You want them alphabetically, chronologically, or by order of importance? I think I can list a couple hundred off the top of my head.
But I’ll just go with John Wayne.
Goebbels was the first name to pop into my head. Don’t know how he pushed to the head of the line over FDR, Stalin, Churchill, etc but I guess “WWII = Nazis = Nazi Guys” is my mind’s initial reaction.
Stalin
Hitler
Eisenhower
Mussolini
Patton
Roosevelt
Unlike several posters, I followed the rules.
Greg “Pappy” Boyington
One from each side:
Nimitz
Mengele
OK, Churchill.
Remind me again of the years that WWII started and ended.
What is the rule that we aren’t following?
After Hitler, thinking of the next name that comes to mind depends on context. There’s no “second in command” of WWII hierarchy. Not even Stalin, though I often say he should be considered just as bad as Hitler.
So what comes to mind first depends on what I’m thinking about at the time.
Watching Hogan’s Heroes the first one that comes to mind is Goering, maybe Himmler, if it is a Hochsteader-centric episode.
Just yesterday I read about Eichmann, and his rendition from Argentina, so he’s on the top today. And Maybe Elie Wiesel.
Last week I watched Ike: Countdown to D-Day, so then he was at the top. And Omar Bradley. And Roosevelt.
Thinking about my dad in the Pacific Theater, I think of MacArthur, Col. Tibbets or Hirohito.
Thinking about central European theater, I’d go with Mussolini, Anne Frank, Patton.
If England is the subject, then Churchill, Chamberlain, Montgomery, King Edward VIII. Or Lord Haw-Haw.
Scientifically inclined, I think of Von Braun, Oppenheimer, Turing, or Gen Groves. And maybe Feynman, because I liked his books.
The war in the Pacific brings to mind Nimitz, Yamamoto.
The Battle of the Atlantic - Doernitz, especially as he became head of the government after Hitler.
Hitler is the evilest person of the 20th century. He transcends mere awareness - he is synonymous with evil. In 500 years, there will probably be only two names that define the century, that everyone knows: Hitler and Einstein.
Betty Grable.
Churchill
Alan Turing
Douglas Bader
R J Mitchell
George VI
You know - movie characters.
Churchill
The OP said he wanted people to post one name but many people are posting lists.
1937 to 1945.
Of course a lot of Britons don’t think the war started until they got involved in 1939.
Oh! Yeah, we just did this for WWI! Um, um–
[del]The Red Baron![/del]
Stalin!
First name that came to my mind was Patton, but on another day it might have been Churchill, Mussolini, Hirohito, or any of a number of others.
Georgy Zhukov
I think starting off with Hitler poisoned the well with a bias to German names.
For me
After my uncle, a naval pilot killed flying off the Enterprise on December the 7th or 8th, 1941 my grandparents were told.
Churchill.