Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yesterday, May 1st, was Holocaust Remembrance Day. To honor all those who suffered through the Holocaust, I think it is important to remember what happened and work hard to keep it from happening again. So I'm sharing the episode of Secrets of the Dead entitled Escape from Auschwitz. It is the story of the two men who escaped Auschwitz in order to warn Hungarian Jews of the tragic fate of Polish Jews.


More Resources...

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Holocaust Encyclopedia

NOVA: Holocaust On Trial


Sonnet Ireland
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research, Political Science
Urban Studies, Engineering

Armistice Day

In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a treaty was signed to end World War I, know as "The Great War" and as "the war to end all wars." On the one year anniversary of the treaty, November 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the day as the first commemoration of Armistice Day.

On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a concurrent resolution, recognized this date as a day to be remembered annually. It became a legal holiday on May 13, 1938 with the passing of the Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a). This day was set aside as a day to honor the veterans who fought in World War I. After World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd Congress (with the encouragment of veterans service organizations) amended the Act by replacing Armistice with the word Veterans. It was approved on June 1, 1954, and November 11th became Veterans Day.

On October 8, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation" (19 Fed. Reg. 6545 (October 12, 1954).

For more information on this important day, visit the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs' History of Veterans Day site.

Sonnet Erin Brown
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research, Political Science
Earth & Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Urban Studies

40th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  

In 1945, the Nazis surrendered Berlin at the end of World War II.  Berlin, like the rest of Germany, was divided into four zones, which were controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.  The zones controlled by the U.S., Great Britain, and France became capitalist and democratic, while the fourth zone, controlled by the Soviet Union, became a communist dictatorship.  Originally, people could pass freely through the different zones.  This changed, however, as more people left the communist areas for the capitalist areas.

On August 13, 1961 at 2 a.m., a barbed wire was put up between East Berlin and West Berlin.  Two days later, the barbed wire would be replaced with concrete slabs.  The wall would ultimately be 96 miles long and 12 feet high.  Many attempt to escape to West Berlin; many are killed during the attempts.  The wall not only separated the East Berliners from freedom; in many cases, it separated them from their families.  

Finally, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall is opened.  

For more information, check out the Smithsonian Institution's Newseum web site:

http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/

Sonnet Erin Brown
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research, Political Science
Earth & Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Urban Studies