Now imagine... After publishing his book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in 1960, William Shirer is contacted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

William Shirer Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Eisenhower tells Shirer to report to Washington D.C. immediately.

Shirer is shocked and frankly very curious as to why the President wants him to go to D.C.

Shirer flies to D.C. and meets with President Eisenhower in the Oval Office.

President Eisenhower tells Shirer the CIA has developed a time traveling machine.

President Eisenhower asks Shirer to step into the time traveling machine and travel back to Germany 1919. Shirer is clearly hesitant to do but before he can object President Eisenhower says,

“Mr. Shirer if you go back in time and convince the Germans that the Treaty of Versailles is not all that bad, that it’s actually relatively reasonable and if you convince them to accept and support their democratic republic… it would be possible to avert a Second World War, the Holocaust, and this mess we’re in right now with the USSR.”

Shirer ponders the President’s request…

Germany 1919 The year is 1919 and the #diktat movement is spreading around Germany like wildfire. Germany is becoming a very dangerous place… the value of the mark is diminishing, hunger is rampant, and there is turmoil and unrest throughout the country. In fact, in Berlin, Communists launched the Spartacist Revolt. In an effort to squash the Revolt, the government ordered the Freikorps (a paramilitary group) to attack the workers and end the unrest. Germany is dire straits…

If he goes back in time and convinces the Germans the Treaty wasn’t that bad and that they need to give the Weimar Republic a chance, he could extinguish the fires raging in Germany at the time and possibly prevent the country from being engulfed by a wave of nationalism and anti-republicanism.

Shirer decides to enter the time traveling machine and heed President Eisenhower’s request.

Shirer arrives in Germany 1919 and finds that it is even worse than he had imagined.

Shirer decides the best form of action is a media campaign.

Task: Create a poster that exemplifies your assigned caption and hashtag. There should be a large illustration in the center. * You may use the SMART Board

to trace! Underneath the illustration should be the caption. Underneath the caption should be your assigned hashtag and then as many more

hashtags as your group would like!

Shirer’s thesis: Germans didn’t accept the Treaty of Versailles, although it was reasonable, nor did they accept their new government, the Weimar Republic. Germans bitterness towards the Treaty and their lack of support for the Weimar Republic caused Germany to be a “house divided” and facilitated the rise of Hitler.

Group Caption Hashtag1 The Treaty of Versailles

was more reasonable than the Treaty the Germans imposed on the Russians.

#reasonable

2 Germany lost little territory (territory it can be argued it deserved to lose)

#reasonable

3 Germany was left a potentially powerful nation.

#reasonable

4 The German Army said armed resistance against the Allies would be impossible so the Weimar leaders signed the Treaty.

#accept

5 Conservatives, the Army and the Judiciary working against the Weimar Republic.

#accept

6 Call to the Weimar Republic: Do not deliberately let the mark plunge! The masses will blame you for their

#unacceptable

misery!