Essay Questions

How was Holland affected by the Nazi occupation during the Second World War?

Alec mentions that during the Second World War, he was in Holland where he was witness to the Rotterdam Bombing. The city was important for the Germans because of its strategic location and because of this, in 14th of May 1940 the city was bombed. A great portion was destroyed and many civilians lost their lived during the raid. After the bombing, many tried to escape the city but German planes continued to drop bombs on the civilians who were trying to flee the city. As a result, the city capitulated the same day and Rotterdam became controlled by the Nazi forces.

What was the Berlin Wall, and what was its role in international relations?

The Berlin Wall was a construction started in 1961 in Berlin. The wall divided the city into two until 1989 and it divided the city into the Eastern block and the Western block. The eastern Block was controlled by Russia and the Western Block was under the influence of the British Empire and its allies. After the Second World War, Germany was divided into four parts between France, England, Russia and the United States. While for a few years the four countries had the same ideas regarding Germany, they quickly began to shift as America and other countries became opposed to the communist ideas Russia was trying to impose in its controlled areas. As a result, in 1949, the FRG and the GDR appeared. Berlin was different from other parts of the country because until then, it was considered as being the Allies headquarters. After the division however, Berlin was split into two, between FGR and GDR. While the Soviets wanted to maintain their part of Germany under their control, the other countries wanted to make Germany self-sufficient once more. Because of the harsh way the Germans were treated in the Soviet controlled Germany, many decided to immigrate to the West side. Scared by the mass immigration, the Soviets tried to restrict immigration and an inner border was closed in 1952. The Soviets urged the Germans to build a wall to stop the West from invading their part and from influencing once more and thus the Wall began to be built in 1961. The area around the Wall was heavily guarded and passing from the Western side to the East side became almost impossible.

What was the Iron Curtain?

The Iron Curtain is a term used to describe the division that took place in Europe after the end of the Second World War. After Germany was defeated, Europe was divided between the West, the part controlled by America and that had democratic ideas, and the East, controlled by the Soviets. The countries in the East block became one by one controlled by Communist Party leaders and in some countries such as Romania, a Communist dictatorship was put in place. The division between the West and the East was called by the Western countries as being the Iron Curtain because it was impossible to penetrate it and the outside countries had no power or influence whatsoever in the countries under Russia’s control. The Iron Curtain began to fall in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and then gradually, with the replacing of the communist parties inside the countries controlled by the Soviet Union with more democratic political ideas.