Conformity, Obedience, and Escalating Violence

Question 1

Who is a Jew?

Answer 1

• person with 2 Jewish parents
• person with 3 Jewish grandparents
• person with 1 practicing Jewish parent
• mischling

Question 2

What is a mischling?

Answer 2

child of one German and one Jewish parent

Question 3

What was the Hitler oath? Who had to take it?

Answer 3

• one of his first steps as Fuhrer

- new oath of obedience for German soldiers and government workers

Question 4

Obedience

Answer 4

• compliance with an order, request, law
• submission to authority
• essential to all of German culture

Question 5

Milgram experiment

Answer 5

• Yale prof Stanley Milgram study of “effect of punishment on learning”
• one volunteer was teacher, shocked learner with increasing voltage when answer was wrong
• Hypothesis: most volunteers would not exceed 150 volts, psychologists predicted that <1% would administer all 450.
• 65% gave full 450 volts

Question 6

Third Wave

Answer 6

• lesson for sophomores from teacher Ron Jones
• simulation of conformity and obedience
• involved salute, membership cards, snitching, recruiting, shouting motto

Question 7

Nazi propaganda

Answer 7

• info (esp. of biased nature) used to promote a political cause or POV

Question 8

Critical audience of Nazi propaganda

Answer 8

Nazi youth:

• mandatory to teach race science and physical education
• boys took military, science classes while girls took cooking and child-rearing

Question 9

Civil Service Law: actual name

Answer 9

Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

Question 10

Civil Service Law: terms

Answer 10

• made it illegal for communists, Jews, and others deemed unfit to work in civil service
• ex: doctors, teachers, police, judges, state employees

Question 11

1935 Nuremburg Laws

Answer 11

Goal: isolate Jews as noncitizen

1. Defined what it meant to be German (German blood = full political rights)
2. Jews not citizens, so can’t vote or hold office
3. no marriage or intercourse between Jews and Germans
4. No employment of German girls younger than 45 in Jewish homes

Question 12

Reaction to Nuremberg laws

Answer 12

Most Germans enthusiastic or at least willing to conform

Question 13

Summer Olympics 1936

Answer 13

• Berlin showcased Aryan athletic superiority
• Aryans-only athletic associations, separate Jewish associations
• Jewish athletes from various countries sat out in protest
• part-Jewish fencer Helene Mayer competed and won silver for Germany
• top medalist: Jesse Owens

Question 14

Why weren’t other countries alarmed by what they saw at Olympics?

Answer 14

• antisemitic posters removed
• newspaper rhetoric toned down
• spectators and reporters saw false image of tolerant Germany

Question 15

Movement to boycott Olympics

Answer 15

• arose in US, Britain, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands
• alternative option was The People’s Olympiad in Barcelona but it was canceled.

Question 16

Gypsies

Answer 16

• ethnic group from South Asia considered “alien blood”

- arrested and put in camps outside Berlin for Olympics

Question 17

In addition to Jews and Gypsies, Nazis also targeted…

Answer 17

communists, Africans, homosexuals, Jehovahs witnesses

Question 18

Jews in education

Answer 18

• Oct 1936: Jewish teachers banned

- April 1936: Jewish children banned

Question 19

Hitler Youth

Answer 19

• Dec 1936: entire German youth organized in Hitler Youth

- educated mentally, physically, and morally in the spirit of Nazism to serve the nation and racial community

Question 20

National Hitler Youth leader, reported to Fuhrer

Answer 20

Baldur von Schirach

Question 21

Jewish names

Answer 21

• Aug 17 1938
• Jews bearing first names of non-Jewish origin are required to adopt additional name
• Sara and Israel

Question 22

Jewish passports

Answer 22

• Oct 5, 1938

- Jews must surrender old passports, passports only valid when letter J is stamped on them

Question 23

Austria’s past relations with Germany

Answer 23

• Hitler had always seen Austria as part of Germany
• a union between Austria and Germany was forbidden by Versailles Treaty
• 1933-1935 Italy protected Austria from Germany, but by 1936, Italy and Germany formed friendship

Question 24

Austria

Answer 24

• Feb 1938: Hitler gave Austrian Chancellor Schusnigg a list of 10 demands
• Schussnig said Austrians would vote on joining Germany, but Hitler said Chancellor must resign or he would bomb Vienna, so cabinet resigned
• March 5 Hitler entered Vienna in triumph, annexed Austria, Austrian Jews lost rights, no countries protested
• Austrians generally happy

Question 25

Evian Conference

Answer 25

• international conference of 32 countries to address refugee problem
• Roosevelt sent businessman Myron C. Taylor
• delegates expressed sympathy but would not let more refugees in because of global economic depression.
• Prejudice also played a part.
• Only Dominican Republic accepted refugees

Question 26

Czechoslovakia

Answer 26

• Sept 1938: Hitler desired Sudetenland
• Czech worried about a loss of resources (coal) and that it would inspire other groups to seek independence
• Hitler met with British PM Neville Chamberlain, demanded Sudetenland and ordered other parts with Poles and Magyars to be returned to Poland and Hungary
• Britain and France rejected terms
• Munich Conference with Britain, France, Italy, and Germany: gave Germany Sudetenland to appease
• Hitler invaded Oct 1, Polish and Hungarian troops then took parts of Czech

Question 27

What is Sudetenland?

Answer 27

Part of Czechoslovakia, 3 million German speakers, eager to be under German control

Question 28

Kristallnacht: spark

Answer 28

• Nazis expelled Polish Jews living in Germany. Many trapped in refugee camps near German-Polish border
• 17 y/o Herschel Grysnzpan’s parents were trapped
• He shot and killed a Nazi official in Paris embassy

Question 29

Kristallnacht: date and other name

Answer 29

Nov 9 1938

Night of Long Knives

Question 30

Kristallnacht: events

Answer 30

• Nazis set fire to 191 synagogues, killed over 90 Jews, sent 30,000 to concentration camps
• Two days later, Jewish community fined for 1 billion marks for property damage
• Point of crisis for Jews, start of goat-sanctioned violence against Jews
• Emigration became difficult, national leaders didn’t expand immigration quotas

Question 31

Kristallnacht: German reactions

Answer 31

• Most Germans: denial, indifference, or enthusiasm
• Some Germans: protested by resigning from Nazi party
• others wrote anonymous letters to foreign embassies or quietly brought Jewish families food and other necessities
• Nazis saw that Germans accepted and other countries didn’t intervene

Question 32

What should you remember most?

Answer 32

Plus five on the quiz!

Question 33

The Voyage of the St. Louis

Answer 33

• 937 Jews with visas boarded S.S. St. Louis to Cuba
• Cuba refused them entry when they arrived, asked for more money
• Ship attempted to reach US but forced out of US territorial waters by Coast Guard
• Returned to Europe. Britain, Holland, France and Belgium made last minute decisions to take in refugees.

Question 34

Propaganda: old homeless man illustration

Answer 34

Movie poster for “The Eternal Jew.” Jews banished from homeland, eternally homeless, now parasites in Europe. Image: greedy, communists, dirty, criminals

Question 35

Propaganda: Nazi solider

Answer 35

Movie poster for “The Stormtrooper Brand.” Young truck driver and friends join SA to stop communist takeover. Image: strong, brave heroes

Question 36

Propaganda: toys

Answer 36

Board games pieces for “Juden Ras” or “Jews Get Out.” Goal is to move six Jews out of the Third Reich and send back to Palestine. Very popular but Nazis didn’t like because they wanted to exterminate, not let go. Image: Jews try to blend in but must be found and removed

Question 37

Propaganda: Hitler

Answer 37

WWII war poster saying “Long Live Germany!” Image: Hitler is a god.

Question 38

Propaganda: bug

Answer 38

Cartoon in weekly newspaper “The Attacker” or “Der Sturmer” by Julius Streicher. Image: Jews are parasites.