The Second World War - The Gruesome Massacre

The Beginning of the War

   ON 23 August 1939, the Soviet-German Non Aggression Pact was signed. The stage was now set for the invasion of Poland. As stated earlier, Hilter was convinced that, as before, the Western powers would acquiesce in the aggression. He had told his commanders, “Our opponents are little worms. I saw them in Munich.” On 1 September 1939, Hitler’s armies invaded Poland. On 3 September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Poland, completely unaided by Britain and France in spite of the declaration of war, was defeated in about three weeks’ time. Britain and France neither directly came to the aid of Poland nor launched any military operations against Germany in the west. The Second World War had begun but it was confined to a small part of Europe in the east. For about seven months after the declaration of war, there was no active war between Britain and France and Germany, except for a few minor naval clashes. This period in the history of the Second World War is known as the ‘phoney war’.
   A few days after the German invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union occupied the eastern part of Poland comprising the territories which had earlier been part of the Russian empire’s Ukraine and Byelorussia. These territories were merged with the Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics of the Soviet Union. The occupation of these territories by the Soviet Union was justified on the grounds that they had been seized, from her by Poland after the First World War and that the advance of Germany in Poland threatened her security. Many Western historians are of the view that the occupation of the eastern parts of Poland by the Soviet Union was part of the German-Soviet plan to partition Poland between them. In November 1939, war broke out between the Soviet Union and Finland. The war ended in March 1940 with the signing of the Soviet-Finnish peace treaty. According to this treaty, the Soviet Union gained a naval base and some territory in the north of Finland, and the two countries decided not to join any other country hostile to either of them. During this period, the Soviet Union had established her military bases in the Baltic States of Latvia Lithuania and Estonia, which had been part of the Russian empire and had become independent after the First World War. By August 1940, Soviet Republics had been set up in these countries and they had become part of the Soviet Union.

Conquest of Denmark and Norway

   In early April 1940, the British Prime Minister Chamberlain had declared that “Hitler had missed the bus” because he had failed to launch an attack on the West when the West was not prepared for it. He was to be proved wrong a few days later and to lose his Prime Minister-ship after a month. Sweden was a major supplier of iron ore to Germany, and the occupation of Norway was important for Germany to protect the supplies from Sweden. In the meantime, a fascist movement had arisen in Norway and its leader, Vidkun Quisling, was in touch with Germany to facilitate her conquest of Norway. On 9 April 1940, Germany launched an invasion of Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered without any fight, and Norway was defeated, with the active support of Norwegian fascists, by early June. The British and French forces sent to the aid of Norway had left Norway even earlier. With the conquest of Denmark and Norway, Germany acquired important air and naval bases in northern Europe.

Capitulation of Belgium, Holland and France

   On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Holland surrendered within five days, Luxembourg within it a few hours, and the Belgian King ordered the it surrender of his troops on 28 May, seventeen days after the invasion. The “phoney war’ had come to an end. On 26 May, evacuation of about 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops (the Belgian troops being those who had refused to surrender) who had retreated to Dunkirk, began, and by 4 June they were transported to Britain. They left behind at Dunkirk all their heavy “equipment. In the meantime, there had been 30 political changes in Britain and France. On 10 May, Chamberlain had resigned and was replaced by Winston Churchill as the Prime Minister of a coalition government, with the Labour. Party’s Clement Attlee as the Deputy Prime Minister. Earlier in March 1940, the French Prime Minister Daladier had been ousted, not because under him France had not attacked Germany but because he had failed to launch an attack on the Soviet Union during the Soviet-Finnish war. He had been replaced by Paul Reynaud. Most of the French cabinet at this time comprised ‘defeatists’, that is, those who wanted to surrender to Germany. On 9 June, the French In government left Paris which was occupied, on 14 June, by the German troops. Now the head of the French government was Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, who appealed to Germany for peace. So far, Italy had kept herself aloof. Now that the defeat of France as well as of Britain seemed, imminent, she entered the war on 10 June on the side of Germany. On 22 June, Petain’s government signed an agreement according to which Alsace Lorraine was annexed by Germany, northern France was occupied by the German troops and Petain’s government was allowed to retain control over about half of France. Petain’s puppet government, which moved to Vichy, was also allowed to retain control of the French colonies, and collaborated with the Nazis. Char, les de Gaulle, who had been a colonel in the French army at the time of the German invasion of France, had escaped to Britain after the surrender by the French government. Under the leadership o de Gaulle, now General de Gaulle, the Free France movement was started and a French army was organized in Britain to fight against Nazi Germany. That part of France which was ruled over by Petain’s government and collaborated with the Nazis is known as Vichy France.

The Battle of Britain

   After having conquered about the whole of Western Europe, Germany now planned the invasion of Britain. This was given the code name of ‘Sea-Lion’. The invasion of Britain was possible only if Germany could gain control over the English Channel which the German armies must cross to reach Britain. This required the British air force and navy to be made ineffective for preventing the crossing of the Channel. German bombers and fighters started the bombing of British ports, airfields and aircraft factories. There were dogfights between the aircraft of the two countries over the Channel and over the ports and cities of Britain. The German air force suffered heavier losses than that of Britain. Because of the stiff resistance by the British air force, Germany started raiding Britain’s big cities, particularly London, at night in the hope of destroying the morale of the people. Britain, in return, conducted air raids on Germany. The aerial battle .between Britain and Germany is known as the Battle of Britain. Through his resounding speeches the British Prime Minister kept the morale of the British people high. Some of these speeches are among the most famous examples of oratory in the world. Offering his countrymen nothing but “blood, toil, tears and sweat”, in one of his speeches, he said, “Even though many old and famous states have fallen, or may fall, into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing strength and confidence in the air, we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” The British were also able to save their airfields from any serious damage and to increase the production in their aircraft industries so that the losses in the Battle of Britain were more than made up. As a result of the British resistance, the operation ‘Sea-Lion’ was indefinitely put off and, by November 1940, the German air raids on London had more or less ceased.

Other Theatres of War

   In the meantime, the war had spread to some other parts of Europe and to Africa. On 27 September 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed a Tripartite Pact. According to this Pact, each country pledged to give full support to the others in the event of an attack by any other power. Germany and Italy recognized Japan’s claims to 9 create what was called the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, meaning Japanese conquest of not only China and Manchuria but of all East and South-East Asia. Japan, in turn, recognized German and Italian supremacy over Europe. In October 1940, Italy invaded Greece but she faced stiff resistance and appealed to It Germany for help. Between November 1940 and March 1941, Germany got Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia and Bulgaria to join the Tripartite Fact and sent her troops to these countries. These countries thus became the allies of Germany, Italy and Japan. By this time, Hitler had decided to launch an invasion on the Soviet Union. The sending of the German troops to these countries was part of the preparation of the invasion of the Soviet Union. In April, the German troops were sent to Yugoslavia and to Greece, which had repelled the Italian invasion, and these countries were subjugated. By June 1941, Germany and Italy had conquered all of Europe, except Britain and the Soviet Union. In the meantime, Italy had invaded British Somaliland and Sudan and had started advancing towards Egypt. However, by December 1940, the British succeeded in not only recovering all their colonies in Africa which Italy had taken, but also in driving the Italian troops out of Africa except Libya. In February 1941, the German troops were sent to Libya, and Germany and Italy launched another drive against the British in Africa. The war in Africa, which was to continue for another two years, will be described subsequently.

German Invasion of the Soviet Union

   In the previous chapter, Hitler’s hatred of communism and the Soviet Union, the Western countries’ appeasement of Hitler, the Soviet Union’s efforts to build a coalition to check fascist aggression, and the signing of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact have been mentioned. Hitler had always held the view that the ‘real’ war to be waged by him would be against the Soviet Union. The conquest of the Soviet Union with her vast resources would, he believed, make Germany ‘invulnerable’ and give him the power to “wage wars against whole continents”. The objective of the conquest of the Soviet Union was also very different from the objective of Germany’s other military campaigns. This was to be a total war of extermination, and not only of communism. Hitler dreamed of settling 100 million people of ‘pure Aryan blood-Germans-in the territories west of the Urals and as so many Germans did not exist, the privilege was to be extended to others-the North Europeans, the Dutch and the English who were considered “racially approximate to Germans". During the war he described the new ‘civilization’ that he planned to build up in this area: “The area must lose the character of the Asian steppe. It must be Europeanized! The ‘Reich peasant the German peasant] is to live in outstandingly beautiful settlements. The German agencies and authorities are to have wonderful buildings, the governor’s palaces. Around each city, a ring of lovely villages will be placed to within 30 or 40 kilimetres the German cities will be placed, like pearls on a string, and around the cities the settlement will lie. For we will not open Lebensraum [the term used by the Nazis for the territory of other countries which they considered necessary for Germany’s national existence] for ourselves by entering the old, godforsaken Russian holes! The German settlements must be on an altogether higher level” The extermination of the Jews and the enslavement of the Slavs were integral parts of this Plan.
   The planning of the invasion of the Soviet Union had started in early 1940. It was given the code name of ‘Operation Barbarossa’. Hitler had a low opinion of the Red Army, as the Soviet Union’s army was called, and called it “no more than a joke”. According to the plan, the Soviet Union was to be defeated within nine weeks or, at the most, in seventeen weeks. As it turned out, the invasion led to the destruction of the Nan regime and of Hitler himself.
   After the German invasion had started, the Soviet government justified the Soviet-German Pact on the grounds that it had given the Soviet Union “peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces” to meet the Nazi aggression. Thus it was tactics to gain tune. When the invasion took place, the Soviet Union was taken totally unawares and suffered terrible reverses and devastation. This is explained by some Soviet writers as due to ‘lack of time’ that the Soviet Union had to complete its preparedness to meet the aggression. Most historians, however, are of the view that Stalin had put too much trust in the Non-Aggression Pact and had come to believe that Germany would remain involved in a war exclusively with Western imperialist countries for long and that there was no immediate danger to the Soviet Union. It is; important to note in this context that since the outbreak of the war, Stalin had imposed a ban on the publication of anti-Nazi and anti-German views in the Soviet Union. Until the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Second World War was presented exclusively as an inter-imperialist war not a war launched by aggressive fascist powers.
   The German invasion began on 22 June 1941 without a formal declaration of war. The German tanks, supported by air attack, rapidly advanced into the Soviet Union along a front which stretched over more than 3000 km to. Wards Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. The Soviet forces steadily retreated, and the German forces occupied Kiev, Smolensk and Odessa. Germany had hoped to end the war with the Soviet Unit)” before the onset of winter. In early October, Moscow wits besieged. By then, however, it was too late. Soon, the Russian winter started. By the middle of November, the assault on Moscow had been halted. By the end of November, the temperature had fallen to -40°C rendering much of the German heavy equipment useless. The German soldiers were not sufficiently clothed to withstand the winter. In December the Soviet counter-attack started, and by January the German forces were driven back from Moscow. The ‘Operation Barbarossa’ had failed but the total rout was to come later. In the meantime, many other significant developments had taken place in the world.

The US Entry into the War

   When the Second World War broke out, the US announced her neutrality.81nce the beginning of the aggressions by fascist powers the US had followed a policy similar to that of Britain and France. During the Munich talks on Sudetenland, the US President had supported Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. The US had protested against the Japanese aggression in China but had done no more. There had been no restrictions on the purchase of essential goods by Japan in the US till July 1941. Most Americans were sympathetic to Britain in the war but were opposed to direct US entry into the war. Britain was allowed to buy arms on what is known as the cash-and-carry basis from the US. Gradually, the US support to Britain grew. In September 1940, the US supplied fifty old destroyers to Britain in exchange for naval and air bases she received in colonial possessions of Britain such as Bermuda and the West Indies. By early 1941, the British were in no position to pay for the arms and other goods for which they were heavily dependent on the US. In March 1941, the US Congress passed a law under which the US President was given the right to lend or lease armaments to any country whose defence was “vital to the defence of the United States”. This was known as the ‘lend-lease’ system, and Britain began to receive massive supplies from the US. Subsequently, the US also undertook the protection of her shipments to Britain against German attacks. Simultaneously, the US industries began producing enormous quantities of armaments, aircraft and ships. In November 1941, the US ‘lend-lease’ system was extended to the Soviet Union.
   Another important development was a declaration which the British Prime Minister Churchill and the US President Roosevelt (he had been elected President for the third time in 1940) issued after a meeting in August 1941. This is known as the Atlantic Charter. This was an important document even though it did not imply any direct military commitment on the part of the US to take part in the war. The Charter set out certain common principles on which to base “a better future for the world”. The two countries committed themselves to these principles, and they became, in a sense, a statement of war aims. The two countries stated that they did not seek “aggrandizement, territorial or other” or any territorial changes “which do not accord with the freely expressed Wishes of the people concerned”. The Charter also stated that the two countries “respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them...”. The Charter also called for “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny”. The Soviet Union also became a party to the Atlantic Charter. [It is interesting to note here that when Indian leaders demanded independence from Britain and quoted the principles set out in the Atlantic Charter, Churchill rebuffed them saying that those principles were applicable only to countries which were under German occupation] The US had still not directly entered the war. In July 1941, the Japanese had occupied Vietnam in Indo-China. In October, an even more aggressive government came to power in Japan. It was headed by General Hideki Tojo. The Japanese made preparation for launching another act of aggression, this time in the Pacific. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombers attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. The US had expected a Japanese attack on the British and Dutch colonial possessions in the area and was completely taken by surprise. In the bombing, aircraft and many battleships, cruisers and other naval vessels of the US were destroyed and over 2,000 sailors and soldiers killed. The Japanese losses were minor. On 8 December, the US declared war on Japan. On 11 December, Germany and Italy declared war on the US and the US declared war on Germany and Italy.
   The events of 1941-the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war-made the war into a truly global war. By the middle of 1942, Japan had occupied many islands in the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Malaya, Singapore and Thailand. During this period there emerged the anti-fascist coalition comprising Britain, the Soviet Union and the US. Winston Churchill called it the “Grand Alliance”. Britain and the US waged the war together under joint commands-there was no such joint action with the Soviet Union-but all the three countries actively collaborated and on many occasions planned common strategies Besides, the vast resources of the US industry were now geared to the pursuit of war, and massive quantities of war materials were produced, which included 300,000 aircraft and 85,000 tanks. The US has been described as “the arsenal of victory”. The Soviet Union recognized General de Gaulle, who later set up a provisional government, as the leader of all ‘Free Frenchmen’.

The Battle of Stalingrad

   Throughout 1942, the war in Europe was fought almost exclusively between the Soviet troops and the German troops and the forces of countries such as Rumania and Bulgaria allied to Germany. After the German attack on Moscow had been repulsed, the German troops advanced deep into the Caucasus. In March 1942, Hilter had asserted that the Red Army would be annihilated in the summer of that year. In July, the German troops launched an offensive on Stalin: grad and by mid-September they reached the outskirts of that city. Then began what has been called the greatest single trial of strength” of the Second World War. By the middle of November the German armies were in and around Stalingrad. Bitter fighting had been going on in the streets of Stalingrad for every inch of the territory. In late November, however, the German armies in and around Stalingrad had been encircled by the Soviet troops, and they could find no way to escape. No supplies could reach them. General Paulus, who commanded the encircled German army, reported on 24 January 1943 that among the surviving German troops there were 20,000 wounded who were unattended and another 20,000 who were suffering from frostbites, had no weapons and were starving. On 31 January, he surrendered. The battle of Stalingrad had lasted five months and had reduced that city to rubble. The German defeat in this battle has been described as “the greatest defeat in history that a German army has undergone”. Germany and the countries allied to her lost over 300,000 troops in this battle. Only about 90,000 of them had survived the battle and they surrendered.
   In July 1941, the Soviet government had appealed to Britain to open a ‘Second Front’ by invading France so that the German strength concentrated against her could be diverted, but it was not agreed to. In May and June 1942, the Soviet Union again appealed to the US and Britain for opening a ‘Second Front’. The US President was willing but finally both Britain and the US decided to send troops to North Africa instead. The reason advanced for not opening the Second Front in Europe in 1942 was that they-Britain and the US-were not yet equal to the task of launching a frontal attack against the German forces in Europe. Throughout 1942, the British and the US role in the war in Europe was con lined to maintaining the naval blockade 61 the fascist powers and the bombing of the German cities. This led the Soviet Union to believe that Britain and the US “wanted to bleed the Soviet Union white” so that they could preserve their forces and emerge supreme in the later stages of the war. After the German debacle at Stalingrad, however, there was greater coordination among the three powers.
   The German and allied troops launched another massive military operation against the Soviet army in the middle of 1943 but they suffered a crushing defeat in August, losing about 500,000 troops. This is known as the Battle of Kursk. After that they were steadily swept back and, by January 1944, they began to retreat from all sectors of the eastern front.

The War in North Africa and the Pacific

   While the fascist powers had reached the height of their power in 1942, they faced defeats in almost every theatre of war in 1943. After the Italian debacle in North Africa, the German troops under General Rommel had been sent there to help their Italian allies. They had achieved remarkable successes and in August 1942 had launched an offensive against the British forces in Egypt. A battle was fought between the German and British armies, the latter under General Montgomery, at E1 Alamein, and the German armies were forced to retreat in November. Soon after the battle of E1 Alamein, the British and US troops landed on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and in Algeria. Both these countries were French colonies and were under the control of Vichy France, which was allied to Germany. However, after some time, the French army in these countries joined the Allies. Germany occupied Vichy France, and sent reinforcements to Tunisia, which was also a French colony. Rommel’s troops had been driven back to Tunisia by March 1943. In May 1943, the British and American forces launched an offensive in Tunisia and the German and Italian forces surrendered. This marked the end of Italian and German presence in North Africa. Earlier in 1941, a pro-German revolt in Iraq had been crushed by the British, and the British and Free French forces had occupied Syria and Lebanon, which had been under the control of Vichy France.
   In the Pacific, there were many naval battles between the US and Japan during 1942, and though the Japanese offensive had been halted, the Allied victories were not notable. In 1943, however, the Allies recovered many Pacific islands from the Japanese. In China, the Japanese offensive continued and the Allies failed to land their troops there. They had succeeded in flowing supplies to Chiang Kai-shek, but his army was not able to launch any attack against the, Japanese.

The Allied Victories in Europe

Early in 1943, Britain and the US had decided to postpone the offensive in Western Europe to 1944. In July when the battle of Kursk was on, they invaded Sicily. By this time, there was widespread discontent in Italy. There were frequent strikes. The disaffection had also spread to the armed forces, which had suffered defeats everywhere, and they surrendered in large numbers to the Allied forces. On 25 July 1943, Mussolini was dismissed and a new government came to power. Italy now wanted to withdraw from the war. On 3 September, the Allied troops invaded southern Italy, and Italy surrendered unconditionally.
   On 10 September, the German troops occupied northern Italy, including Rome. They rescued Mussolini from detention and he, guarded by the Germans, set up his government in northern Italy under German protection. He now became an instrument in the hands of Germany, and the disarming of the Italian army and suppression of the anti-fascist resistance started. In southern Italy, a new government was formed and it declared war on Germany. Though the Allied troops did not advance to the north for many months, the resistance in northern Italy grew in strength and they fought against the German occupation and against Mussolini with great tenacity.
   By early 1945, the Soviet troops had defeated Finland, which had become Germany’s ally, and liberated most parts of the countries of Eastern Europe-Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In some of these countries, fascist governments had come to power and they had joined the war on the side of Germany. Others, such as Poland, were under direct German occupation. The fascist troops were also driven out of Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania.
   In June 1944, the Allied troops opened the Second Front in Western Europe. On 6 June 1944, known as the D Day, the first Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, on the north coast of France. By the end of July, the number of the Allied troops which were landed in France had gone up to 1,600,000. They were commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower of the US Army, who later became the President of the USA. By September 1944, France, Luxembourg and Belgium were liberated by the Allied armies. The last major German counter-offensive was launched in December 1944 in the Ardennes region of Belgium. The battle which followed is known as the Battle of the Bulge. It ended in mid-January 1945 when the Soviet troops led by Marshal Zhukov launched a massive attack all along the eastern front, and Hitler was forced to shift most of his troops from the Ardennes to the east.

Surrender of Germany

   The war in Italy continued for many months after Germany had occupied northern Italy and rescued Mussolini, who had set up his government in the German occupied Italy However, by June 1944, the Allied troops had liberated many Italian cities, Including Rome. In the meantime, the anti-fascist Italian forces had intensified their activities. On 23 April 1945, there was an uprising in those areas of Italy which were still under fascist occupation. On 28 April 1945, Mussolini, who had been captured, was executed, and the Germans in Italy surrendered. This marked the end of fascism in Italy.
   By early January 1945, the collapse of Germany was in sight. The Soviet offensive, which was launched in January 1945, swept away the last German resistance in the east. Warsaw was liberated on 17 January, Budapest on 13 February, Vienna on 13 April. The Soviet armies moved into Germany and, by 25 April, Berlin was encircled by them. In the meantime, in March, the Allied troops had started their offensive in the west and by mid-April occupied large parts of West German y. On 30 April 1945, Hitler committed suicide. The same day the Soviet armies hoisted the Red Flag on the Reichstag building; Sporadic fighting continued for another two days in Berlin. On 7 May 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the representatives of the US, Britain, France and the Soviet Union at the headquarters of General Eisenhower in Reims. On 8 May 1945 Germany made another unconditional surrender at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin. On 11 May Czechoslovakia was liberated, and the war in Europe was over.

Surrender of Japan

   The war in Asia and the Pacific continued even, after Germany’s surender. The Allies had scored victories in this region in 1944 but Japan was still strongly entrenched with a-huge army in China, Manchuria, Korea and other places. On 6 August 1945, a US aircraft dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima and on 9 August on Nagasaki. These bombs killed over 320,000 people in these two cities. On 8 August, the, Soviet Union declared war on Japan. By the end of August, the Japanese armies in Manchuria had surrendered to the Soviet army, in South-East Asia to the British army, and in China to the armies of Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese communists. On 2 September 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Second World War was over.

Fascist Barbarities

   The fascist aggressions and occupation were accompanied by the most inhuman barbarities against the occupied peoples. The term ‘fascism’ has been used to describe the system set up by all the three Axis powers, namely, Italy, Germany and Japan. Of the three, the German version Nazism, was the most brutal. With their theories of racial purity and supremacy of the ‘Aryan’ race, the Nazis considered most of the rest of humanity to be sub-humans deserving extermination, or at least enslavement. They tried to convert Europe into a huge slave camp and a death camp. The aggressions committed by these countries led to the Second World War, the most destructive war in history. The war ended with the victory of the anti-fascist alliance, comprising the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, and their allies. This alliance was the fundamental basis, an essential condition, for the defeat of the fascist powers. Besides, in each country which was invaded and occupied by the fascist powers, and within the fascist countries, resistance movements of the people grew and they played an important, in some cases crucial, role in the defeat of the fascist powers.
   The Nazi barbarities had started in Germany itself. Concentration camps were set up and antifascists and Jews were sent there and many of them were killed. In 1939, an order was issued to exterminate the “chronically insane and incurable” and within that year about 70,000 people were killed. However, the real war of annihilation began with the invasion of the Soviet Union.
   A large part of the civilian population of occupied Europe was either exterminated or used as slave labour. The Jews were particularly singled out. In 1941 alone, one million people of the Soviet Union were murdered. About half of them were Jews. Concentration camps were set up by the Nazis in Poland, Czechoslovak Austria, Holland, France and Germany. The included Auschwitz (Oswiecim), Belzec and Treblinka in Poland and Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald in Germany. Millions of people from all over Europe were transported to these camps. Some of these were purely death camps, In July 1941, an order was issued on the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish problem. This meant“u1e planned biological destruction of the Jewish race in the Eastern territories”.
   The full facts about these camps came light only when the Allied troops liberated the territories in which they were located and subsequently when Nuremberg Trials took place to; war crimes. In the beginning, the victims were shot. But this was found to be expensive and messy and, therefore, horrible means of exterminating human beings were invented. A pest control firm, a subsidiary of the German company I.G. Farben, produced a gas which, from 1942 onwards, was used for the purpose. Its First use began on 17 March 1942 at the Be17ee death camp in Poland where 15,000 people could be killed in a day. The victims were marched into cellars which they were told were places for bath. The cellars were actually gas chambers with a gas-proof metal door. Then the crystals of the gas were pushed inside and after twenty-five minutes the gas-laden air was removed through exhaust pumps and the metal door were opened. After removing the gold, teeth and hair, the piled-up dead bodies were removed to the furnaces where they were reduced to ash, which was scattered in the nearby streams.
   Instead of murdering people straightaway, the Nazis let the German industrialists first make full use of their labour. The inmates of the camps began to be leased out to some industrial concerns such as the Krupp’s, I.G. Farben, Siemens, etc. Some of these industrial concerns set up their industrial units near the camps. As the trains carrying the victims arrived, women, children, the old and the sick were taken straight to the death camps and the healthy to work sites where many of them were worked to death. Those found sick were transferred to the death camps every morning. Some industrial firms manufactured goods from human skins.
   Besides extermination in the gas chamber, the inmates of the camps were also used for conducting biological experiments by the Nazi doctors. Various kinds of diseases were induced in the victims and vaccines tried. Some were slowly frozen to death and biological changes taking place in their bodies studied. These experiments are too horrible to describe. In recent years, information about similar experiments conducted by the Japanese has come to light.
   The total number of the civilian population killed by the Nazis is estimated to be over ten million. These included killings through mass ’ murders-for example, the entire male population of the village Lidice in Czechoslovakia was wiped out in retaliation of the murder of the Nazi governor of Czechoslovakia, Heydrich-and other brutalities, but most of all by the systematic , extermination in the camps. The number of victims in the Auschwitz camp is estimated to be four million. A majority of the murdered were Jews-about six million of them, that is, 75 per cent of the total Jewish population of Europe. This mass murder of the Jews has some to be known as the ‘holocaust’. Besides the millions of Europeans who were brought to the camps to perform slave labour and to be exterminated, another 7,500,000 people from various parts of Europe were brought to Germany to work as slave labourers in the German factories. They included about two million prisoners of war.

Allied Air Raids and the Use of Atom Bombs

   About 1,500,000 civilians were killed in air raids during the Second World War. Although air raids on the civilian population were started by Germany, the Allied countries also resorted to raids on the civilian population on a massive scale. The British dropped over 650,000 incendiaries on the German city of Dresden on 13-14 February 1945, killing about 135,000 people. The two atom bombs used by the US, as stated earlier, killed about 320,000 Japanese men, women and children. The use of atom bombs by the US is considered by many people an abominable act, not only because of the number of people that the two bombs killed but also because of the very use of the new weapons of mass destruction. The argument that without the use of the atom bombs, the war with Japan would have been a protracted war with many more casualties on both sides than those caused by the atom bombs is not accepted by many scholars. The atomic weapons were developed in the US during the war by pooling the scientific skills and resources of many countries. Many scientists, of the US and other countries, had worked on the project to develop atomic weapons because of the fear in the scientific community that the Nazi Germany might develop these weapons first and use them to terrorize the world into submission. However, at the end of the war in Europe, it had become clear that no other country had made much progress in developing them. Some scholars hold the view that the US, the only country then possessing these weapons, used them to demonstrate her military supremacy in the postwar world.
   The Soviet Union, which suffered the heaviest casualties, both civilian and military, is held guilty of murdering 10,000 Polish army officers and burying them in mass graves in me Katy forest in 1939 or 1940.

Resistance Movements

   As stated earlier, popular resistance movements grew in every country invaded and occupied by the fascist countries and within the fascist Countries and the countries allied to them. These movements grew in strength and intensified their activities particularly after the entry of the Soviet Union and, subsequently, of the US into the war. The creation of the anti-fascist alliance facilitated the coming together of all anti-fascist forces in occupied countries and within the fascist countries.
   Many leaders of Czechoslovakia had escaped when the Nazi troops marched into the country and set up a puppet government in Slovakia. In 1940, a Czechoslovak government-in-exile headed by Eduard Bones was set up. The partisans of the Czechoslovak resistance movement which included the communists, social democrats and others earned on guerrilla activities against the Germans throughout the war. The assassination of the Nazi governor has already been mentioned. In August 1944, an uprising was organized in Slovakia and the soldiers of the puppet government there also joined the partisans. The uprising of 5 May 1945 in Prague which led to the complete and final ending of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia has already been mentioned.
   The Second World War had started with the invasion of Poland, and she was the worst sufferer in the war. About 6,500,000 Poles-20 per cent of the total population of Poland were killed in the war. About half of them were Jews. From the beginning of the German invasion, a powerful resistance movement was built up in Poland. A Polish government-in-exile headed by General Sikorski, with its headquarters first In France and then in London, guided the Polish resistance. In 1942, the Polish communists formed their own resistance organisation and carried on anti-German operations. The two organizations did not always see eye to eye with each other. The relations between the Soviet government and the Polish government-in-exile also worsened as a result of the latter’s insistence that Poland’s pre-war frontiers, including the territories which the Soviet Union claimed as hers, be recognized. This led to some tragic consequences. On 1 August 1944, a mass uprising took place in Warsaw. By this time the Soviet forces had liberated many parts of Poland. However, the organisers of the uprising, who supported the government-in-exile and apparently, wanted to hand over liberated Warsaw to that government, made no efforts to coordinate their plans for the uprising with the Soviet forces. The people of In Warsaw fought most heroically against the German it occupation troops but no help could reach them from outside, and the uprising was brutally sup “pressed. About 250,000 Poles perished in the uprising.
   The resistance against the fascist occupation, and its local supporters, in Yugoslavaia was led by the Communist Party, which was headed “by Josip Broz Tito. The various partisan groups were united to form the People’s Libemion Army. The partisans of this army organized uprisings, and many parts of Yugoslavia were liberated by and the end of 1944. The Yugoslav government-in-exile had little support within the country and a government headed by Tito was set up there.
   It has been mentioned earlier that the French government capitulated to Germany when the latter invaded France. General de Gaulle formed the Free France movement with its headquarters in London In July 1942, on the initiative of the French communists, a National Front which m brought together all anti-fascist forces, was formed. The French Resistance grew into a powerful movement and in early 1944 formed the French Forces of the Interior with a membership of 500,000. The members of the Resistance carried out thousands of acts of sabotage against the Germans and their French collaborators. They played a crucial role in the successful landing of the Allied troops in France, and with their own forces liberated many parts of France from German occupation. Under General de Gaulle’s leadership, a provisional government had been set up on which various anti-fascist forces of France, including the communists, were represented. On 19 and 20 August 1944, the French Resistance organised an uprising in Paris, and the German commandant, who had refused to obey Hitler’s order to destroy the city, surrendered to the Resistance. Soon after, the provisional government headed by de Gaulle entered Paris.
   In terms of the total number of people killed in the war, the Soviet Union was the worst sufferer; in terms of the number of people killed as a percentage of the total population, she was next only to Poland. The number of the soldiers of the Soviet Union’s Red Army, who had been taken prisoner and killed by the Germans, is estimated to be 4,000,000. Another 6,000,000 civilians, including about 750,000 Jews, were slaughtered by the Germans. According to the Soviet estimates, the total number of the Soviet people who perished in the war was about 20 million, or 10 per cent of the total population. Some Western historians hold the view that there was widespread discontent against Stalin’s regime in the Soviet Union and that people, at least in some parts of the country, would have welcomed the German invasion in the hope that it would lead to the ending of Stalin's rule. However, the unparalleled German brutalities against the Soviet people in the initial stages of the war itself showed them what Hitler had in store for them. Thus German brutalities united them and they built up the most powerful and effective resistance against the invaders. Large scale guerrilla warfare developed in every part of the Soviet Union which had fallen to the German army. The guerrilla operations, which were carried in close collaboration with the Soviet army, played a vital role in the debacle which the Germans suffered in the Soviet Union. More than a million partisans took part in the guerrilla warfare against the German army in the territories of the Soviet Union.
   After the debacle which the Italians suffered in Greece after their invasion in 1940, Greece was occupied by the German troops. The Greek government and the king of Greece fled to Cairo. The resistance against Germany was led by the Greek communists who had formed a National Liberation Front and the ELAS (National Popular Liberation Army). The various anti-fascist groups were brought together and many parts of Greece were liberated. Soon, however, there was a conflict between the Greek government in-exile and the Resistance. After Greece had been freed from the fascists in late 1944 by the Resistance, the government in-exile with the support of the British troops was sought to be installed in Greece. A civil war followed and it continued for some time even after the Second World War had ended.
   The leading role in the defeat of fascism in Italy, the first country where fascism had been victorious, was played by the Resistance Movement. The Italian fascists had suffered debacles in all their military adventures, both in Europe and Africa. In 1942, the communists and the socialists of Italy had joined together to overthrow the fascist regime. After the overthrow of Mussolini and the German occupation of northern Italy, a powerful resistance movement emerged in the German-occupied area. The role of the Italian communists led by Palmiro Togliatti was particularly notable in the Italian Resistance. The Final blow to the German occupation and the Italian fascism came from the Italian Resistance in April 1945 when Genoa. Milan and Turin were liberated, and Mussolini was captured and shot.
   All dissent in Germany had been ruthlessly suppressed long before the war started. The anti-Nazi Germans, who had escaped, calmed on anti-Nazi propaganda and helped to mobilize Work opinion against the Nazi regime and its aggressive designs. The greatest literary figures of Germany their works were burnt in bonfire by the Nazis-and the German communists played a leading role in this. The anti-Nazi Germans had fought in the Spanish Civil War in defence of Republic. During the war, small groups of anti-Nazi Germans were able to organise some am of sabotage inside Germany. The Free Germany National Committee set up by the German emigres, and some from among the German prisoners of war conducted anti-Nazi propaganda within and outside Germany. In 1944, some German army officers, convinced that Hitler was leading me country to total disaster, organized a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. On 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in Hitler's headquarters at Rastenburg from where Hitler was conducting the war in the east. The bomb exploded but it had not been placed close enough to where Hitler sat. Thus Hitler survived the explosion, suffering only minor burns. Stauffenberg and other conspirators were captured and shot. One of the most brilliant officers of the German army, Rommel, who had led the German troops in North Africa, and had joined the conspiracy was not shot but allowed to commit suicide.
   The resistance movements grew in all countries of Asia which had come under the Japanese rule. The most powerful of these was the war of resistance that had been going on in China since long before the Second World War started. After the Sian incident mentioned earlier, resistance to the Japanese had gained primacy over the Civil War between the communists and the Guomindan although the two sides did not really join together. In other countries where the Japanese a rule replaced the British, the Dutch or the French rule, the anti-colonial nationalist movements which had emerged earlier, now organised armed resistance against the Japanese occupation. The Japanese atrocities in these countries were also responsible for the growing intensity of the armed resistance against the Japanese occupation. The Japanese atrocities in these countries were also responsible for the growing intensity of the armed resistance against the Japanese occupation. The communists were generally the leading force in the anti-Japanese resistance in almost all Asian “countries such as the Philippines, Indo-China, Indonesia, Burma, and Malaya. The only exception was Thailand. In 1941, the Vietnamese communists led by Ho Chi Minh set up the Vietminh League, which fought against the supporters of Vichy France and the Japanese. On 2 September 1945, they proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In Burma, the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League was formed under the leadership of Aung San. In the Philippines, the Anti-Japanese People’s Army organised armed actions against the Japanese. All these movements played a crucial role in the final collapse of Japanese imperialism in Asia. In India, which had escaped Japanese occupation, the Indian National Congress, while fighting for India’s independence, extended its full support to the peoples struggling against the Nazi occupation in Europe and the Japanese occupation in Asia.

Allied War Aims

   A number of meetings and conferences took place during the war to discuss common strategies for pursuing the war and to arrive at agreements on the aims for which they were fighting the war. Some of these meetings and conferences were attended by many countries. However, the most important decisions were taken by the leaders of the three main Allied Powers-Churchill of Britain Stalin of the Soviet Union and Roosevelt (till his death on 12 April 1945 subsequently his successor Truman) of the United States.
   The Atlantic Charter issued by Churchill and Roosevelt in August 1941 has already been mentioned. The Soviet Union became a party to this Charter soon after it was issued.
   On 1 January 1942, representatives of 26 countries issued the Declaration of the United Nations. With this Declaration, the anti-fascist Allied Coalition, which had already come into being, was formally constituted. The signatories to this Declaration pledged themselves to make every effort to defeat the common enemy and cooperate with one another for the purpose. They also agreed not to hold separate talks with the enemy countries or conclude separate truce or peace treaties with them.
   A major development took place in January 1943 when Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. There had been some differences within Britain and the US and between the two countries regarding the terms of armistice to be offered to the fascist powers. Roosevelt put an end to these controversies by demanding ‘unconditional surrender’ by the fascist powers. This became the stand point of all Allied nations, or what were now called the United Nations.
   The anti-fascist coalition was further consolidated at the meeting of the foreign ministers of Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA held in Moscow from 19 to 30 October 1943. At this meeting, the question of opening the Second Front was discussed and declarations were adopted on Italy and Austria. II was decided to set up Advisory Councils to discuss various questions relating to European States, including the terms of surrender of the fascist States and their allies. The meeting also issued a Four Nation Declaration (the fourth nation being China) which called for the establishment at the earliest possible date” of “a general international organisation, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all nations, and open to membership by all nations, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security”.
   This Declaration may be said to mark the beginning of the United Nations Charter. The main purpose of the meeting was to prepare for the forthcoming summit meeting.
   On 1 December 1943, the Cairo Declaration signed by me representatives of Britain, the USA and China was issued. This Declaration Was mainly concerned with Japan and the commas occupied by her. It called for Japan’s unconditional surrender and return by her of all Cont quests made after 1894. Surprisingly, this Declaration made no reference to the principle of self-determination by the peoples of European colonies in Asia which had come under the Japanese occupation. The first summit meeting of the three Allied powers was held at Teheran, in Iran, from 28 November to 2 December 1943. The meeting was attended by Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt By this time, the Soviet Union had emerged as the decisive factor in the war in Europe. At this meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to the landing of a million Anglo-American troops in France in May 1944 the long-awaited Second Front. The Soviet Union agreed to join the war against Japan once Germany was defeated. The question of Poland's post-war frontiers was also discussed at this meeting. When the Polish government in London did not agree to the terms on which there was broad consensus at the Teheran meeting, a Polish National Council dominated by communists was set up with the support of the Soviet government. This marked a split in Polish Resistance and a rift between the Soviet Union and Poland’s government-in-exile in London.
   From 21 August to 28 September 1944, representatives of Britain, the Soviet Union and the US held a conference at Dumbarton Oaks, near Washington in the USA, to discuss the formation of the United Nations Organisation. The Conference was also attended later by the representative of China. This was a major step in the formation of the United Nations Organisation. A full meeting of the United Nations was to be held at San Francisco in May-June 1945 to draft the United Nations Charter.
   By early 1945, when the defeat of Germany was in sight, Churchill; Stalin and Roosevelt held a conference at Yalta, in the Soviet Union, from 4 to 11 February 1945. A number of important decisions were taken at this conference. The securing of Germany’s unconditional surrender was declared the common aim of the three countries. Agreement was reached on various seps regarding the future of Germany after her surrender. The meeting declared that the “inflexible purpose” of the three Allied countries was to destroy German militarism and Nazism and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world”. It was decided that after Germany surrendered, she would 'be divided into four zones, one each under Britain, the Soviet Union, the US and France. Agreement was reached on the frontiers of Poland which were to be known as the Curzon Line as the Soviet-Polish frontier and Oder-Neisse Line as Poland’s western frontier. It was decided to include non-communist Poles from London in the Polish Provisional government which had been set up and to hold free elections there as soon as possible. Through a Declaration on Liberated Europe, the three countries pledged themselves to assist the countries of Europe in establishing democratic institutions. The Soviet Union agreed to enter the war against Japan, within three months of Germany’s defeat. Important decisions were also taken regarding the setting up of the United Nations. It was decided to open to all the States at war with Germany the membership of the United Nations on 1 March 1945 so that they could attend the San Francisco meeting to draft the Charter. The date of the meeting was fixed as 25 April 1945. Agreement was also reached on the structure of the Security Council of the United Nations, on the Permanent Members of the Security Council and the principle of unanimity of these members regarding decisions affecting peace and security.
   As decided at the Yalta meeting, a conference of the United Nations was held at San Francisco from 25 April to 26 June 1945. The conference started discussions on the United Nations Chatter even before the surrender of Germany. The Charter was signed by fifty pan ticipating nations on 26 June before the surrender of Japan. The United Nations Charter be” came effective on 24 October 1945. The Charter defines the purposes and structure of the United Nations. It begins with the following words:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DE TERMINED

   to save succeeding generations from the scourge of War which twice in our life time has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights. in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and Other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR TIESE ENDS

   to practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

   Accordingly, our respective Governments... have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organisation to be known as the United Nations.
The purposes of the United Nations were defined in Article 1 of the Charter as –
(1) To maintain international peace and security, and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international Iaw, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
(2) To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
(3) To achieve international cooperation in solving international or problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
(4) To be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
The Charter also defined the structure and the principal organs of the, United Nations. The principal organs are - (1) a General Assembly composed of representatives of all the member states; (2) a Security Council composed of representatives of the United States, Britain, the USSR, China and France as permanent members, and of six other States chosen by the General Assembly for a term of two years (their number was subsequently raised to ten); (3) an Economic and Social Council composed of 18 members elected by the General Assembly (their number was subsequently raised to 27); (4) a Trusteeship .Council with members drawn, in equal number, from those administering trust territories and others; (5) an International Court of Justice, and (6) a Secretariat. The Charter also included a “Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories” which recognized “the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount” and the obligation “to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions.” The Charter also envisaged commissions and specialized agencies and institutions. Two important specialized agencies under the jurisdiction of the Economic and Social Council are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and World Health Organization (WHO). The creation of the United Nations was a significant and lasting achievement of the countries which had taken part in the war against the fascist countries.
   After the surrender of Germany, the three leading Allied powers held a conference at Potsdam, in Germany. The conference was held from 17 July to 2 August 1945 and was attended by Churchill, Stalin, and Harry S. Truman (who had become the US President after Roosevelt’s death). From 28 July, the conference was attended by Clement Attlee who had become Prime Minister of Britain when the Labour Party came to power. The main subject of discussion at the Potsdam Conference was Germany. The Declaration issued by the Conference said, “German militarism and Nazism will be extirpated, and the Allies will take in agreement together, now and in the future, the other measures necessary to assure that Germany never again will threaten her neighbors or the peace of the world.” At this Conference agreement was reached on Poland‘s western border and the transfer of the northern part of East Prussia to the Soviet Union and the southern part to Poland. Agreement was also reached on the banning of fascist organizations, destruction of the military power of Germany, reorganization of German economy by abolishing cartels and controlling industries used for production of armaments, payment of reparations by Germany, and division of Germany into four occupation zones. It was also decided to bring the Nazi war criminals to trial. (The trial took place subsequently at Nuremberg, in Germany, and lasted for about one year. Twelve of the accused were sentenced to death. Others, including some German Industrialists, were sentenced to imprisonment.)
   The Second World War was the most destructive war in human history. It had taken a toll of more than fifty million human lives. The total cost of the wax has been estimated to be about 14 million million dollars. The statistics of destruction cannot really convey the terrible catastrophe that it caused.