“Freedom and Honor! For ten long years Hitler and his following have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and violated these two splendid German words to the point of nausea.” (Leaflet XI) During the 1940’s, Hitler ruled over Germany with sheer control. Everyone followed Hitler’s devious rule, but the White Rose Resistance opposed. Mainly composed of university students of Munich, the White Rose defied Hitler’s rule. They typed up leaflets and sprayed graffiti criticizing Hitler. To society’s dismay, the White Rose Resistance were executed by the Gestapo when a janitor caught them spreading out leaflets. The question is, whether or not they were successful in their acts against Hitler, or were their lives in vain. The White Rose Resistance group …show more content…
The Gestapo was driven into a frenzy looking for a single hint for the authors of the leaflets: “The Gestapo has been looking for the pamphlets’ authors as soon as the first ones appeared. As the language in the leaflets became more inflammatory they stepped up their efforts. They arrested people at the slightest hint of suspicion” (The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation 2) One might ask why the Gestapo would go as far as to arrest innocent civilians because of the leaflets. These leaflets caused a stir among the German people. After each leaflet was published, more people were educated of the situation occurring and what Hitler was really doing to Germany. As shown in the movie of the White Rose, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, the university students were all intently looking at the leaflets, discussing it with their peers. These little discussions could lead to a rebellion, which was what the Gestapo were scared of. They were so frightened that they would arrest anybody who raised suspicion, which proved the fact that the White Rose was successful in their acts. They raised the attention of the Gestapo, and caused stirs among the university and many other
Which caused her to stop giving her Nazi teachers the answers to any National Socialist question, which she thought was wrong. Her teachers soon grew upset with her, and the principal threatened to not allow Sophie to graduate. Sophie was horrified at the thought of not receiving her diploma.
The atrocities of war can take an “ordinary man” and turn him into a ruthless killer under the right circumstances. This is exactly what Browning argues happened to the “ordinary Germans” of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during the mass murders and deportations during the Final Solution in Poland. Browning argues that a superiority complex was instilled in the German soldiers because of the mass publications of Nazi propaganda and the ideological education provided to German soldiers, both of which were rooted in hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism. Browning provides proof of Nazi propaganda and first-hand witness accounts of commanders disobeying orders and excusing reservists from duties to convince the reader that many of the men contributing to the mass
Prior to the Nazi takeover of Germany, the nation had been suffering deeply. An economic depression, large-scale unemployment, and the shame of losing World War I had put Germany in a dark place. The Nazi’s were incredibly aware of this, and their propaganda at the time reflected a need to reunite the German people. Propaganda appealed to national pride, and putting ones country before themselves. Of course, a strong united people needed a leader that was just as strong, and the “myth of Hitler” would create that leader. Slogans like “One People, one Fuhrer, one Reich!” promoted national unity, and a Wochenspruch from February 1938 states, “The greatest of all sacrifices is to give one’s life to preserve the existence of the community.” Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will comes from this time period and helps form the mythological image of Hitler. Propaganda also focused on the good the Nazi party was doing. It discussed how well the Nazi welfare system was working, newsreels showed happy German people enjoying the benefits of the Nazi regime.
Resistance took a violent appearance in the camp Treblinka when the inmates rose against their oppressors and set fire to Treblinka; however, only abou...
The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. “Even in the face of death the Jewish mothers did not separate from their children. Thus we tolerated the mothers taking their children to the ma...
In 1942 in the summer, Hans Scholl and Alex Schmorell wrote the first four leaflets of six opposition leaflets, called the “Leaves of the White Rose.” These leaflets criticized the Nazi regime and mentioned all of their crimes, from the mass extermination of Jews, to the dictatorship and the elimination of the personal freedoms of Germany’s citizens from the mass extermination of Jews. They called the Nazi regime evil, and called for Germans to stand up and resist the oppression of their government. These leaflets also were made up of quotes from great philosophers and greatly admired writers, establishing how they were clearly aimed at the intellectual public, and particularly students and professors. Across the bottom of the leaflets was this phrase, “Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.”
The White Rose was formed in Munich in 1942 by students at the University of Munich named Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell. These students constantly heard others discuss the atrocities of Hitler’s regime and the disturbing stories of over 200,000 Jewish people being murdered. Hans Scholl, the leader of the White Rose group,
After World War II, the people of Germany endured torment from their conquerors in many forms, from being stolen from, to be tortured or killed. Over ten million Germans were forced to move out of their homes. Around half a million of those that were moved died on their journeys elsewhere, while others suffered greatly from famine, cold, and dehydration (Douglas). At a number this large, surely some of the people that lived in Germany were against the war. This begs the question: Why should all of the people of Germany suffer because of Hitler’s wrongdoings? Every day, German citizens were pushed off land that had belonged to them, regardless of their position on the war.
Politics. Politics control this world, and sometimes for the worst. Politicians can be deceiving, and lie right to you, with no signs of remorse. They can be the worst type of human being, manipulating you for their own cause. They can be evil. In America, the next presidential election is approaching, and we have many of these politicians trying to become our next president. Although there are many, I 'm going to concentrate on one. Donald Trump. He is a corrupt politician, and a cancer to our society. This man is so malevolent, he is drawing comparisons to one of the most barbarous men of all time, Adolf Hitler. These men are eerily similar, and I am uneasy knowing that someone that could be our next president is showing similarities to a mass murderer. These are not erroneous claims. Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler are similar because of their rhetorical abilities, hating of
World War II was a grave event in the twentieth century that affected millions. Two main concepts World War II is remembered for are the concentration camps and the marches. These marches and camps were deadly to many yet powerful to others. However, to most citizens near camps or marches, they were insignificant and often ignored. In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak introduces marches and camps similar to Dachau to demonstrate how citizens of nearby communities were oblivious to the suffering in those camps during the Holocaust.
In 1934, the death of President Hindenburg of Germany removed the last remaining obstacle for Adolf Hitler to assume power. Soon thereafter, he declared himself President and Fuehrer, which means “supreme leader”. That was just the beginning of what would almost 12 years of Jewish persecution in Germany, mainly because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews. It is difficult to doubt that Hitler genuinely feared and hated Jews. His whole existence was driven by an obsessive loathing of them (Hart-Davis 14).
History always finds a way of repeating itself. A Tale of Two Cities, depicts the French Revolution and the citizens living through it. Many citizens go along with the leaders want, in order to avoid being executed, this is taking part in mob mentality because although they might not be doing what they want, they are doing what everybody else is doing, so they can fit in. Some people can participate in something so vulgar even when they do not mean to. In “Top 10 Instances of Mob Mentality”, author S.Grant says that, “Looking back on Nazi Germany, it’s difficult to comprehend how ordinary people acted so ruthless and inhumane. Even if you assume the average German citizen didn’t know what was happening in the concentration camps, there were still 24,000 members in the “Death’s Head Unit,” a special section of the Schutzstaffel (SS) that was in charge of the concentration camps. These Death’s Head
Life and Death in the Third Reich. 1st Ed. -. ed. a. a. a. a. a. a. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard UP, 2008.
MODERN HISTORY – RESEARCH ESSAY “To what extent was Nazi Germany a Totalitarian state in the period from 1934 to 1939?” The extent to which Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state can be classed as a substantial amount. With Hitler as Fuhrer and his ministers in control of most aspects of German social, political, legal, economical, and cultural life during the years 1934 to 1939, they mastered complete control and dictation upon Germany. In modern history, there have been some governments, which have successfully, and others unsuccessfully carried out a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is one in which a single ideology is existent and addresses all aspects of life and outlines means to attain the final goal, government is run by a single mass party through which the people are mobilized to muster energy and support.
The debate as to whether Hitler was a ‘weak dictator’ or ‘Master of the Third Reich’ is one that has been contested by historians of Nazi Germany for many years and lies at the centre of the Intentionalist – Structuralist debate. On the one hand, historians such as Bullock, Bracher, Jackel and Hildebrand regard Hitler’s personality, ideology and will as the central locomotive in the Third Reich. Others, such as Broszat, Mason and Mommsen argue that the regime evolved out from pressures and circumstances rather than from Hitler’s intentions. They emphasise the institutional anarchy of the regime as being the result of Hitler’s ‘weak’ leadership. The most convincing standpoint is the synthesis of the two schools, which acknowledges both Hitler’s centrality in explaining the essence of Nazi rule but also external forces that influenced Hitler’s decision making. In this sense, Hitler was not a weak dictator as he possessed supreme authority but as Kershaw maintains, neither was he ‘Master of the Third Reich’ because he did not exercise unrestricted power.