9.8: World War 2 (part 2) - T -

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3

AGE 9. The Time of World Wars

9.8: World War 2 (part 2)

-T-

1941 – February – February Strike in Amsterdam

1942 – January – Wannsee Conference near Berlin

1944 – 6 June – D-Day (Operation Overlord) and start the liberation of Western Europe.

1944 – 18 September – Liberation of Eindhoven 

1944 – 17–25 September – Operation Market Garden

1944–1945 – Winter – Hunger Winter in the western Netherlands

1945 – January – The Red Army liberates Auschwitz and pushes into Germany; Allied forces cross the Rhine; 

1945 – 8 May – Germany surrenders on VE-Day.

1945 – 9 August– Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki lead to Japan’s surrender

1945 – November –  the Nuremberg Trials begin to judge leading Nazis for war crimes.

1. The Holocaust – How Nazi policies against Jews changed from discrimination to mass murder in extermination camps.

2. The Netherlands and persecution – How Jews in the Netherlands were hunted, how resistance grew, and what risks people took.

3. D-Day and liberation – How the Allies landed in Normandy, liberated Eindhoven and why Operation Market Garden failed.

4. Hunger Winter and the end of the war – How people suffered in the winter of 1944–45 and how the war ended in Europe and the Pacific.

5. Aftermath and justice – How Europe looked after the war, how collaborators and Nazis were punished, and how survivors returned to a changed society.

In this lesson :

Hungarian Jewish women and children arrive at Auschwitz in May/June 1944. 

(photo credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0827-318/CC BY-SA)

Introduction

By 1943 the war had reached a turning point. In the first years, the Axis powers seemed unstoppable: Germany overran most of Europe with Blitzkrieg, Japan conquered large parts of Asia and the Pacific. But defeats like Stalingrad and the loss of control at sea and in the air slowly changed the direction of the war. At the same time, Nazi policies against Jews and other groups became more and more radical and deadly. In this second part of the World War 2 lesson, you will follow the story from the height of Nazi power to their final defeat. You will see how the Holocaust moved from discrimination to mass murder, how persecution and resistance developed in the Netherlands, how the Allies returned to Western Europe on D-Day, and how the end of the war did not mean an easy happy ending. Instead, people were left with ruined cities, broken families and hard questions about guilt, justice and moral choices.

1. The Holocaust: from exclusion to extermination

The war gave the Nazis the chance to carry out their most radical and horrific plans: the murder of Europe’s Jews. Even before the war, Jews in Germany and Austria had suffered discrimination, violence and so-called “euthanasia” programmes against disabled people. After 1939, anti-Jewish policies spread to occupied countries. Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, lost their jobs and homes, and were moved into crowded ghettos in cities like Warsaw.

In 1941, as German troops invaded the USSR, the murder campaign escalated. Einsatzgruppen and their helpers shot hundreds of thousands of Jewish men, women and children near their homes. Shooting so many people was slow and also psychologically difficult for the killers.

German ‘Einsatzgruppen’ murder Jews in Ukraine, July-September 1941.

The Nazi leadership therefore looked for more “efficient” methods, and much of what they did was hidden with secret orders and coded language. In January 1942, senior officials met near Berlin at the Wannsee Conference. They discussed the “Final Solution”: the systematic extermination of all European Jews.

Special extermination camps were built or expanded in occupied Poland, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor and Treblinka. Jews from all over Europe were sent there via transit camps, often in cattle wagons. Upon arrival, most were murdered in gas chambers. At Auschwitz, SS doctor Josef Mengele became infamous for cruel medical experiments on prisoners, especially twins. SS leader Heinrich Himmler oversaw the system. The Holocaust cost the lives of around six million Jews, as well as many Roma, disabled people, political prisoners and others. It remains one of the darkest chapters in human history.

Auschwitz, May 1944: Hungarian Jews on the platform at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp after disembarking from the transport trains. To be sent to the right meant the person had been chosen as a forced labourer; to the left meant death in the gas chambers.

The Holocaust

Holocaust is derived from the Greek word holocaustos (burnt offering). The Ancient Greeks used the word for animal sacrifices to their gods. However, many Jews prefer the biblical word shoah (Hebrew: catastrophe). Nazis referred to the Holocaust as Endlösung der Judenfrage (final solution to the Jewish question).

American aircraft carrier during the Battle of Midway

Japanese ZERO attack bomber used to drop torpedoes on US warships

Dutch Jews are taken to the station where they will be transported to concentration camps.

2. Persecution and resistance in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, anti-Jewish measures began soon after the occupation. Jews had to register, were removed from certain jobs and were no longer allowed in parks, cinemas or swimming pools. Later they were forced to wear the yellow Star of David. Many non-Jewish Dutch people watched silently or tried to ignore what was happening. A smaller group protested. In February 1941, workers in Amsterdam organised the February Strike to protest against the first deportations of Jews. The Germans reacted with great violence and the strike was crushed.

Over time, persecution became more organised. Jews were sent first to Dutch transit camps, especially Westerbork, and also Vught and Amersfoort. From there, trains took them to extermination camps in the East. During razzias, sudden Nazi round-ups, German police and their Dutch helpers arrested groups of Jews and other people. Some families went into hiding, helped by resistance groups or brave neighbours. The most famous example is the family of Anne Frank, who hid in a secret annex in Amsterdam and whose diary later became world-famous.

Memories of May 1940 were never far away. People remembered the fear of a “fifth column” and the sight of some Dutch Nazi supporters cheering the German troops. These memories later influenced angry reactions against collaborators. Resistance also grew stronger. Groups printed illegal newspapers, sabotaged railways and helped downed Allied pilots escape. In 1943, Allied bombers attacked the Philips factories in Eindhoven to damage German war production. The raid also killed and wounded civilians, showing that even help from the Allies could be deadly. The price of resistance was high: many members were executed or sent to concentration camps, and communities were left with painful questions about who had helped, who had collaborated and who had looked away.

Collaboration

Resistance

V = VICTORY

But for whom?

The British prime minister Winston Churchill often gave the V-sign with his fingers, indicating that Britain and the Allies would be victorious.

When the Dutch people began to use Churchill's  V-sign as a symbol of resistance, the Germans were not amused.

The Germans  began to use the V-sign as a symbol for German victory.

Many Dutch made jokes about this German idea....

OZO

Oranje Zal Overwinnen

3. D-Day, Eindhoven and the road to liberation

From 1943 onwards, the Allies started to plan the liberation of Western Europe. Allied bombers attacked German cities and factories to weaken the enemy. In June 1944, they were ready for a massive invasion of France. On 6 June 1944, D-Day (Decision Day), Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in Operation Overlord. American, British and Canadian soldiers fought their way ashore under heavy fire. General Eisenhower was the supreme Allied commander. After hard battles in the hedgerow country and around the city of Caen, the German lines broke. Paris was liberated in August 1944.

The United States actually had a 'ghost army' with only one mission: to deceive the enemy tactically. During and after D-Day, they staged more than twenty operations, using inflatable tanks, sound trucks and misleading Morse Code and radio messages.

American soldiers landing on the Normandy beach in the early morning of June 6th, 1944.

Eindhoven, Sept 18, 1944. Allied tanks drive along Stratum's Eind

The Allies then moved towards Belgium and the Netherlands. On 18 September 1944, British and American troops liberated Eindhoven. People decorated the streets, waved flags and climbed onto tanks. For a moment, it looked as if the war might be over soon. The liberation of the south was part of a bold plan called Operation Market Garden. Airborne troops had to capture key Dutch bridges, while ground forces would race north, cross the Rhine and push into Germany. The goal was to end the war before Christmas 1944.

At Arnhem, however, British paratroopers could not hold the last bridge. The operation failed. The southern Netherlands was free, but the centre and north of the country remained occupied. For those areas, the hardest months of the war were still to come. People who had celebrated too openly now faced German anger. Hopes that the war might “soon be over” turned into fear that the occupiers would take revenge on the still-occupied parts of the country.

During the hunger winter many people, including children, tried to scrape something they could eat from waste bins

This is Henkie Holvast. He survived the Hunger winter of '44-'45

4 . Hunger Winter, VE-Day and the end of the war

The failure of Operation Market Garden had terrible consequences for the Dutch people still under occupation. In the winter of 1944–45, the Germans blocked food and fuel supplies to the western part of the country. This Hunger Winter, or Hongerwinter, caused extreme suffering. People ate tulip bulbs and sugar beets to survive. Many thousands, especially children and elderly people, died from hunger and cold. Canadian and British air forces later dropped food parcels in special “Manna” and “Chowhound” flights, but help came late for many.

Meanwhile, the war was reaching its final stage. In December 1944, Germany tried one last major offensive in the Ardennes, but the Allies stopped it. In the East, the Red Army pushed westward, liberating camps like Auschwitz in January 1945 and moving into Germany. Allied forces crossed the Rhine and advanced on all fronts. In April, American and Soviet troops met at the river Elbe near the town of Torgau and shook hands for the cameras, a symbol that Nazi Germany was trapped. Soviet forces under General Zhukov fought their way into Berlin. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. On 8 May 1945, VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day), Germany officially surrendered.

The war in Europe was over, but fighting in the Pacific continued. American forces, now led by president Harry Truman, fought island by island towards Japan. In August 1945, the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered soon after. The Second World War was finally over, but its consequences were only beginning.

London people celebrating the end of the war in Europe.

Japanese kamikaze pilots posing in front of the camera. These specially trained suicide pilots would crash their airplane on enemy ships causing maximum damage. 

Perhaps no Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph is better known than Joe Rosenthal’s picture of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. It was taken on Friday, Feb. 23, 1945, five days after the Marines landed on the island. The Associated Press, Rosenthal’s employer, transmitted the picture to member newspapers 17½ hours later, and it made the front pages of many Sunday papers.

The Enola Gay dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In this photograph are five of the aircraft's ground crew with mission commander Paul Tibbets in the center.

a Japanese survivor of the atomic bomb watches over the devastated city of Hiroshima

5. Aftermath: ruins, justice and difficult choices

When the war ended, Europe lay in ruins. Cities were destroyed, railways broken and millions of people were refugees or displaced. Germany was divided into occupation zones run by the USA, Britain, France and the USSR. In the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina returned from exile to a damaged but free country. The end of the war also brought revenge and justice, but these were often messy. Dutch women who had relationships with German soldiers were publicly humiliated; their heads were shaved while crowds watched and shouted. Some collaborators were put on trial, others were beaten or killed without proper legal process.

At the same time, many Jewish survivors who returned from camps or hiding did not receive a warm welcome. They sometimes found their homes occupied by other people or discovered that neighbours had taken their belongings. It was painful to realise how few had been willing to risk everything to help them. 

This photograph was taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Alexander Vorontsov, a Soviet photographer who accompanied the soldiers of the Red Army when they liberated the camp on 27 January 1945. The photograph depicts thirteen children, one of whom (fifth from the right) is hidden from view, and only his cap is visible. 

A woman being shaved by civilians to publicly mark her as a collaborator, 1944.

On an international level, leading Nazis such as Hermann Göring and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were tried at the Nuremberg Trials. They were accused of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Several were sentenced to death; others received long prison sentences or killed themselves beforehand. The trials were an attempt to show that even powerful leaders could be held responsible for their actions.

After the war, new organisations like the United Nations were created to try to keep peace. Yet the memory of World War 2 still raises difficult questions. War had forced people to make extreme choices. Some became heroes, others war criminals, and most simply tried to adapt and survive. Without war, many of them might have lived as “normal” people. That is one of the most disturbing lessons of this period – and one reason why studying World War 2 is still important today.

Word Duty

D-Day – “Decision Day”, 6 June 1944, when Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy to start the liberation of Western Europe.

VE-Day – “Victory in Europe Day”, 8 May 1945, the day Germany officially surrendered and the war in Europe ended.

Transit camp – A camp where Jews and other prisoners were held temporarily before being transported to extermination camps (for example Westerbork).

Extermination camp – A camp specially designed by the Nazis to kill large numbers of people, mainly Jews, often in gas chambers (for example Auschwitz-Birkenau).

Razzia – A sudden Nazi round-up where German police and helpers quickly surrounded an area and arrested groups of people.

Resistance – All forms of opposition against the occupying power, such as sabotage, hiding Jews, helping Allied pilots and printing illegal newspapers.

KEY WORDS

Word Duty

February Strike – A general strike in and around Amsterdam in February 1941 to protest against the first deportations of Jews.

Mad Tuesday (Dolle Dinsdag) – 5 September 1944, when rumours of quick liberation caused panic among collaborators, many of whom tried to flee.

Operation Market Garden – Allied operation in September 1944 to capture key Dutch bridges and cross the Rhine into Germany, which failed at Arnhem.

Hunger Winter of 1944/45 – A famine in the still-occupied western Netherlands where food and fuel ran out and many people starved or froze.

KEY WORDS

What you can do or explain after this lesson

• what a creation narrative is
• what the evolution theory is
• how both theories are used to explain where humans come from
• what the "Out of Africa" theory means
• how you can  read the family tree of   modern humans
• what paleontologists and archeologists do

Use these questions to create your own summary or to test your knowledge

1. Before the war and in the early war years, how were Jews and disabled people treated in Nazi Germany and Austria? Give two examples.
2. What changed in 1941 in the way the Nazis attacked Jewish people in the east, and why did they look for “more efficient” methods.
3. What was decided at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, and what did the Nazis mean by the “Final Solution”?
4. What was the main purpose of extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor and Treblinka, and how did they differ from transit camps?
5. Who was Josef Mengele, and what did he do at Auschwitz?
6. Name two early anti-Jewish measures in the Netherlands before the deportations started.
7. What was the February Strike of 1941, and how did the German occupiers react to it?
8. What was the role of Westerbork in the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands?
9. What is a razzia, and what happened during such actions in occupied Netherlands?
10. Give two examples of resistance activities in the Netherlands and explain one risk for those involved.
11. What happened on D-Day (6 June 1944), and who was the supreme Allied commander?
12. What was the plan of Operation Market Garden, and why did its failure matter for the people in the centre and north of the Netherlands?
13. What was the Hunger Winter of 1944–45, and why did so many people suffer and die during this period?
14. Mention three key events that led to the end of the war in Europe and VE-Day (8 May 1945).
15. After the war, how were collaborators and returning Jewish survivors treated in the Netherlands, and what was the goal of the Nuremberg Trials?

What you can do or explain after this lesson

• what a creation narrative is
• what the evolution theory is
• how both theories are used to explain where humans come from
• what the "Out of Africa" theory means
• how you can  read the family tree of   modern humans
• what paleontologists and archeologists do

KEY

1. Examples: Jews and disabled people were discriminated against; they faced violence; Jews lost jobs and rights; disabled people were murdered in “euthanasia” programmes; Jews were excluded from public life. (Any two.)
2. In 1941, as Germany invaded the USSR, Einsatzgruppen and helpers shot huge numbers of Jews in mass shootings near their homes; this was slow and hard for the killers, so the Nazis searched for more “efficient” and less visible killing methods.
3. At Wannsee, senior Nazis planned the “Final Solution”: the systematic extermination of all European Jews, mainly through specially built killing centres in the east.
4. Extermination camps were built mainly to kill large numbers of people, often in gas chambers, shortly after arrival. Transit camps like Westerbork temporarily held Jews before they were transported to those extermination camps.
5. Josef Mengele was an SS doctor at Auschwitz who became infamous for cruel medical experiments, especially on twins and other prisoners.
6. Examples: Jews had to register; were removed from jobs; were banned from parks, cinemas or swimming pools; later had to wear the yellow Star of David. (Any two.)
7. The February Strike was a general strike in Amsterdam in 1941 by workers protesting against the first deportations of Jews; the Germans brutally crushed it with violence and arrests.
8. Westerbork was the main Dutch transit camp where Jews were collected and held before being put on trains to extermination camps in the East.

What you can do or explain after this lesson

• what a creation narrative is
• what the evolution theory is
• how both theories are used to explain where humans come from
• what the "Out of Africa" theory means
• how you can  read the family tree of   modern humans
• what paleontologists and archeologists do

KEY

9. A razzia was a sudden Nazi round-up; German police and Dutch helpers suddenly surrounded an area, arrested Jews and others, and took them away for deportation or forced labour.

10. Examples: printing illegal newspapers; sabotaging railways; helping downed Allied pilots; hiding Jews or resistance members. Risks included arrest, torture, execution, or being sent to concentration camps. (Any two activities + one risk.)

11. On D-Day, Allied troops (mainly American, British and Canadian) landed on the beaches of Normandy to invade Nazi-occupied France; General Eisenhower was the supreme Allied commander.

12. Operation Market Garden aimed to capture key Dutch bridges with airborne troops and push ground forces quickly into Germany to end the war by Christmas 1944; its failure left the centre and north of the Netherlands still occupied and facing hard months ahead.

13. In the Hunger Winter, the Germans blocked food and fuel to the western Netherlands; people starved, ate things like tulip bulbs, froze in the cold, and many thousands died, especially children and the elderly.

14. Possible answers: the failed German Ardennes offensive; the Red Army liberating camps like Auschwitz and moving into Germany; Allied crossing of the Rhine; American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe; Soviet capture of Berlin; Hitler’s suicide; Germany’s unconditional surrender on VE-Day. (Any three.)

15. Many collaborators were punished or humiliated (for example women with German boyfriends had their heads shaved); some were tried, others beaten or killed. Many Jewish survivors returned to find their homes occupied and their possessions taken, and often did not receive a warm welcome. The Nuremberg Trials aimed to hold leading Nazis legally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and to show that such actions would be punished.

congratulations

congratulations