Total War: World War II and the Home Front

World War 2

The Second World War was the first modern conflict in which millions more civilians died than soldiers. As economic production became essential to military success, civilians were conscripted into factories – and suddenly became fair game. In Total War, eyewitnesses from Britain, Germany, Russia, Korea, Japan, and the United States tell the story of the civilians – children, sisters, and brothers – who suffered and died in the Second World War. Residents of Plymouth, Tokyo, and Hamburg remember the air raids; Russian peasants recall the siege of Leningrad; Japanese soldiers and Korean slave labourers describe the brutality of war in Asia. Throughout, interviewees remember the extraordinary suffering of a people’s war like none before. The people remember: Rosie the Riveter, shipbuilding, Pearl Harbor, air raids, the Blitz, the Siege of Leningrad, and the atom bomb. DVD. Viewing time: 1 hour.

• Documentary

Play