I first read Anne Frank’s Diary when I was thirteen years old - the same age as Anne when she began keeping it. I already knew a lot about this war, and the horrors of it, but reading the words of someone my own age who experienced it for real opened up new doors in my consciousness. As I read her eloquent, thoughtful, sometimes banal, but always so personal writing she became a virtual friend. A girl I would have liked to know in real life, I might even say that I had slightly romantic feelings for her. All the more bitter were my tears when her diary abruptly ended, and the full impact of the end of her life struck me. I knew what was coming, and yet the emptiness of pages that simply stopped coming hit me like a freight train. And still, forty years later I get the same feeling when I return to her. It is a hole in my heart that carry with gratitude and admiration for her courage and fortitude to have documented the unimaginable pain of becoming an adult far too early, only to never reach adulthood at all. I still cry a lot when we meet, but my tears have gone from angered desperation, to anguished gratitude for helping me to never forget. Spartacus Join the TimeGhost Army on Patreon: bit.ly/WAH_050_PI Read or code of conduct before commenting: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518
Anne Frank's diary was part of assigned reading in English in my school in New Zealand back in the mid 80's when we were ~14yrs old. I had grown up watching various WW2 documentaries; Sunday afternoon war or western movies on TV; had a lot of books & my parents bought the 30 part "History of WW2" fortnightly series by Orbis in 1984-85 (1983 in UK), which included a pretty graphic volume on the death camps (volume 24). So when we reached Anne Frank's diary in English, I was one of the few students in my class that actually properly understood her fate. Many had no real context, aside from she was deported and died in a camp. I actually brought in volume 24 to school and went through the death camp section in class and I still remember the raised eyebrows & shock once everyone fully clicked after seeing the various photos. Never Forget!
I read it after listening to Aeroplane Over the Sea and felt many of the same things that you described. I imagine it's what Jeff Mangum must have been feeling when he wrote those songs. You get to know this person so intimately and then it just ends and there's absolutely nothing you can do to bring them back.
I haven't read her diary yet (I will, one day), but visited the Anne Frank Huis and it was an experience i can't even find the words for.. Have you read Etty Hillesum's diary?
@@pekkarousu3616 I would agree and disagree. Learning the facts of the Holocaust is important . However learning what the facts meant to individuals is equally important. This is called empathy.
My grandmother was about 5 years old and in Zwolle during the occupation. She remembers her mother scraping the remains of a crushed egg out of her father's breast pocket, which he had bartered or otherwise sourced from somewhere. A garrison soldier had given him a friendly clap on the chest at a checkpoint, and destroyed the egg he was hiding (it wasn't malicious; just rotten luck and timing). That single egg had to feed 2 adults and 3 children. Heating in winter was also a problem, and they resorted to conspiring with their neighbours to steal an entire telegraph pole just for something to burn. Obviously under the penalty of death if caught as it would amount to sabotage. They succeeded. They emigrated to South Africa to build a new life in 1952 rather than try rebuild in the shattered remains of Europe.
It would be interesting to know what they thought about apartheid South Africa. I guess they perceived it normal after the war. They would not have cared about the racial laws there. Not judging here, that would just seem as a logical behavior.
My uncle's B-24 hit the sea off of Goes, Holland on Nov. 5, 1943 after a raid on the marshalling yards in Munster. His body washed ashore and was buried by locals to hide it from the Nazis. They found the plane about 10 years ago and dove on it for remains, without success.
My great uncle was lost on a B-24 in the Mediterranean. According to family tradition, the plane was shot down by an Italian pilot flying a captured US fighter.
My mum at the age of 15 living in Rotterdam in 1944 was send away from her home whiles her brother at age of 12 stayed but she was send away to find her own food. My grandmother who was the sweetest person I ever know yet had to come to this decision. My mum left to walk north of Holland to Friesland to the farm areas but was captured at end of day by Nazis to take her back to Rotterdam and integrate her, they let her go to start her journey again hungry. She was able to find refuge with some farmers in Friesland until after the war but she could never get over the fact she was told to go by her parents. One just wonders the desperation that existed at that time for survival that lets go of moral obligations.
The circumstances of war, occupation and hunger forced unimaginable choices to be made by so many people I'm sure. Thanks for sharing your family's story
My grandma grew up in the Netherlands around the same age as Anne during the war. She never really talked about the war and it didn't seem like the subject to ask about unprompted, so I didn't. Then one day I was helping her sort her photo's and albums and we came across this picture of her and her friends when she was just a kid. And she told me about when she was young, from time to time a farmer would take his cart into town to sell his goods. She and her friends and other kids from the village would ride along and enjoy the city. One day she had wanted go along but my great-grandma told her she had to stay home and help with some chores. On the way to the town the cart was hit by white posphurus and a lot kids died or were horribly burned. What always stuck with me was the horrible arbitrariness of it all. It wasn't like my grandma or great-grandma had made any smarter decisions than those other kids and their parents but just through pure luck she survived. It's a story that helps remind me how lucky I am that I don't live in a time and place where such mundane choices can have such horrific consequences.
@Casper Thank you for sharing your grandma's story. The arbitrary nature of the violence in this war is pat of what makes it so terrible. We appreciate you sharing and reflecting on some of your family's history, please stay tuned for more episodes
Another superb episode, Spartacus. I can only wish that some high schools out there have the courage to show this material to young people, so that they can come to understand in a visceral way how all of us are capable of this level of brutality, and how the price of forgetting this history is the eventual repetition of it. A fine and touching connection to Anne Frank's story too. Well done.
I'm a high school teacher. I absolutely show selected episodes to my students and encourage them to watch every week (some do, most don't). I also link some episodes if relevant to a project they are working on. The school blocks these episodes, but luckily there's an easy work-around.
@@moleratical1232 I'm glad that you've decided to do this. I was a high school teacher for 21 years, and I know that in my district the potential complaints from parents (yeah, crazy, I know) would make requiring the viewing of these episodes highly problematic for teachers--despite their obvious value. Perhaps recommending them as an optional supplement to a lesson on the war would be permitted, but it would entail mandatory notification of parents and authorization signatures from them, etc. Personally, I would risk it, even though central office personnel would likely bend to the pressure of parents who felt these videos could "traumatize" their children. Completely ridiculous and pathetic, of course, but that's the reality that many teachers deal with in some American schools.
@Moleratical that's really interesting to hear. Do you pick episodes based on something you are already covering/teaching, or as a more general educational tool for studying the war or the holocaust?
I thought letting Anne comment across the video was a very interesting way to explore the events in this episode while also giving her a live voice. Almost like we were hearing her opinion on the matter like an interview. All of that made the conclusion of this episode even more hard hitting. I started tearing up at the bit about the British uncovering data from the extermination camps. It didn't make sense at first, but soon the letters and numbers fell into place and I realized what I was hearing. Of course I knew already that the death counts in these camps were terribly high, but something about this moment really struck me. Great job as always Sparty, and the rest of the crew of course. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to make WAH episodes, but I do know they're certainly some of the most valuable in this channel.
We agree, to cover the war in as much detail as we do and not devote time to the great human tragedy going on behind the lines, as well as at the front, would not be doing it justice. And yes it is hard sometimes, but very much worth it. Thanks for your support.
It was great to have a a machine to decrypt; but without the knowledge of the letters meaning immediately, the message is puzzling and requires further intelligence.
The thought of my wife coming home to find the house empty with no idea of what happened to us kills my psyche. The stories of the Dutch kids makes that scene of the Dutch foundling girl from Miracle on 34th Street more tear inducing.
Here in Indiana we just had a state senator say that public school teachers should teach about Nazis without making moral judgements. The cry, "Never Forget!" is as important now as ever. You are doing a great service.
How to avoid making 'moral judgements' when the reason you are covering a subject is because it is an example of exceptional evil sounds like a difficult question!
Every evil act MUST be judged, despised and punished accordingly. This subject must be teached in mode to not repeat itself, to enlighten moral on peoples minds, to defend justice and equality, and not only superficially like that stupid senator want to.
The year 1942 was simply unspeakably horrific but even in a "calmer" 1943 its still bad; and still the look in Spartacus's eyes... as he narrates the butchery and suffering that millions suffered. The mental fortitude and devotion to making sure this is never forgotten is hard to fathom. Thank you as always for your hard work for telling and teaching us. TWAH series is an illuminating but hard series to watch. And undoubtedly harder to make.
@Cannonfodder43 Thank you for your kind words of support. It is indeed difficult to engage with these facts, especially with the regularity & depth that our team does. It really means a lot to us, that our audience is so engaged & thoughtful. It makes the whole emotional endeavor worthwhile and we thank you for being here with us. If you've not already, consider joining the TimeGhost Army (or tell your friends!) bit.ly/WAH_050_CO
For Asia the worst is yet to come. 1944 and 45 will be the deadliest years of WW2 there with Millions starving to death, dying being caught between the frontlines or targeted atrocities and Millions dying from bombing, Japan's last big lashing out at China destabilizing the National Chinese army and government completely and the catastrophic battles at the Phillipines and Okinawa.
1943 won't be "calmer" for the Axis nations. For many in the previously victorious Axis lands the war will start to come home. As "Bomber" Harris famously said, the Nazis started the war with the rather childish belief that they would bomb everybody else and no one was going to bomb them. They sowed the wind, and now they will reap the whirlwind. 1943 is where the Allies will largely stop experiencing their string of disastrous defeats and hand that experience to the Axis. The transition is already well underway at this point in the timeline. There will still be setbacks for the Allies, but they will experience each setback a little closer to Berlin, or Tokyo.
@@danielmocsny5066 I mean "calmer" in the sense that hundreds of thousands won't be rounded up and murdered in such massacres like in Babi Yar. The details of that massacre and as the death machine was switched into high gear is difficult to watch and to see Spartacus struggling to keep his emotions in check. Death via Total War Bombing is one thing, cold blooded mass murder and genocide is another. Although I have probably spoken too soon. The next three years are going to be rough.
My grandpa was around 13 in Amsterdam in the war. He always tells me about the roaring of the plane engines going to germany and the german flak shooting at them
My grandmother's cousin had a beautiful model of a Fokker that shot him down over the Netherlands, made by his German cell mate. He had to try and make it over Holland and despite being shot at low level he landed the plane and everyone survived except the tail gunnner who parachuted. When the Netherlands was invaded his guards flung open the doors and let him go. After the war he spent his life as an Air Traffic Controller.
This is not criticism, but feedback: I don't think 'revenge bombing' is the best term for what Arthur Harris was doing; while retaliation was certainly a large aspect, I think 'revenge' undersells the breathtaking malevolence of the 'de-housing' campaign that is about to kick into high gear. The Allied strategic bombing campaign is surely a topic worthy of a special. Another excellent and important episode team, keep up the good work.
Harris, Spaatz, LeMay, Churchill, FDR and many more in charge all openly stated that it was revenge, retribution, payback - I even quote FDR saying as my much this episode…
@@spartacus-olsson I'm not disputing that - I'm gently trying to make the point that in its aims and execution, the bombing campaign went far, far beyond revenge. In the words of Telford Taylor, Chief Counsel for war crimes at the Nuremburg trials: "... the ruins of German and Japanese cities were the results not of reprisal but of deliberate policy". Frederick Lindemann's controversial (so-called) 'dehousing paper', which so influenced the evolution of the area bombing directive, was less in response to German bombing, but more inspired by it (however dubious and disputed the logic employed). Like the comment above by stanbrekston said - 'Bomber' (or 'Butcher', as he was ungenerously dubbed by contemporary critics) Harris was fanatically convinced that bombing, and "the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany" was a clear path to victory, and not a supplement or gesture in the war effort. Harris was actually quite annoyed at how his methods were portrayed in public and perplexed by the ethical and logical objections to such a scheme - the grim, ruthless reality of it was classified and disguised with one narrative, then subsequently legitimated later with another that rejected that narrative for convenience. The dread implications are with us to this day.
@@onylra6265 you have to remove one thing though… Harris was definitely the main proponent of the strategy, but he did not decide it. Churchill and FDR did. Both had serious doubt, to not say full out rejected the idea that the strategic bombing campaign could win the war. We’ve documented this by their own words in past episodes.
@@spartacus-olsson You make a good point, but Harris's petulant irritation with Churchill's skepticism of the airmen's pretensions wasn't without merit, in his view. In early July 1940 Churchill wrote to Beaverbrook at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, concerning Britain's imminent peril and seeming helplessness to conduct a war against 'Hitler': "... there is one thing that will bring him back and bring him down, and that is an absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland. We must be able to overwhelm him by this means, without which I do not see a way through." Thereafter, to quote Max Hastings in Bomber Command (p.79), "he chose to commit himself totally to galvanizing ministers and mobilizing industry, goading air marshals and sweeping aside army and navy protest, to create the most powerful possible bomber offensive with the utmost expedition." That Churchill's enthusiasm for this enterprise waned maybe too conspicuously post-Barbarossa/Pearl Harbour does not change the fact that he was entirely responsible for setting it in motion, and that it had absolutely nothing to do with revenge - and once the genie was out the bottle it proved very difficult to control. Not least because of PR. The decision to shift tactics to deliberate and indiscriminate area bombing was not an act of just spite, but an acknowledgement that the lofty promises of precision strategic bombing, and equivocal morality underlying it were futile and doomed to imminent failure - and the cynicism behind that decision was withheld from the public (hence Harris's chronic annoyance at what he saw as insincerity). This is why I think it's difficult to justify the term 'revenge bombing', maybe it's some food for thought - I wasn't trying to get into an argument, and I wont badger you about this anymore. I admire what you do and respect it more than you can imagine. So thank-you, sincerely.
Well in the case of Japan or Germany, what exactly are citizens of fascist states supposed to do, if they even are moved to do something. They have no power and no means to rebel.
Well, the main point of a bombing is not to dishearten the citizenry, but rather to destroy production capacity and de-house workers. Which may or may not work either of course....
Situation in my country (Italy) was not yet as dire as the rest of Europe in 1942, there were rationings, but people could still make a living. In 1943 everything changed. Food shortages became more common, especially in the South and when the German invaded their military began looting and stealing what meager belongings farmers had. My maternal grandmother was a teenager during WW2 and her family had a little farm in Umbria, it was a decent if tough living, but with the war they lost everything - nazifascist authorities seized everything they had: animals, food, even the seeds. They had ration cards but the legal market was always almost empty because everyone sold their goods on the black market. They managed to scrape something out of potatoes because apparently the authorities somehow missed their field. Nonetheless she lost her two older brothers to malnutrition, because they sometimes refused to eat to help their younger brothers and sisters (it was a very large family). Then a Wehrmacht platoon decided their house could make a good communication post behind the Caesar and Albert Lines. Ironically, while the germans stationed there were harsh and forced her family to sleep in the stable for a couple of months, they still were decent enough to share some of their rations with them. Then the Allies broke the Albert line and the soldiers retreated, but before leaving she recalls the youngest soldier (the one who was the most sympathetic) left her a sack with all of his food saying with broken italian "Guerra persa. Io muore. Tu vivere." that roughly translates "The war is lost. I'll die soon, but you'll live." She hated the germans, the fascists and the nazis, but everytime she told me about that soldier she was still moved to tears. She never knew his name or if he survived the war. For some days it helped them survive until the Allies came in the area and brought food relief. There is a recurring joke about italian grandmothers after the war, that is they use to stuff their grandchildren full of food and cooking for a regiment every sunday. As a child I couldn't stand the idea of eating a huge dish full of pasta and then having her filling it AGAIN and making me eat that too. Today I understand she (as many others) was trying to compensate for all the hunger she had to endure during and after the war, she didn't want us to live like she did.
@Rosiello That's an amazing piece of history, thanks for sharing that part of your family's past. "Guerra persa. Io muore. Tu vivere." That is quite memorable. Glad to have you with us as we explore this war.
Britain 1940-41: We will harness the anger of Britons towards the Blitz, and stiffen out resolve! Our spirit will not be broken from the bombing! Also Britain post 1942: If we bomb the German civilians, their morale will collapse.
My understanding is that British civilian morale was significantly impacted by the Blitz, to the extent you had thousands of refugees camping in the countryside to avoid the cities, and Churchill himself being jeered and abused when he visited the bombsites, thereafter carefully stage managed and edited for the newsreels. Likewise in Whirlwind (the world at war) Albert Speer himself spoke of the Cologne 1000 bomber raid that 4 or 5 more raids like that in quick succession might have ended the war, but Bomber Command didn't have that capacity. So basically the theory was based on the relevant authorities in the UK believing, rightly or wrongly, and based on their own experience of what happened to British civilian morale that had to be heavily suppressed. So I am not convinced the policy was based on british chauvinism, but rather was based on those in control having a somewhat better picture of the truth than the public did, combined with political pressure (have to do SOMETHING to take pressure off the Russians) and technical reality (hitting anything smaller than a city in Germany was damn near impossible - daylight low level raids being near suicide with german air defence). The stoic british character thing is rather more indicative of the success of british propaganda in altering perception of the truth, rather than an accurate representation of the motivations of those in charge. I.e. that's the bullshit we told people. Its not why we did it. Cities are the engines of industrial society, and even if civilian morale isn't broken, revenge bombing was seen as good for your own country's morale ("give it back to 'em tenfold" mentality, which started to wane as the allies, well, got REALLY good at it) and massively impacted enemy production and operations. Even though the Germans were able to mitigate many of the losses in production by distributing war production, this reduced productivity from what could have been achieved in a total war economy without the bombing. Compare with American factories where they could toil day and night with the lights on without fear of attack, and to a lesser extent british factories once home air defence became truly ferocious. Also Russian factories sent way out east where the germans had no capacity to attack them. Or, as Hamish Mahaddie put it "if you can't kill german workers in their factories its a lot easier to knock him off in his bed at night, and if little granny Shickelgruber down the street gets the chop too that's just hard luck". Do not mistake the above for an attempt to rationalise the morality of area bombing. It is amoral - that is the point. Its meant to be bloody awful.
To be fair to the Brits who advocated for strategic bombing, what Britain went through early was pretty tough, but it ended well before the Luftwaffe had leveled all things British. Recall that the Royal Air Force won the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe was designed to be a tactical rather than strategic force, hence its lack of long-range heavy bombers and long-range escort fighters. Even what capability the Luftwaffe had to bomb the UK was soon shifted to the USSR. Thus there was a real possibility of bombing Germany much harder than Britain had been bombed. The claim that strategic bombing could win a war (famously made by "Bomber" Harris in that newsreel video clip) had not yet been properly tested in early 1943. As Harris said, "We shall see." And while debates continue to rage over just how (in)effective the Allied bombing campaign actually was, Germany will have to divert vast resources to resisting it (with up to a million Germans engaged in homeland defense). And the most important point is that in the first half of 1944, Allied bombers will be used as bait to lure German fighters so Allied fighters can destroy them - a pre-condition for a successful invasion of France by June. (The heavy German fighters necessary to destroy Allied bombers with large-caliber weapons will be sitting ducks for maneuverable Allied P-51s on the lumbering climb up to bomber altitude.) All those hundreds of Allied cargo vessels anchored offshore to support the invasion - many loaded with fuel and ammunition - will also be sitting ducks for any Luftwaffe aircraft still operational, as will the massive stockpiles of fuel and ammunition on shore. Hence the need to largely destroy the Luftwaffe first. By 1944 it will be well-established that amphibious invasions are virtually impossible without establishing air superiority - and preferably air supremacy - first. Nowhere in war at this point is an army more vulnerable to air attack than in the process of getting onto a beach, and then moving countless tons of supplies steadily over the same beaches. Given that the Luftwaffe must be destroyed somewhere, it might as well be over Germany.
I remember when I was at the Flying Legends in Duxford for the first time back in 2010, I saw the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster do a flyby from quite far away. The sound was absolutely incredible even though it was far away and I used to think to myself that the German civilians actually had to hear 1000 of these at once. I've since seen the same plane several times and it's always quite a dread inducing experience.
@Perkelenaattori Very interesting! Cool that you got to see & hear a Lancaster, not too many people these days could say the same. Thanks for watching and stay tuned!
@@WorldWarTwo It's equally impressive to hear a B-17 fly overhead as i did when visiting the Roskilde Air Show in 2019 where one of the few remaining airworthy B-17's was visiting.
A relative of mine is the last Lancaster navigator that is still alive and has been on a few commemorative flights so he might have been flying by when you saw it! When the memorial flight Lancaster was first sponsored he agreed to be part of it.
Thank you Sparty for covering not just the thoughts and feelings of Anne Frank during her time in hiding in the Annex in Amsterdam, but also the things happening in both Allied and Axis territories, such as the notorious razzia (German roundups) raids and onderduikers (Dutch term for people in hiding) in the Netherlands, the escalating Allied bombing of Germany and the worsening famines in Henan and Bengal. I do agree with you that Anne Frank would have been someone nice that I would have liked to know and make friends too had she survived the war.
@Dickson Phua Thanks for the kind words. Just having her words available to us is incredibly humbling, may it continue to inspire empathy for many generations to come.
@@greenkoopa Hmm this is really a random question indeed but I think like a year after RU-vid was created, in 2006? Not sure why you are asking about this though.
What is the difference between civilians who are making bullets and soldiers who were drafted? I think the distinction between soldiers and civilians makes sense only with volunteer armies. I'm not saying killing civilians is fine. But that they are both equally bad. It wasn't the 18 year olds who started the war.
My ex-mother in law grew up in occupied Holland. She said that they weren't too worried when the British bombed, but took cover hurriedly when the USA bombed.
Such an important companion to the regular weekly episodes. Well handled as always Sparty. Difficult to watch but without it, you're really only understanding a sliver of the war. Never forget ✌️
@Dylan Parnham Thanks for watching. Comments like yours help us to remember how important these subjects are. Stay tuned for more coverage of this fascinating and terrible war
@@kobold7763 the winner writes history and they don't get prosecuted many western war crimes occured in Germany though that doesn't relieve them of their crimes
I sincerely recommend people watch the classic British series on WW2 "The World At War" which not only cover all these events but is also narrated by Lawrence Olivier.
This channel is so underrated, you guys should have millions of subs, the content is always moving, entertaining, and informative. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the time ghost army I will never forget.
Brilliant episode. Reading the diaries and accounts really help to turn those who suffered from a mere statistic back to people, with voices and faces. I once heard someone say that when reading history, you do not read about something in past, but about yourself. And must not read like you are the victim (as we so often feel tempted to identify with), but read it as if you are the perpetrator. Because while ordinary people might not have been the ones making the decisions, it was ordinary people who enabled by silent consent and participated through following orders in these atrocities. For me, that is what the "never forget" at the end of every episode means. Never allow yourself to participate in something that decades later will be studies as the wrong side of history.
Glad you enjoyed the episode. And well said about it being important to try and exercise our empathy with those on the wrong side to try and understand horrible events. Sympathy and identification with the victims is of course vital, but if we don't make some effort to understand the mindset and situation of the perpetrators then, as you say, we miss the opportunity to make sure the cirumstances that led to these crimes don't happen again
The winter of 1942/43 would prove to be brutal in Amsterdam especially; not necessarily because of the cold, but the famine that occurred throughout. Audrey Hepburn lived in the city during that time; she managed to weather the famine by eating tulip bulbs, among other things. It cost her her health, however, and she would struggle with health issues until the end of her life, as a direct result of living through that famine. She was also the same age as Anne Frank, having been born in 1929.
Aus der Funten was one of the "4 of Breda" the most notorious dutch Nazi gangsters, which is quite the achievement as their friends/ competition were horrible in their own right.
I look forward to Spartacus's weekly episodes with anticipation and dread. So much to be learned, so many horrors exposed. At times the history he recounts can be overwhelming. His final words, "Never forget" are so important. Never forget what happened, and learn the lesson well. The horrors of WWII's Crimes Against Humanity are with us today, lurking in the shadows. Thank you Spartacus for your efforts.
Agree we most never forget the history of the horrors and war crimes that happened during the dark days of WW2. Thanks Spartacus for talking about all of this difficult and dark topics.
Ironic that had Anne Frank and her family not been betrayed to the Gestapo for another five weeks they would have been saved by the British and Canadians in Operation Market Garden.
Market Garden was the failed American-British operation. The Canadians then almost singlehandedly liberated the Netherlands after that operation's failure while they focused on heading east instead.
Amsterdam and most of the capital provinces (Noord- and Zuid-Holland) remained in German hands until the general surrender on may 5th 1945. Sadly, no matter what, she would have been caught and sent to the east.. Market garden and the Canadian drive into the Schelde area also either failed or were a slow grind, and it took a long time for them to liberate even the south of the country. The winter of '44/'45 are known as the hunger winter here, as the northern half of the country was starving thanks to all food and materials being stolen and sent to Germany, combined with a harsh winter.
I think we all get wrapped up in the suspense of military tactics and operations that Indy does week to week that when Sparty hits the scene it just crumbles us. Great job to everyone on the Time Ghost team. You guys are providing a superb look into a world we only thought we knew
It might be a bit early in the timeline, but considering it is a story not often told I wanted to refer you to the Razzia at the Apeldoornsche Bosch. It was a raid on January 21 1943 at a Jewish mental hospital near the city of Apeldoorn. The treatment of the Jews as they were being deported is considered especially heinous, even for nazi standards, and the fate of all involved is especially tragic. As it has both the element of the Nazi hatred for Jews and their disregard of humans with mental or physical illnesses while also being a story very few people know about, I thought it would be great for this channel to put some focus on.
Always glad to see you Spartacus, and scared because of your content of your videos, also a question when did revenge bombing of cities by the allies stop? And did they try to use the Mosquito bomber more because of its Accuracy?
To think that my grandmother, aunts, unkles and some cousins wen't through 3 plus years of nazi occupation, starvation and brutality in Greece. Never forget indeed. Thanks for reminding us.
It's amazing anyone survived occupation but even for those who survived it must have been terrible living every day with the utterly helpless feeling of knowing that the Axis occupiers could simply round you up and shoot you at any time for no reason. I'm so thankful to live under due process today.
Hope you folks do a special on Kurt Vonnegut who was in Dresden during the infamous Allied raid and whose experience is heavily taken in from it as seen in Slaughterhouse Five
My grandfather was 23 at this time in 1943. He was a Dutch soldier at the start of the war manning one of bunkers near Hattem next to the IJssel river. After the capitulation he worked as a farmhand. According to himself this was the reason he was never sent to Germany for labour as he was working in the food industry.
My grandfather who fought as a guerrilla Chetnik in the Balkans when he was a teenager always said the Ustase were even worse than the Nazis. Impaling babies on bayonets, raping and burning women alive, smashing children against buildings and playing football with severed heads. The crimes go on. Something about World War 2 brought out the very worst in humanity. For those who may be interested: My grandfather chose to come to Britain after the war with a small group of Yugoslavs, while others chose other Anglosohere nations like Australia/NZ, Canada or the United States usually. I'm British myself, although to me it's interesting that 3 of my 4 grandparents were immigrants to Britain after the war. He chose Britain as they had been an ally against the evil he'd faced from beginning to end, and not just when it was convenient or their hand was forced. He also for obvious reasons didn't want to stay around when the Communists took over. My other 2 grandparents came to Britain from Ireland for better opportunity while Britain rebuilt post-war, though that grandfather apparently served with the RAF in Asia during it. I would be interested to find out more about that actually. It's remarkable how that horrid war brought about the circumstances for my existence in these isles really, and the same for so many of us wherever we are
@Joker Thank you for sharing that dark part of your family's history. We're glad to have you with us, and happy for your life in the lovely British Isles. Never forget
The Ustase were at one point so bad that the SS observers sent to work with them were disgusted by their pointless cruelty. Of course, they were mainly opposed to how it didn't serve any strategic purpose beyond cruelty (they were perfectly fine with torture and genocide for a cause, after all), but still...if the goddamn SS says you need to tone it down a bit, that should really make you rethink some of your life choices.
Taking my two daughters to the Anne Frank house, was one. of the most moving and bonding moments as a family. I had read the diary in school, and both the girls had read it. But Anne's writing, was so detailed that we knew where we were at each point in the tour. Everyone was crying, but quietly. By the end, we saw real pages from her diary, bits of paper which all together made one of the most memorable and important works ever. We left, just so silent, and stopped by the little statue of her and took a few moments to cry. While the diary had influenced our young lives, the visit brought it into our hearts. Since them both my daughters now adults, I am so proud they work for justice in our world today. My youngest especially has been involved in first aide work during BLM peaceful marches, working with the Episcopal church. This diary I hope is still reading in schools.
@Kitty Mervine That was quite moving to read, thank you for sharing how her life impacted you and your family. A feeling of empathy is truly overwhelming when one is faced with the humanity of another, which is where the value lies in studying this terrible war.
@Mr Mitchell History We literally do it with the support of the TimeGhost Army! Our team works very hard, please consider supporting them (or tell your friends!) by joining the TG Army bit.ly/WAH_050_CO
There happens so much in such a short time, so well documented by the means of affordable cameras, newspapers and devices that record sound... Never before news was spead so fast over the planet. And before, during and after the war, people were aware of how special that time was, that it was not an ordinary time. A lot of people were educated and could read and write in, and so they did and kept diaries.
@11:00 it might have built german resolve but it had the effect of slowing their war machine capabality to a grind. Spare parts were becoming hard to find, replacement equipment and aircraft slowed down, fuel shortages, ball bearing shortages. The bombings are what helped the Soviets win by denying the germans the ability to adequately resupply.
The opinions among those of us who study this for a living, and among the military experts are not unified in this matter. Most of us have concluded that strategic bombing had marginal effect in that area. Factories were either quickly rebuilt, or moved underground. Potential labor shortages were replaced by slaves. This is reflected in the numbers. German industrial output continues to increase throughout the war (well, until invasion early in 45). The quality goes down, but that is not due to bombing. But the actual problems of the Nazi war plans… More significant to the Wehrmacht’s lack of resources was the lack of natural resources to begin with, dwindling military manpower, and that they simply overstretched. They had chosen to believe that the former could be fixed by plundering their occupied territories… turns out that isn’t a quite as easy to bring to scale as the Nazis wanted to believe, especially not in the middle of a war. Tactical bombing of for instance railway junctions had effect though by the way. While single railway lines are easy to replace, junctions are tricky. This slowed down delivery of parts markedly. It also slowed down the transports to the extermination factories, sadly not enough. It didn’t save any significant numbers, it just delayed their demise.
@@spartacus-olsson Is this necessarily the case however? It seems to me that moving production to avoid bombing is a costly logistical endeavor - Machinery needs to be moved, facilities dug out of the earth and hardened, housing built for the workers and transportation laid to provide a study flow of raw materials. This is hardly my area of expertise, but it seems incredulous that the constant hammering of German industry from the air had no significant effect on the war effort.
@@kyledonahue9315 well, we have it on paper that it didn’t. As I said; Industrial output increased throughout the war. The reason is pretty simple; they anticipated it. You have to consider that none of the belligerents, not even the aggressors Germany included, thought the war would become as big and last as long as it did. The industry to provide the war effort has to be created while the war went on. The Germans simply did that underground, and used the enormous amounts of slaves they held to both build and operate the plants. For instance: in Gusen, Austria near the Mathausen concentration camp, they constructed a 40,000 sqm underground factory complex to construct and assemble among other things Messerschmidt planes. This was in operation already by 1942, more than a year before the bombing campaigns took off in big scale. The belief by the Allies that they would be able to interrupt German industry relied in part on a lack of understanding for how ruthlessly the Nazis were using their slaves. The Allied Commanders who thought that by bombing German workers to keep them away from work, didn’t realize (or didn’t want to realize) that these were not the workers operating the war essential factories. The supply problems the Germany faced had little to do with the strategic bombing - it was lack of resources leading to lower quality production, and the stretched out logistics that broke their back. Finally, it wasn’t the German industry that failed, it was the Allied industry that succeeded. Once the US was on full war footing and supplied an enormous output to all the belligerents, and the Soviets had time to increase their output, the Allies were outperforming them by a factor of many - but that had to do with money, natural resources, and size of these countries, not bombing or lack of the same.
@crassgop sure… and then there is the coat on the Allied side in lives, equipment, bombs, focus etc. etc. there are no calculations that shows a net benefit of bombing cities and strategic targets. Tactical targets like railway junctions yes, but not the rest. I’ll help you along though: no serious analyst comes up with a net positive effect of the bombing itself. Instead those insisting that the strategy had meaningful positive effect focus on the diverted attention to producing planes to defend Germany, and Luftwaffe operations, that they were locked into a defensive war and could not support the frontlines. I disagree with that conclusion as well though. Maintaining the Luftwaffe at the frontlines had already become impossible. The pressure by the Allied air forces was too great, and supply lines broke down already in 1942v(before the bombing campaign took off for real). Moreover that conclusion makes a huge mistake; move the Luftwaffe to the frontlines, and the Allied planes and men surfaces bombing Germany follow and is added to the pressure. There simply isn’t any calculation that shows a net benefit. It gets especially tricky when you add time as a factor. It wasn’t German defenses that set the timeframe for Allied invasion, but resources and logistics on the Allied side. So you might argue that it smashed the defenses in Germany before invasion… but that too is nonsense. The Wehrmacht was beat on the ground outside of German territory. Most of the fighting men were either injured, dead or pow before a single allied boot stepped on German soil. Bombing or no bombing, the invading Allies would have been met with what they were met with: little boys and old men. Heck, already in June 1944 there weren’t enough German men left to defend the Atlantic Wall - the vast majority of fighting men on the German side at d-day were not German nationals… some from as far away as India. Bombing didn’t deplete the Wehrmacht’s manpower. Bombing did not delete the resources. Bombing did not disarm the forces. The War on the ground did- long before the bombing even reached its climax.
@Kenny Hirata Thank you for your considerate words. We do believe strongly in learning history, and we appreciate you in our audience who also treat it with the proper respect and gravity. Never forget
My great-grandfather was hiding people in his building in Brussels. He had gotten an official protection from the ambassador of Japan in Belgium because they were friends. Still, the germans came to his door nonetheless. He was narrowly saved by a fake signed picture of Hitler hanging on the wall and a story about he "saved the Fürher during WW1". Tells you how no one was safe : never forget.
I've been unable to get through a WAH video yet. Seeing 1940's European kids in the footage who are the same age as my children is too difficult. I can only imagine what producing the videos must be like - it must take a psychological toll on everybody involved. But the history needs to be remembered. Thank you for the work you do.
@Nate Otto Thank you for your very considerate words of support. It is indeed hard to look at these events, and one can be forgiven if the emotions are overwhelming. Thankfully, the empathy and feelings of humanity this evokes are natural reactions. We're glad to have an audience who appreciates this history on such a visceral level, and we thank you for joining us however often you can. Never forget
Thank you Spartacus, your chronicles frequently move me to anger and sorrow, but somehow this one also engendered a feeling of helplessness. A feeling that as we were growing stronger and heading to an almost assured success, we would be so, so late for millions. A feeling I am beginning to feel about our current situation. We will almost certainly prevail in the end, but many will suffer who should not! Never forget!
@Mr. Neworld Thank you for your support. Please consider joining the TimeGhost Army, or tell your friends so we can continue making this incredible documentary series bit.ly/WAH_050_CO
Just noticed that the Frank diary and the note of Vera Inber are in cursive handwritten English. Please would a note be added to your epi notes who made this possible, like artwork or an outside source. It may or may not have been sighted previously but it would be accurate to say that the diary of Ann or Vera's notes were originally written in their European Languages. Thanks.
I remember back in primary school, in the library there was a copy of Anne Frank's diary. I used to read it quite often. Looking back, I can perhaps say it was my favorite book. However, I was not familiar with WW2 that much at this stage in my life, so I can't say for sure that I was able to fully understand what she went through, but I was able to piece together that she and her family were hiding from the nazis, but wether that was due to research done by me, through my teachers or both, I cannot remember I'm afraid.
Hi Sparty.. Can't imagine how factory of death continued. So many died.. Not just died tortured and died.. Its unimaginable how people done this for their blood thirst.. Thanks for covering about anne frank.. She too became my virtual friend.. This war getting murkier.. Only awarness among current generation will gives what war happened ,how cruel people lived,how people suffered.. You and your team doing tremendous job.. Never forget..
You both have very hard jobs you and Indy and I know that studying history especially the way that you guys are doing it can be so fun and fulfilling but I can only imagine the weight that you carry Spartacus having to do these episodes. I grew up in a Jewish family and all the time my grandmother would say to me that we have to prevent the next Holocaust we have to prevent the next Holocaust it seems like every time we would watch a holocaust movie it was to remind us that it could happen again. It was an incredible wait to put on to Young shoulders but when I look back I am grateful because that weight has allowed me to bring so much more empathy into the world. I can imagine the weight you carry having to talk about these subjects every episode as miserable as it makes you at times have to have a profound effect on you and your ability to see our ability to empathize and love with each other. I think anyone who studies such darkness has to if only for their own mental health see the light in humanity as well. I think it makes us cherish that light because we know how dark it can get. Anyways I just wanted to thank you for doing these I think they are incredibly important and no matter how much it makes us sad and no matter how many times RU-vid tries to censor it I think that this is one of the most important lessons we have to teach the world because we can never afford to forget.
No. She very much wrote it, and was in the process of converting her diary into book form when her family was caught. Otto did have to edit some of it afterwards to ensure it could be published; namely by toning down some of the more adult themes Anne initially wrote. There was a trial in the late-70s about whether or not the original diary was truly her work. The verdict was that it very much was hers indeed. Otto had died just before the ruling was announced.
Great episode, thank you once again. I just don't understand why Spartacus made the effort of pronouncing the names of Nazi's like Heinrich Himmler correctly, but not the name of Anne Frank.
What is the purpoise of an episode titled Allied revenge bombing if it is only is a few minutes of the episode? What relation the famine in India had with the Allied bombing in Europe?
@@xza9662 The wizard of OZ only has Dorothy meet the wizard in the back third of the book... It doesn't say anything about the tin man or scarecrow.... Totally misleading title.
I am still shocked by the complicity of the British Government in the Holocaust from your last episode. As a Brit I feel ashamed that our behaviour in Africa continued our Imperialist and Colonial mentality. No wonder it is covered in our history lessons. Keep up the good work, we shall never forgot.
The situation with the Axis soldiers in the Stalingrad pocket looks like very dire. I cannot imagine what will happen to them after the end of the battle.
Bravo and a deep thank you for this series and quoting Anne Frank to start this episode. I am very unhappy with RU-vid continuing to censor history channels like War Against Humanity and World War II. Never forget. Never again.
