![]() On the heels of Season 2's finale comes the German miniseries Hotel Europa (originally Das Weiße Haus am Rhein), which is technically set just before the Second World War in Germany, but does a much better job of telling that story. World on Fire has tried twice now to tell the story of ordinary German citizens who are torn between self-preservation and resistance to a growing horror surrounding them, first in Season 1 with Nancy's neighbors and then in Season 2 with Marga's friends and family. ![]() We know that Europe is full of desperate, displaced persons, and that in future seasons of World on Fire we'll see more of them. We've seen Stan long for his family, seconds before his death, and Harry dutifully return home even though he is not made welcome there. She is still determined to fight to save her homeland. In World on Fire, Kasia has shown us how strong the pull of her home is, even though her parents are dead and the family home long gone. They fought on three continents against the Italian, German, Italian, and Japanese armies. By the end of the war 2.5 million men served in the Indian army, with divisions of infantry, armour and a fledgling airborne force. It's only recently that historians have acknowledged the role of the Indian Army, which fought so bravely for an Empire about which they had serious misgivings. Propaganda films, shown at the movies, encouraged families to grow their own vegetables, compost, keep healthy, dig for victory, salvage and recycle. In addition to volunteer work, women also had to take the time to queue to buy food and what wasn't rationed might not be available. The British embraced wartime life and wartime hardships, although possibly with not as much enthusiasm for rationing as the Ministry of Food would have wished. Like many aspects of wartime life, serving the country was both a necessity and a success of propaganda. Others flew unarmed aircraft, drove ambulances, as Lois did in Manchester, and served as nurses. Over half a million women served in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and an additional 80,000 served in the Women's Land Army which provided agricultural labor to British farmers. If you thought Robina Chase was ripe for something to keep her busy and out of her son's business, she would almost certainly have been one of those bossy middle-class women who won the war.īy mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married women were working in factories, on the land or in the armed forces. From Polish resistance to British women's changing roles, and the role of soldiers from the British Empire, there is lots to explore, and there are aspects of wartime life that the series barely touched. If you're hungry for more stories and information from the World on Fire series, look no further.
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