Mental Block: Teaching WWII

[tenaciousT]

Maus is excellent supplemental material, especially since manga has become so popular.

You might want to assign watching parts of 'The Pacific' on HBO, starting this week.

It is Spielberg's companion effort to Band of Brothers.

(You probably know that.)

[cdif911]

so far we've compared tora! tora! tora! with 2001's Pearl Harbor, explored the question if FDR knew, I set up a blog for the class to debate historiographical arguments, still personally working on Maus...also established they know their geography...still getting started, Monday Hitler will be introduced, which makes me uneasy even thinking about...

[PLamb]

so far we've compared tora! tora! tora! with 2001's Pearl Harbor, explored the question if FDR knew, I set up a blog for the class to debate historiographical arguments, still personally working on Maus...also established they know their geography...still getting started, Monday Hitler will be introduced, which makes me uneasy even thinking about...

Just remember to emphasize the importance of Hitler's personality in being able to use diplomacy for much of his rise to power

Yes he was a racist imperialistic with a sadistic, twisted, hate for those that were not of his race but he could also come off as a very intelligent, forthcoming, honest person in his international political maneuverings and that is why he was able to coerce Chamberlain and others into inaction as he mobilized himself and then annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia before overtly beginning his war of conquest by invading Poland

Hitler's diplomacy and personality that allowed him to inspire a beaten nation was more responsible for the deaths of so many and yet that is so over looked in history, just what a magnetic person he could be on the exterior

So many just don't understand that his public personality and image internationally was what delayed what should have been action much earlier that may have prevented millions from dying

[cdif911]

so far we've compared tora! tora! tora! with 2001's Pearl Harbor, explored the question if FDR knew, I set up a blog for the class to debate historiographical arguments, still personally working on Maus...also established they know their geography...still getting started, Monday Hitler will be introduced, which makes me uneasy even thinking about...

Just remember to emphasize the importance of Hitler's personality in being able to use diplomacy for much of his rise to power

Yes he was a racist imperialistic with a sadistic, twisted, hate for those that were not of his race but he could also come off as a very intelligent, forthcoming, honest person in his international political maneuverings and that is why he was able to coerce Chamberlain and others into inaction as he mobilized himself and then annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia before overtly beginning his war of conquest by invading Poland

Hitler's diplomacy and personality that allowed him to inspire a beaten nation was more responsible for the deaths of so many and yet that is so over looked in history, just what a magnetic person he could be on the exterior

So many just don't understand that his public personality and image internationally was what delayed what should have been action much earlier that may have prevented millions from dying

I agree and disagree, part of it was diplomacy and personality, but I think part of it was a hand's off, appeasement attitude especially of Great Britain - Germany was hit about as hard as anyone from the depression and here comes Hitler and the Brownshirts, rallying the masses, and they want a little Sudetanland, sure let em have it, Czechoslovakia, mmm ok...

but here's a guy with a very interesting background and personality too, never really fit in, and finds a niche in leading the masses - his racism was extreme, the Holocaust unexcusable, and a lesson to learn from and hopefully we can pick up the pattern if/when something similar happens again (not to say it hasn't in Darfur, Rwana, etc.)

[tenaciousT]

If any world leaders actually read and took Mein Kampf seriously, it might have created a resistance to his 'designs' sooner.

He laid out much of his ambitions for Germany in Mein Kampf written in the 1920s when he was in jail for an earlier failed putsch.

In Europe, only Winston Churchill read him right from the start, but no one took him seriously. Dude was right on him and knew war was the only way to stop him.

after Chamberlain came back to England, glowing with his 'peace accord' with Hitler, Churchill said...

"England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war."

and....

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. "

Oh yeah...

I don't expect you to use it for your class but the best book I've read about pre-war Germany leading up the the critical year of 1933 is a memoir that wasn't published until around 2000.

It is called 'Defying Hitler', by Sebastian Haffner.

[PLamb]

so far we've compared tora! tora! tora! with 2001's Pearl Harbor, explored the question if FDR knew, I set up a blog for the class to debate historiographical arguments, still personally working on Maus...also established they know their geography...still getting started, Monday Hitler will be introduced, which makes me uneasy even thinking about...

Just remember to emphasize the importance of Hitler's personality in being able to use diplomacy for much of his rise to power

Yes he was a racist imperialistic with a sadistic, twisted, hate for those that were not of his race but he could also come off as a very intelligent, forthcoming, honest person in his international political maneuverings and that is why he was able to coerce Chamberlain and others into inaction as he mobilized himself and then annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia before overtly beginning his war of conquest by invading Poland

Hitler's diplomacy and personality that allowed him to inspire a beaten nation was more responsible for the deaths of so many and yet that is so over looked in history, just what a magnetic person he could be on the exterior

So many just don't understand that his public personality and image internationally was what delayed what should have been action much earlier that may have prevented millions from dying

I agree and disagree, part of it was diplomacy and personality, but I think part of it was a hand's off, appeasement attitude especially of Great Britain - Germany was hit about as hard as anyone from the depression and here comes Hitler and the Brownshirts, rallying the masses, and they want a little Sudetanland, sure let em have it, Czechoslovakia, mmm ok...

but here's a guy with a very interesting background and personality too, never really fit in, and finds a niche in leading the masses - his racism was extreme, the Holocaust unexcusable, and a lesson to learn from and hopefully we can pick up the pattern if/when something similar happens again (not to say it hasn't in Darfur, Rwana, etc.)

Good for you, you are already getting at what I tried to get across

That sometimes those in power that sound the best and say the things that everyone wants to hear, because of their personality and image, often have their true intents overlooked because of the diplomacy and overriding needs and desires of the populace

Chamberlain desperately wanted and needed Hitler to be an amicable, honorable person and though the signs were there to see him for what he really was, Chamberlain saw him for what he wanted to see

Same thing happened in Iraq, Rwanda, Cuba and many other places worldwide on a smaller scale since WWII

Man must try to examine who they decide to have as their leaders to assure the right people are leading them before the power of the pack entails and leads good countries into bad situations

Recent times are a prime example of this