Book excerpt: This volume of Campfire's graphic history of World War II deals with the war in Europe from the rise of the Nazis through to May 1945 and VE Day. World War II shows the effects of the war on the soldiers, the refugees, the victims and protagonists of the most terrible conflict the world has ever known. In a world that is forgetting the lessons history has to teach, this book is a reminder of the horrors that come from intolerance. In the 1930s, a great evil was rising in the heart of Europe, a threat unlike any seen before. German leader Adolf Hitler, a madman bent on world domination, was raising an army and growing more violent by the day. The world knew that Hitler had to be stopped. But fearing a war, this growing threat of Hitler's Nazi army was left unchecked. The world simply watched as Germany sank into darkness. The world merely prayed that war would not breach their borders. The world waited. And they waited too long. As cities fell to ruin and millions were slaughtered, the growing darkness of Hitler and his Nazi empire branched out far beyond Europe—to Asia and Africa and America—and soon threatened to claim the entire world. France, England, Russia, the United States… no single nation had the strength to combat this darkness, at least not on their own. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the one final, desperate hope was that all of these nations united together might muster the strength to save humanity.