Book Report : Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this book, but my mom told me it’s been one of her favorites since she read it in middle school, so I thought I’d give it a try. I can honestly say that I loved this book and didn’t put it down until I finished it. It’s such an inspirational story that makes you feel so grateful to live such an innocent and peaceful life. I especially was able to connect to the story and message of the book because of how close I am in age to when Anne wrote in this diary. It’s amazing to me how much courage she had; the entire time I was reading the book I couldn’t believe this was actually her experience and that she was able to have such a positive attitude while living with so much pain.

Her diary begins on her thirteenth birthday, June 12, 1942, and ends shortly after her fifteenth. At the start of her diary, Anne describes fairly normal young girl experiences, writing about her friendships with other girls, her crushes on boys, and her education..

The Franks had moved to the Netherlands in the years leading up to World War II to escape persecution in Germany. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, the Franks were forced into hiding. With another family, the van Daans, and an acquaintance, Mr. Dussel, they moved into a small secret annex above Otto Frank’s office where they had stockpiled food and supplies. The employees from Otto’s firm helped hide the Franks and kept them supplied with food, medicine, and information about the outside world.

Although Anne keeps an incredibly positive attitude, she still often writes about her feelings of isolation and loneliness. She has a forced and difficult relationship with her mother, because she doesn’t show a lot of love or kindness towards Anne. On the other hand, she has a fantastic relationship with her father. Anne also has a sister whom she is close to. Her writing goes from having a tone of innocence and youth to deeper and more mature. She finds it hard to understand why the Jews are being singled out and persecuted. During the two years recorded in her diary, Anne deals with confinement and deprivation, as well as the complicated and difficult issues of growing up in the brutal circumstances of the Holocaust.

The end of Anne’s diary (August 1, 1944) is devastating. It ends on a seemingly normal day that leaves us with the expectation of seeing another entry on the next page, but we never get to hear more from her. The Frank family is betrayed to the Nazis and arrested on August 4, 1944.

Otto Frank is the family’s sole survivor, and he recovers Anne’s diary from Miep. He decides to fulfill Anne’s wishes by publishing the diary. Anne’s diary becomes a condemnation of the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust, and one of the few accounts that describe it from a young person’s perspective.

Rosa Parks Refuses to Leave Her Bus Seat

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man while riding on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. For doing this, Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for breaking the laws of segregation. Rosa Parks' refusal to leave her seat sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and is considered the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Alabama in the 1950's was known for its segregation laws. In addition to separate drinking fountains, bathrooms, and schools for African-Americans and whites, there were separate rules regarding seating on city buses. African-Americans living in montgomery were used to dealing with the segregation rules, but the unfair policies on city buses were especially harsh. The first rows of seats were reserved for whites only; while African-Americans, who paid the same ten cent fare as the whites, were required to find seats in the back. If all the seats were taken but another white passenger boarded the bus, then a row of African-American passengers sitting in the middle of the bus would be required to give up their seats, even if it meant they would have to stand. It wasn't unusual for bus drivers to drive off before they could get on the bus. The African-American passengers had to deal with this treatment going to work and home from work everyday; even though they were the ones who made up the majority of bus passengers. It was time for a change. 

 

On the particular day that Rosa Parks refused to get out of her seat, she happened to sit down right behind the row reserved for whites. At the next stop when white passengers got on the bus and roughly ordered Parks to move, she simply refused. Only one white passenger needed a seat, but she "needed" to move because a white person living in the segregated South would not sit in the same row as an African American.

The driver ended up calling the police and Parks was arrested. She was released later that night. News of her arrest led to a 381 day boycott, now called the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled that the bus segregation laws in Alabama were unconstitutional. 

Rosa Parks was the beginning of the future of equality for African-Americans and whites. In the words of Parks herself, "The only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Sources:

1) http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

2) http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp

3) http://teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/

13-1 Comprehension Questions

Comprehension questions, Chapter 13-1
Write on paper, or on blog.

What was the goal for Roosevelt after the war?  What were Soviet goals about Germany?

What did FDR think was 'key' to world peace? Trading between countries.

What was 'declaration of liberated europe, and how successful was it?' The Yalta Conference, world war II meeting of the head of governments of the US, Soviet Union and United Nations. Wasn't very successful or effective.

How was Germany to be controlled? Germany and Berlin were to be split into four occupied zones.

What was Truman's view about how to deal with USSR? He decided to deal with the communists in a tougher manner than Roosevelt had and believed this was the only way to deal with them.

What is a satellite nation? A nation that is dominated politically by another. The Warsaw Pact nations, other than the former Soviet Union itself, were commonly called satellites of the Soviet Union.

What is an 'iron curtain': The national barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism. 

Depression Outline

I Intro:
The Great Depression is known as a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade before World War II. It began in the 1930's and lasted until the middle of the 1940's. It was the longest and most widespread depression of the 20th century. There are multiple causes for why the Great Depression began, the effects were far reaching and devastating, and many solutions were created in attempt to solve the problems that the Depression created. 

II Causes (The causes of the great depression were stock market crash, bank failures, overproduction etc.)

A overspeculation (Define, how important): Over speculation occurs when an investor purchases stock on the future earnings of the stock he already owns. It lead to risky financial transactions and the Wall Street Crash. 

B Govt Policy: The Government policies during the Great Depression were very uneven and confusing. Because of this it made it more unclear for the Government when they tried to fix the problems they were faced with. 

C Unstable Econ: Millions of Americans invested heavily in the stock market because they expected the economic boom to continue. It did not and the unstable economy lead to the stock market crash and the Great Depression. 

1 uneven prosperity: The 1920's were a time when America was overdependent on production and there was a significant gap between the rich and poor. There was an uneven distribution of wealth which contributed to the Great Depression. 

2 overproduction: After the WWI farmers were producing more than American people could use and the price of farm goods dropped so low that many farmers couldn't make enough money to pay off their huge amount of debts. This ended up affecting the farmers because they lost their farms due to the fact that they couldn't pay the banks and tax collectors. 

3 worker issues / farm issues: Major issues in the working and farming industries led to thousands being unemployed who faced starvation. This crisis is extremely significant because it affected all other aspects of the Great Depression. 

III Effects

A Poverty: People lost jobs leading to 25% unemployment and poverty. 

B Society: Crime rate rose because many people had to resort to theft to get the food they needed. Alcoholism increased and health care in general wasn't a priority 

C World: Mass migrations continued throughout the 1930's, classic films like Frankenstein debuted, birth rates fell sharply and marriages were delayed and higher education remained out of reach for most Americans. 

IV Solutions

A Hoover: Elected in 1928, Hoover held a strong belief in American individualism and free enterprise fused with public service. 

1 Volunteerism: Hoover called on individuals, local charity organizations, churches, and local governments to work together to stop the suffering and create relief for the.

2 Public Works: Created thousands of jobs by authorizing the building of roads, bridges, and dams.

3 Hawley Smoot: Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was created to provide revenue, to regulate commerce with foreign countries, to encourage the industries of the US and to protect American labor.  

4 RFC: Reconstruction Finance Corporation; Put in place to aid state and local governments. Made loans to banks, railroads and other businesses.  

B Roosevelt

1 new deal: Roosevelt created the new deal to create a fresh start for American after the Great Depression. It included banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs and agricultural programs.

a alphabet soup

            example: SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission was created to serve as a watchdog on the stock market. 

            example: FHA - Federal Housing Authority was created to provide low interest loans for new home construction. 

            example: HOLC - Home Owners Loan Corporation allowed homeowners to refinance mortgages to prevent foreclosure or to make home improvements.

            example: USHA - United States Housing Authority initiated the idea of government-owned low-income housing projects.

b Criticism?: Critics blamed Roosevelt's new deal and alphabet soup as the cause of the huge costs and rising national debt. 

2 2nd new deal

Some important programs that came from the 2nd new deal include...

a Social Security 

b National Labor Relations Act 

c Banking Act 

V Criticism 

B Political Criticism (ex. Came from both the far left and far right)

A Conservatives: Many conservatives believed the policy and programs were taking a dangerous step towards socialism and the destruction of the American capitalist system. 

B Liberals (ex: criticised the new deal also. They....) 

Ex: Many socialist activists thought the 2nd new deal was too conservative and that it didn't provide enough relief and assistance. 

ex Many also argue that the Great Depression wouldn't have been so devastating for so long if Roosevelt had handed out more money to a greater number of Americans. 

VI Effectiveness

A Changes in US: The US changed in many ways because of the Great Depression. Some of these changes include: Political innovation, cultural change, new ideas etc. 

B Unions: There were too many unions to count during the Great Depression...successful strikes, massive organizing drives, social idealism and political campaigns. 

C Culture: Many Americans became increasingly interested in traditional and folk culture - a sort of longing for the past. But, it was also a time of modernist experimentation. 

VII Conclusion:
Although some economies began to recover from the Great Depression by the mid-1930's, the negative effects lasted until the end of World War II for many countries. The Great Depression shows how far the world's economy can decline and how many different cities can be affected by something this devastating. 

"A Fierce Green Fire"

Summary:
"A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet", has five different parts or acts to it. Act 1 focuses on the conservation movement of the ‘60s, the Sierra Club, David Brower and the struggle to stop dams in the Grand Canyon. Act 2 looks at ‘70s environmentalism around pollution, focusing on the battle led by Lois Gibbs over Love Canal. Act 3 is about alternative ecology strands, with the main story being Greenpeace’s campaign to save the whales. Radicals and mainstream come together to fight against whaling, one of environmentalism’s greatest victories, yet this battle must be continuously fought again and again. Act 4 tells of the rise of global issues in the ‘80s. It focuses on the struggle to save the Amazon, led by Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers. Act 5 concerns climate change. The video closes with movements all over the world up to the present that are working toward making people more environmentally conscious. 

2 more sources: 
1) www.savethearctic.org. This source's main goal is to get people to realize that we need to act today if we want to save the arctic. Over the last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating sea ice cover at the top of the world. It's melting because of our use of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the near future it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. Ice has been a permanent feature of the Arctic ocean for hundreds of thousands of years and plays a key role in keeping our planet cool. If the ice disappears this would not only be devastating for the polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there but also for people. 
Protecting the ice means protecting us all, which is why people need to sign the petition on this website that's going to demand world leaders to declare a global sanctuary around the North Pole.

2) greenpeace.org. "The Bees Burden: why bees need our help and we need the help of bees." This source's main goal is to illustrate how important bees are to our world. Bees appear to be a small link in our food production chain but in fact they play a huge and critical role in our food security; one
third of our food, and most of the flowering plants on this planet, are pollinated by bees and other insect pollinators. The population of these insects has slowly been declining as a result of the broken agriculture system which uses chemicals that are toxic to bees. The author of this blog thinks the best way to help solve the problem of the bees is to continue to expose the failure of the current farming model and its negative impact.

Radio Hour

Sports:

Babe Ruth, for the New York Yankees, is our American Dream sports star everyone. He's proved himself to be the best we've ever seen and his career is hopefully far from over! It's his first year with  this power-house team and already he's shown us that he's one to watch. Hitting 54 home runs and batting .376, Ruth is taking the game of baseball from an inside game to a power game right before our eyes. He's taking the current records and smashing them like when he hits those home runs, he's the bees knees everybody. Come watch this individual as he shows us how fun this sport can be to see.

Atta Boy Ruth!

Noor Inayat Khan: WWII Assignment

  

        Noor Inayat Khan was a wartime British secret agent of Indian descent who is best known as being the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the Special Operations Executive. 

Born on New Year's Day in 1914 in Moscow, Khan had an Indian father and an American mother. Khan's father moved his family first to London and later to Paris, where she began her education and decided to try making a career from writing children stories. However, this path was not meant to be her ultimate destiny and she ended up escaping to England after the fall of France. In November 1940 Khan put down the pen and paper and traded it in for the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force). In late 1942, she was recruited to join SOE as a radio operator. A year later in June 1943 she was flown to France to make history by becoming the first radio operator for the 'Prosper' resistance network in Paris. She even had a codename 'Madeleine’ to try and protect her from harm. Shortly after arriving in Paris many members of the network were arrested, but Khan refused to evacuate the country. She remained in France and spent the summer moving from place to place, trying to send messages back to London while staying out of trouble and trying to avoid capture. 

Khan’s good luck with avoiding capture unfortunately didn't last much longer. In October, she was betrayed by a Frenchwoman and arrested by the Gestapo. She had unwisely kept copies of all her secret signals and the Germans were able to use her radio to trick London into sending new agents - straight into the hands of the waiting Gestapo. Khan almost made it out when she had a successful attempt at escaping from prison, but it was only a couple hours before she was recaptured. In November 1943, she was sent to Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was kept in chains and in solitary confinement. Despite repeated torture, she refused to reveal any information. In September 1944, Khan and three other female SOE agents were transferred to Dachau concentration camp where on 13 September they were shot.

But Khan isn't remembered for the tragic end to her short life, instead she is thought of as one of the courageous individuals fighting for their rights and the rights of others in a time when this wasn't acceptable. For her courage she was awarded the George Cross in 1949.

Sources:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/inayat_khan_noor.shtml
• http://www.enemyofthereich.com/about-the-film/
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEnoor.htm