History 101: Why Great Britain is Responsible for World War II

World War II.

The greatest conflict in human history.  And by greatest, I mean World War II claimed more human lives then any other conflict in the history of the world.  It is estimated that over 60,000,000 people died as a result of the conflicts of World War II.  Of those 60,000,000, it is only estimated that 25,000,000 of those were soldiers.  That leaves an estimated 35,000,000 civilians that lost their lives during World War II.  As a society we have spent a lot of effort and time remembering the 6,000,000 Jews who died in the Holocaust during World War II, but even that leaves another 29,000,000 civilians who died.  And after reading this BLOG post, you will see why not only is France complicit, but Great Britain is just as responsible for their deaths as any one else in the world.

After the atrocities of World War I, it would have seemed obvious that the entire world would have done anything necessary to avoid a conflict of that magnitude.  When the United States, France and Great Britain sat down in Versailles to discuss the terms of Germany's surrender (without Germany at the table), the world thought this would be a seminal moment in which the world's greatest powers could create a document that would guarantee a lasting peace and prevent more German aggression.  Instead, the document they produced shamed Germany and its people.  Even though United States President Woodrow Wilson came to Versailles hoping to negotiate a reasonable treaty that would engender support throughout Europe.  His fourteen point plan aimed to rebuild Europe and make sure everyone played nicely together.  But the French Prime Minister, George Clemenceau, came to the table with little more then revenge and a weakened Germany on his mind.  The French delegation had little more on their mind beyond humiliating and castrating Germany.  For their part, the other major world power at the Paris Peace Conference, Great Britain was more middle of the road.  They hoped to secure security for their French neighbors, while making a statement against the Germans.  But as David Lloyd George said, it was difficult being put in between "Jesus Christ and Napoleon," which is how the world saw Woodrow Wilson and George Clemenceau.  One wanting a friendly peace, and the other seeking redemption and vengeance.  In the end, while Great Britain did not advocate for locking down the Germans, they did side with them on most points.  And Germany was tagged with paying steep reparations, being fully demilitarized, being disallowed from having any military in the Rhineland and admitting singular guilt for the entirety of the war.  I am of the personal opinion that Great Britain was more at fault for World War I, too, but that is a different BLOG post.  But because Great Britain did not want to stand up to France and advocate for a treaty that made sense, Germany was given everything they needed to set the stage for World War II.  It also worth mentioning that the League of Nations, a powerless precursor to the United Nations, was formed at this time.  The goal of the LON was to prevent large scale conflict through negotiations and boycotts.  More on that later.

So you're thinking, "that's it?  That is why you think Great Britain is responsible for 60,000,000 deaths?"  -- No, of course not.  Read on.

We all know now that Adolph Hitler was a soldier in World War I, and when the Treaty of Versailles was shoved down the throats of everyone in Germany, Hitler was in a war hospital.  He emerged from that hospital angry and

geared for restoring Germany's "rightful place" in the world.  He, and millions of Germans with him, felt the German government sold out the German people.  The admission of guilt for the war was the thorn in the side of every German in 1919.  But as Hitler began his slow, and ultimately legal climb into the seat of power in Germany, he had one goal in mind: to restore Germany to its seat at the top of the world.  And while he was doing it, he wanted to make sure the France and Great Britain would pay for their sins against Germany.  

As mentioned above, the Treaty of Versailles explicitly prevented Germany from having a military.  They were allowed a national police force for domestic use, but nothing that could be considered a threat to its neighbors.  However, as Hitler's star was on the rise in Germany, so was its military.  As Hitler gained more power, he knew that he would need a strong military to achieve his goals.  But he also knew that if he built an army overnight, the world would notice -- and object.  So Hitler pushed his agenda with tempered patience while testing how far he could go against the world community.  It is worth noting at this point that not only was Germany forbidden from having a "military force", and from having any weapons of aggression or troops in the Rhineland, but France and Great Britain were tasked with defending the Treaty of Versailles.  If Germany was seen to have violated the military or Rhineland clause, both France and Germany has the right and duty to invade Germany.  But that isn't all -- in 1925, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany entered into the Treaty of Locarno.  This treaty did several things to try and heal the wounds between France and Germany, but most importantly brought all these countries together in agreement regarding the status of the Rhineland. That it is and should remain a buffer between France and Germany.

The League of Nations was the brain child of Woodrow Wilson, and when it was formed he was seen as a great peace maker.  Unfortunately, the League of Nations was largely inept because it lacked any real force in its threats.  Of its original 24 members, the United States, Russia and half of Europe were not members.  And while it was successful in mediating a few small disputes, it could not and did not have any impact in real conflicts - even with Great Britain and France as members.

In 1934, Hitler and his top officials gave the French press information that confirmed that Germany was building an Air Force and a strong military.  Hitler allowed this leak of information to see what France, Great Britain and the rest of the world would do about it.  The world did nothing.  Great Britain complained, France sweated a little but in the end nothing came of it.  Both countries cited Hitler's speeches regarding a united Europe and a lasting peace in their inaction.  But it is worth noting that at this time, both France and Great Britain could have stepped in.  Both chose no to do so.  By this time, the strained kinship between Mussolini and Hitler was starting to show on the international stage.  But as Hitler was moving up the world, the arrogant and self-interested Mussolini was on the way down.  And in 1935, to show that Italy was still a world class power he invaded Ethiopia.  Now, this invasion was obvious more complex then that - but that isn't what this BLOG post is about.  What is important about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 is that the Italians used chemical weapons and the League of Nations was powerless to do anything about it.  And Hitler watched with great interest as the Italians annexed Ethiopia with little international resistance.  And by this time, Italy and Belgium had backed out of the Treaty of Locarno which set the stage for Hitler's next move.

And Hitler's next move was to take back his own land.  On March 7, 1936, Hitler ordered 19 German infantry battalions and a handful of planes to enter and occupy the Rhineland.  By doing so, it was the most audacious violation of the Treaty of Versailles to date.  What is interesting about this is that while the world was up in arms regarding this "invasion", Great Britain's position was that Germany was simply "tending their back yard" and it was fine.  Great Britain also cited Hitler's promise of a non-aggression pact with France.  What they did not know was that Hitler had told his generals that if they encountered any resistance, to pull out and fall back into Germany.  This would have signaled the end of the rise of the Reich, but Hitler knew he was greatly outnumbered and could not win a fight.  In essence, he was bluffing.  In fact, there were hundreds of battalions of French troops on the border who could have stepped in and pushed the Germans back with little resistance.  But France was nervous, and when they turned to Great Britain -- Great Britain did not have the resources to help.  France did not want to stand alone in the fight, and there was no one there to help.  If Albert Lubron had known that Hitler was testing the waters, and that he was not militarily ready for a conflict, the world would be a very different place today.  If France and Great Britain had lived up to their obligations in 1935 or 1936, the entirety of World War II could have been avoided -- or if not avoided, very different.  Instead, Hitler poked at the Treaty of Versailles again and found it to be an empty document.  

What the eastern European powers took away from the move into the Rhineland was that they were on their own against Hitler.  That it was clear that France lacked the will to fight, and Great Britain lacked the ability.  This played into the Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact of August, 3 1939.  Hitler essentially said, "Hey Russia, no worries.  I'm not coming after you..." when in reality, Russia was the biggest prize that Hitler never won.  Most likely, the reason he lost the war.  But when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 it became undeniably clear that Hitler had more on his mind then simply tending his own backyard.  His pact with Russia kept Stalin from taking action to protect Poland, because they had a pact -- right?  Stalin can't defend Poland, and Hitler isn't coming any further east.  But Stalin wasn't fooled, and he began to amass troops along his western border -- just in case.  And, as we know now, Germany attacks Soviet positions in Eastern Poland on June 22, 1941 officially declaring war on Russia.  In this series of events, one can see how important Hitler's move into the Rhineland going unchecked was as the world rolled towards war.

Yes, I know I led this BLOG blaming Great Britain for the deaths of 60,000,000 people.  In reality, both Great Britain and France are effectively equally culpable in not taking action to put Hitler and Germany in check in the 1930s.  What if France had been more reasonable at the Paris Peach Conference?  What if Great Britain had stood up to France?  What if France had stood up when they knew the Germans were building a military force?  What if Great Britain had backed France after the Rhineland invasion?  What if France has simply stood their ground in Rhineland?

The questions are unending, and hindsight is always 20/20.  But as the world continually blames the United States for invading this country or that one, or becoming involved in conflicts that they should not be in, it is worth considering these questions.  What if someone -- France, Great Britain, Russia... what is someone had stood their ground in 1935 or in 1936?  How many lives would have been saved in the long run?  So yes, I place the blame for 60,000,000 people losing their lives in World War II at the feet of Great Britain and France.


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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel

History 101: Nazi Germany, Hitler and the Night of the Long Knives

Hitler's rise to power was not as meteoric as many people believe.  Hitler began his long climb towards ultimate power in the early 1920's, and even though he served some time in jail and skirted the law on a number of occasions he was ultimately granted power over Germany based on the letter of the law.  Yes, that's right, he did not take over the government, rule over Germany was willingly and legally given to him.  There were a number of hurdles that he had to overcome, and some of those were internal within his own followers.  As he cleared each milestone in his rise to power, and went from position to position as the Nazi party continued to gain power, Hitler aligned with individuals or groups and then shed them as they were no longer needed.  The biggest "step" in which Adolf Hitler turned his back on people who had supported him and helped him rise to the level he was at, in the moment, is now referred to as the "Night of the Long Knives."  Hitler had gone as far as he felt he could with the support of the Nazi Storm Troopers (the SA) and their four million members.  Within the SA there were a number of people who took his previous propaganda push too seriously, and Hitler felt these people and their supporters had to be eliminated.  In spite of it being impossible for him to have reached the position he had in 1934, on June 30th Hitler launched a bloody purge of everyone that he felt could become a threat to his gaining ultimate power in Germany.  

In the early 1920s, Hitler's Nazi party great quickly with millions of angry and resentful Germans.  These supporters leaned heavily towards hating the Jews, the democratic government and any leftist thinking.  And after Germany resumed the payment of World War I reparations as dictated in the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler harnessed all that anger and attempted a military takeover of the German government called the "Beer Hall Putsch."  Even though it enjoyed initial success, the Putsch ultimately failed and landed Hitler in jail for five years for high treason.

While in Landsberg jail, Hitler worked on his speaking skills and his masterwork, "Mein Kempf".  While in jail, Hitler recognized that the only way to truly rule Germany and bring her back to her rightful place on top of the world was to do it legally.  He was released after serving only nine months because of political pressure.  Once released, he reorganized the Nazi party and began building support for gaining control over the government through legal channels.  Hitler ran for President against President Hindenberg, only to lose.  However, support was growing.  Hindenberg and others in the government saw Hitler as a threat and chose to keep him close.  After much wrangling and dealing, Hindenberg appointed Hitler as chancellor and a part of his cabinet.

Unfortunately, Hindenberg underestimated Hitler.  When the Reichstag building burned, Hitler used the clearly staged tragedy to call for new general elections.  One of the more powerful Nazi leaders, Hermann Goering, led the German police in suppressing party opposition during this election to help the Nazi party gain more power in the Reichstag and continue to grow the party power base.  And then in 1934, President Hindenberg died and Hitler took power as the Fuhrer through the Enabling Acts.

Hitler was concerned that the brownshirted SA soldiers might not like that he was not going to lead a second revolution, that his power was simply to be declared and no one else would share in it.  In February of 1934, he

holds a meeting where he declares that the SA would not be the elite military force of Germany, that they would only be a police force to be used when needed.  SA leader Ernest Rohm was a a World War I veteran, and saw Hitler as nothing more than an ambitious corporal who served in the war and pushed his way to power.  Rohm saw a military coup coming, and he saw the SA as leading the way.  Hitler was aware of this, and knew that and saw the SA as a real threat to the future of Nazi Germany.  Hitler decided to meet Rohm one on one to address the situation.  On June 4th, 1934 Hitler and Rohm met for over five hours of heated discussion and argument.  The results of this meeting were to have the SA go on leave for the entire month of July, and Rohm would be taking a leave of absence for a "personal illness."  This was to be followed up with a meeting between Hitler, Rohm and the rest of the leadership of the SA at the end of June.  Instead, on June 30, 1934 Hitler launched his internal cleansing.

At 6:30AM Hitler went to Ernst Rohm's hotel room and, after accusing him of treason, Hitler placed Rohm under arrest.  At 10:00AM Hitler placed a call to Goring, gave him the prearranged codeword "Kolibri" (hummingbird) and that signaled a full assault on everyone Hitler felt was a threat.  The SS was let lose in Berlin and twenty other cities across Germany.  The SS execution squads alone with Goring's own private police, the Gestapo, SA leaders and dozens of others on the "enemies list" or "Reich List of Unwanted Persons" were rounded up and executed.  Some of those included were: Gregor Strasser, one of the original party founders but had fallen out of favor with Hitler over political differences; Kurt von Schleicher, former chancellor of Germany; Gustav von Kahr, who opposed Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch; Father Bernhard Stempfle, a priest who helped edit Mein Kempf and "knew too much" about Hitler's relationship with Geli Raubal and the SA leader Karl Ernst, who was shot along with three other SA men who were thought to be responsible for burning the Reichstag.

Given the long list of prominent and known figures who were brutally slaughtered, and the sheer numbers of those executed, this could hardly be kept quiet.  On July 13, Hitler addressed the Reichstag:

"In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people.  I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason, and I further gave the order to cauterize down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the wells in our domestic life.  Let the nation know that its existence -- which depends on its internal order and security -- cannot be threatened with impunity by anyone!  And let it be known for all time to come that if anyone raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot."

And with that, and cabinet approval of the sterilization of those seen as enemies of the state by his cabinet, Adolf Hitler legally murdered everyone whom he saw as a threat to his power. 

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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel

History 101: Nazi Experimentation and Planned Parenthood

Warning: this BLOG post gets a little political, if you are easily offended then move on.  This post requires you to be able to think and not be narrow minded.

History is one of those funny things... people hear things, or someone teaches them something in school and they make a lot of assumptions based on that little tidbit of information and forget some absolute truths about the world.  One of those absolute truths is that: history happened and is not changeable.  Great, right?  Well... another absolute truth is that: history is written by the victor.  

Whoa.  What does that mean?  In a nutshell, the history you learn in school may or may not be actually what happened on a granular level.  The big picture is usually fairly accurate like...  The Allied powers were victorious in World War II... the colonies won the Revolutionary War.... An Allied Coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq and Kuwait in 1990...  these things are true enough.  However, we are also told that whomever lost was irrevocably bad or evil... as an example, Great Britain fought to hold the American colonies and tried to beat them into submission for a time.  However, there came a point in the war when the King looked at the overall value of the colonies to Great Britain and decided that he was going to stop sending everything and the kitchen sink to North America to hold the land.  Yes... it is true.  While it is irrevocably true that the camp at Valley Forge and the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse was a turning point of the war and that Washington and his men are heroes -- it is also true that in the last 12-18 months of the war the Colonial Army was not fighting the same Great Britain they did initially.  And this leads me into the point of this BLOG -- we were taught that the Holocaust was 100% bad and evil, and that no good came from it.  Please do not misunderstand me at all: the Holocaust was an atrocity in human history that is unrivaled in its callous disregard for human life.  However, one must also recognize that there were scientific and medical discoveries that came from this disregard of human life.

What did I just say?  Did I just justify the Holocaust?  No, I did not.  What I did was recognize that there were positive things that came out of torturing and murdering innocent people.  And -- let me be clear -- I am not saying that the ends justify the means.  So... why am I writing this BLOG at all?  This is why...

The comedienne and actress Sarah Silverman tweeted a justification for Planned Parenthood's practice of selling parts of aborted babies.  I am not here to debate the breadth and scope of this practice, but it is been proven to be true many times over so don't bother posting that it is a creation of the conservative spin doctors - it isn't.  In addition, I am not posting this to debate whether or not an unborn baby is a human or not.  This post is not here to allow you to sleep better at night knowing you are for "women's rights" because you justify the slaughter of human babies by calling them a fetus.  Different words don't change reality.  Accept that, for the purposes of this BLOG post, unborn babies are unborn babies.  

So, Sarah says, "Abortion is still legal in the great U.S of A. It would be insane not to use fetal tissue 4 science & education in such cases" with the hashtag to support Planned Parenthood.  I won't type it, because I do not support them and don't want someone to accidentally think I do.  This sounds reasonable if the babies had donated their lives to science voluntarily, but they did not.  So we move on to Ben Shapiro's reply, "Killing Jews was legal in Nazi Germany. It would have been insane not to use their skin for lamps."  Ouch... right?  Last night I tweeted something similar in support of Shapiro's tweet saying, "Based on a tweet I just read, I think @benshapiro is my new hero... the lamp thing... boom."  I tweeted that because the honesty and brutality of what Ben Shapiro was suggesting was so dead on in relation to Sarah Silverman's tweet, that I just had to say something... even something as silly as that.  Little did I know that I'd be bombarded overnight with hundreds of replies, favorites and retweets -- and even a couple of new followers.  Great... but there were a few detractors from what Ben had said, and my response to it.  One in particular suggested that the analogy was not apt.  That, "Comparing saving countless lives to making an inanimate object out of Skin?" was not comparable.  Well, on the surface I agree.  The making a lamp out of human skin is not an apt comparison to the ability to use fetal tissue to potentially save lives in the future someday.  So let's break this down a little... 

First, in Nazi Germany people were taken against their will -- and with their voiced objections -- and taken to work and death camps based on how well the Nazis thought they could produce for the cause.  When these people could no longer produce, they were either killed or left to die.  Many died of disease and starvation on their own, too.  But remember, these evaluations were done as they got off the trains -- people were sized up, separated and congregated based on quick evaluations.  This included those with obvious physical issues, deformities, things that made them unique or mental disabilities.  Many of these people were marched directly to their deaths, but in some cases these people were taken and used for medical testing.  And then there were the children... so many children were kept in the Nazi camps for no other reason then to test on them until they ultimately died.  All of this was legal, against their stated will -- at gun point.  Planned Parenthood offers many services to their clients, one of which is the practice of legal abortions.  This ends the development of a human life before it is born, they then take the non-living baby and sell it in parts to various people.  Let's assume for the sake of this post that they are all medical and/or scientific testing.  This is all legal -- and the baby never has a chance to voice its objection to being killed, or used for scientific purposes.

Nazis Experimenting on Children

Second, we certainly cannot argue against the pros that come from scientific research.  Without it we would have no cure for polio, smallpox, yellow fever, malaria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis... the list goes on.  So in that, Silverman has a valid point.  Where her point falls apart is that it is a human being that is being murdered and tested on without their consent.  And in this country, you cannot consent to being killed (see the euthanasia laws across the country) -- so since you cannot give consent to being murdered, the entire operation falls apart before it begins.  And to bring this all back around to Shapiro's comment about a lampshade made from the skin of a murdered Jew during World War II.  First, I'd like to state for the record, that this remains more of a rumor than a fact.  To the best of my knowledge (and feel free to correct me) no proof of this exists.  Once in a while, one pops up -- and gets tested -- and ends up being sheep intestine or some other animal skin.  However, the rumor persists that the Nazi masterminds made a few lampshades out of the skin of murdered Jews.  This comparison to Planned Parenthood selling baby parts for research is obviously slightly off-kilter.  But it is not out of hand to compare the Nazi doctors and scientists to Planned Parenthood.  In fact, there is a direct correlation.  Because as the Nazis identified people as being medical testing subjects, they did -- in fact - perform medical tests on them... without sedation... while they were awake... often killing them.  This went for the old, middle aged, children and babies.  The Nazi testing was carried out for three different reasons.  First, they did experimentation aimed at facilitating the survival of Axis military personnel.  The second area was aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for injuries and illnesses which German military and occupation personnel encountered in the field.  And lastly, they tested and experimented sought to advance the racial and idealogical tenets of the Nazi worldview.  What this meant was that they were doing anything that was necessary to keep their interests moving forward.  But out of this, came many advances and cures that we use today.  In fact, several of the diseases that I listed were cured by Nazi doctors as a direct result of the unethical testing and experimentation done during World War II.  Here is a partial list of the scientific good that came from the unethical practices in Nazi Germany:

• Determining maximum altitude for pressurization levels for parachute jumpers
• Treatments for hypothermia
• Different methods for making seawater drinkable
• New methods for performing bone grafting
• New sulfar based drugs (sulfonamide group are antibacterials that inhibit the growth of many bacteria)
• Cure and treatment for malaria
• Cure and treatment for typhus
• Cure and treatment for tuberculosis
• Cure and treatment for typhoid fever
• Cure and treatment for yellow fever
• Cure and treatment for infectious hepatitis

And this is just a partial listing... there were other positive medical and scientific advances.  There were many tests on how to counter the impact of phosgene and mustard gas attacks -- if you know what these things do, you know how brutal all of this testing must have been.

In the end, the comparison Ben Shapiro made was partially for shock value, but made the apt correlation between Nazi medical testing and research and American medical testing and research.  And, one can extrapolate the idea that if you are at peace with what Planned Parenthood is doing, then you must also be at peace with what Nazi Germany did.  I have no problem with people who donate their bodies to science upon their natural death.  However, you simply cannot refer to abortion as a natural death.  And, as I stated above, if you are an abortion supporter under the guise of women's rights -- and that helps you sleep at night -- then this post will be irrelevant to you in a factual sense because you dismissed the premise from the get-go.  But... reality is what it is whether you choose to accept it or not... and abortion ends a life just as it has begun.  And the sale of tissue from a non-living human who did not consent to the test is immoral and wrong, whether it was done legally by Nazi Germany or legally by Planned Parenthood in the United States.

One should never look to what is legal to determine morality.  Murdering Jews was legal... murdering Africans in America was legal... slavery was legal... Blacks in America were deemed not-human, in fact, the United States Supreme Court held in the Dred Scott decision that blacks were not human in the same way as whites and that they never would be, women could not legally own property in America and so on and so on... laws change based on who is in power, just like teachable history changes... morality does not.

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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. 

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