The years leading up to World War II 1933 – Nazis come to power in Germany – Nuremberg Laws 1936 – Olympic Games held in Berlin – Kristallnacht ליל הבדולח 1938 –Anschluss (annexation סיפוח ) of Austria 1938 – Division of Czechoslovakia 1939 – Germany invades Poland – Britain and France declare war. America remains neutral – America joins the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

WWII The invasion to Normandy – D-day (June 1944) – the Allied Forces vs. the axis countries (Japan, Italy and Germany). May 1945 – the end of WW2 in Europe August 1945 – atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, Japan surrenders. The play takes place in August 1947 on Sunday – 2 years after WW2 in a suburban town in America.

A Short Biography of Arthur Miller Arthur Miller was born in 1915 to a prosperous Jewish family in New York. Miller married three times. His most well known wife was the second one, Marilyn Monroe, the actress. He wrote several unsuccessful plays but only became well known in 1947 with the opening of All My Sons. The main theme he is interested in is SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. He is against war, materialism and capitalism. He is for idealism and serving your country. During the McCarthy period (1953) he was accused of un-American activities, and was blacklisted for two years. He died in 2005 not long after he had visited Israel.

Arthur Miller, Jewish American playwright

TWO OTHER SUCCESSFUL PLAYS

What can you infer the play is about?

AMERICAN INDUSTRY DURING WW2 During the years of war in the USA ( ) most factories had switched to war products because of the high demand. PRODUCTION LINE IN AN AMERICAN AIRCRAFT FACTORY.

A P-40 AIRCRAFT An American single-engine, single-seat fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938.

THE IRONY OF THE SITUATION Many American businessmen became rich during war time while thousands of soldiers were sacrificing their lives in Europe and the Pacific fronts. The American president, Roosevelt, said at the time: The American people will not relish the idea of any American citizen growing rich and fat in an emergency of blood and slaughter and human suffering

MISSING IN ACTION (MIAS) By the end of the war there were 75,000 American MIAs. But some did come back.

Millers Inspiration for All My Sons In 1944, Arthur Millers then mother-in-law mentioned an article she had read in an Ohio newspaper about a war profiteer whose daughter had turned him into federal officials for selling faulty machinery to the Army before running away from home.

Thinking from different perspectives SITUATION A young man's older brother is believed to be dead at war, but there is no real proof because his body has never been found. Despite the fact that he has been missing for at least five years since his plane was shot down, the young man's mother is still waiting for her son to return. As far as she is concerned, her son - a U.S. air force hero is still alive. The father of the two brothers has accepted the tragic loss of his son.

Before the war, the older brother had a girlfriend who he expected to marry. When the accident was reported, the girlfriend moved to another state. For the past year the young man has been corresponding with his brother's former girlfriend, and they have fallen in love with each other and would like to get married. The girlfriend has come back for the first time since the accident to visit the family. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION? Should the young man and the former girlfriend have let their relationship go so far? Why or why not? Answer this questions taking different points of view. You are the mother. You are the younger brother. You are the father. You are the girlfriend

All My Sons – set and scenery