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Faq
1: When exactly did the Second World War start?
2: When exactly did the Second World War end?
3: What were the causes of W.W.II?
4: Which countries took part in W.W.II?
5: Which aspects made W.W.II different from any other war in history?
6: How many people died as a result of W.W.II?
7: Which political views were the main views during the W.W.II era in Germany?
8: Why did the nazi's try to murder the Jewish people in the occupied countries?
9: How did the Nazi's try to kill all these people?

Q. 1: When exactly did the Second World War start?
A. 1: Historians set the start of W.W.II in 1939 and the end of the war at 1945. However, the first hostilities in W.W.II started much sooner. The Japanese occupation of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931 was the first hositle act. Japan met no serious opposition from other countries on this attack on China. In 1935 Hitler openly declared that Germany would no longer follow the peace treaty of Versailles and started a large scale re-armament of the army. In 1936 German troops marched in the Rheinland, an area that had been demilitarized according the Versailles Treaty. In 1938 Austria (der Anschluss), the Sudeten area and a part of Tsjechoslowakia were occupied. In 1936 Italy had already started the occupation of Ethiopia (Abbasinia) and invaded Albania in 1939. After the German-Russian Non-Agression Pact was signed (August 23th 1939) Hitler was able to concentrate on his attack of Poland. This attack marks the official start of the Second World War.

Q. 2: When exactly did the Second World War end?
A. 2: Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 and on May 4th the Germans surrendered in Northwest-Germany, the Netherlands, Danmark and Sleeswijk-Holstein; at May 7th the unconditional surrender of all German Troops was signed in Eisenhowers HQ in Reims. The conditions became active at May 9th 1945. In Tokyo Bay the surrender of the Japanese troops was signed on September 2nd 1945. The surrender was signed on the Missouri, after which Japan started to retreat from all occupied area's. Some countries signed the surrender but peace treaties were signed at a much later date: on Febr. 10th 1947 in Paris with Italy, on Sept. 8th 1951 in San Francisco with Japan(This was never recognized by Russia)). With Austria a peace treaty was signed as late as 1955. Although the German troops surrendered a peace treaty wasn't signed because of the division of this country in two part: The "Bundesrepubliek Deutschland", which consisted of all area's occupied by Allied troops from the West and the "Deutsche Demokratische Republiek" (East Germany), which were the area's occupied by the Soviet Union.

Q. 3: What were the causes of W.W.II?
A. 3: There is not just one simple circumstance for the outbreak of W.W.II. The mood in Europe started to change because of multiple circumstances. Germany, Italy and Japan pushed forward into foreign territory or took measures towards some of their own people which were provocative for the rest of Europe. The causes of W.W.I were not taken away by this war, materialism was developing quite rapidly. Political parties and their leaders were keen on more profit and better and bigger markets and more control. In this atmosphere the military leaders tried to gain more control on society and didn't want to lose their control to the political leaders. The influence of the media was very large and they were fascinated by the statistics of the economy and published articles on the greatness of their countries and on the production of coal and steel production, growth of the population and economy and the militairy strength. The population was confronted with these fact on a daily base and patriotism and chauvinism were stimulated by political and militairy leaders and newspapers. Common people had won their first social victory, because the growth of their economy was profitable for them. However, the Second Socialist Gathering of international Socialist parties failed because of the hostile attitude between Germany and France. This caused the Socialist parties to become highly nationalistical (Jean Jaurés-Karl Kautsky). This atmosphere hadn't changed in the period before W.W.II, on the contrary it had become much stronger and nationalist feelings had grown to almost hysterical proportions. For Germany the harsh Agreement of Versailles, which ended W.W.I, was unacceptable and was the cause of hostile sentiments towards the rest of Europe. On the other hand Italy and Japan, winners in W.W.I felt neglected and could not profit from the victory they helped achieve. Peace and democracy were threatened in the 1920's and 1930's especially in the countries where fascist and national socialist parties gained control of government. In Germany the fascists of Adolf Hitler were able to gain control because of the economical crisis (1929), a crisis which also caused other nazi leaders to gain control. The resistance of western democracies against imperialistic aspirations of Germany and Japan lacked leadership, power and selfconfidence because of a lack of trust between these nations (especially between France and Engeland) and of course the fact that the US had isolated themselves from the rest of the world and were not interested in the rest of the world. Because of this the recently founded council of nations had no influence at all. The Sovjet-Union under Stalin feared Germany more than any other state, but wasn't accepted as an ally in the attempts to stop Hitler and they had nothing to expect from the Western Allies. When Japan implemented its expantion policies and Hitler declined the Treaty of Versailles the circumstances for a new large scale war were created.

Q. 4: Which countries took part in W.W.II?
A. 4: In World War 2 the Axe countries and the Allied countries fought each other. the Axe countries were Germany, Italy and Japan. On Sept. 27th 1940 in Berlijn they signed a Pact for a period of ten years. In this pact they recognized their role as leaders in the new world order in Europe and Asia. They promised each other political, economical and militairy aid, in case of an attack on one of the Axe powers by a country not already involved in the European or Chinese-Japanese war. On a later date Hungaria, Bulgaria and Rumenia joined the Axe forces. The Allied forces were England (and Common Wealth), France, the Soviet Union [from June 1941] and the United States (from dec. 1941]) and their allies.

Q. 5: Which aspects made W.W.II different from any other war in history?
A. 5: The character of W.W.II was completely different from that of W.W.I. and any other war untill then. There was no militairy or diplomatical decency at all: Germany attacked preferably without a declaration of war. It tried to conquer countries by means of Blitzkrieg and had no regard for the civilians and used terror on the civilians to reach it's goal. The same statements can be made towards the Allies who used the same tactics on civilians in the bombardements on Germany and in the use of the atomic weapon. This violent attitude on both sides had besides political and militairy aspects also important economical aspects. Forced labor and slave labor under German and Japanese authority was very common and certainly at the beginning of the war one of the thriving forces of the German and Japanese economy. In the latter stages of the war it made them vulnerable for sabotage. Warfare itself had undergone a dramatic change. Armies were motorized and could depend on reliable weapons and vehicles. Expectation was that the role of infantery would be very small, but that wasn't the case. This motorized warfare contributed to the fast changing frontlines and a reliable flow of goods to the front. Chemical weapons weren't used, but the development of modern and very powerfull weapons made it able to use other weapons of mass destruction. Science had made its entry in warfare. Phospor bombs and the German V- weapons were especially damaging for the non militairy population. Civilians were much more part (and victim) of this war than in any other war in history, not just by the use of bombs but also because of the fact that women, boys and girls had to fill in for the men who had to fight in the army and in some countries these women, boys and girls took an active part in warfare. Other differences are the Resistance in the occupied countries and the murder of millions of innocent people (Jews, Gypsy's, homosexuals, disabled people etc.)

Q. 6: How many people died as a result of W.W.II?
A. 6: There is a simple answer to this question. No one knows exactly how many people died as a result of W.W.II. We can however try to give a rough estimate of people killed. Adding up the figures provided by the authorities of the countries involved, we can roughly determine that 17 million soldiers and 20 to 30 million civilians must have lost their lives. The Soviet-Unie had the most casualities: 10 million soldiers and just as much civilians. Losses on German and Japanese side were 2 to 3 million soldiers and at least 1/2 million civilians in each country. Tens of thousands of non-asian soldiers lost their lives in japanese camps and even more Asians died in the camps. In Poland 5 million civilians lost their lives and in China appr. 1.3 million soldiers died. Italy, France, Great-Brittan and Jugoslavia lost hunderd of thousands of soldiers and civilians each. The American almost lost 300.000 soldiers. A distinctive category in this war were the Jews. Almost 6 million Jewish people in Europe were murdered, mostly in the by the nazi's established concentration camps.

Q. 7: Which political views were the main views during the W.W.II era in Germany?
A. 7: National Socialism was the main political current in Germany and Italy. National socialism isn't one political doctrine, but a combination of different idea's, partly conservative and partly radical. The unification of nationalism and socialism was the main target in which nationalism was the more important current. National socialism was socialistic because of the fact that the influence of the state on the economy and on every day life was very large. Private possession of means of production was still allowed but entrepeneurs weren't free to produce what they wanted and their effort and the profits made had to be used for the benefit of the war effort. Liquidation of communism, international oriented socialism, liberalism and the parlaimentary democracy was a primery goal of the nazi's. In fact national socialism was a negative political point of view, a protest against a liberal non national revolutionary society.

Q. 8: Why did the nazi's try to murder the Jewish people in the occupied countries?
A. 8: The nationalism of the nazi's used a romantic nationalistical view from the 19th century and the race theory of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Joseph Arthur de Gobineau that said that a people was a mythical unity formed by bloodlines tied to their country (Blut und Boden). The Arian race was the only 'culture forming' race and as a result of that a higher race. It was Germany's historical mission to create an opportunity for the Arian race to become the leaders of the new world order. In the book "Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts" Alfred Rosenberg tried to create a philosophical system based on these idea's. Based on a very simple explanation of Darwins Survival of the fittest national-socialism preached a battle between the Übermenschen and Untermenschen, between Arians en non-Arians. The lowest representatives of the Üntermenschen were the Jews with just behind them, homosexuals, Slavic people and eventually everyone who opposed national socialism.

Q. 9: How did the Nazi's try to kill all these people?
A. 9: Soon after Adolf Hitler gained controle so called concentration camps were built. First victims to be incarcerated in these camps were people who opposed the nazi's by word, or by actions on political, religious or sexual means. First these camps were meant to re educate these people on a ideological grounds. However very soon after the first prisoners were sent to the camps it became clear that re-educate meant kill. In 1939 there were three major concentration camps: Dachau, Buchenwald en Sachsenhausen, and three smaller ones: Mauthausen, Flossenburg and Ravensbrück (just for women). In a later stage of the war deportation of Jews from all over Europe to concentration camps was organized and transportations were carried out on a regular base. Existing camps expanded and new camps were build, Neuengamme, Auschwitz, Theresienstadt, Bergen-Belsen. New types of camps were build: Arbeitserziehungslager, for persons who tried to avoid working for the Germans, and Vernichtungslager: Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka. This last category of camps were especially built to serve as camps for the extermination of the Jews. In the Netherlands concentration camps were built in Amersfoort, Vught, Ommen and Westerbork (the last was a transit camp for Jews), in Belgium camps were built in Breendonk and Mechelen. The campsystem changed and was primarily used for murdering large numbers of people who where cremated in the same camps. Methods used for murdering these people were exhaustion, starvation, torture and medical experiments, (mostly fenolinjections). Later on when these methods didn't work fast enough shooting and suffocation in gaschambers using cyclon-B-gas was a common practice.
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