    World War II was a devastating war, not only in loss of military life, but also in civilian casualties. Humanity has hopefully learned from the mistakes made in this war, and ideally history will not repeat itself.
    Some of the major war atrocities took place in China, by the Japanese soldiers. They truly believed that they were the superior race, and treated the Chinese very harshly because of this. They executed many, and one soldier said they raped every woman they came across, then burned her alive afterwards. These are atrocious acts and should never be repeated by any person or against any person. I believe that the racial ideology adopted by them was the reason behind their cruelty. This happens when the people begin to truly believe they are better then the people they are fighting, and then they become inhuman to them and it becomes normal for them to commit crimes that they would otherwise find outrageous. This is also shown in the Germans, and the acts they committed to the Jewish community whom they considered to be inferior.
    Another thing that stands out in my mind would be the German death camps, and what the Jews had to go through. Not only would they have to face horrendous conditions, and live harsh lives (If they were lucky enough to live), but in order to survive they probably had to make horrible decisions that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Being put in a death camp is something that would change your life. No matter how old a prisoner lives to be, he or she would never forget what happened there. Even the German soldiers who lived on past WWII are strongly affected by this. I assume that in some point in their lives they came to the conclusion that what they did was wrong, and the Jewish people were not inferior. Then they come to the realization of all they’ve done and it may haunt them at night, and affect them for the rest ofl their lives.
    In conclusion, there are two ideas that humankind needs to take away from this war: that a superior race ideology is wrong because it is based on ego and not in reality, and it changes the world in a negative world for those who believe in a superior race, and those who are believed to be inferior. Additionally, atrocities in war such this one affect the entire world, whether you are the victim or not. These atrocities cannot be tolerated by the human race, and humankind needs to stand up and stop this kind of behavior before it gets to the grand scale that we saw in WWII. By this thought process, we need to continue to promote this thought to ensure that WWII will never be forgotten, and the crimes committed during this war will remain as a reminder to humanity of what we should not become. Sadly, history is repeating itself on a smaller scale in some parts of the country. Specifically, in the continent of Africa genocide continues to repeat itself. However, the actions of  humankind have helped to prevent these actions from growing to the same scale as those atrocities in WWII. Hopefully the actions of WWI, its ideologies, and its atrocities will not be forgotten, and the world will not let itself repeat this behavior again on that scale - and these kinds of genocides will eventually cease. 
