Film Lesson: Schindler's List

The movies Schindler's List was about how the Jews went through the Holocaust. In this movie the Holocaust was illustrated as being very cold hearted and brutal. The movie conveyed to the viewer how the Jews were moved out of the own homes and houses into the "ghetto". Here it didn't matter if the Jews were rich or poor they still were forced and crowed into the ghetto. In the ghetto they were packed and moved in very uncomfortably. Many families tried to take as many things as they can however many lost their things because the Nazis threw them away. In the movie there was one family that placed their jewelry into a piece of bread and that piece of bread they eat so that the Nazis wouldnt take their valuable things away. Additionally in the movie the Nazis killed anyone who wouldn't listen to orders or instructions or anyone who looked sick. Also the Jews were moved from the ghetto into concentration camps where they took everything the Jews own and threw it away. If the Jews were able to work or were sick they would killed them one by one shooting them. Many of the children were killed as well which is very sad even though some would hide in the bathrooms full of nasty dirty things. In Auschwitz, the Nazis would cut off all the girls hair in order to use it for the war that was going on. It was very sad and dissapointing to see how people try to dehumanize a group of people. I would mostly remember when Schindler saw the little girl in the pink dress walking through the streets when the Jews were being sent to the concentration camps from the ghetto and then Schindler saw her dead bodies going into the hole where they would burn the bodies.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

Night and Fog was a documentary about the Holocaust made by the French. In this documentary they showed many scenes that were actually real and that really happened. For instanced they showed the skeletons of the dead bodies. However the bodies of the Jews that were working in concentration camps were very skinny and you could actually see their bones. It was very shocking and sad to watch such strong scenes of how brutally the Jews were treated by the Nazis. In this documentary they also showed the gas chambers where the Nazis would gas lots of Jews to death. The Jews being gassed would believe they were taking a shower but once there was gas instead of water coming out of the sprinkler they knew the were about to die. There was no escape because they were locked inside. The documentary showed one of the major concentration camps which was Auschwitz and it showed the train tracks and everything. Today there only lies green grass and souls of innocence people in Auschwitz however back during the Holocaust Auschwitz was a mass murdering place. In my opinion you can not compare the movie Schindler's List to the documentary becuase now Hollywood movie no matter how real they act it out or how vivid they make it seem nothing would compare to the actual skeletons, blood, and dead bodies of what really happened.

The Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was based on World War I and Germany was the country to take all the blame for it. This Treaty was actually signed in France and symbolizes the end of WWI. The Treaty of Versailles forced and had Germany obligated to pay a compensation for all the destruction of the war. In other words, the Treaty of Versailles affected Germany in a very bad way. For instance, Germany lost 10 percent of its land and all of its overseas colonies to the Allies which were France, British, and American. In addition to losing so much land, the Germans also lost about 12.5 percent of their own people. So some German people were not even living in Germany territory. In result to the treay, Germany's economy became even worse after the war because they couldn't recover themselves because they had so much money to pay the allies. Their produce and profit were entirely used as payments to the allies. The Germans lost military power and were soon into a recession. Since Germany was very desperate to recover and to put revenge on the allies, the treaty actually lead to WWII and the rise of Adolf Hitler and also facism.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal was one of those leaders who lead his country such as turkey to total independence from the Ottoman Empire. He, Mustafa Kemal became President of Turkey for 15 years and during those 15 he modernize Turkey using sweeoing reforms and many other notions. He wanted to give Turkey a sense of dignity, equality, and happiness. As president he created the "6 Arrows" which include republicanism, populism, secularism, reformism, nationalism, and statism. He also allowed Moslem majority and small minorities free to practice their faith and what ever they wanted. Most of his reforms were full of secular instructions and he believed that in freedom and equality for all and even though the peasants were less of social class he also believed that they were a big part of society. In the modernization, Mustafa changed the way people wore clothes and also he declared that the religious beliefs should have nothing to do with the governments actions. In other words a secular government.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

At one point in time India was ruled and controlled by Great Britain. However Mahatma Gandhi was a significant figure who helped India gain Independence. Gandhi was a very important leader in India. He was one of those leaders who believed in non-violence. However he strongly believed in passive resistance, in civil disobidence and in helping India gets its Independence from Britian. Gandhi led many boycotts and non-violent actions. He encourage people in India to stop buying the British cloth and to make and weave their own clothes. Gandhi himself, spent hours per day making his clothes. In additon to that boycott, the British only allowed the Indians to buy salt from the British only. Therefore Gandhi marched with other hundreds of Indians to the edge of India in order to make their own salt. In the movie whenever the Indians went behind Gandhi's back and used violence, Gandhi would take it upon himself and he would fast until the Indians would stop using violence and being to use civil diobidence again. Gandhi went to jail many times and he was placed in jail by the British however whenever he came out he still went back to helping get India's Independence.

The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars were wars between Great Britan and China. These wars were due to the drug opium and that is why they were called the Opium Wars. Great Britan wanted to balance out their tea trade with China however since China was a self-sufficiant country, China in reality wanted nothing to trade with Great Britan even though they used gold and silver, they couldn't find anything else to trade. This is when Great Britan began to import opium into China from India. The Chinese people bought it very easily. However even though during the 15- century, opium was first used as medicine to treat diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea, the British promoted opium in China as being smoked as a drug.

Each year about 2 million pounds of opium were being sold in China. This affected China very much because it weakened its population due to the fact that nearly 10 percent of the people in China were smoking opium. It also affected China ecomonically because of the large amount of resources used to pay for the opium. The illegal selling of opium became a big problem in China because even the Chinese government accepted brides from the British and became corrupted themselves. During the war, when China discovered the opium selling, the British attacked China in a very unexpected way. Due to the fact that China was not ready for these attacks and being that they weren't as advanced as Great Britan, the British won the war and China was forced to sign a treaty called the Treaty of Nanjing. This treaty not only ended the war but also opened more ports in China for the British.

Film Lesson: "Mountains on the Moon"

The Europeans faced many hardships while exploring Africa and trying to find the source of the Nile River. For once, the Europeans had to deal with the tribes in Africa. Theses tribes would destroy where the Europeans would sleep and threaten the explorartion of Richard Burton and John Speak. John Speak got captured once by a tribe and was stable in both legs. As f0r Richard Burton he got sa speare right through. As the explorartion conttinued the Europeans had to deal with the wild animals as well. For instance, Richard Burton saved a run away slave from a pair of tigers. However if it wasnt for John Speak being as backup Burton would have been attacked or even killed by the furious lion. The source of the Nile River is called Lake Victoria and it is named after a British Queen. It is very weird that it is still named Lake Victoria because Queen Victoria has been dead for many years now. The Europeans were able to conquer Africa due to the fact that they were very advance in technology. For instance, the Europeans had weapons and gun and they also had alot of money and tools to hunt. In additon the Europeans also had slaves to do all the dirty work.