Jessie+Brown

1. Holocaust

a. The Holocaust was a tragedy in Germany involving mainly the Nazis and the Jewish citizens. Adolf Hitler was the leader of all of the Nazis who tried to exterminate all of the Jewish people in Europe. The reason for this desired extermination was because the Nazis wanted to obtain a “biologically pure” place, which to them meant not having Jews exist. Jewish children were actually as big of a target, if not bigger, than the adults, since children are the next generation and can keep the Jewish religion strong with their future kids. The Holocaust had many concentration camps that were mostly located in Germany. There were also extermination camps and in the Auschwitz camp, 1,400,000 people were killed because of the Nazis. The Jews were killed in the camps many different ways. Hitler used gas chambers where they would pack Jewish people into a confined space and kills them by suffocation from the gas. Another form of murder the Nazis used was over-working the Jews for 12-14 hours a day with almost no food or energy to work off of, so they would die of exhaustion.

b. The Holocaust changed the course of the war all in the forms of ruling styles and terror. After millions of people died in the Holocaust, it set the tone for the rest of the war since many people then worshipped or was terrified of Adolf Hitler. So many people died all because if his doings and his persuasive speeches to people. Hitler used complete totalitarianism as his ruling style which made that style of rule contagious to other leaders in the war, one example of a leader: Mussolini. Mussolini was a big leader in Italy and ran his country on the quote “Believe! Obey! Fight!” which implies that anything that goes against the state is wrong. Italy became power-hungry for the land they believed Austria had taken from them so they changed their government before the start of WWII and once the fighting began, they were willing to join in. With totalitarianism spreading and leaders getting more power hungry, it made World War II even more violent with more attacks and more thirst to gain land and kill others.

c. Visuals:

This picture is taken of one of the actual railroad cars that were used to transport Jewish citizens to concentration camps where almost all of them died. The railroad car was packed with people to the point where they could not sit down during hours of long travel.

This picture displays the beds the people had (wooden shelves on the left) and also displays how bad the conditions were based on the man standing’s body.

The writing in this poster says “He is to blame for the war” referring to the Jewish people. There is a Jewish man with the Jewish symbol on his coat that is being put down by an over powering hand which represents the Nazis. This is a good example how the Jewish people were discriminated against and treated because of their faith.

d. Primary Source:

[] This source is some of the actual testimonies made by Nazis that were part of the concentration camps. In these interviews, they mainly talked about the gas chambers and how they went about killing people. The Jews were either in an underground room or a room above ground and the Nazis would be on top of the room; from there, the Nazis would open the small opening on the top, fill it with gaseous poison and close the lid as soon as possible. They explained after a minute or two, the loud screams would start to die down and they would wait up to 10-15 minutes in order to be sure everyone was dead. They would then open the room and take all the dead bodies and throw them in mass graves while the next group of people was forced into the gas chambers. The Nazis were such bad people; however, the good thing is that some of them feel very guilty in these interviews and know they have done something wrong.

2. Pearl Harbor

a. The attack on Pearl Harbor was between U.S. and Japan and took place on (which was originally called) Wai Momi, Hawaii. This attack was a huge surprise to the United States on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese navy had a secret plan to bomb the United States naval base. This operation (aka Operation Z) was massive with men fighting on the coasts of Hawaii to men using submarines to track the opponents or even kill others under water in hopes of lessening the number of soldiers for the opponents. So many men were killed and this attack was so strong, the Japanese sank 4 of our naval ships. Japan gave no formal warning they were going to attack which seemed very unfair to the United States since it was all a surprise. The Japanese attacked the U.S. and started the fight by traveling over to Hawaii on submarines and on aircrafts.

b. Pearl Harbor changed the course of the war for the United States drastically. The attack technically forced the United States to join the war, if we had still gotten attacked but didn’t join the war, more countries would’ve taken advantage/would have attacked us again. If we continued to be attacked, it would make the citizens of the United States not trust the government as much as they had before which would corrupt the entire country in the end. With this attack, the United States declared war on Japan which led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This bombing led to so many deaths and ultimately made Japan a weaker country with the realization they can be attacked as well.

c. Visual:

This picture below is of the attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack took place in more of the civilized area of Hawaii even though most of the attacks and fighting was done from on the shores, in the air, or above the water. Obviously a bomb had just gone off in this picture and it’s important because with every attack from the Japanese, it’s just going to give the U.S. more drive to defeat their opponents and win the war with Germany. d. Primary Source:

[] This primary source if of a speech that Former U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gave the day after Pearl Harbor. In this speech, he discusses what all happened and how the attacks were made by Japan. He also discusses what action he will take in order to defend their country and keep the United States as a united country. This speech seems like a very uplifting speech after such a tragedy like this; however, Roosevelt was being real and not faking things in order to make it sound like everyone will be just fine. He concluded his speech by saying that the United States is now in a declared war in order to keep their country as safe as possible.

3. Munich Agreement

a. This agreement mainly involved France, Germany, Great Britain, and Czechoslovakia. Italy was also involved but wasn’t that big of a deciding factor in what happened. This was an agreement that was the deciding factor of what was going to happen to Czechoslovakia, territorial wise. Great Britain also used this agreement to give Germany what they wanted so that they would calm down from Hitler’s strong rule. Germany does calm down, but only for a little bit… Until Hitler decided he wanted to make his empire larger and invaded Poland. This agreement was made because in the summer of 1938, Hitler was against Czechoslovakia and actually made propaganda posters and campaigns against them. So it was soon France and Great Britain joining with Czechoslovakia. Those three countries were against Germany and in hopes of not all going to war with a powerful Germany; they had an agreement made on September 29, 1938.

b. The Munich Agreement changed the course of the war by making more enemies and more allies. Germany gained a lot more enemies from this agreement since Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, France, Italy, and many other countries thought they were being unfair and very power-hungry. The Munich Agreement actually gives Germany a little more power because all of the involved countries are afraid of communism spreading. They would rather have Hitler and Germany have more power rather than communism spreading and taking over their countries. With Hitler having more power, it led to him having a big head, attacking more countries, the attack of Poland and the Holocaust. Those things might not have come straight from the Munich Agreement, but the Munich Agreement gave Hitler part of the power that made him so influential in history.

c. Visual:
This photograph was taken at the meeting of when the Munich Agreement was signed. This pictures some of the leaders including Hitler in the front and center with his Nazi arm band.

d. Primary Source:

[] This source states what the actual agreement said. It gave Germany a lot more power which makes it obvious through the statements that are listed. It also shows how badly Czechoslovakia was treated. They weren’t even invited to the meeting that decided their fate of their country which is not right.

Map:

This map is from the Holocaust. The totals by many countries are the death tolls of the Jewish people who used to inhabit those areas. It just shows that Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Western USSR were the areas that had the highest death tolls because of the concentration camps that were located near them. It just shows how much power Germany had all because of Hitler’s rule.



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