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Francisco Pizzaro Dear Journal, Today we finally reached a civilization that seemed to have an organized government and a way of organizing themselves into a social hierarchy. I believed that these people were the most advanced civilization around because they had an agricultural system and a way of communicating with each other. I announced our presence at the base of their village so that we would not be attacked by an ambush. People started to poor out of their homes and cam toward us slowly, as if they had never seen people on a horse or with armor on before. I tried to speak to them, but there language was much different than ours, so they did not understand what I was saying. One man offered me food and a drink; thinking that this would be the same as the food in Spain, so I took a bite. It was horrid, it was very bitter, and when I took a sip of the drink to wash it down, it tasted almost as bad as the food. I threw the dish onto the ground and told my men to dismount and ask the people to get me their leader. It took a while, but they finally got the idea that we were looking for their king, and went to inform him of our arrival. A messenger ran up the hill and did not stop until he was out of sight. When the man came back he needed a moment to catch his breath before telling us that the king would like to meet with him in his private quarters. A few hours later I went up to meet with him, and it was not a friendly conversation. He threatened to release his army of 80,000 Incans on us if we did not leave his land immediately. I told him that if he goes through with this there will be no Incans left in this terrible land. That night I told the men what was about to happen at daybreak, and they were up to the challenge. They had agreed to come with me on this search for gold and risk their lives for the betterment of Spain. Some men were nervous that night wondering if it would be possible to conquer so many men, but I wondered why they were nervous. These apes have no body armor or guns, this should be nothing less than a massacre.

I know that Europe has been the battle grounds of both world wars for the most part. I also know that it is where the renaissance took place, specificailly in Italy. I know that Europe had once controlled most of the world. I know that most of the people in the U.S. have desendents from Europe. I want to know why there has been so much fighting going on in Europe that leads to countries splitting. I want to know if the European economy is better than the America's economies. I want to know why Europeans think lesser of Americans. I want to know if Europe is more technologically advanced than us. I want to know who would win if we went to war with all of Europe.

One of my goals for this course is to learn more about the Holocaust and world war two. It is something that really interests me because I think its amazing how one man can persuade so many people and do so much damage. I also want to learn more because while Hitler was in power he came up with alot of ideas and I want to learn more about them. Another one of my goals is to become very familiar with the history of Europe. I want to learn about the history of it because my great-great grandparents came from Italy. I want to know why they left to come to America. Another goal of mine is to just become more familiar with the continent. I want to do this because we are allies with most of the countries and I will most likely visit Europe once in my life.

[|Remember the Titans]

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPhu9XsRl4M

I chose this video because there is cultural assimilation and nationalism represented in the clip. When the team first meets each other they stay separated, whites with whites, and blacks with blacks. When coach Boone forces them to room together and eat together they assimilate into coach Boone's culture. This culture is hard work, football, and not caring about the color of another person's skin. Nationalism is represented in the way they dance, act, and what music they listen to. The part where one of the white players is playing country, and the black player thinks its terrible. The white player is representing where he is from and his culture.

Treaty of Versailles When I read that we had lost the war I wasn’t to upset about it. I thought that it was a good thing that our country could now focus on the problems we have within Germany. I was wondering if we were going to be punished by the Allies in any way because there is great hatred between them and Germany right now. I read in the paper a couple days later that there is a treaty that is being forced upon our government. All I could think about was how bad is this going to end up. When I realized that it was either sign the treaty or be invaded by the Allies I thought the simple and easy answer would be to sign the treaty. I was wrong. When the government released the specifics of the treaty I couldn’t believe it. It was like Germany was forced to give up all of her rights and freedoms. Our army is not even close to what it used to be, we are not allowed tanks, we lost a bunch of our land, and we have been deemed responsible for starting this whole war. I was outraged when I read the details of this treaty thoroughly. I did not understand how a country could be stripped of so much then have to pay reparations for damage when it wasn’t all our fault. After the government signed the treaty I didn’t know what the country was going to do. Everyone was furious and wanted to take action right away, but never did. Someday we will redeem ourselves and the world will know what we are capable of even with this ridiculous treaty that we have to follow.

Warsaw Ghetto Response

1.) I would not have been able to accept the role of Adam Czerniakow. I feel that the decisions he had to make would have been too difficult for me. Also it would put me in positions where I would have to choose between being killed by the Nazis or turning in a fellow Jew because they were just trying to survive. If I were in the Warsaw Ghetto I would have remained as a normal person who worked in a factory to earn more food for my family. I would let other people make the difficult decisions because I do not have the gut to stand up to the Nazis or turn a possible friend in and have him killed. Adam Czernikow couldn’t turn people in either. He helped save many Jews, and knew he was going to be killed. This lead him to committing suicide, that is something I would not have been able to do.   Nazism Response   Yes, when someone we play against in hockey gets hurt I normally don't care and we laugh at him or make fun of him. We do this without even realizing if he is going to be okay and maybe even be able to play hockey or any other sport again. If that happened to anyone close to me or on my own team I would feel terrible because I can relate to them a lot more easily than I can relate to a player on another team. I think the best way to relate to someone is to just be around them for a couple weeks and see what they go through everyday in life. Another way to do it is just ask them questions about their life and figure out what they like to do. There is a good chance they will like something you do and that is a good way to start relating to another person you wouldn't have expected to relate to. This is difficult for people to do because it is a little weird if someone starts trying to relate to you that you've never met before. That is why to be able to relate to someone and have compassion for them you have to grow up with them or put in situations where you need to rely on one another. What is Empathy? Empathy is “ the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”(dictionary.com). In other words it is feeling bad or being compassionate to another that has been wronged or hurt. A minor case was at my old public school where there were a lot of “cliques,” and this made me feel bad for kids that were either new to the school or just were too shy to talk to other people. In class one day we were doing a group activity and he didn’t have a group, so I just invited him to come join my group so that he didn’t have to work alone. Another case was my freshmen year, I sat with some of the senior hockey players, and there was a mentally challenged student named Michael, who we invited to come sit with us. He ended up sitting with us for that entire semester. He always had a cd player he would listen to and he loved to play basketball. Whenever we passed him in the hallways we would fake shoot a basketball and yell, “ballin’.” When his birthday came around that year we went and bought him a basketball from Sports Authority down the street, and he loved it. I had a great time eating lunch with him and my hockey friends that year, and will always remember the great times we had at lunch. That is a time in my life where I had been empathetic towards someone. I realized the struggle he and his family had to go through everyday, but he always made the most of it and always had a good time. Bruno vs. Warsaw Ghetto "Bruno could only make out the crowds of people for a few moments before he and his family boarded a very comfortable train with try few people on it and plenty of empty seats and fresh air when the windows were pulled down."(pg 41). This shows that Bruno's lifestyle is much more elegant than that of a Jewish person moving into a ghetto or concentration camp. He was able to ride on a train with windows that had the ability to open, and it was very spacious because there were few people on the train. When a child heading to the Warsaw Ghetto was put onto a train, he/she was stuffed into a cattle car with very little room because there were over a hundred others in the car. On the train heading to the ghetto, they did not get seats, and all they had for a window was a little opening at the top of the car that nobody could even see out of. "'It does look very dirty over there,' said Bruno. 'But maybe they don't have any baths?'"(pg 37). Bruno is not used to seeing kids that are dirty and unbathed because he comes from a rich part of Berlin where everyone is very hygienic. The kids in the Warsaw Ghetto do not have the luxury of bathing because they are not given any baths, therefore they become smelly and very dirty. "...were wearing the same clothes as each other: a pair of grey striped pajamas with a grey striped cap on their heads."(pg 38). He and his sister had never seen such a thing because, for them, pajamas were something that you were not able to wear out of the house. In the Warsaw Ghetto the children wore whatever they could find that would keep them warm and comfortable. Bruno has always had a choice in the clothing he wears, but in the Warsaw Ghetto your options are wear whatever you can find or freeze and be uncomfortable and possibly die.

Alternate Ending When Bruno came back the next day, he met Shmuel in the same spot they had been meeting for the past year. They originally planned on lifting the fence and sneaking Bruno into the camp, so that they can find his father. Plans changed, when Shmuel went back to his hut last night he asked his mother if she had heard anything about father. She had decided to tell him the truth about his father, one of the guards had shot him on the walk to the new job because he tripped on a rock, and they thought he was too weak to walk. With this news, Shmuel asked if Bruno if he could sneak out of the camp and if Bruno could hide him in their house. Bruno thought about it and finally decided that he could hide him under his bed at night and have him stay in the woods during the day, and Bruno will bring him food whenever he can. Bruno snuck Shmuel out and brought him to a place in the woods that kept him out of the rain and ran back to the house to grab him new clothes instead of the pajamas. Bruno brought him food for the next day before they left for Berlin. Before they left for Berlin, Bruno told Mother about Shmuel and she thought about bringing him back to Berlin, away from the concentration camp and in a safe hiding place. Mother snuck Shmuel into the car and onto the train back to Berlin along with Bruno and Gretel. They traveled for hours from Out-With back to Berlin, Germany and nobody noticed Shmuel when they went from station to station. Bruno was waiting for his father to return to the house month after month, but time flew by because he was having so much fun with Shmuel inside the house. Soon the war was over, and Bruno and Shmuel were teenagers by now and Bruno’s father never returned to the house, even though the war was now over. Neo-Nazism I believe that non-conformity has little to do with people joining the right-wing extremists called the Neo-Nazis. I think that it all has to do with what the family’s beliefs are. If your parents think that all foreigners and immigrants are bad, then I believe that the children they have will pick up those beliefs. If the parents are normal and believe that every man is created equal, then that is what their kids are going to grow up thinking. Other than the parents beliefs, people may go to Neo-Nazism because of events that have happened to them in their lives. A bad experience, like an illegal immigrant driving without a license, and getting in a car accident that hurts or kills a family member is an example of a bad event. Events like these may lead someone to Neo-Nazism because they are furious with what just happened. I do not believe that Neo-Nazism will ever end because there will always be people going against each other. Also, if there was no Neo-Nazism, the world would be in complete peace because nobody would have problems with any other kind of person. This would make the world a better place, but I do not believe humanity is capable of doing this. If I had ever come across a primary source such as the Incan or Mayan societies, I would be speechless. If walking around, I found glyphs and drawings that made no sense to me I would not know what to make of them and call someone else to record them. The first thing I would do is walk around to uncover as much as I can to take full credit for the discovery. I would interpret this finding as an ancient landmark that was made thousands of years ago based on the amount of growth that would be covering it. I would not be able to interpret the writing most likely, but if they had any temples or sacrificial chambers, I might be able to make out what those are. I would feel a great amount of responsibility if I came across this discovery. I would want to learn as much about the site before revealing it to the outside world because I do not want to misinform anyone and be contradicted by another historian a few years later. Also, I would need to call the right people to come and decipher the glyphs that would be all over the site because I do not want any unnecessary people there that would just crowd the area and potentially bring more problems to the historical site. Overall, I would want to give the world this information in the proper way, after it has been thoroughly explained and we have answered as many questions as possible.