150% Nazi Essay, Research Paper

1. Hitler demanded that the nation produce a “violently active, dominating,

intrepid, brutal youth.” What part did the schools play in carrying out that

goal?

The schools taught the students to live a military lifestyle. Everything was

very structured. Everything they did, they did mechanically. The games they

played as children were war type games. They exercised and marched and

drilled and saluted.

2. Write a working definition of the word indoctrinate. How does it differ from

the word educate? How did Hitler indoctrinate young Germans? Why did

he focus his efforts on them rather than on their parents?

To indoctrinate is to “teach to accept a system of thought uncritically”. To

educate is to “provide information, to inform”. Indoctrinate differs from

educate because when you indoctrinate, you don?t allow room for debate or

questioning, whereas when you educate you allow room for thinking and

exploration. Hitler indoctrinated young Germans by limiting their

knowledge of the past and of what was really going on in the present. There

was no room for different thought in Hitler?s schools. Hitler concentrated

his efforts on children rather than adults because when people are young

they can be molded easily. As a person gets more life experience, their

mindset gets more concrete and inflexible.

3. Describe the messages a child would hear in Nazi Germany. How would

those messages affect the way he/she viewed the world? How does such an

atmosphere turn hatred into a habit?

Children in Germany were bombarded with the fact that Hitler was the

savior of Germany. Therefore, everything Hitler said had to be true, had to

be right. Both the hate and the superiority messages combined made

Germany magnificent and the rest of the world inferior. Children were

taught to be extremely ethnocentric. That sort of atmosphere turns hatred

into a habit because whenever those children see something that isn?t like

themselves they are automatically hostile to it.

4. Why is Peter Becker not sure of what he would have done if he had been

assigned as a guard at a death camp? What do you think he would have

done?

Peter Becker is not sure of what he would have done if he were assigned

to a death camp because he is not sure if he would have had “that internal

strength” to see that what was happening was wrong. But I think he would

have followed the orders blindly, because first, that?s what he?s been doing

his whole life, but second, because he always truly believed in Hitler and

anything that he did.

Further Questions:

1. How would you define the word “obedience”? What is Blind Obedience?

What is the difference between obedience and conformity?

Obedience is to obey a command. Blind obedience is when you obey a

request or demand without even thinking about it. The difference between

obedience and conformity is that when you conform you agree to do

something or become similar to what you are conforming to.

2. What encourages obedience?

I feel that it is all three; fear of punishment, a belief in authority, and a

desire to please. But a think fear is the biggest reason for obedience. If a

child is told to clean their room, are they going to do it out of a desire to

please? Or that they think that their parents are telling them this for their

own good? They clean it because they don?t want to get hit and/or punished

and have their privileges taken away.