World War II A Few Details

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World War IIA Few Details

• Eras and Ages
• J.L. Ilsley High School
• English 12

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WWII Stats

• 60-75 million people died as a result of the war
• 25 million soldiers
• 40-50 million civilians
• WWII was a global
• war, meaning that all
• countries were involved
• in some way, except
• Ireland, Portugal, Spain,
• Sweden, Switzerland,
• and Vatican City

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The Final Solution

• About 6 million Jew killed during WWII
• 500,000 gypsies
• 200,000 mentally and physically challenged people
• 10,000 gay men
• 2,000 Catholic priests
• 1,000 Jehovahs Witnesses
• An unknown number of Freemasons

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Treatment of Black People by Nazis

• Of bi-racial African-German children, Adolf
  Hitler wrote The mulatto children came about
  through rape or the white mother was a whore. In
  both cases, there is not the slightest moral duty
  regarding these offspring of a foreign race.
• Blacks in Germany experienced segregation,
  persecution, medical experimentation,
  sterilization, untold brutality, and death

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After Auschwitz

• Theodor Adorno famously stated that After
  Auschwitz, there can be no more poetry.
• What did he mean by that?

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Hiroshima

• August 6th, 1945
• 70,000 vaporized
• 70,000 died within 3 years of radiation illness
• "I knew the Japs were in for it, but I felt no
  particular emotion about it. Weaponeer
• Bomb was ironically named Little Boy

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Hiroshima

• Reasons not to use the Atomic Bomb

• Reasons to use the Atomic Bomb

• Response to the bombing of Pearl Harbour
• Immediate end to war
• Allies would have had to invade more lives lost
• Culturally, Japan was not inclined to surrender
• It sent a message to the world dont screw with
  us
• Too much not to drop it
• What can the bomb do?

• American President Truman had already determined
  that Japan was going to surrender
• Japan wanted to keep its emperor. America said
  no.
• Could have demonstrated the bombs power over
  Tokyo, rather than killing thousands
• Hiroshima was largely a civilian city

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Film Clip

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vNF4LQaWJRDg
• Think about what people were doing in the moments
  before the bomb was dropped. Why were those
  details included in this short clip?

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Assignment

• Read the memoir A Silent Flash of Light
• Underline or highlight words, phrases and images
  that are clear or poignant
• With a partner, either compose a paragraph of
  8-10 sentences discussing the theme of this
  memoir, or create a FOUND POEM by listing
  highlighted words and phrases that are powerful,
  and then re-arranging them to make a poetic
  statement

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Works Gratefully Cited

• http//greatersurbiton.files.wordpress.com/2010/02
  /auschwitz.jpg
• http//www.world-war-2.info/countries/
• http//history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/hiro
  shima.htm
• http//www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/atomi
  c.htm
• http//seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/trinity/s
  upplement/procon.html