more SH5....

-At the outbreak of World War II, Dresden was the seventh largest city in Germany proper.2 With a population of 642,143 in 1939, Dresden was exceeded in size only by Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Leipzig, and Essen,.

-The RAF Bomber Command’s are raid on Dresden, conducted on the night of 13/14 February 1945, resulted in fires that did great damage to the city proper, particularly in the older and more densely built up areas.46 Early official Allied post-strike reports estimated that 85 per cent of the fully built-up city area was destroyed, that the old part of the city, which comprised the greater portion of the built-up areas was largely wiped out, that the majority of buildings in the inner suburbs was gutted, and that in the outer suburbs, few buildings were effected by the area bombing attack. Virtually all major public buildings appeared heavily gutted or severely damaged. Public utilities, and facilities such as slaughter houses, warehouses, and distribution centers, were severely affected.

-The exact number of casualties from the Dresden bombings can never be firmly established.53

-Although the latest available post-war accounts play up the “terroristic” aspects of the Dresden bombings, it is significant that they accept much lower casualty figures than those circulated by the Germans immediately after the raids and, from time to time, in the years immediately following the war.

- With communications through Dresden made impossible as a consequence of the Allied bombings, the Russian salient in that area was rendered safe throughout the ensuing months of the war.

http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/PopTopics/dresden.htm

SLAUGHTER HOUSE - FIVE research #1

During WWII, Dresden a city which seemed to be harmless was bombed by the Allies, near the end of the war as the Red Army was advancing towards Berlin. This bombing remains to be very controversial, Dreseden was a town of factories and Museums

-Between February 13th and February 14th 1945, between 35,000 and 135,000 people were killed by Allied bombing in Dresden. Historians still argue over the number of deaths. However, there were so many refugees in the city at the time that the real figure will almost certainly never be known.

-In all, over three waves of attacks, 3,300 tons of bombs were dropped on the city. Many of the bombs that were dropped were incendiary bombs

After the raid had finished, SS guards brought in from a nearby camp, burnt the bodies in the city's Old Square (the Altmarkt). There were so many bodies that this took two weeks to complete.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/bombing_of_dresden.htm

In the Time of the Butterflies- Chapters 6&7

Chapters 6 and 7 gives the reader more of an impression of Trujillo, and and an introduction to what the "Butterflies" are, and what they will do. In Chapter 6, Minerva and her family attend the Discovery Day dance. At the dance, Minerva begins to see how terrible Trujillo is. When she is invited to dance with him, Trujillo pushes her to the point that she feels the need to slap him. This was not a good move on Minerva's part, in the sense that this is the first time we see Minerva as an "enemy" of Trujillo. After Minerva slaps Trujillo her family quickly leaves-- a mistake on their part. " Our absense was noted, and of course, leaving any gathering before Trujillo is against the law"(pg. 102). To make matters worse, Minerva leaves behind her purse containing letters from Virgilio Morales, after she had just told Trujillo she did not know him. Following the Dance, Minerva's Papa is taken to the capital. When he is taken to the capital, it marks the first time the government is acting against Minerva and her family. One thing I found interesting was that at the capital when Minerva and her family were renting a hotel room the clerk suggested they get the "Weekly rate," suggesting they will stay longer than expected. Minerva writes, " The young man must know these cases are never quickly resolved"(pg. 106). Eventually, Minerva's father is released, although he is now a very ill man. A significant quote I found from this chapter would be, "We sit silently, listening to the rain on the thatched roof, a numb, damp, fatalistic feeling among us. Something has started none of us can stop." I think this quote signifies a shift in the book, to how unstoppable Trujillo can be, and how what he is doing really needs to be stopped, and that Minerva is going to do something about it.

Chapter 7:
Chapter 7, told in the perspective of Mate's Diary, displays how Mate has matured from the little girl she once was. At the beggining the entries are very similar to what we saw before-- Mate is concerned about boys and clothes, very juvenile things. At this point it may seem surprising that she will become one of the butterflies. At the begining of the chapter, Papa dies. In my opinion this isn't a huge shock to me.. after he was questioned by the government, he seemed so ill and that it was simply a matter of time to his death. After his death, Minerva's mother writes to El Jefe informing him of Papa's death. Because of this, essentially the Mirebal name is "cleared," Minerva is even given the chance to go to law school. As the chapter continues, Mate begins to write less and less in her diary, afterall she is 18 and has other things to worry about. Towards the middle of this chapter, Manolo and Minerva get married-- this is a big step for Minerva. A step which will in end bring her closer to fighting Trujillos regime. When Mate finds out about the "Secret Society" Minerva and Manolo are involved in- immeditatley she decides she must be a part of it. To be honest this really surprises me! She always seemed like the sweet and innocent little sister, but obviously this has changed. The chapter finishes with more talk of the society, and the extremes they are going to fight Trujillo. This would be a very hard lifestyle to live, but everyone involved is very passionate about what they are doing. To predict what is going to happen, well right now I think it is a bit up in the air. For example, I could see them getting caught by Trujillo and then obviously killed or tortured, or I could see them helping a lot of people and winning their fight against Trujillo( eventually not in the near future).

The History of Love

For the last blog post of quarter 2, I am going to blog about a novel I just started reading! The book is, The history of Love by Nicole Krauss. I found this book because one of my friends had mentioned how much she loved it, and coincidentally the next day I saw this book in another one of my friends houses, and they let me borrow it. So. Without really knowing anything about the book you can somewhat assume it is going to be about love, which I find is a subject which is easily relatable. The story begins by focusing on one man, Leo Gursky, who does not seem to much of anything, and is on the road “out of life.” Leo talks about how he has began to do things like go try on shoes he doesn’t need, or just walk around the grocery store, simply because he is lonely and is eager to make human connection. As the novel continues Leo begins to reminisce on his life. We find out he grew up very far away as a Jew in Poland, and he was once a writer. He made his way to America when everyone in his town was killed but him. I am still a bit puzzled as to how this story is going to turn in to something that has to do with love, but what I have read is actually pretty interesting. I hope this book is as good as my friend made it sound!

LAST WINTERBREAK BLOG POST

Although I am reading Mansfield park I have yet to finish New Moon, I am not worried about it because it is actually a pretty quick read. I enjoyed reading the section I just did because the reader is finally shown the side of Bella that for so long was hidden because of the absence of Edward. It is a bit curious as to why Bella seems to be so happy around Jacob. It doesn’t seem like there would be a love interest… this is because he is younger than her and I’m pretty sure Bella is suspicious that he is a werewolf. Bella is seeing Jacob because he is helping her fix a motorcycle so she can ride it. Riding a motorcycle is something that Bella usually wouldn’t do, but now that Edward is gone she decides to take a risk! Also Bella begins to once again talk to her friends from school. For me it would be SO weird to have one of my friends not talk to me for around like 5 months, and then out of the blue just become friendly again. Honestly how would you react to someone like that? It ends up that the boys definitely welcome her back easily, but the girls are soon to follow. One thing I am worried about is Bella riding the motorcycle. She is purposely hurting herself so she can hear “that voice.” We don’t know who the voice is, but my guess is that it is somehow Edward speaking to her… But if it was Edward then why would she be purposely hurting herself? I don’t know Bella is acting very strange but hopefully the underlying reason will come out soon!

Winter break blog post!

For this blog post I have continued to read Mansfield park. On the first page of my book, there is a page titled, “From the Pages of Mansfield Park,” and it has some quotes from throughout the storyline. For this blog I am going to reflect on the quotes which I have read already in the book(if that makes sense).
The first quote in the book is ‘ Give a girl an education, and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anyone(pg. 6).’
As I went to find this quote in context I couldn’t find it on the page marked! I think it was Mrs. Norris talking to Sir Thomas about Fanny coming to lives with them though. To me this quote greatly reflects on the era in which the book was written. Education was one of the most important things to wealthy people, second to being “proper” and “making a name for yourself.” Personally I think it would be hard to live during this time because you always seem to have your life planned out. This quote does make me feel a bit sorry for Fanny. This is because Mrs. Norris and Sir Thomas are kind of treating her like a burden, “without further expense to anyone,” words like that must be used, because Fanny is putting expense on people to raise. But she is very lucky for her family who wants her to turn out well.

New blog for Quarter 2!

I am still reading New Moon, but since it was break I decided to read something else for fun because I had the time. This past year I was given all of the Jane Austen books, and it is in my interest to eventually read all of them, although I have only read Pride and Prejudice. I decided to begin reading Mansfield park. The underlying issue of this book is the issue of Money and Marriage. For some reason I thought it would be interesting. One thing about reading a Jane Austen book as that sometimes it is a bit difficult to get through them. One thing is that a lot of the language used is sometimes a bit hard to follow, afterall the book was written a long time ago. But I have encountered a lot of the vocab words which we have studied in class. So far in the novel I have learned of the main character Fanny who goes to live with her more fortunate aunt and uncle so she may have a better education. When she first arrives she is very heartbroken. She misses her family and her friends and is not very grateful for her new life. She soon meets someone named Edmund who helps guide her and cheer her up, while making her more comfortable in her home. I have one prediction about Edmund, that prediction being that I think Fanny and Edmund will eventually fall in love… it seems that they have a connection that could eventually turn into something. I do enjoy reading love stories and I hope this turns out to be a good one!