history of the WWII

Students take on the personality of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference representing Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States. On alternating days, each student will assume the personality of one of the three leaders. This is a creative writing activity and can be a challenging experience for some. Students work as individuals though they can see the online work being completed by others. A major objective of this activity is to understand the point-of-view of a world leader based on their country's history. While national leaders have their own personalities that impact their style of communication, understanding their country's history provides deeper influences on their desires for their homeland. Their individual actions reflect their historical culture and values. Three times before the end of World War Two, the leaders of Great Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States met to decide how to bring the war to a quick conclusion and how the world would look after World War Two. Only the top leader from each country was authorized to speak on behalf of their nation's interests. Not only were they influenced by the immediate decisions needed to end the war, but also they were consciously or unconsciously influenced by their nation's history while they negotiated with each other. These meetings sometimes took weeks to complete. During the breaks during the meetings, the leaders conferred with their staff to discuss negotiation strategies. These strategies changed dynamically based on the flow of conversations. Reaching agreements was difficult since it required the unanimous agreement of all three nations. Since two of the three countries (Great Britain and the U.S.) represented democratic political systems, the USSR was naturally suspicious when they both agreed on a negotiating item since they feared it would be harmful to interests of the Soviet Union who employed a totalitarian government system. Learning Goal: Understand the point-of-view of a world leader based on their country's history. While national leaders have their own personalities that impact their style of communication, understanding their country's history provides deeper influences on their desires for their homeland.

Gli eroi dimenticati: gli Aerofonisti. «Sentinella vestito di grigio verde con la parola cieco scritta in lettere d'oro sul petto dell'uniforme in cima a un colle solitario per difendere la città. Quel che pareva un paradosso crudele è avvenuto sul serio e tutta la famiglia dei ciechi, benché mobilitati siano sinora poche decine, ha accolto la notizia con una gioia difficile da dire. Mancava ancora quest'ultimo riscatto, questa partecipazione guerriera, perché cadesse completamente la barriera spirituale tra quelli che vedono e quelli che non vedono. Perché tutti sanno in quanti modi i ciechi sappiano rendersi utili alla Patria in pace e in guerra, ben rare essendo le attività loro negate. Restava pero una esclusione in un certo senso la più crudele: non poter personalmente combattere. Ora anche i ciechi combattono: non ammessi per misericordia a fare i soldati, ma richiesti dal paese come elementi preziosi». Con queste parole Dino Buzzati, in qualità d' inviato di guerra, descrive su «Il Corriere della Sera» del 02 febbraio 1941 la figura dell'aerofonista. Una figura dimenticata dalle pagine della storia e della società moderna, primo esempio d'inclusione ante litteram anche se dettato dalla necessità, il loro compito «non è stato quello di uccidere, ma di difendere» i loro fratelli vedenti.

Rarement, depuis la Révolution – à l’exception de la Grande Guerre –, la France n’a subi de choc équivalent à la défaite de juin 1940. Soixante-dix-huit ans après les faits, il faut effectuer un effort d’imagination pour se représenter la violence de ce qui fut, au sens propre, un traumatisme collectif. Restituer le contexte est d’autant plus nécessaire que l’histoire de l’industrie automobile sous l’Occupation est mal connue. Il est impossible, dans le cadre d’un article, de traiter cette question de manière exhaustive, c’est pourquoi nous nous contenterons d’étudier les premiers contacts établis entre les constructeurs français et les autorités allemandes au début de l’été 1940. La période allant de l’armistice à l’invasion de l’URSS par la Wehrmacht correspond au redémarrage de l’industrie française, cette fois au profit du IIIème Reich. Dans ce cadre, les secteurs tels que l’automobile attirèrent tout particulièrement l’attention de l’occupant.

Stella Ghervas, "The Congress of Vienna: A Peace for the Strong"

In the first of two articles marking the bicentenary of the Congress of Vienna, Stella Ghervas examines the Great Powers’ attempt to create a new European order following the defeat of Napoleon.
Link: http://www.historytoday.com/stella-ghervas/congress-vienna-peace-strong

This research is devoted to the interfaith situation in the Western Ukraine in 1942 - 1944 years and the activity of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) - the Rovno's bishop Platon. The source analysis of his correspondence shows the definition of the Ukrainian religious life is « the uncertainty». It was developed itself in the employment, the relationship with the «autonomists», the intervention of the occupants in the affairs of the church, the practice of the transition to the bosom of UAOC, the desire of «singularity» of UAOC's supporters.

Τον Φεβρουάριο του 1940 ο Χέρμαν Γκαίρινγκ , διέταξε το αλουμίνιο όλων των κατακτημένων περιοχών να χρησιμοποιηθεί για την παραγωγή αεροσκαφών της Γερμανικής αεροπορικής βιομηχανίας. Αυτή η διαταγή άρχισε να εφαρμόζεται, καθώς η Βέρμαχτ κατακτούσε μία μία τις χώρες της Ευρώπης.

During World War II a daring action by Australian commandos  to capture an airfield at Kaiapit changed the strategic situation in New Guinea. However, 75 years on, where the 1942 battles of Kokoda and Milne have become famous, the 1943 campaigns in New Guinea - which included stunning actions such as Kaipait - are absent from Australian popular memory.

Нацистский лагерь уничтожения Собибор…
Более 250 тыс. евреев уничтожены за 1,5 года…
14 октября 1943 г. здесь произошло единственное успешное восстание в лагерях смерти, которое возглавил советский командир Александр
Печерский. Впервые публикуются последняя и наиболее полная версия его мемуаров, воспоминания многих соратников по борьбе и свидетельства «с другой стороны»: тех, кто принимал участие в убийстве невинных людей. Исследования российских и зарубежных авторов дают общий контекст, проливая свет на ряд малоизвестных страниц истории Холокоста.

A Game of Scales in the Andes: the Peru-Ecuador Conflict and the WWII
In July 1941, a longstanding border dispute between Peru and Ecuador broke out into a war. The Rio Protocol, signed January 1942, confirmed the fast Peruvian victory. As the international tensions were growing because of the United States entering war against the Axis forces, this secondary conflict between two strategic countries for the US interests, had contradictory links with the Second World War. It fastened the elimination of Axis subversion, slowed down the hemispheric rearmament, redefined the regional balance of power and demonstrated that little nations knew how to take advantage of US pressure.

La seconda serie di A che serve volare, conferenze informali organizzate dall'Aerofototeca Nazionale, racconta temi e risultati di varie attività degli ultimi anni, che ruotano attorno alle maggiori collezioni conservate in archivio. Si parlerà del ruolo dei Monuments Men nella salvaguardia delle opere d'arte ma soprattutto del grande fondo di fotografie aeree Alleate (che deve proprio ad alcuni di loro la sopravvivenza e la nuova destinazione a scopo culturale) ma anche della meno nota collezione di foto aeree dell'Asse italiano-tedesco. Risalendo alla Grande Guerra, ci verrà narrato il ruolo svolto dalla fotografia e la figura di un asso dell'aviazione, Giorgio Michetti, figlio del più noto pittore Francesco Paolo. Rimarremo nel mondo dell'Aeronautica Militare (cui l'Aerofototeca è legata fin dalla fondazione nel 1959) con il racconto di prima mano di un pilota impegnato nella documentazione del territorio italiano negli anni '70-'80, approfondendo poi l'attività della prestigiosa Scuola di Aerocooperazione di Guidonia (RM). Infine, uno sguardo contemporaneo sull'Italia raccontato da un importante fotografo e la presentazione al pubblico di due grandi fondi fotografici (ma non solo) recentemente acquisiti dall'Aerofototeca chiuderanno questa serie di incontri.

Analiza filmskih ostvarenja 1975-1985. svedoči da postupcima predstavlјanja ekonomske i socijalne krize sedamdesetih godina više nisu bile potrebne metafore, simbolička ni druga skrivena značenja. Ona postaje manifestna desetak godina nakon što su kroz eksperimentalne i avangardne postupke ispolјeni prvi simptomi traume nastale tokom i posle Drugog svetskog rata.  Kinematografija 1975-85. otkriva strepnju i nemir, postajući konfuzna formulacija vrednosne apokalipse i osećanja da dolazi novo doba u kome će se iznova dogoditi užasno i neizrecivo. Utoliko, se filmovi snimlјeni 1975-85. mogu smatrati vizuelnim prenosiocima traume koja ojačana nemogućnošću produktivne analize i posledično, razrešenja, kulminira početkom trećeg milenijuma. Analiza filmova kreće se u teorijskim okvirima studija traume i istorije sećanja.

In 1968, the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Naval spy ship, was boarded and seized by North Korea while it was conducting signal and electronics intelligence surveillance in international waters off the coast of North Korea. 

It was always assumed that the Pueblo's main mission was to spy on North Korea; that the North Koreans believed that the Pueblo was in North Korean waters at the time of the incident; and that the North Koreans wanted the secret documents and equipment on board.

But recently, after the author obtained newly-declassified CIA documents on the Pueblo Incident, we learn that the North Koreans knew all along that the Pueblo was in international waters and the CIA believed the ship's capture had nothing to do with secret documents or equipment. In fact, the CIA gave an entirely new explanation for the capture of the Pueblo and its crew.

PUBLISHED: North Korean Review, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Fall 2016 as a Special Feature.

The current project WARLUX aims to study the biographies of young Luxembourgers, born between 1920 and 1927, who were drafted by the German Nazi authorities for Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) and the German Army (Wehrmacht). The conscription of young Luxembourgers is mostly displayed in documents, starting from police, enrolment registration records by regional authorities, lists of transportations and records about their service. However, for the study of biographies a more personal insight of the affected people is required, as behind these administrative files ley 10.000 other stories.

The intelligence activities of the Soviet guerrillas during the Great Patriotic War has always been one of the least known aspects of the Soviet Partisan Movement. Yaacov Falkov, an Israeli military historian, and the lecturer at the Tel Aviv University and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, has scrutinized the materials on this topic stored in various former Soviet archives, as well as in the archives of Yad Vashem, Israel. Those sources, believes Falkov, debunk many of the myths about the Partisans created in the Soviet times.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed on 23 August 1939. Today, eighty years on, it still stirs up controversy in public life and among academics. One side still voices the Stalinist argument, according to which the Soviet Union had no alternative: prioritizing its own security interests, it had to sign the agreement. According to the advocates of this view, the Soviet Union was forced into the situation as it was on the defensive and wanted nothing but peace. However, the archival sources that have become accessible in Germany, Poland and Russia contradict the view that paints Stalin as a passive victim. In these documents, expansionist imperial policies surface, moreover, one may find abundant cases for military, economic and political cooperation between the two totalitarian dictatorships.

Moving people and goods from one place to another has caused problems everywhere.  Nevertheless, in Finland these problems have been historically extraordinary. Finland is one of the world’s most northern and geographically remote countries and is subject to a severe climate. In a sparsely populated country, the road network was built nationwide only in the 19th and 20th century. At the time the terrain was difficult because thick woodlands blanketed nearly three fourths of the landed area, making it the most densely forested country in Europe. Deep forests, 188,000 lakes and even more numerous marshes hindered moving with vehicles. That was not enough.  The Baltic Sea was frozen about four months a year, and for that period the country was cut off from western Europe  and before the 18th century landborne traffic to the neighbouring country, Russia was poor and the major Russian cities were situated very far. As a result, one could claim that in wintertime Finland was one of the most isolated and inaccessible regions in Europe, and therefore the Finns have learnt to value the means of transport highly.

En juillet 1941, un ancien differend frontalier entre le Perou et l’Equateur mena a l’affrontement arme. Le Protocole de Rio, signe en janvier 1942, enterina la victoire eclair du Perou. Dans une periode de tensions liees a l’entree en guerre des Etats-Unis contre les forces de l’Axe, ce petit conflit, qui mettait aux prises deux pays strategiques pour la puissance du Nord, entretint des liens troubles avec la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il accelera la lutte locale contre la subversion, ralentit le rearmement de l’hemisphere, redefinit l’equilibre regional des puissances et montra que les petites nations surent tirer parti des pressions etasuniennes.

"Memories' Mementos: Anthropology, Memory and Migrant In-tangible Heritage"

Talk by Dr. Pedram Khosronejad

Department of Anthropology
Macquarie University, Sydney

Time: September 9th, 2020
11-12:30

This seminar discusses the roles that ‘migrant visual mementos’ as tangible heritage play in the visualization of personally relevant data (intangible heritage) for the purposes of oral history, including reminiscing about childhood memory, separation and war trauma. Since 2019, Prof. Khosronejad has led a reciprocal anthropology project in Australia, focusing on the German civilians of Persia who, during the 1930s, moved to Iran for the development of the infrastructure of the country, and were then captured by the British army on Iranian soil and sent to Australian war camps as war internees.

This talk is grounded in collaborative work between a socio-cultural and visual anthropologist and the children of the German civilians of Persia who have been living in Australia since the 1940s.

We aim to bring the results of our work to our audiences as a collaborative project, in which friendship and collaboration between anthropologists and their protagonists can produce fruitful results.

Introduction describes the space of intervention, both politically in postsocialist and post-Yugoslav context, as well as theoretically into nationalist and transition studies that have been marked by anti-socialist and anti-Yugoslav ideological positions. Introduction highlights the major theses and contributions of chapters organized around the term "partisan rupture" (people's liberation struggle, workers' self-management and non-aligned movement) and their gradual exhaustion from 1965 onwards (market reform, liberalism and nationalism), which sheds new light of the break up of Yugoslavia.

A talk by Dr. Pedram Khosronejad
Civil German Prisoners of Persia in Australian Second World War Prisons
Autobiographical Remembering: Dynamics of Interplay between Memory, Self and Material/ Visual/ Culture

Digital Humanities research Group, Western Sydney University
Wednesday 22 April 2020, 10.30-12.00 (zoom talk)
Recorded talk: https://vimeo.com/410840110

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Things expelled, things tamed, things exhibited:
An attempt to pre-categorize
Abstract
The article aims at analyzing the status of material things whose function has changed due to changes of borders between Poland and Germany and the population transfer (i.e. repatriation and expulsion) after 1944. By using the Greimas semiotic square, I categorize artefacts along two axes: familiarity–otherness and mobility–immobility. I mainly focus on the musealization of things at the exhibitions in Poland and Germany concerning war and postwar resettlements.
Keywords: resettlement of Poles and Germans after WWII, museum exhibitions, semiotics analysis, anthropology of things

In this critical analysis of the siege of Leningrad, one of the worst and longest sieges in human history, new information is brought to light in the work of Dmitri Pavlov's inside-view and first-hand account of the siege, and in late-1944, the breaking of the Siege through the Ice Road.

Artykuł stanowi próbę analizy homoseksualnych relacji barterowych w kompleksie obozowym Auschwitz-Birkenau-Monowitz. W polskiej pamięci zbiorowej pipel – służący więźniów funkcyjnych – funkcjonuje jako ofiara gwałtów w obozach, których sprawcami mieli być więźniowie homoseksualni. Przez lata błędnie łączono zjawisko relacji homoseksualnych w obozie (wszystkie kategorie więźniów) z osobną grupą skazanych na mocy paragrafu 175 StGB (podejrzenie o relacje homoseksualne). Z tego powodu mężczyzn, którzy trafili do obozu Auschwitz za tak zwany „sprzeczny z naturą nierząd” po pierwsze kryminalizowano, po drugie – usuwano z grona ofiar i uznawano za współsprawców. Ofiary przemocy seksualnej również pozostały anonimowe. Autorka stara się pokazać na jakieś zasadzie działają powojenne fantazmaty dotyczące przemocy seksualnej w stosunku do mężczyzn. Korzysta z nielicznych relacji ofiar, świadectw współwięźniów i źródeł literackich, które dotychczas nie były tłumaczone na język polski (Kacetnik).