An Annotated Bibliography
Searching for a Meaning
“From ancient grudge break to new mutiny
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.”
―Romeo and Juliet
A Modern Forbidden Love Story
I would like to share a story. This story is not mine to tell nor do I expect to share every aspect of it in its deepest meaning. This story is that of my grandparents and their love story. Their story is a modern forbidden love story. In 1950, their marriage was threatened because it angered many people much like that of Romeo and Juliet’s love. Their marriage reflects the theme of risk that shapes my family history and the chances that they take. The controversy that plagued their union is seen through their roots and routes, which all begins in the same place before they were even born and is based on their family’s individual religious beliefs. This is the story of the union of a German Jewish woman and a German Catholic man and the struggles they faced to be where they are today.
In order to explain the controversy that threatened their marriage, I would like to explain information about their religious background and some of the major events in their life. To do this, I will present my sources in chronological order; however, the sources jump from some very early time periods to much more modern issues so as to capture both my family history and our present-day life. Due to this they are separated by sources before immigration to the United States and post-immigration to the United States.
Before Immigration
A History of Modern Germany
Protestant reformation: Holborn, and Hajo. New York: Knopf, 1969. Print.
Every step echoes in the deep, tall halls of the church. The air smells of worn mahogany and musty paper from the bibles placed in each seat. Mass is the formal, official worship service of Catholicism. It is a time when people come together to worship and praise God. This is a very familiar setting for my Grandfather, who dedicated his life to his faith in God. He not only went to Sunday Mass like that of most people. He went to Church every day of his life and even worked in the Church at one point. He learned Latin fluently and was one of the most dedicated Catholics that my Grandmother had ever known. My grandpa’s religion has shaped his life in more ways than that of most people. His religion has shaped his area of work, his hobbies, and his marriage. This profound love for Catholicism is something that he values in his life and had his family not fought for their religious freedom, he would most likely be Protestant today. The Protestant Reformation forced his family to uproot themselves from Germany and leave for the United States in order to find religious freedom.
While the Protestant Reformation began long before my grandpa was born, it defines why he lived in Pennsylvania during his childhood. Pennsylvania practiced religious freedom and a great number of Catholics immigrated here during the Protestant Reformation in Germany. A History of Modern Germany by Hajo and Holborn explains the rise of Protestantism in Germany and the affect that the Protestant Reformation had on those living in Germany. The Protestant Reformation was when the people began to choose between Catholicism and Protestantism. Catholics believed that authority should be in the head of the church and Protestants believed that the church should not have authority over relationships with God. Martin Luther was a leading figure in the Reformation as he was unhappy with corruption in the Catholic Church, which became a widespread belief and opinion in Germany. The Ninety-Five Theses written by Martin Luther in 1517 criticized the Catholic church, questioned the pope’s authority, and stated the Catholic Doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel.
The rise of the Protestant Reformation in Germany highlights how many Germans were persecuted due to their religious beliefs. This shows how religion has always been the foundation for the risks that my ancestors had to take and religion has always been something they protected greatly. Rather than sit back and let others persecute them, my ancestors fled and preserved their religious beliefs.
The Brothers Grimm: popular folk tales
Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, Brian Alderson, and Michael Foreman. London: Gollancz, 1996. Print.
“Once upon a time” is a phrase that most children are familiar with at a very young age. They associate this phrase with the beginning of an adventure whether it be one of a lighthearted nature or one of a dark tale. This one phrase grabs the attention of young children and serves as an invitation into a complex and new world. The fairy tale characters follow the hero’s journey to an extent in that they usually begin in ordinary life and embark on a journey; however, fairy tales have a very unique structure compared to that of other literary pieces. I used The Brothers Grimm in my research because these fairy tales were written when my ancestors lived in Germany and they give insight to German nationalism during that time. A central part of German history and German ideals is a strong sense of nationalism. During the time of the creation of the Grimm’s brother’s fairy tales, the country was split into 200 principalities and many people wanted them to unite as a single nation. The Grimm’s brothers used their tales to explore and define German national identity, which is why these works were widely favored by Nazis during the 1930s. Their fairy tales shared the central ideas that it was believed all German people should possess. A common theme in The Brothers Grimm fairy tales is that of risk and chances that the character’s take. Risk creates a relationship with the audience because everyone has something to lose and something worth defending. In this way all people can relate to that of the archetype of the fairy tale character. From my extensive research, I plan to identify the risks that German Jewish people faced during the Nazi regime by looking at antisemitism in The Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
By having antisemitism in fairy tales, they were trying to shape children’s beliefs to be against Jewish people and they were trying to highlight the idea that antisemitism should be a universal German belief. “The Jew in the Brambles” and “The Good Bargain” by the Grimm Brothers both reflect an anti-Jewish sentiment so I focused by research on these two tales.
In “The Jew in the Brambles”, the protagonist torments a Jewish man by making him dance on a thorn bush. This tormenting reflects the treatment of the Jewish people by the entire nation and it shows how it was believed that they deserved this sort of treatment simply because of their religious beliefs. To continue, the book not only insults the Jewish man excessively, but the ending of the book even results in the hanging of the man. The judge doubts a “Jew would ever voluntarily give away money” and he is portrayed as a thief, which causes him to be killed. This highlights the negative views that Jewish people were facing and the idea that they were terrible people like that of the thief in the story.
To continue, in “The Good Bargain”, the Jewish man is also portrayed negatively. The man was portrayed as a money-hungry swindler who was out to get all of the other people in the story. What I found interesting about this text is that the other men are given a title and a description of who they are, while the Jewish man is always mentioned as “the Jew” without a name given at all. They may have done this in order to highlight his religious beliefs and make it evident that the way he behaves in the story is simply because he is Jewish. The King states angrily at the conclusion of the story,
“‘For sure the Jew has deceived one of us, either myself or the peasant’” (Grimm).
This statement exemplifies the belief that Jewish people are deceitful and are cheats that should not be trusted.
Overall in analyzing these texts, it is clear that they described Jewish people in a negative way in order to make people believe they are terrible people who deserve discrimination. I learned to what extent my Grandma’s family would’ve been discriminated against for being Jewish. It is also very clear why the Nazis adopted these texts during their regime as they could be used for propaganda. They even pressed for more antisemitism in these works by suggesting that in “Little Red Riding Hood”, the wolf represented the Jewish people causing other Germans to suffer. In the Nazi film version of “Little Red Riding Hood”, the child is wearing a coat with a swastika on it and she is saved from the Big Bad Wolf by a man wearing a SS uniform. The widespread epidemic of antisemitism in Germany defined my family and where we are today. Had this problem never surfaced, my Grandma would probably still live in Germany and she would be married to a different man.
When the Doves Disappeared
German Occupation of Estonia: Oksanen, Sofi. Vintage, 2016. Print.
“Singing, Saa vabaks Eesti meri, saa vabaks Esti pind — Be free, Estonian sea; Be free, Estonian land” (31).
Imagine having to leave behind your friends, family, and sense of security without any warning. Imagine packing lightly and walking on worn, beaten, and tired feet to escape something you didn’t even understand. This intense feeling of confusion filled my grandma when she was just 5 years old as she walked across Estonia’s familiar, sea-girt land for the last time. Her family decided to flee Estonia in order to escape Jewish persecution when Estonia was under Nazi occupation in 1941. The only explanation that she was given was that dangerous people were after them and that they had to go. She was angry, she was scared, she felt lost, and her only possession was a small leather doll that she refused to leave behind.
Even before the beginning of World War II, many German Jews sought freedom from Nazi control by fleeing to neighboring countries. At this time escape was attainable, but it became even more difficult during the war. Many people did not know if it was even plausible. Few countries refused to accept Jewish refugees under the wartime conditions.
My great grandparents fled from Germany before my Grandma was born in order to be protected from the wave of antisemitism that enveloped Germany. They were smart enough to escape before the war began or they may not have escaped with their lives. However, at this time they were unaware of how widespread this problem would become and to what extents they would have to go to in order to escape it. The beliefs of one group of people shaped their entire lives and forced them to first escape Germany and then escape Estonia to settle in the mysterious “Pennsylvania” of the United States.
The novel When the Doves Disappeared by Oksanen takes place when the Allies and the Axis clash in battle and it follows the story of two Estonian cousins that were fleeing from the Red Army. One is a freedom fighter and the other is a mercenary. This story is very interesting because it highlights many people’s reaction to German occupation as one cousin goes into hiding, while the other becomes a loyal Hitler supporter. They tried to help refugees escape from the threats of Nazi occupation by having,
“…fought like maniacs to give them time, holding the enemy back, but would our victory give them enough of a head start” (Oksanen 31).
This highlights the struggles that they faced while trying to escape the war-ridden country and the severe risk associated with escaping. I believe that this novel helped me to understand better what it would be like to try to escape Estonia and the fear that would encompass you if you were a Jewish citizen. Throughout the book the men seem to lose themselves due to the bloodshed,
“I was someone else running in my boots, the same emotionless warrior who in the last battle had lept over a ditch to throw grenades at the destruction battalion-cap…cord…throw, cap…cord…throw. It was someone else” (Oksanen 24–25).
People never stop facing the regrets of what they did in battle. What they had to do in order to protect themselves from a malicious, hateful group of people. Oksanen’s novel was a highly influential source to me because it helped me understand the struggles my Grandma would’ve faced in order to escape and the shock of the fact that they actually accomplished their freedom. When the Doves Disappeared helps to place a tiny country like Estonia at the center of world history and it helps explain the complexity of Estonia’s story.
“all the men would wear only Estonian gear, nobody else’s, not the occupiers’, not the allies’, only our own. That was our aim, to take our country back.” (Oksanen 24)
Post-Immigration
In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Nazi Persecution of Jewish-Christian Germans
Tent, James F. Lawrence, Kan.: U Press of Kansas, 2003. Print.
This is a book about “partial Jews” in Germany and how people perceived them in Hitler’s Germany. This work explains how anyone with any Jewish affiliation was discriminated against and was seen as a threat to the Nazi’s mission. Those who were half Christian and half Jewish in Hitler’s Germany were known as the Halbjuden, which was different from that of the Mischilinge (or partial-Jews); However, in the eyes of the Nazis they were still too Jewish and were only allowed to coexist with the rest of German society for a short period of time. While at first they were granted freedom to continue existing in Germany, they were also given menial jobs and could not have a normal social life. This life was not truly one of equality or of happiness, but it only got worse when they were sent to concentration camps.
James Tent’s work recounts how men and women were struggling to survive all over Germany and they had to survive in a severely hostile society. This book is focused around extensive interviews with twenty half-Jewish survivors of Hitler’s Germany. These interviews gave me a firsthand account of what it was like to be half-Jewish in this community and explains many rules that they had to follow. One interview was of that of a man arrested for “race defilement” since he lived with an Aryan woman, which was against the law. Another describes a woman who faced racial discrimination in the workplace as she was denied work because of the shape of her earlobes and the fact that she was not “racially suited”. Overall, this book demonstrated the lengths to which the Nazis went to eradicate the Jewish people and the endurance that many of these survivors had to have in order to overcome these problems.
This source relates to my family as it describes the persecution of the Jewish people and what could have happened had my great grandparents not fled Germany before the war. It also explains how those of interfaith families would’ve been treated and the fact that any amount of Jewish was considered “too Jewish”. This text helped me realize what I could’ve had to go through had I been an interfaith child in this time and why it was so crucial that my family left when they did. I may not be here today had they not evacuated Germany when they did.
Mother with Dead Son
Kollwitz, Käthe. Mutter mit totem Sohn 1903.
I decided to also look at some famous German artwork and the meanings behind these works. I chose to look at “Mutter mit totem Sohn” or “Mother with Dead Son” by Käthe Kollwitz. This work spoke to me because her lines are very expressive and telling. Each line evokes a different emotion and reflects what she was going through during this time. The drawing shows a seated woman who is holding desperately to her dead son’s body. Her eyes are closed and she is nestled close to his skin with intense eyebrows that express her suffering. This work is explosive with feelings as the mother’s strong arms envelope her child protectively. A child she can no longer protect. The artist used aggressive lines to give the work energy and to express the artist’s anger at her country’s current situation. However, the boy’s features are created with noticeably softer lines in order to express his youth and innocence in his death.
This work is interesting because it was done by a female artist, which was very uncommon in 1903. She lived in a poverty stricken area of Berlin and this inspired her to depict the awful conditions of the poor in her artwork. She can apply to my project as she was widely affected by the wars in Germany. She lost her son in the first World War, her grandson in the second World War, and she died in 1945 before the war ended. This drawing is of a mother holding her dead son and it depicts the pain of losing a child and the effects of wartime struggles. She is a victim of war and she expresses the struggles of living in a country surrounded by warfare.
This artwork helped communicate to me that the German people were suffering during these wars and that many of the people felt helpless. I was able to recognize that there were great losses on both sides of this war and that many people did not realize the need for battles. The artist seems to be asking the audience why anyone would want to take the life of such an innocent child. Is this battle truly worth it? This piece and researching German artwork also gave me a preview into German artistic style.
Donald Duck Der Nazi
YouTube. YouTube, 11 May 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
Der Fuehrer’s Face was an American Anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney and released in 1943. It was made in an attempt to sell war bonds during the Second World War. In this short film Donald Duck has a nightmare that is set at a factory in Nazi Germany. It begins with a German “oom-pah” band parading through town and explaining the virtues expressed in the song “Der Fuehrer’s Face” by Wallace. The band makes Donald Duck wake up and he gets ready to go to work in a munitions factory. Throughout the entire short film it is obvious that Donald Duck does not want to be there and that he finds their beliefs to be absurd and frightening. He continues to make bombs and salute Hitler, which demonstrates how many people in Germany disregarded their true beliefs and helped Hitler’s cause out of fear. In the end, Donald Duck realizes it was all a nightmare and he is still living in the U.S.A.
This work expressed a sense of American nationalism and it was used in order to promote the idea that the U.S.A. is safer and better than that of Germany. The short film dramatizes the horrors of totalitarianism and living under the Third Reich. This film and the song became widely popular in the United States and even received an Academy Award for best animated short film.
This source was very relative to my family History as my Grandma was living in the United States during WWII. By including propaganda from this time, I was able to analyze what was going on in the United States and their Anti-Nazi feelings. I found it very interesting that both of my grandparents were of German descent but neither were for the Nazi’s cause. I believe this shows how many people that joined the Nazi’s cause did it out of fear, rather than their personal beliefs.
Art From the Holocaust Exhibit
Smerling, Walter, curator. 2016. German Historical Museum. 15 March 2017.
This exhibit is located in Berlin and it was created to explore the realities of the lives of Jews due to the Nazi power by demonstrating popular Holocaust artworks. The artworks in this exhibit show the harsh realities of Nazi concentration camps, ghettos, and punishments. I chose to focus on two works in this exhibit which I found most interesting to this time in demonstrating how the Jewish people felt. The entire exhibit encompasses the deep feeling associated with this time period and was very compelling to view.
The first work I would like to focus on is “The Refugee”, which was created in 1939 by Nussbaum. This painting was created in order to show the isolation that German Jewish people faced and the fact that they were always on the run. He seems to be asking the audience and himself as to where he can turn to and what can he do to continue on. This painting was the most moving piece in the exhibit, in my opinion. The man in the work is far away from the audience which could further show his isolation, he has a cane next to him which can highlight the struggles of his journey, and the globe sits ominously in the foreground in order to show that he feels like he has no one in the world to turn to and nowhere to go.
While the composition as a whole is very influential and has a deep meaning, it is also interesting that the artist was arrested in Belgium, escaped, and went into hiding. The artist tried to escape his fears and escape the fate that he believed was inevitable as seen in his painting, but he could not. Nussbaum was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. The fact that the artist couldn’t escape the fate he feared shows how extreme and common this problem was. There was no escaping the Holocaust.
The next artwork in this exhibit is by Pavel Fantl in 1941. This work is titled “The Song is Over” and is one of the few Holocaust artworks which actually shows the Nazis themselves. Fantl painted this work in the ghetto of occupied Czechoslovakia. I found it compelling that he created this work while being able to experience and see with his own eyes the horrors of the Nazi regime. In this drawing, Fantl drew Hitler as a clown. Creating this artwork would’ve been a huge risk for him as he criticizes the very person who could make his situation worse. Hitler is portrayed with blood on his hands, in order to exhibit that Hitler is responsible for the suffering. He also holds a destroyed instrument, which was meant to show that at some point Hitler’s regime will fall apart.
Fantl was also murdered by the Nazis in 1945. This artwork was able to survive because a Czech worker smuggled the works out of the ghetto, concealing them in a wall. The extremes that people had to go to in order to protect their voice against the Nazis and their possessions was absurd.
In looking at this exhibit, I was able to see the extreme feelings and trauma that German Jewish people were facing. The fact that these artworks were done by people who actually experienced this treatment, makes the works more meaningful and expressive of the times. To continue, this exhibit also contains artworks that are still being created today regarding the Holocaust, demonstrating the eternal effect that the Holocaust had on lives.
Captain America
Kirby, Jack. Captain America Comics #1. N.p., 1941. Print.
The Great Depression was a time of unparalleled poverty that hit the United States quickly. Americans were struggling to survive as starvation struck. The entire nation was faced with desperation due to the emerging war clouds and weakness as the economy imploded. At this point the Nazi party had begun to break country boundaries, for example, Poland had been invaded. America knew the war was coming but not yet. You didn’t have to have psychic super powers to realize the United States could not stay out of the war much longer.
One writer that worked on the creation of Captain America comics was Joe Simon. Joe Simon was a Jewish writer and he realized before the war had even started that America needed a hero in the future. The result was a character that was a statuesque role model, ethical leader, and a symbol of American nationalism known as Captain America. This new comic book marvel was the soldier that embodied the strength America needed in these harsh times. The star-spangled soldier was born to fight the Nazi party and first appeared in 1941.
Captain America was used as Anti-Nazi propaganda and even helped to sell war bonds. The creators made him endlessly intriguing by making him composed of all of what the Nazis despised. Instead of working to create a super race like that of Hitler’s Aryan race, they only made it possible to inject one person to be the hero and that person was Steve Rogers. Before his transformation he was a boy suffering from starvation with a strong Depression-raised courage. This frail boy became the hero to the United States and shamed German philosophy of eliminating those inferior, since in this case the inferior becomes the hero.
I chose to look at the comic book in which Captain America is infamously punching Hitler on the cover. This issue was widely celebrated as they sold about one million copies. This was created before the United States entered the war and was focused around fighting the Axis powers. I believe that this relates to my family history as they were a form of propaganda used during the war and these comics were very popular. Almost any American during this time would’ve known who Captain America was. For this reason, I felt that this was something that could relate to my grandparents who were teenagers at the start of the war.
Interfaith Cooperation: An invitation for all Beliefs
Sink, Elizabeth. TED. Mar. 2016. Lecture.
This Ted Talk was made in 2016 and it focuses on the Interfaith Movement that has been spreading in recent years and the work that students are doing at Colorado State University involving this issue. The goal of the interfaith movement is to put an end to religious extremism and thinking that one’s beliefs are better than another’s. Her goal is to help people realize that all communities should be accepting of spiritual diversity and interfaith relationships.
The speaker Elizabeth Sink is currently a teacher with a very unique teaching method in which she considers each student’s current cultural, socio, political landscape. She works to advance communication between those of differing religious beliefs and that of religious versus nonreligious people. She expresses that all people have very similar goals and beliefs founded in their religions. Rather than try to convert other people or believe you are superior due to your religious affiliation, she believes that people can grow in their individual religions by learning about others. This Ted Talk also highlights the shared beliefs that varying religions have and how each religion can relate to another.
I included this video because it proves that people still have problems with other religions and those of interfaith religions, but it also shows how people are starting to realize that this is wrong. This Ted Talk explains how it seems archaic to judge others for marrying outside of their religion, especially considering the similar fundamental beliefs that all religions uphold. Interfaith cooperation is something that should be present in every community and this makes it clear to me the struggles that my grandparents faced in their community.
Beloved strangers: interfaith families in nineteenth-century America
Rose, Anne C. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 2001. Print.
“In ancient Israel, marriage bore the added symbolic weight of mirroring the Jews’ covenant with God. The prophet Malachi mixed images of religious disloyalty and sexual dishonor…to be a Jew required endogamous marriage. Once the Hebrew Bible equated the covenant of Abraham, preserved by marriage, with the sphere of purity, intermarriage signified pollution” (Rose 6).
Since I was a little girl, I was given a choice. My brother was given the same choice before I was born. And my father was given this choice before him. Most people’s religious beliefs and foundations are due to that of what their parents believe and the household is generally of a singular faith. In my family, the children get to choose what religion they want to follow and they are not impacted by the faith of their parents in any way. I’m sure you can imagine this choice requires an extensive amount of understanding different religions and understanding what you as an individual have faith in. In order to make this decision I looked to my father and his siblings who had already made this decision and their individual faiths: some are Jewish, some are Catholic, some are Baptist, and so on. As a child I got to celebrate a variety of religious holidays and learn about each religion in its entirety. I didn’t realize then that many people do not grow up with this sort of big question: what religion do I associate with? While this question was a hard one to answer, I was happy I had this choice and that I had a family of so many diverse beliefs. However, until this year and this class I never really wondered why I have this choice. While everyone has the freedom to choose their religious beliefs, why was this one choice so important to my family? Why did they want to assure me that I could have any beliefs I wanted?
To answer this question, I had to learn about my grandparent’s marriage, which was much more than a simple ‘I do’. Due to the fact that my Grandma is Jewish and my Grandfather is Catholic, many people had a problem with them being wed. My grandfather was dismissed from his church, where he had spent every day of his life for the past 17 years. Many people refused to attend their wedding and they faced widespread struggles due to their religious beliefs. People seemed to think that one of them should convert or their marriage wasn’t legitimate. It was very uncommon for people to marry outside their religion: Jews married Jews and Catholics married Catholics. The Catholic Church refused to let them be wed in the church and the Halakkah, the body of Jewish law, did not recognize their existence. Their marriage raised so much controversy and anger that my grandparents refused to let their interfaith union divide their children. For this reason, each of their five children got to choose their faith and many of those children asked for their kids to do the same. Their interfaith marriage is something they are proud of despite the struggles that they faced to get there.
For this reason, I chose to read Beloved Strangers: Interfaith Families in Nineteenth Century America by Anne Rose. Anne Rose chose to track the experiences of twenty-six interfaith families for several generations. This text was really interesting because it contained many of the individual’s thoughts, feelings, and struggles through the letters, journals, and memoirs that she collected. This book also highlights the personal adjustments they made to make the marriage work for the husband, wife, and their children. One of the families had to change how they practiced their religion in order to make it more suitable for their home life and another couple chose a singular religion to impose on their children, so that they did not cause confusion. These sacrifices and the strength to be married despite the controversy, helped me understand what my grandparents went through before they could say their vows and start their life together.
Eyewitness to World War II: unforgettable stories and photographs from history’s greatest conflict
Kagan, Neil, and Stephen G. Hyslop. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2013. Print.
“This book focuses on the trials, prayers, and sacrifices of Americans in World War ll, while providing a global overview of that great conflict, from the rise of Nazi Germany to the fall of Imperial Japan…It reminds us of the vital role Americans played on the world stage when they joined with their allies on distant shores to uphold freedom and democracy” (Ambrose, Intro).
During WWII the Alien and Sedition Act allowed the United States Government to detain German-American citizens during wartime. This act angered many German nationals and descendants of ethnic Germans for they believed as citizens of the United States they should not face this sort of segregation. My grandpa’s parents were native-born Germans and he feared not being able to participate in the war, but when the government examined his individual case he was informed he wouldn’t be detained. My grandpa fought for the United States as a German-American in the United States. Many German-American citizens sympathized with the Nazi party, but the ones that didn’t were a major asset in the war. German Americans fighting for the United States and who had knowledge of the German language were used for wartime intelligence, serving as spies and translators for the United States. In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt even sought out German Americans for top war jobs such as with that of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I chose to read Eyewitness to World War II: Unforgettable Stories and Photographs from History’s Greatest Conflict by Kagan and Hyslop because this text helped me to understand the war through the words of those who actually experienced it. This text had accounts of both those experiencing war on the home front, like my grandma, and on the battlefield, like my grandfather. This showed me the history of the war from several perspectives as the text describes the experiences of many people like that of Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy who was working against the United States to help plot the bombing of Pearl Harbor. These firsthand accounts help me see through their eyes how gruesome the war was and they helped me to realize how much people are still haunted by this battle,
“They still remember. People around the world still honor those young Americans who helped secure their liberty by ending the tyranny…Schoolchildren on Guam sing songs of tribute to the Marines who stormed their beaches in 1944 and freed the Island from Japanese occupiers. The youngster of Normandy wave American flags on June 6 to commemorate D-Day. The good people of Melbourne have not forgotten the U.S. troops who defended Australia…” (Kagan et. al.).
This source helps me understand what it was like for my Grandma to have to see her husband go to war. I also believe it has given me insight as to why my Grandpa felt he should fight against Germany. My grandpa’s participation in the war demonstrates how far they have come from their original routes.
“The History of Eyeglasses”
Surrence, Matthew. Through the Lens. N.p., 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.
Look carefully at this sentence. Is it blurry to you? In this day and age, you can probably see that sentence without any strain because you either a) have good vision or b) have glasses or contacts. In the mid-1780s Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocals, which could serve for both the near and more distanced objects. However, glasses aren’t only something to be marveled over for their success at fixing vision, they should also be noted as interesting historical guidelines. This article by Surrence, explains how the developing styles were shaped by history. By looking at the fashions in eyeglasses, one can get a decent idea of what was going on in the United States at that time. I am working to get a better reflection of the times and the changing styles before my interview with my grandmother as she worked selling glasses for the majority of her life. In doing this I will better understand what was going on in the world during her life and I will be researching something that has always interested my grandmother.
I would like to start with the 1930s. Sunglasses had become widely popular due to the invention of the filter to polarize sunlight. But why were sunglasses so widely bought in the United States? Because of the glamorous movie stars that were wearing them. The 1930s were a difficult time for many Americans, but this time period saw the rise of arts, culture, and sports. “Talkies” experienced an end to the era of silent films, which caused many new Hollywood stars to emerge. A few from this time period are James Cagney and Shirley Temple. To continue, Bette Davis and Marlene Dietrich were constantly photographed wearing sunglasses, which caused sales to spike. The popularity of sunglasses exemplifies the rise in pop culture during this period. At this time my grandma would’ve been a young child, who was being mesmerized by the glamour surrounding new stars.
Then, in the 1940s WWII had begun and sunglasses style changed dramatically. Aviator style sunglasses were being bought by the bucket loads because these were the sunglasses that pilots wore in the war. The aviator style was created to serve the men fighting for their country. Due to a sense of nationalism and pride in their country, this style became adorned by many Americans. The model first gained popularity when Douglas McArthur wore these style sunglasses at the Pacific Theater. At the time when this style grew in popularity, my grandmother would’ve been around 12 years old and would’ve been experiencing the United States in wartime.
Post war time eyewear would’ve been much more diverse due to the invention of new colored plastics. While before round, wire, or tortoise shell frames were the only options, they were developing into more unique forms. For example, the women’s glasses shape of cat-eye formed during the late 1940s, which made glasses more feminine and acceptable. Before this time, women were not supposed to shield their faces except for by means of a hat. These glasses and other feminine shapes allowed for women to have more social freedom and allowed them to express themselves. The fact that people were able to purchase frilly glasses simply to serve as a fashion statement also reflects the economic boom that the country was facing. People finally were able to spend money on luxury or non-necessity goods. At this point, my grandma would’ve been about 15 years old.
The history of glasses in the United States is helping me to better understand what sorts of things my grandma was going through during her life in the United States. I also think that by learning about what was going on in the United States through the development of sunglasses, I will be able to better relate to my Grandma’s interests and her chosen line of work.
