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East German Anti Semitism 1949
In 1949, following the creation of the Soviet controlled German Democratic Republic, Walter Ulbricht, the German Communist Party leader unleashed a wave of repression against the last surviving Jews.…
Published on 9 years, 7 months ago
MacArthur and Japan
In 1945, following the dropping of two atom bombs on Japan, General Douglas MacArthur became the ruler of the country for six years. He imposed on Japan a modern constitution, while helping to absolv…
Published on 9 years, 7 months ago
The Fall of Budapest
In January 1945 the city of Budapest was surrounded by the Red Army and Hitler's occupying forces made a desperate and futile last stand. The siege of the city by the Red Army is often overshadowed b…
Published on 9 years, 7 months ago
Poland, Palestine and Zionism
In the second half of the 1930s the Polish Government abandoned its previously liberal policies towards Poland's large Jewish population and instead hoped to force mass migration to the British mand…
Published on 9 years, 7 months ago
The Counterculture and the 1960s
In the 1960s a diverse movement of protest and activism closely associated (but not limited to) the hippy movement developed in the USA. The politicised parts of the counterculture demanded the overt…
Published on 9 years, 8 months ago
Brezhnev and Soviet Stagnation
When Leonid Brezhnev came to power in 1964 he was determined to undo many of the liberalising reforms of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev. However, his appointment of Alexei Kosygin gave joint contr…
Published on 9 years, 8 months ago
John Maynard Keynes and the American Loan
At the end of the Second World War, the USA reshaped the world economy in its own interests. The acute economic problems facing great Britain due to the cost of the war were a matter of indifference …
Published on 9 years, 8 months ago
Rudolf Hoess
When Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz between 1940 and 1943 was tried for his crimes in 1947 he was open and revealing about the process of genocide at the camp and the attitudes of the SS m…
Published on 9 years, 9 months ago
Lawrence of Arabia
In 1916 a British officer, Thomas Edward Lawrence and an Arab prince, Feisal of Mecca led a guerrilla army of Bedouin against the Ottoman Empire in Arabia. In the 1920s Lawrence became an internation…
Published on 9 years, 9 months ago
American Suburbia and Segregation
In the post war decades the dream of new affordable housing came true for millions of white Americans. Black, Latino, Jewish and other ethnic minority families were excluded from the new utopia of th…
Published on 9 years, 9 months ago