Taking A Stand

There were many different ways that the Germans responded to the Kristallnacht. Each was unique in it's own way and had different effects on the victims of Kristallnacht. In the reading: "Taking A Stand" we heard about three different choices.

One of the choices was to put the event behind them and tried to embrace the new government's antisemitism stance. They were bystanders and just stood by as the Nazi bullies attacked and murdered many Jews. I think that many of the Germans chose this option out of pure fear. Melita Maschmann spoke in the reading of how they slowly adjusted to this as the days, weeks and months went by, they had no choice but to forget and continue their lives, as if it never happened. Many didn't want to risk their lives, or become members in a concentration camp.

The second choice was to cleverly aid the Jews in small acts of kindness, like offering shelter or a place to stay in. But this had to be done very carefully as if anyone ever suspected the people of harboring Jews in their home, the Jews and the host(s) would all be guillotined, murdered or sent to concentration camps. The host(s) would be trialed in court of betrayal to their own country by helping "those filthy Jews". We saw in the video how "well" these kind host(s) were received. They didn't stand anything close to a chance in those courts, as probably all of the judges were faithful followers of the Nazi Party, thankful to Hitler for strengthening their country and establishing a powerful nation.

The following choice was to resign membership to the Nazi Party or to send anonymous letters of protest to foreign embassies. The second part of the choice was fairly safe as it was anonymous and though it voiced complaints and anger and displeasure, nobody knew who was to blame for the letters chock-full of emotion. The first part, however, was very difficult, unless they were to flee to neutral territory as soon as they had resigned, as the Nazi Party were very hard on those who left their allegiance.

The final choice, which was chosen by Andre, who made the decision not to harm the Jew's by throwing stones at them was to flee to neutral territory (e.g. Switzerland). In that way, they were neither helping or hurting the Jews. Which, in my point of view is just as bad as being a bystander. True, he made the wise decision in not harming the Jews, but when he fled it was an act of cowardice, but and act that saved his and his family's life. Though preserving his life was very important; by leaving, he left the Jews to fend for themselves on Kristallnacht. Though many of the people fleeing found that they had done a good deed, it wasn't. By leaving, they became bystanders, but they were watching in a different country.

If I were in that rather difficult situation, I wouldn't announce boldly like the White Rose that I disagreed with the Nazi's political stance on antisemitism. Though it would be tremendously courageous and brave of me, it would only definitely land me in some sort of concentration camp or in the guillotine. The Nazi's didn't appreciate free speech or allowed any threat to stay a threat for too long.

I wouldn't have been able to accept the unjust murders and destroyed property of the Jews. My conscience wouldn't let me sleep at night, though it might have been easier to other, I tend to be easily swayed by my better judgment and conscience. It would be all too easy for me to stress and break apart under the guilt. Instead, I would be discreet and would help those affected by that tragic night by offering food and money to those in desperate need.

And if I didn't do that, I would flee to neutral territory, and make a home and life there spreading news on the despair and tragedy of the persecuted Jews. In the reading, we heard of a German Aristocrat by the name of Molthke who helped by copying the White Rose's papers (which came to a huge use later on, after their untimely deaths) and having them flown over Germany and dropped in cities. I would participate in groups like this and spread word of Hitler's many evils in neutral territories. In hope that they would help overthrow the Nazi Party's widespread influence in Germany.

Propaganda & Analyzing Visual Images

Definition of PROPAGANDA:

• Information of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
  

Hitler and the Nazi's used propaganda to set their standards and bring people in to vote for them. An example of the biased info, were posters that used his failed artistic talent to attract people. He knew how to make the posters informative and eye catching. Hitler understood that to rig in more votes he needed to use propaganda to lead the audience to buying into his biased views. Whether it be of the Jews or Germany's need to fight back and resist the oppressors of the Treaty of Versailles.
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Analyzing Visual Images

1. The family is very illustrated and it shows four happy children with rosy cheeks and dimpled chins. I can imagine that they are blond and blue-eyed. The family is placed in the center of the picture and the words Healthy People have Healthy Children are placed above and below the illustration.

2. The Creator is trying to convey the idea of a healthy and happy Greater
Germany. It's conveyed to encourage the Germans to evolve and produce
a mass population. The more people there are, there's more chance of
them taking over countries, to become a Great and Powerful Germany.

Evaluate: The purpose of the image is to encourage healthiness and children. The intended audience is probably young couples in relationships. I think it achieves it's purpose quite successfully.

Otto Hauptmann & his Political Party Choice

Based on the small piece of paper we were given, we were supposed to deduct the person's standing and the political party he would most likely vote for. My partner was Sonja, and we differed greatly in our view of the matter. You could see that it was quite clear that this Otto Hauptmann respected the Union and was grateful to them for letting him keep his job, when so many of his friends were let go due to their age. But not Otto. He blames their lack of success in his trade union on the inflation and the current ongoing depression. Not on the capitalists, or the Jews. Otto seems like a fair kind of guy and disagrees with his fellow workers about the fact that when owners are forced to cut back production, they take it out on the workers. These workers think the only way to end the depression is to let the workers control the factories and government. He opposes this idea and thinks that the workers DO get fair treatment as long as they have a strong union. He believes that factories and government should be managed by those who understand the complicated jobs.

From this I can deduct that he was definitely not going to vote for the communism idea as it revolved around the workers controlling the government and factories and the government being controlled by the people themselves, who as Otto said might not be able to understand the complicated jobs, so how would they know right from wrong? I think he would vote for the Social Democratic Party as they seem very fair, and he would agree with the lower taxes and a good image for Germany.

Otto doesn't blame anything on the foreigners and seems comfortable with working with others. So he might not agree completely with the Nazi Program. He believes in saying what he believes in, so he'd disagree with the lack of free speech in the Nazi program.

The Social Democratic Party is a party which has a lot to offer, and pretty much outranks the other parties in their views of justice, freedom and democracy. Something, I think Otto would take to heart. But just as there are many good views of the SPD, there as many risky but interesting views of the Nazi Party......

(See Sonja's Blog Post)

Anger & Humiliation/ Voices in the Dark

Response:

2 points of the Nazi Party Program that I find specifically unfair are:

*1* German blood as a requirement for German citizenship. No Jew can be a member of the nation.

I find this unfair because, firstly, if someone of different ethnicity came forward to ask permission to become a German citizen, he should be allowed to do so. An example includes Adolf Hitler, who was an Austrian citizen and was granted German citizenship. He should be able to sympathize with the victims of this law, as where would he be if he wasn't granted German citizenship? Secondly, the intolerance demonstrated towards Jews in this law is very cruel. It shows a very party with biased thinking against the Jews.

*2* The state insures that every citizen live decently and earn his livelihood. If it is impossible to provide food for the whole population, then aliens must be expelled.

It is perfectly normal for every citizen to have rights to a decent life and earned livelihood, but the fact that when food is scarce their solution is to throw out the aliens/foreigners is simply unfair, and prejudiced. The foreigners have every right to be there as the citizens by blood. They made their life there and because food is scarce they have to be kicked out. It is extremely unfair and I think that the government should make sure that there is enough food to sustain the country and that they shouldn't resort to kicking out people.

If you had been on the train, do you think you would have said or done anything? Have you or someone you know ever had a similar experience?

If I were on the train, I would've defended the Jew. I wouldn't have resorted to physical harm, and would have burst out and reprimanded the people for blaming every single one of their pity problems on the Jews (even though it wasn't my place to do so). Though I would cross the line at some point, when I could tell my life was threatened, because if I defended a life and in the end my words irritated the men more, we could both end up dead. I could instead escort the man to the next station as the conflict escalated. There was also the fact that many people at that time were killed for being a Jew, defending a Jew or speaking out against Hitler. I'd do this because the Germans had been through a lot during World War I, and needed an outlet for their frustration and anger. So when the Jews came up, they became agitated. Agitated, angry and bitter men are harder to reason with, because as I mentioned before, they had reasons to be angry. I've experienced being in places where people thought unethically or were hostile to one another, and I have experienced seeing a public display of anger, both physically and through dispute. Both were unpleasant and nobody spoke out, I think what all these situations need is someone who would back up the victim and be ready to defend the victim. This can go a long way, because it saves lives.

Hindu, Buddhism & Islam

The ornate dome of a part of the Hindu temple.

Buddhist offerings of oranges and incense sticks burning in a gold brass pot. Two brass dragons are on both sides of the pot.

One of the Mosque's archways. You can see that the architecture is based upon symmetry...

Religions

The three areas we visited were all sacred places of worship for major religions. The three areas include a Hindu Temple, a Chinese Temple and an Islamic Mosque. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are polytheistic religions, filled with many deities and important characters to pray to. Whereas Islam is a monotheistic religion; as Muslim people believe in one God only and their name for him is: 'Allah'.

Where the mosque seemed so authentic and silent (as when we went in, nobody was there); the Chinese and Hindu temples where colorful and filled with life, as well as occasionally loud.

All of the places of worship were filled to the brim with symbolic objects or signs. The Chinese Temple was filled with symbols: for example, the big red step that symbolized that the bad spirits would be tripped up; keeping them out of the temple. Red and gold are lucky colors in Chinese culture. The dragon statues at the front; guard the temple and it's believed to be good luck to rub the dragon's head and the stone ball in the dragon's mouth. In the Hindu temple, there was a bindi dot that we wore. The bindi dot is said to absorb energy and strengthen concentration. It also is said to protect the wearer against demons and/or bad luck. The Islam Mosque has symbols as well. We saw a star and a crescent at the gateway. The star with 14 points symbolizes the 14 states of Malaysia and the crescent moon is the symbol of Islam.

The places of worship hold many values in common. One of these values is rituals. All three religions and many more religions practice rituals. In Islam, one of the rituals is that they cleanse themselves at specific times or on certain days, one of these times is before prayer. There was an eight point star fountain and many faucets which is where the Islamic people would cleanse themselves before entering the Masjid or Mosque. In Hinduism they performed a ritual in which they cleansed the statues of the deities in the temple. Sahi explained that they were cleansed with mixtures of milk and holy water. They also made offerings of fruit and flowers. At the Buddhist temple they performed offerings with smoky incense and oranges. They burned the incense sticks then put them in specific pots after offering up a prayer.

All 3 of the religions value afterlife. Both Hindu's and Buddhists believe in reincarnation. But the Buddhist rebirth system is slightly different. Though, they both reconnect with the concept of karma: where if you do good, the good will find it's way back to you, either in your present life, or in rebirth.

The architecture of the areas were very different. The Hindu temple's was ornate and flowery, there was a jumble of colors all over the place. There were many carved out pillars with designs painted all over them. There were about 4 different rooms in the temple where they put deity statues in. At the side was a large bell that a man was ringing. The Islamic Mosque we visited was built geometrically and was a very simple design that was very spacious. The Buddhist temple was a bit squishy but was filled with tables and plates of offerings, candles etc. There were brass pots to put our incense sticks in. There were red lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and characters engraved into the pillars. The interior was mostly red, but you could see some black and gold here and there.

I found the Hindu temple the most interesting. The Buddhist temple was interesting as well, as we could participate in it by buying incense, but I found that it had become a bit more commercial then necessary and was evolving to accommodate tourists. Proof of this is the 'fortune-telling' they offered, but at a certain price. Sonja told us later that fortune telling wasn't a Buddhist Temple tradition, it was a way to earn money. The mosque was an interesting area, what with all the symmetry you could see. Though I find the tastes were refined and there wasn't as much color. I think that the Hindu temple was the most interesting because of it's interesting rituals. We got to witness the ritual firsthand. They were adorned with flowers a wrap for the waist down and they kept their hair tied. They went from room to room to cleanse each one of the deity statues. Only the priests are allowed to handle the cleansing ritual. Sahi and Rhea told us that the ritual happens daily. I also think I found the loud music blaring through the temple interesting, because it wasn't something I was entirely used to. An instrument like a clarinet was playing rather loudly, drums were banged and the bell was ringing (all at the same time)! It was really different and that uniqueness made it all the more interesting for me.

Auschwitz

***What if the world still held thousands of camps like Auschwitz? What would that be like?
***A world without freedom is unthinkable, it's a world without opportunities and choices. A world we'd all like to avoid.
***When and Why did Hitler persecute the Jews?--They had no part in the Treaty of Versailles.
***Were followers intimidated by Hitler? Did they ever think of overthrowing him?
***Did Hitler plan to take over the world, or was his goal: Central Europe?
***In Hitler's haze of dictatorship, I think he lost sight of what his plan was. And that plan was to redeem Germany. The moment he took control, he killed and persecuted tons of people and even created a stereotypical German face, a race of people who in his eyes had superior genetics.
***How was the Nazi sign chosen?
***Where did Adolf Hitler meet Eva?