Essay Example on Wartime suffering is what can aptly be described as a necessary Evil

Wartime suffering is what can aptly be described as a necessary evil necessary for its historical importance as a future deterrence and evil in its continued lingering presence A vivid example of how wartime suffering shaped the reconstruction of two European societies post World War II appears in the writings of Bernadette Atuahene During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and France for the five years preceding the end of the war European Jews were systematically stripped of their property rights She describes these as dignity takings a deprivation of rightful property that leaves the disadvantaged group dehumanized or infantilized This is clearly beyond any sort or measure of theft or petty robbery it has moral and societal implications as well 

The posited concept of dignity restoration begins with discovering that a wrong has taken place offering methods of compensating for such and giving the victims a fair hearing and agency to aid the process of restoration Wartime suffering was alleviated first in the immediate aftermath as the Netherlands and France implemented restitution policies The late 1990 s saw a second cycle of the same which caused many a historian and economic analyst to question why and how an attempt at atoning and rehabilitation so much after the immediate years would be useful Regardless we see how the memories of ones own wartime suffering and that inflicted on others drives a change in and most likely a correction of the states moral compass The establishment of the United Nations and the various state ordained measures and peace pacts that were put into place were all in an attempt to avoid the same events repeated themselves It can be argued with enough academic backing from the likes of Marwick that total war had extensive effects and though acknowledgement of the death and devastation is essential in any analysis the social effects of such a crisis are also of key importance The war and its call for immediate and complete mobilization for the war effort pushed the resources of the economic and the political structures of society to their limit thereby ushering in an era of progressive social changes Marwick posits the theory that socially the war had a leveling impact 

Though the class hierarchy and the clearly defined distinctions between those were tenacious the wealth gap between the rich and poor narrowed on account of a few factors not entirely limited to income tax death duties and an expansion of the welfare state The position of the working class had improved as we see the rise in the beneficial activities of the welfare state in both Britain and the West of Europe This included a greater expression of concern by the governments in maintaining a low level of unemployment and increasing working class wages And though the criticism of this thesis largely originates from the ever critical and cynical left wing schools of historical thought there is evidence to support the fact that it had now become the state's responsibility to set wages and control the employment levels as well as the increased usage and positive influence of the welfare state Furthermore women were found in employment and that too in a broad range of occupations Better windows of opportunity opened up for them hand in hand with a relative equality in society Women in both Britain and Germany found the war to be a liberating albeit tragic occurrence as jobs in the government offices and the armed forces Interestingly we notice that the aforementioned nations granted their female populace the right to vote in 1945 with France and Italy following closely behind with that and with a declaration of equal citizenship in 1946 Now it may have been so that the change was thrust upon women by the releasing of wartime pressures or that they had desire for such change regardless the war experience had a transformative effect on the standing and respect of women in European society Other changes to European society appeared with the Americanisation of it a geographically specific term for modernisation With the aid of the American military came the influence of the overtly consumer society of across the lake 

This culture was popular in Europe pre war but even more so after the fact as the viewers could empathise with the self same depictions of poverty and unemployment post war When war occurs not only is it likely that the size of the territory that states occupy will be expanded but also that the range of functions the state can exercise enhances Preparation for the war and implementation of orders relies on the smooth workings of the central state apparatus which ensures efficient extraction and utilization of resources And so as more resources are being expended there is an insistent stimulus on fiscal burden The resultant condition has affected most countries post war where large increases in wartime expenditure is offset by a post war shrinkage called the displacement effect popularized by Peacock and Wiseman in their 1961 thesis The resulting gap could not be made up for due to the additional pressure of the post war debts and pensions Scholars have also begun to believe with reasonable evidence that the increased government influence over the wartime happenings has reduced individual incentive to engage in entrepreneurial activities This retards economic progress as does the resulting rapid inflation