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World War II was not just another war, it decided the future direction of world history--totalitarianism or democracy. The War was thus the defining moment of not only the 20th century, but the sweep of history since the fall of the Roman Empire. The totalitarian powers which had joined together had amassed military power beyond that of the democracies. Thus for a time it looked like the slow, eratic movement toward democracy and freedom would be arrested by the victory of totalitarian powers willing to murder and enslave millions of individuals, including whole populations.
The War enveloped virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and
the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, and, China). The Soviet Union, while not a member of the Axis, was until the German invasion in June 1941, a virtual ally of the Germans--seizing territory from neigboring states and occupying the Baltic states. To most observers it looked like German had essentually won the War in 1940 and 41, seizing most of SWestern Europe and North Africa. Then in 6-months the direction of the War was fundamentally altered when in Hitler attacked the Soviet Union bringing that enormous country into the War on the Allied side (in effect switching sides) and Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor bringing America into the War. World War II was the central event of the 20th century. It not only was the largest most destructive war in human history, but it also fundamentally changed social, economicm and political trends in Europe, North America and Asia. While the focus of most studies of the War are primarily on the titantic military campaigns, weapons, and leaders, children also played a role in the War. They in many ways the people most affected by the War. Millions were killed as a result of military action and the genocidal policies of Germany and Japan. The Germans in particular targeted Jewish children in the Holocaust. Children denied food and housing and in many cases orphaned died in large numbers in occupied countries. Germans kidnapped large numbers of blond children which they regarded as stolen genetic property. Many children were involved in the fighting. The Germans at the end of the War were using young teenagers, but all sides used large numbers of older teenagers. Ine of the many impacts of World War II was on fashion. Quite a range of fashion shifts occurred during and after World War II. Some of the major changes included: an increasing shift to casual dress, less elaborate fashions, the disappearance of knickers, short pants began to be worn as summer attire, American boys stop wearing kneesocks and long stockings, American Scouts and Cubs begin wearing long pants, "T" shirts and jeans became a mainstay of American boyhood, short hair styles become popular for boys in America after the War.
World War II enveloped virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and
the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, China). The Soviet Union, while not a member of the Axis, was until the German invasion in June 1941, a virtual ally of the Germans-seizing territory from neigboorong states and occupying the Baltic states. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. No precise accounting exists, but up to 50 million people died in the conflict--making it the bloodiest conflict as well as the largest war in human history. Whole cities were destroyed and nations devestated. Entire populations were slated for murder or enslavement. People who had lived in communities for centuries were exterminated or uprooted. The devestation of the War resulted in unpresedented social upheavals. Soldiers and sailors who had never been farm from home found themselves fighting in places they had never heard of before half way accross the world. Some countries mobilized women (America, Britain, and the Soviet Union) to expand the civilian workforce--expanding experiences and opportunities that would change the domestic socities profoundly. America drafted blacks, opening expectations which created a demand for change when they returned home. The demands of the War created opportunities for working class Britons and Americans. America provided a GI bill which allowed virtually any motivated servicemen the opportunity to seek a univrsity education. Briton's Labour Policy after the War pursued policies designed to provide greater opportunity, although its economic policies may have have in fact limited economic growth.
World War II was the culmination of the greatest geo-political crisis in Western civilization--the rise of the totalitarians. Following World War I, three totalitarians groups seized controlled of some of the post important countries in the world. First the Communists seized control of Russia (1917). Then the Fascists seized control of Italy and subsequently German Fascists seized control of that country (1933). Japanese militarists a kind of Shinto Fascism seized control of Japan (1930s). The countries as a whole had enormous scientific, industrial, human, and natural resources. With the NAZI victories in Europe, especially the defeat of France (1940), the ballance of world power swing to the totalitarian powers. The totalitarian powers in 1940 controlled almost all of Europe, wedding the industrial potential of Europe with the natural resources of the Soviet Union. The threat to the Western democracies was that the totalitarian powers, especially the NAZIS, had superior military weapons and tactical doctrines. The threat to the West was that the totalitarian powers rejected much of the basic tennants of Western civilization--the value and dignity of the individual and the rule of law. The NAZIs added a virulent racism that targeted whole peoples for genocide and other peoples for slavery. The tragedy of World War II is that by the time that the pupblic had been awakened to the mortal danger, the only way to prevent defeat was an alliance with one of the totalitarian powers. Here Hitler made the decession for the Democracies when he launched Operaion Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union (1941).
World War II in the West is generally seen as a noble crusade for democracy, freedom, and justice against the evils of Japanese militarism and European totalitarian Fascism. The problem with this cnstruct is the Soviet Union and totalitarian Communism. The falures of the Allies and the democratic states of Europe to confront the NAZIs resulted in the fall of France (1940) and NAZI domination of vurtually all of Europe. This fundamentally changed the world ballance of power. The combined forces of totalitarianism, the Soviet Union and the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were greater than those of the demoracies (America, Brirain, and the Dominions). This meant that to win the War, the Allies would have to enlist the support of one of the totalitarian powers. Here Hitler made the decession for the Allies by invading the Soviet Union. This forced people in Europe to make terrible choices between Communism and Fascism. It also mean that fighting the War with an ally equally henious as the NAZIs compromised the moral authority of the Allied cause. This was especially true because for 3 years most of the war against Germany was conducted by the Soviet Red Army. As a result, the post-War settlement required political compromises with the Soviet Union. After the War, authors have criticised Allied leaders for the post-War settlement leaving the Soviets in control of Eastern Europe. Of course this was not the result of failed post-War diplomacy, but rather the failire of the democratic nations to meet the challenge of the totalitarian states in the 1930s.
World War II was the defining moment of the 20th century. The stakes of the War were enormous. Had the Germans and Japanese won, their virulent nationalistic policies and brutal treatment of conquered populations--including genocide and enslavement--would have brought about a new dark age in human history. NAZI policies in the occupied East showed what Hitler had in mind for the future. European colonial administrations have a dark history of their own. By the 1930s, however, the worst abuses of the Europeans had past. Colonial spokesmen seeking independence were hounded, but within limits allowed to speak and promote their goal of independence. Varying degrees of a free press were allowed. What the Germans and Japanese had in mind was very different. Along with World War I, World War II was the great watershed of 20th-century geopolitical history. Germany was devestated. France was reduced to an occupied country. Britain was bankruped and unable to retain control of its colonies. The War marked the shift of world power from the states of Werstern Europe to the Soviet Union and America. The Soviet Union seized Eastern Europe. America rose as the dominate world power. It was the American industrial powerhouse and the massive Russian ground force on the Eastern front that crushed the Germans. After the German surrender (1945), it was American power that prevented the Russians from seizing Western Europe.
Several efforts followed World War I to ensure that there would never be another great war. The major effort was The League of Nations that Wilson thought would guarantee collective security. The League of Nations was the first international organization established on the basis of collective security to preserve world peace. It was created by the Versailles Peace Treaty ending World War I. The unbrialded nationalism that had inflamed Europe in the early 20th century was widely seen as a major cause of World War I. The horendous losses in the War convinced many Europeans that there must never be another war. A League of Nations as proposed by President Wilson was seen as a way of preventing war in the future through a system of collective security. It proved tottaly incable of dealing with the challenges to peace as a result of the rise of militarism in Asia and Communism and Fascism in Europe. A major problem was that the United States did not join. Other diplomatic efforts were notable, such as the Washington Naval Conference (1921-22) and the Kellog-Briand Pact.
The Tripartite Pact was signed September 27, 1940. The agreement allied Germany and Italy (which were at war with Britain) and Japan (which was at war with China). Germany and Italy has since 1939-40 been at war with Britain. Japan since 1937 had been at war with China. The alliance did not require the partners to join these wars, but it did require them to come to each other's aid if attacked. The alliance became known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis alliance, or commonly the Axis. The three Axis partners German hegemony over most of Europe; Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean, and Japanese hegemony in East Asia. After the Axis agreement was signed, several German allies joined the Axis, notably Vichy France and Fascist Spain refused to do so. Japan had no Asian allies, except or the puppet state of Manchukuo.
European colonialism was a factor in World War II. It affected several campaigns in a variety of ways. Most of the major combatants were either colonial powes are aspired to be so. And some of the colonized peoples played a variety of roles in the War, both supporting and resisting the colonizing country. The two major colonial powers were Britain and France. Their colonies increased the resources available to fight the War. This was primarily the case for Britain as the Germans in the first year of the War invaded and defeated France. Some of the British Empire countries had obtained Dominion status (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa) and voluntarily joined Britain in the War, playing very important roles. The issue of colonialism was one of the few issues dividing America and Britain during the War. The French Empire became contested by Vichy and the Free French. While not often classified as one, the Soviet Union was also a colonial powers with ethnic Russians ruleing over many other national groups in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Axis countries (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were countries aspiring the carve out and enlarge colonial empires. This was in fact the major reason why they launched World War II. The colonial people reacted differently to the War. India was Britain's major colony and played an important role, although complicated by Congress' refusal to support the British. The Arabs reacted to the War in large measure according to who the colonial power was which in most cases was Britain and France. NAZI Germany's anti-semitism was another factor.
When Britain declared war against Germany in World War I (August 1914), the entire British Empire was automatically at war also. This meant that the dominions of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa were also at war with Germany. The role of the Dominions ws very important in the Allied War effort. While the Dominions proudly gave great service during the war, this automatic commitment became a source of irritation to Dominion nationalists. The Dominions by the Statute of Westminster won the right to be consulted in 1931. In World War II they thus made their own declarations of war, around the same time as Britain in September 1939. They were not required to do so, but loyally followed Britain into the War. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand strongly backed Britain. There was considerable support for the Germns among the Afrikaaners in South Africa, even after the NAZIs invaded the Netherlands. . Indian support of Britain was severely impaired by the growing independence movement which was strongly pacifistic. The Dominions again played a major role in the War, although Austrlian support of Britain meant that the Audtralian Army was in Egypt when the Japanese attacked. As in World War I, the contributions of the individual Dominions by themselves was not decisive, but the combined contribution of the Dominions to the British war effort was very substantial.
World War I began as a war of movement, but after the Miracle on the Marne became a war of attrition as the Aliies and Germans built a parallel system of trenches from the Swiss border to the English Channel. New weapons such as the machine gun, poison gas, tanks, and airplanes appeared, but the war was largely an infantry war, decided by the suoerior resources of the Allies and the arrival of the American infantry. The horrors of trench warfare caused military planners to focus on new weapons to restore mobility and to avoid a future war resulting in mass losses of foot soldiers. It was the Allies that developed tanks and won the World War I air war. It was the Germans, however, that after the War gave the greatest attention to developing new weapns, especially the tanks and air planes that would dominate the World War II battlefield. German commanders also conceived of an inovative method of effectively employing the new weapons, a combined arms tactic which has come to be known as Blitzkrieg. Naval commanders in a tradition firmly implantd by Nelson at Trafalgur were wed to the idea of a mjor decisive fleet action. The Germans in World war I called it Der Tag--the Day. The German Navy ws no longer capable of a major fleet actin when World war II broke out. The British did not think the German U-boats were a threat. The AsDAC (SONAR) developed in World War had helped defeat the U-boat threat and British commanders were convinced that it made the submarine obsolete. The major navies had eavh planned their war winning fleet action, all based on the big-gun battleships. The Japanese termed the acton Kantai Kessen--Decsive Battle. The American plan to respond to a Japanese attack on the Philippine Islands was War Plan Orange. The Germans began World war II with the word's most modern air force. It was, however, a tactical airforce designed to support the Wehrmsacht's land offensive as part of Blitzkrieg. Germany did not have the indstrial capaity to buld a strtegic air forceand had no plans to wage an air war. America and Britain did have the industrial capacity to build a strategic air force. World War was the first real air war. Both the Bitish and Germas were preparng a strategic bombing campaign in World War I, but the War ended before it had begun. Thus air commanders when World War II had no real ide how to wage an air campaign.
World War II began with the NAZI invasion of Poland (1939). Historians often note the earlier Japanese seizure of Manchuria (1931) and invasion of China (1937). The NAZI invasion was followed by a British and French declaration of war, but failure to come to Poland's assistance. Within only a few days, the Soviets joined the NAZIs in invading Poland, followed by a series of other invasions of their own. The NAZI success in Poland was followed by a string of startling military successes, especially the invasion and defeat of France (1940). The NAZI successes were puncutated by the victory of the RAF in the Nattle of Britain (1940). The Italians joined their Axis partner after the defeat of France was already largely achieved. Almost from the beginning, however, the Italians proved more of a drag on the NAZI war effort than an assett. The War was tranformed when Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union and then without any effort to coordinate opetrations, the Jsapanese bombed Pear Harbor. Historians argue about the turning point of the War. After a series of almost uniterupted victories, the War turned against the Axis in second half of 1942. The Red Army bled the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Font while the Western allies ponded German cities. Finally the German losses in the East combined with growing Allied air power enabled the Western Allies to renter the Continent with the D-Day landings.
What followed was a string of Allied victories, although achieved at great cost. Finally after Hitler's suiside and the fall of Berlin the NAZIs surrendered (1945). The Japanese surenderd after America dropped the A-Bomb and the Soviets invaded Manchuria (1945). The War included land, air, and sea campaigns conducted on different continents. It was, however, in Europe that the outcome of the War was determined.
Intelligence was a matter of substantial impirtance in World War II. It was of greater importance than of virtually any other major war in history. The primary reason for this was that vast amounts of intelligence were available to any country which was willing to string up radio antenna and invest in training staff to receive and decide messages. World War II was the first war in which electrinic (radio/wireless) messages were a major factor. The telegram became importznt in the 19th century, but telegram messages sent over wire lones were difficult to intercent. They were not impossible (as the British showed with the Zimmrman telegram), but they were difficult to intercept. And mobile warefare as ininitiated first by the Germanns and subsequently the Allies required vast numbers of easily intercepted (but less easilly decoded) messages. The issue of code breaking is one of the most important aspects of World War II intelligence. Here the British and Americans excelled and reaped very substantial benefits. The Germans were particularly vulnerable because they had such confidence in their Enigma machine. Very little is known about Soviet code breaking. The Germans had some successes, but generally failed at breaking Allied codes. Neither did the Japanese manage to break Zllied codes. Electronic inteligence was not the only methods. The Soviets operated the most sucessful spy networks, in both Allied ans=d Axis countries. The existence of Communist Party organizations proved a great asset. The major German spy achievement may have been before the War in encouraging Stalin's purge of the Red Amy. German intelligence during the War was nothing short of a disaster. The Soviets manage to surprise the Germans with a series of offensives beginning with offensive before Moscow. Of course the German intelligence operation was the fact that the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, was actively working against the NAZIS. The greatest Allied achievement may have been in fooling the Germans about the location of the D-Day landings. Allied opperatives also provided valuavle information about the German rocket program. The major surprise German operation of the War was the Ardennes oiffensicve which Allied intelligence failed to pick up on (December 1944).
A variety of different specialized units appeared during World War II. Probably the most innovative were airborn assault units (paratroops and gliders). They were introduced by the Germans in their Western Offensive (1940). They proved successful, the greatest achievement was taking the Belgian fort at Ebon-Emal. While the performance of the Luftwaffe and Panzers was the key factors in the German success, the world was starteled by the new airbotn soldiers. The German parattroops were used in the conquest of Crete (1941), although at great cost. This prevented Hitler from using them again. America and Britain after the appearance of the German paratroops, decided to create their own airborn troops. They played a major role in both the invasion of Sicity and D-Day and used as infantry played a key role in blunting the German Bulge offensive. Another important specialized unit was the commandos. Commandos were used in both the European and Pacific theater. American Army Rangers took Pont-du-Hoc on D-Day (1944). American and British commandos played an important role in Burma. Montain (ski) units were organized by the Americans and Germans. Finnish ski soldiers played an important role in the Winter war (1939-41). An American Mountain Division played an important role in Italy (1944). Red Army units of course led two massive winter offensives against the Germans. Ski troops were involved, but I do not know if they had actual mountain divisions. Another specialized group was air attack squadrons. The best know were the Japanese Kmakazis organized to attack U.S. Navy ships after the distruction of the Imperial Fleet at the the Battel of Leyte Gulf (1944). There were also submarine commandos. The Japanese deployed midget submarines at Pearl Harbor (1941). The Italians achieved some success with manned tprpdoes. Several countries organized marine units. The best known is the U.S. Marine Corps which played a central role in the Central Pacific campaign. The British nd Japanese also had marine units.
The Munich Conference was an attempt to prevent a European war. That war was ade possible when the Soviets sihned the NAZI-Soviet Nom-Agression Pact. The Sviets were the only country to participate in war time conferences both with and against the Axis. Both the Allies and the Axis held a series of conferences to plan strategy and work out cooperative actions. The Allied conferences are better known in part because the Allies cooperative effort was much more involved than the Axis effort. In addition, Allied control of the seas made conferences with the Japanese and European Axis impossible after the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Allied conferences also were important in developing war strategy and xooperative efforts, but also helped shape the future of Europe after the War. As a result the last two conferences, especially Yalta have proven to be very controversial.
HBC has prepared several biographies of some of the main political and military figures involved in World War II. Many of these biographies, however, are just at the beginning phase. As the focus of HBC is on childhood, many of these biographies concentrate on their childhood, but we provide information on their adult lives as well for the historical background.
The quick German victories in the early years of the War were so unexpected and so overwealming, there was in most countries initially no though of resistance to their occupiers. Gradually in the West as the nature of the NAZI war effort became apparent did resistance begin to grow. In the East the Germans initiated a campaign of untold barbarity from the beginning. Churchill was a strong proponent from the onset of supporting the ormation and supply of resistance groups. The British formed the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The United States formed the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). As the war began to turn against he Germans, the resistance grew in strength. The Ressistance made major contributions on both the easter and western front. They occupied important numbers of German troops, disrupted supplies routes and communications, and provide critcal intelligence on German operaions.
Economics played a central role in World War II. Hitler's rearament program was bankrupting NAZI Germany. It is questionable how long Hitler could have continued his rearament program if he had not taken Germany to war in September 1939. Germany proceeded to loot the national banks of the conquered nations. The persecuution of the Jews and the Holcaust was also used in part to finance the War. The NAZIs very effectively integrated the economiy of Czecheslovakia into the German arms industry. Germany did not go to a full war footing until late in the War. Not did Germany effectively cooperate in war prodyction with its Axis allies. Germany also did not effectively used the economies and industries of the captive nations, especially the countries occupied in Western Europe. The Germans did use te conquered countries as a source od slave labor. German ineffiency in coordinating with Allies stands in sharp contrast to the close copperation between Britain and America. President Roosevelt began mobilizing the Arsenal of democracy, the vast American economy well before America went to war. Very extensive cooperation in weapons development and production also began between Britain and American before American ntered the War. Hitler avoided putting Germany on a full war footing, because he thought the War had been won and he did not want shortages and rationing to deminish domestic support for the War. Only after the setbacks in Russia, especially Stalingrad, did Hitler turn to Speer and give him the authority to fully convert the German economy for war. Fortunally for the world, by then it was to late to stop the expanding force of the Soviet Union in the East and the Western allies in the West.
Although not as dramatic as the major military campaigns, in large measure, it was on the home front that the War was decided. Combatant countries took different appraoches to the home front and the need for increased production to supply the fighting men. The Germans believing the War had been won, actually scaled back war production in 1940-41 and delayed critical work on weapons development (such at jet aircraft). Hitler was very concerned with maintaining German civilian consumption levels and that mothers not be taken out of the home to work in factories. German women were not mobilized for War work, rather slave labor was brought in from occupied countries to work in factories and on farms. The hard-pressed British in 1939-40 completely reorganized the economy for war production which included the use of large numbers of women and youths. America after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 also reorganized the economy producing staggering quantities of weapons and other war mayerials that the Axis could not match. The Russians managed to move many war-plants beyond te Urals Mountains out of reach of the Geramsn and as a result maintained war-production. During the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russians were actually continued building T-34 tanks in a vast factory even after the Germans had entered part of it. Youth groups also played important roles in the War, although this varied among countries.
The age of the soldiers who fought the War is a topic that we have not yet addressed in detail. It is, however, an important topic that we hope to persue as HBC develops. All of the major combatant countries introduced drafts to create the massive military forces needed to fight the War. The age of men drafted varied from country to country. The widest age range was in Germany who began industung youths and older men when the War turned against them. Youths in all country could and did volunteer for military service. Normally one could volunteer at a younger age than one was drafted.
Once America entered the War, FDR insisted on demanding unconditional surrender. The term came from a term U.S. Grant used during the American Civil War when treating with a Confederate West Point classmate. FDR told aides in private, "This time the Germans are going to know that they were defeated," refering to the decission not to occupy Germany after World War I. [Beschloss] The insistance on unconditional surrender may have prolonged the War. Some historials believe that this war policy was unwise. [Fleming] Here historians disagree as to what extent it prolonged the War. [Davidson, p. 442.] Given the NAZI hold and the complicity of the Government and Wehrmacht in such enormous crimes, it may not have been a major factor in stiffening German resistance. While the military imapct is disputed, what it not disputed is the fact that unconditional surrender allowed the Western Allies a freehand in ensuring that Germany would become a democratic nation--a success that was the most important factor in the making of modern Europe.
World War II resulted in more extensive trritorial changes in Europe, both during and after the German surender in May 1945. The great mass population movement in European history followed. There were more than 35 million displaced people. Many were slave labores brought to Germany for slave labor. Few survived the NAZI death camps. Many other millions were POWs. Many more millions moved with the changes of borders. The Gernans expelled non-Germans from ares annexed to the Reich and planned Geman colonies in the eastern territories. Many German satellite countries, especially in the Balkans seized territory or took actions agains minorities. There was terrible ttrocities in the states set up in Yugoslavia. After the War, German civilians pade the price for NAZI attrocities. Many fled with the retreating Weremacht back to the Reich. Most of those who stayed were deported by the new post-War governments. It was the children of course who suffered in these mass population movements--many did not survive.
World War II also had an enormous impact on boys' fashions. Quite a range of fashion shifts occurred during and after World War II. Some of the major changes included: an increasing shift to casual dress, less elaborate fashions, the disappearance of knickers, short pants began to be worn as summer attire, American boys stop wearing kneesocks and long stockings, American Scouts and Cubs begin wearing long pants, "T" shirts and jeans became a mainstay of American boyhood, short hair styles become popular for boys in America after the War. Some of these fashions changes are clearly traceable to the War. HBC can not, however, always connect changes changes that occurred during the War as an impact of the War. That may be, however, as the full ramifications of the War are yet to be assessed. Many of the changes were most pronounced in America, and only began appearing in Europe during the 1950s.HBC has noted several changes in boys' fashions during and after World War II. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but only what HBC has noted to date. The following is the list with some preliminary musings that require much more thought an asessment. While many changes took place during and immediately after the War, it is not altogether clear how the war brought them about. Some of the changes were the continuation of long time trends such as the shift toward casual fashions and life styles.
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The War required such a gargantian national effort on the part of the principal combatents that it was necessary that everybody did what was in their power to support the war effort. The most prominent way most countries accomplished this was by rationing. Rationing was a method used by the government to ensure that everybody was able to receive equal amounts of raw materials. This way, enough material was used for the war effort, but the public could still have access to these items. To circumvent rationing and price controls, World War II black marketeers traded in clothing and liquor in Britain and meat, sugar, and gasoline in the United
States.
There was a great difference on how World War II affected children in different countries. The impact of children in many occupied countries was nothing shortof disaster. Millions of children died in Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic Republics. World War II left large numbers of people homeless are far removed from their homeland. Millions of homes had been destroyed. Whole populations had been removed. The Soviets transported large numbers of people from the Baltic Republics to Siberia. Poles were moved west. Chechens and other peoles were also transported. The NAZIs of course targeted the Jews for death camps. Many Poles were transported from the areas of Poland incorporated into the Reich. The Germans brought millions to the Reich for slave labor labor. Many were young people without children, but some had children which were left behind. Many parents were killed in the bombing and shelling. Among the displaced were huge numbers of children. The children were of course the least likely to survive. If separated from their parents their chances were not good. Jewish children were among the first to be killed by the NAZIs because they had no economic value which could be exploited. One can not forget the images of the starving Jewish children on the Warsaw Getto whose parents had been killed. Even non-Jewish children were unlikely to survive without their parents. But many did survive and at the end of the war there were hundreds of thousands of displaced children. Adding to the human tradegy were millions of Germans streaming back to the Reich to avoid the Red Army. After the War German populations in Poland and other countries were forcibly transported to occupied Germany.
The treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) varied widely from country to country. The Germans were the first country to acquire large numbers of POWs. German policy varied as to thenationality of the POWs. The Germans treated French, British, and later american POWs relatively correctly. They did try to separate Jewish POWs from the general POW population. POWs were also used to some extent as forced labor. The German treatment of Polish and Soviet POWs, however, was barbaric and many died from starvation, exposure, and mistreatment. The German policy was in part a planned method of elimination and in part their inablity to deal with the massive numbers involved. German tretment improved somewhat as they began to use Soviet POWs for forced labor, but it was still brutal. British and American treatment of POWs was correct, although there were difficulty handling thelarge numbers in 1945. German POWs in camps located in America were amazed at their treatment and diet. Strangely German and Italian POWs were often treated more courtesly than Black U.S. servicemen. I'm unsure about Italian policies. Soviet tretment of German POWs was also brutal, but not as genocidal as German poliies. In fact German POWs fared better than domestic prisoners in the Soviet Gulag. It is unclear why. Some belive that Stlin wanted to influence POWs that were to be repatriated. The Japanese treatment of POWs was barbaric. POWs were starved, brutalized, and used for forced labor. Some were even used for mediucal experiments, including live vivisections and assessmrents of biological weapons. American combat soldiers were often brutal with Japanese soldiers, but once in camps the treatment was correct.
Our approach to World War I is both a chronological and topical survey. Approached this way the individual country experiences often are obscured. Thus we have created a series of national pages designed to focus on the experience of each country in the War. Some counties were central to the War. Others played more marginal roles, but the national experience of the War was still profound in those countries. Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union were the key players in launching the War and making it a struggle of unbeliebale cruelty and leathality. Poland was the first country to stand up to the NAZIs and paid a terrible proce. Britain and France were reluctantly dragged into the War. While France fell in the first year of the War, dogged British resistance made victory possible. America in the end rescued Europe not only from Fascism, but after the War from Communism as well. Almost all of the independent countries of the world were involved in the War and even those who were not beligerants (Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey) were affected by it or played not inconsequential roles.
Racism was a key aspect of World War II. It was a primary factor within in the Axis military alliance. World War as conceived by Adolf Hitler was a racist war. Hitler clearly conceptualizes a great conflict against Jews and the only slightly more preverable Slavs. The Jews Hitler believed had to be purged from German life. This process evolved into the Holocaust. At least some of the Slavs would be allowed to survive because slave labor was needed for the new Reich. And Hitler saw the war as not a German war, but an Aryan racial war. Hitler was frustated at the beginning of the War because he found himself fighting the British and allied with the Soviets. What he wanted of course was to be alied with the British and fighting the Soviets which he saw the worst possible combination of Jewish Bolshevicks overseeing the Slavic masses. Not all the people in Germany and racially acceptable countries were acceptable to Hitler. Gyneology became big business in Germany. The Japanese also had highly racist attitudes which showed in their treatment of Koreans, Chinese, and other subject peoples. Japanese attrocities are less publicized, but resulted in the deaths of even more people than fell victim to NAZI racist policies. Italy was less affected by racist notions. Racism was not, however, limited to the Axis. America entered the War as a still largely racist country. The South was still strictly seggregatated with black Americans denied civil rights and precvented from voting. America fought the War with a segregated military. The anti-Japanese prejudice of the time was often intense and was reflected in the disgraceful internment of Pacific-coast Japanese-Americans simply on grounds of their ethnicity. One interesting aspect is that with all this anti-Japanese feeling, it virtually disapperated after the War. And all kinds of restrictions on Asians as to citizenship, employment, iniversity admission also disappeared. Such overt descrimination did not exist in Britain, but Britain at the time did not have a substantial minority population. The situation in the colonies was different. The situation in the Soviet Union is more difficult to assess. Communist doctrine was race neutral which was one reason that it appealed to many Jews. Of course Communist neutrality on race does not mean that racist beliefs were no prevalent among Soviet officials.
World War II created te greatest refugee problem in human history. The problem was concentrated in Europe, but niot entirely confined there. There were refugee problems after and during and after World War I. The numbers of refugees were significant, but the refugees and displacements help to create bitterness that led to much more extensive and brutal operations during World War II. The problem began with with the NAZI take over in Germany (1933). Political opponents fled Germany as did many Jews. The NAZI regime's focus on biological racism was to play a major role in the World War II refugee problem. Refugees from the fighting were a small pat of the overall refugeee problem. There were forced deportation, mass evacuation and displacement, perscecution based on ethnicity, mass killing, conscription for forced labor, anti-partisan operations, intra-ethnic violence, stategic bombing and evacuation from the cities. The NAZI approach to many refugee groups shifted toward genocide as the War progressed. There were refugee problems in most of the countries involved in World War II. And the boirder chasnges at the end of the War caused additional refugees. The refugee crisis in Europe, especially Germany, resulted after the War in the creation of an international refugee and human rights infrastructure which is the basis of how refugee problems are handeled today.
While race was a major factor in World War II, religion played a more limited role. There were, however, some religious aspects of the War. Religion had played a major role in Western life since the Christinization of the Roman Empire. For many in the 19th and 20th century the separation of church and state was a major aspect of modernizing and creating a more just society. It thus came a shock that totalitarianism (Fascism and Communism), the most secular of political movements, were a rejection of Western civilization and a reversion to barbarity. Both sought to destroy religion and replace with a kind of state worship with religious trappings. Christianity in the West helped to develop and save democracy by carving out a space that was beyond the control of the modern secular state. [Burleigh] This is why both the the Communists and NAZIs targeted religion. There were religious leaders who cooperated with the NAZIs (most notably in Croatia, Romania, and Slovakia). German church leaders were often obseqious to the NAZIs who planed to replace Christianity with a state religion. Japan's state religion, Shintoism, ws part of the cultural complex which led to Japanese militarism. The most vicious religious conflict was in Yugoslavia where the Catholic Croat Ustache waged war against the the Orthodox Serbs. Hitler made the destruction of the Jews a main German war objective, but the Holocaust was more of a racial than a religious onslaught.
While church leaders were often willing to accomodate the NAZIs, there were individual churchmen who heroically resisted. The role of the papacy is a still debated aspect of the War. And the the devotion of individuals was a force to be reconnened with. Stalin after the NAZI invasion paused the athism campaign to draw on support from the Church. Mussolini unlike Hitler did not attempt to destroy the Church. And in some occupied countries, especially Poland, the Church was a focal point of resistance. Islam was a minor factor in the War, and generally used to support the NAZIs in the Middle East, Balkans, and Soviet Union, an afinity that survived the War.
The Wehrmacht by April 1945 was shatered and no longer able to offer effective resistance to the Allies. The Western Allies raced through Germany from the west during April 1945 as the Soviet Red Army surrounded Berlin. American and Soviet forces made the long anticipated link-up at the Elbe River on April 25. The Red Army fought a massive engagement to take Berlin. Hitler insisted that the SS and Wehrmacht forces in the city, reinforced by the Volkstrum (Hitler Youth boys and older men) fight so that he might live a few more days. As Red Army soldiers approached his bunker, Hitler shot himself and named Admiral Karl Doenietz as the new Führer. The last raid of the strategic vombing campaign took place on April 25 when the Skoda armament plant at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia were bombed. The American Air Corps began shifting to mercy missions. Flights were dispatched to feed civilians in northern Italy and the Netherlands who were near starvation. Priority was also given to evacuting prisonors of war (POWs). Doenitz ordered General Alfred Jodl to General Eisenhower' Headquarters--Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) detachment in Rheims to seek terms to end the fighting. Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of German forces on all fronts At 2:41 a.m. on May 7, which was to take effect on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. Thus NAZI Germany surrendered unconditionally, as President Roosevelt had insisted. Celebrations ensued throught Europe--except Germany. Here the major effirt was to move west to surrender to the Western Allies.
Adolf Hitler after the fall of France was the master of Europe. He controlled or dominated Europe from Poland to the Pyranees. No other modern conqueror other than Napoleon had amassed such an empire. This placed enormous industrial potential and resources at the command of NAZI Germany. The German military had modern weaponry and a tactical dictrine that no other country at the time could match. Combined with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan the Axis Alliance had in 1940 overwealming military power at a time Britain was perilously bracing for air and U-boat assaults. The American army at the time was almost non-existent and armaments production was less than that of Germany. In the Pacific the Imperial Navy's 13 aircraft carriers and modern aircraft with throughly trined pilots gave the Japanes a military advantage that was not yet understood. Yes the Axis was totally defeated and by 1945 their cities reduced to rubble. The question rises of why the Axis lost the War.
The British and Americans commonly believe that they won World War II and that it was a great victory for democracy. This is partly true. It is clear that the totaltarian powers, especially NAZI Germany, posed a danger to democracy and to Westetn civilization in general. It is of course true that the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan) was defeated. The actual outcome, however, in both Europe and Asia is very different than what would be expected from a victorious war. In Europe the situation was complicated by the fact that the victory of the Western Allies was only possible because Hitler's invasion turned a virtual ally into a bitter enemy. The fact that the Allies relied in the totalitarian Soviet Union, which had carried out aggressions of its own, meant that the Allied victory was a limited victory. In Asia there was a similar oucome. Japan was defeated and occupied. America's ally China within only a few years fell to the Communists who installed a totalitarian regime.
The standard view of World War II is of a great crusade against tyranny and totalitarianism in which Britain and her Dominions and the United States fought and defeated the Axis dictators (NAZI Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) and in the process saved Western Civilization. Here we would not include the Soviet regime as part of the crusade against tyranny, but would include the valiant Soviet people. The great success of the Allied coalition is noy only did the Allies defeat the Axis countries, but they suceeded in planting the germ of liberal democracy in their former enemies. This is the assessment of the great majority of historians. Of course history as Göring ponted out is commonly written by the winners. What is not common is that the citizens of the defeated Axis countries uniformily approved of the reforms opposed on their countries. There are historians on both the left and right who offer disenting view. Most that we have noted are idealogues who are guided more by their ideological proclivities than a dispasioned assessment of historical facts.
The United States in West Germany and Japan oversaw an occupation with changed the nature of Geran and Japanese society, rooying out NAZIism and militarism and fomenting the development of democratic political regimes and social structures. The results by all practical measures have been an overwealming success. Germany and Japan today are two of the most prosperous and democratic societies in the world. There were, however, major differences in the occupation policies in the two countries.
World War II was the greates war ever fought in human history. It involved all of the major powers and most of the world's smaller countries. Soome countries managed to remain neutral, bit even these counries were significantly affected by the War, The Axis countries were totally defeated and forced to surender unconditionally. Even so, negotiating peace treaties proved a complex process because of the number of countries involved. In addition the Soviet Unin which began the War as aNAZI ally with invasions of neigboring countries, because of the NAZI invasion eded up on the Allied side. Further complicating atters, Italy withdrew from the Axis and ny the end of the War was fighting wth the Allies. The hreatest complication, however, was that the Soviet insistence on creating an empire in Eastern Europe by setting up satellite states provoked a Cold War and te Allies began to see Germany and Japan as potential allies rather than potential enemies. The shape of pot-War Europe was essentially sketeched out at World War II conferences (Yalta and Potsdam). The Allies held conferences which resulted in peace treaties with Axis countries (Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) and Finland (a co-belgerant, but not an Axis country) signed in Paris (1947). These countries had to make territorial concessions, pay reparations and limit the size and strength of their military forces. The bulk of the reparations were paid to the Soviet Union, but a share was pais to other occupied countries (Albania, Czrchoslovakia. Ethiopia, Greece, and Yugoslavia).
Germany was more of a problem, largely because of te developing Cold War. The Soviets and the Western Allies failed to agree on the terms of a peace treaty with Germany. Soviet attempts to force the Allies out of Berlin failed with the Berlin Air Lift (1948-49). The United States, Great Britain, and France became the Federal Republic of Germany (1949). The Allied granted the Federal Republic independence (1955). The Soviet Union proclaimed the independence of East Germany as the German Democratic Republiv (DDR) (1954). As a negotisating too, the Soviets threatened to negotiate a separate peace treaty with the DDR. This would have endagered Allied access to Berlin. The Soviets and the DDR built the Belin Wall (1961). The DDR remained a Soviet satellite until Germany was reunited (1990).
Austria during the War was part oi NAZI Germany. There was a sparate Allied occupaion of Austria. The occuation was ended (1955). Austria adopted a neutral stance and agreed never to seek union wuith Germany.
After the immediate post-War years, the Allies led by the United States began the process of framing a peace treaty with Japan. This process was blocked by the Soviet Union as the Cold War with the United States escalated. The United States sponsored a treaty that was endorsed by Japan and 48 other nations (1951). The Soviet Union, however, refused to sign. Japan signed a separate peace treaty with India and Nationalist China (1952) and finally the Soviet Union (1956).
Beschloss, Michael. The Conquerors.
Burleigh, Michael. Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics: From the Great War to the War on Terror (Harper Collins, 2007), 557p.
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Fleming, Thomas. The New Dealer's War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Within World War II (Basic, 2001).
Olson, Lynne and Stanley Cloud. A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II (Knopf, 2003).
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