In mid-April 1945, US and UK forces swept through Germany. The Western Allies had spent years preparing for the moment, cultivating a civil affairs capacity since the Interwar Period and devoting thousands of hours to planning for the occupation. However, the rapid pace of the advance stretched the new capability beyond its limits as frontline forces seized large swaths of Germany and encountered exponentially increasing numbers of displaced persons. The accidental discoveries of Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen and the tens of thousands of survivors suffering appalling levels of starvation and disease overwhelmed the forces dispatched to address the sites, resulting in a sluggish response. Significant flaws in Allied planning assumptions caused the breakdown that potentially cost hundreds of unnecessary deaths. Yet, operational staff officers from the Supreme Headquarters down to the division level recognized the poor response and, in two short weeks, adapted the plan to address the conditions on the front. Policy adjustments and messages from General Eisenhower removed ambiguity in existing guidance and provided clear direction to frontline forces. More importantly, the Western Allies formally merged the campaign plan guiding combat operations, OVERLORD, with the plan for occupation, ECLIPSE. The changes produced a marked improvement in the US liberation of Dachau on 29 April 1945, thereby demonstrating adaptation and innovation at the operational level of war.

Während des deutsch-sowjetischen Krieges war ab Herbst 1941 das Gebiet um die russische Stadt Brjansk von der Wehrmacht besetzt. Die 2. Panzerarmee verwaltete dieses Territorium über den Kommandanten des rückwärtigen Armeegebietes 532. Wie überall im besetzten Gebiet verübten die Einsatzgruppen des SD zahlreiche Morde und es kam zum Massensterben der Kriegsgefangenen in den Durchgangslagern. Starke, in den ausgedehnten Waldmassiven versteckte sowjetische Partisanenverbände erschwerten die Beherrschung des ausgedehnten Raumes. Aufgrund des Mangels an deutschen Soldaten wurden zahlreiche Bewachungseinheiten aus Einheimischen und Kriegsgefangenen gebildet. Der Kommandeur der Armee Generaloberst Rudolf Schmidt ging sogar so weit, einen von der russischen Bevölkerung vollständig selbst verwalteten Bezirk zuzulassen. Kollaboration mit den deutschen Besatzern war ein weit verbreitetes Phänomen, während gleichzeitig in den Wäldern die Partisanen herrschten. Die Sicherungsverbände führten zahlreiche Antipartisanenunternehmen durch, die meist ohne anhaltende Erfolge blieben, aber in deren Verlauf zahlreiche Zivilisten als vermeintliche Partisanen getötet wurden. Obwohl die Besatzungsherrschaft der Wehrmacht in diesem Gebiet von der in Berlin beschlossenen Generallinie der Ausbeutung, Unterdrückung und Vernichtung in vielem abwich, wurde nicht für eine ausreichende Ernährung der Bevölkerung gesorgt. Dem Hunger und dem Partisanenkrieg fielen bis zum Rückzug der Wehrmacht im Herbst 1943 tausende Zivilisten zum Opfer. / During the German-Soviet war by autumn 1941 the area around the Russian city Bryansk was occupied by the Wehrmacht. The Second Tank Army administrated this territory through the commander of the backward area of the army 532. Like everywhere in the occupied territories the Einsatzgruppen of the SD committed numerous murders and it came to the widespread deaths of the prisoners of war in the transit camps. Strong Soviet partisan groups hidden in the vast forest massifs complicated the control of the vast area. On account of the lack of German soldiers numerous guarding units from locals and prisoners of war were formed. The commander of the army senior general Rudolf Schmidt went even so far of admitting a district completely administered by Russians themselves. Collaboration with the occupying forces was a widespread phenomenon, while at the same time in the woods the partisans ruled. The guarding troops carried out numerous anti-partisan operations which mostly remained without during success but killed numerous civilians as putative partisans in the course. Although the occupation of the Wehrmacht in this area in many aspects deviated from the in Berlin concluded general line of exploitation, suppression and destruction, it was not provided for a sufficient supply of food for the population. Until the retreat of the Wehrmacht in autumn 1943 thousand of civilians fell victim to hunger and partisan warfare.

This research aims to illuminate how and why war challenges the limits of poetic representation, through an analysis of non-combatant poetry of the Second World War. It is motivated by the question: how can one portray, represent, or talk about war? Literature on war poetry tends to concentrate on the combatant poets of the First World War, or their influence, while literature on the Second World War tends to focus on prose as the only expression of literary war experience. With a historicist approach, this thesis advances our understanding of both the Second World War, and our inherited notions of 'war poetry,' by parsing its historiography, and investigating the role critical appraisals have played in marginalising this area of poetic response. This thesis examines four poets as case studies in this field of research-W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, and Stevie Smith-and evaluates them on both their individual explorations of poetic tone, faith systems, linguistic innovations, subversive performativity, and their collective trajectory towards a commitment to represent the war in their poetry. The findings from this research illustrate how too many critical appraisals have minimised or misrepresented Second World War poetry, and how the poets responded with a self-reflexivity that bespoke a deeper concern with how war is remembered and represented. The significance of these findings is breaking down the notion of objective fact in poetic representations of war, which are ineluctably subjective texts. These findings also offer insight into the 'failure' of poetry to represent war as a necessary part of war representation and prompt a rethinking of who has the 'right' experience-or simply the right-to talk about war.

On April 9, 1940, Germany invaded Denmark. Instantly, the fate and status of Greenland, a Danish colony, was thrust into limbo. During the war, Greenland’s vital mineral resources and location made it significant for the warring parties on both sides of the Atlantic. However, conflicting international corporate and political interests made any act to defend the island on the part of the Allies, or the officially neutral Americans, problematic. Within a year of the Danish occupation, the American government had signed an agreement for the defense of Greenland, extending the protection of both the Monroe Doctrine and the American military to the island. This action was an important step in the formal expansion of American influence in the Western Hemisphere that occurred during the Second World War. This thesis argues that global economic, political, and technological changes led to Greenland’s increased geopolitical significance and set the stage for a shift in the balance of power within the North Atlantic Triangle. It demonstrates how decisions relating to the security of the island came to be made and how conflicting interests within and between governments affected the genesis of the occupation. It explores how Winston Churchill’s decision to mine the North Sea led to the American occupation of Greenland and examines the ways in which the effects of Churchill’s actions raised concerns in Canada about the possibility of a British defeat, which in turn led Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, to align his foreign policy closer to that of the United States’ President Roosevelt. This thesis also asserts that Roosevelt successfully used the potential foreign occupation of Greenland to demonstrate to the American public the dangers of foreign conflicts to the United States and to further his hemispheric security objectives both domestically and abroad. These events had a profound and lasting impact on the relationships within the North Atlantic Triangle and on political identity in Greenland, and signalled an important shift in the foreign policy of the United States toward greater American involvement in world affairs.

This thesis analyses the figure of Arthur, in a period spanning the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, when that figure became increasingly protean and multifaceted, and the audience for the Arthurian legend grew in both size and variety. It argues that many authors wrote through Arthur, as well as about Arthur, using the figure to understand and test their own ideas about ideals (e.g. of manliness, kingship, or heroism) as well as problems (such as war, despotism, or ungodliness). This thesis analyses Arthur by considering him as a 'type', using a definition of the term that highlights a paradox: a type, in a scientific sense, is both perfect (an exemplary model) and normal (common enough to be representative). When applied to Arthur, it means that he is both a perfect, or near perfect, example, but is also to some extent a 'normal' human being. Different authors analysed in this thesis emphasise different aspects of the figure, according to whether they focus on Arthur's perfection or his normality. Other meanings of the word 'type' are also applied when relevant: the idea is not to force all versions of Arthur into a single or definitive category, but to retain the complexity of how Arthur is characterised and written about in texts. The ultimate aim of this thesis is to put the figure of Arthur into critical focus, and explain why he has been returned to so often in history.

Cette thèse représente la première synthèse scientifique à l’échelle nationale sur le Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO). De septembre 1942 à l’été 1944, les lois du régime de Vichy contraignent 600 000 à 650 000 personnes à partir dans le Reich remplacer les mobilisés allemands. Ce drame, tournant majeur de l’Occupation, reste après-guerre sous-étudié, et ses victimes oubliées. Il est reconstitué ici sous l’ensemble de ses aspects : relations franco-allemandes, impacts économiques et sociaux, accentuation du discrédit de l’Etat français et du collaborationnisme, contribution à l’essor de la Résistance et des maquis. Notre travail se clôt sur la vie des exilés en Allemagne, leur retour et leur mémoire amère, portée par l’ex-Fédération Nationale des Déportés du Travail. Un fil conducteur est l’attitude de l’opinion publique face aux prélèvements de main-d’œuvre. Perceptions et comportements dépendent des étapes du STO, des classes sociales, des appartenances religieuses ou des circonstances locales. Malgré bien des contestations (grèves, manifestations), la France est le seul pays d’Europe occupée à fournir tous les hommes demandés, du moins jusqu’à l’été 1943. Les Français paraissent d’abord pris au dépourvu, impuissants, divisés. Les individus, repliés sur eux-mêmes, semblent moins soucieux de se soustraire au travail forcé ou d’aider autrui à s’y dérober que d’exiger que ce tribut impopulaire frappe tous les groupes à égalité. La désobéissance de masse ne s’instaure que dans un second temps. A côté de l’obéissance et du réfractariat, nous étudions ce que nous baptisons la « refusance », c’est-à-dire les moyens de refuser le STO sans recourir à la clandestinité (emplois protégés, faux certificats médicaux, entrée dans les forces de l’ordre, etc.). / This thesis represents the first scientific synthesis nationwide about the Compulsory Labor Draft (Service du Travail Obligatoire, STO) inflicted upon France during the Second World War. Between September 1942 and the summer of 1944, laws enacted by the Vichy Regime forced approximately 600000 to 650000 French people to leave for the Reich in order to replace the German people recruited to the military. This turning point of the Occupation remained underrepresented in post-war research, and the victims felt into oblivion. The STO is reconstructed with special interest to the relationships between France and Germany, the socio-economic impacts, the discredit brought to the Vichy government and the collaborationist parties, the help to the expansion of the French Resistance and of the Maquis. The work ends with a depiction of the exiled people’s lives, their return and their bitter memories, supported by the former Fédération Nationale des Déportés du Travail. The main idea throughout this work is the attitude displayed by the public opinion confronted to the forced labor. Perceptions and behaviors depend on the periods in the history of the STO, of social classes, religion or local contexts. In spite of many protests such as strikes and demonstrations, France is the only country to have delivered all men requested by Germany, at least up to the summer of 1943. The French people seem to have been taken by surprise, powerless and divided. Individuals seem less troubled with dodging the forced labour service or with helping others to do so than with claiming that the whole population should equally be taken by this highly obnoxious toll. The massive disobedience only took over in a second cycle. Alongside the obedience and the réfractariat, the refusal newly coined as “refusance”, is a phenomenon studied in this work. The latter world refers to official actions and dynamics of refusing the STO without having to go underground, i.e. protected workplaces, false medical certificates or the joining of the law polices, to name but a few.

This thesis deals with the depiction of racial and ethnic stereotypes in American animated cartoons particularly from the first half of the twentieth century. It studies the relationship between animation and American culture and examines how animation reflects and shapes American identity in terms of race and how it critiques and promotes American values and attitudes regarding race and ethnicity in particular. Considering the historical, political, legal and cultural background of the contemporary eras of American animation, the thesis analyses the portrayal of racial and ethnic features in animated cartoons from the 1920s to the 1960s. Such stereotypes represent, in my opinion, significant aspects of societal and cultural changes in American society of the examined eras of animation. The beginnings of the entertainment industry affected the booming era of animation by implementing commonly recognised literary stereotypes of the African-Americans into animated cartoons. This thesis strives to study the development of animated features of the racial stereotypes throughout the contemporary eras. It provides a brief systematic overview of the main eras that have significantly highlighted the start of animation as markers of race and ethnicity. Simultaneously, it discusses the problematic...

The air campaign conducted by the RAAF in the North-Western Area during the Second World War has been largely ignored by historians yet it contributed significantly to the outcome of the Pacific war. This thesis sets out to discuss the campaign by considering various factors that impacted on the RAAF in the lead up to and during the course of the Pacific war and their relevance to the campaign. It looks at the way air operations were conducted in the North-Western Area between 1942 and 1945 and describes the role played by the flying squadrons based in the area. Using primary sources such as operational record books, documents and files at archives and libraries and interviews with veterans and experts the thesis found that the campaign was conducted in several phases. It started with the defence of Darwin. In keeping with overall allied strategy the RAAF then went on an offensive into what was then the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) using medium and heavy bombers and mine laying sea planes flying from bases in Australia???s north west. The NEI was vital to the Japanese war effort as a source of essential raw materials such as oil, timber, and rubber. To defend this part of their new empire the Japanese had amassed large military garrisons on the islands. The vessels used to transport troops and materials became the most important targets for the RAAF???s bomber squadrons. As General MacArthur???s forces advanced along the north coast of New Guinea the North-Western Area based units conducted raids into the NEI to deceive the Japanese into thinking an invasion would be launched from Darwin. As the New Guinea campaign gained momentum the RAAF???s task was to protect its western flank, to prevent the Japanese from moving troops and aircraft east to the Philippines. The thesis concludes the campaign was successful because Darwin was defended, it denied the Japanese vital materials for the conduct of the war and it kept hundreds of aircraft and tens of thousands of troops away from the allied advance.

The study deals with the life stories of six women and four men who were born in Germany and who now live in Sweden.  Its purpose is to examine the histories of those who grew up in Germany during and after the Nazi era, their descriptions of their lives and experiences during childhood and adolescence, and how they regard their encounters with Swedish people, and the ways in which these encounters have affected their ways of describing the growth of their attachment to this country. The main approach is a narrative analysis focussing on the interview interaction and the wider social and political contexts of their life stories. When speaking of their lives in the two countries they show varying degrees of attachment to the places involved. This is why I use the term “travellers” when describing how their feelings of “belonging” change. The theoretical concepts used are those of habitus and capitals derived from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, and Marianne Horsdal’s view that people often refer to the idea of a “good life” when relating their life stories. This concept can of course vary widely from one person to another. Nine of the group emigrated to Sweden voluntarily; the remaining one came here as a refugee after the end of the second World War.  The older ones - born between 1920 and 1940 - have memories of their early years in Nazi Germany and of the wartime period. The younger ones, born after 1950, have differing memories of childhood and adolescence spent in East and West Germany. Some of them lost close relatives during the war.  Those who came to Sweden during the late 1940s and the 1950s were met with very negative attitudes from some Swedes, while the later immigrants were treated with respect. / Tyskland i Sverige och Sverige i Tyskland

L’interès d’aquesta investigació s’ha centrat en dos aspectes complementaris de l’obra de Joan Miró, del període de 1939 a 1945. Un és la producció artística i l’altre és el procés auto reflexiu. El període de la trajectòria vital i professional objecte d’anàlisi, el de major tensió emocional per a l’artista i la seva família, està marcat per inflexions significatives, però també per continuïtats. Miró fou capaç de superar l’opressió d’un ambient hostil gràcies a una severa auto disciplina en el treball, una recapitulació sobre el propi llenguatge artístic i un inèdit procés d’auto reflexió escrit. Pel que fa a la producció, hem destacat amb una especial significació dues sèries: Constellations (1940-41) i la Sèrie Barcelona (1941-1944). L’obra realitzada en aquest període és un dels exemples més interessants de com les característiques evasives, de l’absurd o tocades pel seu particular humour grotesc, suposen un contrapès al carregat ambient que l’envolta / El interés de nuestra investigación se ha centrado en dos aspectos complementarios de la obra de Joan Miró, comprendida entre el período 1939 y 1945. Uno es la producción artística y el otro es el proceso autoreflexivo. El período de la trayectoria vital y profesional objeto de análisis, el de mayor tensión emocional para el artista y su familia, está marcado por inflexiones significativas, pero también por continuidades. Miró fue capaz de superar la opresión de un ambiente hostil gracias a una severa autodisciplina en el trabajo, una recapitulación sobre el propio lenguaje artístico y un inédito proceso de auto reflexión escrito. Por lo que se refiere a la producción, hemos destacado con una especial significación dos series: Constellations (1940-41) y la Sèrie Barcelona (1941-1944). La obra realizada en este período es uno de los ejemplos más interesantes de como las características evasivas, del absurdo o tocadas por su particular humour grotesco, suponen un contrapeso al cargado ambiente que le rodea / The interest of our research is located in two complain aspects of Joan Miró’s work, between 1939 and 1945. One aspect is the artistic production and the other one is the self reflexive process. This vital and professional period is the most emotional tension for the artist and his family, and it is distinguished by important changes but also by continuities. Miró was into the most strict anonymous. He was able to overcome the oppression of a hostile atmosphere because he impose himself a hard auto discipline of work, a recapitulation about his artistic language, and an unpublished process of written reflection. In concerning the artistic production, we have studied two series because its special signification: Constellations (1940-41) and the Sèrie Barcelona (1941-44). The works made in this period of time are one of the most interesting examples of evasive trends, absurd or with a particular and grotesque humour. This attributes were the counter balance to the loaded climate