Anne Frank Dies
Anne Frank was a teenage writer who hid in Amsterdam with her family for two years during the Nazi occupation of Holland. She chronicled her feelings and experiences in a diary that became renowned after the war. She was 15 years old when the location of the family...
Easter in Nazi Germany
In a 1939 census of Nazi Germany (including annexed Austria), 54% of Germans considered themselves Protestant, 40% Catholic, 3.5% gottgläubig (non-sectarian believers in God) and 1.5% as non-religious. In the spring of 1936, Der Angriff, Berlin’s Nazi paper founded by...
V-2 Rocket
The German V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2–"Retribution Weapon 2") was Mankind's first long-range guided ballistic missile. Powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, more than 3000 V-2 rockets were launched against Allied cities in 1944. The initial V-2 target was London;...
Blue Star in the Window
The blue star flag, designed during WWI by U.S. Army Captain Robert Queissner, became the unofficial symbol of a child in service. In January 1942, a newspaper article by Army Captain George Maines requested information regarding children serving in the armed forces –...
Halloween
The Brian Sisters Samhain, celebrated by ancient Celts on October 31st marked the beginning of the cold and bleak part of the year, often associated with death. The Catholic Church later transformed Samhain into a religious event known as All Hallows Eve (the evening...
Home For Christmas
Ironically, Bing Crosby’s elegant Toluca Lake mansion was virtually destroyed by fire. The culprit was none other than the family Christmas tree. ______________________ Want to hear the top hits of 1943? Check this out: Jukebox 1943 ...
U.S. Women WWII
During WWII, ~350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces at home and abroad. Additionally, with many men leaving to enlist in the armed forces, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27% in 1940 to 37% in 1945 when ~25% of married women worked...
Food Insecurity Japan
Although Japan had become an industrialized nation in the early 20th century, it remained resource poor. Prior to WWII, limited efforts were made to raise agricultural production, but land reform that would increase tenure for the peasantry was firmly resisted by the...
Food Rationing Germany
Rationing was introduced in Germany shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939. Initially, clothing, shoes, leather, soap and most foodstuffs were rationed. Many homes and apartments were heated with steam radiators that required coal burning hot water heaters....
▶Food is Ammunition
This WWII government film, with very explicit recommendations, emphasizes good nutrition as a weapon of war. "Eventual victory in this war may depend on what we eat." Although rationing was imposed in the USA, food insecurity was never an issue for Americans during...
Japanese Behavior
Composed of apparent movie clips with mildly condescending narration from a Western point of view, the film actually provides an excellent overview of many aspects of Japanese culture: discipline, order, ceremony and hierarchy. The film evokes a melancholic...
▶ Homefront
This somewhat quirky propaganda film, working the concept of 'no exceptions', is worth watching to feel the level of concern on the American home front in 1943.
Detroit Race Riot
In June 1943 a race riot erupted in Detroit Michigan, a city brimming with ~400,000 wartime migrants competing for jobs and housing. Fueled by false rumors of racial attacks in both black and white communities, the rioting continued from June 20 until June 22 when...
Kinderlandverschickung – Evacuation of Children
The term Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) was first used in the late 19th century to describe the foster care relocation of sick and underprivileged children to the countryside. At the outbreak of WWII, although there were no large scale civilian evacuations as in...
Let the Storm Break Loose!
https://youtu.be/nKJLd9A9_jA Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' speech on February 18, 1943 at the Berlin Sportpalast is often considered his most important of the war. Unlike previous Nazi propaganda that claimed incontestable German victories, the Sportpalast...
Die Große Liebe
Die große Liebe (The Great Love), which premiered in 1942, became the most commercially successful film in the history of the Nazi Germany. From the film's musical score: "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" and "Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh'n"...
Welfare Japan
Beginning in the 1920s, the Imperial Japanese government enacted a series of welfare programs, based mainly on European models, to provide medical care and financial support. After the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, the Ministry of Health and Welfare...
Winterhilfswerk Welfare
The National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt) conducted an annual winter drive (Winterhilfswerk) with the slogan "None shall starve nor freeze." Although the program was established before the Nazi's rise to power,...
All the Light We Cannot See
This superbly written, often lyrical, WWII novel about a blind French girl and a young German soldier is excellent reading. “I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green...
Japanese New Year
At midnight on December 31, bells in Japan's Buddhist temples ring 108 times to symbolize 108 human sins and remove 108 worldly desires. At the Japanese New Year (正月) a special selection of dishes is prepared. Called osechi-ryōri (御節料理) these dishes consist of boiled...
Christmas in Germany
https://youtu.be/sbzssYeMer4
Christmas in America
Kraft Durch Freude
Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy, abbreviated KdF), was a program operated by the state-owned German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) that provided leisure activities for ordinary workers. To exemplify solidarity under National Socialism, passengers on...
WWII and PTSD
Did WWII vets have less PTSD? We all know the stereotype. Veterans of the Greatest Generation fought for a noble cause and had few after effects when they returned to civilian life. Although “shell shock” and “combat fatigue” had been identified in previous wars, the...
Nazi Anti-Jewish Legislation
Nazi Germany enacted >2,000 anti-Jewish measures 1933 The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service legalized firing "non-Aryan" government employees Most “non-Aryan" students were barred from attending German schools and forbidden to take final...