World War II Civilians and Soldiers: Crash Course European History #39

World War II Civilians and Soldiers: Crash Course European History #39

World War II Civilians and Soldiers: Crash Course European History #39

Our look at World War II continues with a closer examination of just how the war impacted soldiers in the field, and the people at home. For many of the combatants, the homefront and the warfront were one and the same. The war disrupted life for millions upon millions of people. You’ll learn about the different experiences of the populations of various combatant states.

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Sources
-Kent, Susan. A New History of Britain: Four Nations and an Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
-Krylova, Anna. Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010
-Mazower, Mark. Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. New York: Penguin, 2008.
-Overy. Richard. Russia’s War. London: Penguin, 1997.
-Riding, Alan. And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris. New York: Vintage, 2011.
-Smith, Bonnie G. Europe in the Contemporary World, 1900 to the Present, 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

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Content

0.16 -> Hi I’m John Green and this is Crash Course European History.
2.72 -> So, total war involves the participation of entire populations, as we saw with World War
8.82 -> I.
9.82 -> But if anything, populations participated far more—both willingly and unwillingly—across
14.98 -> Eurasia and Africa during World War II.
17.85 -> Lethal weapons played a huge role, of course, but so did human labor and the systems we
22.97 -> created to capture and allocate resources--not just guns and ships but also food, and medications,
30.13 -> and even books.
31.359 -> To cite just one example, shortly before the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald died in
35.54 -> 1940, he tried to find one of his books at several bookstores--but none carried them.
41.149 -> Because he and his work were almost entirely forgotten--until the U.S. Army started sending
47.45 -> out Armed Services Editions of novels to soldiers in the war.
51.44 -> Among the books distributed was Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which went from being almost
56.39 -> out of print to being a Great American Novel thanks to the U.S. soldiers who read it, and
61.72 -> the army that distributed it.
63.85 -> In military history, we tend to focus on the generals and the weaponry, both of which are
68.57 -> important.
69.57 -> But to really understand World War II, we also need to look at the experiences of soldiers
74.76 -> and civilians.
80.51 -> [Intro] Most Europeans did not welcome the war.
87.51 -> I mean, remember, World War I had only ended a couple decades earlier, and it had been
91.72 -> a horrific trauma that, many felt, hadn’t in the end done much to make the world better.
97.46 -> In Germany, however, many soldiers were riding a wave of nationalist enthusiasm that Hitler
102.61 -> had aroused with his attacks on the Versailles Treaty and the takeover of the Rhineland,
106.61 -> Austria, and Czechoslovakia.
107.61 -> And they were also mostly enthusiastic about the invasion of Poland in 1939.
114.61 -> Which brings us to a big point in our study of history: We like to cordon evil off, to
120.31 -> make evil the domain of a few demented individuals, ideally individuals who seem quite different
126.08 -> from us.
127.08 -> But whether it’s the Transatlantic slave trade or Nazism or the genocide we’ll explore
131.95 -> next week, we see again and again that evil is not the product of demented individuals;
138.66 -> it is the product of demented social orders.
141.29 -> Yes, it took a leader like Hitler to encourage others to dehumanize and destroy the lives
147.23 -> of outsiders.
148.84 -> But why are we willing to listen to such voices?
152.61 -> And so another reason to look at the war as experienced by so-called regular people is
157.97 -> that it paints in stark relief the reality that evil is not exceptional.
163.97 -> But right, back to the war: Italian soldiers also enthused not just over their conquest
168.62 -> of Ethiopia but of Mussolini’s attacks that coordinated with Germany’s.
173.65 -> Even in the depths of battlefield suffering, commitment and loyalty to Mussolini were very
180.52 -> strong: “Terrible night from the seventeenth to
183.03 -> the eighteenth (1941),” one wrote home.
185.06 -> “In that night, which I will remember all my life, which I would pass entirely on foot
190.17 -> under the snow and rain that soaked my shoes.
193.29 -> . . and froze three toes.
195.67 -> The only thing that keeps me always on my feet and always ready: Faith in God and in
202.07 -> the Duce.”
203.43 -> That is, Mussolini Throughout the war, soldiers suffered and
206.48 -> died in extraordinary numbers but civilian losses were even worse.
211.36 -> In fact, they were much worse.
213.28 -> Across Europe, houses, public buildings, and factories were bombed, with entire towns and
218.2 -> villages sometimes obliterated, along with their inhabitants.
222.43 -> In Britain close to one third of all housing was entirely destroyed.
227.569 -> Germans dropped thirty thousand bombs on the city of Swansea (Wales) alone in a three-day
232.29 -> raid in 1941.
234.03 -> The Allies, in turn, firebombed German cities, including Dresden, which became the subject
239.85 -> of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five.
242.59 -> Still, soldiers endured unendurable hardship, especially on the eastern front and especially
248.319 -> as Hitler stopped the production of warm winter clothing and other necessities.
253.3 -> Many soldiers froze to death.
255.819 -> But they somehow still remained motivated.
258.68 -> As is often the case in war, soldiers and the personnel who served them, even if not
263.26 -> ideologically aligned with the governments they served, often reported ultimately fighting
268.26 -> not for country or ideology but for their comrades, who they came to see as “bands
274.2 -> of brothers.”
275.29 -> And sisters.
276.29 -> To cite just one example, Vera Ivanovna Malakhova, a Russian doctor in the prolonged and horrific
281.73 -> battle of Stalingrad noted that she was saved by the senior physician in her regiment, as
287.11 -> he found a horse, gave her his spare pair of slacks, and wrapped the horse’s mane
291.8 -> around her hands.
292.85 -> Eventually, they found more soldiers and together they found safety.
296.16 -> “And that’s how I got out of the encirclement,” thanks to the loyalty of the senior physicians
302.33 -> and the unity of the comrades-in-arms.
305.02 -> And while we often think of the lives of soldiers as being all about shooting or being shot,
310.34 -> when you read accounts written by regular soldiers, one thing that comes up again and
314.91 -> again is the daily challenges...the miseries of being cold, and tired, and hungry.
322.59 -> Did the center of the world just open?
324.47 -> There’s some Campbells soup in here, which I am going to enjoy later.
327.33 -> We don’t talk nearly enough in military history about food.
331.26 -> soldiers, what with the constant marching and digging, need to eat a lot.
335.99 -> Strategies for feeding soldiers varied throughout the war, but in the US army, one of the strategies
339.79 -> used was the C ration, which came in a can, and in three varieties: meat and beans, meat
345.52 -> and potato hash, or meat and vegetable stew.
349.01 -> By most accounts, none of them were great.
350.61 -> But also, initially, they came with very flimsy paper wrapping, which fell off immediately,
355.69 -> and so you didn’t know which one you were going to get.
357.87 -> But at least you always knew you were going to get “meat.”
360.24 -> Ugh.
361.24 -> I mean, suddenly, Campbell’s tomato soup seems amazing.
364.139 -> But, of course, most of the combatants in Europe in World War II were not Americans...they
369.22 -> were fighting closer to home.
370.62 -> And for many, the homefront was also the battlefront.
374.57 -> So the line between civilian and military blurred, as civilians might be informers,
380.02 -> or collaborators, or resisters.
381.89 -> And the nature of governments was also changing on whatever still existed of the homefront--government
387.74 -> was expanding, as it often does during total war, to allocate goods and organize transportation.
394.13 -> European governments often decided how much food and clothing people could access through
398.27 -> ration cards, and governments took control of transport, medical, and other systems--a
404.229 -> change that would have a deep and lasting effect in Europe.
407.61 -> The war changed Europeans’ ideas about what governments could and should do: For instance,
413.1 -> there was no national health service in the United Kingdom before World War II.
417.481 -> Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
419.259 -> 1.
420.259 -> Governments actually sent out recipes for cooking,
421.86 -> 2.
422.86 -> showing how ersatz or alternative ingredients could be used as substitutes for scarce products
427.61 -> like meat, fats, and sugar.
429.36 -> 3.
430.36 -> For example, instead of coffee consumers could drink hot beverages made from herbs and other
434.83 -> plants like chicory.
435.83 -> 4.
436.83 -> And governments were involved in art-making and propaganda as well:
439.49 -> 5.
440.49 -> To boost and militarize civilian morale and also to entertain,
443.03 -> 6.
444.03 -> filmmakers were directed by governments to make patriotic films about war heroes successfully
448.729 -> facing off with evil enemy forces.
451.09 -> 7.
452.09 -> A soldier in the Soviet film “Two Warriors” (1943) sings around the campfire about his
456.28 -> wife tending the cradle
458.11 -> 8. and of the ways in which the knowledge of her fidelity saves his life, despite the
463.09 -> bullets whizzing by.
464.43 -> 9.
465.43 -> Soldiers and officers stationed in large cities and capitals like Paris
468.199 -> 10.
469.199 -> often enjoyed peacetime entertainment in cafés alongside privileged urban residents.
473.6 -> 11.
474.6 -> Meanwhile, many authors, composers, entertainers, and scholars
477.75 -> 12.
478.75 -> escaped to enrich the culture and science of the United States, Canada, and other places
483.09 -> of refuge
484.09 -> 13. --from the painter Piet Mondrian to the novelist Thomas Mann.
487.81 -> 14.
488.81 -> In Paris, some of the most famous actors performed during the occupation
491.91 -> 15. to audiences in which German officers had the best seats.
495.41 -> 16.
496.41 -> After the war these performers countered charges of collaboration with the defense that they
500.46 -> were doing a job.
501.57 -> 17.
502.57 -> Or, as one French working-class woman said, under the occupation
505.93 -> 18.
506.93 -> “everyone worked for the Germans.”
508.61 -> Thanks Thought Bubble.
509.74 -> Ideas about gender also played an important role in the war: Nazi ideology never shut
515.089 -> up about the German male’s invincibility and racial superiority.
518.969 -> Women, who “knew their place,” were supposed to concentrate on breeding and raising the
524.199 -> next generations of racial patriots to support their male masters.
528.24 -> In fact, there were bronze, silver, and gold “mother’s crosses” based on how many
533.889 -> children you had--bronze if you had four or five kids, silver if you had six or seven,
539.91 -> and gold if you had eight or more.
542.339 -> Nazis and Italian fascists removed women from the workforce except for jobs as domestic
546.85 -> servants and agricultural workers.
548.949 -> Many women adhered to the Nazi ideology of women’s subservience by keeping themselves
553.519 -> occupied in the household even at the height of the war when their labor was sorely needed
558.8 -> in industrial production.
560.519 -> In contrast, Soviet women rushed to defend the nation, especially after the invasion
565.709 -> by the Nazis.
566.8 -> The USSR did share the ideology that men were the armed protectors and women and children
571.759 -> the inferior protected ones.
574.329 -> But it also talked equality, especially around jobs in heavy industry.
579.769 -> Women worked with big machinery and in the early days of the war they were enlisted in
583.6 -> battlefront nursing corps.
585.49 -> Then, as Germany invaded, tens of thousands of Soviet women rushed to join frontline troops.
592.35 -> As Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, editorialized in 1941 “A Soviet woman loves
597.35 -> her motherland passionately.
599.569 -> And if the enemy dares to attack our country, the enemy will be beaten, beaten without mercy.
605.29 -> Woman will stand up as a fighter, equal in her rights, next to man.”
609.41 -> Say what you will about the Soviets, but my God they could do some propaganda.
613.329 -> So, hundreds of thousands of Soviet women participated in combat, and hundreds of thousands
618.209 -> more were army nurses, doctors, orderlies, and support staff to the military.
623.439 -> British women also contributed, as the National Service Act of December 1941 conscripted women
628.29 -> into military, farming, or munitions jobs.
631.16 -> From 1943 until the war’s end, 80 percent of married women in the UK and 90 percent
636.629 -> of single women served the war effort, including playing crucial roles in code-breaking and
641.579 -> the secret planning of military campaigns.
643.689 -> And even though they were forbidden to assume combat roles, many women still learned to
648.05 -> use rifles and other weapons on their own time.
651.51 -> Others learned to fly airplanes.
653.459 -> As conditions worsened for Germany with the battle of Stalingrad, Nazi officials tried
657.709 -> to achieve the full employment of women that had put the USSR and Britain’s productivity
662.739 -> so far ahead of Germany’s.
665.439 -> But propagandizing that women’s role was in the home and subservient to the male protector
670.779 -> had been all too successful.
672.42 -> Meanwhile, in Leningrad and in Bengal, millions were dying of wartime famine.
679.149 -> Germans began the siege of Leningrad in September of 1941, cutting off heating and food supplies.
684.679 -> Starving citizens ate cats,and birds, and castor oil, and even the glue from wallpaper,
690.91 -> but, as one noted with black humor, “not all people in the enormous city had such supplementary
697.019 -> sources of food.”
698.48 -> Deprived of nourishment, Leningraders nonetheless dug anti-tank trenches and watched for fires
703.689 -> set by German infiltrators, as bodies piled up in a city that lacked wood for coffins.
709.569 -> Still, radio and live performances continued, aiming to boost morale.
714.009 -> When the siege ended in January 1944, between 800,000 and 1.4 million people had died.
721.529 -> Among them was a child named Viktor Putin, whose parents nearly died of starvation but
726.879 -> survived the war.
728.35 -> Their third son Vladimir Putin was born in 1952.
732.339 -> And then there was the civilian catastrophe that was the scorched earth infliction of
736.72 -> famine on India in 1943, the very colony that contributed some 2.5 million soldiers to the
744.179 -> British war cause.
745.81 -> In that year, Winston Churchill, the unquestionably racist if eloquent British prime minister,
751.23 -> had thousands of tons of grain removed from India and sent to build up supplies at home
756.879 -> using several justifications:
758.439 -> the British claimed the Indians already had plenty of food, that the Japanese might take
762.649 -> it all if they invaded, and that the British needed the grain more than the already “fat”
768.06 -> Indians.
769.06 -> Australia and the United States offered grain to India, but Churchill had those offers rebuffed,
774.199 -> perhaps to weaken the Indian drive for independence.
777.429 -> This manufactured famine led to the deaths of an estimated 3 million children and adults.
784.089 -> It is also another reminder that famines on that scale are almost never natural, and are
789.561 -> almost always inflicted by humans on each other.
793.67 -> Next time, we will consider the holocaust and further mass murder in World War II, but
798.259 -> I want to leave you today with the Bengal famine, because it is a horrifying reminder
802.86 -> of what happens when we imagine others as less than human.
807.579 -> There were of course also heroes throughout the war--agricultural scientists in Leningrad
813.319 -> who starved to death while surrounded by edible seeds that they had sworn to protect for future
818.92 -> harvests; Indian men and women who gave what little they had to those in even greater need;
824.459 -> and wartime resisters who helped escapees over borders or onto boats to safety.
830.389 -> That is also part of human nature.
832.489 -> But none of us is immune from the evil that inevitably proceeds from the dehumanization
838.139 -> of others.
839.549 -> Thanks for watching.
840.549 -> I’ll see you next time.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlx6ur_D51s