http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?http://blogs.nature.com/thescepticalchymist/2008/07/whos_the_greatest_russian_scie.html Who was the greatest Russian?
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-autobio.html Solzhenitsyn the great Russian author
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=HK&hl=zh-TW&v=Xglby1gdDwM How Hitler lost the War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_qeCNg8fO0&feature=related - Check this 8th Grade Project out. Does he make any errors?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KgJQUXr2Ws Hitler Speech - Triumph of the Will
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVP3KU-qOzchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58N73cAF97Yhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQIJkgpP1hg Munich Agreement
http://www.ukemonde.com/genocide/margolisholocaust.html Gulag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQIJkgpP1hg Munich Agreement
http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mdzikovs/golod.html Ukraine Holocaust
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920keynes.html Keynes Saw It Coming
http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/glevel_1/1_bombing.html Guernica
https://mail-server-2.sau48.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=39a013af6f6d43b4a794fc6d2138ceca&URL=http%3a%2f%2fincredibleimages4u.blogspot.com%2f2010%2f01%2fdefending-leningrad-ww2.htmlCheck out the film clips on
http://incredibleimages4u.blogspot.com/2010/01/defending-leningrad-ww2.html Leningrad
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/franco.html Franco Site
http://www.richeast.org/htwm/SCW/scw.html Lincoln Birgade US troops in Spain fighting for the Communist?
21 comments:
I first read the article about the Ukrainian Holocaust. I found it very interesting because, unlike the more well-known Holocaust, this one isn't as commonly known though it's as brutal. The main cause of death in this Holocaust, or Holodomor as it is known, was forced starvation. As a result, over seven million people died. The article also includes some first hand accounts of this genocide, as the author's grandmother was a survivor of it. One interesting story was how she and her family walked 900 kilometers just to exchange their worldly belongings for some flour.
I also viewed cartoons of World War II on the blogs about images of World War II. I found these to be surprisingly informative, though they lack any sort of substantial text, and they were very effective at getting across the political climate of the time. One of my favorites involved two crocodiles, one Communist and one Nazi, attempting to devour various countries such as Poland, Finland, and Austria, which were considered weak little countries.
For my first article, I read about the Ukrainian Holocaust, also known as Holodomor which means "slow killing by starvation." The personal stories really made the atrocity even more horrifying. In 1932-1933, Stalin was dissatisfied with Ukraine and literally took all the food out of villages so that the people would starve. The author's grandmother survived only by walking 900km to Moscow in order to get flour. Approximatly 7 million people died of starvation.
I also read the article about Guernica. I can't believe they waited until the time where the square would be the busiest as possible to bomb it. That just blows my mind. And, to top it off, even though the target (a bridge) was not hit at all in the bombing, a secret report to Berlin said that "the concentrated attack on Guernica was the greatest success," revealing that the bridge wasn't really the target. Instead, it was just an attack on the cultural capital of the Basque people. Seventy percent of the town was destroyed, and 1/3 of the population was wounded or killed.
I read the article that described the bombing of Gernica. I had learned a little bit about this in Spanish 4 when we talked about Pablo Picasso's painting of Guernica. The quotation included that talked about how all they wanted was escape was chilling, also the fact that they just kept bombing and destroying everything. The most appalling part I think is that they denied what the true purpose of the bombing was, and it wasn't until 1999 that they apologized for the atrocities that they had committed.
I also read the blog about how Keynes saw it coming. In his introduction he talks about how when the Paris Peace Conference happened everyone had such ideological issues on their minds that none of the issues discussed were of realistic importance. He goes on to discuss how none of the people are prepared for the reparations of the war. He also lays out very clearly the fate of Germany, and i think it's remarkable how well he pieces everything together.
I read the article about the Ukrainian Genocide. It’s interesting that the Holocaust which had a similar effect on the Jews (4- 10 million dead verses 7 million) is much more widely known. Although the Holocaust is more well-known for its violence and cruel methods of murder, both genocides involved concentration/labor camps and brutality. In some other research, I found that many governments didn’t recognize the Holodomor as genocide until 2008. I can’t imagine living under a government where “all food was state property and that mere possession of food was evidence of a crime.” I think it’s very that people recognize and are educated about this tragedy so that it doesn’t happen again.
I read the passage from Keynes’s book, The Economic Consequences of Peace. Keynes’s foresight was very accurate; it’s unfortunate that the European powers didn’t listen to him. Keynes’s opinions were expressed to the delegates at the Paris Peace Conference by Count Brockdorff-Rantzau. Rantzau questioned whether the “delegates of the Allied and Associated Powers realize the inevitable consequences which will take place if Germany” due to the treaty, and accused “those who sign this Treaty [of] sign[ing] the death sentence of many millions of German men, women and children." I find it ironic that in negotiating the Treaty, the Allies were willing to be very harsh on Germany, but then later on adopted a policy of appeasement towards Hitler. Had they had this appeasement sentiment while creating the treaty, perhaps WWII would never have taken place.
I first read the article on the Guernica bombing. This article was very shocking and quite depressing. The Germans seemed to team up Francisco Franco and assisted him in his take over of the spanish people. There was no specific reason for the bombing, though the Germans wiped out 1/3 of the population. The article said that they believe that the attack was mainly a target practice. I was very surprised that to this day, the spanish gov't hasnt issued any appology to the people that suffered from the bombing. I had never really read any reports or accounts about this event, so it was a big surprise to read the number of casualties that resulted from this "target practice".
The second blog I viewed was the youtube clip of Joseph Goebbels Total War speech. Right from the beginning I was shocked at the number of attendants. There were literally thousands of Germans, male and female, of all ages. The person giving the speech, Joseph Goebbels, kept saying that Germany must go to war, and they must succeed in their plans for total war. All people were at their feet, cheering for this plan. Goebbels said that most of the government officials were in attendance along with all other classes of German people. Its hard to believe that everyone in that area really believed and supported the ideas being spoken, but the whole crowd applauded for everything that came out of Goebbels mouth.
I read the blog about the Ukraine Holocaust, and I thought about it for a while- I think I understand why this Holocaust went unknown by most people and was not as well-known as the Jewish Holocaust- it's because the Jews were persecuted for their beliefs, whereas these people were persecuted for their rights. Also, Russia at the time was very accustomed to censorship, so the whole thing was probably kept on the down-low. It's interesting to hear what they said about this Holocaust though; it essentially sounds like the same thing as the Jewish Holocaust. Food was taken away, and people starved to death, etc. It was interesting to read about.
I just watched the Joseph Geobbels speech, and I'm starting to realize why he was the head of propaganda for the Nazi party- his way with words, even though he was speaking German, seemed incredibly persuasive, and his use of visual authority and rhetoric helped capture the crowd. I'm also assuming that many of the people standing up in the crowds were asked to stand up after important climaxes in the speech. I also enjoyed watching this for my own purposes too- it allows me to watch his Nazi mannerisms so that I can use them for one of my characters in the play.
The first blog I read was about the Ukrainian Holocaust, I found this interesting because this holocaust happened before World War II, it seemed unreal how they just took all food away, and 7 million died of starvation alone. I also thought it was interesting that people who ate too much after being starved could die because of a seizing stomach.
The second blog I read was about the Guernica bombing, I thought it was interesting how twenty-five of the best German bombers just took out the city, and kept attacking and shoot at the escaping people leaving one third of the people dead. It was shocking to read that the Germans and Nationalist denied any involvement in the attack, although later the German parliament apologized
I read the article about Guernica. It’s so sad that they choice to bomb on market day when the most civilians would be out. I had learned about Picasso’s painting of Guernica, however, this article revealed that over one hundred thousand pounds of explosives were dropped over the course of three hours. It is horrible that this was just a practice for the planes and bombers, as they shot down the regular people as they ran for cover. One third of the population was killed, and seventy percent of the town was destroyed. Franco and Hitler tried to deny the attack, and claimed they had a different intended target, but a secret report was uncovered that revealed that the attack was a “success”, therefore saying that it was the original plan.
I looked at the siege of Leningrad site as well. It had some intense images and some short videos, but the most interesting parts were the captions. I learned that it lasted for over two and a half years, and over one million city residents were killed in this time. It briefly described Hitler’s tactics of starving out the city, but the focus was on the horrors of the siege. A daily ration for an individual was one third of an adult’s need amount, and many were forced to eat dogs, cats, crows, horses, and there were reports of cannibalism. There were so many deaths that many lives were lost in the records for authorities could not keep track of them all, and the winter meant that the bodies froze and could not be buried. Because of the harsh conditions, the survivors were forced to steal for necessities. The constant bombing and death on the streets was devastating. There was a photo of a bunch of dead people being loaded into a truck right in the middle of the street.
The first article that I read was "Who was the greatest Russian?" I fond it interesting that two of Russia's most controversial characters in recent history were voted as being more popular than the first man in space and a nuclear physicist. But I guess this just goes to show how strong the influence that the ring of power surrounding these two leaders is.
The second article that I read was about the 7 million that died in the "forgotten" holocaust. I found it interesting because when we hear the word "holocaust" now, we naturally think about the monstrosity that happened to the Jews. However, we rarely remember all the other ethnic groups that were hit hard, such as the Poles, Lithuanians, and Estonians. It was a tragedy for a significant part of Europe.
I read the article about Guernica. Since I learned about the mural in Spanish IV I was curious to what the website had to say. I was unaware of the devastation the town received; loosing 1/3 of its population. Although I knew that Guernica served as a military tactic practicing ground for the Germans already, the eye-witness accounts were new to me and made it more understandable.
I also watched the video on the Munich Agreement. It was neat seeing Chamberlain talk! And I love old film clips like that! AT the same time it was kind-of surreal watching him talk about Hitler and not knowing what comes next.
First off, this is my contribution to the WWII links:
http://hipsterhitler.com/
I first watched the video of Hitler's Triumph of the Will speech (fixed link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p7H8wBybPE), and was stunned by his voice and prowess as a public speaker. I know it's strange to mention, but most times I've previously seen Hitler's speeches, they were just of him screaming his brains out and I was never able to listen to his real voice. Being able to do so, especially near the start of his speech, was slightly surreal for me. The respect he demanded as a speaker was also interesting to watch; these people were brainwashed by his eloquence and use of rhetoric in a way not previously seen. Hitler being a fantastic and inspirational public speaker also highlights the interesting difference between him and the King of England at the time, who suffered from a speech impediment....*COUGH, THE KING'S SPEECH, COUGH*
The second thing i looked at was the article on the Ukrainian Famine, or Stalin's pretty much murder of 7 million people. The scenes were the same as the Holocaust: millions killed, millions emaciated : however this great murder was known as the Holodomor. Famine and hunger ravished the land, and the loses were almost too terrible to count. One interesting thing I learned here was the composition of the word "holocaust", which is greek for "whole" and "burning", "holo" and "caust", while "holo" and "domor" therefore stand for "whole" and..."starving"? I'm not quite sure, however that seems just about right.
Perhaps what this enlightened me most about was how much of an emphasis we place upon the Holocaust in history education, when such equally catastrophic events are barely mentioned. I'm not insinuating that the holocaust was any lesser of a genocide, however I feel as if it is slightly unfair to the spirits of those many millions who passed away in even worse acts of hate over time to forget their stories and struggles and pain.
OH, and this cat looks like Lenin.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liy4lvjNnt1qzqhfwo1_400.jpg
I read the article about the bombing in Guernica. It was disturbing to read about innocent civilians getting slaughtered by bombshells and machine gun fire. It was even harder to read about the fact that the Germans actually denied any involvement. 1600 people died and about 70% of the town was destroyed in this 3 hour raid, it was devastating to say the least.
I also watched the video were Chamberlain met with Hitler. It was odd to hear Hitler actually negotiating and befriending people. The video also showed Hitler being very accomodating and nice to the Prime Minister. By the end of Chamberlain's press talk it seemed as though he was excited to have dealt with Hitler and that they were now in a stable agreement.
I read the article on the bombing of Guernica... I thought it was quite interesting how bad the bombing was based on the fact that it had little military advantage in the war, which seems like a unnecessary waste of resources, houses and businesses and lives. I also found the article interesting because i briefly studied the Basque region in my French class and learned about their mixed culture.
I also indulged myself in the gulag article about the unknown holocaust inside of Ukraine. It is crazy to think of the amount of people that were held inside the gulags considering their terrible living conditions. I don't understand how this could go on without anyone noticing... The statistics of the article are incredible.
I read the article on the bombing of Guernica... I thought it was quite interesting how bad the bombing was based on the fact that it had little military advantage in the war, which seems like a unnecessary waste of resources, houses and businesses and lives. I also found the article interesting because i briefly studied the Basque region in my French class and learned about their mixed culture.
I also indulged myself in the gulag article about the unknown holocaust inside of Ukraine. It is crazy to think of the amount of people that were held inside the gulags considering their terrible living conditions. I don't understand how this could go on without anyone noticing... The statistics of the article are incredible.
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