Lesson #10 - Between the Wars

Hark, and low behold the dawning of this time
Where communists become more like fascists with every step
An endless cycling of migration to the sea,
With new leaders plowing their way to forge greatness
For new, independent countries.
Where none can tell the difference between a dream and reality
And bitterness over lost hope lets droop the thin veil
Between fantasies and nightmares, ending in unimaginable ways
The lack of justice where promised, of independence asked for and denied
So do the courts sleep soundly in their flawed righteousness
Having thoughts submerged in intrigue and petty plots
While pools of blood, gathering like squashed tomatoes, drench the endless layers.

Poem of World War I.

For king and country, men arise!
To fight in the glorious war.

Your boys watched their fathers
Board the train with letters in their hands.

We will never see them again, until the flowers roll over the granite stones.

You want peace, but I make you
Take your arms to fight your foe.

Men so like us, but whom we cannot understand.
They talk like the darkest beasts in hell.

Their words are poison, will make us weak.
They will make us sick, and take your wives.

We must endure here, my brothers.
We must march straight, even to death.

Death will take us soon, my friends.
Why endure the suffering?

We are in hell. But we can break out.
Let’s meet our maker! Now up, men, over the wall!

Chatter of bullets, the smear of the smoke
Dirt moist with blood and damp sickness of heart
The air rang with passion, now silence doth choke
All savage aggressions, fallen apart
Peace, a thin cloth stretched tightly over swollen greed
Rips stitch-by-stitch, splitting at the seams
Endless bodies growl, melded and bound to raw need
Longing quenched with pride’s flowing streams
Will turn salty on the tongue
But pushing boarders, like a smooth faced child
Is an ancient song, backward and forward sung
It’s the waning moon and the bodies piled
To black out the stars, mans power is none
So get out of Versailles and go grab your gun

-anika

The centrifuge of the earth has come
The innocent separated from the guilty
The bystanders separated from the perpetrators
Their bodies float, being spun already
Arms detached and dispatched, vessels with blood
Drifting through the currents
We all know who is at fault and who is not

And now the centrifuge accelerates
Who has pressed that button?
The bodies, helpless, writhe

The hopelessness

The tube spins furiously
It flies from the grips of the machine
The glass, it shatters on the broken earth
The good and evil once were once separated
It doesn't matter now
All those bodies smashed upon the floor
Dying, all dying
Evaporating by an absent sun
Dead, all dead

What is next?

Horrors have we seen in that war
The pain of many has been felt
Power is beginning to shift
Suspicions are on the raise
What is next?
The gashes of pain from fighting are deep
What can be for certain now
Money exchanges hands
Maybe too fast
What is next?
Some say we learn from our mistakes
Others predict we are doomed to repeat history
Time is our only answer
We are once again on the rise
Life has begun to settle
Must we feel the pains of death once more?
Will we let ourselves fall to conflict?
What is next?

Letter

I thought I would write to you since I haven’t returned your last letter since during the Great War. As you know, my husband just returned from the war two weeks ago. Though he is uninjured, there is an unmistakable difference in his character. Do not misunderstand me; his nature is unchanged. However, when our eyes meet, my gaze falters. In his eyes, I see death. Even when paired with a gentle smile, there is an air of horror, of misery in his stare. His eyebrows are perpetually turned down, as if in concentration. His thoughts never falter from one subject. That war had a lasting effect, one that I’m sure thousands of men are feeling at this moment. I know it was his duty to enter the battlefield. He had to protect the country along with every other U.S. citizen. I only wish there was a way to bring back the old twinkle to his eye. My children don’t seem to notice a difference, they are just glad their father has returned. They sometimes ask him questions about the battles. He is reluctant at first, meeting my eyes in slight apprehension. When I nod faintly, he launches quietly into small tales of war. Without revealing much, he satisfies their prying curiosity. I can tell beneath the layers of excitement and fun in his stories, there is a burning, everlasting layer of despair. When he talks, I usually put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, leaving it until he is finished. His voice never falters when he talks, though I can detect a hint of pain in his accounts.

I’m sorry if these words disturb you. Life isn’t bad, not by any means. It is wonderful to have everyone home. The house seems full now, complete. There is laughter again at the dinner table, a sound that now seems slightly foreign, but welcome. We are delighted, relieved, grateful, joyful. Though there is a different feel to the air, we are as happy as we had been before. Things are starting to go back to normal, for which I am grateful. I won’t say it is almost as if he had never been gone, but it is close to that. We try our best not to think of the last horrible years, our sinking ships, the air attacks, the rationing, the propaganda, the dying men. We will think of the bravery, the military victories (notably, the second battle of Marne), the peace agreements, the end of fighting, the day our husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons returned home. I will always be grateful for the correspondence we shared during that dark time. Your words brought a small light back into my world, one that had seemed impossible to reignite. Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Sincerely,

Your loving sister

Between the Wars Activity
STEPHANIE AANENSON'S COMMENT!!!

Muddy and wet
The nights are cold
Nobody said it would be like this
My family is long gone
My friends are now gone
The noise
The death
The chaos
It never stops
What is worth dying for?
Everyone marches,
but lying on the ground..
on a wet, cold battlefield,
The last seconds of your life going by,
would you not be curious...
as to what you traded it for?

Dearest Emily,

I can't leave England. I'm glad you're happy in America, I am. I know I don't seem like it, but I am. I'll try to do better. Just because I'm glad doesn't mean I want you to stay. You should come home. What if they world falls apart again, and you're all of the way across the ocean where I can't get to you?

You know I can't leave, Ems. This house... it's all I've got left of your father. It's been too long since he died. I can't remember his face anymore. I worry, Ems. If I leave this house, I might forget him all together. My memories of him fade more and more each day. I know you think I'm crazy, that after all these years all I can do is sit in this house. Maybe if I wait long enough, he'll come back, yeah? I'm not that crazy, I know he won't. He was always a soldier before a husband.

Don't worry for me, worry for yourself. And if you know what's good for you, you'll get back home. Bring your stupid American boy with you.

Love,
Mum

Germany and Italy convert to fascism
While Japan starts to use Militarism
Inflation in Germany money is near worthless
The Dawes plan fixes their economy more-or-less
While Picasso was working on Cubism
Others were dealing with Impresionism and Surrealism
The Great Depression came storming in to America
Everyone was affected from Britain to Malaysia
When Germany started taking over everything
Britain and France weren't willing to do anything
So many things were happening at one time
I am glad to convery it to you with this little rhyme

I was a soldier in World War I. I was a member of the French army, so I spent most of the war in trenches protecting Paris from the German army. My role in the war was not solely fighting, but supplying the front line with ammunition and certain weapons of war. While not a main contributing factor to the fighting, I was there for all of the important battles in World War I. I still remember the day when total warfare started by the use of Poison Gas tanks. It was a major part of the war, and was what made me truly realize how this was no ordinary war. It was painful to watch my good friends on the front line die from the cruelty of the German army. I was involved in getting the gas masks and keeping everyone safe. I still remember the last battle of the war, with Germany nearly 40 miles from Paris, I remember the horror I felt for my family living in Paris. Yet, the Americans arrived and pushed off the Germans and helped us win the war! I remember how excited I was to return to my family after such a disastrous and tragic family. Unfortunately, the end of the war did not come with peace here in France. While the war ended with armistices and the formation of the League of Nations, everyone feels a war coming with the growing of Germany yet again, a change of government over in Russia, and the breaking of the Kellogg-Briand pact in Japan. However, that is not the only thing that is happening here in Europe. At the end of the war, there were many things changing to begin with, such as Einstein’s theory of relativity and advances in psychology. There have also been many novels recently hinting at a looming war and most people feel it. Also, many changes in the arts have taken place, such as the introduction of Cubism and Surrealism and the start of Jazz music. However, most importantly, the Great Depression has happened. Since the war, economies had been on the decline, and finally, the stock market completely crashed. France was not hit as hard as most other people, because our government was more self-sufficient then all the other governments. However, unemployment rate was still considerably high. Our governments were quite weak and went through many changes, and while many problems went through and weren’t dealt with as well as in other countries, thankfully our democratic government held true. This brings us to the present, with Germany on the move creating a major empire, or Third Reich, France and England remain praying for peace. As a member of the first World War, I pray that we don’t have a repeat of that disastrous war.

The innocent, slaughtered like flies
The soldiers, litter the earth
Treaties signed to improve lives
Germany lost lots of its girth
Sciences are exploding
Knowledge is everywhere
Cubism, Existentialism and Surrealism
Jazz, upbeat, notes here and there
Women's rights
Continue to grow and grow
Sea crossing trips
Silent motion pictures and the radio
Peace agreements roll out
Weak plans, but still intact
October 29th hit
Global economies failed, thats a fact
Depression, every sense of the word
Flooded millions, plans were created
Democracy did not lose strength
Although some countries debated
Fascism rising in Italy
Mussolini takes power
Nazism in Germany
People run and cower
Japan, another power hungry nation
Invasion, corruption and war
The Axis Powers are created
The world is going to see nothing like before
The stepping stones are in sight
As the world spirals down from flight
The base for a WWII is on its way
Hip Hip Hooray

Rex Hendrickson

A cloud of darkness
Gathers in the east
Like a kettle reaching boiling point
A harsh whistle screams out a warning
Over Sudetenland, and across the channel
That a monumental war
Is simply right around the bend
Conflict is unavoidable, an absolute certainty
As certain as the fact
That the sun will rise from the east every morning
However, before long those beautiful horizons
Will be dyed red with the blood of enemies
And of dear old friends

Nick Campanelli

Tom Holton blog post:

Dated-Nov. 5th 1936

My dearest son,

I would like to tell you much has changed here. However the sad truth is we as a nation have not. Ten years have passed since the end of the first modern world war, yet our streets are still ravaged, and the children are still hungry. But most devastating of all, Europe is becoming engulfed in a Nationalistic rave. Empirically, it is evident that the only thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history.
Just ten short years after the “war to end all wars” ended, history has began to repeat itself. The nationalistic trends that led our country into the first World War, have been proven to repeat themselves through the democratic election of Adolph Hitler. Our citizens have spoken, showing tragic zeal to conquer, command, and out class other European nations through nationalism towards Germany. As we both know, this type of nationalistic behavior led to World War I, which led us into the chaotic economy, detrimental moral, and intolerable standard of living. The same is true for Italy, and Japan, as there rampaging nationalist dictators are moving in the same direction. It is a shame that at least in our country, these nationalistic dictators were elected thanks in part to a democracy.
As you know, an attempt to avoid democratically elected dictators is why I sent you to the United States. I learned one thing for certain as a general during WWI- history repeats itself. The fact that the United States was a non-interventionalist Republic during the first World War, led me to believe that history would indeed repeat itself here, hence the United States would remain a republic.
However, I would like to apologize to you, my son, for failing to see the devastating turn that the United States took away from non-interventionalism, and towards a dictatorship in this past election. I implore you, my son, to make no mistake between Franklin Roosevelt, and leading dictators in Europe. FDR has centralized power, imposed a democracy, and will lead the United States into a Nationalistic craze, which will most unfortunately lead the United States into war with the rest of Europe. I hoped with all of my heart that even if I couldn’t stop Europe from launching into a second World War, I could at least spare you the devastation that it would bring. I hope you will forgive me, as I once again could not foresee the drastic nationalistic actions of the United States.

Sincerely,

Your Loving Father.

Dear Marie,

I was thinking back on the war 10 years back when I suddenly thought of you. I thought of how I survived that war when many of my friends died. All because of you, because you took such great care of me when I was wounded. Spending time with you was ten-folds better than being in those horrific, dirty, bloody trenches. Having to watch my comrades die right in front of my eyes was so difficult, I could barely keep fighting. Come to think of it, getting shot in the shoulder was probably the best thing to happen to me. And of course, with your help, I recovered perfectly. All I have to say is… thank you. Now I’m living a very content life. I’ve met a beautiful woman, Sophie, and I’ve got two children, Otto and Sophie. We’re still living in Munich, and I’m a store-owner now. I couldn’t ask for better.

Well, actually… I could. There’s unrest here. There’s this man, by the name of Adolf Hitler. He was just a soldier back in the day, like me, and awhile back he spoke out against the Treaty of Versailles, and kept talking about how he wanted to crush those who took from our country and what-not. I thought he was a crazy person because I mean, no one likes the Treaty of Versailles, but this man was just crazy. Hysterical, even. But I heard he tried to take over the government around 1923, but got arrested. He’s out now, though, has been for awhile, and now he’s gaining supporters like no other. I guess it’s easy to like this man when he keeps spouting out messages of hope and power and better lives, but I don’t quite trust him. Germany isn’t perfect by now, by any means, but I sense violence in this man. We just got out of a war, and we were punished for it. Why would we want to go to war again? So many people are supporting him and talking about how he’ll bring about a greater future. It’s overwhelming.

I just hope things stay the way they are now. Too much power can get into one’s head, anyway. Germany is fine the way it is. Our family is doing well. Please take care in Berlin. I don’t know what it’s like over there, but I hope you are doing well. By the way? Are you still practicing medicine? What you do is a great thing, so please don’t stop. Anyway, we’ll have to come visit you some time. You can meet the entire family. Until then, take care.

Best wishes,
Walter

There is silence in the hills,
Broken only by the moans of the suffering,
The weeping of the widowed,
And the shouts of anger, trying to lead the people on
Different paths

Order is shattered,
Bombed out and left with the rubble of buildings
That line the streets and
Cover the countryside, stripping bare society and leaving only
Desolation and pain

Shells and bodies cover the ground,
Where fires still rage in trenches and hearts
And from these ashes, banners arise
Spreading to cover the sky again
The silence is deafening

To my family, of which I may never see again.

Siberia is far colder then I could have ever perceived possible on our beloved planet, for only a few days I have been here it has felt like months. I hope I will see you all again, however there are a few things that need to be said, in the case of which I never come back.

In the great war against Germany, millions of my brethren died, and still to this day does it haunt me. There is no way to describe the deaths, because there was a point were a single person dying failed to matter anymore, it was just one more scream of pain and agony to the roar of the war. I felt guilty as I sent men to die while I waited in my tent to hear of the results. When I returned from the war, I was a changed man, and I knew things had to change before I could ever return home. Once the Czar had stepped down, I had hopes of change, the ending of our sacrifices to the germans. When Alexander Kerensky had no intentions of ending the war, I had to use my influence to change the government for the better. I joined the Bolshevik red army in over throwing the Kerensky’s government. Under Lenin, the war was ended but not without it’s sacrifices. Land was more equally distributed among the peasants, but the were more obsessed with the war losses. My hopes for a bloodless revolution fell far short of what I got. Famine, violence and the influenza epidemic decimated our once great nation. The glimmering light that emerged was that the civil war had ended and Lenin was still in power, and hopefully things were going to get better.

What I had hoped for in a classless society, were we would be able to end our problems and stop all the death, were all false dreams created by the newly found government. It was true that we were able to recover our economy reestablish a foot hold in competing with the other European nations. But we had lost our rights has human beings. In recent years, Stalin became the new savior of race, the ignorant fools. We have become pawns blinded by the government. Propaganda, censorship, religious and ethnic persecution have brought people to not know what it is they are truly doing. People began starving from the agriculture problems occurring from peasants not giving up their livestock and farmland. Nothing should have been done, but I tried anyway, and for the actions I took I end up here, in a labor camp doomed for the rest of my life serving the state.

Long live the state...

Hello Mother! This is your Volodya writing. It has been a long time since I have been able to get a message to you, and I hope my letter finds you happy and well. My unit is now stationed a few miles south of Petrograd, in order to protect it from any remaining loyalist forces, however my sergeant says that this is unlikely. The revolution has come mother! We are now a soviet state, and there is talk that soon we shall be united with other like-minded socialists to form some sort of joint government! Before I get into that, I’m sure you wish to hear about my exploits during the war. I was first sent to participate in the great Brusilov offensive, in which we invaded and captured a large piece of German territory. Unfortunately, due to, and I hate to say it, lack of equipment and incompetent leaders, we were soon driven back. During our “Great Retreat”, I first heard of the possibility of a revolution back home. This idea fascinated and inspired me, truly communism was an ideal society! I’m sure we shall soon be witness to that fact. However the road from rebellious rumors to revolutionary action is a long and hard one. As we got closer to home talk of revolution got stronger and stronger, and soon enough, we received news that the Czar had been deposed and that a new government had been installed. This brought joy to our hearts, as we believed that this would mean an end to this ridiculous war. However, soon enough we received new orders, and to our chagrin they commanded only further attack. Many of us became furious, and not only us privates but the higher ranks as well. Soon we heard that the great communist leader, Lenin, had somehow made his way back into the country. This gave us great hope, and some even began to prepare to invade out own country, determined to overthrow these false revolutionaries in a glorious blaze of communist action. This dream became a reality soon enough when, as im sure you are aware, Lenin seized the Duma. By this time we were already near the capital and our generals officially declared their allegiance to the new communist state. O how we reveled mother! You should have seen the joy on the faces of my comrades when first we heard the news! Our division was swiftly moved to Petrograd, and we crushed those puny loyalists with the iron fist of just communism! So here we stand, plain soldiers, ready to enter a new era of idealism purity and, of course, above all, communism! Long live Lenin! Long live Marx! Long live the glorious Red Army and the Magnificent Soviet State!

From the war to the streets,
The economy down fall hits the world, like an instrumental beat.
…
…
…
“pa-dump” “pa-dump”
I am the American dream,
The rape of Germany
The undying machine,
The overpriced medicine,
The murderous regime,
The tough America front,
And the one behind the scenes
I am the blood of this city,
It's gas, water, and electricity,
I'm its gym, and it's match, and it's history,
The gunshots in the on the streets and fields
And you can't pass if you're missing me.
I am in between the wars and influence the depression.