Berlin Airlift Dbq

The Berlin airlift was in reaction to Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin's crude attempt to increase the extent of his domination in postwar Europe. After World War II, the United

States and the Soviet Union were the world’s most powerful countries. Stalin knew this and took advantage of his power. The Berlin Airlift was in response to the Cold war from

1947-1991. Gail Halverson was in the Berlin airlift.

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1929 to 1953. Under Stalin’s reign, the Soviet Union was changed into a military and industrial global force. However, he ruled by fear, and millions of his nations people were killed during his dictatorship. Stalin allied with the United States and Britain

during
World War II (1939-1945) but afterward created a tense relationship with the West known as the Cold War (1946-1991).Relations during wartime between the United
States and the Soviet Union can be considered one of the culminating points between the nations.

Even though the relationship was good, there were still differences in warfare between the countries--such as differing ideological and strategic goals. The alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II developed out of inevitability. The Soviets had a lot of human and material loss in war. Approximately 20 million people were killed, thousands of towns and cities were annihilated, and on top of that, the Soviet Union’s economic infrastructure was Cremer 2 destroyed. In contempt of the postliminy postwar controversies and the beginning of the

Cold War, nothing can attenuate the importance of the wartime coadjuvancy between the United States and the Soviet Union.

At the start of 1946, there were about 250,000 Jews residing in Germany, most of them lived in the American sector. Most of them were displaced persons from other countries. About 15,000 of the total were native to Germany. Some Jews had persevered as slave laborers in German factories, while others were the beneficiaries of mixed marriages. The first count of Berlin Jews after the war, counted 1,321 who had survived by hiding, 1,628 survivors from concentration camps, 2,126 spouses of non-Jews who had had no children, and another 1,995 with marriages with spouses out of their

faith.
Gail Halvorsen, better known as the notorious ‘candy bomber’ was a source of hope in Berlin. “No. At first I thought, Well, I won't have time for that. Then I rationalized,
What's a few sticks of gum and chocolate bars, anyway?” (Halvorsen). Gail would drop candy in addition to the supplies that the Americans were already dropping in Berlin.
Gail made such an impact upon the children of Berlin, one of the most memorable moments was shared in an interview by him:
A lady and her daughter, about 10 years old, came out to our airplane. The little girl had a teddy bear—well worn, you could see. She tried to give me the teddy bear. "I can't take your teddy bear," I said. "This is probably the only thing you've got left." She spoke a little English. Her father had been killed in the war, in the bombing of Berlin, and she wanted to give it. I said, "Naw, you can't do that." Her mother interceded. "This teddy bear, my daughter thinks it saved her life during the bombing of Berlin—in the air raid shelter or, if we didn't have time, in the basement," she said. "She had this teddy bear every time and held it tight. In Germany the teddy bear is like a talisman, for good luck. She's convinced it saved her life, and she wants to give it to you… You gotta do it.”