Burned in Memory
When Hitler Lost the War
Photos that changed the world.
There are many moments when Adolf Hitler “lost” World War II. When he attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, for example, or when he convinced himself the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was just a feint, not the real attack on occupied Europe.
Another of those days is pictured above. It shows Hitler center stage before the German Reichstag (Parliament) on December 11, 1941, declaring war on the United States.
Japan had attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, four days earlier. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan retroactive to December 7.
The U.S. was at war, but it many respects it was the “wrong” war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill always knew the U.S. would ultimately enter the war, and when that happened, Germany would be their first concern. When they had defeated Germany, they would then focus on Japan in the Pacific.
But now the U.S. was fighting Japan, while the British were fighting Germany and Japan. Congress had signed Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the United States to manufacture and “lease” arms to its allies, but the measure was still a good deal short of actual war.
