"The tragic battle of Stalingrad is a symbol of heroic, manly resistance to the revolt of the steppes. It has not only a military, but also an intellectual and spiritual significance for the German people. Here for the first time our eyes have been opened to the true nature of the war. We want no more false hopes and illusions. We want bravely to look the facts in the face, however hard and dreadful they may be. The history of our party and our state has proven that a danger recognized is a danger defeated. Our coming hard battles in the East will be under the sign of this heroic resistance. It will require previously undreamed of efforts by our soldiers and our weapons. A merciless war is raging in the East. The Führer was right when he said that in the end there will not be winners and losers, but the living and the dead. The German nation knows that. Its healthy instincts have led it through the daily confusion of intellectual and spiritual difficulties. We know today that the Blitzkrieg in Poland and the campaign in the West have only limited significance to the battle in the East. The German nation is fighting for everything it has.”

Joseph Goebbels, Reich minister of propaganda, in a speech following the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943

A) Explain ONE new or refined piece of military technology that emerged during World War II and led to the kinds of casualties Goebbels mentions in the passage.
B) Explain ONE difference between the strategies behind World War I and World War II that led to an increase in civilian casualties.
C) Explain ONE way Goebbels’s speech reflects the concept of total war during World War II.

EDGE 2021