The Other Victims

My book report was on a collection of personal WWII stories of the victims of genocide by the Nazi regime. I know that it seems pretty cliche to go with the Holocaust on a WWII project, but the book was about victims other than the Jews. I think the biggest realization I had during this book was how interconnected Europe was prior to either World War. The victims in these stories often fled from country to country seeking relatives and friends in each. One vicitm had a Nazi general tell him that under different circumstances his work in physics would have been very inspiring. I think there's a huge focus on individual nations during wartime, but the book made me realize how dependent on one another they are during peacetime.

Failure to Uphold Versaille

The interwar years saw incredible hardship that didn't end with WWI. Initially America seemed to be in good shape. The homefront was stable and wasn't ravaged like Europe, the economy seemed to be in a good place, there were many countires that owed money,  everything was going to be fine. The problems started when countries couldn't pay what they owed, the Depression followed shortly after.

In Europe the Depression hit as well, at this point Germany couldn't pay the extensive reparations they owed, so the Allies decreased their payments. This pattern continued until the reparations were entirely erased, and Germany was off the hook.

Later, when Hitler rose to power and began rebuilding Germany's military, clearly violating Versaille, no one said a thing. One could argue that economic factors were the cause of the allies not backing Versaille, but the poor light shed on these powers seems undeserved when the punishments they gave were entirely withdrawn.