ALAN TAYLOR - Historic photos of World War II: Before the War

By Dilip -

The years leading up to the declaration of war between the Axis and Allied powers in 1939 were tumultuous times for people across the globe. The Great Depression had started a decade before, leaving much of the world unemployed and desperate. Nationalism was sweeping through Germany, and it chafed against the punitive measures of the Versailles Treaty that had ended World War I. China and the Empire of Japan had been at war since Japanese troops invaded Manchuria in 1931. Germany, Italy, and Japan were testing the newly founded League of Nations with multiple invasions and occupations of nearby countries, and felt emboldened when they encountered no meaningful consequences.

German-made Stuka dive bombers in flight above Spain on May 30, 1939, during the Spanish Civil War. AP Photo

The Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, becoming a rehearsal of sorts for the upcoming World War -- Germany and Italy supported the nationalist rebels led by General Francisco Franco, and some 40,000 foreign nationals traveled to Spain to fight in what they saw as the larger war against fascism. In the last few pre-war years, Nazi Germany blazed the path to conflict -- rearming, signing a non-aggression treaty with the USSR, annexing Austria, and invading Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, the United States passed several Neutrality Acts, trying to avoid foreign entanglements as it reeled from the Depression and the Dust Bowl years. Below is a glimpse of just some of these events leading up to World War II...

(This entry is Part 1 of a weekly 20-part retrospective of World War II)

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-before-the-war/100089/


Picasso's Guernica still screams the truth about war - Jonathan Jones


Hitler's annihilation of the Romanis (the Gypsies of Europe)


Book review: A New History of the Second World War


Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944). Shrabani Basu on the spy who saved Europe


Sophie Scholl and the White Rose 


The Short, Daring Life of Lilya Litvyak; the world’s first female fighter ace


Irina Rakobolskaya Member of the all-female Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Red Army, dies at 96. RIP comrade


Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919-2010) : Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968   


Abolish War - Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955


Journey To A War by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood (1939)


Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China - the Japanese Army's site for "medical experimentation" on prisoners of war


Greg Mitchell - 75 years ago: When Leo Szilard tried to halt dropping atomic bombs over Japan


A universal appeal for humanity to end militarism and stop war


Hiroshima Peace Declaration on 72nd A-bomb anniversary


The Critical Zone of Science and Politics: Steve Paulson interviews Bruno Latour


Book review: The Lovers Who Led Germany’s Resistance Against the Nazis


Ordinary people. The courage to say NO



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