Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain(TM)s major cities at the start of the Second World War?

Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities at the start of the Second World War? Evacuation began before war was declared in 1939 and over 1.5 million children were evacuated out of major cities and towns to the countryside where it was thought to be safer. There were many reasons for the Government's decisions on evacuations but not all of them were rational, as much of the government's information about the upcoming war was incorrect. The government knew how the aftermath of the First World War had affected the British and how they had suffered, they didn't want a repeat to such an awful extent. The number of deaths in the First World War was a huge number in both the military and amongst civilians but it was predicted that more were to be killed and injured during the Second World War due to the improvement of technology. However, as these predictions were based on incorrect data, the predictions were hugely exaggerated and the number of civilian deaths was just a minority compared to the numbers of those killed out in battle. During the First World War in the battle of the Somme, the British suffered over 60,000 casualties on the first day of the attack alone. The thought of so many deaths amongst the British was believed to lower morale in the public and it would have been even worse if a large percentage had been children.

  • Word count: 874
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain(TM)s major cities in the early years of the Second World War

GCSE History Coursework - Question 1 Why did the British government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War? When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 the British government urged families in cities that were likely to be bombed in air raids, to evacuate their children to the country. There was lots of reasons the British government decided to evacuate children during WW2 most of them I will highlight in this essay. The first reason the British evacuated children was because England had experienced air raids during world war one. Gotha bombers & Zeppelins, which were huge balloons that dropped bombs, reeked havoc on British towns. Overall 1500 innocent people died. Poison gas attacks were also used during world war one, the government considered that the repeat of gas attacks was likely in the future conflict. This made the British government evacuate children because they knew the damage air raids can do and it also confirmed from past history that the German army would target civilians in a total war situation Another reason for the evacuation is the massive rearmament of the German army including the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe bombed Guernica in September 1937. The city was bombed to the ground by German planes. Some people believe that the Luftwaffe bombed the city as an experiment to measure the damage

  • Word count: 567
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain(TM)s major cities in the early years of the Second World War?

Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities in the early years of the Second World War? In 1939 Germany declared war on Poland, as a result, France and Britain declared war on Germany. Even before World War Two broke out, it was obvious that the prime targets of the German bombers would be Britain's major cities. The countryside would be pointless for the Germans to bomb as there were no built up areas and few factories in the countryside. The government decided it would be safer for the children living in large, industrialised cities if they were moved to the countryside. This was called evacuation or operation 'Pied Piper`. On the 1st September 1939, two days before the beginning of World War Two, the government decided to evacuate children, mothers with children under school age, expectant mothers, teachers and handicapped people from the cities into areas of the country side where there were no significant targets. The government predicted that around 3.5 million people would choose to be evacuated to the countryside but in the end only around 1.5 million did. But why did the government think this was necessary with so many other things to think about? There are many reasons why the British Government decided to evacuate children from Britain's major cities. Arguably one of the most important reasons was the attitudes of

  • Word count: 4126
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities at the start of the Second World War?

Question1 Why did the British Government decide to evacuate children from Britain's major cities at the start of the Second World War? At the beginning of the Second World War, the British Government decided it was time for Operation Pied Piper (the evacuation of children from major cities) to take place. The main reason for this being an issue of safety for the children. The fight for safety of the children of Britain was an important one. Britain relied on the younger generation of the country to carry on the British race. After the experience of the First World War, Britain knew briefly what to expect in the Second World War. Children had to become the main priority of protection during the war. It was Aug 1939 when the Government began this protection by Operation Pied Piper across Britain. Major cities were prone for bombing, so children were moved temporarily to the countryside, where conditions were quieter and considered much less dangerous. The British Government knew what capability their enemies had. Hitler was looked upon as a very un-predictable and dangerous man. In July 1936, Hitler joined the Italian leader Mussolini in helping the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. This allowed him to give experience to his new armed forces and test out new weapons. This event made the Italians grow closer to the Germans. Many in Britain and France at this time assumed

  • Word count: 648
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-1945?

Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-1945? Fifteen high-ranking Nazi party and German governmental leaders gathered for an important meeting that lasted only 90 minutes, but the results of that meeting changed the lives of millions and has impacted the world for over five decades. This meeting took place fifty-seven years ago, on January 20 1942, at a private villa in Ann Grosen, a wealthy suburb of Berlin, Germany. The purpose of the Wannsee Conference (as the meeting came to be known) was for these top officials to discuss the 'Final Solution' to its self-imposed Jewish problem. The specific aim of the conference was to coordinate the materials and technical means required for the extermination of the over 14 million people earmarked for death in Germany-occupied Europe by the Nazi Regime. After the Wannsee Conference the number of killings in the streets increased, deportations and mass murders escalated and within a month of the meeting, all killing centres were ready for murder. The Nazis called their state-sanctioned policy by the code name 'Final Solution', but the world knows it best as the Holocaust. The primary reason that the Nazi treatment of Jews changed from one of non-murderous persecution to genocide between 1939 and 1945 was the onset of World War II. Hitler had stated repeatedly that if a war were to break out in Europe, he would

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why Did The Nazis Treatment Of The Jews Change From 1939-1945?

Why Did The Nazis Treatment Of The Jews Change From 1939-1945? In 1938, Hitler built up his army and in March the following year, he invaded Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. These three countries were extremely important for the Nazi term of Lebensraum. Lebensraum was a term, which meant living space. However, this space was only meant for the Aryan race. This didn't include the many Jews in the countries Hitler wanted to take over. He was already trying to control this "inferior" race in Germany and now he had even more. In 1939 and onwards, the Nazis thought up many methods on how they were going to control the accumulating number of Jews in their empire. In Poland alone there were around five million Jews. To solve the problem of the substantial increase in the number of Jews, the Nazis had to introduce new methods to control them. In 1939, they developed their use of Ghettos. The Nazis used the Ghettos to control the Jews and not to kill them. However many did die because of many different reasons. Conditions in the Ghettos were horrendous and became worse as more Jews were packed into these relatively small Ghettos. Even the largest Ghettos were too small. The Ghettos in Poland had to take 30% of its population and cram it into 2.4% of its space. This overcrowding caused many problems for the Jews living there, if you could call it living. The overcrowding led

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-1945?

Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-1945? The treatment of the Jews degraded from the years 1939-1945. Gradually it worsened as new measures came into place. The first primary reasons for this were Hitler becoming chancellor and reinforcing his views on the country, these events happened in the early 1930's. From the late 1930's the Jews were not treated with the best conditions. The Nuremberg laws took away all the Jewish legal power and stripped them of their rights. In 1938, Kristallnacht took place and destroyed many Jewish businesses as well as killing 100's. This was when the idea of killing the Jews was beginning to form in the Nazis minds. Subsequently, the Jews were being liquidized into ghettos. These were areas packed to the full with the worst possible conditions: there was no hygiene and housing was ill-bred. The word ghetto itself represents the Jewish quarter. The greatest change in the treatment of the Jews was the final solution. This was decided at the Wannsee conference in 1942. It was made in order to try and solve the growing problem of keeping all the Jews in one place. The decision was that they would not be able to keep them all alive; this was because of the huge pressure they would have to face containing much vaster amount than already because of the countries they would take control of and invade. Therefore, the method of

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939 -45?

Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939 -45? The invasion of Poland in September 1939 led Britain and France to declare war on Germany. This acted as a catalyst for change in the treatment of the Jews. The conquest of Poland brought more than 3 million polish Jews under nazi rule, as this was the country with the highest Jewish population. In fact the polish city of Warsaw alone had a larger Jewish population than the whole German Reich. Naturally, the situation grew worse as German captured more land, they found more Jews and this meant that step by step more countries could be occupied in the same way, hence more Jews being exterminated. The Jews, which had been captured in Poland, were heavily terrorised with public humiliation, beatings and random killings. They were also driven into crowded ghettos in an area of Poland known as the general government. To mark them out, Jews were made to wear a yellow Star of David. Between the periods of 1939 -45, the Nazis dominated most of Europe and created 356 ghettos in Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary. This is because they believed, that Jews were a disease and a permanent threat to the 'Aryan' race, and they were ready to take any action, which could make the areas under their control 'Jew-free'. With all the countries occupied, the Germans knew all the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-45?

Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-45? On January 20, 1942 fifteen high ranking Nazi party and German government leaders gathered for an important meeting. They met in a wealthy section of Berlin to discuss a topic only known as 'The Final Solution'. The Nazis used this vague term to hide their policy of mass murder from the rest of the world; they were to remove the Jews from German society. In 1939 Germany invaded Poland and 2 million Polish Jews came under Nazi Control. After the German army invaded the Soviet Union on June 22 1941 a new stage in the Holocaust began, several million more Jews came under Nazi rule as the SS took control. The mobile killing acted swiftly, taking the Jewish population by surprise. The killers entered a town or city and rounded up all Jewish men, women and children. They also took away many communist leaders and gypsies. Victims were forced to surrender any valuables and remove their clothing, which was later sent for use in Germany. On September 21 1941 for example, the eve of the Jewish New Year, a mobile killing squad entered Ejszyszki, a small town in what is now Lithuania. The killing squad members herded 4,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding region into three synagogues, where they were held for two days without food or water. Then in two days of killing, Jewish men, women and children were taken to

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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why did the nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939 to 1945?

Nazis had been discriminating against Jews since Hitler came into power in 1933. Many, many discriminatory acts were carried out against Jews, purely because of their race and religion. Their academic lives, businesses, homes and social lives were all destroyed plus many other of their attachments. However, during the period of 1939 to 1945 treatment towards the Jews was changing. As Nazis were trying to arrive at a 'Final Solution' for the Jews, their conduct transformed due to five main factors. These factors were the Invasion of Poland, the invasion of Russia, World War Two, the failure of earlier methods and the Nazis were facing impending defeat. In this essay I will be explaining why the Nazi policies towards the Jews changed due to these five main occurrences and the Nazis need for a final solution. Persecution of the Jews increased during the Second World War as the Nazis invaded more countries because each of these countries contained thousand of Jews that became under the Nazi rule. This increased their problem greatly. The invasion of Poland made Nazi plans to emigrate the Jews impossible. In Poland their lived 3 million Jews in comparison to the 1/2 million in Germany. Initially the S.S planed a huge reservation of Jews but this was soon given up in favour of ghettos. Ghettos were to be walled off, run down areas in cities. The S.S intended to take all the Jews

  • Word count: 1168
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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