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I remember seeing photos of Eastern European Jews welcoming German soldiers during WWI and a rabbi blessing them. They would have seemed as liberators and preferable to the “heroic” Cossacks who enjoyed slaughtering unarmed civilians.
Chart is deceptive because most from eastern Europe were murdered in their own country or region while most in the west were transported to the death camps.
Much of Eastern (Slavic) Europe had a longer history of murderous antisemitism that lasted well into the 20th century before Hitler came to power. My mother who emigrated at age 10 from Ukraine in 1914 remembered stones being thrown at Jewish homes after Good Friday through Easter. My paternal grandfather who lived with his family in Warsaw decided to emigrate in 1905 after a Cossack rampage against the Jews.The death camps and einsatz commandos had plenty of willing volunteers from Ukraine, Byeolrus, Lithuanians, Poles, and the Balts. Serbs and Bulgarians were the exception. So were a minority of righteous and courageous individual Christians.But then, the criminals were also murderous toward other "tribes" -- check the WWII events in Yugoslavia (read WARTIME by Djilas), which explains much of what happenedthat led to the massacres of the 1990s. Croats and Bosnian Muslims committed equal opportunity atrocities against anyone not them while supporting the Nazis.
Another thought — after the war, the greatest number of immigrants stayed in the north or moved to the new states out west. They had no connection with thst part of our history, and when they learned about it could not possibly have the same emotional interest as those who had fought or whose family/ancestors had fought.
Decades ago I read a book titled America B.C. , in which the author (whose name I have forgotten) postulated that Celts arrived on the east coast over many centuries before Leif Ericson, and one can still find a mini-Stonehenge and other similar evidence of that plus some Celtic words among the Iriquois and Algonquin languages. Don't know if he was discredited or not.Still, Columbus must always receive credit for beginning the permanent European colonization and conquest of the entire New World.
The July following 9/11 a security type stopped and wanded at infamous Logan airport, then in grunts I could barely understand he pointed at a chair for me to sit and take off my shoes. While I was putting them back on, another “security guard” yelled at him, “Hey, Mohammed, come here.”
At U.C. Berkely 1950, I took a “great books” course that included:OthelloDon QuixoteWar and PeaceMadame BovaryVanity Fair in the 1930s had famous authors list the most boring books they had read. Many classics made the cut.
Several decades after WWII, a fighter pilot told me when he did strafing runs after the bombers, he could see bodies stacked like cords of wood waiting for burial, and the stench of burnt human flesh permeated his oxygen mask and nearly caused him to barf.Aside from the "Bomber" Harris revenge theory, I have read that the hope was to clog the roads with refugees.Another was that the allies believed Dresden was an important communication center for the Wehrmacht.Fighting to win or survive total war is not for the tender hearted. Better to apologize for collateral deaths and damage after victory than to lose for trying to avoid civilian casualties and beg for mercy after defeat.
New building projects and dorms have to be paid for too. In 1949, UCLA had only 7,000 students, Stanford about 5,000, and the State colleges about 5-7,000. Cal had 20,000 when I attended. I read in 1955 that only 6% of the entire USA had attended a college, and included those who had only one semester at a Jr. College. No SATS in those days either. A straight B aver got you into Cal or UCLA, C average for the State colleges. A high school diploma meant something in those days.
Relating to the discussion on tuition in this thread, here is a graph showing the rise in tuition vs. the consumer price index over the decades.http://consumerist.com/2010/09/when-will-the-college-tuition-bubble-burst.html
I may have posted this elsewhere but relevant here. My Sept. 1949 tuition at U.C. Berkeley was $37.50/semester, no charge for units, and $12.50 for a student body card that got us into games and events for free. S.F City College was $2.00 a semester because it was part of the city school system. My senior year residence at International House cost $62.50/month with meals and maid service.
