How far did the experience of civilians in Europe change as a result of the Second World War? Explain your answer. [40]

This question asks how far the experience of civilians in Europe changed as a result of the Second World War. A strong answer must identify the nature and extent of change while also considering variations across different countries and populations.

Evidence that civilian life was transformed:

• Total war and strategic bombing: The distinction between military and civilian targets largely disappeared. German bombing of Warsaw (1939), Rotterdam (1940), and London and Coventry (the Blitz, 1940-1941) deliberately targeted civilian populations. Allied bombing of Hamburg (1943, Operation Gomorrah), Dresden (February 1945), and Berlin caused massive civilian casualties. The firebombing of Hamburg alone killed approximately 42,000 people.
• Occupation: In occupied countries such as France, Poland, the Netherlands, and Norway, civilians experienced forced labour, food requisitioning, curfews, restrictions on movement, and reprisals for resistance activity. In occupied Poland and the Soviet Union, German occupation was particularly brutal, with mass executions and deliberate starvation policies.
• The Holocaust: Six million Jews were systematically murdered in concentration and extermination camps, along with millions of Roma, disabled people, political prisoners, and others. This was the most extreme impact on civilians in history.
• Displacement: Millions of civilians became refugees. By 1945, an estimated 11 million displaced persons were in Europe. The post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe affected approximately 12 to 14 million people.
• Women's roles: Women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers in Britain, the Soviet Union, and Germany, taking on roles in factories, transport, agriculture, and civil defence. In the Soviet Union, women served in combat roles, including as snipers and pilots. These changes challenged pre-war assumptions about gender roles.
• Government control: Rationing, conscription, censorship, propaganda, and government direction of the economy became normal across Europe. Daily life was regulated to an extent unprecedented in peacetime.

Evidence that the extent of change varied:

• Some rural areas, particularly in countries not directly invaded, experienced relatively little disruption compared to major cities that were bombed or occupied.
• Neutral countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Turkey) were affected far less directly, though they experienced economic disruption and took in some refugees.
• Collaboration with the occupying power allowed a degree of normality in some territories. In Vichy France, the unoccupied zone initially maintained some autonomy, though this eroded after the full German occupation in November 1942.
• Many changes were temporary. After the war, many women were expected to return to domestic roles, and traditional social structures were restored in some countries. However, the welfare state developments in Britain (the Beveridge Report, 1942, and the post-war Labour government) suggest some changes were lasting.
• The experience of civilians in Western Europe, though severe, differed markedly from the experience in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, where German occupation policies were far more destructive and where the scale of death and destruction was significantly greater.

Reaching a judgement: The Second World War brought enormous changes to civilian life across Europe, including the blurring of the line between soldiers and civilians, mass displacement, genocide, and expanded state control. However, the extent and nature of these changes varied dramatically by country, region, urban or rural location, and the nature of occupation. The strongest answer would argue that the war transformed civilian life on an unprecedented scale, but that this transformation was uneven and not all changes proved permanent.

Mark scheme guidance:

• Level 5 (33-40): Balanced analysis covering multiple types of change and multiple countries, with specific evidence, recognising variation and reaching a sustained judgement about the overall extent of change.
• Level 4 (25-32): Good analysis of several types of change with relevant evidence, but may lack the range of examples or the nuance in recognising variation.
• Level 3 (17-24): Some explanation with evidence, but may focus on one country or one type of change without adequate breadth.
• Level 2 (9-16): Descriptive narrative of wartime events without sustained evaluation of how civilian experience changed.
• Level 1 (1-8): General statements with little specific evidence.

Exam tip: 'How far' questions about change require you to consider both what changed and what stayed the same (or varied). Do not just list changes; evaluate their extent and significance.