A Fresh Look at History from a Curious Perspective
By Dane Schad
A few nights ago I saw the movie Valkyrie, which is very closely based on a a real attempt by German officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. As usual I immediately researched the actual events and surrounding history after the movie ended, because as you may know I am fascinated by that stuff.
Of course, understanding a historical event requires an observer to look at the surrounding history because people act and react based on what has happened previously, especially in their lifetime. The usual method of exploring history is for the observer to go back in time to the events to witness them. But this method fails to (or at least half-assed) let the observer see the effects of previous events on the event he happens to be focusing on, thus giving a tunnel-vision impression of an event. So I propose to bring history to the observer, allowing the observer’s own experiences coupled with his concept of passage of time to more fully understand how shit went down.
What I have done is not very complicated (writing this note took much more time) but hopefully at least a little creative. I took the major events leading to World War II and shifted the dates to modern times. I would rather have done this experiment from a German’s perspective, since his was surely more surreal, but since we are more familiar with American events I stuck with events from an American’s perspective. To maximize the “recent event” effect, I chose the Invasion of Normandy (aka D-Day) as the current event. And so, I need you to pretend. But don’t go back in time. Today is today, and you are you. Instead, pretend we are at war with the Nazis and today is (for posterity) June 30, 2009 (so basically, today).
***T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S***
June 30, 2009
Massive Military Offensive in Europe
London –Today American and British troops ended their nearly month long execution of a massive military offensive on the beaches of Normandy, France. It would appear that the Allies now have a good footing in continental Europe for future progress on the Western Front. It is too early to give reliable final casualty estimates at this time. For the rest of the story, see page 3.
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What’s your opinion on the situation? Are you tired of war yet? Are you too young to have an opinion about war? Do your parents have an opinion? Here are the dates of some recent history to help you decide. Pay particular attention to how old you, your parents, and your grandparents were at the time, or if you were even alive yet. Read them slowly, and let each event and date become reality:
- The American Civil War started in 1926 and ended in 1930.
- Slavery was subsequently abolished on Dec 6, 1930.
- Blacks gained the right to vote on Feb 3, 1935.
- Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1954.
- The United States fought the Spanish in the Spanish-American War from April 25 to August 12, 1963. (we won, and gained the right to fight the Philippines).
- The Philippine-American War began June 2, 1964 and officially ended July 4, 1967.
- The Titanic sank on April 15, 1977.
- The United States ended its occupation of the Philippines in 1978.
- Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, beginning World War I on June 28, 1979.
- Germans sank the American passenger ship Lusitaniaon May 7, 1980. The U.S. remained neutral.
- Germany solicited Mexico’s help and future war vs. U.S., so U.S. entered World War I on April 6, 1982.
- Prohibition (no booze) began Jan 16, 1984.
- World War I ended on June 28, 1984.
- The Nazi Party was created sometime in 1984.
- Women gained the right to vote on Aug 18, 1985.
- The stock market crashed on Oct 29, 1994.
- The Great Depression began roughly around 1995.
- Prohibition ended on Dec 5, 1998.
- Germany invaded Poland on Sept 1, 2004, beginning World War II.
- That was almost 5 years ago.
- The Great Depression ended essentially sometime in 2006.
- Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 2006. (Hawaii is not a state)
- The U.S. declared war against Japan and entered World War II on Dec 8, 2006.
- That was two and a half years ago.
- The Battle of Midway may have given us an advantage over Japan on June 4 – June 7, 2007.
- That was two years ago.
- And today, American and British forces ended a massive offensive against Germany.
Now to repeat the questions:
What’s your opinion on the situation? Are you tired of war yet? Are you too young to have an opinion about war? Do your parents have an opinion?
And yet to come….
- We don’t know it yet, but the first German forces will surrender on April 29, 2010.
- Adolf Hitler will commit suicide on April 30, 2010.
- We will be dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 2010, and Nagasaki on Aug 9, 2010.
- The war will end when Japan surrenders on Aug 15, 2010.
Author Bio: World War II researcher and historian working to preserve history and educate future generations. A student of Military History working to author and collect as much data as possible on the WWII time period. 
