Category: Nazism

The review of the book

Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe is a book that gives insight into the internal lives of Jewish Children during the rise of Nazism under Hitler. The writer vividly highlights the changes that happened within the lives of these children during this period. In her thesis, Deborah argues that despite the humiliation and abuses that the Jewish children lived, they never lost their humanity. They still lived to be productive members of society. To achieve this, the author develops one by one the steps through which these children underwent until they found themselves in labor camps and other death camps. Accordingly, this paper will identify some of the themes that are brought out in this book and the contribution of this book to my understanding of the topic of the Holocaust.

Thesis of the author

To support her thesis, Deborah develops the plot using vivid development of themes that highlight the realities that these children faced during the Nazi reign. One of the themes that are clearly brought out is the theme of persecution of children. In the beginning of the events that could turn out as a massacre of more than 1.5 million children, it was not expected that such great persecutions would come by. The foremost decrees by the Nazi regime completely isolated the Jewish population from the economic realms. As a result, they lost their jobs and hence economic power. Although this edict did not apply to children, its effect on them was pronounced. The resultant standard of living was so low that the children could not access the basic needs and wants that they had enjoyed prior.

While they still contemplated on these decrees, the second wave of edicts swept over the country. These were directly focused on the children. It was a big blow to their social life. These decrees bared children from attending some of their favorite places including ice cream parlors, fun parks, cinema halls and playgrounds. These were places that commanded a big part of their lives. Being banned from attending such places was like being imprisoned. However, the main blow was yet to come. The Nazi regime banned children from attending school. The school was a central part of them. This decree denied them access to the central part of their lives.

As the plot develops, Deborah highlights the childrens life becomes more and more miserable as the Nazi edicts continue to escalate. The children are later forced to stay within their houses. They are restricted from moving beyond their courtyards. Their associations with non-Jewish friends are cut short as the gentile children are forbidden from visiting them/ in addition, they are also forbidden from visiting their non-Jewish friends. Riding bicycles and tram cars becomes a thing of the past. As time passed by, the Nazi persecution increased. Eventually, children were forced to go into hiding. Some of them were forced into ghettos and labor camps where they were murdered mercilessly. A good example is the recounting of Sara Grossman who had been transported from the Ghettos to the Auschwitz concentration camp with her sister, mother-in-law, sister in law and her sister-in-laws children. According to her, they were ordered to leave the children to their grandmother as they were led to their respective places where they would work henceforth. However, the kids and their grandmother, who were unable to work, were led straight away to the gas chambers.

Themes of the book

The role of women during these tumultuous years has also been brought out as a theme in this book. This can be identified among the wider theme of the Jewish reaction to the escalating persecution. While children were forced into hiding and into labor camps, women did their best by trying to console and keep the children strong. All through, the women became the psychological support for the children who had lost a lot in life. In addition, they took up economic roles that helped them access some money for upkeep.

Evaluation of sources and evidences

An evaluation of the authors sources and evidence proves the authenticity of the book and also of the Holocaust Deborah Dwork approaches the issue from first-hand evidence and interviews, written memoirs, family photos and letters from people who had undergone and survived the Holocaust. She also uses diaries, family albums and photos from the survivors. This use of primary forms of data collection enables the reader to have a vivid recollection like he was there during the events. It also helps the reader understand the weight of the issue by hearing the people who were affected speak out their hearts.

Authors point of view

In this book, Deborah Dwork uses a personal approach to the issue. She uses anecdotal examples to highlight the research findings that she had undertaken. In the development of her plot, Deborah uses this personal approach through the use of direct quotations of victims of the Holocaust. She gives a first-person quotation of the interviews, letters, photographs and memoirs. For instance, she gives an account of Magda Magda Somogyi who narrates her encounter with two twins in one of the concentration camps. She narrates how she had to act as a mother to Evichka and Hanka because they had lost both their parents. Instead of giving an account of this in the third person, Kaplan gives it from the first-person point of view by directly quoting the speaker. This point of view successfully plays the role of putting the reader right within the historical context and time and hence recreating the whole scene afresh.

What the book imparts to my understanding of the Holocaust

I have read many books concerning the Holocaust. However, the main topic brought out in this book by Deborah Dwork was a completely new approach to the subject. She brings up the issue of children, the most vulnerable members of society. Through the book, I come to understand the role that children can play. True to the word of the Nazis who thought that children were the future and that they had to be eliminated, I find that children lived to tell the tale. They lived to narrate the story of how they had undergone such a terrible time to the whole world. It is therefore understandable that children are an integral part of society. The book has enabled me to see the way children suffered under the Nazi regime. Initially, I had not considered the issue from a childrens perspective.

My own opinion on the success of the book

Above all, the author wanted to show the suffering undergone by the Jewish children and how these sufferings were created by Nazi policies. This is successfully brought out by the use of first-hand information through interviews, letters, photos and memoirs. Through the first-person narration of their sufferings (as quoted by Deborah), a reader of this book is able to vividly create a mental picture of what the Jewish children in Germany were undergoing. The reader will also identify with the victims and hence have an understanding of what they really underwent. Basing on these, I believe that the book was successful and that the authors intentions were well brought out.

How the book helps me to understand certain topics

In conclusion, the timeline, step by step narration of the beginning to the escalation of the Holocaust has deepened my understanding of the topic about the reasons that led to the development and escalation of the Holocaust. Through the book, provided every political change that took place in Germany and how Hitler intended to cleanse Germany from other races. In addition, the book has deepened my understanding of the social, economic and political implications of the Holocaust on the Jewish and non-Jewish populations living in Germany during the Nazi era. The deep understanding has been generated by first-hand narrations from victims and eyewitnesses.

Works cited

Dwork, Deborah. Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

The innovation in the concepts and ideas that have been established in history, mostly find rejection by the masses. The idea of bringing new ideas in art, science, or architecture always has been the progress maker and inventor of unusual concepts. In this paper, the topic of the Avant-Garde will be covered. The connection with the architecture and its modernist move in Germany is going to be discussed. The influence of the Nazi regime on the Avant-Guarde art in general and on architecture in particular with the style of the architecture the Third Reich implemented that distanced itself from the modern style that became so popular at that time will be part of this paper along with the way that the mentioned regime suppressed this form of art.

Avant-Guarde is a French word which is used to describe a category that contains in its meaning a set of all the innovative, revolutionary, rebellious movements and directions in modern aesthetics and art in the first half of the twentieth century, which marked the end of centuries of the old period in which the European-Mediterranean art culture existed and the beginning of its global transition into other quality.

In general, the Avant-Garde phenomena are characteristic for all transitive stages in the history of the art culture, and separate kinds of art. In the XX century, however, the concept of Avant-Garde has got the definition as a term that designates a powerful phenomenon of the art culture which has captured practically all of its significant phenomena. At all the variety and diversity of these art directions which can be contained under this concept, they all have mutual cultural-historical roots and mutual atmosphere which has generated them. The Avant-Garde is, first of all, a reaction of the art-aesthetic consciousness on the global crisis in cultural processes, caused by scientific and technical progress in the last century. The essence and the value of this avalanche process in culture are not completely understood for mankind and not comprehended by adequate scientifically philosophical thinking, but already with sufficient completeness, it has found its expression in art culture in the Avant-Garde, modernism, and postmodernism. In addition, Avant-Garde sometimes can be considered inconsistent, even in some ways contradictory. In some ways, we can relate Avant-Garde with modernism as both terms can explain similar meanings which can be interpreted as the accepting of new styles and as opposite of classical points of view or in other words traditional.

At the beginning of the last century, Germany saw the Avant-Guarde as the development of modern painting, sculpture, and architecture, and motion picture arts. After Hitlers arrival to authority, many modern architects and artists have been compelled to emigrate. Living and working abroad, they promoted the development of cosmopolitan style in modern art and architecture. Although this style rather has been willingly accepted and has got accustomed in Western Germany after the Second World War, only a few German architects or artists, both from the west or east Germany, have got wide international popularity.

The Avant-Garde style in architecture can be considered as an innovation for that time in Germany in building constructions. One of the first modernist pioneers in that direction was the school of Bauhaus.

Bauhaus House of Building or Building school is a high school of construction and art design, an educational institution that existed in Germany from 1919 to 1933, and also it is an Art association, established within the frames of this institution, and a corresponding direction in architecture. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design. The school was active in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932, and Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1927, Hannes Meyer from 1927 to 1930, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933. The creation of the Bauhaus School was at the time of the political and cultural rise in Germany. The most important idea that Bauhaus School brought was modernism,

In Germany in the early 20th century, many artists were producing innovative works which were both avant-garde and critical of the social and political circumstances of Weimar Germany. With the coming to power of the Nationalist Socialist Party, in 1933, Avant-Garde work was no longer allowed to be displayed in German public museums and galleries, and the artists were put under surveillance, which later developed into persecution.

Under the Nazi regime, multiple suppressions were culminated in an exhibition, held in Munich in 1937, entitled Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) of artworks by painters whom the Nazis considered decadent. In some cases, this degeneracy mark was a result of political views that rejected the Nazi regime. Some of the Nazi ideologically-based disapproval was of the modernity and innovative features which expressed many of the artworks.

As the general idea of the Avant-Garde was the innovation in the representation of art forms, the Nazi regime considered that distancing from the classical style is not to be used even in architecture. One of the Avant-Garde principals in architecture was

The Bauhaus style can be identified as modernism. In addition, we can say that there was a style that is relevantly connected to Bauhaus which is the international style.

The International style was the main architectural style of the 1920s and 1930s. This style mostly refers to the buildings and architects of the decades of forming Modernism. As a result, the focus was more on the stylistic aspects of Modernism. This style can be identified with three different principles: the expression of volume rather than mass, balance rather than preconceived symmetry, and the expulsion of applied ornament.

The rejection in Germany for the Avant-Guarde and the modernism in the architecture can be noticed in the directions that the architecture of the Third Reich accepted. This can be explained by taking into consideration different factors.

Hitler was interested in art his whole life. His failures in being rejected from painters class and architecture class made him try to prove throughout his whole life his talent in architecture and transform his ideas to life. Modern architecture during the Nazi authority was declared un-German because of Hitlers hate for modern architecture.

The Avant-Gardism, in general, influenced the Bauhaus, therefore when Hitler came to power in 1933; the Bauhaus was closed as the style it was teaching was distanced from the classical style. Many artists, designers, and architects who had been on its faculty left Germany, including Albers, Gropius and Mies van der Rohe and others.

Hitlers attraction to the classical architecture of the Roman Empire was a result of his belief that the Romans served as models for the Germans and because he believed in the ethnical connection that links the Greeks and Romans with the Nordic race of Germans. He admired the neoclassical style for the House of German Art in Munich, which met his ideas about representative architecture. At the end of 1933, Hitler had confirmed neoclassicism as the appropriate style for the architecture intended to represent the Nazi State. Neoclassical buildings were to substitute the ideas of modernism and would represent physically the great strength and will of the party of the Third Reich.

The Nazis and Hitler in particular took every chance to interfere in the building and the design process and participated in the whole planning to put his notes and control the process.

Neoclassicism was popular at this time. In Germany, there were examples from earlier regimes. Moreover, monumental neoclassicism was not unique in Germany. One could find neoclassical government buildings, exhibition halls, museums, schools, banks, and theaters all over Europe and America as well. At the same time that Hitler planned to embellish the capital city of the Third Reich with neoclassical monuments. Buildings, at the same time, were not to be only symbols of Nazism. Individual buildings and complexes of buildings were to be functional, serving multiple purposes.

The architecture of Nazism had implemented the concept of everything large and impressive and took as inspiration Romes coliseum, the basilica of Saint Peter, and Pantheon that were the best examples of monumental buildings, and architecture produced by the community. These along with the Madeleine in Paris, and in particular the dome of Lev Invalides, inspired his building plans for Berlin.

The plans for large national buildings dating from the early twenties and Hitler began to realize these plans as soon as he was in power in 1933.

In the 1934 Reich bank competition, which invited designers from all points in the architectural groups for the new Reich bank headquarters, the end of the architectural competitions coincided with the rise of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture), the party responsible for all the arts. As Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels explained that only members of this chamber could take part in the cultural life of Germany and only members can use the title of architect, this fact can be interpreted as a political suppression, the acceptance of the Nazi ideology including the cultural and stylistic issues was the key to participate in the process of building the Reich empire.

With absolute power over the architectural profession focused at the center, it could be expected that there could emerge a clear design style. In contrast, the National Socialist ideas about architecture, like those about the visual arts, were contradictory.

In this context, oppositions such as Modernist had no impact, as both sides were constantly present in the party ideology as essential counterweights in the balancing act performed by Hitler. As research has indicated, some of the leading figures in the party were modern in their thinking and their policies.

Soon united views of the National Socialist on architecture were on the rejection of the modern style. In the future, there will be no more boxes for a living, no churches that look like greenhouses. No glass house on top of columns& built as a result of professional incompetence. No prison camps parading as workers homes subsidized by public money. Get compensation money from those criminals who enriched themselves with these crimes against national culture, wrote the infamous Bettina Feistel-Rohmeder, criticizing the modern Siedlungen (multiple-dwelling complexes) of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Bruno Taut, and other representations of the modern movement.

When the Nazis came to power, they began the task of reshaping Berlin in a form more convenient to the new regime; a form that considering the general idea of modernism as inappropriate, more of a classical style.

Of the architecture of the Third Reich it can only be noticed that just a minor part of what was planned was realized, and most of what was realized were destroyed again during the war.

What all these notes seem to suggest is that the suppression of modern art in the Nazi regime differed according to the various policies of the criminal state. Only in Germany, however, did the suppression of modern art transformed from its cultural-political mission into a propaganda device for emphasizing ideology. On November 23, 1937, the Degenerate Art show took place to be shown along with the propagandistic touring shows The Eternal Jew and Great Anti-Bolshevik Exhibition. Now the ideological component of the attack on modern art  was along with degeneracy, Jewishness, and Bolshevism united as a propaganda device.

We can see from the various topics covered in this report that the architectural style in Germany had started to establish itself as an innovative style. The rise of the Avant-Guarde move along with the overall search for innovations and technological progress has been convenient until the Nazi regime came to power. The rejection of modernism in architecture and Avant-Guarde artworks approximately at the same time is an evident mark of the era of suppression in Germany in the twentieth century.

Works cited

Curtis, William J. R. 1996. Modern Architecture since 1900. 3rd ed.. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Conrads, Ulrich, ed. 1971. Programs and Manifestos on 20th-Century Architecture. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT.

Frampton, Kenneth. 1992. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson.

Hitchcock, Henry. 1977.Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 4th ed. Yale Press.

Adam , Peter. 1992.Art of the Third Reich.(New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc Publishers.

James-Chakraborty, Kathleen. 2000. German Architecture for a Mass Audience. London: Routledge.

Werckmeister O.K. 1997. Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Art Bulletin.

Bayer, Herbert, Walter Gropius, and Ise Gropius, eds. 1938. Bauhaus, 1919-1928. new York: Museum of Modern Art.

Lehmann, Haupt.1954.Art under a Dictatorship. New York: Oxford University Press.

During the Second World War, millions of people of different nationalities, including Poles, died at the hands of the Nazis and their accomplices. All races in the Nazis view were arranged depending on the proximity of blood to the Aryans, to which, in addition to the Germans, some Western European peoples were assigned. According to the Nazis, the Poles were at the lowest stage of development and did not have the ability to create, so they had to obey the Aryans. However, according to Race and Space policy, the attitude towards Jewish Poles and non-Jewish Poles differed significantly.

Non-Army Poles in the framework of the Race and Space policy were supposed to act as cheap labor for the German population. However, Jews, including Polish ones, were considered a genetically inferior racial type that could not be used even as a labor force and were to be destroyed (Holocaust in Hungary 6). With the rise of the Nazis to power, anti-Semitism became the official ideology and policy of the German leadership. Racial theory has found its expression in legislation and education. The ideas that Jews, including Polish ones, are carriers of negative racial qualities, were intensively introduced into the public consciousness with the help of powerful propaganda. According to Race and Space policy, only a race at the highest level of evolution is capable of generating culture. Just as a person cannot change their race, they cannot change their cultural affiliation. Hitler further explains that the very destroyers of culture are the Jews. Thus, Race and Space policy argued for the need to destroy Jewish Poles.

The Nazis sought not only to change the situation in Germany, but also to bring the whole world into line with their ideology based on racial theory and social Darwinism. According to Hitler, there was a failure in the natural struggle for power between the races, which violated the law of nature, according to which the strongest wins. Consequently, the higher Aryan race must rectify the situation and regain the dominant position rightfully assigned to it. It was considered necessary to do this not only for Germany itself, but also for the benefit of the whole world. Other races, including the Polish, were considered weaker by nature, unable to reach the heights of spirit that are inherent in the Aryans. However, non-Jewish Poles, unlike Jewish Poles, were not regarded as posing a danger to the Nazi system, therefore they were not destroyed.

The idea that Jews belong to the antirace was added to the Nazi concept of an eternal struggle between races for life and death. According to the Nazi worldview, world Jewry leads all mankind to destruction. The Nazis perceived Jews as parasites, carriers of a disease that destroys the very essence of a healthy world. Thus, the Jews represented a real and serious threat to Aryan Germany and all of humanity. The Nazis claimed that the Jewish race was responsible not only for the problems of German society, but also for the dangers threatening the whole world. Therefore, the only way to fight the Jews is a war to the bitter end. The exclusion of Jewish Poles from all spheres of society was considered necessary for the implementation of the Nazi idea and the salvation of Germany, and such sanctions were not applied to non-Jewish Poles.

The policy of the Nazis towards both Jewish Poles and Poles did both begin with terror and economic restrictions. However, non-Jewish Poles under the Race and Space policy program were considered disenfranchised labor. The policy towards the Jewish Poles ended with their almost complete destruction in the occupied territories of Poland. It was the Nazi ideology of racial anti-Semitism that led to the extermination of Jewish Poles, while the right to life was preserved for non-Jewish Poles.

Works Cited

Holocaust in Hungary [PowerPoint slides], n. d.

World War II is the bloodiest conflict humanity has ever witnessed. It lasted four years and resulted in the death of millions of people globally. The invention of new arms, more complex fire systems, aviation and tanks became the factors influencing the severity of war and heavy losses. However, WWII is also characterized by the growth of the Nazi ideology, which became the primary factor leading to genocide, civilian murders, and covert violence peculiar to military actions. As a result, the aggressive ideology of one nations dominance became one of the specific features of WWII.

Several reasons can evidence the importance of this factor. In general, the WWII start can be linked to Hitlers desire to improve the position of the German nation and acquire new territories for further development and expansion (Hett 74). The nations support and readiness to participate in military actions were achieved by cultivating the ideology of Nazism, or the dominance of the German nation and their rights for all territories occupied by other nations (Rich 43). As a result, millions of soldiers and civilians were killed because of the ideology.

In general, most researchers agree that WWII was radically different from WWI. The use of new arms increased firepower, and aviation and tanks resulted in numerous deaths. However, ideology became another critical factor differentiating these two conflicts and linked to millions of deaths globally. It was used to justify the genocide, murders of civilians, and the extreme severity of troops on occupied territories (Sait 87). The level of violence and the long duration of war is also linked to this factor, as Hitler was not ready to accept defeat and insisted on continuing war following his visions of the German nations superiority.

Works Cited

Hett, Benjamin. The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War. Henry Holt and Co, 2020.

Rich, Norman. Hitlers War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. W.W. Norton & Company, 1992.

Sait, Bryce. The Indoctrination of the Wehrmacht: Nazi Ideology and the War Crimes of the German Military. Berghahn Books, 2021.

Nicosia, Francis R and David Scrase, 2010. Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses. Berghahn Books.

During their persecution by the Nazi regime, the Jews in Germany found themselves in difficult situations. They were to choose whether to flee from the Nazi brutality or stick around and claim their rightful place in Germany. This book tries to address the effects that anti-Jewish policies imposed by the regime of Adolf Hitler had on the family life of the Jews and their women. It also addresses the impacts that these policies had on the Jewish institutions and organizations. In addition, the book highlights some of the responses the Jewish made towards the Nazi persecution and anti-Semitism (Nicosia and Scrase 2010). The continuity and accessible style of this book makes it suitable for referencing Holocaust history or Jewish and German history.

The authors of this book are distinguished scholars in their own fields. Francis Nicosia is a Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor at the University of Vermont specializing in Holocaust Studies. He has authored several books, some touching on the Holocaust subject. Examples include Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany (2008) and the Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (2001), which he co-authored with Donald Niewyk. On the other hand, David Scrase is a German Professor who is also the founding director of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont (1993-2006). He has also authored several books on Holocaust that have been used widely. The fact that this book is written by such distinguished professors makes it a credible source for my paper. The currency of the book makes it relevant for use in my paper as it contains updated information about the Holocaust history. I will particularly use this book because of its documentary annex that offers insightful information on the Holocaust. This will suffice the introductory part of my paper well.

Huber, Kilian, Volker Lindenthal and Fabian Waldinger, 2021. Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Aryanizations in Nazi Germany. Journal of Political Economy, 129(9).

In this journal article, the authors investigate the effects of the dismissal of senior Jewish managers as a result of increasing discrimination in Nazi Germany on large corporations. Firms that expelled their Jewish managers experienced widespread declines in dividends, returns on assets, and stock prices. One of the impacts of these expulsions was the fall of the German GNP by 1.8% in aggregate market value. The article continues to highlight the important role played by managers who were highly educated and who served as crucial connectors to other firms and their invaluable contributions in ensuring the performance of the firm. The authors conclude that the performance of a firm is driven by individual managers (Huber et al. 2021 26). Therefore, discrimination directed towards them as had happened by the Nazi Germans is tantamount to causing business losses. Business managers are instrumental towards the success of their businesses. If they are uprooted from the company, they leave a wide gap that cannot be immediately filled up.

This article was published this year; thus, it is very recent. The authors are accomplished scholars teaching in the field of political economics. Their insights are very comprehensive and well documented. The fact that they have done an investigative study to obtain content for this study is encouraging and further justifies the credibility of the article. I will particularly use this article because of the nexus between the Jewish persecution by the Nazis and the economic implications. I will have a sub-topic on the impacts of Nazis discrimination policies on the countrys business environment. Indeed, this source contains valuable information that will offer great insights on the sub-topic. The part where the authors explore the long-term implications of the performance of a firm in the absence of the Jewish will also help in giving my paper a business perspective.

Spielvogel, Jackson J and David Redles, 2020. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. Routledge.

This book relies on current research findings to provide a comprehensive examination of the Third Reich based on a balanced approach that studies the role of Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich history. Specifically, the book explores the social, political, and economic forces that were responsible for the development and rise of Nazism, the Holocaust, the social and cultural life of the Third Reich, and World War II. The authors argue that the Nazi Movement and Hitlers ideology gave rise to the Holocaust and World War II. There is insightful information on Imperial Germany and the Reichstags complicity (Spielvogel and Redles 2020). This book also contains in-depth discussions on space and race.

I find this book very authentic and credible for use in writing my paper. Intriguingly, the authors have supported their arguments with images and maps and provided more suggestions of other relevant reading materials. In addition, the book is fully updated, the authors have completely revised the final chapter. Subsequently, readers are able to gain a thorough and complete picture of the issues at hand and the period around World War II and the Holocaust. The fact that the authors have provided other readings helps in broadening the area of research. I will be particularly interested in the approaches that Hitlers ideology and the Nazi Movement affected the race relationship in Germany. In my paper, I will be discussing the implications of such ideologies on different races including the Jews during World War II. Incidentally, this book contains insightful information about all these experiences. Therefore, it will be a significant source of useful content for my paper.

Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude and Mutlu Yuksel, 2015. The Long-Term Direct and External Effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7(3):58-85.

In this journal article, the authors survey the long-term spillover and direct implications of the large-scale loss of human capital caused by the maltreatment of professionals from the Jewish community in Nazi Germany. It is an investigational study that relied on the variation of region-by-cohort of Jewish population percentage as a quasi-experiment. According to the results of the study, on average, the school-going German children at the time of the persecutions have fewer schooling years in adulthood. Furthermore, the likelihood of these children finishing high school and proceeding to colleges or universities is slim. In conducting the experiment, the authors controlled the wartime destruction, migration, compulsory schooling reform, regional unemployment, and income per capita (Akbulut-Yuksel and Yuksel 2015). Other variables controlled include mortality, the Communist Party and Nazi support, and urbanization. The control of these ensured that the results obtained from the study are robust.

The credibility of this source lies in the fact that it is an experimental study that was made together after carrying out a comprehensive survey of a given population. In addition, the authors are distinguished scholars in economic policy, and thus deeply understand the socioeconomic implications that the expulsion of the Jewish had on the educational acquisition of the German populations. In many instances, the Jewish community has been presented as the only victims of the infamous Holocaust orchestrated by Nazi Germany. However, the incident also left a section of the German community with indelible scars. My paper will contain a chapter on the effects of the Holocaust on the Nazi Germans. This paper is very direct on the effects of the Jewish expulsions on the children who were at school then. Indeed, they have had to bear the heaviest brunt of the Holocaust than any other German community. Hence, this source will be important in building up a case on the implications of the Jewish expulsions of the school-going children at that time.

Niewyk, Donald L, 2017. The Jews in Weimar Germany. Routledge.

This book traces the history of the German Jews before the seizure of power by Hitler and examines the relationship that the Jews had with German society. The author illustrates that contrary to popular belief that the German Jews were united, the opposite is actually true. They were deeply divided along political, ideological, and religious fault lines. As a matter of fact, the onslaught of the Zionist extremists forced the assimilationists and patriotic Jews who were the liberal majority to sharpen their self-definition of the German Jewry. Those who denied their Jews Germanness were attacked by their fellow Jews even before the Holocaust (Niewyk 2017). The German Jewrys heart and soul were fought in all spheres, including at the synagogue, community institutions, and families. The author further argues that the role of the Jews in the economy of Germany was exaggerated though they dominated many fields.

The author is a distinguished scholar and professor emeritus of History. He currently teaches at Methodist University and is a member of the Historical Association and the Conference Group for Central Europe. He has written several books on the Jews in Germany, including the Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives Interpretation (1992) and Fresh Wounds: Early Narratives of Holocaust Survival (1998). This shows that he has extensive knowledge of the issues at hand. In addition, the book provides an alternative view to what is commonly held that the Jews were united before the Holocaust. I will rely on this book to get the perspective of the Jews relationship with themselves in Germany.

Works Cited

Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude and Mutlu Yuksel. The Long-Term Direct and External Effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol. 7, no. 3, 2015, pp: 58-85.

Huber, Kilian, Volker Lindenthal and Fabian Waldinger. Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from Aryanizations in Nazi Germany. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 129, no. 9, 2021.

Nicosia, Francis R and David Scrase. Jewish Life in Nazi Germany: Dilemmas and Responses. Berghahn Books, 2010.

Niewyk, Donald L. The Jews in Weimar Germany. Routledge, 2017.

Spielvogel, Jackson J and David Redles. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. Routledge, 2020.

The Third Reich is the embodiment of the Nazi Germany that was obsessed with the idea of building the perfect race. In Germans anticipations and hopes, this race would conduct the world by trespassing other territories, eliminating other nations that did not correspond to the immaculate races image, and refining and developing its legacy. Nazi Germany put in their best efforts to enhance National Socialism, including all social and governmental institutes, to serve its primary purpose. That was not only a case of the Holocaust, but it came to eliminating handicapped children within a national program, as they might have been a real burden to German well-being.

The Third Reich implemented the national program that involved nursing participation in facilitating National Socialism in building a perfect, spotless nation. According to Cizik School of Nursing ( 2017), such medical institutes as the National Social Nurses and the Red Cross Nurses were in charge of observing the citizens national health. They swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler as a form of greets of National Socialism with an open heart by means of killing children with health issues. To build a perfect race where all citizens could serve the Nazi needs, it implemented a euthanasia program in 1939 to eradicate possible harms to the government. Nurses killed children manifested bad indicators for the health of Germany. The Nazis called this category of people useless feeders and killed them utilizing drugs and medicines, causing lethal outcomes. The differentiation of valuable people from useless ones is a fundamental humanity violation contradicting all moral, social norms. Nazi Germany was so engrossed with this idea that it killed its citizens, decided them to be not worth living. It is diabolical and outrageous misconduct towards people labeling them as a real burden to a country.

Nazi Germany, represented by the killing nurses, was a telling example of villains who did not neglect to utilize vicious and sinister methods to achieve its global goals. It is an absolute shameful history chapter of Germany with a million dead people who did not correspond to the image of a credible Nazi member. Children born with innate diseases were severely killed and treated as a real burden to the nation that might be erased by all means and under any circumstances. Most women volunteered to be murderers, considering their unethical markings made Germany the best-performing country with no disabled members.

Reference

Cizik School of Nursing(2017). Caring Corrupted. The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich. You Tube.

• Why were the Nazis opposed to the swing music?

In the movie, swing music is forbidden in Germany. This was because, according to Nazi ideology, all jazz music was regarded as offensive because its origins had links with African-Americans. Since it had linkages with blacks commonly called negroes and a number of Jews, the Nazis referred to it as entartete, meaning degenerate in German. The Nazi ideology regarded the Jews and the blacks as sub-humans, and any form of association with them was not worthy of Aryans, which was a superior race. Furthermore, jazz and especially swing music accommodated all races and all faiths, something is seen as utterly antithetical to the Nazis ideology.

• What other restrictions do people live under besides music and dance? Note specific examples.

People under the Nazi regime were forbidden to speak ill about the third Reich. Herr Knapp asks peter to spy on his boss, who got suspected of working against the Nazi regime. Also, when Bismarck, Arvin, Peter, and Arvid urinate on a couple of Nazi propaganda posters they got caught in the act and chased by the Gestapo police and they escape only because the police pursued another fleeing man who jumps into a river and shot dead by the Gestapo. Thomas father is also arrested and executed because Thomas accused him of insulting Hitler. Peter also discovers that those suspected of being spies get executed Gestapo when he realizes that one of the packages he was delivering contained ashes of a person and a wedding ring.

• How do the friends in the movie change? Why do they change? Note specific examples.

Firstly, friendships in this movie changes especially when one joins the Hitlerjugend or the Hitler youth.Arvid is stopped and beaten by two HJ as he is bringing a brand new record home.Asthe beating continues, his former friend Emil who quit the swing club arrives and instead of rescuing Arvid, he beat him up worse and breaks his fingers so he never plays again. This greatly affects Arvid and he later commits suicide out of contempt for the Nazi regime.

During one of the raids on a swing club where Arvid was performing, peter notices that a former swing kid friend was part of the HJ that raided the club

The Nazi ideology also influences who initially hated the regime and he even betrays his father that he insulted Hitler. He tells on his friends including Peter for being members of the swing club and even participates in raiding the club. Thomas finds peter and despite the friendship that has existed between them for a long time, he is the one who throws the first punch.

• What were the core beliefs of the Nazis, as portrayed in the movie? Give examples.

The Nazis believed that they were a superior race and they eliminated anyone who tried to oppose them. The HJ were constantly tracking down any one who dared to oppose the regime like the swing clubs and anyone found got executed or was sent to labor camps. In the movie all those suspected of being spies got arrested and taken to labor camps or killed like Thomas father, peters father and many others.

• How do these beliefs reflect totalitarianism, anti-Enlightenment and anti-Liberal thinking?

These beliefs suppress people and forces them to do things contrary to their belief reflects totalitarian, anti-enlightenment and anti liberal thoughts. People should have freedom in the society to do as they please but the Nazi regime coerced people to accept its ideologies without regard for their own thoughts or feelings.

• What aspects of this movie are historically accurate? Be sure to identify the sources of your information and relate them to specific points of historical accuracy, exaggeration, or fiction.

In Germany jazz music got banned and since swing music was part of jazz it was also banned (Mosse, 1971). As a result of the ban a group of teenagers who liked the music came up and they called themselves the swing kids (Shirer, 1960). They indirectly fought against the Nazis by rebelliously dressing the way they wanted, and doing anything they wanted to do. Also like in the movie there were concentration camps in Germany during the Nazi era.

References

Mosse,G.(1971) The Germans and the Jews, Orbach and Chambers, London,.

Shirer W, (1960) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Pan, London.

Introduction

Hitler scornfully concerned to the ability of people to understand the events. If he was alive today could note, that people use only in a roundabout way belief and in the reflections apply simple heuristics. Effective propaganda is necessary on heuristics and addresses to emotions. Hitler has written in Mein Kampf: “It [propaganda] influence should be aimed mainly at emotions and only in very limited degree on so-called intelligence. We should avoid excessive intellectual inquiries in relation to our people. The susceptibility of weights is very limited, their intelligence is insignificant, but ability to forget – is huge. As consequence of these facts, all effective propagation should be limited by few positions, and infinitely repeat these slogans until the latest representative of people will not understand in them that is required to you “¹

Main Text

Different political parties, the organizations, the nations use propaganda to find support to the ideals or actions. The propagandist can be the person who tries to involve people under the banners by the means of manipulation with the facts (which can be or to not be truthful) calculated on strong emotional effect. The most effective and powerful propaganda was used by Nazis. As a result they have seized power in Germany.

The Nazi party used propaganda in various directions and has reached horrifying results. In the beginning they used propagation to get support of Germans and to reach authority, later – to get support of expansion, to war and the Holocaust. Hitler has realized the importance of propaganda even before the First World War in Vein where his basic ideas have developed. During the first world Hitler observed the effect of propaganda on German people.

At first, Nazis used propaganda technologies to draw attention of other political organizations of the right wing, then, after the departure of imprisonment by Hitler, the party becomes better organized and, finally, propaganda is used for the achievement of authority. Having reached authority, Nazis continued to use the propaganda machine already for other purposes. The importance of propaganda for Nazis confirms the fact of the creation of the Ministry of public education and propagation led by recognized master Joseph Goebbles. Goebbles was engaged in a practical embodiment of ideas by Hitler by the means of slogans, newspapers, magazines, posters, radio, mass assemblies, and performances.

The Nazi party thoroughly relied and used the propaganda in achievement of authority and support of the ideas. Features of Nazi propaganda cannot be considered outside of following unevident aspects: true national traditions (archetypes, mentalities) corresponding territories and nationalities; theoretical base and historical practice of aggressive fundamentalism (for any mode of the Axis respecting it was not limited to pure nationalism, always bringing under it the certain speculative or “well forgotten” ² conceptual basis); history of the public relations in XX century and, in particular, the century which have occured in the middle in the field of commercial of transition from ” promotion of the goods ” to ” promotion of an image “³ ; the transition explaining that efficiency of “promotion” of crude and eclectic ideologies which historians-Marxists traditionally explained a low cultural level and marginal, and steady average layers of the Central European society.

Having reached the authority Nazis allowed themselves to involve the resources of machinery of state and, thus, to deduce Nazi propaganda on a qualitative new step of development. On the one hand, they got the access to public finances and having been reliable for the large industrialists who have offered, for example, on February, 20th, 1933 3 million marks for carrying out of pre-election campaign, could expand application of the old, tested forms of propaganda: through poster art, carrying out of assemblies, processions, distribution of leaflets, etc.

The operation of broadcasting with a view of psychological processing the population became one of the main methods of Nazi propaganda.

Propaganda strategy of nazi Germany has appeared conceptually most close to strategy of simplification, reduction in price and unification of production, bulk sellings, aggressive advertising. The researchers allocate two characteristic attributes of such approach: a principle of simplicity. “A secret of effective propaganda is refusal of aspiration to speak about many things and a concentration of all efforts on few questions. It is necessary to pay to them the attention of people constantly… Up to such degree that they became clear to any person from the street” ⁴– Gobbles approved; a principle of the scope and concentration. “Total influence on people, maintenance of uniform reaction to events”⁵, – so the head of national broadcasting of Reich defined a problem of propaganda.

The Prominent aspect of such propagandist line, industrial character providing mass character and cheapness admits. The accent is done on technology. Vladimir Lenin spoke about the importance of a cinema, Joseph Gobbles – about basic value of broadcasting for “social revolution” in Germany.

The reasons of prevalence of such approach are following factors: the domination in a society of power model of authority and submission (instead of charismatic (Italian) or paternalistic (Spanish)), originating Prussian army traditions and association of Germany by Bismarck ” iron and blood “⁶; the domination of the industrial way of life partially inherited from the Second empire, partially cultivated by general labour mobilization; the absence of more ancient dominants of the social device and statehood, than two specified above.

The activity of Hitleryugend should promote the formation of “national community”, rallying in struggle against enemies during the war. In nobleness and a height of this purpose the majority of youth rendered hard, quite often social help by to adult fellow citizens trusted, providing with that durability of rear of hitlerite army. It is possible to result many examples of self-renunciation, unselfishness and even the self-sacrifice, shown during these actions; rendering assistance to families of victims, invalids, elderly in difficult conditions of military years answered norms and values nazi humanity, but they were used by a nazi top in the criminal purposes, for prolongation of its domination in conditions of become more and more hopeless war for Germany.

Alongside with daily actions, character and which orientation quite often varied, the youth has appeared involved and in more scale and long-term campaign. One of them was participation in the land development, occupied by hitlerite armies in the East. In February, 1940 at a youth management of reich the special bureau on resettlement of youth “East” has been founded. It had close contacts with SS and personally Hitler which among other things was still and reichcomisar ” on strengthening German spirit ” in the grasped territories of Poland and Czeckia. A number of territories has been declared the “areas” of Hitleryungend” “, including areas in the north and northwest of Poland – on a watercourse of Varta and in “the Polish corridor “.

One of the factors, which influenced the development of system of nazi propaganda, was the consecutive gain a mode of monopoly for illumination of events in mass media. Within 1933 Nazis have concentrated management of broadcasting and press, have crushed an oppositional press and have legislatively issued a taken place unification by a number of decisions and laws (in particular, the order ” About protection of people and the state ” from February, 28th, 1933 had been limited a freedom of speech, and ” the law on editors ” from October, 4th, 1933 has finally transformed all German press into the tool of Nazi domination). That had been created a uniform ideological climate that has allowed Nazis free, not being afraid of an ideological competition to form public opinion.

At last, the mentioned expansion of a field of propaganda activity and as consequence, necessity of more precise coordination of efforts at carrying out of the propaganda companies have caused serious changes in the structure of Nazi propaganda. On March, 13th, 1933 the Ministry of national education and propaganda was formed.

National socialist propaganda, forming a positive image of the new state in public consciousness, was not limited to promotion of the slogans varied depending on to what address group they intended. To one of the most effective methods belonged the use by nazis of indistinct hopes which the certain part of German people connected with A.Gitler’s name.

Effective method of psychological processing of the population became the designing of an image of the enemy in the mass consciousness. Applying the concept of “mythology of an ethnotrauma” by the described historical period, it is possible to tell, that Nazi party created with a view of the maximal mobilization of people the archetypical opposition “they-we”, loading concept “they” a maximum quantity of negative ethnic symbols. Forcing fear before communistic threat, using in the purposes an ethnotrauma put of the German nation by the defeat in the First World War and its consequences, kindling anti-Semitic moods, propaganda eliminated many obstacles in a way of an establishment of Nazi dictatorship.

Conclusion

As we see, Nazi propaganda used the most low feelings of the person which sympathies promoted fascists of the widest broad masses, and not only Germany, but also many other things of the countries of the Axis. It used all means for achievement of the purposes: from cinema up to architecture, but the greatest value from all mass-media was given to radio. Radioreceivers by 30-th years were almost in each house and, therefore it was represented possible to influence huge quantity of people psychologically. By means of propaganda in mass consciousness of German people hatred to the so-called “not Aryan” nations, the highing of Hitler and power of the German military machine was spread.

Works cited

Kershaw Ian, “The “Hitler myth: Image and Reality in the Third Reich “, Oxford University Press, USA (2001).

Lee Stephen J., “European dictatorships 1918-1945” Routledge; 1 edition (1987).

Posters and anti-semitic caricatures

Footnotes

1. Kershaw Ian, “The “Hitler myth”
2. Lee Stephen J., “European dictatorships 1918-1945”;
3. Lee Stephen J., “European dictatorships 1918-1945”;
4. Kershaw Ian, “The “Hitler myth””,
5. Lee Stephen J., “European dictatorships 1918-1945”;
6. Kershaw Ian, “The “Hitler myth””.

The Early Years: Suppression of Political Opposition

The chain of Nazi concentration camps started the same year Adolf Hitler ascended to power as Chancellor of Germany, even before the annexation of Czechoslovakia and Austria. From 1933 onward, the Nazi regime’s Storm Troopers and local police had to establish camps in virtually all communities as they ran out of jail space to confine the multitudes of political opponents and “deviants” the government wanted out of the way. Beginning in 1936, these were concentrated into larger establishments under the control of the elite Schutzstaffel (SS) command (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d., para 1). By 1939, seven had been established: Sachsenhausen (1936, near Berlin), Buchenwald (1937, close to Weimar), Neuengamme (1938, around Hamburg, Flossenbuerg (1938), Mauthausen (1938, near Linz in Austria), and Ravensbruck (1939), the women’s camp. Most camp inmates were put to work in stone quarries, other extractive industries, and in SS-owned factories

The War Years

With the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the rest of Europe soon after, the opportunity came to establish new camps in the conquered territories. These were needed to house newly-designated “undesirables” such as Jews and Gypsies who could then be put to work in war materiel factories while being systematically starved to death. Resistance leaders apprehended by the Gestapo were also sent there for annihilation. And to cope with the large headcounts of those condemned to death, gas chambers were constructed in Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz I, Treblinka, Dachau, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec, and Chelmo, mostly in occupied Poland (the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2009, para. 5; Florida Center for Instructional Technology 1).

Liberation and the Toll of Those for Whom It Came Too Late

Just before Christmas of 1944, the American Seventh and First French Armies pushed into Strasbourg and found the first of many horrors, the Natwiller-Struthof labor camp (Abzug 3-4). Originally established to put German political opponents to work the nearby granite quarries, Natwiller had by 1943 started to house Jews and Gypsies slated for extermination, as well as captured resistance fighters from nearby France, Holland, and Belgium. In addition, University of Strasburg scientists performed live experiments to test the effects of mustard gas, inoculation with typhus, and forced jaundice. For the thousands who had died here, rescue came 60 days too late because the SS had evacuated the camp right after the Battle of the Bulge. It was too late for the blight on America’s conscience because Abzug related, CBS had reported the Nazi intent to “wipe the Jews from the face of the earth” (p. 4) as early as 1940 before the United States and Germany declared war on each other.

To the East, the story was even more horrifying. Soviet troops pushing German troops back through the Ukraine and Poland to the Vaterland of the “Greater German Reich” discovered Majdanek near Lublin, with all inmates already exterminated, in the late summer of 1944. In January of 1945, Soviet troops reached Auschwitz, the site of 48 camps near the southwest border of Poland and Czechoslovakia. By official estimates, 1.1 million Jews had perished here, as had 150,000 Poles, 23,000 gypsies, 15,000 Russian POWs, and tens of thousands more of different nationalities. They had died in the infamous gas chambers, dropped dead of exhaustion and starvation, lack of attention, horrifying executions, and medical experiments (Caplan 62, 88).

Works Cited

Abzug, Robert H. Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: Oxford University Press. 1987.

Caplan, Richelle B. (ed.) Our Memory of the Past and for the Future. Proceedings of an International Forum in Jerusalem, Israel. 2003.

Florida Center for Instructional Technology. “Map of Nazi Camp System.” 2005. A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, College of Education, University of South Florida. Web.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Holocaust Encyclopedia.” 2009. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Concentration Camps, 1939-1942.” n.d. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web.

Introduction

After the First World War Germany was facing serious political and economic crises due to capitulation. War loss led to the implications of the Treaty of Versailles, which was a peace pact that required Germany to undergo a loss of territory, colonies and some of the world power as a consequence of the country’s actions during the war. Although the Treaty was enacted, active inner Nazi propaganda within Germany was gradually turning the population against it, which resulted in its later inefficiency.

The Implications of the Treaty of Versailles

For the Party, which was reinforcing Nazism, the Treaty of Versailles was a crucial part of their structured propaganda. It was pointing out a connection between the crisis in the country and the groups of people who were useful to partially blame, such as Socialists, Communists, social leftists, and Jews (Yonkman 6). Like this, using a context of the change within Germany’s world power, they were defining an image of the enemies of the country, which resulted in civil unrest and paranoia.

Gradually, the Treaty’s continuous massive portrayal as a threat to Germany significantly affected the global situation. Propaganda exploited “existing fear, opposition, and discontent” in order to enhance Nazi movement (Yonkman 7). This way, Hitler was able to increase civil discontent and to channel it to the portrayed enemy, reinforcing later military actions. Therefore, while certain countries were focusing on fixing the order and gradually overcoming the consequences of the war, Germany was collecting the power in order to eventually strike.

However, as Hitler and Stalin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, diplomatic dynamics have changed significantly. Fragile peace, created by the Treaty of the Versailles, became insufficient mostly due to this alliance, as both nations had military plans regarding other European countries. Thus, Germany’s political actions, which were partially based on the economical difficulties, throughout the time period between 1920s and 1930s were progressively leading to the reinforcement of the war and abolishment of the peaceful pact.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, the way that the peaceful pact of Versailles impacted the economic and political situation in Germany was portrayed as the main threat to the nation’s wellbeing. This specific targeting of a peaceful pact majorly contributed to the military agitation in Europe due to the calculated Nazi propaganda and Hitler’s political interests. Hence, seemingly peaceful time period between 1920s and 1930s was in fact filled with expanding tension and preparations for military actions.

Bibliography

Yonkman M. The Treaty of Versailles and the Rise of Nazism in Germany, 1918-1933. – 2021.