The Reichstag Fire 1. Source A was written by Rudolf Diels, who was the head of the Prussian political police at the time of the fire. In his account of events, he explains that he caught Van Der Lubbe red handed, the suspect was alone and there was no evidence that he could see that involved other people, even other communists. He strongly disagreed with Goring and Hitler's theory that Van Der Lubbe was aided in some way, and that the whole affair was a communist plot to seize power. During the trial of Van Der Lubbe in 1933, he openly confessed to setting fire to the building, but denied that he had been helped. His statement in source B shows that he was adamant that he had worked alone. This would seem to prove Diels' theory, however, Van Der Lubbe could easily have been lying in order to protect the other arsonists, who would have probably been high ranking members of the communist party according to Goring's theory, and therefore much more valuable than a simple member, although extremely devoted, who was mentally unstable. If he was lying, he could also be covering the tracks of the Nazi party, who could have set it all up and, as they did, place the blame on the communists. All of this causes great confusion for anyone trying to uncover the truth. Rudolf Diels' account could be seen as reasonably reliable as he seems to have considered all the evidence and come to a thought out and unbiased opinion. Unfortunately, Van Der Lubbe is not a reliable source as he could be protecting any amount of people; there is also evidence that he was mentally unstable, and this means that his evidence is even more unreliable. 2. Source A, Rudolf Diels' account of the fire, although coming from a high ranking Nazi official, seems to d... ... middle of paper ... ...elp his own election bid. Therefore, I think that the Reichstag fire was started by the Nazis, so they could take power and crush all their opposition as there is more reliable evidence to support this theory. But some of the evidence could lead me to believe that Van Der Lubbe was alone in setting the fire. There has been so much disagreement over the Reichstag fire because of the different stories and accounts that were put forward. The main two were the arguments between the communists and the Nazis. Ever since communism was being exported from Russia, other Capitalist states have feared the effects of its policies. It was no different in Germany, the Nazi party were essentially a capitalist party and saw all other parties as a threat, especially the communists because they were the ones prepared to fight for their beliefs, they also had an enormous following.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
...Wolf Israelski. The use of sources like the Staatsburgerzeitung gives a unique perspective because they were reporting as soon as these events happen. They offer the direct opinion of the public and were firsthand accounts.
During World War II, many German soldiers killed thousands of innocent lives, especially Jewish. However, not all lives lost during World War II, and the Holocaust be accounted for by German soldiers, and the mobile killing task force, Einsatzgruppen, but citizens themselves. In the book, Neighbors by Jan Gross, studies a Polish town called Jedwabne during World War II. The book provides evidence on a mass killing on July 10, 1941, by Polish citizens. The Polish citizens murdered roughly 350 victims, Jewish, in Jedwabne. This evidence brought to light by the author shows not all Germans were accountable for all the mass murders during the time period.
This radical find would provide important details that would exonerate the Jewish community in Konitz of the accusation that Ernst Winter had been killed in order to use his blood as an ingredient in their Passover matzah bread. Later that year, in October, Dr. Puppe, a forensic medicine professor in Berlin, would re-examine and evaluate the original autopsy report. Upon close examination of the lungs and face, as well as the absence of blood on the skin surrounding the area of the throat incision would testify against the notion that Winter had died from a fatal cut to the throat. Thus, Puppe concluded that fatal bleeding did not lead to the death of Winter, rather, suffocation was the probable cause (Smith 2002, 188). When police found new clues to Winter’s demise, “semen stains: on the vest (just below the left pocket), on the jacket, and on the outside of the pants close to the zipper,” the location of the stains confirmed that Winter had been killed, “as a forensic report put it, while attempting to have intercourse with his clothes on” (Smith 2002, 188).
When most people drive downtown, they are almost always in a hurry. But, if a person actually stops and looks around, it is easily seen that Fond du Lac contains a lot of history. Every old church and store in this city has a special story connected to it. When a disaster strikes, the story can be lost; only to be found again through old newspapers. These churches meant a great deal to the citizens of Fond du Lac during the time of their existence. Couples were married, babies baptized, and generations of families gathered on Sunday mornings for worship in these churches. In the early days, catastrophic fires threatened these structures, and Fond du Lac did not have a proper fire department handle the disaster. Most often, if something caught on fire, it had to be left to burn. Then the expensive rebuilding could begin.
On Sunday, October 18, 1871 the largest fire Chicago has ever seen broke out. Hundreds died and thousands of homes were annihilated. Devistation towered over the city, ashes floated gracefully through the air as bodies, houses and cherished items burned. People ran in fear, holding their young, crying for the gone, searching for saftey. Searching for life. Searching for hope.
sure,on the Sunday evening of October 8, 1871 a blaze started in Mrs. O' leary's
Most of the victims were suffocated or burned to death within the building, but some who fought their way to the windows and leaped met death as surely, but perhaps more quickly, on the pavements below. The news account contains vivid eyewitness testimony about the fire and the horrible, painful deaths it caused. Accounts such as this one can rally public opinion and force the government to more closely regulate working conditions in factories and other
We are taken through the beginning stages of the fire all the way through to the time the firemen were able to extinguish the fire. Von Drehle goes into depth to provide the details and paint the picture of the fear that was in the workers’ souls. The fear was not only the fire, it was the locked door that prevented many of them from escaping to safety. It was the capitalist views of the owners which led to the cramped working conditions, the overcrowding of workers, many were immigrant laborers, and the locked door to thwart theft. Industrial fires were not unique during this time. However, many politicians and public officials were warned that a fire of this magnitude would be forthcoming if changes were not made. Those warnings were ignored and it was the locked door that led the owners of the company into a manslaughter
Shortly after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor of Germany, he suggested, to President Hindenburg, that the Reichstag be dissolved. The next German election was scheduled for March of that same year to renew the democratic style of government in Germany. However, six days prior to the Election Day, the Reichstag building in Berlin was set ablaze which effectively dissolved the democratic government.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
This supports one way on how he rose up to power and did everything he did. For instance, ‘as leader of the Nazi party he orchestrated the holocaust, which resulted in the death of four million Jews.’ This shows Hitler is the one who should be blamed.
These were statistical papers, listing the number of Jews still left in Europe. These papers were delivered to many high-ranking officials in Berlin as well as diplomats and even prominent industrialists. This broad distribution suggests that the criminals felt no shame at what they did. Had these killings not been part of the Nazi Regime’s policy, the reports would never have distributed them so widely. It notes how the numbers of the Jewish population are slowly dwindling. They also had documentation of brutal experiments of the population of the concentration camps such as these stated by The Holocaust Encyclopedia “The German air force and from the German Experimental Institution for Aviation conducted high-altitude experiments, using a low-pressure chamber, to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety. Scientists there carried out so-called freezing experiments using prisoners to find an effective treatment for hypothermia. They also used prisoners to test various methods of making seawater potable.”
Though they were not wanted, “Fires were not uncommon in seventeenth-century London” (Cowie, 59). Fires weren’t the only things that London residents worried about though. In 1665 a tragedy known as the Black Plague had occurred and killed many people in the city and though the plague was gone “People continued to fear another outbreak of plague for the rest of the seventeenth century” (Cowie, 56-57). The Great Fire of London was a tragedy that destroyed a whole city and scared all the people who inhabited it. Just as the city was recovering from the Great Plague, the inhabitants had to flee the city once again- this time not as a result of a disease, but the result of a human accident (“The Great Fire of London of 1666”, 1).