Hitlers Rise In Colour

‘How was the Hitler phenomenon possible?’ 

After watching the first episode of ‘Hitlers Rise: The Colour Films’ on 4oD, I have been able to find out some information that was unknown to myself about Hitler. This documentary has given explanation to the inside life of Hitler.

It begins in saying that Hitler’s book – Mein Kampf (meaning my struggle) as he himself wrote ‘the first world war was the most unforgettable, sublime moment in my earthly existence.’ This is allowing us to see the darker side of Hitler and his political views as he is now gaining independence within his own thoughts – this is a very unlikely opinion to hold of a huge war.

The above is a picture of the Iron Cross, which within this documentary, it is mentioned that Hitler always wore this cross underneath the Nazi Insignia. The German Cross was awarded to all ranks within the German Military for acts of bravery and heroism, which Hitler reinstated at the beginning of the second world war. When awarded during this war, it always had 1939 printed in the centre which came in two stages; First and Second class whereby the first class award could only be awarded to those who had previously gained a second class award.

The Hitler’s rise in colour also allowed us to acknowledge that Hitler became a phenomenal nationalist, where we can see that he became seriously dedicated to his country. Despite this, even as a Gas Shell temporarily blinded Hitler on the 13th October 1918 and he was evacuated to a field hospital and then to Germany from Austria.

Bibliography

Anon.. (ND). The German Iron Cross. Available: http://www.worldwar2aces.com/iron-cross.htm. Last accessed 16th Feb 2014.

Were the Nazi’s close to acquiring an Atomic Bomb?

An interesting article has recently been featured on The Times’ website stating that a team has begun drilling near a network of tunnels that were built by concentration camp prisoners in Austria in order to discover whether Adolph Hitler was near to acquiring an atomic bomb.

The Mauthausen-Gusen Camp site.

The search to discover secret underground chambers came about after the discovery of strange levels of radiation coming from the former Mauthausen-Gusen labour camps, a large area when the Nazi’s built aircraft underground to avoid any air raids by Allied forces. It is believed that up to three hundred and twenty thousand prisoners were executed in gas chambers or slaved to death within the complex. It has now been discovered though that many of these workers were scientists assigned to a secret undisclosed project from 1941, and this has lead to renewed assumption that it may have been a secret branch of the Nazi’s nuclear program.

This is ‘Little Boy’ the codename for the type of atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It is well known that the Nazi’s were in pursuit of nuclear weapons, as they conducted many studies into the weaponry in German research institutions, furthermore Heinrich Himmler who was in charge of the SS forces visited the secretive Mauthausen-Gusen camp regularly. This furthered the theories that atomic research may have been conducted there.  The pressure to dig near the tunnels in order to locate secret laboratories or storage areas greatly increased after the discoveries of Andreas Sulzer who researched the camps. Sulzer had been working on a film about Austrian scientist Viktor Schauberger for two years when he discovered that he was secretly involved from 1941 on SS research projects and warned colleagues in letters that he was involved in atom smashing.

SS Troops posing for photographs outside the Mauthausen-Gusen camp.

During a search of archives in both Germany and the US, Sulzer found that two hundred and seventy two inmates were taken from the Mauthausen-Gusen camp to St Georgen in January 1944 to build underground passages. The known tunnels within the area have mostly been filled in but Sulzer believes that sections where nuclear experiments may have been preformed were missed.  Sulzer claims that he has found blueprints which suggest that other chambers may exist, although digging has been underway for many weeks but so far with no sign of any tunnels. The drilling is being conducted by a government-owned company which has been working for ten years to make 6 kilo-meters of tunnels safe, using the technique of pumping them full of concrete. The company is most anxious however, to determine if these theories are correct.

Reference:
Charter, D (2014). Secret tunnels ‘led to Hitler’s atom bomb lab’.  Available: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4001752.ece. Last accessed: 09/02/2014.

Stara Synagoga (the Old Synagogue)

Stara Synagoga

The Stara Synagogue’s Fortress Exterior

The Stara Synagoga, otherwise known as the Old Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue found in the Kazimierz district of Krakow. It is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Poland and one of the most valued examples of Jewish architecture in Europe. Until the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 it was the most important synagogue in Krakow and served as the main religious and social hub to Krakow’s Jewish community. A plaque can be seen in the Stara Synagoga’s entrance hall commemorating General Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s 1794 speech from the synagogue in support of the struggle for Polish Independence:

‘The Jews proved to the world that whenever humanity can gain, they would not spare themselves.’  General Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

Although the date varies between sources it is believed the Synagogue was built somewhere between 1407 and 1492. The original building was rebuilt due to fire damage during the 16^th century by Italian architect Mateo Gucci, the outside interior was built in the Renaissance fashion whilst leaving the interiors architecture in its original Gothic style. Furthermore the rebuild included many military features such as having windows placed high above ground level and solid masonry walls with buttressing being built to endure a siege. This architecture makes the Old Synagogue a rare surviving example of a Polish fortress synagogue.

The Synagogue after the damage of Nazi forces.

During World War II the old synagogue was ransacked and destroyed by Nazi forces. Its many artworks and Jewish relics were looted and during the German occupation the synagogue was used as a magazine by Nazi forces (a term used to define a place where large amounts of ammunition are stored ready for distribution). In 1943, 30 Polish hostages were executed at the synagogues wall.

The Synagogues Gothic interior.

From 1956 to 1959 the old synagogue was once again renovated and now currently operates as a museum, functioning as a Division of the Historical Museum of Krakow, focusing in particular on Krakow’s Jewish history and traditions.  The Gothic interior of the synagogue has been restored to its past brilliance due to the help of its varied collections, including relics of Krakow’s former Kazimierz Jewish quarter, including old photographs, documents and pictures. The many exhibits are divided into different themes dealing with areas such as birth, prayer rituals, diet and death. The Beautiful Women’s Prayer Room, which dates back to the 17^th century, is used to hold the museums more contempary exhibitions.

Information found on:

Sacred Destinations (2005). Old Synagogue, Krakow. Available: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/poland/krakow-old-synagogue. Last accessed 11/02/13

Sergeldin, I, Shuluger, E and Martin-Brown, J (2001). Historic Cities and Scared Sites: Cultural Roots for Urban Futures. Washington DC: World Bank Publications.

Strzala, M. (2006). Old Synagogue in Krakow. Available: http://www.krakow-info.com/synagog.htm. Last accessed 11/02/13.

 

Szkieletor Tower

When studying the architecture of the city, it is important to analyse the underlying ideology  in order to understand the purpose behind the space and how it is remembered within contemporary society.

Throughout our study of space we began to look at underrepresented buildings situated in Kraków, analysing them through a study of stage, symbolism and didactic.

Although not strictly related to the Holocaust, the Szkieletor Tower holds symbolic connotations of Political and social unrest that has occurred and become engraved within Poland’s history.

Stage

• Within a Communist utopia there is a strong sense of progression in an aim to create a better world through continuous development. Marx (1867) emphasises an aspect of Communist progression through his belief of social movement from a state of capitalism to one of a more liberated nature for the proletariat, namely communism.
• The Szkieletor Tower was planned to be built alongside a twin tower. The two buildings were to act as a gateway to a skyscraper district for Krakow, a so-called ‘Polish Manhattan’.
• It it evident that this holds connotations of a western and capitalist state, which is strange given the need to progress away from this.
• Capitalist connotations now exist on the building through use of giant billboards to advertise products, as reiterated by Berger;‘Publicity is the life of this culture – in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive’. (Berger, 1972: 154).  It is the capitalist concept of production and consumption that drives advertising, as adverts exist in order to sell products to individuals within society

Symbolism

• Szkieletor was the nickname given due to its symbolic references of a skeleton
• Its post-apocalyptic look is symbolic of the past failures of the city and the traumatic events that occurred in the past (WWII) 
• The architect, Krzysztof Leśnodorski, recalls that the Communist authorities specified the building be as tall as possible, relating back to the Communist ideologies of progression and bettering (1945-1989)
• The inability to complete the building is representative of the economic and political instability within 1980s Poland
• The deadline was set for 2005, but due to political and economical problems in the 1980s construction could no longer go on. Martial Law was put into place in the early 1980s which restricted citizens within Poland in an attempt to oppress political opposition, but ironically created disdain within the Polish population
• ‘The authorities were still trapped by the contradiction between following economic necessity and generating political instability. The government could not revive the economy without abandoning the state control of prices, but this would trigger another general strike. Nor could it gain the support of the population through political reform, because of the threat of Soviet intervention’
•  As the space around the site is vast, the structure appears even taller, in the context of Krakow, where so much of the cities dark memories, and the spaces associated with them still preserved within the city. It is obvious that nothing disappears. The Ambition of the tower as a monument is preserved so the ambition of the Soviet era can still be seen.

Didactic

• The architect Lesnodorski was hired by Communists to construct it so it was taller than the Saint Mary’s Basilica Church, demonstrating an empowerment over religion within the city.
• The fact that there has been an attempt to revive the Szkieletor project may significantly change the surrounding area of Krakow. Due to the fact that the construction had been halted through political change and a lack of money, serves to remind tourists and the people of Krakow of the cities disdain for the Communist regime and the people’s refusal to finish what that regime started. The city made a stand not through moving but by stopping.
• The tower was given the nickname of a villain in He-Man and the masters of the universe could further relate to the polish people opposition to the communist party. This could further reinforce didactic teaching as that nickname has stood the test of time.

 

 

 

Marx, K. (1867). Capital – A Critique of Political Economy. Moscow: Progress Publishers

The Vilnius Ghetto

In a previous post, I mentioned how the Nazis began to expand their territory as they grew in power. One of the places they monopolised would be that of Vilnius, in the heart of Lithuania. I speak about Lithuania in particular, because I feel that it’s important to gain a view further than that of Germany and Poland. Not only this, but being part German and part Lithuanian myself, I feel that this is something that I can explore.

The Vilnius Ghetto was a WW2 Jewish ghetto which Nazi Germany constructed and ran in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. This was the territory of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland (the civilian occupation regime brought about by Germany throughout the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland) during WW2.

This ghetto lasted roughly two years, and during this time the extremity of starvation, illness, execution and deportation to concentration camps left the population of the ghetto at zero, given its original starting number of around 40,000. Those who did survive, a couple of hundred at the most, did so by hiding in forests just outside of Vilnius and took refuge among locals who felt sorry for them.

The Nazis arrived in Vilnius in June 1941, later followed by death squads. During the course of the following months, together with Lithuanian collaborators, they killed over 21,000 Jews. The Jewish population just before the Holocaust was over 60,000, including refugees from Poland which had since been occupied by Nazis. Once the Holocaust began, their numbers fell even further.

Here, a digital map of the ghetto can be studied, along with stories and events of interest: http://www.revilna.org/

The Holocaust

The Rape of Nanking

 

After the Japanese invading army invaded Nanjing under, December 13, 1937. In the following six weeks, the Japanese Army committed extremely horrible crimes, murdering innocent people. There is more than 300,000 innocent inhabitant and unarmed soldiers were massacred in Nanjing. In this unprecedented catastrophe, the old capital Nanjing was transformed into a living hell.

 

The Nanking Massacre, normally known as “The Rape of Nanking”,  was an notorious war crime event committed by the Japanese Army in and around the then capital of China – Nanjing, after on December 13,1937, it beginning the Imperial Japanese Army . (At the time, Nanjing was mainly known named Nanking in English). The duration of the massacre is not well defined, while the violence lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938.

 

 

During the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese army committed multiple atrocities, like rape, robbery, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. Regardless of the fact that the executions start under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers dressed as civilians, a large number of innocent people were intentionally identified as enemy combatants and executed—or simply killed complete—as the gathered momentum of holocaust. A lot of women and children were shot dead, as rape and murder became more extensive.

 

 

 

Baidu Baike (2014). [Online] Available at: http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=RMFnDujHTLKbfRPo3JWLfNE3efda_va3u0LsZ40n_QrHyyA139gliz4AxgWCsa2b#2_15  [Accessed 5 February 2014].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Holocaust

 

The Jewish nation is a part of the world’s most oldest nations. Unfortunately in World War Ⅱ, they were massacred by Nazi Germany.

 

The Holocaust also referenced as The Shoah, was the genocide of around six million European Jews during World War II, a programmed of scientific state-sponsored eradication by Nazi Germany. The genocide of these six million people was a genocide of two-thirds of the population of 9 million Jews who had lived in Europe before the Holocaust.

 

Some scholars believe that the definition of the Massacre should also include the Nazis’ systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including the Roma, people with disabilities, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, gays and lesbians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other political and religious opponents. By this illustrates, the total number of victims of the Holocaust would be between 11 million and 17 million people.

 

The persecution and genocide took place in phase. Legislation to eliminate the Jews from civil society is set by the years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were formed in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered additional territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and shooting political opponents. Jews and Romani were imprisoned in crowded ghettos before being carried by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most of them were organically killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Nazi Germany’s bureaucracy was combined with the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what a Holocaust scholar has called “a genocidal state”.

 

 

Wikipedia(2014). [Online] Available at: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8C%B6%E5%A4%AA%E4%BA%BA%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%A0%E6%AE%BA#cite_note-FOOTNOTESnyder2010384-10 [Accessed 5 February 2014].

 

 

 

 

 

Different

1. The scale of war:

The Rape of Nanking: A city, or a country

The Holocaust：A race

 

2. The aims of the war:

Rough degree of Germany and Japan in World War Ⅱ, Japanese  slaughtered belong to the time of wild, while Germany is belong to the carefully planned genocide.

 

 

 

In the final analysis is the cause of the gap between eastern and western civilizations, In terms of civilization development and social development, the western more than eastern in one hundred years. When there is the ideological source of modern civilization in Europe – the Renaissance, the modern scientific revolution, the west in machine industry, there have ship, train, camera, battery… Oriental ancient times in the history of the world is still in the middle ages. When the west into the age of electricity, appear the car, phone, the east has just walked out of the spear arrow era. The brutal massacre launched by the Japanese was a kind of instinct and backward performance in that underdeveloped and barbaric period. This was the continuation of the historical behavior. Although this kind of massacre was cruel and barbaric,  there was no specific aims and purposes of eliminating and weakening certain races.   However,  the slaughter of Germans was determined by specific ideology. It was based on the scientific theory, driven by ideological base.  Furthermore, it was on a technological processing level of modern industrial civilization.  A  large quantities of miserable people were forced to orderly organized in this process. This process reduced the certain types of human suffering and was more humanized than that of Japanese. But the quality of this action was with the clear purpose and intention of some certain  genocide. What’s more, the massacre from Germans occured in the period of modern civilization of richness and that human rights and the legal system were deeply rooted among the people .Thus, the effect(consequence) is particularly  worse and sensational.

 

Holocaust Memorial Day

We’ve recently had the Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January), which remembers what has happened and is much about keeping the horror of such a historic event alive for today’s generations and those to come. It’s with great significance that we make sure we don’t stop talking about what happened, so that we may fully educate everyone and prevent such a horrific tragedy ever occurring again.

Many articles have been published recently, to coincide with the anniversary. I felt touched by one in particular, in which a survivor of the mass genocide recounts his experiences:

Freddie Knoller, a Viennese Jew, was put aboard a train bound for Auschwitz.

“The trains had 10 wagons and 100 people squeezed into each one,” he says. “It was impossible to be comfortable there, but we organised ourselves: we got the old men, the women and the babies and the children who were there to sit or to lean against the wall.”

Although Knoller and the other young people in the wagon took it in turns to sit and stand, their efforts proved insufficient. By the time the train pulled in to the camp, one child and three of the older people were dead.

On arrival, he was given a uniform and had the number 157108 tattooed on his left arm. As his head was being shaved, he heard, for the first time, about old people and women being taken to Birkenau to be gassed and cremated.

“We didn’t believe what they were saying because it was ridiculous. Germany was supposedly a cultured country. We couldn’t believe it, but then they said: ‘You will smell the sweet smell in the air of the burning bodies quite soon.’ And really quite soon we smelled it and we started to believe that what they were saying was really true.”

Despite meagre food and the back-breaking work of carrying 25kg bags of cement to the nearby IG Farben chemical factory, Knoller survived not only Auschwitz but also its death-march evacuation as the Russians approached in January 1945.

In Bergen-Belsen – where prisoners went without food for a month – he dug the ground in search of roots to eat. Others went to more desperate lengths.

“The ground was full of dead people and I saw with my own eyes young people finding sharp stones and cutting up the flesh of the dead bodies to roast over fire,” he says. “There was no more discipline.”

Knoller did not join them in either their cannibalism or their despair. From the moment he was captured by the Gestapo in France in 1943 until the day Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British in April 1945, he refused to surrender his hope or his faith.

“I saw in the camps so many prisoners who were pessimists,” he said. “They gave in; they gave up; they didn’t fight for their lives, but I did fight. I believed in God and I still believe in God because I feel if I am in trouble, I can go back and beg God: ‘Get me out of here’.”

Today, at the age of 92, Knoller makes weekly visits to schools to tell students about the Holocaust. Together with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, they raise awareness of genocide, want the world to know what happened in the hope that others will be spared similar horrors.

Educating others about the Holocaust is of national importance. ‘Holocaust’ isn’t simply a word to be thrown about and misunderstood – it’s spelled with a capital ‘H’ and is known across the globe as a tragedy. It teaches a huge lesson about prejudice, in which false facts about the Jews were created through personal opinion, and how this led to the Jews being treated so inhumanely, for the simple act of being human.

Studying the Holocaust means that at a young age generations can be taught not to repeat historic mistakes, and to understand the horrors of torture, extermination camps and the frightening personality traits that can occur when power falls into the wrong hands.

The Guardian (27th January 2014) Genocide survivors speak of horrors of the Holocaust, Cambodia and Rwanda [online] available from <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/genocide-survivors-cambodia-rwanda-holocaust-memorial-day&gt; [4th February 2014]

Kazimierz, Krakow – Jewish District.

Kazimierz is in the heart of Jewish Krakow, and is now has a buzzing, thriving label and atmosphere to it. This town, however has a huge history that is very interesting to explore and understand, and still remains as one of the most culturally significant Jewish areas in the world. In 1495, the Jews who were removed from Krakow settled in Kazimierz, and the place became a mixture of Christian and Jewish culture.

Through the duration of the war, the Nazi’s did all they could in attempt to destroy Kazimierz, which after the war was left for neglaction and remained as desolate ruins whereby no body would be, especially during the night. From seeing Kazimierz as a place which has been singularly targeted, we are able to see it as ‘othered’ which Bloxham, D; Kushner, T & Kushner, A (2005: p18) suggest that ‘In relation to the Holocaust, the ‘submerged’ are ‘the rule’ and those who survived and gave their testimony are ‘the exception’. This may be interpreted as a dead place, due to the Germans having destroyed the town and leaving it desolate.

After the fall of communism, Kazimierz began to improve its reputation through rebuilding and reinhabiting which has since allowed for part of Spielberg’s famous film ‘Schindlers List’ to be filmed here. Bloxham; Kushner, T & Kushner, A’s (2005: p18) idea may also relate to the present atmosphere of the town which we can gather from any online website which would therefore make Kazimierz ‘the exception.’ It is more believable that this idea is reality, however, when we are in Krakow, we will go to Kazimierz with a potential derive in trying to avoid standard tourist attractions and areas which may lead us to new answers about the old Kazimierz.

Bloxham, D; Kushner, T & Kushner, A (2005). The Holocaust: Critical Historical Approaches. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p18.

ND. (2011). Welcome to Kazimierz!. Available: http://jewishkrakow.net/en/. Last accessed 3rd Feb 2014.