Topic area: The experience of soldiers in WW2

Focus Question: What were the conditions in WW2 and what did the soldiers experience and
how did it impact their families and communities?

My project shows the true experience of soldiers who fought in WW2. While there has been
much documentation from previous soldiers who survived the war and their personal
emotions and experiences when the war was over and going back to their normal lives, I am
putting a personal perspective on the true experience of the soldiers from my family
knowledge and history involving WW2. My essay will initially focus on demonstrating the
impacts of war and WW2 on soldiers, families and communities. How did these families and
communities rebuild after such great destruction and how did they cope if they had lost their
loved ones due to the war?

Sub Questions:

1. What was the initial experience of WW2?

2. How was society after the war?

3. How did the children of soldiers feel and what did they experience?

4. How did WW2 impact soldiers that survived into adulthood?

5. How did previous WW2 soldiers represent their overall experiences?

Proposal

What is WW2 and how many countries did it affect, WW2 was a global war in which involved
most of the world's countries including all the great powers forming two opposing military
alliances: the Allies and the Axis. There were 3 main allied countries which were known as
“the three great allied powers” this role consisted of Great Britain, France and the United
States. It's very obvious that the conditions of war were quite horrific but a good question for
research is how did the different ages, genders and races of people suffer? How did children
suffer? How did wives of soldiers suffer? The conditions were terrible and the fear the
soldiers must have experienced knowing their lives were on the line each and every day until
they either die or are just lucky enough to make it out alive. How did this pass down
generations and has the war shaped our current society today would life be different if this
had not of happened would the world be more at peace? How did my family suffer from their
horrific experiences?

Good places to source relevant research could be the school library, books may be a good
source for relevant information and reliable information to get more information on the real
experience of soldiers in war and the struggles of society after these wars. Visiting the
Sydney Jewish Museum could be a good way to see artifacts from WW2 and different areas
of WW2 that I may not have previously known about. Lastly, online websites, blogs or sites
that have information on sources found from soldiers would be a great way to gage a deeper
understanding on the conditions of war and how it has shaped our current society.
I will be initially interviewing my mother as her grandfather was in the navy and travelled in
ships around WW2. The best way for me to get the most relevant information about my
given topic and question could be to take some dot points of the main questions I have and
the key areas I would like to focus on when integrating information into my essay. I may ask
my mum if she knows the emotional experiences of her grandfather and if it in any way
affected her or my mum's mum (my grandma). I must also make sure my mum is happy to
discuss this topic and ensure her before what I would like to talk to her about. I may ask her
about any stories she's been told or if she has any artifacts from her grandfather.

Some useful information and sources for my topic may be documentaries and or movies
describing the personal experiences of soldiers in WW2 especially because movies create a
gage of how the character is feeling emotionally and create a connection and are a great
way to interpret the characters emotions. They also create a great representation of the
conditions and clearly show the most historically accurate response possible into how the
conditions were in these times.

Thus, in order to organise all of my research i will be using sub questions which i've created
which will make an easy and efficient way to ask questions and get clear answers structuring
my response to my essay and an easy way to create topics to be discussed in my interview
and get good relevant information which may be used in my final essay response in which
will include information about the conditions of WW2 and the emotional response and
trauma from soldiers, families communities and how it initially affected society.