World War II syl...

Here it is...the lowdown on WW II/Europe...the picture you see above is Langemark German Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium, where Corporal Adolf Hitler was wounded during his service with the Kaiser's army.



History 386—World War II in Europe
Washington State University
Fall ’11
B. Farley


“Let this tale live forever
In our hearts, forever heard!
Lets its memory be our conscience.”

Yuri Voronov


CONTACT INFO: My office is along Faculty Row in West Building—I can never remember the letter or number. It IS along the left hand side, that much I can tell you. When I am not here, I am at the ancestral estate in Pendleton, Oregon. phone 541-276-6962. In cyberspace, I can be reached at bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu AND brigitf2001@yahoo.com SEND EMAIL TO BOTH ADDRESSES. You can call my ancestral estate in Pendleton, but leave that for emergencies—I hate the phone because it always manages to intrude on something important. OFFICE HOURS: 24/7 via email—I try to answer every email at least by the next morning. In person, Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4 pm or just after second class at 7 pm. Feel free to get in touch however suits you.
Course Information: As a 20th century enthusiast, I have always been interested in the second world war. In many respects, it is the defining event of this century—just ask my dad, or any other veteran you can find—unless you count World War I, a major antecedent, if not cause, of the second conflict. I spent a semester between undergrad and graduate school in Leningrad,(now St Petersburg) USSR, one of the great symbols and survivors of this conflict; stories of defiance, courage and depravity told by people I knew there made a tremendous impression on me twenty years ago. Since that time, I have gone on to visit many of the key cities on the eastern front—Moscow, Kiev, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd(Stalingrad), Debrecen, Budapest—and do most of my graduate work on the immediate origins of the war. So you could say it has left its mark on me.
Like its predecessor, World War I, World War II is a conflict that engulfed the entire globe. This course will, however, be limited to Europe, as it proved impossible to design a one-semester offering that would cover both. And it will necessarily focus on Nazi Germany, since without Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, there would never have been a war. It was the lessons they drew from Germany’s defeat in World War I, indeed their refusal to accept that defeat, that drove them and informed all their actions from the foundation of the Nazi party in the l920s. They sought “space” for the German people and obsessed about “race,” what they termed “Aryan” and “non-Aryans.” The Aryans were to have the space at the expense of all the other “races.”

Objectives: Since this is pretty much a brand-new course, I have the most basic goals in mind. At the end, you should be able to discuss generally the primary and secondary causes of this conflict. You should know which countries were in the Axis camp and which in the Allied. You should be able to explain the objectives and strategies each side had/used from September l939 through May l945, with particular emphasis on the Nazi campaign against the Jews and “undesirables” inside and outside of Germany. Finally, you should be able to sketch the outlines of the Cold War that was to follow the Hot war. In other words, who spoiled the l945 peace?
At all times, we should remember what Curt Silberman, a distinguished lawyer and refugee from Nazi Germany, stressed in founding the Silberman seminar I attended at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum this summer: the dangers of a group of fanatics getting control of a major state apparatus. Silberman and his wife came to maturity in a democracy, only to see that democracy hijacked and smashed by Hitler and co., who never made a secret of their objectives. Democracy is fragile, something that requires vigilance and active defense.
Readings: The basic text, The Second World War, is written by my favorite Brit, Martin Gilbert. He did a fantastic survey of World War I, and so we are giving him a chance to do the same with WWII. His text is monumental and contains a lot of info about the war in the Pacific and elsewhere, but I don’t think that will hurt you. I chose the other readings before I had to redo completely this entire syllabus, but they will work anyway. First, Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone. There is a tendency to think everyone embraced the lunacy of the Nazi regime and the war it started wholeheartedly. Here is someone who didn’t. Anne Frank’s diary is probably the first significant work about the murder of the European Jews and paved the way for a great many survivors to write their own accounts. Last time I looked, I didn’t know whether it was available, but How We Lived Then will give you some idea of what Great Britain endured during the Blitz and the remainder of the Second World War. Don’t forget that all of these nations had just endured what they believed to be their greatest trial 20 years previously in the Great War. It is almost unimaginable to realize that they had to go through the fire again when not even a generation had passed. I have listed some recommended reading for those wishing to go into greater depth on one or other topics covered in the course. This is a selective list, drawn from books I have found most useful and/or interesting.
Essential website: Since so much of the war focuses on the Nazi campaign in eastern Europe, you won’t be surprised to discover that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an excellent website full of essential info and resources. We will be using it quite a lot in class, but you should explore it on your own, too: ushmm.org
Evaluation: Again, rather basic since this is the first offering of 386. We will have one in-class midterm exam after the conclusion of part II(40%) and a second during finals, at the regularly scheduled time(60%). Each exam will feature a documentary component, a few multiple-choice items and a choice of essay questions, some of which you will see in advance. A little shake-up of the exam routine this term, for those of you who were here last year.
Class rules: Not very many. Attendance is strongly urged, but not required…only you can determine how best to get maximum value for that tuition money. I will do my best to give good value for money, but you have to do your part, too. One hard and steadfast rule is Don’t cheat. This means don’t take advantage of your classmates, don’t pass off others’ work as your own and above all, DON’T PLAGIARIZE. Taking material off the web or other sources is the same as stealing other people’s property, even worse since this is CREATIVE property. Cheating WILL land you in the University disciplinary system, a place you really do not want to be, so DON’T DO IT.

A Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.

Schedule…this is tentative since WWII in Europe is fundamentally a new course. There is no timeline because I don’t know yet how long each section will go…you have to get through a course once to get a feel for this.


The beginnings: The “World War” and its aftermath


Snapshots from the meatgrinder

Armistice and peacemaking

Postwar: the “winners” l9l9-1933

The “losers,” l9l9-l933.

Decade of dictators: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini

The not-so-odd couple: The Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact and its aftermath


Readings: Gilbert, The Second World War, chapters 1- 15, German invasion of Poland through German Invasion of Russia; start Fallada and “How we lived then.”
Recommended readings: Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm; John F. Kennedy, Why England Slept. That’s right, President Kennedy—this was his senior thesis at Harvard. Also, Ian Kershaw, Hitler, volume 1, “Hubris.” His bio is probably the most complete of all accounts of Hitler.
Recommended film: “Gallipoli,” the classic account of the Anzac slaughter in the Bosphorous, l9l5. It will tell you a lot about why no one outside of Germany could bear the thought of another war after l9l9.


The War, part I: The “Bad Boys’” interregnum, l939-41, and the launch of the struggle for “Lebensraum.”

T-4 program and the shape of things to come

The fourth partition of Poland, the “Sitzkreig” and the “blitzkrieg” of western Europe.

Their finest hour: Britain and the Blitz

Barbarossa: the invasion of the Soviet Union

The “Holocaust by Bullets”

EXAM #1 after this section.


Readings: Gilbert, chapters 17-38, “Terror in the East,” through “D-day, June l944.” Continue with Fallada and “How we lived then. “
Recommended readings: Death in the Forest, the grisly story of the Katyn forest murders; Joachim Fest, Hitler, probably the best of the one-volume Hitler bios; Jan T. Gross, Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of West Ukraine and Byelorussia; Dmitrii Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. This is the best biography of Stalin we have to date.


The War, part II: Allies vs. Axis, Axis vs. Allies(and Jews)

USA, USSR, UK: the marriage of convenience and the grand strategy

What happened when the Nazis came: Russia, France, Amsterdam, Poland

The search for a second front in Europe: North Africa and Sicily

Stalingrad and the “turn of the tide.”

The “final solution:” debut of the death camps, l942


Readings: Finish Gilbert; continue with Fallada; finish “How we lived then;” read Anne Frank and finish it.
Recommended readings: Richard Overy, Russia’s War: Blood Upon the Snow; Harrison Salisbury, 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. All the heroism and depravity of that terrible time in one thick tome. You really should read at least part of it. There are dozens and dozens of great survivors’ accounts out there, accounts of the camps and deportations…see me if you are interested.
FILM: Au revoir les enfants(Goodbye, Children!).
Recommended films: “Enemy at the Gates,” the cinematic version of one deadly sniper confrontation in the bombed-out ruins of Stalingrad. It just came out on video August l5.
Alfred Hitchcock fans will want to revisit “Lifeboat,” with Tallulah Bankhead. It comes on AMC occasionally. You might understand it a lot better after this class…
Film: “Au revoir, les enfants(Goodbye, children)


The War, part III: Nazis go home!

The “Big four” and the peace conferences

Operation Overlord: Planning and execution of the invasion of Europe

Russians move west, as liberators and conquerors

The Road to Berlin: liberation of Paris, battle of the Bulge, the last weeks

The fall of Berlin, victory in Europe and the outlines of a new war.

The “gifts” Hitler gave us


Readings: Finish Fallada and any reading you haven’t yet done.
Recommended readings: Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won; Gerhard Weinberg, A World at Arms. That last is probably the best book ever written on this war, certainly the most comprehensive.
Film: “Europa, Europa”

Recommended films: “Saving Private Ryan,” of course,; also “Patton,” George C. Scott’s best-ever role, as the famous American general. the Bob Knight of the second world war. Alec Guinness in “Hitler: the Last Ten Days” is similarly impressive.


Final exam TBA at the appointed time