How has my world view changed after the study of World War II?
By Aubrey

It’s been hard for me to think of different ways that this whole World War II project has changed my perspective about the war and the world. I have always been fascinated by WWII and have read a lot of books about it, so I have always been pretty well informed. However, I did learn a quite a few things about it and have been able to back up my original perspective on war through the entire experience.

One of the things I learned that shocked me was the fact that many Americans didn’t even know what Hitler was doing to the Jews. I also learned more about Hitler’s poor military knowledge. It’s scary to think that if he had kept bombing British airfields without backing off at the last minute to recuperate, that if he had used better military strategy and had listened to those who had had more experience with warfare, that he could easily have won the war. And something I learned that I think is very funny is that for their huge reputation of having so much technology and mechanics, they used a lot of cavalry.

My perspective on World War II, or even war in general, was, and still is, that war is flat down evil. The WWII veteran I interviewed, Ken Schmutz, thought so, too. He stated very clearly that war was wrong, and it was stupid. "You can always negotiate," he told me. I don’t by any means think that retaliating if you are threatened or deciding to help out when you can, is wrong. Still, World War II was dreadful. Not just the fighting, but what Hitler did to the Jews and Gypsies because they didn’t classify in the so-called "Aryan Race." The war was awful. But, at the same time, it would be hard to negotiate or talk reasonably with a madman like Adolf Hitler. He had already proved that he could and would go back on his promises without batting an eyelash. Hitler was a madman, too.

To think, he massacred his own SA men, there were thousands of them, just so people would like him more, and so he could get the power he wanted. The bottom line is, he was a tyrant, and a crazy one to boot.