Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

Schindler's List showed just how ruthless the nazi people were. They packed hundreds of jews onto train cars, they destroyed all the jewish people's belongings, and took the children away from there parents. It depicted the cruel acts that people can do. Burning of bodies, killing people for absolutely no reason what so ever. The most powerful scene for me, probably isn't the most signficant. It was when the female jewish engineer went up to the nazi generals to tell them that the foundation needed additional work, or something along those lines. Instead of taking her word and possibly rewarding her, the leading general tells one of his soilders to shoot her. Then when she's kneeling down with the soilder behind her, she utters the words "It'll take more than this to stop me". The soilder, without hesitating simply cocks his gun and shoots while replying, "I'm sure it will". The ability to simply shoot someone without showing any remorse or sympathy is just unimaginable.

There was a bunch of scenes from the movie that will probably stay with me. When Schindler was giving the jewish people on the train extra water, the generals told him, "that's cruel Oscar, giving them hope". It just doesn't make sense how someone can have the ability to show that much hate towards a single race of people. All the shooting scenes leave a lasting impression aswell. Especially the scene when the jewish boy made a run for it, and when the soilder raised his gun, the dad jumped in front and pushed the gun down screaming for his sons life. The soilder simply turned and shot the man without thinking. Then when the other soilders brought back his son, he didn't even wait for them to bring him closer, he shot him from a good 20 feet away.

US Atomic Bombing of Japan in 1945

I'd have to aggree that the bombing of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the biggest event of the 20th century. The sheer magnitude of the bombings make them unsurpassable on the list of 100 top events. The dropping of the bombs not only killed well over 300 thousand people over a 10 year span, but the bombs also signified a major land mark in world history. It was the first time that nuclear warfare took place. People have attempted genecide before, there's been hundreds of wars, hundreds of thousands of people have been assassinated, but nothing has, and possibly ever will, ammount of the uneasy feeling the atomicc bombs created. On the list of 100 biggest events, I'd probably only move the Treaty of Versailles higher on the list since it started the initial domino effect that created the holocaust, world war 2, and the atomic bombings of Japan.

Germany at War - WWII

Propaganda is the deliberate spread of rumors to harm a certain group of people. In the poster, it shows Europe with various symbolic messages. It shows England looking as if it's a graveyard with Winston Churchill's tombstone standing in it, trying to say that England fell to the German forces. The country of Germany(which looks rather large by that posters color scheme) with a cradle symbolizing security and, what looks like land, symbolizing the land that the German people have or desire. The fist wearing chain mail armor looks as if it's delivering a blow to the face of Joseph Stalin, symbolizing the inevitible downfall of the Soviet Union. This poster is clearly showing the cocky attitude of Germany.

The Treaty of Verailles

The Treaty of Versailles greatly affected Germany after WWI. It basically pinned the entire incident on Germany. They were responsible for paying off all the countrys who were greatly affected by the war, which was basically the major countrys of the world. Germany lost all control of their oversea colonies aswell, which was a major loss during a time where imperialism was at its peak. Some of the German border was lost aswell. They lost Alsace and Lorraine to France after 47 years of country, they lost a small portion of northern Germany to Denmark, and a large part of eastern Germany, which became the country of Poland.

Germany was in a major political "slump" after the Treaty of Versailles. They needed a leader to take over and get the country back into shape. This is why historians believe the treaty led to the rise of Hitler and a more dictator oriented government. Hitler took total control and tried to reform Germany into the empire it was before it's major loss of World War I.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a war hero from world war 1 who later became the president of Turkey. He felt that Turkeys involvement in the Islamic religion didn't modernize them. He wanted his country to be respected in the eyes of the western nations. This was secularism. Secular is pertaining to worldy things instead of religious or spiritual things. He felt that the islamic nature made his country look less respected than the other countrys of the world.

First and foremost, he didn't like the current clothing of the country. He felt that the fez was a sign of ignorance. He wanted everyone in the country to be wearing a dress shirt, a tie, jacket, waistcoat, and a hat, to make his country's culture more similar to the western nation. He felt that having women hide there faces and huddle down whenever a man would walk by was ridiculous and barbaric. Last, he changed the nations alphabet. The hard to discipher letters of the islamic alphabet led to an incredibly high ammount of illeterate citizens. He encouraged people to teach each other the new adopted alphabet to make the country look more civilized. Without the Atatürk's encouragement, Turkey would still be the "uncivilized" country it was when it was under heavy Islamic influence.

Film Lesson: "Ghandi"

Ghandi was quite possibly the reason India gained its independence. He showed great leadership and displayed never before seen tactics to topple an empire. He had the unique philosophy of non-violence. He believed that violence wouldn't solve anything. "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind" was a quote by him that truly expresses how he feels about violence, no one benefits from it.

His idea of civil disobedience was mainly displayed through public acts defying British laws. Some of the things he did were stuff such as, spinning his own cloth and encouraging others to do so, leading the salt march to protest the british salt acts, and not buying British made products. He used these methods effectively because he dealt an economic blow to the British. He didn't want to hurt them physically, but instead break all ties between them and India so that they faced a sort of economic drought.

I don't think India would have its independence if not for Ghandi. He showed tremendous leadership and gave the people hope and inspiration. Without Ghandi, the Indian people would've taken the violent approach and the British army would've destroyed them. Ghandi didn't provoke military action, which was why India got as far as it did. Ghandi was the foundation of India’s independence.