Eighty-three years ago this morning the world was lit on fire.
Asia was already at war in 1939. The Japanese had ravaged China, and committed atrocities that remain incomprehensible 80 years later. Europe was in crisis, and a generation of British and French politicians who were shaped by the death and disaster of the Great War did not want to see tens of millions more dead.
The peace they dreamed of had failed. The borders of new countries that had been drawn by the victorious powers in 1918 seemed on the edge of being redrawn by the German Fürher. He preached a gospel of racial purity, economic grievance, scapegoating, national exceptionalism and strength. He demanded a reunification of the German people across artificially drawn borders. The British and French leaders believed that appeasing him would prevent death and war. They were wrong. He wanted everything.
Shortly before 5 am on September 1, 1939, the first shot was fired in the deadliest war in human history.