NARRATOR Hitler’s ascent and his determination to take over Europe—beginning with the invasion of Poland in 1939—set the stage for World War II, which immersed the continent—and ultimately the world—in extraordinary violence. Within two years, Germany managed to invade and occupy almost all of central and western Europe and then turned its attention to invading the Soviet Union. The Soviets, British, Americans, and other Allied forces fought back against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The tide turned when Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied France in 1944. Houston’s own Johnny Marino remembers learning about the German military’s tactics in battle: “By that time we knew what we were into…We never imagined the German army was going to be as merciless as they were, especially SS troopers. Those ones in black. They didn’t take prisoners.” NARRATOR But the Americans and British fought steadily from the West as the Soviets pushed hard against the Axis forces from the East. However, even as the Nazis engaged in heated battles to the east and to the west, their machine of genocide continued to churn. The priority the Nazis placed on murdering Jews was such that even pitched war—and its costs to their citizens—did not slow down the killing. Some historians believe that when the entire continent was engulfed in violence—and fear was the dominant emotion—culture, social norms, and human behavior were subject to change. Could living in the complex and terrifying state of war open a door to barbarism, which—in the case of World War II—enabled people to accept, overlook, conceal, deny, or even participate in the genocide?