After WW1 the people of Germany were left starving. Adolf Hitler, seen as the savior through some, the reincarnation of the devil through others, ended 15 years of turmoil and gave a new meaning to Germany. He was seen as a great man through the eyes of many Germans as he vowed to break the Treaty of Versailles, but he is still a man and man makes mistakes. Hitler's greatest mistake was his anger for the Jews. Some of them even fighting for the Fatherland were seen as normal people. Then Hitler told the Nazi party that the Jews were responsible for the War. The Jews are evil and are greedy liars. The Jews had money and food for the Fatherland but kept it for themselves.
Hitler targeted the young. There would be story books about how sinister the Jews are. The children and teenagers of Germany loved to play sports. Hitler declared that boys could only join a sports club if they were part of the German youth. The children of Germany could not go out on holidays, so the Hitler Youth organized trips to mountains. Naturally many children joined. Klaus Boelling describes his experience at Hitler Youth, "At the age I joined Hitler Youth, it was fun. It was fun to be with children of the same age and not just stay in the streets or climb trees, but go on proper trips." This is the way that Hitler recruited so many youths. Andre, a young 12 year old German boy( Facing History, Facing Ourselves reading) turned to his parents to advice of if he should go throw stones at the Jews as elders at Hitler Youth told him to or not. His parents told him to make up his own mind. In the end, Andre made the choice of not throwing stones at the Jews. The following day, Andre's family left the country. What discourages Germans to not throw stones is that you have to leave the country as fast as you can which means you will not have enough time to take a lot with you. With the Youth, if you don't throw stones, your family will have to leave the country and you will be expelled from Hitler Youth. Being explled means you cannot play sport and go on trips anymore. Its like giving something so valuble, you cherish it as much as you can, then taking it and using it as a bribe. This is how the Nazi party grew so big. Fear of being different different of standing out forced people into the position of being a bystander.
There have been other experiences from Jews who have miraculously survived this terrible time due to their strong will and never give up spirit. Susan (Strauss) Taube, a surviver of the Holocaust explains about Kristallnacht in an interview with The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "I was going to school as usual every morning but I saw that our Synagogue was on fire. The news said that Jews should stay in their homes, and that what we did. Then it was mid-morning and all these people came to our door and just smashed the door and just barged in with scissors. They smashed all our plates, windows and used the scissors to cut up our beds and pillows. When they left we were just looking at the mess thinking, "how do we clean this up?". I went to my home town and found that the same thing has happened there.". Susan's father had been released from Buchenwald under the condition that he leaves the country. He leaves only with a small suitcase to the U.S. The rest Susan's family all die in Europe while Susan reunites with her father in the U.S. Susan says that she must share this with others because it must not happen again. She believes that something of this degree cannot happen again because it was so terrible and so un-human.
I believe that smartest of people can easily become the stupidest. The Germans were not stupid. They faced economic trials which few Americans have ever witnessed. You have been told its bad, but keep in mind that the German would have had to eat their own waste to survive. Hitler was seen as a Saviour because he brought back order and prosperity. He told the people what they wanted to hear. It could happen to any other county, all you need is the right crisis. Then those people will become stupid too.
I also believe that it the fact that it was all Germany's fault is overrated. They did burn down Synagogues but it should have ended there. The Westerners and Europeans should have ended it right there. As Albert Einstein says "The world is not bad because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.". I also believe that it was the Britain, Italy and France who triggered this ghastly event. If the Treaty of Versailles had not been so harsh, Germany would be under a democracy and not a dictatorship. The Germans would have no reason to worship Hitler, and like in the Norse myths, The gods relies on the peoples worship to survive and in return, they protected them. If Hitler does not have anyone to worship him, the Fuhrer cannot survive.
I chose this painting by Henry Fuseli because I think that this is the state that the Germans were like before Hitler rose to power. Now you can see that if you were in this state, and someone gives you everything you ever wanted, you would be indebted to them for life. This is what happened to the Germans, unwilling to do Hitler's bidding, but are grateful to him for liberating them.
This could also represent the Jews in the concentration camp. That is worse than the German state. The Jews in Germany suffered the same fate as the Germans but instead of being liberated by Hitler, they are striped of whatever else they had (friends, family, human rights) and make them work until it is physically impossible to work anymore, and then make them work more, then kill then. Very few have lived to tell the tale about these horrific Hell zones. It is a fate worse then death.
The man's face, you cannot see and it is in black and white. I think this could mean that he is very ashamed to be a Jew/German so he is bowing his head in shame.
