La Basilica della Resurrezione
L'apparizione del Risorto alla Maddalena ci ricorda che anche noi, come lei, siamo inviati ad annunciare la realta' di questo evento. Insieme al presidente del Santo Sepolcro, meditiamo sui luoghi della Resurrezione di Gesu' e delle sue prime apparizioni
Words at War: Assignment USA / The Weeping Wood / Science at War
The Detroit Race Riot broke out in Detroit, Michigan in June 20, 1943, and lasted for three days before Federal troops restored order. The rioting between blacks and whites began on Belle Isle on June 20, 1943 and continued until the 22nd of June, killing 34, wounding 433, and destroying property valued at $2 million.
In the summer of 1943, in the midst of World War II, tensions between blacks and whites in Detroit were escalating. Detroit's population had grown by 350,000 people since the war began. The booming defense industries brought in large numbers of people with high wages and very little available housing. 50,000 blacks had recently arrived along with 300,000 whites, mostly from rural Appalachia and Southern States.[2]
Recruiters convinced blacks as well as whites in the South to come up North by promising them higher wages in the new war factories. Believing that they had found a promised land, blacks began to move up North in larger numbers. However, upon arriving in Detroit, blacks found that the northern bigotry was just as bad as that they left behind in the deep South. They were excluded from all public housing except Brewster Housing Projects, forced to live in homes without indoor plumbing, and paid rents two to three times higher than families in white districts. They also faced discrimination from the public and unfair treatment by the Detroit Police Department.[3] In addition, Southern whites brought their traditional bigotry with them as both races head up North, adding serious racial tensions to the area. Job-seekers arrived in such large numbers in Detroit that it was impossible to house them all.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government was concerned about providing housing for the workers who were beginning to pour into the area. On June 4, 1941, the Detroit Housing Commission approved two sites for defense housing projects--one for whites, one for blacks. The site originally selected by the commission for black workers was in a predominantly black area, but the U.S. government chose a site at Nevada and Fenelon streets, an all-white neighborhood.
To complete this, a project named Sojourner Truth was launched in the memory of a black Civil War woman and poet. Despite this, the white neighborhoods opposed having blacks moving next to their homes, meaning no tenants were to be built. On January, 20, 1942, Washington DC informed the Housing Commission that the Sojourner Truth project would be for whites and another would be selected for blacks. But when a suitable site for blacks could not be found, Washington housing authorities agreed to allow blacks into the finished homes. This was set on February 28, 1942.[4] In February 27, 1942, 120 whites went on protest vowing they would keep any black homeowners out of their sight in response to the project. By the end of the day, it had grown to more than 1,200, most of them were armed. Things went so badly that two blacks in a car attempted to run over the protesters picket line which led to a clash between white and black groups. Despite the mounting opposition from whites, black families moved into the project at the end of April. To prevent a riot, Detroit Mayor Edward Jeffries ordered the Detroit Police Department and state troops to keep the peace during that move. Over 1,100 city and state police officers and 1,600 Michigan National Guard troops were mobilized and sent to the area around Nevada and Fenelon street to guard six African-American families who moved into the Sojourner Truth Homes. Thanks to the presence of the guard, there were no further racial problems for the blacks who moved into this federal housing project. Eventually, 168 black families moved into these homes.[5] Despite no casualties in the project, the fear was about to explode a year later.[6]
In early June 1943, three weeks before the riot, Packard Motor Car Company promoted three blacks to work next to whites in the assembly lines. This promotion caused 25,000 whites to walk off the job, effectively slowing down the critical war production. It was clear that whites didn't mind that blacks worked in the same plant but refused to work side-by-side with them. During the protest, a voice with a Southern accent shouted in the loudspeaker, I'd rather see Hitler and Hirohito win than work next to a nigger.
Words at War: Der Fuehrer / A Bell For Adano / Wild River
The town of Adano is a fictional Sicilian port town modeled after the real town of Licata, one of the disembarkation town of the Allied Occupation of Italy. Just like Adano, the town of Licata has a shipping and sulfur industry, a fishing port, and its largest church is the Church of Sant'Angelo. Additionally, Benito Mussolini did have Licata's 700 year old bell melted to make ammunition.[5] Major Joppolo is based on the American military governor of Licata named Frank E. Toscani. John Hersey visited Toscani for four or five days during the war and created Victor Joppolo from him, even noting that he held a job as a civilian clerk in the New York City Sanitation Department.[6] General Marvin is an obvious depiction of the World War II General Patton, who was known for his bitterness and cruelty, but also his effectiveness.
Führer was the unique name granted by Hitler to himself, and this in his function as Vorsitzender (chairman) of the Nazi Party. It was at the time common to refer to party leaders as Führer, yet only with an addition to indicate the leader of which party was meant. Hitler's adoption of the title was partly inspired by its earlier use by the Austro-German nationalist Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also commonly referred to as the Führer without qualification, and who also used the Sieg Heil-salute.[3] Hitler's choice for this political epithet was unprecedented in German. Like much of the early symbolism of Nazi Germany, it was modeled after Benito Mussolini's Italian Fascism. Mussolini's chosen epithet il Duce or Dux if Latin ('the Leader') was widely used, though unlike Hitler he never made it his official title. The Italian word Duce (unlike the German word Führer) is no longer used as a generic term for a leader, but almost always refers to Mussolini himself.
After Hitlers' appointment as Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act which allowed Hitler's cabinet to promulgate laws by decree. One day before the death of Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg Hitler and his cabinet issued a decree, that dissolved the office of the president and made Hitler Hindenburg's successor. However this move was in breach of the Enabling Act. Hitler adopted Führer und Reichskanzler, combining his positions in party and government, as his title.[1][2] Ostensibly Hitler did not use the title president out of respect for Hindenburg's achievements as a heroic figure in World War I (though the decree, rather impiously, was already passed before Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934).
In popular reception, the title of Führer and Chancellor was soon understood to mean Head of State and Head of Government -- a view that becomes even more accurate[citation needed] seeing that he was given by propaganda the title of Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes (Leader of the German Reich and People), the name the soldiers had to swear to. However, it keeps some meaning as Leader of Party and Head of Government with reference to the confusing relationship of party and state, including posts in personal union as well as offices with the same portfolio Hitler wanted to fight for his favour. The style of the Head of State was changed on July 28, 1942 to Führer des Großdeutschen Reiches (Leader of the Greater German Reich). In his political testament, Hitler also refers to himself as Führer der Nation.[4]
Nazi Germany cultivated the Führerprinzip (leader principle),[5] and Hitler was generally known as just der Führer (the Leader). One of the Nazis' most-repeated political slogans was Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer — One People, One Nation, One Leader.
According to the Constitution of Weimar, the President was Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Unlike President, Hitler did take this title (Oberbefehlshaber) for himself. When conscription was reintroduced in 1935, Hitler had himself promoted to the new title Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces), which meant then a presidential position over the Wehrmacht in fact led by another (newly instituted) Commander-in-chief, the Minister for War. Following the Blomberg--Fritsch Affair in 1938, Hitler took the responsibilities of this commander-in-chief for himself, though he kept on using the older formally higher title of Supreme Commander, which was thus filled with a somewhat new meaning. Combining it with Führer, he used the style Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (Leader and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht), yet a simple Führer since May 1942.