Agents Of Socialization In Germany

What often gets overlooked when people think about the Holocaust is the fact that the German people did indeed allow this to happen. It was the German people who allowed Hitler to gain control over them and strengthen already existing concepts. They had the ability to not submit, it’s just that since Hitler was sending out praises of how the German people are the dominant race, how could they resist. The German citizenry allowed the Holocaust to happen with antisemitism, deindividuation, and agents of socialization.

One of the most common Jewish stereotypes is their apparent obsession with wealth. It was widely depicted that all Jewish people would do is steal money, and this is what lead to Germany's economic downfall, or so they say. In Germany,

Schooling lead to a very large portion of the way the Germans viewed the world, all of it was based on physical qualities. In schools, one part of their curriculum was how to Identify a person's racial background based on their physical qualities (Chpt 5, Reading 10). This can be interpreted as a way for students to learn how to identify Jews and then avoid them, and some of this was verified in the text; Observe the Jew: his way of walking, his bearing, gestures, and movements when talking (Chpt 5, Reading 10). When we hear this it sounds almost as if they are biology students studying some sort of animal interact with its surroundings in the wild. That’s what this was, study the pest, this invader, so we can see how well it is able to adapt. Not only were these lessons in school used as a way to identify those revered as lesser than they, but also as a way to look at different German people and their high accomplishments. With an input like this, they are able to see how great Germany is and that the reason for all of these peoples success isn’t because of their will to do something, but what blood they have coursing through their veins. Along with schooling, the Hitler youth was used as a way to program Germany’s children and helps to allow the Holocaust to happen. The Hitler Youth was a way to repeatedly tell kids that they are a more valued race than all others (Chpt 5,

Genocides still continue today, maybe not to the grotesque extent of that of the Holocaust. Either way, if we analyze what happened, look at key details and turning points we can look out for them in the future. We can learn from this like we can with anything else, and we can do better, it just takes awareness. This all happened because, The German citizenry allowed the Holocaust to happen with antisemitism, deindividuation, and agents of socialization. Only if they had known what we know now, could this tragedy have been