Are Bone Pieces From Pilot Amelia Earhart?

Photo: AP

Amelia Earhart disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 in a Lockheed Electra 10E while attempting a round-the-world flight. Scientists are studying bone fragments found on a South Pacific island.

Source: www.voanews.com improve your English with Voa Special English, promote this site for friends, I think is the best content on the net.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about an effort to learn what happened to American pilot Amelia Earhart. We will tell about a group that studies developments in technology to predict the future. And we will tell about a complex health disorder called chronic fatigue syndrome.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: American scientists are attempting to recover genetic material in bone fragments that could be from Amelia Earhart. The famous pilot disappeared while flying over the southwest Pacific Ocean more than seventy years ago.

The world has changed greatly since her airplane went missing on July second, nineteen thirty-seven. But public interest in her life and death remains high.

Small bone fragments may help answer continuing questions about her death. Scientists at the University of Oklahoma are performing genetic tests at the Molecular Anthropology Laboratories in Norman, Oklahoma.

FAITH LAPIDUS: When last heard from, Amelia Earhart was seeking to become the first female pilot to fly a plane around the world. Earhart was already internationally known at the time. She had been the first woman to fly a plane alone over the Atlantic Ocean. Still, she was not satisfied.

Earhart wanted to guide her aircraft forty-three thousand kilometers around the equator. Fred Noonan served as navigator for the flight. His job was to plot the plane’s movement.

Earhart and Noonan had completed their planned trip over South America, Africa and Asia when they stopped in New Guinea for fuel. After that, they seemingly did not touch land again. Their bodies and parts of their plane were never found.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bones that might help solve the mystery were discovered last year on the unpopulated Pacific island of Nikumaroro. The island was known as Gardner Island in Earhart’s time. It is about three thousand kilometers south of Hawaii.

Nikumaroro Island could have been on Earhart’s way to Howland Island. Her flight plan called for her to stop on Howland to refuel her specially-designed Lockheed Electra plane.

Scientists are testing bone from Nikumaroro to learn if DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, can be recovered from it. DNA contains all the genetic information about an organism. If researchers find human DNA, it can be compared with DNA provided by a member of Amelia Earhart’s family. The long-time mystery of how Earhart died could be solved if the two DNA samples show family similarities.

An organization interested in aircraft and flight history found the bone material and other objects on Nikumaroro. Volunteers who belong to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery had explored the island repeatedly in the past.

Earlier explorations had found shoes and other objects. The objects might have belonged to the two-person flight team. But that has not been proven.

Volunteers for the group made the new discovery in what appears to have been a camping area. They also found a container with a woman’s face make-up and glass bottles. The bottles were made before World War Two. In the same area was a knife with its blades removed. Opened seashells were nearby. There was also evidence of small fires.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A television program on the Discovery Channel tells about the group’s findings and work. But an expert about Amelia Earhart’s life says she did not land on an island. Instead, writer Susan Butler believes an American court declaration in nineteen thirty-nine. It ruled that Earhart died when her plane crashed into the ocean and sank.

And that is how a recent film about the pilot represents her death. The movie is called “Amelia.” It is one of a long list of shows, books and films about America’s lost woman hero of flight.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: An organization called the World Future Society publishes a yearly report about how technology, the economy and society are influencing the world. Tim Mack heads the World Future Society. He says medicine is one area of growth.

TIM MACK: “I was surprised by the enormous growth in medical technology.”

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mr. Mack says the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology are working together to create new ways to help patients. These include better ways to provide medicine and identify disease without invasive operations.

Mr. Mack also says developments in artificial intelligence could lead to a future where disabled patients could be cared for by a voice-activated robot.

US Army

A surgeon performs an operation using robotic assistance

FAITH LAPIDUS: The World Future Society also publishes The Futurist magazine. Every year it examines developments in technology and other areas to predict the future. The magazine released the top ten predictions from the Outlook 2011 report.

The report said Internet search engines will soon include both text and spoken results. It said television broadcasts and other recordings could be gathered using programs developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Outlook 2011 also examined refuse collection. It said industrial nations will send much more waste to developing countries. This will cause protests in those countries. In about fifteen years, developing countries will stop accepting foreign waste. This will force industrial nations to develop better waste-to-energy programs and recycling technologies.

The report also had a prediction about education. It said young people use technologies for socializing as well as working and learning. So they solve problems more as teams instead of competing. In this way, social networking is supporting different kinds of learning outside the classroom.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Health experts say chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as CFS, is a complex disorder. They say it can cause people to feel fatigued or extremely tired. CFS may also cause physical weakness, muscle and joint pain, problems with memory or thinking, or trouble sleeping. Many people with the disorder have a higher than normal body temperature. They may also have throat pain and weakness in the lymph nodes near the cervix or under the arms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between one million and four million Americans suffer from CFS. Those affected are often unable to perform at their normal level of ability. Bed rest does nothing to ease their problems. Increased physical activity often makes their symptoms worse.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: There is no test to confirm chronic fatigue syndrome.Instead, doctors use a patient's medical history and testing to dismiss other treatable conditions. Those who are confirmed to have the disorder must experience at least four of the symptoms of CFS for at least six months.

CFS was not widely accepted as a medical condition until the late nineteen eighties. Until then, many people who had it were said to be suffering from mental problems or stress.

It is not yet known what causes the disorder. Scientists have been studying the condition and debating its causes for hundreds of years. Some believe the cause is a viral infection.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Last month, experts urged America’s Food and Drug Administration to ban blood donations from people with a history of CFS. The experts noted conflicting results concerning a possible link between the disorder and a group of viruses known as murine leukemia viruses. MLVs are a kind of retrovirus known to cause cancer in mice. They include xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, also known as XMRV.

Last year, researchers tested blood from thirty-seven patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. They also looked at forty-four healthy blood donors. They reported evidence of MLVs in eighty-seven percent of the CFS patients. This compared to seven percent of the healthy patients.

The evidence supports a two thousand nine study that found evidence of XMRV in about two thirds of CFS patients. However, similar studies have found no such link.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE:

A recent report in the journal Retrovirology found that xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is not the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Study organizers said the blood samples in the earlier studies had likely been mixed with DNA from mice.

The Food and Drug Administration has not made a decision about whether or not to ban blood from donors with CFS. But the American Red Cross said that, in the interest of public safety, it would no longer accept blood donations from people who admit to having the condition.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and June Simms, who was also our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Eight things about São Sebastião

Tourism - The São Paulo Coastline

 Source: www.maganews.com.br adquira já sua assinatura, recomendo, muito boa a revista.

Eight things about São Sebastião

Historic buildings, beautiful beaches, crystalline water, an Indian village, and Maresias, the liveliest beach on the São Paulo coast. These are some of the attractions of São Sebastião, the oldest city in the North Coast

Maresias is for people from São Paulo State what Ipanema is for people from Rio. It is the liveliest beach on the São Paulo coast.  The sand is fine and white, the sea is beautiful and the waves are great for surfing. All this is surrounded by the beauty of the Atlantic Forest [1]. Twenty-six kilometers from the center of São Sebastião, Maresias is home to some of the best bars, restaurants and nightclubs on the North Coast. The most famous nightclub is Sirena, considered to be one of the best inBrazil. With a capacity to hold 3,000 people, it has been played by some of the most famous DJs in the world to get the weekends going [2].  Maresias is just one of the attractions of São Sebastião. See below eight things you need to know about the city.

ONE: DISTANCE – São Sebastião is just over 200 km from São Paulo and

 110 km from São José dos Campos. The main access point to this resort is by the Tamoios highway.

TWO:  HISTORY AND POPULATION – It is the oldest city on theNorth Coast. On March 16^th 1636, São Sebastião became a village, and the city’s anniversary is celebrated on March 16^th. Today the city has a population of about 75,000 people.

THREE: INDIANS – Before being colonized by the Portuguese, the region was inhabited by Indians from the Tupinambá and Tupiniquim tribes. As the centuries went by [3], the Indians remained [4] in the city and now São Sebastião is home to a village of Guarani Indians.

FOUR: MOST FAMOUS BEACHES – The São Sebastião coast is just over 100 km long and has over 30 beaches. In São Sebastião you can find crystalline water, desert beaches and even dolphins[5]. The most famous beaches are Maresias, Camburí and Guaecá (the three favorites amongst tourists), Boiçucanga, Juréia, Calhetas, Juquehy, São Francisco, Barra do Una, Paúba, Baleia and Sahi.

FIVE: SPORTS – If you like sports then São Sebastião is the place for you. There are great places to sail [6], surf, dive [7], canoe [8], rappel, mountain bike and hike along trails [9]. You can also enjoy bathing in waterfalls [10] and take a boat trip [11] to some of the islands around São Sebastião.

SIX:  ISLANDS – The main islands are: Ilha das Couves, Arquipélago de Alcatrazes, Ilhas, Ilha do Gato, Montão de Trigo and  Ilha de Toque-Toque.

SEVEN - PORT – São Sebastião is home to one of the largest ports in Brazil and has a Petrobrás terminal.

EIGHT: HISTORIC CENTER – You will feel as if you are traveling in time as you walk along the streets in the historic center of the city. There are many buildings dating back to the XVII and XVIII centuries, such as the Igreja Matriz, the old Casa de Câmara, the Cadeia Pública, the Capela de São Gonçalo and the Fazenda Santana.

Matéria publicada na edição de número 42 da revista Maganews.

Fotos:  Celso Moraes e Felipe Queiroz (Prefeitura Municipal de São Sebastião).

Vocabulary

 1 Atlantic Forest – Mata Atlântica

2 to get the weekends going – para agitar os finais de semana

3 as the centuries went by  -  os séculos se passaram

4 to remain – permanecer

5 dolphin – golfinho

6 to sail - velejar

7 to dive - mergulhar

8 canoe – canoa / navegar em canoa

9 hike along trails – caminhar em trilhas

10 bathing in waterfalls – banho em cachoeira

11 boat trip – passeio de barco

World War, part II

Source: Actual English Magazine

Standard: American Accent

Language level: Basic

Important information, the both Second World War part I and part II use the same podcast, just update it after the part I. Did you like this post, please pass this information for friends twit or share on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, among others.

Word War part II

THE PACIFIC THEATER

1941 also marked another important episode in the chronology of the war with the inauguration of the Pacific Theater. Eyeing the British and French Colonies in Southeast, Asia, the Japanese Emperor Hiroito aligned himself with the Axis Powers. The United States obviously did not look too favorably on the Japanese expansionism. When the Japanese Imperial Arm occupied Indochina in July 1941, the US announced embargos of fuel and strategic materials to Japan. Japan’s response came on December 7 with the treacherous surprise attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The aggressive act demanded an immediate response from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had been reelected president the year before with the promise that he would not drag the US into the war. The US President had to abandon his stance on political isolationism, declare war on Japan, and form a major coalition with the Allied Powers finally giving in to the repeated appeals of Winston Churchill, who curiously enough had become the British Prime Minister the year before due to his stance as a leader in the war against Germany.

In 1942, the tide began to turn and the Allied Powers won significant victories. Between October and November, the British waged the Second Battled of El Alamein in Egypt and successfully prevented the Nazis from taking control of the Suez Canal, a strategic path to the Middle East. It was also in this same year in July that the Battle of Stalingrad, a bloody campaign, would drag on until the following years. At risk was not only an important industrial center and access route to the Caucus region, but the city was also the namesake of the Soviet leader. The success of this and other military actions, such as the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, were vital for the Red Army to be able to reach Berlin.

Shortly after Kursk, with the triumph of the North African Campaign, the Allied Forces succeed in invading Italy. The advance of the enemy troops into their territory and the rising opposition to Mussolini, not only with the general populace but also within the government, forced the Italians to surrender. The Allied troops were able to take Rome on the 4^th of July in 1944, just two days later Operation Overlord was launched – the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in France, which would culminate in the liberation of Paris on August 25.

THE END OF WAR?

1945 sealed the destiny of the soldiers. Mussolini was captured and executed on April 28. Defeated, Hitler committed suicide two days later as The Red Army were advancing on Berlin, after having liberating several Nazi concentration camps and have revealed to the world the horrors of the Holocaust. Equally tragic would be the demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bombs dropped by the Americans over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6^th and 9^th of August, and which eventually forced the surrender of Japan.

These two dark chapters in the history of mankind would become emblematic of the Second World War. There is, nevertheless, another event that may not seem so dramatic or reflect the brutal and deadly character of the conflict, but does, however, illustrate its impact on the course of world history –the division of Germany into four administrative zones controlled by the Allies – which in practice would become two (capitalist and communist). With the bipolarization o the world, expressed in the image of the Berlin Wall in the German Capital, came the pronouncement that the cease-fire would not be the end of the hostilities.

As Norman Davies observes, “if 1918 can be seen as the beginning of a hiatus in the middle of a major conflict, the same happened in relation to 1945. There are excellent reasons to consider the Cold War a continuation of unfinished business from the Second World War. In this case, it should be seen as Europe’s “75 year war” (1914-1989)…This could very well be the framework adopted by the historians of the future.

These are slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Jena: many had died from malnutrition when U.S. troops of the 80^th Division entered the camp. Pvt. H. Miller, Germany, April 16, 1945. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Nearing Completion in Washington

Photo: AFP

A model of the "Stone of Hope" is seen inside a trailer at the construction site of the Martin Luther King National Memorial, 01 Dec 2010

Source: www.voanews.com

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell you about a memorial being built in Washington to honor Martin Luther King Junior. He was America's most influential civil rights leader of the twentieth century.

(MUSIC: ”Oh Freedom”/Odetta)

STEVE EMBER: The third Monday in January is a federal holiday in the United States observing the birthday of Martin Luther King. The new memorial to the civil rights leader is set to open this August on the National Mall. The dedication ceremony is set for August twenty-eighth. That was the day in nineteen sixty-three that he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty we are free at last."

FAITH LAPIDUS: The memorial was twenty years in the planning. It will include a large statue of Martin Luther King. It will also include a wall of quotations from his writings and speeches.

HARRY JOHNSON: "And then you see that we have a crescent-shaped wall seven hundred feet long."

FAITH LAPIDUS: Harry Johnson heads the foundation that has been raising money for the project.

HARRY JOHNSON: "I think we are overjoyed here the Memorial Foundation, knowing, understanding and believing that this is going to come to fruition, and that we are soon going to have a Martin Luther King Memorial here on our nation’s Mall."

STEVE EMBER: In the nineteen sixties, Martin Luther King led protests against racial discrimination. He taught nonviolence. He was influenced by the teachings of India's independence leader, Mohandas Gandhi.

Dr. King's efforts helped lead to the nineteen sixty-four Civil Rights Act. That law barred discrimination based on race, sex, religion or national origin.

Martin Luther King was shot to death four years later, in nineteen sixty-eight, in Memphis, Tennessee.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The new memorial will occupy land close to the Washington Monument and other memorials. President Obama has been invited to speak at the ceremony.

Martin Luther King will be honored with a statue ten meters tall. The memorial will also include the Mountain of Despair, a granite structure weighing one thousand six hundred metric tons.

The lead sculptor for the memorial is Chinese artist Lei Yixin. Harry Johnson explains why the memorial foundation chose him for the project.

HARRY JOHNSON: "We chose him because we really believe that Dr. King’s message is true, that you should not judge a person by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. In these terms, we are thinking artistic character.”

STEVE EMBER: Mr. Johnson says the memorial will make a powerful statement about the progress the country has made in the area of civil rights.

HARRY JOHNSON: “If America was as prejudiced as they say, then would they ever put an African-American on the Mall? And the answer would be no. So now they say we have diversified. We have an America that looks like America when they look at the Mall. And I think visitors from around the world are going to say it is about time that you all, we all understand who Dr. King really was and what he means, not just to America, but indeed the world.”

(MUSIC: “I Shall Not Be Moved"/Johnny Cash)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Martin Luther King's life as a civil rights leader began with the famous protest by Rosa Parks in nineteen fifty-nine. The protest took place on a bus in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama.

At that time, black people in Montgomery had to sit in the back of the bus. Rosa Parks took a seat near the front and refused to move. She was arrested.

STEVE EMBER: Such incidents had taken place before. Racial separation laws existed all over the southern states. Black people did not have the same rights as white people.

But this time a young black minister decided to organize a protest. Martin Luther King urged black people to boycott the buses in Montgomery. That protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Dr. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January fifteenth, nineteen twenty-nine. His father was a Baptist minister. His mother was a former schoolteacher.

He attended Morehouse College, one of the few colleges in the South open to blacks. He studied Gandhi and the works of the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. He thought their ideas about nonviolence and disobedience could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans.

Gandhi believed in peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. Thoreau urged people to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs.

STEVE EMBER: After college, Martin Luther King continued his studies in religion. He also met Coretta Scott, who became his wife. He earned a doctorate in religion, and in nineteen fifty-four a church in Montgomery offered him a job.

Martin and Coretta King started a family and became involved in a number of activities to help the poor.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Many white people thought the Montgomery bus boycott would end if Dr. King was in prison or dead. He was arrested twice. His arrests made national news and he was released.

He continued to receive threats against his life. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation in the Montgomery bus system was unconstitutional.

The boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days. The victory gave black Americans a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest could be used as a tool to win their legal rights.

The civil rights movement spread fast. A group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. Dr. King became president of this new group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He helped organize many protests in the South.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen sixty-three, blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to buy goods from local stores. They demanded more jobs. They also demanded to send their children to white schools. The situation became tense. Many protesters were beaten and arrested.

The protests brought unwanted attention to Birmingham. Soon, white politicians saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protesters than to fight them. That victory for Dr. King and his followers marked another turning point for the civil rights movement.

Shortly after that, Dr. King organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. About two hundred fifty thousand people gathered in the capital. They heard Martin Luther King give his most famous speech. He talked about his dream for the future.

AP

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most famous speech in 1963 to two hundred fifty thousand people gathered in Washington D.C.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: The following year, in nineteen sixty-four, Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize. After returning from the ceremony in Norway he led a voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama.

Next he went north to Chicago, Illinois, to launch efforts to improve poor neighborhoods. But in the North he found that young blacks were not as interested in his methods of peaceful protest.

The civil rights leader turned his attention to other issues. His opposition to the Vietnam War cost him the support of white allies, including President Lyndon Johnson.

Dr. King also demanded a guaranteed income for American families as a way to fight poverty. He threatened to organize national boycotts.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen sixty-eight, Martin Luther King was planning to lead a Poor People's March on Washington. But he never made it. He had gone to Memphis, Tennessee, to lead protests that grew out of a strike by black sanitation workers.

The workers were demanding safer working conditions, higher pay and union representation. But a march led by Dr. King turned violent. Some of the demonstrators broke the windows of businesses and people then stole goods.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A week later, on April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, Dr. King was shot in the neck as he stood on the balcony of a Memphis motel.

James Earl Ray admitted in court that he shot Dr. King. Later, he declared that he was innocent. He died in prison in nineteen ninety-eight.

Dr. King's murder incited violence in cities across the country. But that same year, Coretta Scott King established the Martin Luther King Junior Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The King Center in Atlanta serves as a "living memorial" to Dr. King.

And today the Lorraine Motel where he was shot is the home of the National Civil Rights Museum.

(MUSIC:”We Shall Overcome"/Joan Baez)

STEVE EMBER: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Jeff Swicord. I’m Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can comment on our programs and find transcripts and MP3s at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find a video about the new Martin Luther King memorial in Washington. And we're on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English

.

Family Album, 30

Source: Family Album USA

World War II Part I

The audio is available for part I and part II, tomorrow I am going to update the part II. Like this post? Twit it and share it for friends.





Search: Originally posted by Actual English magazine


On the Stage of Destruction Part I

I would seem like a suicide mission to ride a train, bound for its final destination, in a trajectory that would have to cross Germany – the last place a reasonable person would want to be travelling at that moment with the Great War already underway. Yet the man that rode that train car at the Zurich station in Switzerland on April 9, 1917, with a one-way ticket to his homeland, was not too worried about the war. He knew that the German government had a great deal of interest in guaranteeing that he arrived safe and sound two his destination and that he would complete the purpose of that trip: to lead a new revolution and bring down the Provisional Government that had governed Russia since the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in February of that same year. His name was Vladimir Lenin.

It seems ironic that Germany, in searching for a way to weaken the Russians and to force them to exit the First World War, would support a Bolshevik leader and further – although indirectly –contribute to the founding of the first communist state in the world – the Soviet Union –which would become the great nemesis of the Nazis two decades later. Likewise at the end of that First World War, the Allied Powers wanted to bury the bellicose military ambitions of the Germans once and for all, and, by means of the Treaty of Versailles, impose severe measures that would help to create the Stab-in-the-Back Legend and serve as an important factor in Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power.

As the historian Norman Davies mentioned, in Europe at war 1939-1945: No Simple Victory, “it’s right enough to see WWII as the final stage of a succession of wider conflicts that began in 1914…An opera in two acts with a long intermission is a perfectly viable concept. Because by large (though not completely) the Second World War came about due to unfinished business from WWI.” In other words, it was to have been the War to End All Wars, as US President Woodrow Wilson would have predicted, it served to set the groundwork for a conflict of proportions even more frightening. Even though there is not a consensus and the numbers, depending on the source, fluctuate a great deal, it is estimated that WWII has caused about 60 million deaths.

NOT THAT UNLIKE

One of the principle legacies of WWI was to have made possible the rise of Communism and Nazism – polar opposites in the ideological spectrum (left and extreme right); however, with many elements in common, such as heavy-handed leaders and pillars of support based on strong sentiments about being excluded from the international political scene. So, it was not for nothing that the Soviets and the Germans ended up making close ties

After the success of the Bolshevik Revolution by Lenin in 1917, the Russians sank into a period of civil war between the government and the new regime and their opponents. At the same time, the deterioration o the regime leader’s health brought about a dispute for the succession of power. When Lenin died in 1924, who emerged as leader of the communist nation was Joseph Stalin – who showed himself even more brutal than his predecessor, and pushed through an aggressive policy of expansion.

In the meantime, in Germany, Hitler as leader of the Nazi Party, embarked on a frustrate attempt to seize power in a military coup in 1923. With the failure, the future dictator decided to adopt a new strategy: to win popular support. “The Germans blamed both the great inflation of 1923, which eventually made German currency worthless and so brought economic life to a halt…(by) the vengeful policies of foreigners (at the end of WWI),” affirms historian R.A.C. Parker in the book The Second War –A Short History (Not yet published in Brazil).

As a result of his nationalistic discourse in 1933, the Nazi Party had already celebrated their victory at the polls and the nomination of Hitler as a chancellor – a year later he would become the Fuher. Up until then communism was considered the main factor of instability on the European political scene. A dictatorship from the far right was not new. After all, since 1922 Benito Mussolini controlled Italy: however, the rise of the Third Reich soon became a great source of concern for the other nations on the continent.

THE SCALE OF THE CONFLICT

“1938 was Hitler’s year. In March, be occupied and annexed Austria without firing a single shot, even receiving the enthusiasm of the mass of the Austrian people. Immediately he turned on Czechoslovakia, which he succeeded in breaking up, adding a large portion of it,” states historian John Lukacs in Five Days in London: May 1940 (Cinco Dias em Londres, Jorge Zahra, 2001). The next target was Poland. Before taking on the rest of the world, however, t would be necessary to guarantee the support of Stalin. In August 1939, the Nazis and Soviets signed a treaty, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which paved the way for Hitler to invade Poland on the 1^st of September. Two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The USSR went after its part in the bargain –the eastern section of the Publish territory, the three Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), and later Finland. A political and military crisis arose and once again the stage was set in Eastern Europe. In 1940, Germany launched a series of military actions that demonstrated the force of their Blitzkrieg. The Anglo-French troops failed at preventing the Nazi advance, which would win important victories in Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. The biggest blow, however, was the fall of France. The surrender was announced on July 22, and, by Hitler’s insistence was signed in the same train car where the armistice of World War I was signed in 1918.  The next step was to invade the island of King George VI. Avoiding a clash with renowned Royal Navy –renowned to be superior, the Germans began a series of bombings on British soil right away in that same month, the campaign, however would drag on until October. Great Britain was able to resist, but came out of it somewhat weakened.

A little before the 10^th of July, Italy, which had maintained an agreement of mutual cooperation with Germany from the previous year, officially entered the conflict and declared war against Great Britain and France. On the 27^th of September, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with the two other fascist powers, establishing the Axis Powers, which would be reinforced two months later by the addition of Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. The USSR would also receive an offer to join the Axis Powers, but refused to join due to disputes and irreconcilable differences with Germans over territory and ideology. Faced with having to put off his definitive victory over the British, Hitler, who in his first speeches had said that Germany’s future lay to the east and not the west, decided on June 22, 1941 to launch an attack against the Soviets. It was the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.