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Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Society in World War II

Jessica Conrad
Texas Womans University
Dr. Landdeck

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Society in World War II

When reading about World War II, we often forget about the civilians in
society that were affected by this deadly war. Soldiers in the allied and axis
powers armies were not the only ones to meet death during this time. The
civilians played a crucial role in World War II, influencing axis power leaders
to continue pushing forward with their mass plans of destruction to entire
groups of people, to how liberation was handled. The intersection of war and
society proved to be deadly. Resistance from the civilians and victims caused
allied leaders to push forward to commit harsher and more inhumane
atrocities while civilian support of their government did the same. It was an
unfortunate timeline of events where the civilians of World War II influenced
and encouraged the way that the war progressed, and ultimately ended.
Europe Front Society in World War II
Invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany
With the non-aggression pact made between the Soviet Union and
Germany, Stalin did not fear an invasion from Germany as soon as it
occurred. Japan had made efforts towards a tripartite pact, including Japan,
German, and the Soviet Union to take over Britain, but Hitler was not
interested. Hitler felt that in order to continue with his plan of Lebensraum,
the takeover of the Soviet Union was necessary. Invading the Soviet Union by
German forces meant millions of deaths to the civilians and soldiers of the

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Soviet Union. The Hunger Plan was devised to starve the civilians and
soldiers to force a lightning victory on the Soviets. Hitler had no regard for
human life, as was evident when his army first invaded the Soviet Union by
using civilians as human shields.1 While the starvation would lead to more
living space for Hitlers master race, more importantly it would allow him to
feed his own people without imposing any costs on their own civilization.
While taking food from the Soviets to feed the German soldiers was effective
at first, the longer the war continue, the more difficult it became to have
enough rations of food. The German soldiers started to compete with the
German civilians for food, while the Soviet POWs and civilians had hardly
any calorie intake, leading to mass deaths.
Many of the Soviet soldiers and civilians were sent to labor and
concentration camps, and when they could no longer be fed, they would be
killed. The Soviet invasion was a failure in Hitlers eyes, as he was not able to
take over the Soviet Union as he had anticipated with his Hunger Plan. This
lead him to change his war aims to the extermination of the Jews, leading to
the Final Solution of Hitlers plan.
Holocaust
As Hitlers new vision of the war against Jews took hold, millions more
citizens and Jews would be killed. Through the use of propaganda, Hitler was
1 Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 166.

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

able to convince the people that Jews were to blame for communism.2
Whether the soldiers believe that this was true or not, they felt by killing and
imprisoning these civilians, they were pleasing their leader. Mass killings of
the Jewish people ensued with the notion that these killings would lead to
Hitlers master plan of Lebensraum. Jewish civilians were taken into
concentration camps, tortured, and killed. Babies that were disfigured at
birth were taken from their parents to be killed as they did not meet the
criteria of Hitlers master race.

The mass killings of Jews in the gas chambers was so inhumane, that
when word got to the allied nations, it was so unimaginable they did not
believe the torture and death that was occurring. The civilians of Germany
helped influence Hitler to continue with his mass annihilation of the Jews, as
they did not publically oppose the atrocities that Hitler was committing.
Some of the prisoners in the concentration camps tried to resist, but this did
nothing to stop the atrocities that were occurring. When Germany saw
impending defeat, the mass killings of civilians increase to show how
committed they were to the project of annihilating the Jews for their leader.
Over six million Jewish people were killed at the hands of the Nazi regime
during the Holocaust. An additional six million civilians were killed for the
2 Bergen, Doris L. War and Genocide (Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
INC., 2009), 39
3 Bergen, Doris L. War & Genocide. 99.

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

mere fact of not meeting Hitlers master race status; these included Jehovah
Witnesses, homosexuals, disable people, as well as gypsies.
Fall of France
Germany took over France rather quickly. Morale among civilians was
low, which could have been a driving factor in Germany being able to defeat
France, in addition to the weakness of the Maginot Line. There were many
who remained though that were trying to spread the word of what was going
on in Paris to try and receive help. Resistance groups formed which made
political prisoners of war more common, as noted in Resistance by Humbert.
These resistance groups not only let people know they were not alone, but
helped them get through the times that were ahead of them in prison and
concentration camps.
These prisoners were living in poor conditions, but were still fighting.
These individuals suffered from seeing the dead bodies of their friends and
families being hauled off like animals. They endured beatings and not
enough food to survive. When liberation finally came, the members of the
resistance groups jumped at the chance to make a difference. Resistance
leaders started to organize the political refugees, making sure they had
adequate food. In addition, some resistance members, such as Humbert,
would be a driving force in identifying German leaders who would later go on
trial for war crimes. Even though these civilians were in the worst imaginable

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

place in their lives that they could imagine, the continued to fight,
influencing others to stand up and make a difference once liberation arrived.
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was important for Hitler to win. This battle would
prove to be deadly for the British civilians, as many of the bombings took
place in civilized areas. Prior to the heavy air raid on Britain occurred, there
had been several small bombings since 1941 that took place. The citizens in
a sense grew used to the occasional bombings that were happening. It
started to become a part of their daily routine hearing the air raid alarms and
going to their shelter.4 The Mass Observation was a way to monitor the
stability of the British civilians during this time of war. They had seen France
fall though, and they were determined not to let that happen to them as well.
The British civilians looked up to Churchill, and his calmness and assurance
led the British to believe that they could defeat Hitler on their home ground.
The morale of the British influenced the fight that took place against Hitler
with his blitzkrieg, ultimately influencing how the Battle of Britain would end.
Normandy Invasion
The goals of the invasion of Normandy were to defeat the Germans and
move to liberate the European front. While the invasion would be successful,
it was at a high price of civilian lives in France. While the loss of civilian life
4 Wing, Sandra Koa. Our Longest Days. (London: Profile Books LTD.).

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

was inevitable during the invasion, the number of civilians that met their
death from the allied bombings was staggering. In order to stop the Germans
from counter-attacking, several cities were bombed, including Caen, which
proved to be one of the worst hit civilian cities.5 Civilian casualties were the
cost of securing the surrender of Germany, but were the losses that they
incurred more than that of what the Germans themselves were inflicting on
the Normandy people?
Liberation of the Europe Front
Liberation of Europe
Liberation by the allied forces was not as welcoming as they had
hoped. Many civilians looked at the liberation as, brutal destruction of one
kind of political order, and its replacement with another.6 The civilians of
Normandy had been through horrific tragedy during the war as well as the air
raids that occurred during liberation. Many towns were destroyed, leaving
many civilians dead and the surviving homeless. With armed soldiers still
occupying Normandy, enormous power was still in their hands, leading to
criminal behaviors against the civilians. The civilians wanted their lives back
to normal, but they knew this was not an option at the moment. The city of
Caen in Normandy was specifically hit the hardest, even though most
5 Hitchcock, William I. Bitter Road to Freedom. (New York: Free Press, 2008.) 29.
6 Hitchcock, William I. Bitter Road to Freedom. 21.

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Germans had already left the city. Prior to the allied liberation, German forces
were occupying civilians homes. Surprisingly, the Germans respected the
owners property and goods. The allied forces however would occupy the
homes and disgrace the families with destroying property and raping the
women.
Normandy was not the only city where civilians would suffer. Belgium
first welcomed the liberators, as they had not experienced the air raids like
Normandy and Caen did. The German resistance proved to be stronger in
Belgium, leading to more air raids and more civilian casualties. The Germans
continued to occupy Holland, starving the citizens that remained. Liberation
of Holland was slow and grueling for the citizens, as they started to suffer
from starvation. It was not until the citizens of Holland were on the brink of
death from starvation that the allied forces sent in food to help stabilize the
country. When the allied powers first entered Normandy and subsequent
cities to liberate, if they had been met differently, with gratitude and
appreciation, would have the outcome have been any different? While the
bombings took its toll on most of the civilians, would the level of crime
against these civilians been lower? I cannot help but wonder how the
reactions of the civilians when liberation started affected the way the
soldiers treated them.
America and Soviet Union View on the German People

Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

The Soviets viewed the German people as individuals they needed to

take revenge on, including the German civilians. In the Soviet Unions eyes,
the German people could not be re-educated; therefore, they were to be
killed. The German civilians suffered atrocities greater than the Germans had
inflicted on the Soviet Union. When the Americans came, the Germans
showed them appreciation, as being under their control was better than
being under the Soviet Unions. The American forces were unprepared though
for what they were to witness in Germany. They were instructed to look at all
Germans as the enemy and have no mercy on them.7 This transition from
fighting the Germans to ruling them was a difficult task with what the allied
soldiers encountered once physically on the ground. The devastation and
atrocities that the Germans had met seemed to change the Americans
perspective on the people. These people who were described as dangerous
and disgraceful individuals showed something completely different. They
influenced the United States to approach them differently, resulting in a
different outcome than any had expected. The United States soldiers felt that
they had endured enough, therefore their original plan of occupying
Germany as an enemy nation, quickly turned into a policy of liberating
Germany from Nazi control.8

7 Hitchcock, William I. Bitter Road to Freedom. 170.

8 Hitchcock, William I. Bitter Road to Freedom. 208

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Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Pacific Front Society in World War II

China and Their Psychological Defeat
War in China had become an everyday reality for the Chinese civilians.9 The
Doolittle Raid brought on even more psychological damage when the
Japanese retaliated against the Americans by killing a mass number of them
and Chinese men, women, children. More than six million Chinese,
Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese were killed during World War
2. The physical and psychological warfare that the Chinese civilians and
soldiers had been through was too great to comprehend. The Chinese
civilians were broken; they had little hope of being able to take on Japan. All
they could do was wait for the allied forces to assist them.10 Rift between the
Chinese government brought even more tension to the Chinese Civilians. The
Nationalist, Communists, and Nanjing regime had to rely on state terror of
their citizens to enforce their views.11
Japan Air Raids

9 Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). 240
10 Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally. 244.
11 Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally 281.

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Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

Japan had a false notion that the allied powers would not attack
Tokyo.12 But In order to severely weaken the Japanese army, allied bombers
continuously bombed major cities in Japan, including Tokyo, hoping to lead to
their surrender. The civilians of Japan experienced nights of terror as bombs
fell on their homes, engulfing entire cities with fire, leaving thousands dead.
The fires would surround cities, leaving the Japanese citizens to wait for their
death. Some would crawl into man-made air raid shelters, which were just
holes in the ground, where entire families burned. People that were able to
escape their cities would throw themselves into the water, only to succumb
to smoke inhalation. Many that were able to overcome the smoke eventually
drowned. The civilians of Japan felt helpless, but they continued to support
their government. This support continued as the bombings went on, allowing
Japan to keep pushing forward in the war. Even with the staggering deaths
on civilian populations, Japan continued to resist surrender, pushing even
harder to win a war that was already lost. With Japan not surrendering and
continuing to fight, it was apparent that another strategy needed to be
implemented, regardless of civilian lives lost.
Atomic Bombings
Fully aware of the mass civilian casualties that the atomic bombs
would cause, they were dropped anyways on August 6 and August 9, 1945 to

12 Frank, Richard B. Downfall. 5.

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Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

force the unconditional surrender of Japan. When the first atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima, the Japanese people were overcome with confusion
and terror as they did not know what was occurring. Civilians skin was
hanging off of their bodies from the fire that ensued and many succumbed to
their wounds. While several survived the initial drop of the bomb, they were
trapped from the raging fires, where they too ultimately met their death.
There was mass panic and chaos as the survivors were trying to leave the
city. Civilians that had not been injured in the initial blast or fires, eventually
died as well from the radioactivity that the bomb produced. With the first
atomic bomb dropping, over 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed or
injured.
Even after the devastation that occurred from the first atomic bomb,
Japan still had not surrendered, leading the United States to drop the second
atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This second bombing was just as devastating on
the civilians of Japan, leaving more than 75,000 dead or wounded. Japan
knew they had lost the war, but they continued to fight on, even at the risk
of their own civilians. Painful and inhumane deaths did not curb the Japanese
government until the second atomic bomb had been dropped. Japan was to
fight to the finish and choose extinction before surrender.13 The bombing at
Nagasaki was close enough to extinction.

13 Frank, Richard B. Downfall. 95

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Jessica Conrad
Dr. Landdeck
December 1, 2014
World at War

It is inevitable in any war that society and war will intersect at some point.
How these two points meet though can have tremendous influence and
effects on the outcome of the war. World War II was just that, a world war. It
intersected with civilians from all over the world, from Britain, France, Japan,
China, and many more. The civilian casualties, even though significant, were
not for nothing. Through torture and extreme inhumane conditions these
individuals were put through, they still made a difference. The war did not
only influence the people of these countries, but the people influenced the
war.