1940s

Major Events

The 1940s was the decade of World War II (the first half of the decade), and the beginning of the Cold War Era (the second half of the decade). Some historians, including my college professors, say that World War II could be called World War I, Part 2 because part of the reason it started was that the post-war treaties and reparations from World War I, on top of the aftermath of the world-wide Great Depression, left Germany’s economy crippled and the people desperate. Old conflicts that had never completely resolved resurfaced. The rise of dictators and the expansionist policies of the Axis powers led to a war that was eventually fought in battles all over the world as each side called in its allies once again.

The United States was initially reluctant to become involved in the war. America had only reluctantly agreed to fight in World War I, and many people didn't want to risk their lives and family members fighting in another war overseas, something that many of them saw as someone else's fight. There were some Americans who even supported the Nazis initially. These two groups of American Nazi sympathizers and people who were simply reluctant to fight in a foreign war overlapped in their opposition to joining the war effort (as shown in this excerpt from the Smithsonian documentary America in Color: 1940s). In spite of the official neutral stance of the United States, President Franklin Roosevelt established a peacetime draft in September 1940 under the Selective Training and Service Act, quietly preparing the country for involvement in the war which Britain had been urging and which President Roosevelt and others in the American government believed would come eventually. (Different sources give different age ranges for those who were required to register for the draft, but that's because the age ranges were increased in stages over time. It started with men in their 20s and early 30s and then increased to include men ages 18 to 45, eventually including men up to age 65.) At first, President Franklin Roosevelt characterized America's involvement in the war as merely supplying Allied troops in Europe with planes and weaponry, being the "Arsenal of Democracy" (as shown in this video clip from the Smithsonian Channel explaining Japan's entry into World War II, full speech and transcript of President Franklin Roosevelt's speech on December 29, 1940 here). However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, involvement became unavoidable. (The Only Live News Report from the Attack on Pearl Harbor from the Smithsonia Channel.)

Americans began to realize that there was no way that a worldwide conflict would not involve them as well and that standing by and doing nothing would be no guarantee of safety. Japan was following an expansionist policy and posed a serious threat to the western coast of the United States, and if all of Europe fell under Nazi control, the United States would also face threats on its eastern coast. Seeing that they also had a personal stake in the conflict gave many Americans the courage and anger they needed to join in the war effort (America Enters WWII, from the History Channel).

Meanwhile, in Europe, Jews were being sent to concentration camps by the Nazis, many of them to be murdered in the gas chambers. Jewish people were not the only victims of the Nazis. Catholics, gypsies, homosexuals, and others deemed outside the norms were also targets of the Nazis and were taken to concentration camps. This mass murder of people, in which millions died, was called The Holocaust, from the Greek word for a "sacrifice by fire." The documentary One Day In Auschwitz, hosted by a Holocaust survivor, explains what happened at one of the most infamous concentration camps. This video shows the liberation of one of these camps as the war came to an end. (These videos contain disturbing imagery and descriptions, but all of the films and discussions of concentration camps do, and it can't be avoided. I have some personal knowledge of this because I've met one of the Holocaust survivors, who was among those rescued from liberated camps after the war. He later came to live in the United States, and he used to visit schools in our area around the turn of the millenium, speaking to students about his concentration camp experiences and showing us the numbers tattooed on his arm. Every year, there are fewer and fewer of these survivors as many of them have died of old age since the war. My friends and I might be among the last students to hear about the Holocaust directly from one of the survivors.) Many Jewish people in Germany and Nazi-occupied countries either fled to other countries or went into hiding to avoid being killed.

During the war, people became paranoid about foreigners and people of foreign descent living in their countries, fearing that some of them could secretly be spies. In the United States, people of Japanese descent were placed in internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor and held there until the end of the war. The internment camps looked and behaved very much little small, private towns with their own schools and post offices, but living conditions were often substandard, and they were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Adults were given jobs to do, but they were not well paid, and because of their years of incarceration, they lost their former homes and livelihoods, so they had to struggle to rebuild their lives after the war.

During the 1940s, American society was still segregated. In civilian life, black children and white children attended separate schools, and black people and white people served in segregated units in the army. However, the world-wide nature of the war, the need to have all racial and ethnic groups in the country to participate in the war effort, and the shocking knowledge of what happened in the German concentration camps began drawing attention to attitudes of prejudice at home in the United States after the war ended (The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom). Racism and prejudice that had been quietly common in the United States became increasingly uncomfortable for many people. There were always people who were angry about discimination, but people who hadn't really given it much thought before were starting to question what was really happening around them. Some of them thought about black people they had worked with for the war effort, and some people began to wonder what really made prejudice in the United States different from the Nazi prejudices and discrimination ... or if there was much of a difference. "Don't Be a Sucker" is a US educational film produced by the Department of Defense, Department of the Army, and the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in 1945, urging people to not fall victim to prejudice and people peddling misinformation for fear that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen in the United States. These questioning feelings and an increasing awareness of the segregation and discrimination that had been common for a lomg time would later help minorities to gain the support they needed for the Civil Rights Movement that began in the following decade. During the war, black people in the military and defense work learned new job skills and new confidence, giving them the motivation to push for more equal opportunities in society after the war ended (Did World War II Launch the Civil Rights Movement?).

By the end of the war, the United States had developed nuclear weapons and used them against Japan. The project to develop nuclear weapons was called the Manhattan Project, and it was top secret until the end of the war. Even people who worked on the project weren't told of its full significance until later. The full signficance of the project became known after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The advent of nuclear weapons changed war and political policies for the entire world.

At the end of the war, post-war settlements and power struggles ended up dividing the world into large sections controlled by competing political ideologies: communist countries, particularly Russia (the Soviet Union) and those loyal to Russia or under Russian control, vs. capitalist countries, particularly the United States and western Europe and countries influenced by those regions. This was the basis for the Cold War. The two sides began competing against each other for economic and technological superiority, using the threat of nuclear weapons to keep each other in check in a dangerously precarious balance of power. Capitalist countries were considered “First World”, and communist countries were the “Second World.” Countries outside of those two main political rivals were called “Third World” nations. Third World nations were less affluent and not part of the Cold War technological race, leading to the modern conception of the term referring to “developing countries." Since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, few people refer to the "Second World", and the term "devloping countries" is used more than "Third World" (Why are countries classified as First, Second or Third World?).

Few places displayed the break between East and West, Communist and Capitalist, as starkly as Germany. Germany was once again devasted by the war, and as opposing forces moved into Germany at the end of the war, Russians coming in from the east and Americans and British coming in from west, each side instituting its own concepts of government in the territories they controlled, the city of Berlin as well as Germany itself was split into two halves. The break between East Germany and West Germany was both physically and symbolically maintained through the Berlin Wall (constructed in 1961), which separated the two halves of Germany that were controlled by different governments. The division between East Germany and West Germany lasted the duration of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was finally torn down in November 1989, as the Cold War began to draw to an end.

This short film shows Berlin in 1936, before the war, when Germany hosted the Olympics. The narrator explains the sights of the city for the benefit of tourists visiting for the Olympics (English subtitles provided - make sure your subtitles are on in the settings). There are signs of Nazism everywhere in the film, and people generally celebrating the Olympics and participating in tourist activities. This video clip shows Berlin at the end of the war, in July 1945, less than ten years later, including many of the buildings and monuments in the previous video. Aside from showing the damage to the city, the second video also shows where the armies of different nations claimed their territory in Berlin. The point where you see the sign for leaving the British Sector at the Brandenburg Gate followed by the large picture of Stalin (about 0:35 into the video) is roughly the same area where the Berlin Wall would be constructed. The Brandenburg Gate would be on the eastern (Soviet) side of the wall. For further comparison, this ABC News broadcast from November 10, 1989, shows the Berlin Wall by the Brandenburg Gate (1:57 into the video gives a good view of the wall's relative position to the Brandenburg Gate).

Not all Germans had been fully aware of the truth of concentration camps or what happened there, but as the Allies moved in and liberated the camp at the end of the war, the truth came out and shocked many. Even those who had some knowledge of the camps had not realized the extent of death and brutality. In the following years, Germany not only had to learn to live as a divided country but also had to come to terms with this dark period of its history and decide what kind of future it would build and how the people who had participated in the genocide would be held to account (Germany continues to grapple with Nazi-era legacy).

Daily Life During World War II

The war touched every aspect of life, to some degree. For those closest to the war zones, life changed dramatically with bombings and destruction directly around them. Even those farther away, in relatively safety, felt the presence of the war around them. It changed what people ate, due to rationing. It changed the roles of women in society, as many of them either volunteered their time to help the war effort or took jobs left vacant by men who had become soldiers. It changed what children did in schools, and in some cases, where they lived, as some children became refugees or evacuees to escape the war. People in relatively safe areas sometimes took in refugees or evacuated children. The war changed how people spent their free time, with travel restricted in order to save fuel for the war effort and seats on trains needed to transport troops. The war became part of popular entertainment, as many movies had war themes or patriotic themes or mentioned circumstances created because of the war.

Rationing did not only apply to food but also to clothing, something else that was more strictly enforced in England and other places in Europe than in the United States. This video explains the point system in England and how it could be applied to food and clothing. The rationing on cloth forced changes in the types of clothing that people wore. Clothes had to become more practical, make the best possible use of the amount of cloth available, and be made well enough to last for a long time so that people would not buy new clothes very often. This video shows examples of British "utility clothing", clothes designed by the government to be very practical and reduce wasted cloth. People were encouraged to mend old clothes and to make their own new clothing as much as possible, sometimes by remaking old clothes into new ones and finding creative uses for scrap material, as shown by the short film Make Do and Mend.

As a personal anecdote, one of my friend's grandparents were actually married in England during the war. The bride's sister was also getting married around the same time. The two sisters talked it over and decided to pool their ration points and buy cloth for one new wedding dress for the two of them. The first sister to be married would have the dress made for her, and then the other sister would have it remade or tailored to fit her. However, when the second sister (my friend's grandmother), looked at the dress, she realized that their sizes were just too different to allow the dress to be remade. Rather than try to get another wedding dress from somewhere, she decided to be practical about it. She went to her closet and looked at the dresses she already had, choosing a nice green one that was one of the best she had. That's what she wore to her wedding, and everyone said that it was a smart choice.

Rationing in the United States wasn't as strict as it was in Britain, but certain goods were restricted, and citizens were issued ration books and coupons to control how much they could buy of certain types of products. This short documentary explains a little about rationing, American attitudes toward rationing, scrap drives, and what Americans would do to reuse or recycle goods. In one of the 1940s film clips in the documentary (at about 8:12 in), a man talks about people cutting back on their driving to save gasoline, and he's glad that there are less bad drivers on the road, especially women drivers. Gasoline was rationed during the war, and the entire country observed the "Victory Speed Limit" of 35 mph because there is a sweet spot range for speed and conserving gas. People supplemented their diets with vegetables grown at home in their Victory Gardens.

The type of house that a person might live in during the 1940s would vary by location and personal wealth. The short videos below explain the parts of a typical middle class British home in the London suburbs during the 1940s with some commentary about how the people who owned it would have lived during World War II. This Introduction explains that the example house would have been built in the 1930s.

• The Entrance Hall - Explains about government information pamphlets and gas masks.
• The Living Room - Explains about coal fires and fuel shortages, the family radio, blackouts, and clothes rationing and homemade clothes.
• The Kitchen - Explains household chores and food rationing, including some that continued after the war was over.
• The Dining Room - Explains more about rationing and the rationing that continued after the war. Rationing in Britain lasted until 1954. People also applied tape to their windows in case the windows broke during a bombing, to prevent the glass from flying around.
• The Master Bedroom - With some discussion about men's clothing and women's toiletries.
• The Front Bedroom - The bedroom of a teenage girl (noting that they didn't use the term "teenager" then - a teenage girl would be called a "young woman"). Has some commentary about young women's clothing and mentions American GIs having English girlfriends.
• The Boys' Bedroom - With some discussion about toys that were available during the war and the evacuation of children from London.
• The Bathroom and Toilet - Explains about water rationing. Also, older British houses would have had outdoor toilets. Even houses with indoor toilets might have the room with the bathtub separate from the room with the toilet. There are British houses that are still like that today.

In contrast to the home in London, people who lived in the countryside, not just in England but also in the United States and other countries, lived in much less modern homes. This video shows the home of a poor family in the southern United States in the 1940s (there is no sound, but the video description explains more about what's happening in the video - note the wood-burning stove used to heat the house). When children were evacuated from London for safety from bombings during the war, many of them were shocked at how different life in the country was. Country homes and farms did not have running water, and the toilet was an outhouse. They also might lack electricity, using kerosene lamps (called paraffin lamps in Britain) instead (Evacuation from London WWII).

 

People in different countries took part in blackouts and air raid drills, preparing for alerts when they might have to take refuge in bomb shelters or basements. To keep people calm during blackouts, when they would have to close their blackout curtains to hide any light that airial bombers might use to target cities, some people in Britain wrote and printed special "blackout books" to provide entertainment. Parents could read them aloud to their families, distracting them from the frightening situations around them with short stories, fun facts, puzzles, quizzes, and other activities.

I own a reproduction copy of one of the original black out books published in 1939, written by a husband and wife team under the pseudonym Evelyn August. The book is divided into different activities for different nights. Some nights have specific themes, like magic tricks, and others are more like collections of miscellaneous poems, puzzles, optical illusions, trivia, jokes, and quotes. Frequently throughout the book are notes about constellations that people could see in the sky, all the more visible with the surrounding lights shut out.

Women

Describes the lives of women and women's social issues.

Children

Describes the lives of children, their education, and children's books.

Food

Describes things people ate during the 1940s and new foods and recipes that developed during this time.

Entertainment

Describes popular forms of entertainment, including music, movies, and books for adults.

Resources

General Documentaries

America in Color: The 1940s. From the Smithsonian Channel.

A history of the events of the decade, beginning with America's initial opposition to joining World War II and ending with life after the war, including the economic boom that followed the war and the election of President Truman. The documentary is comprised of colorized footage from the 1940s. It is part of a series of documentaries of colorized footage of different decades. You can see this documentary online by subscribing to the Smithsonian Channel. It is also available for purchase through iTunes, fairly inexpensively. You can also see clips from this documentary on the Smithsonian Channel site.

Germany Today: Post-World War II Reconstruction, 1947

An American educational film from 1947, showing the state of Germany about two years after the end of the war. Cities were still badly damanged, and food and other supplies were being shipped into Germany. German society was attempting to recreate itself, with the occupying countries of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR influencing the regions of Germany that they controlled. Nazis were facing trial for war crimes, although not all were punished, and Germany citizens struggled with the guilt and blame for the war, some still spreading Nazi propaganda after the war. The film ends with the warning not to listen to old Nazi propaganda and with the assertion that the old propaganda must die and that Germans must fully accept the truth of what happened and their role in the war before Germany can move on.

The Ultra Enigma

A Timeline documentary about the German Enigma code machine and the efforts of Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the code.

Women Spies In World War II

A Timeline documentary about female spies in World War II and their methods.

Holocaust Documentaries

These include first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors, films of people who were later killed, and footage of the camps.

How Did Ordinary Citizens Become Murderers?

This program from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum features a discussion about why some ordinary people supported the Holocaust and why others worked to save people from it. The entire discussion is about an hour and a half.

Jewish children evacuated from Germany

An elderly man, Bernd Koschland, describes being sent away from Germany on the Kindertransport. He went to live in England and lost contact with his parents during the war. For many years, he didn't know what had happened to them, but he later learned that they were killed in a concentration camp. If he hadn't been sent away, he probably would have been killed, too.

Projections of Life: Jewish Life before World War II

Amateur films and home movies of Jewish people in Europe shortly before World War II started, and some shortly after the war began. Some of it is in color. The years the films were made range from the late 1920s through about 1940. There is footage made in various countries, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, and Germany. The narrator gives explanations of the people and families in the films and details about what happened to them during the war, if known.

The Secret Jews of Berlin

A Timeline documentary about Jewish people who hid in Berlin during World War II. The survivors explain what they did to hide and survive, including how they could make fake identification and passports. The end of the documentary explains what Berlin was like during the end of the war, spring of 1945.

Websites

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Official site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is located in Washington, DC.