Category: world war ii

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Beauty Amongst Violence in “The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in The Warsaw Ghetto”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve read Hans Massaquoi’s Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany and Mary Berg’s diary that she wrote during World War II, specifically living and growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto before her family’s escape to the United States in March 1944. Massaquoi’s memoir didn’t appear until 1999, and he wrote it looking backwards, after individuals suggested he document his … Read More Beauty Amongst Violence in “The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in The Warsaw Ghetto”

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Resistance and Survival in World War II Poland Syllabus

A couple of years ago, I proposed a study travel trip to Poland focused on the intersections between Jim Crow and the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t make, so we didn’t get to go. However, one student wanted to take the course, and we did a directed study which led to a co-written essay. I have thought about trying to get this trip make again, but I … Read More Resistance and Survival in World War II Poland Syllabus

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The Construction of Enemies in Ron Rash’s “Return”

All of us, no matter how hard we try, succumb to preconceived stereotypes and the construction of others who may disagree with us enemies. Salman Rushdie discusses this extensively in his memoir Knife as he writes about his stabbing in August 2022 at the Chautauqua Institute. During a fictionalized interview with his would be assassin, Rushdie tells the man, “I know that it is possible to … Read More The Construction of Enemies in Ron Rash’s “Return”

We Must Not Be Complicit

On January 20, 1942, high-ranking members of the Nazi party met at Wannsee, right out side of Berlin, to begin the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Reinhard Heydrich tasked Adolf Eichmann with organizing the conference, since Eichmann was a director of Jewish Affairs. Hannah Arendt, in Eichmann in Jerusalem, describes the discussion of the Wannsee Conference as focusing “first on ‘complicated … Read More We Must Not Be Complicit

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“Fascism is invincible only with us”: The Church and Acquiescence to Fascism

Whenever I go to a used bookstore, I typically find a book I have never heard of and pick it up. On one such trip, I saw a copy of Rolf Hochhuth’s The Deputy, A Christian Tragedy (1963) for 0.75¢. The description on the back of the book intrigued me because it points out that the play caused a controversy when it premiered because … Read More “Fascism is invincible only with us”: The Church and Acquiescence to Fascism