Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

"Schindler's List" illustrated the Holocaust extremely good. They didn't hold back on anything. They showed you exactly what would happen during the Holocaust. The showed the mental and physical abuse, they showed the cruelty, the atrocious and offensive behavior of the Nazis. One most powerful scene to me was the children hiding the toilets. They were hiding in at least 2-3 feet of waste in order not to get caught and killed by the Nazis. The children had become so territorial and had lost all their innocence. They would actually let another kid die in order for themselves to survive. When the little boy jumped in, they didn't want to risk getting caught, so they told him to leave. They were exposed to barbaric and sickening events at the age of 5. It was crazy to me. Another powerful scene to me was the burning of the bodies. People were actually lined up walking in to the pits of flame knowing they were going to die. I just can't imagine myself knowing that I'm going to die and not doing anything about it. They had no choice though. Either they would die, or trying fight and then get killed. It was horrific. One image was will stay with me forever was when the little girl with the pink jacket, tried so hard to stay alive by sneaking and hiding under the bed. And then during the scene of the burning bodies, you see her dead, burnt body. Who has the heart to kill anyone, a little girl at that? "Schindler's List" was a very powerful movie and I won't be able to forget the scenes we saw.

Film Lesson: "Night & Fog"

The documentary "Night and Fog" was powerful to me. I think that the way they explained ti really caught my attention and informed me. To me, it was almost like a horror movie because the way they displayed it, I felt as if I didn't know what was going to happen next. It vividly showed me the concentration camps and it portrayed the terror. Even though it had a big affect on me, I think that "Schindler's List" was way more powerful. It showed the Nazi's monstrosity and the people's struggle to survive. The children's expression and desperation. The children would do anything in order to stay away from the horror outside. For example, one scene, the children were territorial when they were hiding in the toilets. The didn't want to take nay chances getting caught. So, in my opinion, I think that "Schindler's List" illustrates the Holocaust more effectively.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WWI)

A treaty is a formal agreement between two or more states in reference to peace, alliance, commerce, or other international relations. The Treaty of Versailles was an agreement reached by all the countries who participated in WWI. Although they agreed to peace, Germany was blamed for fully the war. Germany was stripped of their colonies and they're resources. Right after the war, the United States suffered a depression and couldn't continue lending money to Germany. They needed a person to lead them to recovery.

Adolf Hitler wanted to overthrow the German government and was arrested. Then he stated that Germany had lost because of it's weak government. But, he also blamed problems on outsiders, targeting one main group, the Jews. By 1933, Hitler had controlled part of Germany. He became a dictator and had a group of mainly teenagers, the Nazis, follow his beliefs and killing the people who supposedly caused problems for Germany.

Adolf Hitler's rise, led to fascism. Fascism is the governmental system of a country ran by a dictator. An example of Fascism would be Italy's Benito Mussolini who ultimately formed an alliance with Hitler. He was pronounced Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel. He dreamed of military glory in a second world war to come and formed political parties. He centralized all power in himself of the Fascist Party and tried to create an empire. After Italy's lost in WWII, it bought his dream downhill.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Secular means of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) was like the George Washington of Turkey. He wanted to transform the country of Turkey into a secular country. He has six principles in which he wanted base the country of Turkey on. They were republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism, nationalism and statism. The six prinicples were called the "Six Arrows" and they were the ways that helped Kemal in his journey on modernizing the country of Turkey.

Kenalism were the principles that Mustafa Kemal followed in order m to achieve his goal of making Turkey modern. His first principle was republicanism. Ataturk believed that republicanism was the best form of government to represent it's people's wishes. He only recgonized a republican ways. Another principle was populism. Populism was a term used to referred to "equal" people. In 1934, women earned the right to vote. In the country of Turkey there were no class privilages or distinctions, meaning that if you were "high" class or of a lower class, you would all have the same rights. It gave the people of the country a sense of unity. Another way Ataturk modernize the country of Turkey was by secularism. He wanted to make the country a less religious place and didn't wanted the government and its laws to be seperate from religion. Reformism was the way of elminating traditional ideas with modern ones. Nationalism in Turkey to preserve its independences and had nothing to do with race. This Kemalism prinicple stated that nationalism was about comprising its territory and people. Finally, statism was Turkey's moderniztion's dependency of its development in technology and economy.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

Gandhi was one of the greatest leaders in the history of the world. He wanted to lead India to independence from the British. He did that by civil disobidence. Civil disobidence is when you go against something without voilence.

One way he was disobient in a civil way was by boycotting British goods. The British would betray there colony of India by buying cotton that was grown there. Then making clothes put of the cotton and selling it for a profit in India. Gandhi asked all Indians to stop purchasing British goods and make there own clothes. Gandhi himself dedicated 2 hours of each day to his spinning wheel to make his own clothes.

1931, Gandhi attempted to meet with British official at a Round Table confgerence, but no agreements were reached.

Another way that Gandhi went against the British to try to gain independence was by leading the Salt March. Great Britian made the people of India by salt from the British government and only the British government. They put tax on the salt. Gandhi had created teh idea of a Salt March. The Salt March was when Gandhi and his followers walked up to 250 miles to the Indian Sea for salt. There, they would collect the salt water. When they went back home, they would let water evaporate and they made they had made their own salt.

On January 20, 1948, there had been an attempt to kill Gandhi, but it didn't happen. But, 10 days later, a Hindu assassinated Gandhi because of Gandhi's ideas. Gandhi believed that Muslims and Hindus were equal and the assasinator didn't believe in those ideas.

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

Stalinism is the term used to refer to Joseph Stalin's political regime. Totalitarianism is a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.) Jospeh Stalin was the ruler of Russia, the successor of Lenin and the head of the communist party. When Stalin was in office, he ran by the totalitarian type of government. Like Fidel Castro, in Cuba, the constitution of the country didn't matter, only Stalin's word did.

He introduced Five Year Plans. His five year plans stated that each industry would eb under state rule. How much, what and where stuff was produced was decided by the government. There were three five-year plans. These five years plans all have standards which each industy had to meet. He controlled Russia fully and ruled Russia with limited freedom towards its citizens.

Causes of WWI

One of the main reasons as to why WWI began was because of Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. Militarism is a nation's policy to maintain strong armed forces. Imperialism is a nation's attempt to gain control of weaker nations. Alliances is the formation of military agreements among the nations and nationalism is the extreme loyalty to one's nation.

Some examples of Militarism during WWI was when Great Britian and Germany raced to have to largest navies. Another example was when France, Russia and Germany contended to have the largest and most powerful armies. Alliances definitely formed during WWI. They were divided int o the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy were the Triple Alliance and Great Britian, France and Russia were the Triple Entente. European nations fought against each other of land too. Europe's countries were trying to colonized as much as Africa as they could. They would colonize African nations in order to get raw material and sell them. This set most of European countries against ecah other. Nationalism was another cause of WWI. The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary want independence.

Because of these causes and WWI, four great empires came to an end: the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire. This also caused for a start to new nations such as Estonia, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.