While more than 35,000 German and Italian prisoners were kept far away from the war in prison camps, many other thousands of innocent civilians were forced to leave their houses to go live in internment camps. In 1942, more than 20,000 Japanese Canadians were transferred to these camps, and about the same number of German Canadians. These internments were to reduce the risk and fear of enemy spies or members of the Fifth Column.
During World War II, soldiers of the warring nations were distinguished for behaving heroically or for exceptional achievements. However, it was very difficult for one group to gain recognition. These were African Americans among the segregated American forces. The reason for this was that they often ended up in supporting roles and were therefore kept out of the fray or because their actions were not recognized due to racist motives. There were exceptions to this, such as Robert Hayes and Hubert Massie, who managed to stand out when an emergency occurred while they were working in Canada.
During the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Jesse Owens, a black American athlete, decisively outperformed his German competitors and won four medals. Adolf Hitler, who was in attendance, was reportedly so enraged that he stood up and left the stadium.
Where they are is not always easy to find out, but they are not unique either. Hitler's cars. He had several, some of which are in museums around the world. There are some that didn't make it to the end of the war, and where the rest is remains a mystery. Every now and then one shows up at an auction, only often to disappear very quickly into a private collection.
The last month of war was a difficult time for Western-Netherlands. Writers of diaries from the four cities were already dealing with food shortages which were increasing every week. People were dependent on soup kitchens and on the Swedish and Swiss Red Cross which offered some help with bread and margarine supplies. Other than that, Western Netherlands was on its own. In addition, the course of the war played a significant role in the daily lives of the people.
The population register and identity cards were an important means of control for the German occupier. Gradually, opposition to this system developed. Forgeries of these documents were booming. Another possibility for resistance was the elimination of the population registers. On Saturday night, 27 March 1943, a resistance group which had developed around the visual artist Willem Arondéus carried out a raid on the office of the population register of Amsterdam. The effect however was less than had been hoped. In addition, 12 people were executed by the occupying forces for their complicity in the attack.