“The scariest thing is not the evil, but more the people who sit by and let it happen.” Albert Einstein
I am breaking down a Holocaust guide for work and it has my social studies brain spinning in a hundred directions. There are so many relevant lessons for 2020 America.
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I am breaking down a Holocaust guide for work and it has my social studies brain spinning in a hundred directions. There are so many relevant lessons for 2020 America.
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I’m not making a sensationalist claim that there are going to be camps in America, or we are headed for genocide.
I am pointing out that the voices from these stories are crying out to be heard, and for us to remember HOW the Holocaust happened. It is a warning.
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I am pointing out that the voices from these stories are crying out to be heard, and for us to remember HOW the Holocaust happened. It is a warning.
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files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED365…
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant.” Bert Gosschalk on life in a Dutch ghetto under Nazi rule.
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“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant.” Bert Gosschalk on life in a Dutch ghetto under Nazi rule.
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In one of the most powerful moments, Peter Becker, who grew up in Nazi Germany and was indoctrinated to the point where he considered himself “150% Nazi”, delivers a warning.
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How do we prevent creeping fascism?
According to Peter Becker
1) a strong press
2) eternal vigilance
3) openness and popular participation
4) political activism
5) contributing to society
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According to Peter Becker
1) a strong press
2) eternal vigilance
3) openness and popular participation
4) political activism
5) contributing to society
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Take some time and read the documents. Read about Otto Ohlendorf, owner of a Ph.D. and responsible for 90,000 deaths as the leader of a death squad.
Hear him explain how he obeyed orders he knew were morally wrong. Consider how he felt it was not his place to question.
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Hear him explain how he obeyed orders he knew were morally wrong. Consider how he felt it was not his place to question.
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Consider the following quotes from Rudolph Hess at the Nuremberg Trials:
“It was something already taken for granted that the Jews were to blame for everything. We just never heard anything else.”
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“It was something already taken for granted that the Jews were to blame for everything. We just never heard anything else.”
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“We just never heard anything else.”
Consider how a Nazi education, where “our knowledge of what had gone on in the past was very limited” and “we were carefully kept from having a broad picture of history” would affect having “never heard anything else.”
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Consider how a Nazi education, where “our knowledge of what had gone on in the past was very limited” and “we were carefully kept from having a broad picture of history” would affect having “never heard anything else.”
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Dwell on the idea that a lack of education, shielding people from facts, blind obedience to authority, unquestioningly following orders led to this:
“We just never heard anything else” as a defense for murder.
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“We just never heard anything else” as a defense for murder.
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Let it soak in that even after seeing a traveling Holocaust exhibit with lampshades made from human skin, and understanding that the Holocaust was real, Peter Becker STILL defended Hitler and Germany as having been wronged.
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In the end, Becker does accept the realities of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.
The result?
A quest for understanding HOW this could happen, and how people ALLOWED it to happen.
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant”
No we can’t. No it isn’t.
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The result?
A quest for understanding HOW this could happen, and how people ALLOWED it to happen.
“Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant”
No we can’t. No it isn’t.
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We were at best at prejudice PRIOR to Trump, in terms of the way the rich can manipulate the legal system.
Where are we now?
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Where are we now?
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