The instability created in Europe by World War I set the stage for World War II, which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating. Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party re-armed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further ambitions of world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany and World War II began. Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war. Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of the Holocaust.
Below is a timeline of major events of World War II using photographs and information from trusted historical sources. It shows how High Point citizens participated in the military and home front response.