This Blog is a resource tool for the students taking the "FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES" elective at Westborough High School, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Rise of the Nazis - Period 6
For the past three days you've been watching the BBC documentary, The Rise of the Nazis - A Warning from History. Please share your thoughts about the film thus far. Does anything stand out for you about the segment on the Gestapo?
15 comments:
Kelsey
said...
Thus far I've found the film The Rise of the Nazis pretty disturbing. It has showed and just highlighted to me the idea that the Nazis felt as if they knew who had the right to live and who didn't. They singled out groups of people who they felt were weak, and Hitler thought that by doing this he was going through with what he thought was the inevitable process of survival of the fittest. In addition to Jews, homosexuals, and people who "didn't fit in," the Nazis felt that they had the right to end the lives of disabled babies, and later, children. This part was especially disturbing to me.
I too found the part about exterminating disabled children from German culture, to be the most disturbing part of the video. It was also frightening to see the true colors of some of the interviewees. To see how "human nature" caused so many (not only Germans) to turn on their neighbors and fellow humans, in a survival of the fittest environment, was very shocking to me.
I agree with both Kelsey and Evan. The most disturbing part of the film is definitely the extermination of the disabled children. How can someone so readily agree to allow children to be murdered based on the fact that they are just a little slower than others? Also, what I found to be extremely disturbing was the fact that so many people will turn their neighbors in just because they were ugly or because they had friends of a certain religious group. This film overall greatly disturbed me.
I also found the film disturbing; I can't get over on how the Nazi’s could exterminate disabled children. That is something that sickens me; the Nazi's had not idea of what was wrong. Like most people have a conscious that says maybe this is a bad idea but it seemed like Germany didn't. On another note I thought it was interesting how much Hitler looked up to the English but that didn't stop him from waging war against them.
I agree with what everyone has said about the slaughter of disabled children in Germany. It was a terrible thing to do and deeply disturbs me. But to add some variety to this blog I'd like to mention that poor manwoman who was killed for allegedly being homosexual and friends with jews. The children get a lot of attention for obvious reasons, but we must not overlook victims like her just because they aren't so cute and cuddly. The Nazis did more than slaughter children, a lot more, and that must not be lost in our minds.
Since I was not present for the viewing of "The Rise of the Nazis", I will be (with Mr. Gallagher's permission) blogging about the "Britain's Got Talent" episode featuring Susan Boyle. I have heard people talking about this video for quite some time, but today was my first opportunity to view it. I was completely blown away and deeply moved by Susan's voice; it was difficult to fight back the tears. I think this video ties in well with what we've learned about judgements in FH&O so far. Like in nazi germany, people would look at jewish people with disgust and immediately form awful stereotypes about them. Similarily, people looked at Susan and laughed at her, assuming she would be a terrible singer just because she wasn't the... best looking girl around. Well, Susan crushed stereotypes on the stage and brought everyone to tears with a beautiful voice- and furthermore, she showed us all it's never too late to give up on your dreams.
I agree with Evan about how disturbing it was hearing about the extermination of disabled children. I know it was tough times back then but I think more people should have seen their was a problem with what was happening at revolted a little bit. They clearly knew something was happening but were selfish and did nothing except try to live with the guilt of what happened.
Like most of the class I believe what was done to the children was the most disturbing part. I dont see how people could be so cruel, and heartless. It bothers me to see how people were so ignorant, and blindly judged people by the race, sexuality, or "different" people. Also, I feel there were so many people that were forced to believe such things, and were naturally raised ny their parnets in such a way that they didnt even know any better.
As Evan, Kelsey, and Marwa have said above I was very disturbed by the way people acted towards people that even associated themselves with people deemed "unfit" by the Nazis. The hardest part to understand was how people were peer pressured into reporting their neighbors and friends to the government and not realizing what they were doing. The process of survival of the fittest was also a concept though okay in the natural world, was not something that should have been as easily accepted in civilization.
It is nuts how easy it was for the Nazis to get people to rat out each other. It doesn't seem like it should be possible to get people to turn on each other that easily. I guess people just saw it as an oppurtunity to get back at someone who they classified as "them" like you said in class. But it seems hard to believe that after a couple of months doing this that no one would start to hear rumors about the consequences of their actions.
I agree with what Dave said about the German people turning on each other. I was shocked to find that most of the people who were arrested and sent to concentration camps were "ratted out" by their neighbors and fellow Germans. I thought that the Gestapo was a large force like the KGB in Russia, and I was shocked to find out that they really didn't have to do anything because the Germans reported all the people who didn't fit in for them. People wanted to gain favor from the Nazis so they reported anyone they thought was "different." I think that this just shows how easily people were manipulated by Hitler and the Nazis .
It has been interesting to see how the Nazis were able to keep such a huge amount of power in the German society. I personally found it amazing that in one city there were only like, 28 gestapo members serving an area of millions of people. And, the reason they were able to do so was because so many Germans were selling out there family friends and neighbors. All that they were really there for was to sort out paper work. So something like that happening was a thing i never knew about and find amazing. It makes you realize that a lot of Germans seemed to be doing this type of stuff willingly rather than being "brain washed" by Hitlers rhetoric, which was how i thought Nazism came to such power.
From what I've learned from this movie, I have only lost respect for the German civilians who claim to have had no responsibility in the Holocaust. If there were only 30 gestapo members in a town or city, then it is clear that the majority of the German people were involved in turning in their neighbors and friends to the Nazis. This, to me at least, is extremely depressing. As many people in the class did, I found the fact that Germans exterminated the disabled to be extremely upsetting. Although I realize that there has been a history of this in ancient empires, I would hope that in more recent times people have learned that the disabled should not be killed based solely on the fact that they are disabled.
The film, The Rise of the Nazis, has revealed to me aspects of Nazi culture and propaganda that I was not aware of. Mainly the fact that the gestapo had so little numbers and was more of an observe-and-report type of organization rather than an everpresent force that everybody knew about. They worked in secret and carried out their duties the same way. Simply the idea of the gestapo gettting to someone was enough to keep order and propagate Hitler's message of fear. I agree with Kelsey and Evan that the part about murdering the disabled was the most disturbing.
15 comments:
Thus far I've found the film The Rise of the Nazis pretty disturbing. It has showed and just highlighted to me the idea that the Nazis felt as if they knew who had the right to live and who didn't. They singled out groups of people who they felt were weak, and Hitler thought that by doing this he was going through with what he thought was the inevitable process of survival of the fittest. In addition to Jews, homosexuals, and people who "didn't fit in," the Nazis felt that they had the right to end the lives of disabled babies, and later, children. This part was especially disturbing to me.
I too found the part about exterminating disabled children from German culture, to be the most disturbing part of the video. It was also frightening to see the true colors of some of the interviewees. To see how "human nature" caused so many (not only Germans) to turn on their neighbors and fellow humans, in a survival of the fittest environment, was very shocking to me.
I agree with both Kelsey and Evan. The most disturbing part of the film is definitely the extermination of the disabled children. How can someone so readily agree to allow children to be murdered based on the fact that they are just a little slower than others? Also, what I found to be extremely disturbing was the fact that so many people will turn their neighbors in just because they were ugly or because they had friends of a certain religious group. This film overall greatly disturbed me.
I also found the film disturbing; I can't get over on how the Nazi’s could exterminate disabled children. That is something that sickens me; the Nazi's had not idea of what was wrong. Like most people have a conscious that says maybe this is a bad idea but it seemed like Germany didn't. On another note I thought it was interesting how much Hitler looked up to the English but that didn't stop him from waging war against them.
PS:sorry the above comment was mine
I agree with what everyone has said about the slaughter of disabled children in Germany. It was a terrible thing to do and deeply disturbs me. But to add some variety to this blog I'd like to mention that poor manwoman who was killed for allegedly being homosexual and friends with jews. The children get a lot of attention for obvious reasons, but we must not overlook victims like her just because they aren't so cute and cuddly. The Nazis did more than slaughter children, a lot more, and that must not be lost in our minds.
Since I was not present for the viewing of "The Rise of the Nazis", I will be (with Mr. Gallagher's permission) blogging about the "Britain's Got Talent" episode featuring Susan Boyle. I have heard people talking about this video for quite some time, but today was my first opportunity to view it. I was completely blown away and deeply moved by Susan's voice; it was difficult to fight back the tears. I think this video ties in well with what we've learned about judgements in FH&O so far. Like in nazi germany, people would look at jewish people with disgust and immediately form awful stereotypes about them. Similarily, people looked at Susan and laughed at her, assuming she would be a terrible singer just because she wasn't the... best looking girl around. Well, Susan crushed stereotypes on the stage and brought everyone to tears with a beautiful voice- and furthermore, she showed us all it's never too late to give up on your dreams.
I agree with Evan about how disturbing it was hearing about the extermination of disabled children. I know it was tough times back then but I think more people should have seen their was a problem with what was happening at revolted a little bit. They clearly knew something was happening but were selfish and did nothing except try to live with the guilt of what happened.
Like most of the class I believe what was done to the children was the most disturbing part. I dont see how people could be so cruel, and heartless. It bothers me to see how people were so ignorant, and blindly judged people by the race, sexuality, or "different" people. Also, I feel there were so many people that were forced to believe such things, and were naturally raised ny their parnets in such a way that they didnt even know any better.
As Evan, Kelsey, and Marwa have said above I was very disturbed by the way people acted towards people that even associated themselves with people deemed "unfit" by the Nazis. The hardest part to understand was how people were peer pressured into reporting their neighbors and friends to the government and not realizing what they were doing. The process of survival of the fittest was also a concept though okay in the natural world, was not something that should have been as easily accepted in civilization.
It is nuts how easy it was for the Nazis to get people to rat out each other. It doesn't seem like it should be possible to get people to turn on each other that easily. I guess people just saw it as an oppurtunity to get back at someone who they classified as "them" like you said in class. But it seems hard to believe that after a couple of months doing this that no one would start to hear rumors about the consequences of their actions.
I agree with what Dave said about the German people turning on each other. I was shocked to find that most of the people who were arrested and sent to concentration camps were "ratted out" by their neighbors and fellow Germans. I thought that the Gestapo was a large force like the KGB in Russia, and I was shocked to find out that they really didn't have to do anything because the Germans reported all the people who didn't fit in for them. People wanted to gain favor from the Nazis so they reported anyone they thought was "different." I think that this just shows how easily people were manipulated by Hitler and the Nazis .
It has been interesting to see how the Nazis were able to keep such a huge amount of power in the German society. I personally found it amazing that in one city there were only like, 28 gestapo members serving an area of millions of people. And, the reason they were able to do so was because so many Germans were selling out there family friends and neighbors. All that they were really there for was to sort out paper work. So something like that happening was a thing i never knew about and find amazing. It makes you realize that a lot of Germans seemed to be doing this type of stuff willingly rather than being "brain washed" by Hitlers rhetoric, which was how i thought Nazism came to such power.
From what I've learned from this movie, I have only lost respect for the German civilians who claim to have had no responsibility in the Holocaust. If there were only 30 gestapo members in a town or city, then it is clear that the majority of the German people were involved in turning in their neighbors and friends to the Nazis. This, to me at least, is extremely depressing. As many people in the class did, I found the fact that Germans exterminated the disabled to be extremely upsetting. Although I realize that there has been a history of this in ancient empires, I would hope that in more recent times people have learned that the disabled should not be killed based solely on the fact that they are disabled.
The film, The Rise of the Nazis, has revealed to me aspects of Nazi culture and propaganda that I was not aware of. Mainly the fact that the gestapo had so little numbers and was more of an observe-and-report type of organization rather than an everpresent force that everybody knew about. They worked in secret and carried out their duties the same way. Simply the idea of the gestapo gettting to someone was enough to keep order and propagate Hitler's message of fear. I agree with Kelsey and Evan that the part about murdering the disabled was the most disturbing.
Post a Comment