During history, one war has stood out among all of the awful wars, all of the genocides, all of the violence; that war is World War 2. Since I was little, I was interested more and more about the awful Second World War. I know what horror the war caused. If the war taught us anything, it was to never have something so awful happen again and I believe if it does, the world may not exist.

             My Grandpa and Great Grandpa both know a ton about World War 2, so that is one reason why I am so interested in World War 2. My Great Grandpa even served in the navy, so I talk to him about that. They taught me how awful and sad the war was, and why it is so important to remember what happened. I now think of many people as my heroes such as Churchill, Patton, or de Gaulle.

                I went to many museums about World War 2. I believe my first was at the Museum of Science and Industry, where I saw the German U-boat the U505. The first time I went, I was horrified of the giant ship in the middle of a museum. Once I started going there more, I thought it was really incredible to see an actual sub that served in World War 2, and was even shot at by Allied navies. I truly pictured all the gunfire and depth charges exploding right above and underneath the ship, while being strafed by fighters in the air. I have now been to museums all around the world that are about World War 2, such as The Smithsonian (Washington DC, the Imperial War Museum (London), or the Musee de l’Armee (Paris).

                Since I was little, I have liked to skim through different books of history. It has fascinated me to hear about real people and events that shaped the world we know today. In the beginning, I just looked at picture book, but once I read real books, I started to read and listen to some amazing stories of World War 2, such as the Winds of War, War and Remembrance, or Rogue Heroes (a book about the SAS). I recently expanded to watching movies and seeing documentaries, like the breathtaking “Band of Brothers” or “The Pacific”, or documentaries like “World War 2 in Color”. Through all of these methods, the same idea comes across: during the war ordinary people did remarkable things, such as risking their lives for others, and they did it all because of a man who wanted to rebuild Germany with evil.

                If something like a world war happens again, I hope people will know evil when they see it, and speak out against it, before it is too late. I do not know what would happen if something like World War 2 did happen, with the awful chemical, nuclear, mechanical, or biological weapons that we have today. That is why we must know from history, and mankind’s mistakes. World War 2 and the atrocities that went along with it (Holocaust, Nanking, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki) might be some of our worst mistakes as humans.