The Berlin Wall

When the war came to and end the capital of Germany, Berlin, was split into four sections between Russia, America, Britain, and France.  The eastern half of Berlin was under the Russian name, while the western half was run by all three of the capitalist allies.  The tension between the capitalists and the communists grew as time went on and soon the people of eastern Berlin began moving to western Berlin and never coming back.  This angered the Russians, who didn't want their communist citizens leaving their half of Berlin.  To combat this movement they built a wall around the entire western Berlin to keep the eastern population from crossing over.  This wall was built very abruptly and gave the people little time to escape.  Many families were separated and people were trapped on a side of Berlin they did not want to be on.  Although some places only had small bits of bared wire acting as a wall, soldiers also stood guard, ready to shoot at any who tried to cross.  The public rebelled against it and was astounded that the allies weren't protesting in their favor.  The rise of the Berlin Wall increased the tension between Russia and America as the Cold War continued.      

Under what circumstances can ordinary people commit horrendous crimes?

During World War II the Nazis ran death camps in Poland to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.  Thousands of workers were needed to run such a large operation and yet none of them stood up against the immoral treatment of human beings through the duration of the Holocaust.  These soldiers were ordinary people, committing terrible acts in the circumstances they were presented with.  A line of human behavior experiments done in the late 1900's gives an idea as to why those people could have been so easily manipulated into participating in a genocide.  The Milgram experiment showed the world to what length people will follow orders.  When a person doesn't see themselves as the one truly responsible for what they are doing they can be coaxed into just about anything.  The Wave experiment demonstrated how people want to be a part of something bigger than them, and how they use self serving bias to convince themselves they are doing what they are doing for good reasons.  Dehumanization was also a factor that caused the Nazis to commit acts of terror.  By making victims seem like less than people, it was easy for them to see the killings as something that had to be done.  

Why can/do people dehumanize others?

 Throughout history, people have treated minorities and such as lesser beings and made them suffer for being different. Americans driving Native Americans from their homes in North America, and enslaving Africans, Germany's massacre of the Jews, Gypsies, and other minorites, and Mao Zedong's genocide of 49,000,000 Cambodians, are all examples of this. However, people always seem to wonder: how can humans treat each other like this? A series of infamous studies known compiled into a book known as The Lucifer Effect suggests a number of answers to this question. Some of the conclusions it reaches are: a self-serving bias, in which it is concluded that people think that they are inherently good and can do no wrong. Furthermore, when one is anonymous or knows they will not be punished, they are more inclined to do something they know is morally wrong. Also, humans are quite obedient beings, especially to authority figures. Now, how do we connect this to genocides in history? Well, if you consider Hitler's mass extermination of the Jews, you may wonder how people could just standby, or even participate in this atrocity. Well, a self-serving bias, anonymity, and obedience would surely make it easier for Hitler to do so. One may say to oneself: "I would never do anything like Hitler did". However, those people are just the kind of people who were more likely to participate.

The Iron Curtain

In a speech delivered by Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, he explained Europe's situation following World War II. The Allies had divided Germany up after they had been defeated. The USSR got part, and the rest of the Allies got a different part. The USSR specifically had the entire Eastern part of Europe. With the Allies no longer united against a common enemy, more disagreements developed. With Russia being communist, and the rest of the Allies capitalist, they disagreed on many points, and this divided Europe. Churchill's speech spoke of how it was like an Iron Curtain had been drawn between the USSR and the rest of the Western Europe. In the speech, he made it sound as if the USSR had been the ones to instigate this Iron Curtain, and that they were the ones to blame for it. In 1946, Europe was already very divided between the communists and the capitalists.

Who Is To Blame For The Cold War?

The Cold War was started in equal parts by the US and the USSR. There was much contention on both ends even before World War II, having a lot to do with their opposing views. One factor to starting it on the US part was Containment. They blatantly opposed the communists, trying to keep communism from spreading, which could have rubbed the wrong way with Russia. Also, with the Marshall Plan, it gave aid to the European countries on the Western side of Europe, opposite of Russia. Then on the USSR's part, they tried to threaten Western Europe and the US with the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. When the other nations wanted to unite Germany, they wanted to keep it separate, so they blocked off Berlin, and cut off all supply lines. The other nations stumped their attempt though, by flying in and giving supplies to the citizens, eventually causing Russia to end the blockade. Both the US and the USSR in equal parts were responsible for the beginning of the Cold War.

The US and the USSR: Unease Before the Cold War

Long before the Cold War began, there was tension between the US and the USSR. Even before World War II, the two countries did not get along very well, and that was made more prominent during the war. When Russia initially made the nonaggression pact with Germany at the beginning of the war, it upset the US. And Stalin blamed the Allies for delaying when they were to invade the German territories. Following the war, their tension grew. The USSR wanted to spread communism, while the US was against it, encouraging democracy instead. On top of that, they both wanted materials from Europe. The USSR wanted to keep Germany divided to avoid another war, and the US wanted to reunite it and stabilize it. Russia had the countries along its borders after they took it from the Germans, and they wanted to shield themselves from another Western attack. In 1946, even Stalin said that communism and capitalism could not continue existing peacefully, and that war between them and the US was inevitable.

Russia, Ukraine and the West

This will make a lot more sense once we complete the class but here are some articles that might help you understand some basics of the conflict (if your are interested).


A brief and informative article for those who might be interested in the background of what is going on...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/25/ozy-russia-ukraine-cia/5805815/

As well as a focus on an issue that may escape most Americans but is central to the events of this weekend...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/opinion/ukraine-crimea-russia/index.html?hpt=hp_t1