ch 21

This chapter is filled with many major points in history. The chapter starts off talking about World War I, or also known as the Great War. It lasted from 1914–1918. After WWI, the Great Depression hit, followed by the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and then World War II. All of these events proved to be sad in one way or another. The death total of all of these historical events is just horrendous, and if one were to take a moment of there day to think about how many people, all around the world died in these horrific events, it would bring any person down. I just thought about how many people died in two major wars, the great depression, and during the holocaust, and this feeling of sadness just overtook me. To think that not only did millions and millions of people die during these years, but for each life that was taken, a family member of friend also suffered the loss. Now that I’m talking about such sad, horrific thoughts I think that I am going to talk about the Holocaust. I wanted to originally talk about the entire chapter, and summarize the major events of history, but it only feels right to dedicate most of this blog to the holocaust. I think that we have learned about the holocaust every year in school since the 6^th grade, or at least I have. Every time that the subject of the holocaust comes up, I think that its one of the saddest moments in history, and people often get very emotional over the subject. One of the most famous names in history, Adolf Hitler, one of the biggest communist the world has ever seen, became chancellor of Germany in 1933, and immediately outlawed other political parties, arrested opponents, censured the press, and assumed police power. Hitler succeeded in bringing Germany out of the depression, and he invoked rural and traditional values, and by the 1930’s had the majority of the support from his people. In my opinion, Hitler is the worst, most cruel, and heartless person that I have ever learned about. I don’t think that any other person in the world has made me so mad and depressed. How can one man do that? This is one question that puzzles my mind every time the subject of Hitler or the Holocaust is brought up. I think that many people around the world feel the same way that I do. For example, a middle school in Tennessee started this project, where one paper clip represented a person who died in the holocaust. It started off as a small project; the school had no idea about how many paper clips they actually needed. The paper clip project ended up being national project, and they received paper clips from people all around the country. The total number of paper clips they collected ended up being over 30 million. Just let that number sink in for a minute. It is truly sad. Following the holocaust, even more lives were taken during World War II. This Second World War was an even more global conflict, it is recorded that an estimated 60 million people died due to WWII, and roughly about half of those who died were civilians, the line between civilians and those in the military was blurred. The USSR suffered about 40% of the total number of deaths and Chinese civilians undertook massive attacks, in most villages at least one human and one animal was killed. China also suffered the Rape of Nanking, from the years of 1937-1938, it’s estimated that 200,000-300,000 civilians of china were killed, and countless more women were raped. World War II left Europe in ruins, and they no longer had the power or the strength to hold onto their Asians and African colonies.  Coincidently, WWII brought on feelings of internationalism, and the United Nations was created in 1945, and the Unites States became a superpower. I think that this chapter was filled with a lot of very important information, and I believe that it is one of the most chapters in our book and I’m glad that I got to reflect on it through this blog.