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Overall assessment of blog

Now that this project is wrapping up, I'm curious what you feel you got out of it. Is this a good way to discuss history? I think personally I'm seeing some comments that I probably wouldn't get in class, which is a good thing, and there are often as many good questions as answers. But I'd like to hear how the process has gone for you personally in better understanding WWII.

Holocaust Photos

Mayn disturbing photos emerged from the Holocaust. As many of us have been wondering in class, how did this photos come to be? Who took them?

Holocaust Denial

Holocaust denial cases state that the Holocaust is a hoax that came out of a supposed "Jewish conspiracy", to advance the interest of the Jewish. The goal of Holocaust deniers was political. These deniers wanted to bring back the "True Nazi" and reestablish fascism and Adolf Hitler. Although the number of active Holocaust deniers are small, they have been able to attract attention. Why with all the photos and videos of concentration camps, and extermination camps do some people think the Holocaust never happened? Did they think that nobody could be that cruel, to condemn someone to death by the millions?

Holocaust deniers explain that books that were written by the wartime leaders including Churchill and Eisenhower never mentioned any gas being used or any planned, systematic extermination of anyone. Also, many deniers explain that in Eli Weisel's book, "Night" he doesn't mention gas being used and when the choice came that he would retreat with the Germans or stay under the Soviet Union he chose to back away from the Germans. Another one of the deniers explains that if there would have been millions of people murdered then there would have been tons of human remains buried. A unnamed denier says "No tons of human remains were ever found. And if they would have been cremated then there would have been tons of ashes and no ashes were ever found." The Holocaust shaped American history, and will continue to shape history throughout generations. How could people believe that the Holocaust never occurred?

Some pictures that deniers see, and still deny that the Holocaust ever took place.

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/camp_children1.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_01/holocaust060707_468x391.jpg

World War II and Iraq War

When I think about the soldiers in World War II, I feel like they were mostly very gung-ho about fighting, and they thought of it as some big patriotic effort. But when I think about everything I’ve heard about the war in Iraq, it seems like it’s a complete nightmare for the troops, and a lot of people are scared. There have been studies about the stress soldiers go through, and one study showed that about 1 in 8 soldiers returning from Iraq reported having symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A study of World War II veterans shows that 1 in 20 of the 2.5 million U.S. veterans showed signs of PTSD. Obviously the fact that many of the WWII veterans are no longer living affects the results, but, the general idea is that the Iraq war seems to be deadlier. Maybe it’s because we are alive now, and seeing news coverage and know what’s going on, or maybe it’s the technology, with newer and more dangerous weapons, or maybe it’s even how we as a new generation react to war, but it seems like WWII doesn’t have that deadly presence that the Iraq war does.

Operation: Valkyrie

One aspect that people seem to forget about within WWII, while it is being overshadowd by the Holocaust and staggering amount of casualties, is the plot by Germans to assassinate their own dictator, Hitler. This plot was set in place in 1942 by a group of German officials who were hiding their true intentions to the Nazi Guard. The plan consisted of a group of men and they each had a specific job. If gone according to plan, Operation Valkyrie would exterminate Hitler and replace the leader position with someone who would disarm the SS and strip the officials of their power. All these men were in the military, so they were not at all blind to the genocide Hitler was performing. This could have been a potential motive for planning his assasination. The assassination attempt would take place at the Wolf's Lair, a safe haven for Hitler outside of Berlin, where Hitler was scheduled to have a meeting to rearrange troops on the German front on July 20th 1943. A breifcase was to be placed at Hitler's feet that contained a bomb. The man who placed the briefcase, von Straussenburg (Tom Cruise in the 2008 film), hurried away after the bomb was placed and detonated it. von Staussenburg was the only one in the Wolf's Lair at the time and he saw the blast from a distanec and assumed Hitler was dead. Apparently, hitler was too far away from the bomb at the time of detonation for it to harm him. This was not known to von Straussenburg and it caused the mass confusion between the SS guard. The plotters were eventually unearthed and all killed by firing squad. What do you think would have happened if Hitler was killed? Would someone step in and continue the genocide and rampage he left? Or would someone step in and fix the problems within Germany so it could fix the problems with the neighbooring countries.

Japanese Internment Camps

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 hysteria in America about the Japanese heightened. On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which ordered all 120,000 Americans of Japanese desecent, who had never shown disloyalty to America, to move to internment camps, or as they were officially called, "relocation centers." These internment camps had extremely poor living conditions and people could only leave if they enlisted in the US Army. Roosevelt justified his action by making the assumption that people of Japanese descent could be spying for Japan. However, during the course of the war, only ten people were discovered as spies, and they were all Caucasion. Roosevelt also relocated descendants of other "alien enemies" including Germans and Italians based on the idea that he was protecting the country. Do you agree with Roosevelt's action to establish internment camps? And do you think that the American people try to look past the idea that at one point there were basically concentration camps functioning on American soil?

U.S. Involvement in WWII

When World War II broke out in Europe, the United States made every attempt to stay as isolated and neutral as possible. However, some historians feel that the America's lack of involvement in the European affairs allowed the Axis Powers to gain so much control. Do you agree or disagree? If you agree, at what point do you think the U.S. should have interfered?

Propaganda

Through out history propaganda has been used to influence people's ideas and beliefs, but during WW II it became very popular, mostly in Nazi Germany. In order to get what he wanted achieved Hitler used propaganda, in which he got the idea from the allied powers in WWI and other historical events. He also required jornalists, writers, artists and radio broadcasters to register with the Ministry. The Ministry acted in a dictoral way because they controlled and revised all that was sent out to the public. Along with controlling what people spread around they also spread false information out in order to gain followers and make them believe that what they were doing was the right thing. Hitler was sifting through the information that was getting to the public and in some was he was brainwashing them to believe and think what he wanted them to.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7th, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. This was the main trigger for America to enter into World War II. It resulted from a ban on Japanese goods in America. However, Japan had bombed an American gunship in Chinese waters before this attack. If Japan had not bombed Pearl Harbor, would America have gotten involved in WWII?

The Atomic Bomb

Near the end of World War II, the US conducted two atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that killed over 100,000 people, and exposed many civilians to radiation. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender to the war. At the time that Hiroshima was bombed, it was the center of some military and industrial importance. There were also some military camps that were set nearby. During the time of the bombings in Hiroshima, the population reached over 350,000, and in Nagasaki, was one of the biggest sea ports in Japan. Was there a specific reason why the United States picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki to drop the atomic bomb? For example, why was Hiroshima targeted rather then Tokyo, or another other part of Japan for that part?

The Holocaust

During World War II the German Nazis mass murdered 6 million European Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies. Jews were seen as a racial threat and ruining the purity of the country. They were sent to concentration camps in Poland to be killed as the "final solution." How should the Holocaust be taught in schools? Should it be introduced in elementary school as part of history or english or should it be held off until middle or high school? Will the Holocaust be one of the events in history that will never be forgotten or will it fade away in 100 years?

Dictators

It seems as though in WWII dictators are often one of the first things that come to mind. But that is limited, as the first one thought of immediately is Adolf Hitler of Germany. Last year, we learned about another, slightly lesser known dictator Josef Stalin the dictator of USSR. But what about the others? There was Benito Mussolini of Italy, Francisco Franco of Spain, and Hideki Tojo Prime Minister of Japan, and they are hardly if at all mentioned, moreover known to the public. Yet they were dictators none the less, they ruled communistic/fascist countries and killed any opposed to the government. Why is it that of the dictators, only Hitler and Stalin are really remembered and taught?

Check this out

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/interactives/inside-wwii-interactive

This is a solid resource to find some visuals and overviews of topics within WWII

D-Day

There have been many movies about World War II. However there have been several movies on one of World War II's most famous events; D-Day or the Normandy Invasion. For example, the movie Saving Private Ryan was based off D-Day. On June 6, 1944 the Allies invaded Omaha, Juno, Gold, Sword, and Utah, all are sectors of Normandy, in the largest amphibious invasion in history.