Friday 10 February 2012

did you know about Adolf Hitler?

Salam Alaik,

In my new post I would like to share some facts about Hitler. Generally we know Hitler is a dictator. Why not we explore a little bit about his life?

A Facts you should know about Mr. Adolf Hitler!















Hitler's family.

· Despite becoming the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not born there. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889.

· Hitler's parents were Alois (1837-1903) and Klara (1860-1908) Hitler.

· Hitler had only one sibling that survived childhood, Paula (1896-1960).

· However, Hitler also had four other siblings that died in childhood: Gustav (1885-1887), Ida (1886-1888), Otto (1887), and Edmund (1894-1900).

· In addition to his sister Paula, Hitler had one step-brother, Alois (b. 1882) and one step-sister, Angela (1883-1949), both from his father's previous marriage.

· Hitler was known as "Adi" in his youth.

· Hitler's father, Alois, was in his third marriage and 51 years old when Hitler was born. He was known as a strict man who retired from the civil service when Hitler was only six. Alois died when Hitler was 13.

Artist and Anti-Semite

· Throughout his youth, Hitler dreamed of becoming an artist. He applied twice to the Vienna Academy of Art (once in 1907 and again in 1908) but was denied entrance both times.

· At the end of 1908, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer.

· After his mother's death, Hitler spent four years living on the streets of Vienna, selling postcards of his artwork to make a little money.

· No one is quite sure where or how Hitler picked up his virulent antisemitism. Some say it was because of the questionable identity of his grandfather (was Hitler's grandfather Jewish?). Others say Hitler was furious at a Jewish doctor that let his mother die. However, it is just as likely that Hitler picked up a hatred for Jews while living on the streets of Vienna, a city known at the time for its antisemitism.

Hitler as a Soldier in World War I

· Although Hitler attempted to avoid Austrian military service by moving to Munich, Germany in May 1913, Hitler volunteered to serve in the German army once World War I began.

· Hitler endured and survived four years of World War I. During this time, he was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery.

· Hitler sustained two major injuries during the war. The first occurred in October 1916 when he was wounded by a grenade splinter. The other was on October 13, 1918, when a gas attack caused Hitler to go temporarily blind.

· It was while Hitler was recovering from the gas attack that the armistice (i.e. the end of the fighting) was announced. Hitler was furious that Germany had surrendered and felt strongly that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leaders.

Hitler Enters Politics

· Furious at Germany's surrender, Hitler returned to Munich after the end of World War I, determined to enter politics.

· In 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of a small antisemitic party called the German Worker's Party.

· Hitler soon became the party's leader, created a 25-point platform for the party, and established a bold red background with a white circle and swastika in the middle as the party's symbol. In 1920, the party's name was changed to National Socialist German Worker's Party (i.e. the Nazi Party).

· Over the next several years, Hitler often gave public speeches that gained him attention, followers, and financial support.

· In November 1923, Hitler spearheaded an attempt to take over the German government through a putsch (a coup), called the Beer Hall Putsch.

· When the coup failed, Hitler was caught and sentenced to five years in prison.

· It was while in Landsberg prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

· After only nine months, Hitler was released from prison.

· After getting out of prison, Hitler was determined to build up the Nazi Party in order to take over the German government using legal means.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor

· In 1932, Hitler was granted German citizenship.

· In the July 1932 elections, the Nazi Party obtained 37.3 percent of the vote for the Reichstag (Germany's parliament), making it the controlling political party in Germany.

· On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Hitler then used this high-ranking position to gain absolute power over Germany. This finally happened when Germany's president, Paul von Hindenburg, died in office on August 2, 1934.

· Hitler took the title of Führer and Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor).

Hitler as Führer

· As dictator of Germany, Hitler wanted to increase and strengthen the German army as well as expand Germany's territory. Although these things broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the treaty that officially ended World War I, other countries allowed him to do so. Since the terms of the Versailles Treaty had been harsh, other countries found it easier to be lenient than risk another bloody European war.

· In March 1938, Hitler was able to annex Austria into Germany (called the Anschluss) without firing a single shot.

· When Nazi Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, the other European nations could no longer stand idly by. World War II began.

· On July 20, 1944, Hitler barely survived an assassination attempt. One of his top military officers had placed a suitcase bomb under the table during a conference meeting at Hitler's Wolf's Lair. Because the table leg blocked much of the blast, Hitler survived with only injuries to his arm and some hearing loss. Not everyone in the room was so lucky.

· On April 29, 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun.

· The following day, April 30, 1945, Hitler and Eva committed suicide together

kudos: fact about Hitler

Monday 6 February 2012

The Pianist


My class (DEC 4A) is required to be the host for The Pianist movie screening. My first thought of this movie is it’s going to be a very pale boring movie. My friend already tells me about the synopsis of the story, not all but only a little. When she said the movie about the Jews, what comes into my mind is the 'killing scene'. Oh, how I didn’t want to see this movie, you don’t know how irritated I am with World War II era war/Holocaust movies? By the way, this movie is screening almost two and a half hours long. But, we divided it into two parts in two days, part 1 and part 2 so that all semester 4 students can go back to their hostel early. I almost sneak out from the hall because the movie is too extreme to watch. I can see my friends are crying by looking at the Nazi’s armies tortured the Jews; it is not because of mercy perhaps because of the violence towards human?


This is the synopsis about The Pianist.

The Pianist starts out in Warsaw in 1939. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted pianist who specialized in played Chopin pieces, which he did over Polish radio. He played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. He and his family, including his father (Frank Finlay), his mother (Maureen Lipman), his older brother Henryk (Ed Stoppard), and his two sisters Regina (Julia Raynor) and Halina (Jessica Kate Meyer), are all captured and sent to the Warsaw ghetto. The Nazis then decide to exterminate some of the Jews in the ghetto, s

o they begin deporting them to the concentration camps. As he and his family are being loaded up on the trains to be shipped away to the camps, a former friend named Itzak Heller (Roy Smiles), now a Nazi collaborator working as an auxiliary police officer, saves him by pulling him out of the line. He spends the next couple of years moving from hideout to hideout, helped by Jewish sympathizers, including a cellist he had met earlier named Dorota (Emilia Fox), and a singer named Janina (Ruth Platt) with her husband Bogucki (Ronan Vibert.) He might have had a romance with Dorota, but the war got in the way. After he can’t make it to any more safe houses, he spends the last part of the war in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is there he is confronted by a music-loving Nazi soldier named Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann), who helps Szpilman ride out the rest of the war after an impromptu performance given by the pianist.


The story gave the main character some hope without getting sentimental. That makes me want to watch it more. Throughout his hiding, he witnesses some awful things being done to his fellow Jews. He is so lucky that he manage to survive. The main character of this movie, Brody ( Szpilman) plays the character perfectly. The Pianist is definitely not for everyone. I don’t think young kids should see it, because it is brutal with its violence (I think some students walked out of the screening after seeing some of it.) If you want to see an uncensored, unapologetic movie about the reality of the Holocaust and how one man’s survival of it, then by all means, check it out unapologetic movie about the reality of the Holocaust and how one man’s survival of it, then by all means, check it out. It’s not one of my favorite movies of the year, but it is far from boring.

K,Thanks for reading.

Salam.