World War II Facts – Intro from the autor

In our mind, WWII is inevitably intertwined with the Holocaust, even if its victims are only a small portion of the total death toll. In fact, so many suffered during the war solely because of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, political and sexual orientation. However tragic those events were, they did not constitute themselves casus belli. In reality, the war broke and was waged for territory, sphere of influence, resources, and revenge etc., the ethnic cleansing being a horrid side product. While millions lost their life directly or indirectly from the actions of Nazi military and the ominous SS, almost all participating countries keep skeletons in their closet.

World War II was the most destructive conflict in the history: highlight of human cruelty, greed, dirty politics and genocide. It ended on 2 September 1945 with the capitulation of Japan. However, historians are not unanimous on when it started – with the invasion of Poland in 1939 or several years beforehand with Japan’s actions in Manchuria. Plenty of information is available on that vast topic so I decided to handpick facts that are not widely known or are somehow shameful and therefore often omitted. How about that: war hero Gen. Patton’s diary is full of anti-Semitic entries. Or the fact, that Bergen-Belsen concentration camp’s inmates were “liberated” from the Allies in 1945 and, instead of being set free, most of them were kept in miserable conditions in the so-called displaced persons camp until 1951.

Dr Josef Mengele’s experiments shook the world and we should not forget them. Equally disgusting are:

• the “comfort women” practice in the Japanese Army;
• the terror of V-1 and V-2 flying bombs over London;
• Dresden annihilation;
• the A-Bombs over Japan;
• the Soviet camps in Siberia;
• Indiscriminate attacks of German U-Boats;
• Laconia incident;
• Nanking rape;
• Katyn massacre;
• Malmedy massacre;
• Bastogne massacre etc.

The list of crimes against humanity is already long enough and we have to make sure it doesn’t get any longer in future by showing more respect to each other.

I will deliberately avoid interpretation of the facts and will leave the conclusions to you.

YOU MAY ALSO CHECK OUT: 28 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WW2 – PART 2