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Causes, course and Consequences of World War II
World history chapter 29 world war 2
Causes, course and Consequences of World War II
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World War II (1939-1945) was a war where men killed others based on hatred for the other’s race. It was a war fought where men shot, beat, stabbed, and tortured people in gas chambers. The hatred for a specific race has escalated to something unimaginable. Many Jewish people during World War II lost their lives, through terrible excruciating deaths. In the “The Last full Measure How Soldiers Die In Battle”, the author Michael Stephenson proves that the root for World War II was simply racism. “One of the major factors that connected the eastern and Pacific fronts was the role racism played in driving up the numbers of killed.” (Stephenson, 254) Racism indeed drove up the number of men killed, because Hitler’s animosity towards the Jewish was the main driver for their death. Hitler almost killed a whole race and for what? There are many untold things about Hitler and really knowing why he hated Jewish people will always remain a secret. Many may believe that racism is not a main major factor in why the Eastern Front and Pacific Theater were so terrible. It is the main factor, because if it were not for the hatred towards a specific race than World War II would not have been fought. Many know World War II to begin, because of the assassination of the prime Minister in Austria. Deep down into War World II, the war extended so long, due to racism. “The Germans in Russia and the Americans (including their allies) and the Japanese in the Pacific saw their enemies in racial terms that enable and endorse killing an opponent who had been stripped of any claim to humanity or nobility. Germans viewed the Russians as “Asiatic” Untermenschen: a reincarnation of those barbaric hordes that had swept out of the steppes to fall on medieval Chr... ... middle of paper ... ...towards the Japanese. Even Dr. Seuss a children’s author participated in this hate crime. Japanese weren’t treated the same way as the Jewish people in Germany but they did face a lot of hate from the public. The feeling of hate towards a specific group was the fuel for World War II; this war was just bound to happen. Many may disagree on Stephenson’s point of view on World War II, however he displayed many examples that support his argument on the war and racism. Others who oppose Stephenson’s argument believe that Stephenson ignores the major factors, such as weather, the landscapes, and resources. All those factors are inevitable in war and Stephenson recognized the root of World War II and the fuel that started and ended this war. Works Cited Stephenson, Michael. The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2012. Print.
The atrocities of war can take an “ordinary man” and turn him into a ruthless killer under the right circumstances. This is exactly what Browning argues happened to the “ordinary Germans” of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during the mass murders and deportations during the Final Solution in Poland. Browning argues that a superiority complex was instilled in the German soldiers because of the mass publications of Nazi propaganda and the ideological education provided to German soldiers, both of which were rooted in hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism. Browning provides proof of Nazi propaganda and first-hand witness accounts of commanders disobeying orders and excusing reservists from duties to convince the reader that many of the men contributing to the mass
John Dower's War without Mercy describes the ugly racial issues, on both the Western Allies and Japanese sides of the conflict in the Pacific Theater as well as all of Asia before during and after World War II and the consequences of these issues on both military and reconstruction policy in the Pacific. In the United States as well as Great Britain, Dower dose a good job of proving that, "the Japanese were more hated than the Germans before as well as after Pearl Harbor." (8) On this issue, there was no dispute among contemporary observers including the respected scholars and writers as well as the media. During World War II the Japanese are perceived as a race apart, a species apart referred to as apes, but at the same time superhuman. "There was no Japanese counterpart to the "good German" in the popular consciousness of the Western Allies." (8) Dower is not trying to prove how horrible the Japanese are. Instead, he is examining the both sides as he points out, "atrocious behavior occurred on all sides in the Pacific War." (12-13) Dower explores the propaganda of the United States and Japanese conflict to underline the "patterns of a race war," and the portability of racist stereotypes. Dower points out that "as the war years themselves changed over into an era of peace between Japan and the Allied powers, the shrill racial rhetoric of the early 1940s revealed itself to be surprisingly adaptable. Idioms that formerly had denoted the unbridgeable gap between oneself and the enemy proved capable of serving the goals of accommodation as well."(13) "the Japanese also fell back upon theories of "proper place" which has long been used to legitimize inequitable relationships within Japan itself."(9) After...
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
It is no mystery that the lives of the prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were an ultimate struggle. Hitler’s main goal was to create a racial state, one consisting purely of the ‘superior’ Aryan race. The Germans under Hitler’s control successfully eradicated a vast number of the Jewish population, by outright killing them, and by dehumanizing them. Auschwitz is the home of death of the mind, body, and soul, and the epitome of struggle, where only the strong survive.
The gruesome conflict between the powers of the world, World War II, officially started in 1939. The United States decided to intervene in 1941 due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but something was inhibiting the resolute mind-set during those two years of neutrality. German propaganda is what planted the seed of indecisiveness into the minds of Americans. “I didn’t believe all her stories; I thought she was exaggerating and a bit hysterical.” (Larson, p. 54) In the Garden of Beasts Schultz tells Martha, Dodd’s daughter, of what is actually occurring in Germany; the Nazis are mistreating and having genocidal actions toward Jews which was well concealed behind Hitler’s speeches and morale-boosting words. She has the misconception of a serene Germany a beautiful and peaceful country compiled with nothing but polite people an...
Mckale,Donald M.. Hitler’s Shadow War, the Holocaust and World War 2. New York: Cooper Square.2002.Print.
During World War II, the Nazi regime, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, attempted to eliminate all the Jews and other “inferior peoples” of Europe. The Nazis and their collaborators killed millions of people, including six million Jewish people and other minority groups, such as 200,000 gypsies and 200,000 disabled people ("Introduction to the Holocaust”). This terrible period in history is now referred to as the Holocaust ("Background to the Holocaust”). A young girl named Anne Frank wrote one of the most notable Jewish texts from this period. Her optimism about the future should inspire the resolution of the modern religious and racial conflicts which stem from WWII era prejudices.
The Jews, leftwing politicians, and Communists were the scapegoats of the crushing German loss of World War I. These groups were called traitors and hated for “stabbing Germany in the back.” The German Nazi party’s sense of national pride led to the want to “cleanse” Germany and create a “pure German people.” This caused tem to force this group of people into concentration camps where many died. Although the Allied forces did strive to free those kept in concentration camps and death camps in World War II, more could have been done to have stopped the murder and persecution perpetrated by the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and his sudden control over Germany sparked a new age of reform within the new “Nazi-state” (Hunt 848). As Nazism became a major aspect of everyday life in Germany, Hitler plotted against his enemies and those he blamed for Germany’s defeat in World War I: the Jewish race. In his biography, Mein Kampf, Hitler discusses the artistic, social, and technological superiority of Germany (“Aryans”), why he believes the Aryans are the ultimate dominant human race, and he makes many anti-Semitic remarks against the Jews. (Lualdi 224). In 1935, the “Nuremberg Laws” were enacted to deny Jewish Germans of their citizenship; this ultimately led Hitler to carry out his “Final Solution,” in which he hoped to fully exterminate the Jewish race from all of Europe (Hunt 864). After gathering the Jews from their “ghettos” and forcing them into concentration camps all across Europe, Hitler and his Nazi advocates began one of the most destructive and horrifying genocides in history, known today as the Holocaust. Only after being introduced to the conditions of these concentration camps, the hatred and abuse put towards the Jewish, and the gruesome lifestyle they were trapped into living can one understand why the Holocaust affected so many as it did. What exactly were the conditions of these camps, and how did a few lucky survivors prevail while their friends and families perished?
In War Without Mercy, John W. Dower approaches World War II from both the Western perspective and the Japanese perspective. Dower, as many others, views the war as a race war (Dower 4). Racism negatively influenced the conduct of this war. The amount of violence and brutality inflicted on each enemy is only made possible by the thought that this enemy is less than human. Dehumanizing another person makes it easy for someone to act as they please without remorse. The dehumanization of others, due to prejudice, racial pride, and use of propaganda, intensified the brutality of the Pacific War.
n January of 1933 the Nazi regime took control of Germany with the belief that Germans were “racially superior.” Throughout this time period called the Holocaust, which is a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire,” the Jewish people were deemed inferior, and were the main threat to the German racial community. Though the Holocaust was a systematic and bureaucratic war, racism is what fueled the persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime. Racism is defined as “a belief or doctrine that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” This framework of racism was what Hitler believed would “carve out a vast European empire.” (Perry,
World War II, known as the largest armed conflict in history, began in Europe in the 1930s and led to effect many people. The war resulted in not only the involvement of more countries than any other war but also introduced powerful, new, nuclear weapons that also contributed to the most deaths. As Hitler rose to power in 1933 the Holocaust began, his quest for the ‘perfect’ race resulted in the use of concentration camps, which would help to create the largest genocide of people in history.
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
A certain matter-of-fact quality pervades the descriptions of the wounds inflicted and received by soldiers; the face-to-face attacks with rifle butts, spades, and grenades; the sounds, smells, and colors of death and dying in this book.