In 1939 Argentina, like the United States, is a neutral country as conflicts erupt around the world. Unlike the United States, Argentina remains neutral until the last couple of days of the war when they side with the Allies. During WWII the Navy seemed sympathetic to Germany while the Army leaned towards the Allies. This [...]
When a country is “liberated” mob violence often follows as passions are unleashed. In the 21st Century we witnessed it in Iraq, and in September, 1944 we see LIFE’s pictures of violence in Rome three and one half months after its liberation by the Allies. Seven thousand people, many of them relatives of Italians jailed, [...]
High school graduations in the spring of 1943 took on a serious tone although they may have looked outwardly the same as other years. In thousands of U.S. high schools, big and small, parties and picnics led up to the big day, and then the march from Aida called the graduates to order. Diplomas were [...]
Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918 as one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The multi-ethnic state saw democracy flower until the country was betrayed in 1938 by the Allies at Munich. To appease Hitler, the Sudetenland part of the country was ceded to Germany. Hitler helped himself to the rest of the country [...]
Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918 as one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The multi-ethnic state saw democracy flower until the country was betrayed in 1938 by the Allies at Munich. To appease Hitler, the Sudetenland part of the country was ceded to Germany. Hitler helped himself to the rest of the country in 1939. Germany determined to eradicate Czech nationality through assimilation, deportation and extermination of Czech intelligentsia. Jews were also targeted and sent to concentration camps. The people of Czechoslovakia experienced unspeakable oppression and tragedy. The Russians “liberated” them in May, 1945 and now another form of oppression began. More than 2,000,000 of the remaining ethnic Germans had their property confiscated and then were deported. The country had been the industrial center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and this helped the Czech economy remain more advanced after WWII but still relatively weak relative to Western Europe.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk was the son of the founder of the country and one of the few non-communists left in place in 1948 after the communists took complete control. This March 1948 LIFE reports Masaryk’s funeral and says he killed himself by jumping out the third story window of the Foreign Ministry. The West viewed this scenario with deep suspicion. In 1963 the former Czech ambassador to the Vatican, who knew Masaryk well, told this author that Masaryk was push out the window by communist thugs. Recent investigations by the Prague police and statements made by creditable Soviet Bloc officials give credence to the proposition that Masaryk was murdered.
Imagine finding 100 tons of gold and a fabulous cache of art. This is what General Patton’s Third Army discovered when they entered the salt mines at Merkers, Germany in April 1945. The art included 15 Rembrandts, five Van Eycks, five Titians and three Raphaels. The US Army sent the collection off to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, for safe keeping. The paintings had been moved to the salt mines from the German museum in Berlin in early 1945 when they were endangered by air raids. Later in 1948 the art was returned to Western Germany. These paintings are not to be confused with other art treasures plundered by the Nazis during the war. The US Government set up several programs and commissions to identify, recover and restitute looted assets and much was accomplished. But there remain thousands of works of art that have never been recovered. In contrast, the Red Army took all the most valuable works of art from the Dresden museum back to Russia as trophies after the victory. Ten years later, Nikita Khrushchev saw potential political benefits of returning these works and 1,240 masterpieces were sent back to Dresden.
~John W. Poynton @JWPoynton
It’s June, 1944 and homesick soldiers all over the world listen to the German love song Lili Marlene. If Hitler had been content to make love and not war he might have conquered the world after all, for this song melted soldiers hearts. The tune was written during WWI by a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army. In 1939 a Swedish singer, Lale Andersen, made a record of it but only sold about 700 copies. A German lieutenant working at Radio Belgrade in 1941 found a copy and played it for lack of other recordings. Its popularity grew quickly among Africa Korps and British Eighth Army troops. As Eighth Army members assumed posts in Asia and the Pacific they took the song with them. LIFE reports that the song was, “Shelved in the U.S. because a music war committee thought it would hurt soldier morale.” U.S. troops quickly adopted it in Italy and England. A cartoon by Bill Mauldin in Stars and Stripes shows two soldiers in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica, while the other comments, “The krauts ain’t following ya’ too good on Lili Marlene tonight, Joe. Think somethin’ happened to their tenor?” Even Frau Emmy Goring, wife of Nazi bigwig, sings it. We see her above belting it out at Berlin’s Kroll Opera House.
As men went off to war in WWII women took on male-dominated trades in the aircraft plants, shipyards and other factories making the tools of war. LIFE commissioned painter Edna Reindel to show on canvas these women in action. Note that the woman in each picture is identified along with a brief description of her previous occupation. Many women were truly patriotic and decided to work in the belief that the faster they made planes and guns and ships, the sooner their loved ones would hurry home. And many also came because they could suddenly make much more money. A popular song in 1942, Rosie the Riveter, became a cultural icon representing women who worked in factories during the war. The number of working American women increased from 12 million in 1940 to 20 million in 1944. The majority of these working women actually filled non-factory positions in all sectors of the economy. African American women made the greatest advance during the war years as social barriers began to break down. After the war returning veterans replaced many women in war jobs and they assumed traditional roles of housewives and mothers. But the long range significance of the changes brought about by the war provided the foundation for the contemporary role of women in business and industry.
~John W. Poynton @JWPoynton
America needed good laughs in early 1944 and a host of comedians were there to provide them, none better than 41 year old Bob Hope. Already a star on Broadway, radio and the movies, Hope traveled the globe for the USO to entertain the troops in all theaters of war. The media called him “America’s No. 1 Soldier in Greasepaint,” and he had an almost fanatical popularity among soldiers, sailors and marines. Amazingly, his USO run of entertaining troops continued into the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf war. LIFE astutely selected Danny Kaye, Red Skelton and Danny Thomas as up and comers in 1944. W.C. Fields career was in steep decline and he died two years later from alcohol-related complications. Fields, an avowed atheist, was caught reading the Bible during his last days in the hospital. When asked why, he cracked, “I’m looking for loopholes.”
The “Battle of Arawe” is not one remembered in America’s New Britain Campaign in the South Pacific. It had the objective of serving as a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester at the very end of 1943. Japanese air raids made life miserable for the Americans on Arawe. The battle went back and forth until Americans reinforced with additional infantry and tanks in mid January 1944. Many historians believe the entire campaign in Arawe and western New Britain was unnecessary, and that forces could have been more effectively deployed elsewhere. However, for the many American and Japanese casualties on Arawe, the necessity of the battle was not theirs to reason why.
A moment of surpassing emotion in sport shows Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins in a tearful state after being injured in the championship football game won by the Chicago Bears. Baugh was an All-American at Texas Christian University in 1936, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. A year in the minor leagues convinced him that his prospects were better in professional football and he signed with the Redskins where he played for 15 years. A remarkable athlete, he set 13 NFL records in three player positions: quarterback, punter and defensive back. Baugh lived to age 94 and spent most of his years on his beloved 7,600 acre Texas cattle ranch.
