Replies

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread.

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Soviet Summer and Fall Offensives: Operations, 17 July-1 December 1943
Allied Advance to Volturno River, Reorganization, and Attack on Gustav Line (17 January-11 May 1944)
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943
New Guinea and Alamo Force Operations: Clearing the Huon Peninsula and Securing the Straits, 19 September 1943-26 April 1944
Cartwheel, the Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls, and Concurrent Air and Naval Operations, 30 June 1943-26 April 1944

The Wake attack is a prelude to Tarawa. I've just finished John Wukovits' book "One Square Mile of Hell: The Battle for Tarawa." What struck me was that in the USA at the time, the exact same misconceptions about war that led to our "loss" in Vietnam were in full effect - 25 years earlier. The public believed Japan could somehow be defeated cleanly and safely with air power. Leftist labor unions were even striking against defense industries - which infuriated the Marines on the front lines. There was considerable consternation, outrage, and finger-pointing over the casualty numbers at Tarawa - even after what had happened at Guadalcanal a year earlier. It was not much different than the Tet Offensive being reported as a defeat by the US media - fortunately, we still had enough adults in government (and even in the media) at that time to keep the war effort on track and do what was needed.

I concluded that, contrary to much conservative opinion, the seeds of America's downfall were planted far earlier than the 60's. Very similar attitudes (minus the patchouli oil and firebombings) were prevalent during the so-called Greatest Generation, at least on the home front, and Roosevelt's Stalinist advisors in the 30's were the culprits. Winning the war bought us a respite and 20 years of economic prosperity, just as the election of Ronald Reagan did in 1980. But the overall trend toward Socialism eventually resumed.

October 7, 1943:

"A Jewish partisan unit active near Vilna, Lithuania, destroys more than 50 telegraph poles lining the road from Vilna to Grodno.
"In an official report, the German chief of police in Poland recommends that Poles who aid Jews should be dealt with without benefit of trial.
"One thousand Jews are deported from Paris to their deaths at Auschwitz. "

Jews in Hiding

"Throughout Europe, in attics and basements, in secret cupboards so small they could barely crouch, Jews struggled to hide themselves from their Nazi persecutors.
Sometimes they were hidden by gentile friends; sometimes by complete strangers.

"In Amsterdam, the Frank family, along with several others, hid for months in a secret annex, supplied with the essentials of life by Miep Gies.
Dutch woman Dieuwke Hofstede (pictured) opened her doors to Henny Kalkstein (right).
Convents and monasteries also hid Jewish children.
In the northern Italian town of Assisi, Father Rufino Niccacci supplied Jews with forged identity papers and helped them to find homes and work.
In France, the entire village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, guided by its pastor, André Trocmé, was committed to hiding/protecting Jewish refugees.

"In Eastern Europe, finding a hiding place was extremely difficult.
Although many Poles were antisemitic and many others feared the consequences of aiding Jews, some Poles responded to the cries for help.
Irene Gut Opdyke hid 12 Jews in the house of a German officer for whom she worked as a housekeeper.
In Wlodawa, Poland, a Jewish man named Yankel lived for a year in a hole in the floor of a barn.
The farm itself was occupied by German soldiers."

"When the war turned against the Germans, they began a concerted effort to conceal their crimes.
Hence, Sonderkommandos, most of them Jews, were ordered to begin the grisly task of exhuming the bodies of Nazi Germany's millions of victims and disposing of the remains.
This photograph shows a bone-crushing machine that was used to grind up the body parts that could not be burned.
The man on the right, with the surname of Korn, burned about 46,000 corpses, including that of his wife, during the three months he worked as a Sonderkommando."