A Young Jewish Woman in World War II It was 1940, I was 23, and there was a war going on. Everyone knew that Adolf Hitler, Germany’s Fuhrer, was campaigning against several countries in Europe. He had started another war by invading Poland months earlier, and now it seemed that he was taking other countries as well1. It was being talked about, but not much was known specifically about what exactly was happening in Europe. The United States was not getting involved in another great war. There were so many lives lost from the first war, and the country was still feeling effects of the depression that we could not afford to get into another war so suddenly. After all, for Germany to attack us they would have to go all the way across the Atlantic Ocean; and seeing as how we were not directly participating in the war, they had no reason to attack us. Their war was in Europe, not here in the United States. There was almost a sense of sureness that we were not going to take part in this war. Most importantly was the fact that there were more important things going on in Brooklyn, besides this war. People were looking for jobs and trying to make ends meet. The great depression had left many people without employment and caused many families to struggle. This was one of the main reasons that people did not want to go to war, because of the disastrous effects left over from the Great War. By 1941, there was a greater sense of the war. The people seemed to know more about the war and see how powerful and dangerous Hitler and Germany were. More and more people were beginning to feel that America should take part in this war, yet most of us still felt that it would be a lot safer and be in the countries best interest t... ... middle of paper ... ...exist, but more like patriotism to ones country in a struggle that was only made successful through national unity. Bibliography: Bibliography Anderson, Karen, Wartime Women, Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press 1981 Cole, S. Wayne, Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention in World War II, New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1974 Cole, S. Wayne, America First, Madison, Milwaukee: The University of Wisconsin Press 1953 Kaufman, I, American Jews in World War II: The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom vol.I, United States of America Dial Press 1947 O’Neill, L. William, A Democracy at War: America’s Fight at Home & Abroad in World War II, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press 1993 Lyons, J. Michael, World War II: A Short History, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall 1989
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In the summer of 1940, World War II had been in progress for nearly a year. Adolf Hitler was victorious and planning an invasion of England to seal Europe’s fate. Everyone in the United States of America knew it. The Germans were too powerful. Hitler's Luftwaffe had too many planes, too many pilots and too many bombs and since Hitler was Europe's problem, the United States claimed to be a neutral country (Neutrality Act of 1939). Seven Americans, however, did not remain neutral and that’s what this book is about. They joined Britain's Royal Air Force to help save Britain in its darkest hour to fight off the skilled pilots of Germany's Luftwaffe in the blue skies over England, the English Channel, and North Europe. By October 1940, they had helped England succeed in one of the greatest air battles in the history of aviation, the Battle of Britain. This book helps to show the impact of the few Americans who joined the Battle of Britain to fight off an evil that the United States didn’t acknowledge at the time. The name of Kershaw’s book was inspired from the quote, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to sow few,” which was said by British Officer and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Famous people, such as Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, actually opposed the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After this event everyone in the world knew that America would get involved. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor so that it could bring America to its knees. Many groups were created to oppose the joining of World War II. The main one of these resistance groups was called the American First Movement. Its main speakers were Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, who preached that it was not a good idea to get involved in a war so shortly after our depression. Charles Lindbergh went to Germany and inspected their air force and thought that America did not have a chance to win this
Kaplan, Marian A., Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999