I recently watched the movie Valkyrie. It was about a captain who assassinated Adolf Hitler, so I chose this picture. This is a black and white picture. There are two middle aged men standing in the middle of the picture. The one on the right is Adolf Hitler. The one on the left is Benito Mussolini. Their armies are behind them. This picture has no relationship to Valkyrie, but it attracted me to discover the story behind the picture.
These two men both have solemn and emotionless faces, but Hitler’s face looks more serious. His eyes are droopy. It seems like he didn’t sleep very well for a long time. Hitler’s outstanding square mustache and tightly closed mouth make him look like a cold-blooded killer. His mustache is so hairy that it blocks his nostrils. I don’t know if he can breathe well. His cap covers his bald head and there are only two small, clean ears outside. However Mussolini is wearing a green beret. It also covers all of his hair. I can predict that he has short hair like Hitler’s. His eyes are slanted. Was he sad? Or was he just pretending to be sad. Unlike Hitler’s snub nose, Mussolini has a hawk shaped nose. And he doesn’t have mustache, so he was probably breathing more smoothly than Hitler. His lips are longer and thicker than Hitler’s. He must good at talking. Because they occupied the main part of the picture, I hardly see what the two soldiers behind them look like. I can only see part of one soldier’s face. He looks a little nervous.
In addition to their faces, I’ve also studied their clothing and weapons. The most different part of their clothing is they have different emblems. A swastika symbol is on Hitler’s left arm, while an eagle patch is on Mussolini’s arm. There are many medals hanging from Mussolini’s clothing, but only one little medal hanging from Hitler’s clothing which makes Mussolini’s clothing more like a general’s costume. There are two shining epaulets on his shoulder, and he has a colorful belt. Although they wear nearly the same style clothing, they carry different weapons. There is a sword which is tied at Mussolini’s waist, but Hitler is equipped with a pistol. Hitler seems smarter than Mussolini because a pistol is more efficient than a sword. They have different political opinions. Hitler’s politics are more modern while Mussolini is more conservative.
This is a very common picture on the internet, but it took me a long time to find the story behind the picture. In 1940, the Italian government invaded Greece, and didn’t tell his friend in Germany. Mussolini wanted to improve his government’s status in the Axis Powers. The Italian government didn’t expect that the Greek army would be so brave. Many Italian soldiers died and the Italian government retreated their army to the Greek border, and asked Germany for help. In order to help the Italian army, the Axis Powers invaded Yugoslavia near Greece. This picture was taken when the Axis Powers won the war in Yugoslavia. Two dictators were standing in Yugoslavia and looking around like two hungry raptors. After this was, the Axis Powers began their full-scale war against Russia and America. In this picture, Hitler looks more confident and ambitious. Mussolini always listens to Hitler and follows his orders. Mussolini treats Hitler like his brother and because he looks up to Hitler, Hitler can use him as a weapon. These two men have gotten together to make evil plans to destroy the world.
After carefully studying this picture, I learned more about World War II. But I still don’t understand what made these two guys in the picture become the public enemies in WWII. Their appearance has no difference with other common people, but their behaviors greatly affected the world’s development.
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