We will watch the film “Total War” [the 9-22-1998 episode of the PBS “People’s Century” documentary series]. World War II was the first modern conflict in which millions more civilians died than soldiers. As economic production became essential to military success, civilians were conscripted into factories and suddenly became targets of the war machines. In “Total War,” witnesses from Britain, Germany, Russian, Korea, Japan, and the United States tell the story of the civilians — children, sisters, brothers — who suffered and died in World War II. They remember the air raids, the siege of Leningrad, the slave labor and brutality of war. Throughout, the witnesses remember the extraordinary suffering of the people.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/episodes/totalwar/description.html