Author: clevengood@rollins.edu

1943 proved to be a critical point in the outcome of the Second World War. The Germans faced numerous setbacks and defeats in almost every war they fought that year. The first change was the sinking of German U-boats. Prior to 1943, German U-boats continuously sunk Allied convoys in the Atlantic. However, this trend changed…

8 May 1945 is a very important day in European history. It signified the unconditional surrender of the “Daisies” in Berlin. The Red Army occupied many city centers and celebrated their victory over the “Daisies”. Berliners continued, for the most part, to resume their normal activities. They were forced to begin to rebuild and find…

Chapter 14 discusses that some Jews headed into the “unknown”, which was underground in Berlin. Going underground during wartime was a huge risk for Jews because if they were caught without paperwork, then they were certainly headed to at least hard labor and most likely to death. By going underground, Jews were breaking the law,…

Nazism appeared to offer Germans a bright future. The Nazis wanted to harness as much emerging technology as possible. One example of this is the radio. Although not directly innovated by the Germans, they were able to utilize the “new” technology and made it popular with ordinary citizens. The Germans were able to politically exploit…

In Chapter 12 of Berlin at War, Moorhouse touches upon the differences in burials between those taking place at Berlin’s Invaliden cemetery and those taking place at Weissensee. Invaliden became a burial ground for prominent members of the military, whereas Weissensee “became a last refuge for the desperate” (262). In Invaliden, angels and eagles predominated….

I find it absolutely incredible the number of groups that opposed the Nazi Party during their rise to power in the 1930s and during the Second World War of the 1940s. Protests were especially strong in the German capital, where Hitler failed to capture a third of the votes in any single election. Berlin at…

In Chapter 8, Hans Michaelis, a retired lawyer, is speaking to his niece, Maria, about the possibility of being relocated to a concentration camp. He tells her that he does not have much time before the SS arrive to take him away to one of the camps, so he asks her whether he should suffer…

Chapter 6 in Berlin at War discusses the labor force in the Third Reich. Many of which come from conquered lands, such as Poland, France, etc. These “foreign workers” were also known as forced laborers or even slave laborers. The process of being transported to camps was often long and cramped. Some camps were cleaner…

Although these names are not mentioned in Berlin at War, Eva Kor and Oskar Groning were living in Europe during the Second World War. Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor, was in Auschwitz for some time during the global conflict. Oskar Groning, a former SS guard, was responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent Jews….