Thursday, December 11, 2008

Analysis

http://www.archive.org/details/NewsThrillsO

This video is about a newsreel of events happening during the war. It does not focus on the whole war, just certain events. It focuses on the most important events presented during WW2, such as the battle between the Royal Navy and the German Air Force. It shows Hitler’s Blitzkrieg going to work on the lowlands in Holland. Queen Wilhelmina gathers her men to help fight, and England sends reinforcements to help as well. The French also help out by sending more reinforcements to the lowlands of Belgium to help keep the Germans from taking over Holland. But unfortunately the Germans were successful in taking over Belgium and the French were defeated. Once Germany had full control of the city he began to set the city ablaze and demolished the city to ruins. They showed no mercy on the civilians, their only hope was escaping to France, the less fortunate was burned alive.

Hitler Quote

"I am asking of no German man more that I myself was ready throughout four years to do...I am from now on just the first soldier of the German Reich.  I have once more put on that coat that was sacred and dear to me.  I will not take it off again until victory is secured, or I will not survive the outcome." 

This was stated by Adolf Hitler in 1939.  Hitler really incorporates pathos into this quote.  He relates to the German people by not making himself bigger than anyone else.  He says he is just a soldier in the Reich, making him seem like everybody is on the same level as himself.  

The most interesting aspect about this quote however is when he says "...I have once more put on that coat that was sacred and dear to me.  I will not take it off again until victory is secured, or I will not survive the outcome." That is a clear foreshadow to his actual death, suicide.  When Russian forces were heading into the capital, Hitler realized victory will not happen, so he ended himself, completing the foreshadow.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

World War 2 video

This is a television reel of events happening during World War 2.  A battle between German Air Force and Royal Navy.  For the rest of the video it shows Hitler's Blitzkrieg going to work on Holland's lowlands. 

The whole video does not have sound it just shows motion pictures, then stops to describe what is going on.  Besides having no sound the video does have nice camera angles and captures a lot of action.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Dangers of Americanism

The Dangers of Americanism was an article printed in a Nazi newspaper in  1944 during World War II. Here is the link to the article. http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/sk03.htm

When you read the article you can see how the author is trying to target a younger audience. It uses bandwagon to make it seem like everyone is in to it so all the young people should help as well with the war effort. You can also see card stacking and bandwagon when the author is trying to make America or "Americanism" look bad. It says how all the countries are fighting against Americanism so Germany should too. Card stacking is used to say all of the negative aspects of America without saying any positive ones. The whole article is based on pathos rhetoric to get the readers emotionally involved. It seems that this way of arguing was very effective during world war II for many of the leaders around the world.

United States and German posters



The propaganda poster on the top is from the United States Navy.  The poster on the below it is from Nazi Germany, the translation for the words is "Through military will to military strength." 

I chose these two posters because the are both war related and it shows the people in them in combat.  The American poster seems to be more patriotic.  It shows teamwork, because there is two soldiers doing there best to fire the weapons.  In the German poster it shows just one soldier, taking aim at an unknown object.  The biggest part about the German poster is the caption, because it basically says "With military power and strength, nothing can stand in our way."

World War 2 TIME article

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884231,00.html

This is an article from TIME describing events in the United Kingdom during the war. The most stressed fact presented in this article is the death count and kills overall. In Verdun it says attackers and defenders died in massive numbers. The article describes how men where blown to pieces, it gives the image of how brutal the battles were.
British Forces took down two key figures on the German side. Major General Wolff von Stutterheim, who had suffered numerous wounds in WW1 had died of more wounds in WW2. Major Helmuth Wick was also taken down. He was responsible for shooting down 56 Polish ,French, and British planes in 15 months. However when he was shot down, the pilot that got him was shot down, so no one knew who was responsible.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Propaganda

The Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn't the only person that used propaganda to manipulate the people into the war. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hitler used propaganda to not only become the leader of Germany but also to motivate the people to hate a variety of different people. But for Hitler it was much easier due to the fact that the people were less educated in Germany due to the effects of WW1 as well as the Great Depression on the economy of Germany. Hitler had used his power of public communication, he would do very dramatic gestures while giving his speeches, he created dramatic scenes where he was always the hero in it. Hitler had several trainings to improve his communication skills , and he basically played on emotions of the people, using hatred anger and love all in his favor, and aroused the deeper emotions. On top of that he used propaganda to make the people hate everyone and to be motivated for war, there are several types of propaganda all which were used by Hitler :

1. Bandwagon - Tries to persuade everyone to join and do the same thing.

2. Loaded Words - Using words with strong emotional associations.

3. Plain Folks - Suggesting something is practical and a good value for ordinary people.

4. Glittering Generality - Using words so strongly positive in emotional content that just hearing them makes you feel good. The words express a positive meaning without actually giving a guarantee.

5. Transfer - Transferring good looks, feelings, or ideas to the person who the propaganda is meant to influence. Suggests the positive qualities to be associated with the product and the user.

6. Testimonial - Using a famous person to endorce the product.

7. Repetition - Using the product name or a keyword or phrase over and over.