THE WAR OF THE WORLD

PROGRAMME 3: KILLING SPACE

PROGRAMME AIMS

The programme should enable students to:

• Realise the increasing use of violence against civilians in the 20th century
• Understand the 'Living Space' policy of the Germans
• Describe the relationship between Germany and Russia during the Second World War
• Account for the level of collaboration with enemy invaders and the ability of ordinary people to commit atrocious killings
• Explain the biological basis to 20th-century violence.

BACKGROUND

Niall Ferguson shows us how the Axis powers (Germany and Japan) expanded rapidly in the late 1930s and early years of the Second World War, so that by 1941 no-one could have imagined them losing the war. Using incredible violence and complete disregard for any peoples they regarded as racially inferior, both nation-states seized foreign land in the search for more 'Living Space'. As Niall shows us in this programme, what was planned as living space soon became 'killing space'.

We hear about the Japanese involvement in China – in particular, 'The Rape of Nanjing', a brutal atrocity against the Chinese people. At Nanjing, the Japanese murdered the 260,000 inhabitants indiscriminately – men, women and children – some beheaded and some buried alive. Viewing the Chinese as subhuman, the Japanese even boasted of their actions in newspapers.

In Germany, Russia and Japan at this time, there was a biological basis to violence, with some people being seen as vermin to be exterminated. The killing of civilians was legitimised, and humiliation was seen as almost as important as killing. Rape was a major weapon of war, with between 8,000 and 20,000 sexual assaults on women at Nanjing alone.

In Germany, Hitler's dream was of a European empire, and he planned to achieve this by clearing away racial inferiors and political opponents to make space for resettled 'true' Germans. He planned to redraw the racial map of Europe completely. Poland became the first colonial country of the Reich, and Niall shows us how towns were cleared of Jews and other Poles who questioned the Nazi regime. The plan was then to repopulate these towns with Germans, and they even employed women to kidnap blonde, blue-eyed Polish children to be 'Germanised' and resettled with German families.

Germany and Russia collaborated at the beginning of the war in order to carve up Poland between them, and on both sides a reign of terror led to the mass murder of Jews and political opponents. Between February and June 1940, over a million Poles were transported to labour camps in Russia. Hitler had always hated the Russians and communists and, unknown to Stalin, he had already planned an attack on Russia, code-named 'Operation Barberosa'. The resulting battle was a bloodbath that killed millions.

Niall asks us to consider how ordinary soldiers, police officers and civilians were able to take part in unbelievably violent killings, often against people they knew. He examines the fact that many people collaborated with the enemy in the hope of better treatment.