Poland suffered during the Nazi occupation

Poland suffered during the occupation by Nazi Germany. Here is a photo album that says it all.
"It is a shame to say it but some Polish people took part in that crime. Some people even helped the gendarmes look for hidden Jews. The Germans even killed small Jewish children. It is hard to describe."

German soldiers break down the road barrier. The march into Poland began.

INVASION OF POLAND: PART 1




The gallant Polish cavalry awaits the Germans! The Blitzkrieg would leave them shattered.

INVASION OF POLAND: PART 2



German forces in the outskirts of Warsaw. In the background of the photograph, the city burns as a result of the German military assault. Warsaw, Poland, September 1939.

INVASION OF POLAND: PART 3



The victory parade in Warsaw

OCCUPIED POLAND: PERSONAL ACCOUNT

Diary of a Polish Physician

Dr. Zygmunt Klukowski was the chief physician of a small hospital in the village of Szczebrzeszyn south of the city of Lublin. An enthusiastic diarist, the doctor daily chronicled the Nazi occupation as events unfolded outside the window of his residence at the hospital. Discovery of his observations would have meant instant death. He therefore carefully concealed his manuscripts often changing their hiding place during five years of Nazi occupation. His extraordinary diary was published in Poland in 1959 shortly before his death and subsequently translated into English.

October 11, 1939
The town is crowded with Germans. They are quartered in all the larger houses. Most of them are from Austria and some from Vienna. In general the Germans are trying to clean up the city. For this work they are using only Jews. Jews must sweep the streets, clean all the public latrines, and fill all the street trenches. Plastered everywhere are German notices giving an idea of what we can expect in the future.

We must return all arms. We must record all contagious diseases. The police curfew is from 10 P.M. until 5:30 A.M. The restrictions applying to Jewish shops change from day to day. Sometimes the Jews are allowed to open their shops, and sometimes they are not. It seems that most of the orders are aimed at the Jews.

February 18, 1940
I met a woman, an official of the Zamoyski estate. She had just arrived from Chelmo. For some time I've been receiving alarming information about the execution of the mentally ill patients of the psychiatric ward at Chelmo Hospital. I asked her if this happened. She verified that it was true.

All the mentally ill were shot with machine guns, but under penalty of death the hospital personnel are forbidden to talk about this crime.

It is so hard to believe anything as terrible as this.

Source: eyewitnesstohistory

A Nazi decree issued in October 1941, in German and Polish, warns that Jews leaving the ghetto, or Poles who aid them, will be executed. Czestochowa, Poland.

DR. KLUKOWSKI TELLS MORE....

October 21, 1942
"Today I planned to try to go to Zamosc again. I woke up very early to be ready, but around 6 A.M. I heard noise and through the window saw unusual movement. This was the beginning of the so-called German displacement of the Jews, in reality a liquidation of the entire Jewish population in Szczebrzeszyn.

"From early morning until late at night we witnessed indescribable events. Armed SS soldiers, gendarmes, and 'blue police' ran through the city looking for Jews. Jews were assembled in the marketplace. The Jews were taken from their houses, barns, cellars, attics, and other hiding places. Pistol and gun shots were heard throughout the entire day. Sometimes hand grenades were thrown into the cellars. Jews were beaten and kicked; it made no difference whether they were men, women, or small children.

"By 3 P.M. more than 900 Jews had been assembled. The Germans began moving them to the outskirts of the city. All had to walk except for members of the Judenrat and the Jewish police; they were allowed to use horse-drawn wagons. The action didn't stop even after they were taken out of town. The Germans still carried on the search for Jews. It was posted that the penalty for hiding Jews is death, but for showing their hiding places special rewards will be given.

"All Jews will be shot. Between 400 and 500 have been killed. Poles were forced to begin digging graves in the Jewish cemetery. From information I received approximately 2,000 people are in hiding. The arrested Jews were loaded into a train at the railroad station to be moved to an unknown location.

"It was a terrifying day, I cannot describe everything that took place. You cannot imagine the barbarism of the Germans. I am completely broken and cannot seem to find myself.

"We received news of robberies increasing everywhere. During the last few weeks the incidence of rape has also increased. I have already examined many pregnancies. A few days ago the wife of a well-known farmer and later a young schoolteacher came in for examination."

October 22, 1942
"The action against the Jews continues. The only difference is that the SS has moved out and the job is now in the hands of our local gendarmes and the 'blue police.' They received orders to kill all the Jews, and they are obeying them. At the Jewish cemetery huge trenches are being dug and Jews are being shot while lying in them. The most brutal were two gendarmes, Pryczing and Syring.

"The Jews that were moved yesterday out of Szczebrzeszyn were held at the Alwa plant. Around 9 P.M. another group of Jews from Zwierzyniec were brought in. Today around noon all were loaded into railroad cars, but by 4 P.M. the train had not moved. It is very cold and rainy. After the Jews were loaded into the cars, factory workers collected and brought to an assembly area money, gold, jewelry, and pearls.

"In town some of the Jewish houses were sealed by the gendarmes, but others were left completely open, so robberies took place. It is a shame to say it but some Polish people took part in that crime. Some people even helped the gendarmes look for hidden Jews. The Germans even killed small Jewish children. It is hard to describe.

"It is so terrible that it is almost impossible to comprehend. Legally the Jews don't exist in Szczebrzeszyn anymore, but still many Jews are in hiding. All will be killed sooner or later. I went to city hall today. The total number of Jews killed - they call them disabled - is unknown. Even the best specialists were exterminated. We can feel the shortage of good mechanics."

March 2, 1943
"I was told about an occurrence in Jozefow. A young man, Konrad Bartozewski, and officer of the Home Army known as 'Wir,' was arrested along with another officer, Hieronim Miac ('Kosarz'). Young Bartozewski, the son of a veterinary doctor, was put in jail. But after a few hours people from the forest came and liberated both of them. After this happened a detachment of German gendarmes came to Jozefow and arrested the entire Bartozewski family. The Germans assembled them near city hall, then in full view of thousands of people, the old veterinarian, his wife, and daughter were executed. Sixty more people were jailed.

"I was told by Mayor Kraus that during his visit to Bilgoraj he learned about a partisan raid in Huta Krzeszowska, where four policemen were killed and one was wounded in the head.

"In Szczebrzeszyn it was announced by the Germans that all traffic on the highway to Zwierzyniec will stop for three days because of military exercises in the nearby forest. People are now fearing new arrests and deportations to Germany."

March 20, 1943
"On Monday, March 15, during the late evening, between 7 P.M. and 8 P.M., a raid at Rapy took place. The lumber mill and railroad station were burned down. The car of Treubander Becker was shot at. In Rozaniec the new owner of a large farm, a German, was killed. The military barracks were burned down. In retaliation the Germans set the entire village of Rozaniec on fire. More than 800 people were arrested and taken to the barracks in Zwierzyniec, mostly women and children. There is talk of the possibility of freeing those jailed by armed action. We are sure the Germans will begin evacuation action against other villages very soon.

"The information from the Eastern Front does not give us too much hope for a quick end to the war. Tension is mounting, particularly among the young people."

References:
Kennedy, R.M., The German Campaign in Poland, 1939 (1956); Klukowski, Zygmunt, Diary from the Years of Occupation 1939-1944 (1993); Rudnicki, K.S., The Last of the War Horses (1974)


Polish forced laborers construct a highway in Germany. Place uncertain, 1941.


German soldiers lead blindfolded Polish hostages to an execution site. Olkusz, Poland, July 16, 1940.
A Polish town lies in ruins following the German invasion of Poland, which began on September 1, 1939.

German officers examine Polish children to determine whether they qualify as "Aryan." Poland, wartime.

SS doctors examine Polish children judged "racially valuable" for adoption by Germans. Poland, October 1942.

Polish citizens hanged by the Nazis in Sosnowiec.



Polish partisans are hanged by the Nazis. Rovno, Poland, 1942.


A Polish town in ruins after six years of war and German occupation. Poland, 1945.

The mind of Hitler

Adolph Hitler turned fifty on April 20, 1939. How did he celebrate his birthday? Mainly, as it befits the leader of all Germans. But one image strikes us. Hitler with children of Nazi officials. I guess it was all for propaganda. Hitler hardly loved children.

No doubt Hitler was very sensitive. He did not receive the real unconditional love that every child needs. The father was dominating; the mother too submissive. Hitler channeled this unfulfilled desire for love into fierce love for Germany. The humiliation of Germany at the end of WW1, shaped the Hitler we saw in the later years.

Alice Miller, the famous psychiatrist, explains the mind of Hitler the best.

Alice Miller's stories portray abused and silenced children who later become destructive to themselves and to others. Adolf Hitler, says Miller, was such a child. Constantly mistreated by his father, emotionally abandoned by his mother, he learned only cruelty; he learned to be obedient and to accept daily punishments with unquestioning compliance. After years, he took revenge. As an adult he once said, "It gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware people are of what is really happening to them."

Source: thisiswar

Hilter with the children of Nazi dignitaries on his birthday

THE MIND OF ADOLPH HITLER

Hitler is known to have delighted in shooting rats from his pre-teens. He is recorded as thrashing a dog in order to impress a girl friend in 1926. He revelled in the nickname ‘wolf’. He was renowned for his rages and his dogmatism.

Hitler seems to have been comfortable with two categories of female relationships: motherly figures and girly young things. The Hanfstaengl family were one of several upper middle-class families who took Adolph under their wing. When Hitler ‘tried it on’ with the wife, she told her rather wet husband not to worry, “believe me, he is an absolute neuter, not a man". His relationships with the younger females were rather similar to his relationships with dogs: play with them ’til he got bored. In other words, Hitler never really grew up.

Hitler was essentially an opportunist in the pursuit of power. He had very little coherent political ‘philosophy’. His focus was upon power. In my view he is best seen as atavist, a throw-back to an earlier society: the ‘great conqueror’ and would-be builder of empire, not a modern pragmatic politician. In a sense, he was born out of his time. He was a brilliant stage performer who, in a later part of the century, might have ended as a pop singer or a successful salesman or businessman. Hitler is, as with us all, a child of his times. He is also an example of the professional politician—not primarily an ideas man, but an opportunist who will ‘read the polls’ and say whatever it takes to gain and stay in power.
Hitler is clearly a more complex and intelligent individual than the ‘run of the mill’ mass-murderer. However, he remains often a rather dull and sleazy character, like many a modern dictator or criminal gang leader; but he was a consummate politician and a very perceptive leader and manipulator. He is as often under estimated by those who fall over themselves to rubbish him as he is over estimated by neo-nazis.

From Abelard

German wait to greet Hitler after midnight on April 20, 1939

THE MIND OF HITLER

Adolph Hitler was a narcissistic bully in thrall to a dominant father and with a neurosis about women....

Hitler was a feminine boy who was obsequious towards superiors and displayed homosexual tendencies. His sense of grievance over his own humiliation led to his cruelty and policy of mass slaughter.

Hitler suffered from neurosis, hysteria, paranoia, Oedipal tendencies, and schizophrenia.

The young Hitler was a romantic-minded boy who developed “a profound admiration, envy and emulation of his father’s masculine power and a contempt for his mother’s feminine submissiveness and weakness”...

“Thus both parents were ambivalent to him: his father was hated and respected; his mother was loved and depreciated. Hitler’s conspicuous actions have all been in imitation of his father, not his mother.” Always imagining insults and injuries against himself, Hitler had no tolerance for criticism and an excessive demand for attention and a tendency to belittle, bully or blame others and seek revenge.

However, his personality also showed a persistence in the face of defeat, along with strong self-will and self-trust.

From Dr Henry Murray's 1943 report on Hitler, director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, reported in The Times

Hitler in front of a huge crowd at his birthday parade in Berlin in April 1939

MIND OF HITLER

No doubt Hitler was very sensitive. He did not receive the real unconditional love that every child needs. The father was dominating; the mother too submissive. Hitler channeled this unfulfilled desire for love into fierce love for Germany. The humiliation of Germany at the end of WW1, shaped the Hitler we saw in the later years.

VIDEO: INSIDE THE MIND OF HITLER



Hitler is presented with a painting of his hero, Frederick the Great, by Heinrich Himmler (centre), the head of the SS

PSYCHOLOGY OF HITLER

A survey of all the evidence forces us to conclude that Hitler believes himself destined to become an Immortal Hitler, chosen by God to be the New Deliverer of Germany and the Founder of a new social order for the world. He firmly believes this and is certain that in spite of all the trials and tribulations through which he must pass he will finally attain that goal. The one condition is that he follow the dictates of the inner voice which have guided and protected him in the past. This conviction is not rooted in the truth of the ideas he imparts but is based on the conviction of his own personal greatness.

Source: A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend by Walter C. Langer, Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C.

Source: DailyMail

SUGGESTED BOOKS

The Mind of Adolf Hitler THE MIND OF ADOLF HITLER

Hitler could have been defeated when he invaded Poland

The Germans march in Warsaw

Andrew Roberts the author of the book, The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, says that Britain and France could have attacked Germany and defeated it when the cream of the Wehrmacht was busy in Poland

The fear of a war on two fronts led the Führer to detail no fewer than 40 divisions to protect his back. Crucially, however, three-quarters of these were only second-rate units and they were left with only three days' ammunition. His best troops, along with all of his armoured and mobile divisions and almost all his warplanes, were devoted to the attack on Poland.

The Americans cross the Siegfried-Maginot Line later in the war. If only the British and French had done that when Hitler attacked Poland........


Says Roberts in article in The Telegraph...

Hitler was forced to leave 40% of his 100-division army out in the West, guarding the still-incomplete Siegfried Line, or 'West Wall'. The fear of a war on two fronts led the Führer to detail no fewer than 40 divisions to protect his back. Crucially, however, three-quarters of these were only second-rate units and they were left with only three days' ammunition. His best troops, along with all of his armoured and mobile divisions and almost all his warplanes, were devoted to the attack on Poland.

Had a large, modern British Army and RAF been waiting up against the Siegfried Line in late August 1939, primed for action and superbly armed, trained, equipped and led, having been properly financed in the two decades since the Great War, and ranged alongside the French army to invade Nazi Germany the moment the Wehrmacht crossed the Polish border, history could have turned out very differently.

THE NAZI LEADERS WERE SCARED!

Paul Schmidt was a translator in the German Foreign Ministry and present at the history-making events of those last days of peace in Europe. The scene is the office of the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin. It is just after midnight on September 3, 1939 and the German juggernaut continues to slam its way into Poland. The Germans have not responded to an earlier British and French demand to withdraw their troops and a message is received stating that Sir Neville Henderson, the British Ambassador to Germany, wishes to meet with German Foreign Minister Ribbontrop. It is obvious to all that the Ambassador's message will probably mean war.

When I entered the next room Hitler was sitting at his desk and Ribbentrop stood by the window. Both looked up expectantly as I came in. I stopped at some distance from Hitler's desk, and then slowly translated the British Government's ultimatum. When I finished, there was complete silence.

Hitler sat immobile, gazing before him. He was not at a loss, as was afterwards stated, nor did he rage as others allege. He sat completely silent and unmoving.

After an interval which seemed an age, he turned to Ribbentrop, who had remained standing by the window. 'What now?' asked Hitler with a savage look, as though implying that his Foreign Minister had misled him about England's probable reaction. Ribbentrop answered quietly: 'I assume that the French will hand in a similar ultimatum within the hour.'

As my duty was now performed, I withdrew. To those in the anteroom pressing round me I said: 'The English have just handed us an ultimatum. In two hours a state of war will exist between England and Germany.' In the anteroom, too, this news was followed by complete silence.

Goering turned to me and said: 'If we lose this war, then God have mercy on us!' Goebbels stood in a corner, downcast and self-absorbed. Everywhere in the room I saw looks of grave concern, even amongst the lesser Party people."

References:
Schmidt, Paul, Hitler's Interpreter (1951); Shirer, William, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960); Taylor, A.J.P., The Origins of the Second World War (1962).

Source: Eyewitnesstohistory

Poland was attacked on September 1, 1939. Why did Britain, France take two days to declare war on Germany?

.... so naïve were the prime minister and foreign secretary about the true nature of modern Blitzkrieg warfare that they genuinely imagined that there was even an outside possibility of Hitler simply calling off the attack.

Wehrmacht marches in Warsaw. Poland falls

Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Why did Britain and France take two days (They declared war on September 3) to do the same on Germany?

Andrew Roberts, the author of The Storm of war: The New History of the Second World War, gives the answers in an article in The Telegraph, UK.

So what were the real reasons for the two-day delay in declaring war? It was true that Chamberlain and Halifax still hoped against hope (and rationality) that Hitler could be persuaded to withdraw from Poland once it was made clear to him that the Western Allies would stand by their guarantee. Because they would not be providing any material help to Poland, indeed the British Army only started crossing over to the Continent after 3 September, there seemed to them to be no particular hurry to declare war, since doing nothing to help immediately struck them as little different from doing equally little a few days later. Moreover, the French Government of Edouard Daladier seemed to be dragging its feet, and both Governments believed a simultaneous declaration would have a far better effect.

Weak man at the helm: Chamberlain: Britain lost the chance to crush Germany

Yet the central reason for the delay was an offer by Mussolini for an immediate Five Power conference of Britain, France, Poland, Germany and Italy. Although Chamberlain told the Commons that Britain 'would find it impossible to take part in a conference while Poland is being subjected to invasion, her towns are under bombardment and Danzig is being made the subject of a unilateral settlement by force', so naïve were the prime minister and foreign secretary about the true nature of modern Blitzkrieg warfare that they genuinely imagined that there was even an outside possibility of Hitler simply calling off the attack.

'If the German Government should agree to withdraw their forces', Chamberlain stated with supreme wishful thinking, 'then His Majesty's Government would regard the position as being the same as it was before the German forces crossed the Polish frontier.'

To this day we do not know whether Mussolini made his offer of a peace conference in good faith or as a means of muddying the waters for the Western Allies just as his ally in the Pact of Steel, Adolf Hitler, concentrated on crushing the Poles, and anyhow it does not matter. The delay came to an end only when furious Cabinet ministers met behind the Speaker's Chair in the Commons and an outraged House imposed its will on Chamberlain and Halifax on the evening before war was finally declared. Appeasement was at an end, and not a moment too soon.

Some unknown facts about Second World War: From historian Andrew Roberts new book

It is after 30 years that new book on the second World war has been written. It is The Storm of War: A New History of The Second World War by Andrew Roberts. Why 30 years? The earlier book was the classic Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William S Shirer. Shirer's book is a gem. Absolute page-turner with a jungle of details and figures. A must read.
Then why did Roberts write another book on WW 2? Because in the intervening years, new documents came to light that added to what is known.

In happier times. Werner von Blomberg, Hermann Göring, Werner von Fritsch, and Adolf Hitler at the "Reich Party Rally for Work," Nuremberg (September 1937) .
At the end of 1937, Hitler believed that Germany's economic and military-strategic situation would soon permit the launching of a successful war of conquest. But when he shared his plans with the most important representatives of the military leadership at a secret conference November 5, 1937, Hitler met with skepticism, not enthusiasm. Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, Commander-in-Chief of the Army Werner von Fritsch and Minister of War Werner von Blomberg were all of the opinion that Hitler's war plans were dangerously premature. Contrary to Hitler's conviction, they believed that Great Britain and France could not be kept out of the conflict and that in any case Germany lacked the resources and military strength for a war on several fronts. Hitler, who was convinced of the absolute necessity of "conquering living space" [Lebensraumeroberung], decided to rid himself of these conservative skeptics in the army and foreign ministry. In early 1938 he used Blomberg's marriage to a former prostitute and Fritsch's alleged homosexuality as pretexts for removing both of them from office. Moreover, Hitler used the "Fritsch-Blomberg Affair" to carry out a profound restructuring and reorganization of the military and foreign policy leadership. He dissolved the Ministry of War and took personal control of the armed forces, which were now led and coordinated by the new High Command of the Wehrmacht [Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW] under General Wilhelm Keitel. He named Walther von Brauchitsch as Fritsch's successor and dismissed or transferred sixty high-ranking officers. Foreign Minister Neurath was replaced by Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Walther Funk became Minister of Economics. By March 1938, Hitler had thus achieved complete control over the military leadership and the country's foreign and economic policy.

Roberts says a lot of interesting things. Like....
How did Hitler become the chief of the Wehrmacht? How did he get rid of General Werner von Blomberg, the chief of the German army?

Hitler swiftly disposed of this irritant and seized control of the army. The Nazis were adept at smear campaigns, and Blomberg was forced to resign when it was revealed that his wife had posed for pornographic photographs.

Churchill often wondered why the Germans let the British soldiers slip away from Dunkirk. Hitler could have captured more than a quarter of a million prisoners of war and held the British government to ransom, but instead he ordered his panzers to halt outside Dunkirk. Then why?

Roberts says it was because of one of many Hitler's strategic blunders. "Hitler's antisemitism, culminating in the Holocaust, was central to his Nazism but it did nothing to aid Germany's chances of winning the war, and possibly a good deal to retard them."

If Hitler hadn't taken control of Germany's armed forces he might have won the war, but if invading Russia was his greatest error (an ill-fated plan "buried so deep within the Nazi DNA that it could not be stopped", Roberts writes), then his second major gaffe was underestimating America.

Relations between Britain and America during WW 2
"There was nothing inevitable about the wartime alliance between America and Britain," he says. "There had been much rivalry between Britain and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, exacerbated by ignorant stereotyping on both sides."He even quotes a former US military attaché to London as saying, "The English feel about us just the way we feel about a prosperous nigger."

Rape during the war
Robert's American admirers will not enjoy having the US army's record of raping civilian women compared to that of the Red Army, even if Roberts concedes that the Russians were the more determined violators. He also exposes racism in the US army, observing that 79 per cent of those executed for rape were black, when blacks made up only 8.5 per cent of the US army in Europe.
Stalingrad was turned into rubble as the Wehrmacht and Soviet army battled here for years.

The Russians made the most sacrifices
America's crucial contribution to the war is not overlooked, but Russia's self-sacrifice and heroism is ultimately the dominant theme. "It was the Russians who provided the oceans of blood necessary to defeat Germany," he writes. "At the heart of the Second World War lies a giant and abiding paradox: although the western war was fought in defence of civilisation and democracy ... the chief victor was a dictator who was as psychologically warped and capable of evil as Adolf Hitler."

Battle of El Alamein: It routed the Germans from Africa

There were two battles of El Alamein, both during 1942 (First Battle of El-Alamein, July 1-27, 1942. Second Battle of El-Alamein, October 23-November 3, 1942).
El Alamein is a town in N Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was the site of a decisive British victory in World War II. In preparation for an attack by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from Libya (begun May 26, 1942) the British forces retreated into Egypt and by June 30 had set up a defense line extending 35 mi (56 km) from Alamein S to the Qattara Depression, a badland which could neither be crossed nor flanked. If this position had fallen, the British might have lost Alexandria and been forced to withdraw from North Africa. In August, Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery took command of the 8th Army. The British offensive opened on Oct. 23 with tremendous air and artillery bombardments. Montgomery's forces cleared the German minefields and on Nov. 1 and 2 burst through the German lines near the sea and forced a swift Axis retreat out of Egypt, across Libya, and into E Tunisia. Egypt was definitely saved, and with the landing on Nov. 7 and 8 of American troops in Algeria the Axis soon suffered (May, 1943) total defeat in North Africa. For his victory Montgomery was made a viscount with the title Montgomery of Alamein.

QUOTES

"To every man of us, Tobruk was a symbol of British resistance, and we were now going to finish with it for good."
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - June 1942

The German hero, Erwin Rommel. In Africa in 1942

QUOTES

"The battle is going very heavily against us. We're being crushed by the enemy weight...We are facing very difficult days, perhaps the most difficult that a man can undergo."
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - 3rd November 1942

The British general Montgomery

QUOTES

"The defeat of the enemy in the Battle of El Alamein, the pursuit of his beaten army and the final capture of Tripoli...has all been accomplished in three months. This is probably without parallel in history."
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery - 23rd January 1943

A German Panzer 3 tank rolls

GERMAN NEWSREEL NOV 1942



German machine-gunners take up positions

ITALIAN NEWSREEL: CAPTURE OF TOBRUK



Italian anti-tank gunners

German soldiers of the Afrika Korps slog it out in the sun in 1942

British tanks in the desert - 1942

The British attack

A German panzer destroyed

An Australian soldier sweats it out. July 1942. The forward troops had to endure cramped conditions in slit trenches during the heat of the day, as movement above ground was impossible due to enemy fire.

British soldiers advance as a German Panzer III crewman surrenders during the battle of El Alamein, 1942

Australian soldiers crawl


The British charge

Those who fought and died in the battle are commemorated in several locations in Egypt today

Rise of Imperial Japan: COMICS! Leading to Pearl Harbor

These comic strips summarise the rise of modern Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Events till the Pearl harbor are covered.

PSYCHOLOGY OF JAPANESE MILITARISM

The rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s was due to many factors. Firstly, the emergence of Shintoism in the late Tokugawa era provided Japanese militarism with the ideological foundation. Japanese people were the offspring of Sun Goddess. Hence they were racially superior to other nations.
Source

PSYCHOLOGY OF JAPANESE MILITARISM

The rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s was due to many factors. Firstly, the emergence of Shintoism in the late Tokugawa era provided Japanese militarism with the ideological foundation. Japanese people were the offspring of Sun Goddess. Hence they were racially superior to other nations.
Source

COMPETING WITH CHINA IDEOLOGICALLY

The rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s was due to many factors. Firstly, the emergence of Shintoism in the late Tokugawa era provided Japanese militarism with the ideological foundation. Japanese people were the offspring of Sun Goddess. Hence they were racially superior to other nations. The motives for racial superiority lie with the Japanese belief in the mythological origins of their land and people. In spite of China’s traditional cultural dominance of Asia, Japan has a long and proud tradition of unique cultural achievements in arts, philosophy and religion. However, China’s influence in Asia has historically forced Japan to search for an independent identity and place within that shadow.

Along with Japan’s emergence as the premier power in Asia, there was a corresponding realization that China had all but collapsed politically. Further, events of the recent past seemed to suggest that the West was also beginning to wane. The fragmentation of politics, the destruction of the First World War, the rise of material culture, individualism, and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization, all appeared to herald the eminent collapse of Western culture. More concerning to the Japanese was the consciousness that the corrupting influence of the West was so pervasive and globally penetrating, that a collapse threatened to pull the entire world into the void along with it. In light of this, Japan felt the need as the new, young and vibrant cultural center to extend its influence from being the premier Asian power, to become the premier world power as well. The desire for more global influence did not imply merely a political control of territory, but a power over ideology, ethics, and culture as well.

INHUMAN JAPANESE AT NANKING

In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered--a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape."

Source

REASONS FOR RISE OF JAPANESE MILITARISM

Japanese militarism and imperialism steadily developed for five principal reasons. Although all five reasons existed from early in the Meiji period to the start of war in China in 1937, the relative importance of these reasons differed depending on the time period. The first two reasons, Japan's desire to be a Western-style imperialist power and Japan's concerns for its security and safety, played important roles in the growth of militarism up to the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. The next two reasons, Japan's belief in its leadership role for Asia and Japan's frequent provocations by Western powers, gave rise to an expansion of militarism and imperialism from 1905 to the 1930s. The final reason, Japan's desire to secure its economic interests, rose in importance as Japan entered the decade of the 1930s.
Source

SHINTOISM AND JAPANESE MILITARISM

Shintoism provided a religious justification for nationalism and support for the militaristic government. Shintoism before the 1930's was primarily a nativistic religion which stressed nature and harmony. But during the 1930's it became a ideological weapon teaching Japanese that they were a superior country that had a right to expand and that its government was divinely lead by a descendant of the sun god.

PEOPLE DISENCHANTED WITH DEMOCRACY

The London Treaty and Japan's rejection by large European powers at the Versailles
conference angered many in the military who felt that Japan was being denied its place at the table with the great powers. This lead to a disenfranchisement with the parliamentary government who the military felt had capitulated to the western powers in treaties and by stopping its colonial expansion during the nineteen twenties.

Japanese militarism occurred not by an organized plan but rather through passive acceptance by the Japanese public. A compliant Japanese public coupled with a independent army were two factors that pushed Japan toward militarism in the 1930's.

Childhood in Kanazawa: an interview with Yasuko Kurachi Dower, born in 1930s Japan

I was born in 1936. I was immediately aware of how rigid school was. It was military, even for first-graders. I remember my first day at school so clearly. All the students had to assemble in the assembly hall. The principal gave a speech about the emperor and the need to support him.

There was a tiny door on the stage, behind the principal. He opened this door of beautiful burnished wood. There was another door behind it. He didn't open that one. Behind that second door was supposed to be the emperor's picture. We never got to see it. It was too holy, too divine, to be looked at.

I got into trouble on that first day in school. We were told to look down the minute the principal touched the first door. We were not to raise our head to look at what was there. But I was too curious. I looked up. The teachers were all standing along the wall and picked out every student who looked up. We had to stand in the back of the assembly hall. Then we had to go on to the stage, say our name, and apologise. I have never forgotten that.

I really hated this military discipline. I could not understand why you couldn't look up. It was an ordinary neighbourhood school, but all the regulations were very strict. I strongly resented these rules.

Source: Guardian

Circumstances favourable to the rise of militarism - by the late 1920s., a number of developments accelerated the rise of militarism in Japan. In the first place, China by 1928 was on the verge of being unified by Chiang Kai-shek. A unified and strong China could threaten Japan’s position in Manchuria where the Kwangtung Army was stationed. Apparently, the Nanking government was trying to bring Manchuria back into China’s control. The Manchurian warlord, Chang Hsueh-liang defied Japan by associating himself with the Nanking government. In the eye of the militarists, Japan had to act fast in order to safeguard her vested interests. Consequently, in September 1931, the Kwangtung Army took independent action and seized control of Manchuria.

Another significant factor was the effects of the Great Depression on Japan’s economy. This world-wide depression led to a collapse of international trade because each country raised protective tariffs to protect her own interests. This development was fatal to Japan’s economy which depended heavily on export trade. Thus, between 1929 and 1931, Japan’s exports dropped 50%, unemployment reached 3 million, and peasants’ real income dropped one-third as a result of falling prices for silk. Then, there was a failure of rice crop in 1932. Such rural distresses intensified the discontents of the army officers, many of whom had connections with the rural population. They blamed the party governments in power and believed that parliamentary policies were ruining Japan. Consequently, there was a popular support for military adventures. Many Japanese believed that overseas expansion was an effective solution to economic problems. In short, the economic crisis made the nation desperate for military expansion. Thus took place the Manchurian Incident in 1931.

Source

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