Lenin
29 October 2012
A WSWS reader has written in with a comment on the unique documentary film Tsar to Lenin, available from Mehring Books.
British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012)
8 October 2012
On October 1, noted British historian Eric Hobsbawm died at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He was 95.
Film showings and lectures by David North
The historical significance and enduring political relevance of the 1917 Russian Revolution
10 September 2012
In this series of meetings in the US, Socialist Equality Party National Chairman David North will introduce showings of Tsar to Lenin with a lecture on the Russian Revolution.
75 years since the Flint sit-down strike
By Barry Grey, 30 December 2011
Today marks the 75th anniversary of a momentous chapter in the history of the American and international working class—the beginning of the Flint sit-down strike.
Arthur Ransome and the Bolshevik Revolution
Part one
By Dave Hyland, 25 June 2011
This is the first in a three-part consideration of the English author Arthur Ransome, particularly as regards his relationship to the October 1917 revolution in Russia.
Now available at Mehring Books online
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Spain by Felix Morrow
24 June 2011
Mehring Books is making available for online purchase Felix Morrow’s Revolution and Counterrevolution in Spain.
Hands off Rosa Luxemburg!
The historical falsification of Rosa Luxemburg's heritage by the German Left Party
By Lucas Adler, 14 January 2011
In a vulgar attempt to distort Rosa Luxemburg’s writings, the German Left Party resorts to interpreting passages out of context in order to justify their own opportunism.
Marxism and the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 15 May 2010
The following is an addendum to the lecture “Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust,” delivered by Nick Beams at San Diego State University on April 29.
Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 12 May 2010
This lecture was delivered at San Diego State University on April 29. It was the eighth in a series entitled "Killing for a higher cause: Political violence in a world in crisis" sponsored by the Institute on World Affairs within the Political Science Department of the San Diego State University.
Nick Beams delivers lecture in Sydney and Melbourne
World War Two: Lessons and Warnings
By Nick Beams, 18 November 2009
Nick Beams, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, delivered a lecture on “World War Two: Lessons and Warnings” to audiences in Sydney and Melbourne in November, 2009.
Myths and legends about World War II exposed at Australian SEP public meetings
By our correspondents, 18 November 2009
The Socialist Equality Party in Australia held public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne this month on “Seventy years since World War II: lessons and warnings”.
The fall of the Berlin Wall
By Peter Schwarz, 9 November 2009
The contradiction between the official celebrations and the lack of public enthusiasm over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall speaks volumes about the real significance of the events of November 1989.
Twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall
Statement of the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, October 18, 1989—Part 2
Overthrow the Stalinist bureaucracy! Build workers’ councils in East Germany!
6 November 2009
This statement by the Central Committee of the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, the predecessor of the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party of Germany), was issued on October 18, 1989. Today we are posting the second of three parts of the statement.
European Trotskyists mark seventieth anniversary of World War II
Whole families were forced into exile due to their anti-Nazism
By Françoise Thull, 4 November 2009
On October 11 in London, the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International held a joint meeting on the lessons of the Second World War. We publish here the remarks made by Françoise Thull, a member of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany (Partei Partei für Soziale Gleichheit, PSG), who spoke on the experiences of her family in France during that period.
European Trotskyists mark seventieth anniversary of World War II
“It was industrialised slaughter on an unimaginable scale”
By Barbara Slaughter, 2 November 2009
On October 11 in London, the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International held a joint meeting on the lessons of the Second World War. We publish here the remarks made by veteran Trotskyist and SEP (UK) Central Committee member Barbara Slaughter.
European Trotskyists mark 70th anniversary of World War II
A battle for empire rooted in profound contradictions of capitalism
By Julie Hyland, 31 October 2009
The following is a contribution by WSWS Editorial Board member Julie Hyland to an October 11 meeting convened by the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International to consider the lessons of the Second World War.
“Socialism in One Country” and the Soviet economic debates of the 1920s
By Nick Beams, 13 October 2009
The lectures deal with some of the crucial conflicts over economic policy in the Soviet Union during the 1920s. One of the motivations for the lectures was to answer the distortions advanced by the British academic Geoffrey Swain in his book Trotsky published in 2006.
Seventy years on
World War II: The essential lessons
Joint public meeting of the Socialist Equality Party, Britain and Germany
22 September 2009
World War II engulfed the entire European continent, pitting all of the continental powers in the bloodiest slaughter in world history.
Seventy years since World War II
Its causes and its lessons for today
22 September 2009
World War II was the bloodiest and most tragic event in world history. Up to 70 million people lost their lives during the six year conflict. It witnessed unimaginable barbarism, including above all the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis. The war ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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