“The Good War”: An Oral History of World War II

Born in 1943, Nora Watson grew up with fresh memories of war. She was deeply influenced by photos she saw of the Holocaust when she was 12: “There was not a place in the world, no matter what its potential, that can be relied upon” (576). At the same time, Nora also remembers her and her younger sister growing up without fear of poverty and with more concern about consumer goods like clothes. Also, because of the lack of knowledge about the dangers of radiation, she lived near a radium-processing plant that may have been responsible for her mother’s death from cancer.

Joachim and Marlene, both German, discuss how Germans and other Europeans are much less concerned with nationalism and will refuse to go to war. Further, they discuss how the German educational system denounces Hitler, although it also villainizes rather than humanizes the people who followed him. Likewise, they claim that the generation that lived through Hitler’s rule often say that they were ignorant of the Holocaust.

A member of the baby boomer generation, Steve McConnell remarks that his generation “had the luxury of free time and economic security” (581). There was an awareness of the possibility of nuclear war, but bomb shelters were treated like just another consumer item.