World War II History Topic!! help

[fleadog27]

Hello all, this is my first post, and I need some help getting some ideas for a 25 page paper I am writing in Senior Seminar for my History major. The parameters state that the paper must deal with War and/or Peace in the 20th Century. I love World War II, specifically things related to the Third Reich, so I want my paper to be within that area.

I have come up with a few ideas of my own and I am just looking for some help from some people to get some interesting topics that i could write 25 pages on about the Nazi's and World War II.

Some of my ideas I thought of in class today are: Secret Nazi Projects in the war and how they could have changed the war if implemented, Why did people love Hitler so much? (how much opposition did he face pre war and after and whatnot), The use of Nazi scientists after WWII by both sides and the imopact it had on the Cold War, Nazi medical contributions from their death camp experiments(a little morbid), Third Reich influence/movements/plans in the US(or other allied powers) during the war, or maybe even the overall use of genocide in WWII (nazis/turks)

I would just like some input from you guys on what topics you like, if you think I could get 2 or so pages out of it, and I would love to hear some new suggestions. Im always open to that.

Anyway, thanks alot. I appreciate it.

Daniel

[Doc]

Daniel, you don't mention what level of education you are at-- university, high school, etc. That might affect what you take on. The assignment "must deal with war/peace...." I suspect that the teacher has some specific types of topics in mind-- if you do decide to proceed on the topics you mention, make sure to clear it with the instructor first, to make sure it meets the requirements.

Personally, I think the death camp medical "research " topic would be an interesting one---Though you have to realise that there were NO "Medical contributions from their death camp experiments". However, you would have to approach it from the back door, as it were. The bottom line is that because of the ethical issues involved in this work (i.e. most of it was based on horrible scientific premises, carried out on unwilling "subjects" who had not given their consent, and frequently/usually ended in death of the subjects), it has never been really studied since the war. There is an absolute prohibition in most of the world to referring to this materiel (i.e. the data collected) in any medical text or study. Thus, this topic provides a fantastic opportunity to discuss the whole issue of medical research ethics, and how the Nazi failure to use any ethical guidelines has precluded any use of the data they accumulated. Much of this work was absolute garbage, scientifically, but some of the other work (e.g. cold water immersion studies) might have provided some useful data. We will never know, since nobody will look at the work due to the unacceptable nature of the way in which it was carried out. Personally, though I condemn the "research" itself, I think that the best memorial to those victims who were involved would be to try to extract something useful out of it for the rest of humanity--- that will never happen, as it would be seen as approval for the way in which the data was collected. These abuses under the Nazis led (through the Nuremburg Tribunals) to many of the currently used ethical guidelines used worldwide in medical research, and a study of this development would be interesting. There have been some interesting publications on this subject in recent years (look at the Medical Journal "Military Medicine", I think-- no real references at hand), which you could use as a starting point.

On the other issues you mentioned-- the secret projects issue has been written up extensively, and there are lots of references on it. Might not be too much new you could say. Likewise the use of Nazi scientists and their impact on the cold war.

Pro-German movements in the Allied nations are reasonably well-documented, but are not well-known by the populace, so that might be a doable paper. Especially if you look at such issues as "did the pro-German movement in the US keep the US out of the war from 1939-1941?" That is an important and useful historical question-- then you could look at why those pro-German movements existed and why they were as popular as they were. Discuss Lindberg, for example.

Have fun, and welcome to history-- It's not always pleasant, and it's not always easy, but it is interesting. Doc

[marcus69x]

Hi Flea dog. I found this quite interesting which Peter Clare posted a while ago.

You mention 'secret nazi projects'. Well this may be worth a look:
Luftwaffe Bomber Wing KG 200

cheers marcus

[spidge]

These are some sites that may give you a bit of background on some of your preferred content.

Axis Biographical Research

Axis History Factbook: Germany & Austria (Third Reich & pre-Third Reich)

Massacres and Atrocities of WWII in the Axis Countries

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/Secweap.htm

[kfz]

Originally Posted by marcus69x

Hi Flea dog. I found this quite interesting which Peter Clare posted a while ago.

You mention 'secret nazi projects'. Well this may be worth a look:
Luftwaffe Bomber Wing KG 200

cheers marcus

I dont trust that site to be wholey accurate. I dont beleive the Germans Used US and British 4 engine heavies in allied markings as a regular occurance,not by KG200 anyway. I have never seen any evidence to convince me this is the case. There is some evidence that the allies used German aircraft in German markings. But every Allied aircraft pic ive seen has German markings.

KG200 was this great big Gestapo secret squadron up to all kinds of dodgy stuff, its was a pretty regular squadron with some funny kit on some 'not regular' missions, but that was it. As far as I know now KG200 squadron meember has ever been prosocuted for war crimes or even shot as a spy.

Lot of propaganda here, I suspect the truth is slightly less exiciting.

Kev

[sapper]

My first reaction to this request was this: do not believe half of what you read, for WW2 has attracted the most downright load of rubbish that those that were there know is totally untrue.
Sapper