This week in 1939, German authorities declared martial law in Prague, warning protesters they would be shot if they took to the streets. If you didn’t already know this World War II history tidbit, you would have, if you were following @RealTimeWWII.
The English-language Twitter account attempts to retell the 1939-1945 conflict day by day starting this year until 2016. It is being translated into two other languages: Spanish (@TiempoReal_IIGM) and Russian (@war_only).
Oxford history graduate Alwyn Collinson sent @RealTimeWWII’s first tweet on Aug. 31. That date in 1939 was the day before Germany invaded Poland. Almost 900 tweets later, the account now has more than 120,000 followers.
“I’ve tried to cover both important events that make the history books and more personal stories — the forgotten voices of history — particularly eyewitness accounts and … the stories that are rarely heard but that mattered immensely to those who lived and died through them,” Collinson told Mashable.
A similar project, @ukwarcabinet, partially inspired Collinson’s virtual venture. “They’ve been tweeting cabinet papers from the war for two years, which is great, but I wanted to put a more personal slant on things,” says Collinson. “I care as much about what soldiers and civilians on the front line as the generals and politicians.”
The 24-year-old lone manager of the project lists these three posts as his standout tweets:
Two assassination attempts on Hitler’s life (on the 4th October and the 7th November, I believe), that might have changed the course of history had they succeeded.
Some of the personal stories – the story of the Polish nurse Jadwiga who wrote about the siege of Warsaw, and that of a young boy whose house was bombed and all his family killed. Both around the 26th September.
The little details that illuminate how strange life must have been during the war. A decree banning gold wedding rings in Germany, for example, so that gold could be used to pay for foreign armaments.
What do you think of the project? Do you plan to follow @RealTimeWWII or any of the accounts with translations?
Source BY mashable.com
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