Chapter 1
Prelude to War

Germany’s defeat in World War I was difficult for its people to accept. The nation had been one of Europe’s strongest, proudest, and most impressive lands for centuries. But now, after four years of bloody fighting, it was literally helpless. How had this happened? Where had things gone wrong? In the eyes of the world, Germany had been justly humbled, but it was from these ashes that the German phoenix rose just a few years later in the form of a charismatic leader named Adolf Hitler.