4º British: And the winner is...

The winners of our I Historical Short-Film Festival are...

• Most popular film: "Dictators in a minute" (13 votes) 
• Best historical film: "Nazi's experiments" (14 votes)
• Best actress: A.B.G. (9 votes)
• Best actor: M.B.G. (6 votes)

¡Congratulations to all the winners! You will be members of the "Great Jury" in next year's edition...

4º British: Berlin after the war

After studying the II World War, the following items could be interesting complements for finding out how was real life after the war:

• Video: Berlin after the war (Collage produced by Kronos Media with archive materials)
• Book: Wild continent: Europe after WWII, by Keith Lowe (Editorial: Galaxia Gutemberg)

World War II left Europe in chaos. Landscapes and cities destroyed and more than 35 million dead. Crime rates increased, economies collapsed and Europeans were on the edge of exhaustion.

In that book Keith Lowe describes a continent still shaken by violence, where much of the population had not yet accepted that the war was over. He underlines the lack of morality and the thirst for revenge of the five years following the war. Describe ethnic clashes and the establishment of a new order that finally brought a difficult stability to a continent devastated.

Based on original documents, interviews and academic studies in eight different languages, "Wild continent" radically changing the way that until now was the WWII and helps to understand the Europe of today, heir to those conflicts.

4º British: Occupation of Czechoslovakia

On September 30, 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, French Premier Daladier, and British Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, which sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace.

Although the agreement was to give into Hitler’s hands only the Sudentenland, (that part of Czechoslovakia where 3 million ethnic Germans lived), it also handed over to the Nazi war machine 66% Czechoslovakia’s coal, 70% of its iron and steel, and 70% of its electrical power. Without those resources, the Czech nation was left vulnerable to complete German domination.

No matter what concessions the Czech government attempted to make to appease Hitler (like dissolving the Communist Party or suspending all Jewish teachers in ethnic-German majority schools), rumors continued to circulate about “the incorporation of Czechoslovakia into the Reich.”

In fact, on March 15, 1939, during a meeting with Czech President Emil Hácha (66-year-old, Hácha was an inexperienced politician with a bad heart condition) Hitler threatened a bombing raid against Prague, the Czech capital, unless he obtained free passage for German troops into Czech borders. He got it. That same day, German troops poured into Bohemia and Moravia. The two provinces offered no resistance, and they were quickly made a protectorate of Germany. By evening, Hitler made a triumphant entry into Prague. "Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist!" he announced.

Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was the end of appeasement:

• It proved that Hitler had been lying at Munich.
• It showed that Hitler was not just interested in a 'Greater Germany' (the Czechs were not Germans).
• On 31st  March, Chamberlain guaranteed to defend Poland if Germany invaded. That happened on 1st September 1939. It was the beginning of the II World War...

Meanwhile, Czechs took an active resistance against the regime. In fact, high-ranking official Reinhard Heydrich was the only leading Nazi assassinated during the war: on May 27, 1942 two Czech parachutists, sent by the Czech government-in-exile in London, hurled a bomb at his car; Heydrich died several days later because of the injuries.

At the beginning of 1945, Praguers openly rebelled against the Germans, as the Soviets arrived to free Prague on May 9, setting the country on a different, though just as bleak and dismal, path that triggered 40 years of Communist terror...

You can read more details about the Czech resistance and also watch a 3-minutes video about the German occupation of Czech territory.

1ºBritish: new dioramas!

Once again (third year consecutive), here you have the pictures of your dioramas, some of them truly spectacular, such as the Roman road, the Bridge of Alcántara or the Pont du Gard...

There are also some well-known monuments, such as the Theater of the Temple of Diana, both in Mérida:

A circus, for chariot races, a Triunphal Arch, the Acueduct of Segovia... and Pompei! with its famous volcano.

They are some other more modest but also valid examples: the Column of Traian and a thermal bath.

3º British: Designing a City

Have you ever think in ruling a city? Now it’s your opportunity! Now you can design your ideal city, growing it from the start up!

First, design and settle your city: name, place (and the natural conditions that can affect it: climate, relief, proximity to sea, etc), communications network (airport, train stations, highway? Distance from capital city...), economical bases (remember not to focus too much in just one sector!), population and services needed (hospitals, schools, university, research center?, parks, etc.)

Second, each group member will become one of the four Sustainability Experts, completing the urban design from an expertise point of view:

Renewable Energy Consultant

Public Transportation Manager

Accesibility Supervisor (also include safety measures for women)

Waste Management Officer

As a group, you must determine the route your community will take in becoming the most environmentally friendly, safe, and sustainable it can be!

Communication, cooperation, collaboration and a bit of creativy are vital to making this research process a success!  

Write a report with the info of your design, as complete as possible. Of course, you should include some pictures, and obviously draw your street plan!. Them, as usual, send it to blogeducativo08@gmail.com when finish. This work will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish them or you give it out of date, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

Here are some additional documents and links that can help you get started with your project design:

Transforming cities (several tips from Siemens)

What's a Sustainable City, Anyway? Article by James Elsen, CEO of Sustain Lane

Safe cities for Women (United Nations Program)

European Disability Strategy

Accesibilidad Global (in Spanish): legislation (EU and Spain) and glossary.

Enjoy it! And... good luck! J