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Approximately 11 million people were killed because of
Nazi genocidal policy. It was the explicit aim of Hitler's regime to create a European world both dominated and populated
by the "Aryan" race. The Nazi machinery was dedicated to eradicating millions of people it deemed undesirable.
Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards because of who they were,their genetic or cultural origins, or
health conditions. These included Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, and people with physical or mental disabilities.
Others were Nazi victims because of what they did. These victims of the Nazi regime included Jehovah's Witnesses,
homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, asocials, and other political enemies.
The People section investigates the human drama of the Holocaust
Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE (born 19 May 1909) is
a Briton who organised the rescue of 669 Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II in
an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport. Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe passage to
Britain.
The Winton Train is a private passenger train being steam
hauled from the Czech Republic to England over four days, departing Prague Main railway station on 1 September 2009 and to
arriving at London Liverpool Street station on 4 September.
The train is being run as a tribute to the efforts
of Sir Nicholas Winton, described as the 'English Schindler' for his part in the saving of 669 children in 1939 from
Nazi concentration camps after their occupation of Czechoslovakia in the build up to World War II. The train is carrying some
of those original children and their families. The train is the centrepiece of a wider cultural awareness project known as
'Inspiration through Goodness', organised by the Czech government.
Between March and September 1939, Winton
organised eight trains to transport children to pre-arranged places with families in Britain. His efforts remained largely
unrecognied until 1988 when he came to public attention. As the majority of 'Winton's Children' as they came to
be known were Jewish, it is believed this saved them from certain death had they stayed in Czechoslovakia. As of 2009, the
direct descendants of Winton's Children numbered over 5,000. The Winton trains were part of a wider British rescue effort
from various other countries across Europe, known as the Kindertransport.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The seemingly endless struggle of the US and
UK soldiers in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to achieve peace in those regions have, sadly, not gone without
incurring heavy tolls upon those who have risked their lives for the cause. Over more than 100,000 men and women who have
volunteered to serve and protect their country come home from Afghanistan and Iraq sustaining wounds that completely alter
their lives forever. Such is perhaps the saddest reality that the only way US troops get to come home even when the on going
struggle in the Middle East ensues is when they become too disabled to function even in times of peace.
Even after they have been relieved of the burdens
of war when they get home, these disabled veterans are forced to struggle in a new fight within themselves in claiming the
disabled veteran benefits that the government has promised them and their families. The current system possesses more than
enough flaws to make it hard for these already disabled and aged veterans to get benefits such as hospital treatment.
A U.S. solider surveys a German concentration camp
A "spectacular" collection of 3,000 Nazi photos
reveal the extent to which the Allied bombing campaign devastated Germany's cultural heritage.
The aerial photos, which show Germany before and during the bombing campaign, have been described as the most comprehensive
record yet of the damage caused to the country's pre-war cultural splendour.
The pictures, which have only recently come to light, were commissioned by the Nazis to help with plans to reconstruct
cities after the war.
Pictures of Dresden show the spectacular
baroque Church of Our Lady before it was destroyed by controversial allied fire bombing, which killed up to 40,000 people.
The church was recently reconstructed as a symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies.
It is a matter of history that when Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces,
General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for
the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.
He did this
because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere
down the track of history some b*stard will get up and say that this never happened'
'All that is necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'
Edmund Burke
The UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum
because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.
This is a frightening portent of
the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.
These photos were taken in Germany
by James Emison Chanslor, an Army Master Sergeant who served in World War II from 1942 until 1945.
Source: Photos courtesy of John Michael Chanslor.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
In memory of the
six million
Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved
and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others,
claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
World War I, also
known as the First World War and the Great War, was a global war which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918. Over
40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths. Over 60 million European
soldiers were mobilized from 1914 to 1918. The immediate cause of the war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member
of the Black Hand. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against the Kingdom of Serbia activated a series of alliances that set
off a chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was in a state of open warfare.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global
military conflict, the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second
Sino-Japanese War; the other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland.
This global conflict
split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. It involved
the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants
in a state of "total war", erasing the distinction between civil and military resources. This resulted in the complete
activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort.
Over 60 million people, the majority of
them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. The financial cost of the war is estimated
at about a trillion 1944 U.S. dollars worldwide, making it the most costly war in capital as well as lives.
The Board of Agriculture organised the Land Army during the Great War,
starting activities in 1915. Towards the end of 1917 there were over 260,000 women working as farm labourers.
With
5 million men away to fight in the First World War Britain was struggling for labour. The government wanted women to get more
involved in the production of food and do their part to support the war effort.
This was the beginning of the
Womens Land Army Many traditional farmers were against this so the board of trade sent agricultural organizers to speak with
farmers to encourage them to accept women's work on the farms. This was a successful campaign and by 1917 there were around
260,000 women working as farm labourers.
In the United Kingdom, women were essential to the war effort, in both
civilian and military roles. The contribution by women to the civilian war effort in the United Kingdom was acknowledged with
the use of the words "Home Front" to describe the battles that were being fought on a domestic level with rationing,
recycling, and war work, such as in munitions factories and farms. Men were thus released into the military. Women were also
recruited into non-combat military units such as the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS or "Wrens") and the Auxiliary
Territorial Service (ATS) thus further releasing men into the frontline. Auxiliary services such as the Air Transport Auxiliary
also recruited women.
In Britain, women were not recruited into regular combat units, but the Special Operations Executive
(SOE) did. They were used as agents and radio operators in Nazi occupied Europe.
In the dark days that followed the fall of
France a new volunteer fighting force was hastily improvised to wage a secret war against Hitler's armies. This force
was called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and their mission was sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines.
Sabotage meant blowing up trains, bridges and factories whilst subversion meant fostering revolt
or guerrilla warfare in all enemy and enemy-occupied countries. On July 16, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed
a civilian, Hugh Dalton, to be SOE's political master and then promptly ordered him to 'set Europe ablaze!'
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11 November 2009
The National Archives has made 99,000 RAF officers' service records available online for the first time. These records are easily searchable
by first name, last name and date of birth, and were previously only accessible to visitors at the Kew site. The courageous
aviators of the early Royal Air Force (RAF) played a crucial role in Britain's victory in the First World War. Among the
service records available are some of the country's most celebrated and famous pilots - known as 'Aces' for having
shot down five or more enemy aircraft.
Cecil Lewis' personal account of flying in the war, Sagittarius Rising,
inspired the 1976 film Aces High. A pioneer of the skies, he was also one of the original management team that set up the
BBC. According to his service record, Lewis joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) on 7 October 1915, after allegedly lying about
his age and was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during the Battle of the Somme (1-13 November 1916).
Sidney
Reilly volunteered for the RFC in 1917 before transferring to MI1(c) (British Secret Service) in March 1918. Famously known
as the 'Ace of Spies', his exploits have been dramatised in a television series, as well as providing inspiration
for Ian Fleming's character, James Bond. The final entry in his service records notes that he was 'killed on 28 September
1925 near the village of Allekul, Russia by OGPU troops' – the Russian secret police.
Knights of the air
William Spencer, Principal Military Records Specialist at The National Archives, said, 'The digitisation of AIR
76 finally makes the officers' records of service in the fledgling Royal Air Forces available worldwide. Not only is it
possible to view records of the early "knights of the air" ... but also find those of officers from all over the
empire who served in the flying service in its infancy. This collection contains the biographical records of some of the earliest
architects and practitioners of the new art of aerial warfare, many of whom died perfecting their art.'
The
service records were created with the inception of the RAF in April 1918, however many records include the retrospective details of earlier service in either the Royal Flying Corp or Royal Naval
Air Service.
These records and many others can be viewed on The National Archives' website on a pay-per-download
basis for the fee of £3.50.
The National Archives also has a series of podcasts entitled Voices of the Armistice
which bring alive the individual experiences of those who served in the First World War. The podcasts are available to listen
and download for free.
The Iraq War is an ongoing conflict which began on March 20, 2003 with
the United States-led invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition composed of U.S. and UK troops supported by smaller contingents
from Australia, Denmark, Poland, and other nations. The Iraq War is also known as Operation Iraqi Liberation and then Operation
Iraqi Freedom (U.S), Operation Telic (UK),
The main rationale offered by the United States Administration for
the Iraq War was the Iraqi regimes continued violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions stemming from the first
Gulf War. Two supporting rationales for the invasion were offered by U.S. President George W. Bush and coalition supporters:
the allegation that Iraq was at least passively supporting al-Qaeda and potentially providing a low-level of active support,
and that it possessed older WMDs, particularly Chemical and Biological weapons, and was actively seeking the development of
weapons of mass destruction more advanced (WMD) in violation of the first Gulf War cease-fire agreements, United Nations resolutions
and its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Profileration Treaty.
At the start of the war, U.S. officials argued
that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the interest of the United States, Europe and the other nations of the Middle East,
particularly Israel. The supporting intelligence was supported by British intelligence , as well as given tacit support by
Russian and German intelligence.. But the intelligence was also criticized by others, and weapons inspectors found no evidence
of WMD. After the invasion, the Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its WMD programs in 1991 and had no active
programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if and when the Iraq sanctions were lifted.
Although some earlier degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned WMD were found, they were not the weapons for which the
coalition invaded. Some U.S. officials claimed Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda had been cooperating, but no evidence of any collaborative
relationship has been found. Other reasons for the invasion stated by officials included concerns over Iraq's financial
support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi government human rights abuses, spreading democracy, and Iraq's
oil reserves, although the latter has been denied by other officials.
The invasion led to the quick defeat of
the Iraqi military, the flight of President Saddam Hussein, his capture in December, 2003 and his execution in December, 2006.
The U.S.-led coalition occupied Iraq and attempted to establish a new democratic government. But shortly after the initial
invasion, violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups led to asymmetric warfare with the Iraqi insurgency,
strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. Estimates of the number of people killed
range from over 150,000 to more than 1 million. Member nations of the Coalition began to withdraw their forces as public opinion
favoring troop withdrawals increased and as Iraqi forces began to take responsibility for security
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam
as the American War, occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The term Vietnam Conflict is often used to refer to events which
took place between 1959 and April 30, 1975. The war was fought between the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and its
communist allies and the US supported Republic of Vietnam. It concluded with the defeat and dissolution of South Vietnam.
For the United States, the war ended with the withdrawal of American troops and failure of its foreign policy in Vietnam.
Over 1.4 million military personnel were killed in the war (only 6% were members of the United States armed forces),
while estimates of civilian fatalities range up to 2 million. On April 30, 1975, the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon fell
to the communist forces of North Vietnam, effectively ending the Vietnam War.
Women at war
By 1914 nearly 5.9 million were working out of the 23.8 million females
in Britain.
In World War I, for example, thousands of women worked in munitions factories, offices and large hangars
used to build aircraft. Women were also involved in knitting socks and preparing hampers for the soldiers on the front, as
well as other voluntary work, but as a matter of survival women had to work for paid employment for the sake of their families.
Nursing became the one and only area of female contribution that involved being at the front and experiencing the horror of
war.
Not only did they have to keep the home fires burning but they took on voluntary and paid employment that was diverse
in scope and showed that women were highly capable in diverse fields of endeavor. There is little doubt that this expanded
view of the role of women in society did change the outlook of what women could do and their place in the workforce. However
the extent of this change is open to historical debate.
The role of women tended to differ in scope and importance between
World War I and World War II.
Many women worked as volunteers serving at Red Cross and encouraging the sale of bonds
and the planting of "victory gardens".
In part because of female participation in the war effort Canada, the
United States, Great Britain, and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women in the years after the First World
War.
With this expanded horizon of opportunity and confidence, and with the
extended skill base that many women could now give to paid and voluntary employment, women's roles in World War II were
even more extensive than in the First World War. By 1945, more than 2.3 million women were working in the war industries in
the U.S., building ships, aircraft, vehicles, and weaponry. Women also worked in factories, munitions plants and farms, and
also drove trucks, provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously the
preserve of men. In the Allied countries thousands of women enlisted as nurses serving on the front lines. Thousands of others
joined defensive militias at home and there was a great increase in the number of women serving in the military itself, particularly
in the Red Army (see below).
This necessity to use the skills and the time of women was heightened by the nature of
the war itself. While World War I was mainly fought in France and was a war arguably without clear aggressor or villain, World
War II was truly a global conflict where countries were invaded or under the threat of invasion from leaders in Germany (Adolf
Hitler) and Japan that had ambitions of world domination. In these circumstances the absolute urgency of mobilizing the entire
population made the expansion of the role of women inevitable. The hard skilled labour of women was symbolized in the United
States by the figure of Rosie the Riveter.
Many women served in the resistances of France, Italy, and Poland, and in
the British SOE which aided these.
American women also saw combat during World War II, firstly as nurses in
the Army Nurses Corps and United States Navy Nurse Corps during the Pearl Harbor attacks on 7 December 1941. The Womans Naval
Reserve and United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve were also created for women performing auxiliary roles. In July
1943 a bill was signed making the Women's Army Corps an official part of the regular army, but not in combat units. In
1944 WACs arrived in the Pacific and were landing in Normandy on D-Day. During the war, 67 Army nurses and 16 Navy nurses
were captured and spent three years as Japanese prisoners of war. 350,000 American women served during World War Two and 16
were killed in action. American women also performed many varieties of non-combat military service in special units such as
the WAVES, Women's Army Corps, and Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Indeed World War II also marked milestones for women
in the US military, Carmen Contreras-Bozak, who became the first Hispanic to join the WAC's, serving in Algiers under
General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Minnie Spotted-Wolf the first female Native American woman to enlist in the United States
Marines. In 1943, the first female officer of the United States Marine Corps was commissioned, and the first detachment of
female marines was sent to Hawaii for duty in 1945. Women also joined the federal government in massive numbers during World
War II. Nearly a million "government girls" were recruited for war work.
The Korean War
Korean War Time Line
The Korean War was an escalation of border clashes
between two rival Korean regimes, each of which was supported by external powers, with each trying to topple the other through
political and conventional tactics.
In a very narrow sense, some may refer to it as
a civil war, though many other factors were at play. After failing to strengthen their cause in the free elections held in
South Korea during May 1950 and the refusal of South Korea to hold new elections per North Korean demands, the communist North
Korean Army assaulted the South on June 25, 1950. The conflict was then expanded by the United States and the Soviet Union's
involvement as part of the larger Cold War. The main hostilities were during the period from June 25, 1950 until the armistice
(ceasefire agreement) was signed on July 27, 1953.
The KOREAN WAR
The Korean War was an escalation of border clashes between two rival Korean regimes, each of which was supported
by external powers, with each trying to topple the other through political and conventional tactics. In a very narrow sense,
some may refer to it as a civil war, though many other factors were at play. After failing to strengthen their cause in the
free elections held in South Korea during May 1950 and the refusal of South Korea to hold new elections per North Korean demands,
the communist North Korean Army assaulted the South on June 25, 1950. The conflict was then expanded by the United States
and the Soviet Union's involvement as part of the larger Cold War. The main hostilities were during the period from June
25, 1950 until the armistice (ceasefire agreement) was signed on July 27, 1953.
Just
one month earlier this soldier was enjoying all the joys of Occupation Duty in Japan, never dreaming that this day would ever
come.
But it did.
At this moment he and his regiment were in a most grim situation, facing heavy fighting,
their flank soon to be exposed, and the enemy behind them.
The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close.
On
August 10, 1945, after the invasion of Manchuria by the Soviet Union and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's
leaders at the Imperial conference ("gozenkaigi") decided, in principle, to accept the uncompromising terms the
Allies had set down for ending the war in the Potsdam Declaration.
It was after several
more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup attempt that Emperor Hirohito gave a radio address to the nation,
the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, announcing the acceptance on August 15. On August 28, the occupation of Japan by Supreme
Commander of the Allied Powers began.
On September 2, the Japanese government signed the Japanese
Instrument of Surrender, which officially ended World War II. Some isolated commands of Japan's far-flung forces throughout
Asia and the Pacific islands refused to surrender for months and years after, with Japanese soldiers fighting on up to the
1970s.
In
the last months of the war and immediately afterwards, Allied soldiers discovered a number of concentration camps and other
locations that had been used by the Nazis to imprison and exterminate an estimated 11 million people. The largest single group
represented in this number were European Jews (roughly half the total according to the Nuremberg Trials), but Gypsies, Slavs,
homosexuals and various minorities and disabled persons, as well as political enemies of the Nazi regime (particularly communists)
formed the remainder.
The most well-known of these camps is the death camp Auschwitz in which about 1.1–1.6
million prisoners were killed. Although the Nazi genocide or Holocaust was largely unknown to the Allied soldiers fighting
the war, it has become an inseparable part of the story of World War II.
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