Every year on November 11, many countries keep a moment of silence. It marks the hour in 1918 when the guns stopped at the end of World War I: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Americans call it Veterans Day, and many other countries call it Remembrance Day.
Key idea
In World War I, soldiers dug long lines of trenches and fought for years over small pieces of land. About 9 million soldiers died. The war ended with the armistice of November 11, 1918.
In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party took power in Germany. In 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war. Germany, Italy and Japan fought the Allies: Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States (from 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor), China and many others. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied soldiers landed on the beaches of France. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in August 1945.
During the war the Nazis carried out the Holocaust: they murdered about six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of other people. Many brave people risked their lives to hide and rescue those in danger. We remember, so that it never happens again.
After the war, in 1945, countries formed the United Nations, a place where nations could talk out their disagreements and work together to keep the peace.
Worked example: Between the wars
- 1,939 − 1,918 = 21.
Answer: 21 years.
Common mistake
Try it at home
- On November 11, keep a moment of silence with your family at 11 o'clock.
- Ask an older relative whether anyone in your family served in either war, and what they remember hearing about it.