Disclaimer: Please Read

I wanted to make extra sure people were aware of what was going on in the blog. I do not condone the racial, nationalist and hateful views presented in this blog.  I try to remain objective both in presenting the facts without editorializing or assumptions and without imparting any opinions gained in hindsight.

World War II was a horrible war.  Many people died in gruesome and evil ways.  And none of it was necessary.  War is unnecessary; not a necessary evil.

As the years pass, more of our veterens and survivors are lost.  They pass on and we lose the memories they have of these extraordinary years in human history.  Even then, many people aren't even knowledgeable of the events that transpired.

In addition, those that are knowledgeable in the World War II history, may sometimes be mired in Teleology.  This is common misconception that I will explain.

Teleology comes from the concept of Telos.  Telos is an end or purpose.  It is the root of the term teleology, roughly the study of purposiveness, or the study of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions.

This roughly means that the purposes of things must also have an end.  This is applied to history with ghastly effects.  For example, a historian of the late 19th Century would have excluded the histories of a people such as an ancient European tribe because they had no role in shaping the history he thought was important in the current time and in the future histories to be written.  In other words, it would cause the marginalization of histories and peoples for no thoer reason than because they were unable to achieve the supposed pinnacle of civilization.

Though this view of history lost favor after World War II, it is no less prevelant.  We look at history as a narrative arc.  There is a beginning and an end.  The History Channel is somewhat to blame for this.  Historical documentaries can't leave things open ended but must tie things up so that the viewer isn't left feeling cheated.

So we begin to see history as a series of narratives with inevitable ends being rushed towards.  This ending is unknown however.  And even with the massive amounts of hypotheticals, no one at the time could know what the "end" was.  No one knew how things would turn out.  Things just did and they went on their merry ways.

And we need to remember this when examining events of the times.  This experiment attempts to do just that.  Although we all know that Germany loses the war, the Holocaust happened and the US dropped to Atomic bombs over two Japanese cities, the people at the time were unaware of the resolution.

Throughout the postings, I will try my best to also emulate the journalistic style of the day.  It's not easy.  Many phrases we use frequently we're not used then.  Some were used but in forms that vary slightly or are more complex than the simple phrases we use today.

Also, racial labels were used without feeling shame or guilt.  The word "negro" was not considered a slur by most of the American public, or even the world, for that matter. "Afro-American" pops up rarely.

I don't like to use them but I'd rather get the style right than clean it up for a 21st century reader.  It's important to remember how pervasive racism was.  It was everywhere.  No country was exempt.  Some had better conditions for different races but all had their problems.

One last thing: I will never say "_________" changed history.  Teleology has also instilled this idea that history was going to go one way but some factor, event, element or person changed something to make an event go a different way.  Well, if we watched some thing happen, then got in a time machine and went back to CHANGE something so that the outcome was different, then yes.  But since time machines have yet to be invented (at least no one from the future has come back to tell me that time travel has been discovered.... hmm... nope.... no one), then history cannot be changed.  So nothing will change history.

All any thing can be is a contributing factor to an outcome.  One could say that the weather changing in January 1945 in the Ardennes region was the Allies' good fortune.  They capitalized on the break in winter weather to move forward in a decisive victory against the German infantry.  Yet, I see The Weather Channel with their "When Weather Changed History" shows.  And yes, they did one on the weather in the Ardennes.  This was the Battle of the Bulge, by the way.

So read with the though that no one knows what the outcome will be.  i'll try to remain objective which is sometimes not easy.  It's difficult to write the pros of a Nazi Government but before about sometime in 1938, the German improvements brought international praise to Hitler and and the Nazis.  I can't say "yeah they turned in around but in 5 years the country would be back on its heels struggling to retain the lands it had so viciously taken".  Because in 1939, no one knew what 5 years later would look like.  So, let's keep that perspective.

I hope you enjoy this experiment and it fuels a passion for studying World War II in you.  It's a massive subject that is studied mostly be older military minded men.  This makes me as a girl, a rare commodity in the World War II community.  But I'm there.