WORLD WAR TWO IN EUROPE – a selective timeline
September 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.
September 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
September 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.
September 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
January 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain.
April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston
Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
June 16, 1940 - Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with Nazi Germany.
July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.
August 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
September 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of Britain).
September 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff,
Liverpool and Manchester.
October 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sea Lion until Spring of 1941.
May 15, 1941 - Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).
June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
December 5, 1941 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor
December 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
December 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States.
May 30, 1942 - First thousand-bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
July 1-30 1942 - First Battle of El Alamein.
September 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
December 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of
mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
February 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
March 16-20 1943 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German Uboats.
July 9/10 1943 - Allies land in Sicily.
July 27/28 1943 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
November 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
January 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
January 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
June 5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings on the northern coast of France.
June 13, 1944 - First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
August 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris.
September 13, 1944 - U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany.
October 14, 1944 - Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
December 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
January 17, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw, Poland.
January 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
February 13/14 - Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
March 7, 1945 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.
April 28, 1945 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
June 5, 1945 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government
EUROPE IN WORLD WAR TWO (red = western allies, blue= axis powers
(Germany, Italy etc) and green on 1st 2 maps = Soviet Union)
September 1939
1940
1941-2
1943-44
1944-45
1. Polish boy - 1939
Arek was born in 1930 in a small town called Sieradz. In 1939 he was living with his family in the
same town. He had a mother, father and older brother and was small for his age. Always the family
joker, he was not very good at studying and preferred to be out and about in the countryside,
fishing, playing and playing football. The family were Polish Jews and had lived in the area for many
many years.
2PB 1940
Arek was ten when his Polish hometown, Sieradz, fell under German occupation. His father was
arrested and taken away, but escaped. So the Nazis came back for his older brother. His brother
also escaped. Next time, the Nazis kicked down the door of Arek’s family home and took him away.
The German doctor assessed him and said he was too small for work. The Nazis disagreed and Arek
was taken to a concentration camp at the age of eleven. There he was forced to do back-breaking
labour. For some prisoners the experience became too much and they threw themselves under
passing trains. Arek had the awful task of carrying the body parts to be buried. Eventually, he was
released from the first camp to return to his family who had been moved into a ghetto home in
Lodz. (Ghettos were walled areas of towns where Polish Jews were forced to move to and live by
the Nazi ruling authorities)
3PB 1941
Life in the Lodz ghetto was very hard. There was not enough food and the poorest people died of
starvation. Richer people sold jewellery to get bread. Arek, along with many other children, was
used as slave labour in a factory making ammunition for the German war effort. This meant he had
to go out of the ghetto each day to go to work. This gave him the opportunity to trade for bread and
to steal food when he good. He then smuggled this past the German guards every night. If he had
been caught he probably would have been shot. Arek was now nearly 12 years old.
4PB 1942
At the end of this year Arek and his family were taken with other residents from the ghetto to the
concentration camp called Chelmo. During the journey they were all held in a church. Arek was
asked by a guard to go and get water. When he returned the people had all been lined up by guards
and divided into two groups. Arek was pushed into the line with the men. He could see his mother
and aunt in the other line. They were marched away. He never saw them again. Once they got to
Chelmo they were made to do forced labour. When people fell sick with exhaustion and hunger
they were taken away and pushed into a van which had the exhaust pipe pumping fumes inside it.
These were some of the first experiments with gassing Jews.
5PB 1944
After two years surviving the harshest of conditions and seeing the most terrible things, Arek was
taken to the death camp, Auschwitz. As he entered the camp, he noticed that two lines were being
formed. One contained the most healthy prisoners, likely to be put to work, whilst the other
comprised of the weak. He was in the latter. Knowing that the Nazis quickly disposed of those they
didn’t need, Arek used a moment when the SS were distracted by a commotion further down the
line to swap queues. It was a decision that saved his life. Everyone in his first queue was sent
immediately to the gas chambers, including his first love. By this time his father and brother were
also dead.
6PB Earlier 1945
As the Russians approached Auschwitz, Arek was force marched with other prisoners to
Theresienstadt camp in Germany. They did not have enough food and many people collapsed and
were shot by the roadside. Arek and a friend managed to steal a bag of semolina, which helped
keep their energy up. Then, as the Nazis came under increasing pressure from the Americans in
April 1945, the prisoners were shipped out once again, this time travelling around in open-top train
wagons for a month. Arek survived by eating grass and cooking the leather from his shoes. He
looked on as some Russian and Ukranian prisoners of war resorted to cutting the flesh from dead
bodies, cooking it in boiling water, and eating it.
7PB Later 1945
On May 8th 1945, he was liberated by the Russians. By May 14th he was on a Lancaster bomber
heading for England. He was taken to Windermere in the Lake District. There, they were housed and
fed at a disused factory, in the care of local volunteers, before being found homes in Britain and
abroad. Arek was fifteen and enjoyed the freedom and thrill of hurtling around the countryside on a
bicycle in his underpants, in the days before clothes were found for Windermere’s new arrivals.
Polish man – 1939
Jerzy Andrzejewski was born in Warsaw into a middle-class family in 1909. His father was a grocer
and mother the daughter of a provincial doctor. Andrzejevski studied Polish literature at the
University of Warsaw and contributed to the weekly literary magazine Prosto z mostu. He had
started to write in his early boyhood. Andrzjewski's first works Drogi nieuniknione (1936), a volume
of short stories, and Lad secra (1938), were published in Prosto z mostu. Lad secra received the
award of the Polish Academy of Literature. Andzejewski was called the most gifted Catholic writer of
his country, a "Polish Mauriac."
PM2 1940
As soon as the Germans invaded they began to brutalise the Polish population. The Nazis regarded
all Poles as Untermenschen (sub-human) and they did not believe that Poland should exist. Jerzy
was immediately under suspicion as he was seen as a possible source of hope and pride for Polish
people because of his writing. He was not arrested, but was told he could not publish and he had to
work in a factory making pots and pans which were used by the German army.
PM3 1942
By 1942 Jerzy was a member of the Resistance movement in Warsaw. He was angry at how Polish
people were being treated and sad that so few actively resisted. One of the characters in a novel he
wrote said: "But nowadays I've met so many people who broke down and failed this or that test that
I don't attach much importance to what a man thinks of himself. Until a man faces the test (of
standing up for what he believes in) he can deceive himself endlessly." Jerzy became a member of
the underground Home Army. He took part in acts of terrorism designed to disrupt the German’s
rule of Poland.
PM4 1943
Jerzy continued to be part of the Polish resistance. Members of the movement were often caught,
tortured and shot, or sent to camps. Nevertheless, resistance continued. In April 1943 the Jews in
the Warsaw Ghetto rose up and managed to fight off the Nazis for 3 weeks until they were all killed.
Jerzy and his fellow resisters helped to smuggle weapons and bullets to the Jews resisting the Nazis
in the ghettos.
PM5 1944
The Soviets were advancing on Poland and Jerzy knew it was only a matter of time before Germany
was defeated. But what would happen to Poland then? He, and other resisters, had contact with
the Polish government in exile in London. In 1944 he took part in an attempt to defeat the Nazis in
Warsaw. For several weeks they fought bravely, hoping that the Soviets would send help from the
East. However, Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, did not want a future government of Poland to
have any connections with London. He ordered his troops not to help the Poles, but to wait until the
Germans were defeated and to then go in and beat the Germans.
PM6 Early 1945
Warsaw was totally overrun by the Soviet Union; the country which had divided up Poland with
Germany in 1939. The Soviets then swept on into Germany to defeat the Nazis in Berlin itself.
Meanwhile, the Poles were left to try to pick up the pieces of their lives and their homes.
PM7 Later 1945
It soon became clear that Stalin did not intend that Poland should be free. Instead Poland was
forced to accept a communist government. Private property was outlawed and freedom of speech
was banned. Jerzy could not write without thinking about what the government would say about his
work.
German boy – 1939
Paul Heiner was nine when the war broke out. Like all his school mates in his Bavarian school, he
was very excited that Britain had declared war on Germany. His teachers told him that the Fuhrer
(Hitler) would lead the German nation to true greatness and that it was Germany’s destiny to rule
Europe. They played war games in the street – the RAF versus the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe always
won! He was surprised that his Father was not as excited about the war. The leader of his Young
Pimpfen group (Nazi style cubs) said it was because his father was not as loyal as he should be. He
said this at the dinner table one night and was surprised when his father said nothing and his mother
started to cry.
GB2 1940
Paul and his friends loved to listen to the radio. Every day seemed to being stories of German
victories. First, Norway, then Belgium and Holland and France were conquered. It seemed as
though Britain would soon be invaded, or be forced to make peace. How great Germany was again!
Paul’s father had been called up into the army and he had been so proud to see his father in his new,
smart uniform. He had promised to help his mother as much as he could, though she seemed very
sad these days.
GB3 1942
Paul’s father was killed fighting in the Soviet Union. Paul was told by his teachers that his father had
died a hero. The family even got a formal letter from Hitler to thank them for their sacrifice for
Germany. Paul’s mother was even more sad, she hardly spoke anymore and his Grandmother had
moved in to help run the house. Paul was told his mother was ill, but that he should not worry and
should work hard. Paul enjoyed the Hitler Youth group he was part of so much. They practised
sport and planning for war and did useful jobs and learnt first aid.
GB4 1943
The town in which Paul lived was bombed by the Americans and British. Thousands of people died
and Paul, with his other friends in the Hitler Youth, were required to run errands, help at first aid
posts and keep watch over damaged properties. Their family house was so badly damaged, that
they had to move out and live with his aunt on the other side of town. News about the war was not
so exciting as it had been, but Paul knew that Hitler would protect them and that the struggle would
be hard, but Germany would win.
GB5 1944
Food began to run short and the winter was hard. Many families were homeless due to bombing
and it seemed as though everyone had lost someone. Paul’s mother was still frail of health, but
better than she had been. His grandmother remained the person who kept the house going. Paul
never spoke to her about the war. He loved her, but could not understand why she did not seem to
love Hitler as much as she should. He had a feeling she did not think Germany would win the war.
School was suspended and Paul spent all his time with the Hitler Youth group being as helpful as he
could be.
GB6 Early 1945
American troops arrived and took over the town. Leading Nazis in the area were arrested. Paul and
his Hitler Youth friends were rounded up and told that the war was nearly over and Germany was
defeated. Paul’s mother seemed to be recovering well. He was so confused. How could this have
happened? Why did the Americans talk about Hitler and Germany as evil?
GB7 Later 1945
Hitler was dead. Paul was back in school. There were new teachers who told them that what they
had been taught in school was evil and wrong. They were forced to watch films of victims in
concentration camps. Some Germans were saying these were fictional films made by the Americans.
Overall, the American troops were not too bad. They even gave you chocolate if you were prepared
to be helpful.
German woman – 1939
Anna Berger was twenty three when war broke out. She lived in Berlin with her husband and small
children, a boy and a girl. They lived in a small flat and her husband had a job in a shop. The
announcement of war brought little change to life in Berlin. Anna and her husband were not
interested in politics. They kept themselves to themselves and were happy that he had a job which
paid enough for her to be at home with the two children while they were so small.
GW2 1940
Anna’s husband had been ‘called-up’ to join the army. However, at first he was training in Berlin and
was able to come home once a month. Life continued more or less as normal, the shops were full
and people had plenty to eat. There was lots of news from the front, but you could never trust the
news to be accurate. However, the word on the street was that the German arming was victorious
everywhere it went. Anna didn’t much care, her children were well and she wanted to keep her
family safe.
GW3 1942
Anna’s husband had marched off east with his regiment towards the Soviet Union. She occasionally
got letters, but they didn’t tell her much. He always wanted to know about life back at home and
sent love to the children. Anna had got a job in a laundry to help the family income. The children
stayed with her cousin every morning, but they were growing well.
GW4 Early 1944
Anna had had no news from her husband for over nine months. She was not sure where he was or
what had happened. There had been so much bombing of Berlin by the Allies that the population
were suffering. The laundry where Anna worked had been destroyed and she had lost her job. Her
cousin’s flat had been destroyed and she had come to live with them. Food was short and Anna did
not have the money for medicine when her little son got ill. He had died of fever and was buried in
the local cemetery with so many victims of bombing.
GW5 Later 1944
Anna’s cousin and daughter were killed in an air raid. They had been out scavenging for firewood
when the air raid sirens went, but had not made it to the air raid shelter in time. Anna took comfort
in the fact that they had been killed instantly. They had not suffered too badly. Anna still had no
word about her husband. The news on the street was that the fighting in the East was terrible.
Communication lines were broken. Anna hoped he was still alive, she thought she would know if he
was dead, but then shook herself and told herself that was romantic rubbish, she just had to keep
going … somehow. Food was very short.
GW6 Early 1945
The Soviet and German armies were fighting street by street for control of Berlin. It was not safe to
go out. Anna huddled in the cellar of the apartment building with other residents. They took turns
to go out for firewood. It was very dangerous, especially for the women. One day it was Anna’s
turn. She tied her scarf around her head under her hat to make herself look as plain as possible. She
made it to the park area, where trees had been felled and collected wood. On her way back she
turned a corner and was grabbed by two drunk Soviet soldiers. They dragged her into a cellar and
beat her, calling her Nazi scum, they raped her and threw her out on the street. Anna picked up the
firewood from the street and went home to the cellar. She told no one. This was ordinary life in
Berlin now.
GW7 Later 1945
The war was over, Hitler was dead and some law and order had been restored in Berlin. The city was
now occupied by the Russians, French, Americans and British. Only 15% of the buildings in the
centre of the city remained. Anna became one of the rubble women; women who cleared the
rubble of the bombed out city bucket by bucket. Food was very short and people had cut down all
the trees for firewood. Germany was totally defeated, had no government and did not know what
the Allies would do to them.
French woman – 1939
Irène Némirovsky was born into a wealthy Russian family in Kiev in 1903. Her family fled the
Revolution in Russia in 1917 and settled in Paris, France. Irene attended the Sorbonne university
and started writing when she was 18 years old. In 1926, she had married Michel Epstein, a banker,
and by 1939 she had two daughters. The Némirovskys had become Roman Catholic, but were not
successful in applying for French citizenship in 1938. Neverthless, by 1939 Irene was a very
successful and renown novelist.
FW2 1940
After the Germans invaded France, the Némirovsky's found themselves in an occupied country.
Irene’s husband was unable to continue working at the bank and Irène's books could no longer be
published because they had Jewish ancestry. They had fled with their two daughters to the village of
Issy-l'Evêque where they were was required to wear a Yellow star to mark them as Jews.
FW3 1941
Irene and her husband and children tried to live quietly and not gain any attention. They were
supported by friends and admirers of Irene’s work, but also were frightened to what the French
authorities might do.
FW4 1942
On July 13, 1942, Irène Némirovsky (then 39) was arrested as a "stateless person of Jewish descent"
by French police under the regulations of the German occupation. As she was being taken away, she
told her daughters, "I am going on a journey now." She was brought to a convoy assembly camp at
Pithiviers and on July 17 together with 928 other Jewish deportees transported to the German
concentration-death camp, Auschwitz. Upon her arrival there two days later, her forearm was
marked with an identification number. According to official papers at the time, she died a month
later of typhus. Subsequent records revealed that Irène was actually gassed there by the Nazis. Her
husband was sent to Auschwitz shortly thereafter and immediately put to death in a gas chamber.
FW5 1943
Irene’s children were hunted by French police, but were kept safe by friends of the family.
No one realised at the time that Irene had also been working on a novel about France under
occupation. It remained hidden (and incomplete) among family papers until rediscovered in
the 1990s, when it was published worldwide.
FW6 1944
The children continued to be hidden until the war ended in France. In France many people
were short of food and these children had lost their parents. In August 1944 France was
liberated, following the Allied landings in Normandy at D-Day, 6th June 1944. There was
much anger in France, some people had helped the occupying Germans, some had resisted,
most had just tried to get on with their lives and tolerated the evil regime which ruled them.
FW7 1945
The children found out the fate of their parents and were adopted by friends. The French
people were among the most enthusiastic supporters of Nazi Jewish policies if the Jews in
question were not French citizens. At the same time, many French Jews had survived.
However, the children were Roman Catholics, were brought up French and still live in France
today.
French man – 1939
Maurice Papine was a policeman in Paris in 1939. He had been born in a small village in Normandy
in a large family and had done fairly well at school. When he was 17 he had traveled to Paris and
joined the police force. He was soon spotted as a hard-working recruit with a talent of
administration. By 1939 he was head of a police section.
FM2 1940
Maurice continued to be a policeman after the invasion of France. He worked for the same French
boss who now reported to a German SS officer. Maurice continued to work hard. The German
command was impressed by his commitment to hard work and organisational skill. He was
particularly commended for his thoroughness in registering the Jewish population in his sector of
Paris.
FM3 1942
Maurice had been promoted within the police and was now in charge of the control and deporting
of Jews from the Paris region. His French and German superiors continued to be pleased with his
exemplary organisation and thoroughness. He led a very strong team who followed up leads given
about hidden Jews and kept good records. At the end of 1942 he was promoted to police chief in his
sector of Paris. He now answered directly to German officers and was pleased to be invited to visit
Germany as part of a conference of police chiefs.
FM4 1943
Maurice was living in a nice appartment in Paris. He was never popular, regarded as a little
boring by many of his colleagues, but he was hugely respected for the thoroughness of his
work. He was married by this time and he and his wife had a dog they loved to take for
walks along the Seine.
FM5 early 1944
Maurice began to be worried by reports that the Allies were planning an invasion of France. It was
increasingly clear that the German army was being beaten in the East by the Soviet Union. If the
German control of France collapsed, what would become of Maurice. It was hardly to be expected
that the Free French returning from exile in London would forgive him for his work with the
occupiers. He went to see his superior who reassured him that plans were being made. As long as
he moved out quietly if anything happened, they would try to protect him. After all, many
Frenchmen regarded him as a loyal public servant.
FM5 Summer 1944
France was invaded by the Allies on 6th June 1944 – D-Day – and Paris was liberated in
August 1944. In the final days of the Nazi occupation there had been fighting in the streets
and Maurice had deployed his police to keep order. All records about exactly what role they
played in the fighting somehow disappeared. There were allegations about what had
happened, but no one could provide enough evidence. Maurice lost his job and he and his
wife quietly moved to a small town outside Paris. Nothing more was said. However,
women who had collaborated with the Nazis, by becoming their lovers, were paraded
through the streets, had their heads shaved and were beaten.
FM6 1945
As the war ended, Maurice and his wife continued to live quietly in their small town. No
one bothered them. He had been responsible for the deportation of thousands of French
Jews to their deaths. By the end of 1945 he had obtained a job as clerk to the local parish
church. The local priest recognised his ability to organise and needed the local records
sorting out after all the chaos of the last few years.
Russian woman – 1939
Olga Ivanova lived in Leningrad, the second largest city in the Soviet Union. She was 19 and
worked in a steel factory. She lived with her mother and elderly grandmother in a small
apartment. Her boyfriend, Sascha was also employed at the steelworks and was a member
of the local Soviet. The family had no radio, but it was announced at the steel works that
Comrade Stalin, the great leader of the Soviet Union had negotiated with Hitler and that
Soviet forces were occupying the West of Poland to protect the Soviet Union.
RW2 Summer 1941
There was genuine shock at the news that Hitler had ordered the German invasion of the Soviet
Union. In 1939 Comrade Stalin had agreed with the German leader that the USSR and Germany
would not fight. It was clear that any German army would try to capture Leningrad. It was such a
large and important soviet city. Sascha left the steel works for the army and marched off to the
front to halt the German invasion. Olga had to work harder than ever as the women left behind had
to keep up the steel production for the war effort.
RW3 January 1942
The war had gone badly for the Soviet Union. Hitler had ordered that Leningrad would not be taken
but instead besieged and starved into total destruction. Civilians were ordered to be shot on sight if
they tried to approach German lines, and German artillery was used to make sure that German
troops didn't falter by having to shoot too many face to face. The siege had begun in September
1941 and then the harsh Russian winter also set in. Bread rations had been reduced to as little as
125 grams of bread, and people were resorting to boiling glue and other almost unbelievable things
just to get through the day. People began wasting away, collapsing on the street and being left there
to die. Olga’s elderly grandmother died in February. She and her mother began using floorboards
for firewood. It was like living in a nightmare. Extreme hunger and cold sent people delusional.
RW4 Spring/Summer 1942
The ending of winter had brought some relief, but 1000s had died. People had been reduced to
cannibalism. At the same time, Olga and her mother had been helped by a neighbour who was a
good craftsman and had mended their water boiler for free. The city was full of rumours that the
city’s leaders had remained behind barbed wire walls, keeping themselves well fed while
thousands died each day in the city around them. Olga had always been a loyal follower of
communism, now she questioned in her own mind how these men could say everyone was
equal and then ignore the suffering of the people. However, she did not speak out. She
knew to do so could lead to trouble and anyway, she was more concerned with staying alive
and worried for Sascha; about whom there was no news. Also, nothing could be worse that
what the Germans were trying to do to her city.
On August 9, 1942 the Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" of Dmitri Shostakovich was played by
the Radio orchestra of Leningrad. The score had passed the German lines by air one night in
March, 1942. The concert was broadcast on loudspeakers placed in all the city and also
aimed towards the enemy lines. This date, had been chosen by Hitler to celebrate the taking
of Leningrad, he had not succeeded, but the city was still under siege and what would the
next winter bring? Nevertheless, Olga and her mother took heart from the thought that
they were not forgotten.
RW5 January 1943
The city was still besieged, but the winter started later and in January, the soviet Army
established control of a corridor of land into the city. This meant some supplies could be
delivered. Life was still hard, but not as hard as before. One day Olga received a letter
dated November 1941. It was from Sascha and it told her he was well. It had taken over a
year to get to her.
RW6 January 1944
The siege of Leningrad was finally lifted and the Germans began to be pushed back. Olga’s
life returned to some normality. She still worked in the steel factory, which once again
began to work around the clock to produce steel for the Soviet war effort. She and her
mother regained some weight and the city began to function more normally. There was no
word from Sascha, but few of her friends had heard from their loved ones in the army
either.
RW7 Spring 1945
The Great Patriotic War was over. The Soviet Union had survived and the leader Comrade
Stalin was its hero. They heard in the factory that the victorious Soviet army had captured
Berlin. Hitler was dead and the German government had fallen. Never again would
Germany threaten the peace of the Soviet Union. Olga continued to work in the steel
factory. Her mother continued to live with her in the small apartment. She had no news of
Sascha.
Russian man – 1939
Ivan Ustinov was a 19 year old man who lived in Stalingrad. When war broke out in 1939 he
was called up into the reserve army forces. Comrade Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, had
agree with Hitler to divide Poland between Germany and the USSR. The radio broadcasts
told the people that this would protect the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, young men of
fighting age were required to train as soldiers in case of need.
RM2 Summer 1941
The Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Ivan’s reserve battalion were immediately called up
to fight to defend the motherland. They marched west to repel the invaders. The battles
went badly. 1000s of Soviet troops died and the army seemed incapable to stopping the
advance of the technologically superior German army. Ivan’s battalion fell back in retreat
after suffering heavy casualties.
RM3 August 1942
In June 1942, Hitler launched “Operation Blue”. Its aim was to capture the oil fields and the Volga
river which flowed through Stalingrad. The Germans had advanced rapidly and Hitler became
obsessed with capturing Stalingrad; the city named after his enemy, Stalin. Ivan’s battalion was
ordered to Stalingrad to defend the city where he came from. The fighting was bitter and Soviet
secret police were used to shoot anyone retreating. Despite this order, by August the battle had
reached the city itself. Ivan hoped his family had fled east to the countryside. He had no way of
contacting them. His battalion did not have enough equipment. How would they resist the
Germans? However, the commander Chuikov said, "We will defend the city or die". His determined
words were inspiring.
RM4 October 1942
Such desperate fighting had never been seen before. The Soviet Union had huge numbers
of men and Stalin demanded that they all fight to the death. By October 97% of Ivan’s
battalion were dead. The hungry survivors were absorbed into other battalions and told to
keep fighting. The German pressure was relentless, but the huge Soviet sacrifice meant
they had not yet won the city. Ivan had a reputation as a superb sniper and he was posted
to watch key German positions and shoot at anything that moved. This was what had
helped him survive. Other men were more dispensable. The life expectancy of new recruits
arriving at the front line was 24 hours. Life was a hell of endless gunfire, explosions, the yell
sounds of dive bombers and Katyusha rockets, smoke, dust, rubble, hunger, the smell of
death everywhere, and exhaustion and fear.
RM5 February 1943
Hitler had underestimated the Soviet Union. They had launched a huge counter-attack in
November and succeeded in cutting off the German forces at Stalingrad from the rest of the
German army. They then fought through the winter to crush the German forces, who were
ordered not to surrender. 1000s died, and Ivan lost count of the number of men he had
killed. He was sick and tired; he had become a killing machine, but what was the
alternative. To let the Germans take Stalingrad was unthinkable. They showed no mercy,
they deserved no mercy.
RM6 January 1945
Ivan was by now a veteran of some of the most terrible fighting in human history and yet he
was unprepared for what he saw on 25th January 1945. By this date the Soviets were
advancing through western Poland and they reached the small village of Oswiecem – know
as Auschwitz in German. On the outskirts of the village they discovered a huge prison camp,
almost deserted except for a few starving and diseased inmates. They had arrived at the
evacuated concentration-death camp at Birkenau. Although the Germans had tried to
destroy the evidence as they retreated, the remains of gas chambers, mass graves and a
railway line leading right into the camp were clear to see. What sort of mechanisation of
death had gone on here? The stories from the survivors told were beyond imagining.
RM7 April 1945
Ivan fought his way into Berlin with his Soviet comrades. He had lost all feeling. He was a
trained killer and these were the enemy. The Germans had killed millions of his people. He
had no idea if his family still lived. He had seen death camps built by these Nazis. As far as
he was concerned they were all Nazis. Berlin was a city to be conquered and destroyed. He
and his comrades looted where they could. When they found drink they drank it. Women
had better hide, or suffer the price of war. The victorious Soviet Union and their great
leader Stalin had defeated a terrible evil. Never again would Germany be a powerful
country.
British man – 1939
Bill Brownsell was born in 1908. His father had returned from the trenches after World War
One and had never spoken about his experiences. Bill had grown up with his brother and
sister in a small terraced house in Rotherham. He left school at 13 and trained as a skilled
plasterer. In 1929 the Great Depression brought the building industry to a halt and Bill
could find no work. He became a tram conductor; an unskilled job which paid much less,
but at least it was a job. By 1939 he was married with two small children.
BM2 August 1940
The news of the fall of France had shocked everyone. Britain was alone and the Germans
had begun their attacks on Britain. Could Britain hold out? The Americans thought it was
unlikely. In June, the British expeditionary force had been rescued off the beaches of
Dunkirk, but much of their equipment had been left behind. However, Winston Churchill
was now Prime Minister and he gave rousing speeches and said ‘we will never surrender’.
Could the RAF win the Battle of Britain? Bill wasn’t sure, Churchill was a strange chap, but
when he listened to his speeches he certainly wanted to believe it was true. He and his wife
set out the cellar of their small home as an air-raid shelter, used their ration books and
hoped for the best.
BM3 December 1940
Hitler had delayed his invasion plans, but every night the Luftwaffe were bombing British
cities. Sheltering in the cellar was so frightening and now Bill was not at home he could only
worry about what was happening. He had received his ‘call-up’ papers in November. He
had reported to the recruiting office as instructed and been conscripted into the army. He
was now undergoing basic training in military discipline and fighting. He missed home
horribly, but he had no choice.
BM4 October 1942
Bill took part in the 2nd battle of El Alamein in North Africa. The Germans had seized control
of the whole of North Africa early in the war. Winning it back was vital if the Western Allies
were to attack southern Europe. Bill, of course, was a small part of ‘the show’. He obeyed
orders and prayed his courage would not fail him, but that he would stay alive to see his
wife and children again. He believed Hitler was an evil dictator and he had to be stopped,
but he still hated fighting. In the end the battle was a straightforward matter for Bill. He and
his comrades were captured during a surprise German attack. They did not even have
chance to load their weapons. Bill became a Prisoner of War (POW).
BM5 December 1942
Bill and his comrades had been loaded onto a ship and transported to southern Italy, where
they were loaded onto a troop train. The journey was long and uncomfortable, but they
were not abused. One day the train simply stopped and there was no sound. Looking out,
Bill could see tall mountains ahead. One of the men knew that these were the Alps. It was
clear they had reached Northern Italy. Nothing happened. Bill and his comrades managed
to work open the latch on the train door and stepped outside. No one seemed to be around
and it was almost dark. They simply walked away from the train. They walked all night and
then slept in a barn until dawn. They decided to walk up to the high mountains. It was
winter, but if they could get over a pass into Switzerland, they would be free. They walked
for three nights, sleeping in barns and outbuildings during daylight hours. On the fourth day
their luck ran out. They were picked up by a German patrol in the foothills, about 15 miles
short of the border. They were lucky not to be shot. Instead they were loaded back on a
troop train and sent to Austria.
BM6 March 1945
Life in the POW camp was hard, with little food, but the prisoners were not badly treated.
They did menial jobs and got very bored. After 6 months, news of his capture had reached
home and Bill’s family began to send parcels of dried egg, toothpaste and other essentials
via the Red Cross. Then one day in March, the commanding officer of the camp told them
that they were leaving. Some of the prisoners understood enough German to gather that
the Russians were advancing. The Austrian commander advised the British POWs not to
wait around for them either. Abandoned by their captors, Bill and a few friends walked to a
local village where they stole a truck. Bill had never driven before, nor had the others, but
they managed to drive west for two days until they met the American army at Salzburg.
BM7 June 1945
Bill arrived home to Rotherham. The war ended on 8th May and he was immediately handed
to the Red Cross for repatriation. He had lost all his hair and most of his teeth, but to be
home was amazing, though also strange. Everything at home was more shabby than it had
been, rationing continued and there was significant bomb damage. His baby children were
now children at primary school. His son did not remember him.
British woman – 1939
Iris Price was a secretary in a London office when war broke out. She would never forget
the day war was declared. Neville Chamberlain, who had worked so hard for peace,
sounded distraught on the radio as he announced that Britain was at war with Germany. As
soon as he finished the air-raid siren sounded. Everyone rushed to the shelter, but it turned
out to be a false alarm. Everyone’s nerves were taut.
BW2 June 1940
For months nothing had happened. Jokers called the war ‘Sitzkrieg’. Then, in May Hitler’s
armies had invaded Western Europe. Now France had surrendered. British troops had been
rescued, exhausted from the beaches of Dunkirk. The Prime Minster had resigned and
Britain stood alone. Only the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill seemed to really
believe that Britain would not fall next. Iris had volunteered for the armed forces. Women
did not fight, but she was being trained as a radar operator. Radar was secret defence
technology. It allowed the British to know when enemy aircraft were approaching. It was
likely to be vital in defence of Britain.
BW3 September 1940
Iris was more exhausted that she had ever been. The German assault on Britain had been
going on for weeks. The German Luftwaffe was trying to destroy the RAF so that German
boats could carry the invasion troops across the Channel. The RAF was so much smaller
than the Luftwaffe, but the pilots had huge courage, good planes, and radar to help them.
Still, the situation was on the edge. The radar station where Iris worked in Kent had been
bombed. Two of the female radar operators had died. The engineers were racing to get it
repaired. Iris wondered if Hitler knew that right at this moment the whole of Britain was
undefended.
BW4 December 1940
Hitler had called off the invasion for now. The RAF had prevailed, for the time being. The
Germans had changed tactics and begun the bombing of London. Night and night, terrible
air raids hit the city. Many people were killed. Iris heard of a terribly sad story of a man
who had fought in the Western Front in 1918, been rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk in
June, who had been killed in his bed by a bomb. What a sad end! It was clear that Hitler
was trying to break the morale of the British, but they had taken hope from the victory of
the Battle of Britain and, as they sat in the air-raid shelters wondering what was happening
to their homes, they were grimly determined to resist.
BW5 January 1943
The war dragged on. Britain was now full of American GI soldiers training for some future
attack on mainland Europe. Rationing, shortage, bombing, had all become part of life. Since
America had entered the war Britain was no longer alone and the worst of the fighting was
in Russia. The Allies had recaptured North Africa, but still the war dragged on. Iris was still
in the forces and was now working on an air base in East Anglia. She and her friends
regularly dated Americans flying bombing raid to Germany, but you tried not to get too
involved in case they never came back.
BW6 September 1944
The successful invasion of Normandy in June 1944 had parted Iris from her steady boyfriend.
He had landed on the beaches in D-Day Plus 2 and was now fighting his way across northern
Europe with the Allied forces. He had written to her describing the day Paris was liberated
in August. Everyone hoped the war would end soon. The Soviets were pushing west into
Germany and the Western Allies were trying to liberate the Netherlands. There they hit
problems at Arnhem. It was clear the war could drag on into 1945 despite what everyone
hoped. Iris was engaged to her sweetheart and had plans to go and live with him in America
when it was all over.
BW7 June 1945
The war was over. Britain was exhausted, but victorious. Iris was due to leave the army and
return to her secretarial job. Rationing continued and London was a sorry sight. Iris’ fiancé
had arrived back in Britain on leave. She had talked about her plans to come to live with
him in the USA. It was then that he told her he was already married. She was devastated
and exhausted, feeling like flotsam washed up on a strange beach.
Dutch woman - 1939
Miep Santrouschitz was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909. In December 1920 she was
fostered by a Dutch family to escape food shortages in Austria after World War I. In 1933
she met Otto Frank when she applied for the post of temporary secretary in his company,
Opekta. She initially ran the Complaints and Information desk in Opekta, and was eventually
promoted to a more general administrative role. She became a close friend of the Frank
family.
DW2 May 1940
Miep, as with most Dutch people, was horrified at the German invasion of her adopted
country in May 1940. Most of the Dutch people were regarded as Aryans by the Nazis and
treated reasonably well. However, Jews, such as the Franks, were immediately subject to
persecution. They could not go to public swimming baths, they had to wear a yellow star
and soon their children could not attend school with other Dutch children. Miep regarded
all this as horrific nonsense and continued to work for Opekta and be very good friends with
the Frank family.
DW3 July 1941
Miep married Jan Gies. The Franks daughters Anna and Margot were very excited to attend
the ceremony. She had already been brave. She had refused to join a Nazi women's
association and had been threatened with deportation back to Austria. As she spoke
German as well as Dutch, she had helped the German Frank family to settle into Dutch
society. However, life for Jews was getting slowly more difficult and the war dragged on.
Although Britain remained undefeated, there seemed no chance that Hitler’s armies would
be pushed back in the near future.
DW4 July 1942
With deportations of Dutch Jews happening, Otto Frank planned to save his family. Their
dear friends, Miep Gies and her husband, were a crucial part of the plan. The Franck fmaily
went into hiding in a secret upstairs room that was not used in the company's office building
on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht from July 1942. Miep and other friends risked their lives to
supply them with food.
DW5 August 1944
Miep and the other helpers could have been executed if they had been caught hiding Jews.
On the morning of August 4, 1944, acting on information provided by an informant, the
Grüne Polizei arrested the people hidden at Frank's place of business, as well as two of the
helpers. A few days later, Miep unsuccessfully tried to bribe the Austrian Nazi officer to
release her friends. The Frank family were deported to concentration camps. Before the
hiding place was emptied by the authorities, Gies retrieved Anne Frank's diaries and saved
them in her desk drawer. She did not read them. If she had, they would have to have been
destroyed as they contained the names of everyone who had helped the Frank family. If the
Gestapo had found it first…
DW6 May 1945
The Netherlands were liberated at last. The German army surrendered to the British and
Americans. Many Dutch people had resisted the Nazis and risked their lives to save other
Dutch people, who were also Jewish. Miep was relieved it was over, but so worried about
what had happened to the Franks. She began to try to find out.
DW7 July 1945
Otto Frank survived the concentration camp and returned to the Netherlands. He knew his
wife was dead and he lived with the Gies’ while he tried to find out what had happened to
his daughters. In July the Red Cross confirmed that they had both died in Bergen Belsen
concentration camp a few weeks before it was liberated by the British army. Miep gave
Anne’s diary to her father.
Dutch man – 1939
Anton Rauter was 21 in 1939. He came from a troubled background; beaten as a child by his father,
his mother died when he was 14 years old. He dropped out of school early and was unemployed.
He was drawn to the NSB Party, the Dutch Nazi Party and enthusiastically read Hitler’s book, Mein
Kampf. He felt that the Netherlands was a weak, insignificant country. He looked up to the great
Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, who would make all Germanic people great.
DM2 June 1940
Anton was delighted when the Netherlands was invaded by the Nazis in the summer of
1940. He was so proud to get a place in the NSB paramilitary police formation named
Landwacht Niederlande. The Landwacht served as an auxiliary police force and was involved in the
rounding up of Jews, Communists and other groups deemed undesirable by the German commander
of the Netherlands and the NSB. He was angry that most Dutch people did not welcome the
advance of the Germanic race.
DM3 March 1943
Anton proved himself a willing foot-soldier for the Nazis. He was not very bright and very
unimaginative, but he made a useful thug and was good at taking orders. In March 1933 he joined
the new Dutch SS unit. The leader of the NSB was very keen for his members to join this unit. The
job of this SS unit was to defend the Netherlands from attack by the Allies. Service in the regiment
meant a better job, better money and better food. No Dutch man was allowed to be a commander
of this SS unit, but then, Anton was not the sort of person who would ever be promoted to officer
status. The unit became known as Landstorm Nederland and trained hard.
DM4 September 1944
Anton fought against the Allies in Belgium. His battalion was poorly armed and had minimal combat
experience, and so did badly during a battle against the Free-Dutch Brigade and was soon forced to
withdraw. On 17 September, the British commander Montgomery launched Operation Market
Garden an airborne offensive aimed at securing a crossing over the Rhine at Arnhem, in the centraleastern part of The Netherlands. The Landstorm's fought alongside a German battalion against the
British. They were defeated by the British at the end of the month.
DM5 February 1945
Anton was still fighting, this time trying to stop the Allied advance on the River Rhine. His regiment
were fighting in difficult conditions as land had been flooded to halt the Allies. Several of his
colleagues were distressed to find that they were fighting a Free-Dutch regiment, some of whom
were their own family members. Anton did not understand this weakness. He had no family and
remained blindly loyal to Hitler and the Nazi cause. He was pleased when some deserters were
caught and shot. This was no time for sentimental loyalty to Dutch people who did not understand
the beauty of Hitler’s aims.
DM6 May 1945
Desperate to avoid facing inevitable defeat, Anton took part in a raid on a Dutch village where
civilians were killed. He did not care. News of Hitler’s death had shocked him to his core. What was
the point of living if his dream did not survive? Although most of Anton’s regiment surrendered on 5
May 1945, he and a few other fanatics held out in the village of Veenendaal, engaging until they
were forced to surrender on 9 May to the British.
DM7 June 1945
Anton was imprisoned as a collaborator. One of his friends had been murdered in an act of revenge.
Most Dutch people were full of hatred and disgust for the few of their people who had fought with
the Germans. Anton considered killing himself, but he lacked the courage. He sat in his prison cell
awaiting his fate.