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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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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 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 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.
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.
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