Australian WWII POWs in Asia

• Over 30,000 Australians were prisoners of war during WWII.

Survival Rates

• 97% of the 8,591 Australians captured by the Germans survived WWII.
• Approximately 8,000 of the 21,467 Australians captured by the Japanese died in captivity, primarily at the beginning of 1942.
• Common causes of death were executions, beatings, slave labor, starvation, and disease.

Aussie POWs in Asia

• Most Australian POWs were held in camps in South-East Asia, Korea, and Japan.
• The Japanese military displayed a lack of respect for prisoner's rights.
• Thousands of POWs and conscripted Asians were forced to construct the Burma-Thailand railway.
• Starving men, who also suffered from tropical diseases, labored for a minimum of 12 hours per day.

Sandakan Death March

• North Borneo was the location of the single worst atrocity against Australian and British POWs.
• 3,000 POWs were sent by the Japanese to build an airport.
• In January 1945, 470 POWs were forced to march 260KM to Ranau but only 350 survived.
• In May, another death march was ordered for the remaining 500 Sandakan POWs.
• Those who collapsed from a lack of food and exhaustion were killed.
• 203 POW's survived that march.
• By the end of July, only 30 POWs remained alive in Ranau.
• Those that were left were shot on August 1.
• Only six of the original 3,000 Sandakan POWs survived.
• Seven others escaped into the jungle, and were cared for by villagers
• One died before he could be rescued.

Conditions in Asian POW Camps

• Japanese officers adhered to the bushido code, considering prisoners disgraced and unworthy of compassion.
• Food was limited to one cup of water, a small portion of corn, soy meal, and rice per day, and rations were later halved.
• Australian nurses were denied the rights of military personnel, including access to Red Cross packages and writing home.
• At a minimum of 12 First Nations Australians were among the prisoners.
• Escape attempts resulted in certain death if caught.
• Forced labor involved clearing land and building infrastructure
• Payment was sometimes provided in cigarettes that led to a black market.
• Punishments for disobedience ranged from food withdrawal and forced labor while sick or injured, to being locked in bamboo boxes under the sun, beatings, or death.
• Camps were rife with diseases due to poor nutrition, mosquitoes, poor sanitation, and overwork.
• Many prisoners had combat injuries which were left untreated by the Japanese.
• POWs with medical training provided care to the sick and injured with limited supplies.
• Mateship was sustained by Australian soldiers under the most difficult of circumstances
• Soldiers shared available resources.

The United Nations

• The Allied leaders agreed to replace the League of Nations with the United Nations (UN).
• The UN was created to resolve disputes and promote freedom and prosperity, preventing future wars.
• In 1945, the UN Charter declared determination “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.
• The UN backed the Allied decision in August 1945 to prosecute Nazi leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and conspiracy.

The Geneva Convention

• Throughout history, armed conflicts led to soldiers being killed instead of captured, while civilians became victims.
• Late 19th-century attempts to reduce suffering established legal limits.
• The Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1906, and 1929 sought to protect civilians and POWs, though atrocities continued during WWII.
• The Japanese military and German Nazis committed overwhelming, cruel and horrific acts.
• The Geneva Convention enabled the trial and punishment of some perpetrators for war crimes.

Nazi Crimes

• How Germans and European fascist allies treated conquered individuals and POWs was determined by Nazi racial ideology.
• Western European, British, and American POWs were treated reasonably except when escape was attempted.
• Racism caused the Germans to kill North African troops serving in the French military upon France’s surrender.
• Acts of resistance in Western Europe caused brutal reprisals.
• If a German Soldier was killed, at least ten civilians would be executed.
• German forces acted ruthlessly towards the people of Eastern Europe since they were described as racially inferior.
• When the Axis invaded the Soviet Union, Hitler demanded brutality towards the Slavic "sub-humans" and their "Jewish-Bolshevik" leaders.
• Special SS forces were ordered to kill all Jews, communists, and partisans.
• Approximately 9 million Soviet soldiers and twice as many Soviet citizens died during the war.
• Many were deliberately killed
• Almost two-thirds of the 5.7 million Soviet POWs in Nazi hands were murdered, starved, or worked to death in concentration camps.
• Soviet or Slavic civilians resisted, entire towns and villages were massacred.

The Holocaust

• The Holocaust was the most systematic of all Nazi war crimes.
• It was an act of genocide intended to wipe out European Jews.
• Nazi persecution of Jews grew with mass murders beginning in 1941.
• Nazis killed anyone who might resist when they invaded Poland and the Soviet Union, singling out Jews for destruction.
• Polish Jews were forced into enclosed ghettos where survival became a struggle.
• During the invasion of the Soviet Union, mass shootings and massacres of communists Jews were carried our by Germans.
• In Latvia in 1941, 327,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered in two mass shootings.
• The SS experimented with gassing in specially converted vans.

The Final Solution

• In 1941, Hitler decided on the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish problem which would involve mass extermination in SS-run concentration camps.
• Auschwitz was ordered to prepare for mass gassings.
• In January 1942, an SS document called Final Solution to the European Jewish Question stated that healthy Jews would be worked to death.
• European Jews transported to death camps for the remainder of the war.
• The sick, young children, and the elderly were immediately forced into gas chambers disguised as showers.
• Victims were gassed to death, and their bodies incinerated in ovens.
• The others were selected for slave labor, and killed when they became too weak to work.
• Thousands of prisoners could be gassed a day.
• 6 million Jews were murdered.

Anne Frank

• Anne Frank, age 13, and her family hid in Amsterdam in a few rooms.
• She described the "secret annex" in her diary where she would spend the next two years while the Nazis ruled the Netherlands..
• The Franks’ annex was discovered two years later, causing deaths of Anne and her sister's in Bergen-Belsen.
• Her diary is one of the most significant documents of the 20th century.
• It is an intimate view of life and voice during the Holocaust.

End of WWII in Europe

• Germany and Japan were fighting to defend their homeland.
• Mid 1943, the Axis power was in retreat.
• Italy surrendered, and the German army was turned back at Stalingrad.
• The Allies realized the key to success was to start a second front in western Europe.
• On June 6th, 1944, the largest invasion fleet sailed to the coast of Normandy and began Operation Overload (D-Day).
• This led to a large ammount of casualties, it also served as a place to drive the Germans away from.
• Paris was liberated on August 25.
• In December 1944, Germany launched their last major attack though the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, catching the Americans by surprise.
• By 1945 the Allies regained their initiative crossing the border into Germany beginning to advance to Berlin.
• Soviet troops captured the Reichstag on April 30, 1945, and Hitler committed suicide.
• Germany signed an unconditional surrender one week later on May 7th
• Afer 6 years, the war in Europe was over.

End of WWII globally

• Relations with Britain were strained after the war.
• Australia had fought in Britain’s colonial wars out of loyalty and in WW1.
• Australia turned to the United States for help when the Japanese swept south in 1942 and Britain was struggling.
• This was turning point for Australia’s foreign relations.
• There was a short-term hatred for Japan.
• The war left longer legacy of trust with the US.
• Renewed tension between the USSR and the Western powers emerged.
• Tension increased after China’s communist government came into power in 1949.
• The allies feared the Red Peril (communism) and sought to protect the world from it.
• Australia became loyal to the US, and this led to involvement in the Vietnam war (American war) in the 1960-1970s.
• Some deemed this a misguided protection war.

Active Recall - Study Technique

• Quiz yourself using key concepts.
• Review the information and cover what you are learning to remember the information easier.
• Use flash cards that test your memory.
• The harder to remember the memory becomes more valuable

Blurting - Study Technique

• Read notes and fully close to write down what you remember.
• Read everything to remember everything that you remember.
• Compare your notes and see what you miss.

Summerization - Study Technique

• Write your notes that help with your own words.
• Focus on who, what, when, where, why and how for the learning event.

Memory Tricks - Study Technique

• Use memory tricks to remember the sequences a key concept.
• An example of one is MAIN = Military, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism for causes of WW2.

Mind Maps - Study Technique

• Create a timeline that will create events, or will connect
• Create a map on how events were connected and branching out
  • Use mind maps to link causes, effects and consequences
  • Have the main topic in the centre and subtopics branching out
  • Helps to visualise how info is connected

Teaching, a study Technique

• Explaining a concept to a friend can reinforce your understanding.
• Discussing with your classmates can give you a brand new perspective for a topic.

Pomodoro Technique, A Studing Technique

• Study in focus bursts
• Study using the 25 minute and 5 min breaks
• Repeat this four times then you can take a large break.
• It helps with burnout, improving the concentration.
• Set small goals when you study in order to achieve something.
• Make sure all distractions are off for the device that you are learning on

Leitner System, a Study Technique

• Organise card and notes for learning to use the learning in Sections.
• SECTION1: Review the topics very well
• SECTION 2: Review this every three days
• SECTION 3: Review this every week
• Move notes forward if you miss this and back track if you need help with the learning.