Holocaust and Schindler's List

The Holocaust was an unneeded departure of nazis and jews that should never be forgotten. There were few people that would help in hiding the troubled and beaten jews. Ordinary French farmers and shopkeepers risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Holocaust in the largest communal effort of its kind in Europe. What they did has been largely ignored and forgotten. Targeting and deporting Jews was considered patriotic, but residents of Chambon refused to follow this nonsense. They instead fed, clothed, and housed Jews; sanctioned an industry of false passports and identity papers; and developed an underground railroad to Switzerland. "Why would we ever want to forget the only people who remembered the Jews during the Nazi plague?" asks historian Patrick Henry, author of the recent work, "We Only Know Men." Mr. Henry's title is taken from the response of Chambon pastor Andre Trocme, who, when asked to identify Jews in the town, told Vichy officials that, "we don't know Jews, we only know men."

Save the popular film "Schindler's List," little attention has been given to Europe's rescuers. Jewish survivors haven't wanted the Holocaust itself reduced in scope. French rescuers were often lumped into the resistance. Yet fighting Nazis often had little to do with saving one's Jewish neighbors. "Jews" are normal people just like everyone and didn't deserve to be hauled away to live in tiny buildings and such. They shouldn't have had to hide in houses to stay alive and they shouldn't have had been killed for no apparent reason. In "Schindler's List", people were just shooting jews and nazis at random. Schindler himself just sat back and watched the chaos and stupidity of disgust going on in the streets and just sat back and collected his money. He began to realize the nonsense of the situation and it changed his view on money and the Holocaust in general.

Did Communism Threaten America's Internal Security After World War II?

In my opinion, I would have to agree with John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr. Communism did threaten america's internal security after world war II, hence the vietnam, and the cold war. McCarthyism, the intense anti-communist suspicion, happened in the U.S. during the Second Red Scare, which coincided with increased fears about communist influences on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Thousands of americans were being accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets were government employees, entertainment industry, educators, and union activists.
There were several attempts to introduce legislation or apply existing laws to help to protect the United States from the perceived threat of Communist subversion, such as the Smith Act, which was the first sedition law since 1798. Under the Smith Act, hundreds of Communists were prosecuted and eleven leaders of the Communist party were charged and convicted under the Smith Act. The Immigration and Nationality Act was also passed which allowed the government to deport immigrants or naturalized citizens engaged in subversive activities and also to bar suspected subversives from entering the country. Last but not least, the Communist Control of 1954 was passed, also known as an extension of the Internal Security Act of 1950, sought to outlaw the Communist Party by declaring that the party, as well as "Communist-Infiltrated Organizations" were "not entitled to any of the rights, privileges, and immunities attendant upon legal bodies".
So all in all I believe that if America had many attempts to overthrow communism that must mean that it obviously didn't benefit the internal security after world war II, it just threatened it.

Was dropping the bombs justified?

First, the bombs weren't acceptable by no means because some other action could've been taken to avoid the conflict, but the japanese did deserve it because they started it with the U.S. at Pearl Harbor. Secondly, however, some critics accused the United States of racist motives because the bombs were dropped only on nonwhite people. Since Japanese were already on the verge of collapse by 1945, the second bomb on Nagasaki was unnecessary to bring the war to a conclusion. The atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't the last shots of WWII, but the first salvos in the Cold War. Although, President Truman did infact ignore Tokyo's attempts to negotiate a surrender in the summer of 1945 and rejected all alternatives to dropping the bomb because he wanted to intimidate and isolate the Soviet Union. The bomb wasn't just another weapon, but the major instrument of destruction that would deliver victory. Thirdly, the Japanese clung to many unacceptable conditions like: protection for their imperial system of government, the right to disarm and repatriate their own troops, no military occupation of the home islands, no international trials of alleged war criminals, and possible retention of some of their conquered territories.

"World War I Project" (Reaction Essay and Letters Home)

Life in the trenches was like a living hell for the men. They lived with fear, hunger, thirst, and with the physical extremes of deafening noises of the dead corpses being gnawed away by the maggots, sudden flashes, extreme cold, and agonising pain. The soldiers encountered such problems as mud, trench foot, the unbearable cold, an abundant amount of dead bodies, huge rats that will eat humans and the rats disease, lice and their disease, itch mites, maggots, flies contaminating all the food, and way more.

The trenches were ankle-deep in mud but there were occasions when men had to stand for days up to their waists, or even their armpits, in freezing water and where the temperature was below freezing. Rainfall was the heaviest for thirty-five years and the cold being so bitter put a burden on these soldiers. Mark Plowman wrote of the trenches and said, "The mud makes it all but impassable, and now sunk in it up to the knees, I have the momentary terror of never being able to pull myself out." One man had been trapped up to his neck in mud for 46 hours and was eventually rescued but died fifteen minutes later anyways. The mud was so unbelievably horrible that men even drowned in it.

The wet conditions of rain were responsible for the the curse 'trench foot' which is caused by being days on end without being able to remove wet socks or boots. Trench foot was very similar to frostbite and the men's feet would become numb and gangrene would set in which led to many amputations. During the war, 74,711 British troops went to hospitals with trench foot or frost-bite. Soon, the soldiers were ordered to change their socks 2-3 times a day and try to dry their boots. Periods of extreme cold with mud made trenches collapse. In the packet "Natural Miseries", it stated that the cold was so bitter that they had to provide heat in the trenches using a brazier and from time to time men died of asphyxiation. Another disease admitted was nephritis which affects the kidneys and men got it by excessive exposure of wet and cold and 35,563 cases were admitted to the hospitals in France.

Dead corpses were everywhere and were a great hazard. Many men in the French lines were buried almost where they fell. The working party in digging a new trench would come across large numbers of decomposing bodies buried just beneath the surace. Corpses along with food scraps attracted rats. A canadian soldier had said 'Huge rats. So big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself.' These rats were fecund and if they were well fed, they'd produce big litters as much as 880 in one year. Rats would eat away at dead bodies especially the livers and eyes and basically lived in these bodies. Rats contaminated food and spread disease and carried the disease Weil's Disease. In the packet "Natural Miseries," A french soldier said, "The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured. A set of false teeth slid down on to his rotting jacket, and from the yawning mouth leapt an unspeakably foul beast."

In Conclusion, I believe the life in trenches was in reality no life at all. Soldiers were either dying of wounds, living sickly, getting eaten away by maggots and rats, suffering the cold, drowning in the mud, getting trench foot or any other disease from rats and lice and more. I feel bad for what they had to go through. It was even the fighting in the war that killed them it was the surroundings of it. I would've never believed that the trenches were ever like that. I guess they are far worse than I ever imagined.





Mark Plowman

November 1916

2:30 p.m. in Germany



Dear Mama:

The mud makes it all but impassable and now sunk in it up to the knees, I have the momentary terror of never being able to pull myself out. Such horror gives frenzied energy, and I tear my legs free and go on...Both sides are glued where they stand...Little or nothing is done for the simple reason that the deity has not yet constructed men able to make or repair trenches when the earth at every step holds them immobile.

The Guards battalion lost sixteen men throught exhaustion and drowning in the mud. Men are drowning in the mud and sometimes is even happening in the trenches themselves. There is a great danger that the men could easily fall into a shell-hole and slowly be sucked down. I stumbled across a man who been blown into the mud that was still alive with only his head and the stump of a leg still visible and we were forced to leave the wounded man to sink slowly.



C.M. Chenu

January 1915

8:30 in Germany



Dear Mama:

I see an army of cowled phantoms, enveloped in blankets, strips of canvas, oil-cloth table covers and draped in canvas cloaks, like knights of old, wearing their helmet over their cap comforter and giving the appearance of some kind of ancient helm. Muffled up in strange woollens sent from home, their sheepskin capes made them look like the peasant soldiers of earlier days. The number of cases of pneumonia mom is remarkably low but, unfortunately, the disease nephritis is spreading and there has been 35,563 cases admitted to hospitals in France.

Rain doesn't even wash away the filth of this place. The stench of urine, excreta, and corpses fills the trenches and the air. Men are unwashed which produces uncleanliness and disease. Corpses are everywhere. They are a great hazard and are buried basically where they fall. I don't know how long I'm going to survive with the cold, the diseases, the mud, the maggots, the lice and the rats.

J.Germain

July 1915

10:30 in Germany


Dear mama:

An immense cloud of smelling of corpses swept the plateau incessantly, choking the combatants with its fetid odour. Thousands of flies with blue and green stomachs covered the countryside, shrouded our meagre rations...and hid the sky in a shimmering cloud. One morning on our shoulders fell a rain of maggots which all through the night above our heads had made a noise like rustling silk as they gnawed their way through some dead bodies. Itch mites are around that cause scabies as us men scratch the skin.

Rats are everywhere and they are huge rats. They are so big that if they encountered a wounded soldier that couldn't defend himself, it would eat him. They are fecund and if well fed they will produce more and bigger litter even as much as 880 a year. Life in these trenches isn't the greatest, but I want to make you proud mama. I am strong and I don't have the will to give up.

Was Reconstruction a "Splendid Failure"

My opinion is that yes, reconstruction was a "splendid failure" indeed. I agree with Eric Foner's side on this story. He believes that although Reconstruction did not achieve radical goals, it was considered a "splendid failure" because it offered African Americans in the South a temporary vision of a free society. Reconstruction was the violent, dramatic, and controversial era following the Civil War, also known as an era of unrelieved sordidness in American political and social life. The central participant in the drama of Reconstruction was the black freedman. It was grounded in the conviction that blacks were unfit to share in political power. Many black people tried to share their opinions on these issues in there books but they were just simply ignored. The right to vote was not simply thrust upon them by meddling outsiders, since blacks began agitating for the suffrage as soon as they were freed. Freedmen did enjoy a real measure of political power and in most states, blacks held only a small fraction of political offices. I really do believe that in 'reconstruction', it did however benefit the blacks so they wouldn't get treated unfairly anymore.

Was the Mexican War an Exercise in American Imperialism?

I do agree with Professor Ramon Eduardo Ruiz that the Mexican War was an exercise in American Imperialism. He argued that the purpose for conquering Mexico's northern territories was because the United States waged an aggressive war against Mexico from which Mexico never recovered. The long-range effects on American foreign policy of the Mexican War were immense and the Monroe Doctrine was used to force the French ruler out of Mexico. Fearful of losing control over Texas, the Mexican government prohibited further immigration from the United States in 1830. Politicians were afraid if Texas were annexed it would upset the balance of power between the evenly divided free states and slave states that had been created in 1819 by the Missouri Compromise. Congress had voted for war 174 to 14 in the House and 30 to 2 in the Senate despite those who opposed the war. Ramon Eduardo Ruiz argued that the U.S. waged a racist and aggressive war against Mexico for the purpose of conquering what became the American southwest. Manifest Destiny was strictly and ideological rationale to provide noble motives for what were really acts of aggression against a neighboring country. President James Polk pursued the aggressive policy of a stronger nation in order to force Mexico to sell New Mexico and Texas to the United States and to recognize America's annexation of Texas without causing a war. Manifest Destiny was first territorial expansion but then later recognized as more than a mere land hunger; much more was involved. Manifest Destiny stood for democracy as Americans conceived it; to spread democracy and freedom was the goal. I think that Ramon Eduardo Ruiz had many good arguments that are listed in the above selections.

Did the Election of 1828 Represent a Democratic Revolt of the People?

I believe that no, the election of 1828 didn't represent a democratic revolt of the people. I agree with Richard McCormick's opinion on this packet. He believes that voting statistics demonstrate that a genuine political revolution did not take place until the presidential election of 1840, when fairly well-balanced political parties had been organized in virtually every state. Jacksonian democracy consisted of urban workingmen, southern planters, venturous conservatives, farm-bred nouveux riches, western frontiersmen, frustrated entrepreneurs, or yeoman farmers which are considered true "Jacksonians." Features of Jacksonian democracy are correspondingly diverse. With suffrage barriers it brought forth of democratic energies, evidenced by a marked upward increase in voting. Shifting legislative choice of electors to the election by popular vote, together with steady population growth, obviously swelled the presidential vote. Comparing the rate of voting in the Jackson elections with other presidential elections before and after his regime as well as with state elections helped find out whether or not voter participation rose markedly in the three presidential elections in which Jackson was a candidate. But all in all, none of the Jackson elections involved a "mighty democratic uprising" in the sense that voters were drawn to the polls in unprecedented proportions.