Re-thinking the events of World War II

“As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.” -Albert Einstein

Compare your understanding of the events of World War II now to your impressions when the course began in August. After 70 years the moral issues of World War II don’t seem so clear anymore. Have you done any re-thinking? 

When this class began in August, I had just returned from a trip to Europe. I went to Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland. During my trip, I was able to see a number of sites from World War II. In Munich, where we first landed, I took a “Hitler’s Tour of Munich.” This tour was extremely interesting because were able to see several of the sites where Hitler had rallied people to his cause. For instance, we went to the Hofbräuhaus. Here, our tour guide explained that Hitler had had numerous functions. For instance, in 1920, Hitler proclaimed the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist program. This program reconstituted the German Workers’ Party as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or the Nazi Party. Hitler had functions at the Hofbräuhaus because soldiers would be drinking, and would therefore be more susceptible to propaganda and less questioning of his speeches. Further, my tour guide brought up several interesting questions. For instance, he explained Hitler’s aspirations to become a painter. However, the majority of people thought of him as just an “average” artist, and he was not admitted to any art academies. My tour guide asked, “If Hitler had been able to attend any art academy of his choice, would World War II have happened?”

Hitler and the Nazis at the Marienplatz

In Munich, Germany. At the Marienplatz.

Taking this tour and seeing several historical sites in Munich where Hitler spent a lot of his time made me very excited about taking the WWII class. In class, when we watched “The Triumph of the Will,” the Nazi propaganda movie, I recognized a number of the places depicted. It was interesting because the movie made Munich look just as beautiful as it had been when I had visited. It’s so hard to imagine that this picturesque city is where Hitler and the Nazis first began plotting. Munich was the “Capital of the Movement” in German: the birthplace of the Nazi Party. I remember my tour guide said something along the lines of, “If Germans think the world sees them differently, they may well be suffering from a misconception…The Nazi story is not over.” I thought this was a controversial statement. On the one hand, Germany is a much different place now and has tried as hard as possible to distance itself from and to make up for the Nazi atrocities. On the other hand, people will always associate the country with the home of the Party that was responsible for starting the deadliest war in human history.

 

Continuing on from my visit to Munich, Professor Drummond’s class definitely helped to enhance my understanding of the war. Knowing the history of World War II is one matter, but actually seeing documentaries and firsthand accounts of the war is entirely another. The class helped me to gather a number of different perspectives on the war. For instance, Shoah was a very well-done look at the horrors of the Holocaust – it depicted the awful conditions of Chelmno, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The film effectively combined facts with personal accounts of both victims and perpetrators. Also, Goebbels Experiment was a fascinating look at Joseph Goebbels’ diary. In explaining WWII, many people come to the conclusion that the Nazis were intentionally and purely “evil”. While I believe that the acts were beyond evil, listening to some of Goebbels’ thoughts makes it clear that he thought he was doing the right thing. He believed that he was somehow helping German society. This documentary showed the kinds of delusions that lead to the atrocities committed in the world. Further, Goebbels Experiment was fascinating to me because it illustrated that even leaders who plot to eradicate a whole group of people have human emotions. For example, Goebbels spends a good period of his diary talking about his love for his wife, Magda, and their children.

Joseph Goebbels

Children at Aushwitz-Birkenau

In regard to the moral issues of World War II, I believe that this class has helped to show that though acts committed during World War II were immoral from our perspective today, a lot of the people committing the acts did not see themselves as doing anything immoral. For instance, watching an account of a particular battle from World War II from two sides illustrates that soldiers on each side thought that they were doing the right thing, or were at least too caught up in the heat of battle to think any differently. Unfortunately, this is what led to the atrocious number of deaths during the war.