Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940, was the result of his experiences during the Nazi invasion of France during World War Two. As the title describes, this Memoir was written in 1940 but was not published until after the war in 1946. This work was written while Bloch was in hiding from the Nazis in Gueret France during the months following the Nazi occupation of France. Bloch, who joined the war effort against the Nazis in 1939 at the age of fifty-four, was of jewish heritage and realized he was a prime target for their hate. Despite his age and the French policy excusing him from duty, Bloch was dedicated to protecting his home. Bloch vanished into the French resistance and by 1943 he was a leader of the resitance…
Summarize-Within this chapter, the author, Kurt Vonnegut, introduces the novel by assuring readers that everything in this book is pretty much true, especially the parts about the war. He begins his explanation of his experiences beginning with him and his wartime friend, Bernard V. O’Hare, returning to Dresden in 1967 with funding from the Guggenheim Foundation. While being driven in a taxi to the slaughterhouse where Kurt and Bernard had been locked up as prisoners of war, the two men became friends with their taxi driver, Gerhard Muller. Gerhard stated to Vonnegut and O’Hare that he had been a prisoner to the Americans for a period of time. The three of them then had a discussion about communism. Around Christmastime, Gerhard sent…
The inclusion of Hagen Koch’s plate as a trophy of his defiance and triumph over the Stasi stands as one of the most potent uses of physical symbolism within Stasiland, to which Funder devotes an entire chapter titled ‘The Plate’. Koch’s plate, stolen from the Stasi head office, manifests a final success for Koch against a regime which essentially dismantled his entire livelihood, despite his dedication to the regime. To Hagen Koch, it was worth ‘...all the courage...’ he had in defying the GDR regime. In this sense, Koch’s plate becomes a symbol of the bravery and resilience shown by many characters who suffered at the hands of the ruthless Stasi…
Kershaw examines Hitler’s reign during the 1930s in his essay “Hitler.” The term “working towards the Fuhrer” is instrumental to Kershaw’s depiction of Hitler during the Third Reich. According to Kershaw, through “‘working towards the Fuhrer’, initiatives were taken, pressures created, legislation instigated- all in ways which fell into line with what were Hitler’s aim, and without the dictator necessarily having to dictate.”1 Kershaw argues that the radical action that leduo222222222222 to policy formation was often times provoked from below, and not by Hitler himself.…
The book clearly is written by a German patriot who is driven by a sense of duty to his country and as well as his fellow soldiers. On one of first few pages of the book he…
When Germany defeated the French military in 1940 a number of different resistance groups formed to aid the freedom of both the French citizens and the French-Jewish population. Some groups were violent who aimed to kill the German occupiers. Others used non-violent means, broadcasting anti-German radio programs and published underground newspapers. These resisters were to be handed over to the Nazi’s and punished. In Charlotte Delbo’s U.S translated memoir, Auschwitz and After, published by Yale University Press in 1985, we see how Mrs. Delbo takes a stance against the German invasion and aims to protect the French population by producing leaflets. Other’s joined Delbo and her husbands’ side which resulted in the birth of the French-Resistance…
Undoubtedly, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamph stands as one of the most historically destructive mediums of discourse, promoting the pseudo-scientific and bigoted ideologies reflective of the Nazi Party. It is then in question, due to recent publication controversy, whether Mein Kamph should be produced for public access. In a fundamental sense, our acceptance of the book’s republication is a question of morality and human capacity: Are we able to critically analyze and learn from Hitler’s damaging beliefs, or will Mein Kamph simply act as a means of promoting an otherwise shadowed intolerance? Within limitations, it is my belief that Mein Kamph has a place in contemporary literature, so far as it is critically studied without reserve, and regarded as a text that teaches of human’s capacity to negatively propagate and influence others.…
'Stasiland' by Anna Funder is an account. In this study she interprets an ignored history of everyday people from East Germany through interviewing and collecting stories of witnesses. In many sections of Stasiland, positivity is demonstrated through victims courageous stories, however a sense of loss is always present, overshadowing the optimism displayed in the final chapter. This feeling of grief which belies through the book is shown through Miriam who loses her freedom at age 16 and later in life her husband Charlie, Frau Paul who loses her son and Klaus whose career is lost thanks to the stasi. The way in which Funder structures her text also creates more of a sense of reflection rather than positivity.…
The purpose of this paper will be to prove that the flow of information between individuals and the masses through the form of pamphlets helped create the ideological ground necessary for the war.…
Into the mind state of those influenced by Nazi warfare. What begins as a seemingly…
He asks how the people could not have acted against the holocaust when they knew it was happening. “If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once”(445).…
As the dust settled in Europe, collaborators were hung, sent running naked down the streets or imprisoned, while the resistance set out to define post-war Europe. The illusion of a clear distinction between Hitler’s henchmen and enemies shaped the psychology, language and power structures that are still present today. Collaboration and resistance, as categories of human behaviour, gained their historical relevance from the weight they carried after the war, rather than the limited part they played in bringing the conflict to an end. In reality, the decision to collaborate was, as choices always are, the individual’s response to his or hers perceived alternatives. It existed within every stratum, and along the entire scale of what is considered good and evil. It came in endless variations, and due to as many motivations. I will, however, argue that self-interest was the most important motivating factor. To avoid exaggerated emphasis on those in charge, I will return to the so called horizontal collaborators, who were often the first to be punished. Not only are their stories as personal as they can get, but their motivations can, with a tiny bit of imagination, be applied to every chunk of society. Also, in order to remain focused on the driving force behind collaboration, I will base my argument on the most crucial motivating factors: self preservation; the dissatisfaction with previous institutions; the common enemy; internal conflict; ideological similarities; and self-interest.…
The following is a critique of the article “Good Times, Bad Times: Memories of The Third Reich” by Ulrich Herbert. In this critique, I will explore the themes of the article, discuss the main arguments, and address the significance of the author’s insight to the world of Nazi Germany.…
Throughout this monograph, he examines a perspective that is not written about often. Despite the fact that he is attempting to give an insight into the psych of the thousands of conscripted soldiers in Germany at the time, he only focuses on Battalion 101, which is made up of roughly 500 ordinary men. By applying the transformation of one police reserve to thousands of others, it is possible to see his monograph as treading in dangerous territory.…
They were all German students majoring in the sciences at the University of Munich. They enjoyed hanging out together and routinely discussing their views with Professor Huber; a professor of Philosophy, Psychology and Musicology. In July of 1941, the Catholic bishop of Munster, named Clemens August Galen, publicly expressed his outrage concerning the T-4 program that resulted in the mass murder of thousands of handicapped individuals. The bishop’s actions inspired Hans and Alexander to begin producing anti-Nazi literature. In June 1942, Alexander Schmorell and Hans Scholl wrote the first four leaflets with the drafting help of Christoph Probst. All the leaflets had the title "Leaves of the White Rose." Every leaflet spoke about how Hitler was prolonging the war, leading a systematic Jewish genocide, and underestimating of the Allied forces.The leaflets were left in telephone booths, mailed to professors, and distributed in other universities all throughout central Germany. It was a difficult and extremely risky endeavor because there was a scarcity for stamps and stationary during the time. Not only was it expensive, but buying materials in mass quantities would make one an immediate suspect. Among creating leaflets, Hans, Alex, and Willi also graffitied "Down with Hitler", "Hitler Mass Murderer", "Freedom", and crossed-out swastikas on the walls of the University. After the producing the sixth leaflet in February of 1943, there was a surplus of leaflets. Hans and Sophie volunteered to disperse them at the University of Munich. This turned for the worse when they were caught by Janitor Jakub Schmied and later sentenced by the People’s…