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WITNESSES TO HISTORY.   Term Paper ID:29215 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Personal and political responses of two writers.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Personal and political responses of two writers. Marc Bloch's book STRANGE DEFEAT CENTERS on France in World War II and his experiences as a soldier. Criticism of the High Command. Hedda Margolius Kovaly's UNDER A CRUEL STAR covers the history of Czechoslovakia from World War II and Nazi domination to Communist domination from 1948 to 1968. Paper Introduction: Marc Bloch's book Strange Defeat was written soon after the fall of France at the beginning of World War II, while Heda Margolius Kovaly's Under a Cruel Star covers the history of Czechoslovakia from World War II through 1968, showing her native land under the domination first of the Nazis and then of the Communists. The two books reflect the responses of the writers to the events taking place around them and show differing levels of awareness about these events and their meaning. Bloch is fully aware of this role as witness to history and self-consciously notes this from the outset, identifying his particular experience as less important than the historical events taking place around him: The account of what happened to one soldier among many is of no especial interest now when we are concerned Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The two books reflect the responses ofthe writers to the events taking place around them and show differinglevels of awareness about these events and their meaning. .[i]Kovaly shows some of the same awareness but sees the events first in termsof how they affected her rather than how they affected the world at large,noting at the outset as she does that three forces shaped her life: Two of them crushed half the world. . Ibid., 11.7. New York: W.W. I breathe freely only in her climate, and I have done my best, with others, to defend her interests.[iii]Bloch sees the war an intrusive element in French life, and the way hedescribes it shows how the French tried to continue as usual while bombsrained around them. Under a Cruel Star. It was a shy little bird hidden in my rib cage an inch or two above my stomach.[ii] Bloch was a soldier as the war in Europe was developing into a world-wide conflict. Bloch is also enough of a historian to be able to analyze howthis situation developed and to link it to social and political movementsas much as a century old. Ibid., 24.5. She isoften naive about the movement of history just as the people at large were,and this is evident as she decides to join the Communist Party andrationalizes what this will mean: In Czechoslovakia, it would all be different. Yet, his accountsuggests that every witness to history has value, contributing their partof the whole much as they served their specific role in the events: The most we can ask is that each shall say frankly what he has to say. Kovaly's story is a more personal one, though it does represent insome way the experience of millions of people in the war and after. . Endnotes BibliographyBloch, Marc. The third was very small and weak and, actually, invisible. Bloch is also self-effacing not just about his rolebut about his value as a witness, for he notes how his experience was at afairly high staff level where he did not always know what was happening andwhere he had no first-hand experience of the fighting. Kovaly, 11.6. Marc Bloch's book Strange Defeat was written soon after the fall ofFrance at the beginning of World War II, while Heda Margolius Kovaly'sUnder a Cruel Star covers the history of Czechoslovakia from World War IIthrough 1968, showing her native land under the domination first of theNazis and then of the Communists. Both books say much about how history affected the people of thesecountries. Kovaly states, "It is not hard for a totalitarian regime to keeppeople ignorant"[vi], but as Bloch shows, the people often choose to beignorant rather than to face the truth in any society. Kovaly faced the horrors of beinginterned in Nazi concentration camp, returned to her homeland, and foundthat history was repeating itself: It seems beyond belief that in Czechoslovakia after the Communist cup in 1948, people were once again beaten and tortured by the police, that prison camps existed and we did not know, and that if anyone had told us the truth we would have refused to believe it.[v]In this regard, Kovaly sees some of the same broader social issues andproblems noted by Bloch as the public fails to see the depth of the crisis,fails to see what is wrong, and so falls into the same traps over and overagain. But it is always well to have a full description of the witness in the box. Strange Defeat. From a comparison of particular sincerities, truth will eventually emerge.[iv] Bloch was in a position to determine some of the blame for the lossof France, and he sees the incompetence of the High Command as a majorcontributing factor. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986.-----------------------1. Bloch fought in World War I, and in 1939, when he was 53,he was again in uniform as the German threat became more and more apparentto the people of France. Norton, 1968), 1-2.2. I have drunk of the waters of her culture. Bloch expresses his own view that this is the case,while Kovaly's story shows how she has failed to learn and is destined fordisillusionment as the Communist era progresses and her husband is charged. We would leap over a whole epoch.[vii]This is not what happened at all, of course, and yet her belief that itwill shows her own difficulty in learning lessons from her experience, muchas both her book and Bloch's shows how whole society's have greatdifficulty in learning the lessons and history in order to avoid repeatingthe same mistakes. Bloch, 3.4. Bloch also relates the matter to the inabilityof the French people to see the danger, address it soon enough, and adjustsocial institutions to cope with the crisis and seek and achieve a victoryas soon as possible. Her story is very much the story of theCzech people through these years, though she often sees the events more inpersonal terms than for what they say about the people as a whole. Because of this, Bloch notes, the people now findthemselves in the terrible position of having placed their fate in thehands of others, for what happens to France will be due to the efforts ofother nations and not the French themselves. Both Kovaly and Bloch are Jewish, though Blochdid not practice the religion and identified himself not as a Jew but as aFrenchman first: I was born in France. Norton, 1968.Kovaly, Heda Margolius. He spends a good deal of his book expanding on thisidea and showing ways in which the High Command was not up to the task setfor it, and the traditions of the military and of the political leadershipalike are shown to have militated against change and against setting blamequickly and moving on to some element or group that could have done abetter job. Marc Bloch, Strange Defeat (New York: W.W. Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star (New York: Holmes and Meier,1986), 5.3. . We would not be building socialism in a backward society under conditions of imperialist intervention and inner turmoil, but at peace, in an industrially advanced country, with an intelligent, well-educated population. Bloch is fully aware of this role as witness to history and self-consciously notes this from the outset, identifying his particularexperience as less important than the historical events taking place aroundhim: The account of what happened to one soldier among many is of no especial interest now when we are concerned with matters of greater moment than the details of personal adventure . Ibid., 67. Itcovers a much broader period of time and several historical movements andchanges, all related because they enslaved the people and institutions ofCzechoslovakia, destroyed lives, and altered the social order in thatcountry and in that part of the world. . Kovaly escaped from the concentration camp and spent time in theunderground Resistance movement. I have made her past my own. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.