Literature Review: Draft 1

World War Two from an Alternative Point of View

Adrian Rodriguez

RWS 1302
Literature Review: Draft 2

World War Two from an alternative point of view

In most cases our history books show us for the most part, the bright side of history, the

Anglo point of view, or for example in a war or conflict we always learn it from the victors or the

conquerors point of view. One great example of this is how we are used to learn history is World

War Two. World War Two was conflict that started out in Europe with the rise of power of one

nation and its ambition for world domination. In the early 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which

initiated World War Two. Our history books usually shows the perspective of the main

contributors to the war, or Allies which were the ones who came to victory. I plan to not talk

about the Allies point of view, but the Axis powers point of view either Throughout the war or

certain events. By doing this we would be aware about that specific nation's values of why they

believe what they are doing is the right thing. Learning history from another point of view is

super important because we can have a better understanding of the event that occurred.

In the article "Treaty of Versailles" by the History channel, this article would appeal to

ethos as it talks about the logic of what was going on at the time. For example, Where the

Germans right for disobeying the Treaty of Versailles? After the first the World War, Europe and

many other countries where torn apart by the devastating fight, most of Europe was in ruins and

the amount of death in this new type of warfare left millions dead. The Triple Entente know as

the Allies, blamed Germany for beginning the war, which in fact it was all the European powers

who had strong Nationalistic ideals. After the war Germany was forced to sign a treaty which

said that Germany was to take all the responsibility for all the damage and deaths during the war.

Also so many laws and restrictions were put on Germany that caused their economy to collapse,

which contributed with starting the Great Depression, also this treaty completely humiliated
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Germany which resulted in hatred and resentment throughout the German population, what

would later cause World War Two. This treaty was called the Treaty of Versailles.

"The Battle of Berlin: An Eyewitness Account" by Gerda Drews, this topic's genre type

is a typography. The Thesis of this topic explains the how German people are living and what

they are going through during and after the battle of Berlin. Gerda wants to inform people that

the German people suffered too, especially towards the end of the war as they are closer to

defeat. The intended audience is to anyone studying history or simply just an average person.

Gerda's main rhetorical appeal was pathos, as throughout her story she wants to raise awareness

of what occurred in those times. Gerda establishes credibility and appeals to ethos by informing

the reader about names and dates. In the end Gerda appeals to logos by using personal

experiences of the event.

Also another source would be "World War Two from the German point of view" has no

clear author, this source is an iconography. The thesis of this source is how the Axis powers are

going through the war. The intended audience for "World War Two from the German point of

view" is to anyone studying history. The intended audience for "World War Two from the

German point of view" is mainly to Nazi fanatics. The video appeals to pathos as it uses a

depressing tone or mood to describe or portray its information. The video's ethos is utilized by

using dates, names and locations . The video appeals to logos as it used personal accounts like

stories and quotes of the German people.

Some people believe that the Japanese where crazy for how extreme they where when it

came to fighting for their country. The Japanese has a long military history dating back to the
Literature Review: Draft 4

early seventeenth century were the Samaria would fight to the death or commit suicide if they

were to lose or be captured. In fact he article 'I Will Fight to the Last': WWII Japanese Soldier

Diary", talk about how during the Second World War many of the Japanese Imperial soldiers

especially the commanding officers, would practice the same believes as the Samurai, they

would commit suicide or fight till death. This caused a huge increase in deaths on both sides of

the war in the Pacific Theater. The Japanese were not the only ones who where fanatical about

fighting for their country, the Russians would send many of their soldiers to battle without

weapons or even kill their own soldiers for retreating. We just think that the Japanese where

crazy for doing this but it was just what they believed was right, and also it was part of their

tradition.

The bombing of civilian population was practiced by both sides the Axis and the Allied

powers, but the Allies had air superiority throughout most of the war which meant the Allies

practiced the strategic bombing of civilians at a larger scale. In the video ''WW2 from the

German Point of View'', it talks about the strategic bombing which this would appeal through

emotion using pathos because of how sad they describe the events and the tone of both the music

and the voice. The average history book sees this from a positive way that this lowered the

morale in the German population, but if we were to see it from the German point of view this

would be very terrible because families died or a lot of people were left without a home. In fact

during the war the Germans would launch rockets to the city of London and in history books that

was something that we think of negatively and bad of the Germans, when the Allies did the same

thing as well.
Literature Review: Draft 5

An article "10 Most Devastating Bombing Campaigns of WWII" talks about the intensity

of the 10 most destructible bombing campaigns on both sides of the war. The list consist of the

amount of causalities and destruction which ranks them form number 1 being the most

destructible. Most of the cities that were ranked in this list were from the Axis powers, Germany

and Japan. In the picture above is acquired from the same article, the picture shows the aftermath

of the bombings on German cities during the war. the city shown on the picture is the city of

Dresden, the seventh biggest German city at the time and an important industrial city. The total

number of death is unknown as Nazi officials claim to have counted over 200,000 dead, while

the Allies claim a little over 25,000 dead, but the amount of destruction to the city was very

devastating as it got continuously bombed by the Allies. The bombing camping of Germany

during World War Two happened at a very large scale with the British Royal Air Force (RAF)

doing operations during the night, and the United States Air Force (USAF) during the day. This

extensive period of bombing was due in hope to lower the morale of German people, but this

failed as the German people dint submit and Germany still continued the fight.

"The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler" is a World War Two documentary that came out in

1989 and last about two ours. The documentary talks about the life of Hitler in general, since he

was a little kid, to the day he committed suicide. The documentary also talks about the people of

Germany before and during the war. At first the documentary explains how happy the German

people feel at the beginning of the war and how quickly they grew concern towards the end of

the war. After the First World War the German people and the German went in to an Economic

drepresiom after they were in huge debt with the Allied powers of the First Wold War. The

German pople were so poor they were looking for any soltion to have a better life. In fact they
Literature Review: Draft 6

found their solution when a young and ambitios man started talking about how Germany should

really be and how it is going to be. The German people admired this individual and supported

him all the way through the war.

The goal of this assignment is to learn the motives, values, and the point of view of the

side that we are not used to learn from. This is important because we can learn more about this

event and also why it happened. Throughout this topic we would learn what is going on in the

minds of the Axis power's leadership, military, and civilian population. We might even see that if

we where to put ourselves in their shoes we might have reacted the same or if not believed and

accepted what was going on was right. It is important to learn history from both sides of the story

so we can have a much better understanding of the topic or event.

Literature Review: Draft 7

References

Drews, G. (2014, October 08). The Battle for Berlin: An Eyewitness Account. Retrieved

February 22, 2017, from http://elinorflorence.com/blog/berlin-battle

History.com Staff. (2009). Treaty of Versailles. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles

'I Will Fight to the Last': WWII Japanese Soldier Diary, June 1943. (2016, April 26). Retrieved

March 02, 2017, from http://www.historynet.com/i-will-fight-to-the-last-wwii-japanese-soldier-

diary-june-1943.htm

"The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler" Motion picture on DVD. (1989). Retrieved March 02,

2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8onbm_8bcgQ

8. (2015, June 30). WW2 From the Germans Point of View HD. Retrieved February 23, 2017,

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV0TtnwbkpQ

D. (2012, February 17). 10 Most Devastating Bombing Campaigns of WWII. Retrieved March

02, 2017, from http://www.onlinemilitaryeducation.org/posts/10-most-devastating-bombing-

campaigns-of-wwii/

History.com Staff. (2009). Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Retrieved March 02, 2017,

from http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki