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.
Books & documentaries about World War II
“People were perhaps alike in dying and in death, but each of them was different until that final moment, each had different preoccupations and presentiments until all was clear and then all was black.” -Synder, in Bloodlands
Reading a book about a subject is one thing, but seeing a documentary or a movie about it is another experience. Examine your reactions to what you read in class to what you saw on the screen.
The books and documentaries read and watched in this class were both instrumental in providing me with more knowledge about World War II. I really enjoyed reading Bloodlands because I believe the book does an excellent job of portraying the murder of civilians during the war. The book does not only talk about the Holocaust; it also presents the mass executions of civilians that took place under Stalin’s regime, the starvation of POWs, and the continued killings after the war. The book depicts how all of these events were interconnected. Also, Professor Drummond mentioned in class at one point that the majority of Americans think of Hitler as worse than Stalin because the Soviet Union was on our side. This book clears up that misconception. It illustrates that the Nazi atrocities and the Soviet atrocities were equally horrible. It is impossible to say that one was worth than the other. Though Kingdom of Shadows is fictional, I enjoyed reading the novel because it depicts the suspense that was mounting in Europe between 1938 and 1939. It also illustrates how desperately civilians tried to stop the Nazi regime from taking over Europe. I would definitely recommend this novel to someone who would like an idea of what it was like to live in Europe immediately preceding the outbreak of WWII.
Hitler and Stalin...both responsible for atrocities during WWII
Contrasting the two books we read in the class with the numerous documentaries we watched, I would say that the documentaries more effectively brought human emotion into an understanding of the war. Books are irreplaceable and provide a crucial perspective on the war, but documentaries are more engaging for those who are not willing to spend as much time learning about the war. Further, documentaries leave less to the imagination. This can have both a positive and a negative effect. On the positive side, documentaries contain real footage and generally give one an idea of what actually happened during any given event. But on the negative side, documentaries can often have a particular agenda and can skew events with images and visuals. When watching a documentary, it is necessary not to take everything at face value.
In conclusion, I believe that both books and documentaries play a powerful role in giving one perspective on World War II. Documentaries are perhaps better for those who are not willing to spend as much time reading about the war, while books are often superior in order to gain an analytical perspective on the variety of events that took place during the war.
- This documentary depicts the similarities between Hitler and Stalin. Both dictators ruled their countries with iron fists, squashed all dissent, and directed government-sponsored programs of terror against their own citizens.
Creating a documentary about World War II
“Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.” -Ken Burns
If you were given a modest budget to create a documentary to tell a part of the story of 1939-1945, what would your subject be?
One of the subjects that is not often covered in documentaries about World War II is Greece’s role in the war. Few people know that Greece played a critical role in the outcome of the war. Greece won one of the first victories for the Allies when they were able to push back the Italians into Albania. The Germans then invaded Greece and Yugoslavia in April 6, 1941. Greece fell in May, but not without a lot of resistance from the Greek people. For instance, in the Battle of Crete, the Germans suffered 4,000 casualties.
Children in Greece during WWII
The Greeks were more resistant than the Italians and the Nazis suspected they would be. The Nazis fought for nearly five weeks before Greece fell.
Considering the small size of the country, it is somewhat remarkable how resistant the Greek people were. They were a lot tougher than both the Italians and the Germans suspected they would be. Because Italy was unable to capture Greece, the British were able to win victories against the Italians in North Africa. After the Italians failed in Greece and Yugoslavia, Hitler became determined to take the Balkans. However, it took the Nazis five weeks to take over Greece. This delayed Operation Barbarossa by a month and contributed to the failure of the campaign to conquer Russia.
Murder of Greek civilians in Crete. After the Nazis took over Greece, the Greek people suffered from starvation, murder, and other atrocities.
A Greek battalion during WWII
Nearly one million Greek people died during the war, from both combat and starvation. This represented 14 percent of the population in 1940. It is unfortunate that more people do not know about Greece’s role during the war. For this reason, I believe it would be crucial to make a documentary about Greek resistance. Winston Churchill said about the Greeks, “Today we say that Greeks fight like heroes, from now on we will say that heroes fight like Greeks.” Even Hitler said, “For the sake of historical truth, I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.”
One touching story of early Greek resistance took place after the Germans reached the Acropolis on April 27. The Germans ordered the flag guard to retire the Greek flag. The soldier obeyed. But after he was done, he wrapped himself in the flag and threw himself off the plateau to his death.
In my documentary, I would interview Greek soldiers and civilians who survived the war. It would be interesting to contrast the perspectives of Greek soldiers with the perspectives of soldiers in other countries who fell to the Nazis more quickly. It is interesting to me that the Greeks had a dictatorship during WWII, yet they were still willing to fight to their deaths and would not surrender. I would like to ask Greek soldiers’ what their primary motivations were.
The Holocaust
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.” -Elie Wiesel, Night
How did the Holocaust happen? Estimates are that 50-70 million souls died in World War II. Who suffered most?
The Holocaust is the systematic murder of millions of Jews and other civilians during World War II. According to one German philosopher, “The National Socialist killing of the Jews was unique in that never before has a state with the authority of its responsible leader decided and announced that a specific human group, including its aged, its women and its children and infants, would be killed as quickly as possible, and then carried through this resolution using every possible means of state power.” As stated previously, many people equate the Holocaust with the idea of “evil Germans”. This simplifies the real cause of the atrocities. The Germans were not inherently immoral people. Rather, the Holocaust was arguably the most successful psychological manipulation in human history.
The crematorium at Dachau
Labeling children from birth
First, anti-Semitism was not a new phenomenon in Germany. Jews were often scapegoats for problems all over Europe. In Medieval times they were blamed for the plague, during the Crusades they were killed by Christians, and many Jews were forced to live in ghettos in the 1700s and 1800s. Thus, anti-Semitic ideas already existed. Hitler was then able to exploit these anti-Semitic feelings. He actually described exactly what he was going to do in Mein Kampf. Hitler used the ideas of Social Darwinism to argue that Jews were the evil that was at the root of Germany’s problems. Hitler even claimed that Germany lost World War I because of the Jews. Therefore, Hitler encouraged the Germans to blame all of their problems on the Jews.
Further, Hitler implemented his ideas very slowly and methodically. He began putting Jews in “work camps” in 1933. Though many died in these camps, they were not designed to be killing centers. Gradually, however, Hitler began to establish “death camps” designed specifically for mass killings. After 1939, nearly all of the camps were places where Jews were either to be killed or made to work as slave laborers. The Germans established nearly 15,000 camps and sub-camps. The fact that Hitler did not try to do everything at once made it easier for him to carry out his plans without attracting too much attention.
The Jews suffered most during the Holocaust, along with all of the other groups whom the Nazis executed – homosexuals, mentally and physically disabled people, prisoners of war, political and religious opponents, and Gypsies. These groups were all systematically murdered. The atrocities committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied Eastern Europe. Though the Jews and the other targeted groups suffered during the Holocaust, the Holocaust was a tragedy for mankind in general.
It is unbelievable that so many people could be brutally murdered for such a long period of time. Genocides have occurred since the Holocaust, in Rwanda, Armenia, and Darfur, to name a few. However, the Holocaust was the most planned and systematic of all of the genocides. No one can say explicitly “how” the Holocaust happened. Clearly, it involved a great deal of manipulation, but it truly defies the imagination to envision how so many people would be capable of murdering so many innocent civilians.
Never Again. Memorial at Dachau Concentration Camp.
While in Germany, I visited Dachau. It was an overwhelming experience to see the actual conditions of the camp – the crematorium and the sleeping and living conditions. There were numerous images in the museum around the camp, as well. The images and stories were truly heartbreaking. In citing the Holocaust, the common expression is “Never again”. However, given the genocides in numerous other countries after the Holocaust, one wonders if this is a possibility.
For these reasons, it is necessary that people learn about the Holocaust, learn about World War II, and learn about other genocides. Documentaries have always been, and will hopefully continue to be an instrumental part in ensuring that another Holocaust does not happen. Further, many of the fictional accounts and stories about the Holocaust should remain a part of school curriculum to ensure that everyone remembers what happened during the Holocaust. Some of the more moving accounts I have seen and read are Elie Wiesel’s Night, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Sarah’s Key, and Schindler’s List. The clip that has always stuck with me from Schindler’s List is the little girl in red. As Professor Drummond stated, “History does not repeat itself. Men do.”
I believe that determine who suffered “most” during WWII is impossible to do. Obviously you can look at the number of deaths in each country and make a determination from the country with the most deaths (Russia), but I do not believe that this is an adequate way to determine the level of suffering. During WWII, the men, women, and children put into Concentration camps suffered. The moms who saw their sons go off to war and never return suffered. The young soldiers who watched their friends die in front of them suffered. The people in various countries who were cut off from aid and assistance and starved to death suffered…I don’t think it’s possible to choose between these groups and pick one who suffered the most. WWII was a human tragedy. WWII should not, and hopefully will not, ever happen again.
caitlinww2blog 