Valkyrie!

I thought that the movie was a pretty good movie even though it was kind of slow but thats what really set up the story of how these Germen officers were trying to over throw Hitler by assanating. I found it really surprising that they were able to convince that many people that they killed Hitler even though he did escape the explosion unharmed. This really showed that after Hitler there really wasnt anyone that had full power if he were to die. Basically the plan Valkyrie was set up to over throw the current SS government in order to maintain the glory of Germany. Imagine what would have happened if any of these assasination attempts were successfull? Who wouldve gained power and what would they have done with the country in the direction on the war? I think this is one of the greatest what if in WWII. The movie was great though. It was really suspensefull near the end after the explosion when they tried to order Plan Valkyrie on Germany and take control over other officers. I always thought that everyon that was part of the government was fully behind Hitler but this movie shows that even in the greatest dictatorship of recent times, there is a possibility that he can be overthrown. Just what if?

D-Day surprise.

One of the reasons that the Allies were successful on the D-Day invasion was that they surprised the German forces when the weather was bad. The Invasion had to be launched in favorable weather conditions which were a full moon which meant high tide and non choppy waters in the English Chanel. The invasion was set for June 5th but weather conditions ont the 4th and 5th clearly didnt make it possible for a landing. The 6th did have better conditions but were not the best. Knowing that the conditions had to be almost perfect for the Allies, many German officers and personal took a weekend break from Normandy and went on a mini vacation thinking that the invasion would be aborted for another month. On June 5th Eisenhower proceeded with the invasion without the favorable conditions that would allow the air force to bomb the landing sites before the invasion but this took the Germans by surprise. Even German officer Erwinn Rommel was away from the invasion on temporary leave, this really allowed for the allies to take advantage of the lack of instruction on the German side. This surprise really helped in the success of the Allies taking the Normandy beaches.

STERNE... The Movie!

I was looking up my last name on Wikipedia for no reason at all, I guess I was wondering who I'm related to and I saw Die Sterne, which is German for The Stars. I found out that this Die Sterne is a 1959 German made movie by Konrad Wolf, who was born in Germany but moved to Moscow when the Nazis took over and fought for the Soviet Union where he was one of the first troops to reach Berlin. The movie is about a Nazi officer who falls in love witha Jewish Greek girl while he is escorting Jewish prisoners throught bulgaris to a Nazi concentration camp. The movie won the Special Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which is the 3rd most prestigous award to be given to a movie.

I knew that Sterne meant stars in German, but when I saw that there was a movie named Sterne and that it is relevant to what we have been learning about the past week, I was shocked. 

Now I have to go watch this movie cause it is named after me, or maybe Mr. Mckenna should put make this an extra credit movie...

Awesome quote by Adolf Hitler himself!

Heres a quote that I saw on the back of a book i have at home.

"I begin with the young. We older ones are used up... But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world."

This quote is awesome cause I really think the Hitler thought he could take over the whole world and he knew what he had to have in order to do so was the young.

Hitler Youth!

One thing that we havent been able to go over yet in class is the Hitler Youth, which was basically a massive club like boy scouts that was lead by Adolf Hitler himself. It consisted of teenage men mostly, but women did have their one Hitler Youth that learned how to sew and cook while the boys went out to the countryside and camped and helped put up propaganda. 

I have a book called Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and i was reading the first chapter which tells a story of a 15 year old boy named Herbert Norkus, who is probably the most famous Hitler Youth member by what happened to him, but he was part of the Hitler Youth and was helping put up propaganda posters around town as they always have to help support the Nazis. One night during a propaganda run, he was attacked by another group of boys of about 40 that were communist supporters. They were called Reds by the Hitler Youth and there would frequently be fights between the two groups. anyways, Herbert was attacked by these Reds and he would escape multiple times until they caught him again. Herbert would run to apartment doors and bang on the door crying for help as the group of 40 Reds kept beating him up and finally Herbert reached the door of someone who was home and opened the door which scared of the Reds and left Herbert lying in the doorway with blood dripping everywhere. The lady took Herbert to the hospital but he died shortly after he arrived.

This death sparked a huge commotion not only within the Hitler Youth but throughout the whole Nazi party. Nazi Party leaders were outraged and staged an elaborate funeral for Herbert. To the Nazis, Herbert became somewhat of a hero or a martyr who had sacrificed his life for the Fuhrer. They declared January 24 as a national day of commemoration for all the Hitler Youth that had fallen. Hitler Youth fights were not all that uncommon and between 1926 and 1932, fourteen Hitler Youth members were killed in street fights, including a 17 year old girl. Herbert was the youngest victim of the time which is why he was singled out by the Nazis, but being inspired by Herbert, thousands more young people joined the Hitler Youth.

I would totally recomend checking out this book because there are many stories of what these kids were doing basically under Hitler's shadow. Hitler believed that the success of Germany started with the youth and that why he started his youth program which would turn these young kids into well trained soldiers, which is why he was so successful at the beginnig of the war.

Museum

I really thought that our trip to the Holocaust Museum was worthwhile to go and actually see some real artifacts and listen to the stories that they had to tell. I wished we could have went through a lot more of the artifacts instead of just talking about a topic that reall wasnt related to what we were seeing. I had times where i was starting to wander off and wasnt fully hooked but most times i was intrigued in what our guide had to say. I thought the whole tour could have been a little more interactive but i see that they want to tell the stories of the people which cant really be that interactive, but other then that i thought the whole trip was a really great experience.

My Grandparents in WWII

My grandparents were from Canada, so during the time of WWII they wereliving in Winipeg, Manitoba which is just a couple hundred miles north of Minnesota. I know my grandfather didnt serve in the Canadian army but he did tell me that their lives were affected. One of his friends had joined the army after Canada declared on Germany on September 3rd, 1939. He also was telling me that his friend was part of the D-Day invasion and was part of the Canadian Infantry Division that landed at like Juno i think or Omaha. I really dont have much more family that has been involved with the army except him so really i dont have much else to tell.

Worst winter since WWII?

Europe right now is shaping up to have the worst winter of recent times with temperatures in minus degrees for multiple days. With parts of Sweden hitting minus 85 Fahrenheit. Many airports in Europe have been closed and trains have frozen up. Berlin had opened up soup kitchens to shelter the homeless from the the cold temperatures. All i can think of now is how could a soldier not only fight but live in such harsh conditions? With the worst winter in Eurepean history happening the year that Germany moved in on the Soviet Union, what did these soldiers have to do stay alive? I can only imagine that some people would go to great depths to stay alive including killing and eating anything living... maybe even including each other. As the winter in Europe right now is taking its toll leaving many without power and stranded in the cold, think about what these soldiers had to go through to stay alive at the same time trying to fight each other. 

Here is the link i found.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/02/131750238/winter-s-grip-wreaks-havoc-across-europe

Behind Enemy Gates... best WWII movie ever!

I have to say that I am really glad i stayed to watch Behinf Enemy Gates because i think its the best movie ive seen so far. Better then Saving Private Ryan and all those other movies. I really liked the storyline of these two snipers hunting each other down not wanting to let their country down in turn. The movie had a bunch of twists that threw you in different ways like when Sacha was taken and then the girl was hit by a piece of strapnel. At that point of themovie it seemed that it was all over for Vassili Zaitsev but then again the story took you another way and it ended in favor of the Soviet, who everyone likes because hes the underdog. And the best part of the movie is that its based on a true story. You can actually see how these snipers had to sneak around Stalingrad in the warehouses laying in one position for hours or even a day to just get one chance at a clean shot for only a couple seconds. To me thats dedication to your country because when your a sniper the enemy knows your doing damage so they want you dead. Overall this movie was awesome, Plus i have seen alot of the actors in the movie on television shows today like Sons of Anarchy and Flashforward. Great movie!

World War II Facts!

Here are some facts that I found. I copied out the ones i thought were interesting but there was a whole website devoted only to these facts. The link is at the bottom of the page.

The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).

Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.

Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.

A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents

The only nation that Germany declared war on was the USA.

One of the facts I found pretty interseting was that the youngest American soldier was only 12 years old. I looked up more about this kid at the time and found out that he was wounded while he was aboard the USS South Dakota which was fighting in the naval battle of Guadalcanal. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. His mother told what his real age was and his medals were taken from him but all were eventually reinstated after many years of fighting for financial benefits. There was even a movie made about his service in WWII called Too Young the Hero, where he was played by Rick Schroder.