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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 6: Minority Groups During WWI 43 Views
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Description:
The enemy of your enemy is your friend. We all know that. But apparently your friends who won't fight your enemies, well they're also your enemies. At least that's what Americans during WWI decided...for some reason.
Transcript
- 00:04
Here's a newsflash while the US was at war with Germany Germans also
- 00:07
happen to be the largest ethnic minority in the u.s. hmm by 1917 when we entered [Man presenting the news]
- 00:14
the war more immigrants had come to the u.s. from Germany than from any other
- 00:18
nation so when the war fired up things got a little awkward at home there were [Man outside theater and dog strolls by]
- 00:24
even cities in the US where German was the primary language the newspapers were
Full Transcript
- 00:28
in German school was taught in German German chocolate cake was the only
- 00:33
dessert just about everyone had a German grandfather mother or spouse and not [Women with their grandfather]
- 00:36
just living in the u.s. many millions of Americans had relatives in Germany to
- 00:40
whom they were very close all this made the propaganda machine have to work
- 00:44
extra hard to demonize the German people in general instead of a complex people [Family transform into demons]
- 00:49
made up of multitudes of different individuals with thoughts opinions and
- 00:53
bona fide human emotions all German people everywhere became the hunt wild
- 00:57
barbarians hell-bent on destroying democracy and the world who knew that
- 01:02
little German grandmas everywhere were hiding such a dark secret [German grandma appears]
- 01:05
well during the war plenty of German America suffered discrimination and
- 01:09
Prejudice at the hands of quote true-blue unquote none German Americans [German mans eyes pop when dog appears]
- 01:13
during the war and it wasn't just Germans who were coming under fire
- 01:16
during wartime many ethnic minorities including Asian Americans and Latinos
- 01:20
were treated with coldness and suspicion that was nothing new another group that [Dogs growling at small dogs]
- 01:25
didn't fare well during the war was conscientious objectors these were
- 01:29
people who refused to fight on the grounds that their religion or personal
- 01:32
beliefs forbid them to kill the countries were accused of being sissies
- 01:36
5 or worse I'll no doubt about it every time war rages elsewhere there are [Soldiers in sword fight]
- 01:41
also battles being fought at home sometimes we become the enemies of
- 01:44
ourselves also of little old German grandma [German grandma stood over man knocked on the floor]
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