World War II

Apprentice & Journeyman

Apprentice and Journeyman will be combined this time in terms of reading and inspirements. If you meet these requirements, you may attend both classes.

Objective: Become familiar with the causes, effects, and events of World War II, and study at least one aspect of the war in deeper detail.

Study/Learn

1. Read A History of US, Volume 9, Chapters 26-44

2. Read How to Kill 11 Million People (This is a quick read. Should only take approx. 20 minutes)

Know/Understand

Your mission is to become an expert on one aspect of World War II and create a dynamic, engaging, multimedia presentation on your topic to give to the class. You will have 5-10 minutes to captivate us and move us by what you have to say. Please email me with your chosen topic at teamhalley@gmail.com.

TIPS: 
• For projects like this, it is important to explore different points of view surrounding your topic.
• Don't just give us dates and general information, but also share how your topic affected people on a personal level. What are the true underlying issues going on within your topic?
• Think about what teaching tools you can use to get your point across to others most effectively. Using simulations, video clips, photos, or individual stories helps to make your presentation memorable and helps us internalize the lessons from your talk.
• Tell us how you feel about your topic and make connections from your topic to anything going on today or if your topic has had far-reaching effects that continue today.
• Create a brief outline for what you have to say on a 3 x 5 card and practice until you feel comfortable speaking without having to read from a paper. Practice speaking in a way that will keep people interested and remember to be sensitive to your topic (ex: it is not appropriate to giggle through a presentation about the Holocaust).

TOPICS:
• Causes of World War II -- RAHEL
• Pearl Harbor -- GRACE
• Propaganda Posters -- CALEB
• Changing Womens' Roles
• Holocaust -- NIC
• Nazi Germany (Master Race, Hitler youth, the gestapo, book burning, etc.) -- HANNAH
• Japanese Internment Camps -- SIS. CLOWARD
• Adolf Hitler -- JAISHA
• Winston Churchill -- RACHEL
• Weapons and battle strategies -- LUKE
• Battle of Britain -- PATTY
• D-Day -- MEGAN
• Battle of Midway -- BEN
• Battle of the Bulge
• Battle of Stalingrad and how the war affected Russia
• Homefront (what was it like for the common people at home?) in U.S. & Britain -- ADRIANNA
• Homefront (what was it like for the common people at home?) in Germany & Japan
• Nuremburg War Criminal Trials -- SAM
• Cryptology in WWII -- EMILY
• Japanese concept of war & honor (kamikaze, harakiri, Bataan death march, Burma Railway, how did their concept of honor affect their treatment of POW's and the way they would fight and not surrender?)
• Atomic bomb -- TARA
• Iwo Jima -- MACK

Master

Objective: Get a glimpse of the war from another perspective through reading one of these true accounts. Try to see the miracle of faith working in the middle of indescribable horror.

Study/Learn
Choose 1 of the following books to read:

To End All Wars, by Ernest Gordon

Waking from a dream, I suddenly realized where I was: in the Death House–in a prison camp by the River Kwai. I was a prisoner of war, lying among the dead, waiting for the bodies to be carried away so that I might have more room.’ When Ernest Gordon was twenty-four he was captured by the Japanese and forced, with other British prisoners, to build the notorious ‘Railroad of Death’, where nearly 16,000 Prisoners of War gave their life. Faced with the appalling conditions of the prisoners’ camp and the brutality of the captors, he survived to become an inspiring example of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.

And There was Light, by Jacques Lusseyran

When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters. He was one of only thirty from the transport to survive. His gripping story is one of the most powerful and insightful descriptions of living and thriving with blindness, or indeed any challenge, ever published.

3 Against Hitler, by Jerry Borrowman

A compelling true story of three LDS teens fight for freedom.

"Rudi Wobbe: Charged with Preparation to High Treason and Aiding and Abetting the Enemy."
Thus began the trial of Rudi Wobbe and two of his teenage friends as they stood before the justices of the dreaded Voksgerichtshof, the infamous supreme court of Nazi Germany. All the power and indignation of the Third Reich now focused on these three young men who dared to distribute the truth about the war to their neighbors. If found guilty, they faced imprisonment, and perhaps even death.
Why did they do it? Because the teachings of their parents and the Church taught them to respect individual liberty and to rely on their conscience in choosing between right and wrong. Now their naive confidence was shaken by the torture they'd endured at the hands of the Gestapo. Yet, their brilliant young leader, Helmuth Huebener, whose intelligence and conviction stood out like a beacon of truth in the oppressive courtroom, faced his accusers with confidence. It was his finest moment ... would it be his last?

We Were Not Alone, by Patricia Reese Roper

This true account of how one LDS family survived WWII Berlin is more astonishing than many fictional accounts of the era. To those who recognize the Lords hand in our daily lives, however, this inspirational story will become another powerful witness of the truth that faith in the Lord and His purposes can grow even when the world around us is full of darkness and terror.

As I Have Loved You, by Kitty DeRuyter

Like Anne Frank, Corrie ten Boom, and Viktor Frankl, Kitty de Ruyter-Bons endured the terror of man's inhumanity to man during World War II. In this inspiring and powerful true story, Kitty testifies of the triumph of the human spirit.

As both of Kitty de Ruyter's parents were devout Christians, her day started with a hymn and a scripture from the Bible. Kitty was only eight years old when her island paradise of Java, Indonesia, was invaded by Japanese soldiers during WWII.
Members of Kitty's family were taken to different prison camps. Kitty describes how her mother acted with courage in the face of hardship-even torture. Forbidden to pray at the camp, she nevertheless prayed and taught her children all she remembered of the scriptures. She courageously defied the Japanese officials and bravely took upon herself the consequences.
These and countless other incidents, beautifully portrayed, prove that the grace of Christ gives one power in the presence of hatred, evil, pain, and suffering.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Know/Understand

• Write a 1-2 page short essay on a major theme in your chosen book, including quotes from the text that demonstrate your theme. Be prepared to turn in your essay for feedback.