El Concepto de Muerte Para los Artistas Entrevistados

The Second World War was the most destructive war in history. The fascists had converted a large part of Europe into a vast graveyard and a slavecamp. The Nazis’ hatred of the Jews has been mentioned before. Inside Germany and in those parts of Europe which came under German occupation before and during the war, Jews were picked up and six million of them were exterminated. The labour of the countries occupied by Germany was utilized and most horrible labour camps were started. Millions of people were transferred to what are known as concentration camps and killed. Many of these camps such as those in Buchenwald, Oswiecim and Dachau were death camps where new ways of killing people were introduced. People were burnt in gas chambers. There were mass massacres Prisoners were made to dig mass graves, were shot and then buried in those graves. Certain kinds of factories were located near the concentration camps which produced goods made from human skins and bones. The kinds of tortures and brutalities that the fascists, particularly the German Nazis, perpetrated had no precedent nor did the mass scale on which they were practiced. Many of these brutalities came fully to light when Germany lost the war, after the discovery of places of mass murders and from the descriptions of those in the concentration camps who had survived. The atrocities committed by the Japanese in countries occupied by them were no less brutal. Inhuman medical experiments were conducted by Japanese ‘ doctors’ and ‘scientists’ on human beings.

The destruction caused by the war in terms of human lives has no precedent in history. Over 50 million people perished in the Second World War. Of them about 22 million were soldiers and over 28 million civilians. About 12 million people lost their lives in concentration camps or as a result of the terror unleashed by the fascists Some

countries lost a large percentage Of their population. For example, Poland lost six million people, about five million of them civilians, which was about 20 per cent of the Polish population. The Soviet Union in absolute terms suffered the worst — about 20 million people which was about 10 per cent of the population. Germany lost over six million people, about 10 per cent of her population. Besides the human losses, the economy and material resources of many countries were badly damaged. Many ancient cities were almost completely destroyed. The total cost of the Second World War has been estimated at the staggering figure of $ 1,384,900,000,000.

Many new weapons of destruction were devised and used in the Second World War. The most dreadful of these was the atom bomb. The atom bomb was first devised in the United States during the Second World War. Scientists of many countries, including those who had come to the United States to escape the fascist tyranny in Europe, had helped in developing it. The project to develop the bomb was taken up when a number

of scientists, suspecting that the Nazi Germany was developing the atom bomb,

approached the US government. They had feared that if the Nazis developed the bomb, they would use it to terrorize the world into submission. The atom bomb was first tested in July 1945. By then, Germany had already surrendered. Many of those who had helped in its development appealed to the US government not to use it against Japan against whom the war was still continuing. They also warned of the danger of starting a race in the production of atomic weapons if the atom bomb was used against Japan. However, the government of the United States used the atom bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as has already been mentioned. The two bombs killed over 320,000 people almost instantaneously and completely wiped out large parts of the two cities. The effects of these bombs on the health of those who survived and on their children continue to this day. The government of the United States justified the use of the atom bomb on the ground that it brought the Second World War immediately to a close and thus helped to save human lives which would have been lost if the war had continued. Many other people, including many Scientists who had helped in making the bomb. condemned the use of the atom bomb. After the defeat of Germany and the ending of the war in Europe, Japan was not in a position to continue the war and her capitulation was a matter of days. Some scholars hold the view that the main reason for using the atom bomb was to establish the superiority of USA in the world after the war as at that time she alone possessed these weapons. In any case, the prediction of the scientists that the use of the atom bomb would lead to a race for producing atomic weapons came true. Within a few years after the Second World War, some other countries also developed atomic weapons. Also other nuclear weapons, thousands of times more destructive than the ones used against Japan, were developed which, if used, can completely destroy all human life on earth.

EXERCISES

1. What were the main features of the fascist and Nazi movements? 2. Explain the consequences of the economic crisis of 1929-33. 3. What is meant by the term ‘Axis Powers’

4. Describe the consequences of the victory of fascism on Italy and Germany. 5. What were the main aims of the foreign policies of Italy and Germany ? Of Japan

?

6. Describe the main events between 1936 and 1939 which created conditions for another

7. world war.

8. What did the Western powers do to counter the aggressive acts of Japan, Italy and Germany between 1931 and 1938?

9. Describe the growth of national movements in Asia after the First World War. Name the Asian countries which won their independence between 1919 and 1939

10. Explain the terms: ‘Phoney War’, Second Front, the Battle of Britain 11. On an outline map of Europe, show the countries which were occupied by

12. On an outline map of Asia, show the areas which were under Japanese occupation during the Second World War.

13. Try to collect the views of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress on fascism from books on Indian freedom movement.

14. Read about the new weapons developed after the Second World War Write an essay comparing the destructive power of these weapons with those used in the Second World War.

15. Do you think Western policy of appeasement of the fascist powers brought about the Second World War? Why? Or why not?

16. What was the basic reason for the policy of appeasement?

17. Do you think the United States was justified in using the atom bomb against Japan?

18. Why did the Soviet Union sign the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany? What did she gain from it? Discuss

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2013/07/old-ncert-world-history-ch12-part-2-of- 2-second-world-war-events-battles-resistance-movements.html

[Old NCERT World History ch13] After WW2: Birth of UN, Division of Germany-USSR-Yugoslavia (Part 1 of 4)

1. Prologue 2. Introduction

3. Second World War: Immediate Consequences 4. Yalta Conference

5. Birth of UNITED NATIONS 6. The Potsdam Conference

7. Europe after the Second World War 8. GERMANY: partition

9. GERMANY: Fall of Berlin Wall 10. France and Italy: rise of communism 11. Britain: Rise of Labour Party

12. Eastern Europe 13. Fall of USSR 14. Retreat of Socialism 15. Bosnia

Prologue

So far, in the Old NCERT Class10, we’ve seen following Ch.No.details

9. Imperialism, Colonization of Asia, Africa and Americas 10. WW1

11. Russian Revolution 12. Interwar years and WW2

Now 13th Chapter deals with World after Second World War, Cold War, NAM. The UPSC GS Syllabus is silent about Cold war, while NAM is too clichéd and

outdated topic for International relations(IR), still this 13th chapter remains relevant in context of following topics of GS Mains paper I syllabus:

1. Decolonization

The redrawal of national boundaries had begun with Chapter 9 itself: when Imperialist countries started colonizing Asia, Africa and Americas, recall the paper partition of Africa and how 30% of its national borders are straight lines.

Chapter 13 is the climax in terms of redrawls of National boundaries, we can see that: Region Boundaries redrawn after WW2

Europe Germany=> East and West, later combined.

Eastern Europe

Fall of USSR leads to 15 independent republics

From Czechoslovakia => Czech Republic + Slovak Republic. Yugoslavia breaks into

1. Serbia and Montenegro 2. Croatia

3. Macedonia 4. Slovenia

5. Bosnia-Herzegovina

Asia

From British India to: India+Pakistan (+later Bangladesh) Indochina => Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Vietnam=> North + South, later combined Korea=> North + South, never combined. China-Taiwan

Israel-Palestine Anyways, let’s start the chapter: