Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Lost And Captured Warriors Still Missing: Raising Awareness And Support Through Design, Caitlin Martin Frost

Masters Theses

Over the years the search for prisoners of war and missing in action has faded from the spotlight in media and social focus, yet there is still a need to help families find their loved ones that are unaccounted for. This research is aimed to investigate the knowledge of prisoners of war (POW) and those missing in action (MIA) and what current organizations are doing to support the search for the missing. Specifically, it investigates methods that would aid in the spread of bringing awareness to this topic to the public. The following research questions were asked: 1. Who are …

The Impact Of Wwii And Changes Brought By The War On A Small Kentucky Community, Barry A. Kennedy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

War is a regular tool that brings changes and new opportunities for people. For the people of Logan County, life was rather stagnated between the American Civil War and WWII. During the Civil War Logan County played a very important role in the pro-Confederate movement in Kentucky, even housing multiple meetings and a convention with the goal of Kentucky joining the Confederacy. While this did not happen, this movement continued in the years that followed the war, as a massive Confederate hangover reigned over the county. This hangover, which can be associated with the “lost cause” dominated the way of …

Holocaust Denial: The Conspiracy Of Ignorance, Morgan Nelson

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Holocaust denial means denying that the intentional mass extermination of Jews by the Nazi Regime during WWII happened. It is essential to know about these deniers and to refute their claims to stop the spread of misinformation. Topics investigated were what Holocaust denial is, why deniers support it, who are Holocaust deniers, an example being David Irving, the major claims of deniers, and how historians refute those claims. Those answers were found from multiple sources, including Denying the Holocaust by Deborah Lipstadt and Hitler's War by David Irving. The major findings were there are many denier claims. Three major ones …

Space Nazis - The Specific Connections Between Star Wars And Nazi Germany, Jeremy Dobrzanski

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Star Wars has been a pop culture hallmark ever since its release. However, its undertones and political themes have often been overlooked, and the connections between those undertones and themes to real world events have been obscured. This presentation reveals the connections between Star Wars and the historical events in the context of Nazi Germany.

Military Women In World Cinema: A 20th Century History And Filmography, Introduction, Deborah A. Deacon, Stacy Fowler

Faculty Articles

From British soldier Flora Sandes to the fame World War II Night Witches of the Soviet Air Force, women across the globe stepped up to defend their countries during every major and minor conflict of the twentieth century, and filmmakers have long attempted to capture their stories.

This book analyzes real and fictional military women's portrayals in world cinema, including movies from Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy, China, France, the Soviet Union, and others. It includes theatrical releases, direct-to-video productions, and made-for-television films.

Chapters, organized by decade, address topics including the women's sexuality, maternal and marital status, leadership skills, actual …

The United States And The Origins Of The Second World War, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This brief but detailed narrative of the origins of World War II evaluates the claims by both Axis and Allied powers that they were fighting a just war.

“We Fought For The Right Reasons And God Was On Our Side”: Combat, Faith, And Perseverance During The 28th Infantry Division's Engagement At The Battle Of The Bulge, Walter S. Zapotoczny Jr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In December 1944, Hitler’s Germany was besieged on every front. Germany was working on super weapons and needed to buy some time to fight off the Red Army and the Allies. Until his super weapons could turn the tide, Hitler opted for a major counteroffensive in the west to split the Allies. Hitler would launch his last military reserves in a desperate gamble aimed at driving to the port of Antwerp through Luxembourg and Belgium. Such a blow, Hitler believed, would wreck the Allied Coalition. One of the divisions facing the main German offensive was the American 28th Infantry Division, …

The Twenty-Year Occupation: Cultural Reimagination And The American Occupation Of Japan, Phillip Jones

Masters Theses

In the wake of the violence and racial animosity of World War II, the United States carried out an ideologically ambitious occupation of Japan, with the stated purposes of demilitarizing their former enemy and facilitating Japan's reintroduction to the world as an appropriately reformed nation. Between 1945-1952, Japan and the United States engaged in complex and often contradictory processes of cultural reimagination, through which they reimagined the recent past, each other, and their roles in the world. I contend that the Occupation of Japan can only be appropriately understood through these processes, placed within the appropriate historical context. These processes …

The Disappearance Of The French New Wave, Emir Kulluk

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

The French New Wave is considered to be one of the most influential waves within cinema history, starting from the end of the 1950s, going all the way through the 1960s. Thanks to the directors of this era, there have been a myriad of movies that challenged the norms of filmmaking, redefining the techniques used and the stories told within cinema. However, if this era was so fruitful and is deemed to be so valuable for cinema in general, then why did it not continue? In this paper, I will be taking a look at French society, external influences, as …

Local Involvement, Memory, And Denial: The Complexities Of The Holocaust In Lithuania, Hailey Cedor

Honors College

The Holocaust was one of the most pivotal and destructive events in the 20th century. While decades of research have been done in order to attempt to understand the events of the Holocaust, its preconditions, its survivors, and its lasting impacts, there is still much to be studied. This thesis explores the complex and understudied relationship of Lithuanians with the Holocaust. Local collaboration with Nazi perpetrators was widespread, yet acknowledgement of and reconciliation with this collaboration is largely absent from Lithuania’s current public memory. While this work does not excuse the actions of perpetrators or condemn those who helped Jewish …

La Résistance: An Original Screenplay, Luke Griffin

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

La Résistance is an original screenplay set in 1944 France, focused on a protective young woman struggling to keep her resistance group united and alive as they hunt, and are hunted by, a cold, calculating Milice captain. This first draft explores the ideological divide within the French Resistance alongside the more abstract ideas of why someone fights and what they do when they lose sight of what they fought for to begin with.

A Century In Uniform: Military Women In American Films, Introduction, Stacy Fowler, Deborah A. Deacon

Faculty Articles

From silents of the early American motion picture era through 21st century films, this book offers a decade-by-decade examination of portrayals of women in the military. The full range of genres is explored, along with films created by today's military women about their experiences.

Laws regarding women in the service are analyzed, along with discussion of the challenges they have faced in the push for full participation and of the changing societal attitudes through the years.

A Doctor's Story, Randall M. Mclaughlin, Md

Jefferson Biographies

This memoir details the beginning of Randall M. McLaughlin's medical career. It begins in 1942 while he is a Pre-Med student at Penn State interviewing for medical school. From there it covers his time as a medical student at Jefferson, including classes, life in Philadelphia, and World War II. It ends at the beginning of his professional career, first with an internship at Cooper Hospital and later as a First Lieutenant in the Army.

Marguerite Higgins: Making War Accessible To The Masses, Kelli A. Knerr

2019 Symposium

No abstract provided.

In Spite Of You, We Live On: A Commemorative Painting, Goldie Gross

Publications and Research

This painting is the product of a Yiddish language independent study with Professor Debra Caplan. It depicts a war portrait of Hitler with a stumbling stone inscribed with the words "אויף צו להכעיס דיר לעבן מיר נאך" (in spite of you, we live on) in the center of his face. It is accompanied by an explanation of the painting.

The Jewish Response To The Nuremberg Trials, Melody Pruitt

History Class Publications

World War II was characterized by extreme violence and hardship. People from all over the world faced incredible circumstances of hunger, destitution, disease, and death. Millions of lives were lost both through the waging of war and the extermination of people groups. World War II characterized the globe in several different respects that still affect it today. Political systems, societies, and policies would forever be changed by the war, and people began to see each other quite differently. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is the mass murder of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime known as the …

Tearing The Guts Out Of The Wehrmacht: A Re-Examination Of The Russo-German War, Randall Wells, Jr.

Masters Theses

Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Hitler’s plan to annihilate Germany’s Eastern neighbor and populate the vast Russian expanse with his own people was as ambitious as it was adventuristic. Although it began successful, the Russo-German War quickly devolved into a quagmire as Russian troops outfought their German opponent and beat them back to Berlin. Contrary to prevailing historiography, the Wehrmacht’s loss on the Eastern Front cannot be solely attributed to a failure to equip German troops with proper winter clothing, an inadequate logistics network or Hitler’s interference in military decisions. For an army that had …

Militarism As A Theme In Nazi Education And Youth Organizations, Matthew J. Smith

History: Student Scholarship & Creative Work

The rise of Nazism in Germany led to reform in the state education system. This included subversive themes of militarism in typically non-nationalistic subjects, as well as inflated nationalism in subjects such as history and geography. The militaristic themes in the Nazis’ educational system paralleled the mission of the youth organizations in Germany during this period. These youth organizations also used the psychology of German adolescents to further indoctrinate and achieve their mission of creating a generation of ready servants of the German fascist state.

Tatyana Markus: Hero Of Ukraine, Ariana L. Martineau

Honors Projects

A dramatized telling of the story of Tatyana Markus, a young Jewish resistance fighter from Kiev, Ukraine. Under a false identity, she personally killed dozens of Nazis during WWII. Along the way she lost many people she cared about until she was captured herself. Tatyana has gone on virtually unknown throughout the world, so this play is an effort to spread word about this brave, amazing girl who was only in her early 20s. I think the themes are very relatable to today's society with the struggle of whether to stand up to injustice, or stand by. Especially since she …

Jud Ms 05 Sumner T. Bernstein Papers Finding Aid, Susannah Clark

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Sumner Thurman Bernstein (1924 - 2002) grew up in Portland, Maine, the son of lawyer parents. He served in the South Pacific in the U.S. Army during World War II (achieving the rank of Captain) and attended Harvard University for his undergraduate education and for law school. He returned to Portland after marrying Rosalyne Spindel in 1949, to join his father and uncle’s law practice, which he helped to grow into Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson in 1964. He was very engaged with the community, participating in the following organizations, among others, often serving as president or chair of …

Rethinking Ionesco’S Absurd: The Bald Soprano In The Interlingual Context Of Vichy And Postwar France, Julia Elsky

Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Rereading Eugène Ionesco’s postwar play La cantatrice chauve (The Bald Soprano) in the light of the original, wartime Romanian version alongside archival materials concerning his political activity in Vichy France allows us to reconsider his role in the theater of the absurd. Instead of staging the emptiness of language in a conformist world, the Romanian play dramatizes how language and language exchange created meaning but also upheld state violence during the Second World War. Although the French version of the play adapts this theme to the postwar context, traces of state power over language remain. This new approach …

82nd Erau Prescott Aviation History Presentation, Jerry Kidrick

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

A documentary video of Lt. Robert Lawsen'sWW2 service as a B-17 bomber pilot. Starting with his pilot training, then a re-enactment of a complete mission, and parts of 3 others. He served in the 8th Air Force in England during 1944. On his last mission, he was shot down and spent 8 months in German prison camps and escaped to the allied lines just before hostilities ended in Europe on May 8, 1945.

0846: Earl F. Dickinson Papers, 1942-2009, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains photographs and papers related to Earl F. Dickinson’s personal life and time in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The bulk of the collection relates to Dickinson’s service in WWII and includes combat photographs, portraits and group photos, certificates, and military records. Personal materials include a 1938 Marshall Commencement booklet, family photographs, a birth and death certificate, newspaper clippings, and a brief personal recollections about Dickinson. Also included are artifacts such as USMC pins and a stone taken from Mount Suribachi.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Earl F. …

Freed From Fascism: Berlin's Gallery Culture In The Aftermath Of World War Ii, Brooke Fessler

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In post-World War II Germany, the city of Berlin was left in ruin after six years of war. A nation ripped apart both physically and at its governmental core was finally freed from Nazi fascism in 1945, and the German people were finally able to reconstruct their culture. Born out of years of strict regulation of the German art world, a new type of art was put on display. Focusing specifically on gallery culture in Berlin in the post-war years, one can see how twelve years of classically influenced Nazi art gave way to a push towards the avant-garde. The …

The Letters Of Stewart Winfield Herman Jr. An American Pastor In Berlin, 1936-1941, Lucy A. Marks

Student Publications

This paper provides an analysis of the experiences of Stewart Herman Winfield Jr based on a collection of his letters on loan to Gettysburg College from the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. This paper discusses Herman’s experiences as a student in Strasburg and Gottingen, and as the pastor of the American church of Berlin from 1936 – 1941. Born in Harrisburg, Herman attended Gettysburg College, and the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. Herman’s letters provide both a pastoral and an American perspective on the start of WWII and Nazism in Germany. Herman traveled frequently and witnessed the changes that Berlin faced during World War …

Walt Disney's War On The Perception Of Propaganda, Hailey Thompson

History Class Publications

This paper focuses on the influence of World War I and Nazi propaganda on American propaganda during World War II. I specifically analyzed the use of propaganda through the means of film using Walt Disney cartoons. What fueled the effectiveness of propaganda in film? Why were cartoons so intense? What methods did the producers employ in the features? I also wanted to look at the influence of Nazi propaganda on its counterpart, American propaganda. The majority of the focus on propaganda centered around Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight Series.” The focus on cartoons as a means of propaganda largely faded …

To See In Color, Sarah Rebban

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Law And Human Suffering: A Slice Of Life In Vichy France, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

This essay discusses three diaries from the Vichy era, the period of the Nazi Occupation of France: Jean Guéhenno’s Journal des années noires 1940-1944, Hélène Berr’s Journal, and Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar’s Ceux qui ne dormaient pas. Guéhenno was an educator and writer who entered the Resistance in 1940. His diary offers deep moral reflection as well as accounts of the dishonorable peace Vichy imposed and the ignoble servitude to which the new collaborationist French State and the Nazi occupier subjected France. In the final pages, as Leclerc’s army marches into Paris, with a victory he understands to be …

James Herod's Wwii Naval Experience, Milan A. Pino

World War II

James Herod is possibly the youngest World War two veteran to have seen combat. He served in the Navy in the Pacific ocean and was present for the bombing of Hiroshima. Mr. Herod talked about a near death experience and growing up during the Great Depression.

The People In The Papers: The Seaman Identification Card Of Joseph Sofka, Elizabeth D. James

Librarian Research

According to the enclosed documents, at the age of eighteen, Joseph Sofka enlisted as a Merchant Marine in Pittsburgh after traveling there from his hometown of Wheeling. A frequently little known branch of the armed forces, Merchant Marines were responsible for ferrying cargo from the United States to the front lines in Europe and the Pacific, and were instrumental in maintaining supply lines to sustain the troops overseas. Merchant Marine ships had to avoid submarines, ships, and mines from the enemy, making a seemingly simple task into a deadly effort. As a result, the Merchant Marines had the highest casualty …