On 1 September 2025, the ENRS premieres its new educational animation “World War II 80 Years After: Causes, Course and Consequences”, created to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The film takes viewers through the key stages of the conflict – from Nazi Germany aggression and the outbreak of war, through occupation and mass violence, to the final days of 1945.
World War II is unlike any previous conflict. For the first time, the technology of mass extermination is directed against entire ethnic groups, regardless of military rationale. While in World War I 95% of victims were soldiers, in World War II civilians account for two-thirds of the deaths. The scale is global: 60 countries involved, fighting across 40 states, 100 million mobilised, and between 50 and 70 million lives lost.
The animation recalls pivotal events and experiences: the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Blitzkrieg and the fall of Warsaw, occupation terror and the systematic extermination of the Polish elite, the Battle of Monte Cassino, the Warsaw Uprising, the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration Camp, the Yalta Conference, the bombing of Dresden, the fall of Berlin and finally, Germany’s unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
The animation is available in English, Polish and German versions and forms part of the ENRS campaign #WWII80YearsAfter, which follows the trajectory of the war and its legacy through videos, articles and curated resources.
Watch the English version of the animation here.
Watch the Polish version of the animation here.
Watch the German version of the animation here.
Learn more about the #WWII80YearsAfter campaign here.
This public task is co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2024–2025 – the European dimension and countering disinformation.”