South Carolina Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust

Teaching Lesson Two

Materials—Handout 2A: The Hangman, Handout 2B: The News From Germany, and Handout 2C: Two Experiences of Hitler's Germany

Key Terms—swastika, Storm Troopers, Hitler Youth

PROCEDURE

Motivate: Read Overview II and summarize for students. Then write on the board the following quotation from the British philosopher Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win is for good men to do nothing." Ask students what they think this quote means. Have students suggest reasons why otherwise good people might not act when confronted with behavior that they know to be wrong. (Fear of physical harm, fear of hurting standing in the community or of public disapproval, apathy, indifference, ignorance of how the problem can be solved)

This lesson can also be introduced with the poem "The Hangman" by Maurice Ogden, reprinted in Handout 2A. This poem is also used in a powerful film "The Hangman" listed in the bibliography and available on loan from the South Carolina Department of Education Audiovisual Library. Tell students that in this lesson they will read about some German men and women who did try to protest against Nazi policy. They will also look at the effects of Hitler's takeover on German Jews.

Handout 2B can be used to help students contrast the way dissent or opposition to government policy is treated in a democracy with the treatment of dissenters in a totalitarian state. Distribute Handout 2B. Make sure students realize that each of these newspaper reports comes from actual 1930s newspaper articles.

Develop: As students read each article, have them note the date and the place where each occurred. Martin Niemoeller was a German Protestant minister who served in the German navy as a submarine commander in World War I. In the years after World War I, he was at first a supporter of the Nazi party. However, after Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemoeller preached against the Nazis and became the leader of the Confessing Church. This group opposed the Nazi-sponsored German Christian Church. Niemoller, imprisoned briefly in 1937, spent eight years in prison from 1938 to 1945 until the Allies liberated the camps.

When students have completed reading Handout 2B, have them make a chart which indicates the crime discussed, the people accused, and the punishment they received. Ask students what effect they think the punishments for these acts had on German citizens who did not agree with Nazi policies. Through discussion, students should recognize that the increasing severity of punishments in the decade before the war had a chilling effect on dissent. Stress that without the cooperation and support of major institutions of German society such as the Church and universities, individual resistance, even on a larger scale, would not have been very effective.

Next ask students whether any of the actions described in these newspaper articles would be considered a crime in the United States. (No) What rights do Americans have that protect them from arrest for such activities? (freedom of speech or assembly, writ of habeas corpus) Have students think of periods in American history when opposition to government policies has been strong. (Civil War, Vietnam War, protest era of the 1960s) Some of the ways opponents of the Vietnam War expressed their views were through marches, protests, refusing to salute the flag, refusing to sing the national anthem. None of these actions was illegal. What would have been the response to such actions in Nazi Germany? (Clearly, such actions would have been considered criminal acts in Nazi Germany.) Point out that in the United States opposition to the war expressed through such activities as flag burning, refusing to register for the draft, and takeovers of buildings were illegal. Students can consider reasons for this.

Before distributing the handout, review what students have learned in Overview I about anti-Semitism. Remind students that in earlier times anti-Semitism had roots in religious differences or economic tensions. Distrust or hatred of Jews often stemmed from dislike or ignorance of Jewish religious beliefs. It also stemmed from the roles of Jews as tax collectors in the medieval period, and as moneylenders in Eastern European communities. During economic hard times well into the 20th century, Jews became convenient scapegoats for the failures of government economic policies.

Beginning in the late 1800s the racist idea of Aryan superiority, an even more dangerous form of anti-Semitism, took hold in Germany. Jews were singled out for ridicule and harsh treatment because of pseudo racial theories which labeled them an "inferior race."

Distribute Handout 2C. Rudy Herz, who lives in Myrtle Beach, and Leo Diamantstein, who makes his home in Greenville, describe life in early Nazi Germany. These questions may be used to discuss the experiences of Rudy and Leo:

1. What event changed Rudy's life at school? How did his school mark this event? How do you think Rudy felt when he first saw the Nazi flag raised at his school? Emphasize that flags, songs, slogans, swastikas, Hitler Youth uniforms, and other Nazi symbols were skillfully used by the Nazis to build and maintain power. Even young Rudy was, at first, drawn in by Hitler's masterful use of propaganda. Such symbols as the flag and banner were used to make Germans feel proud of their German heritage and citizenship and to associate this pride with Nazi power.

2. Why did Rudy think Hitler's coming to power would not have any particular effect on him or his family?

3. Compare Nazi anti-Semitism and the prejudice Rudy experienced before the Nazis took over in Germany. How was Rudy's view of himself different from the way Nazis encouraged non-Jewish Germans to think of him? (Rudy saw himself as a loyal German citizen of the Jewish religion, proud of his nationality and his German culture and heritage.)

4. How did Hitler's takeover of the government affect Leo? Compare Leo's experience to Rudy's. What made Leo's father decide the family should leave Germany?

5. Do you think Rudy's or Leo's family would have been successful if they had tried to protest, complain to the police, or go to court about their treatment? Why or why not? Would these same actions aid a family under duress in the United States today? Why or why not? (Point out that hate songs like the one Rudy describes in this reading were forms of propaganda, educating Nazi followers in anti-Semitism and uniting them as a powerful "in-group" against a powerless "out-group." Such songs labeled the Jews as "enemies of the state" by suggesting that when they are killed "our lives will be twice as good." Such labeling helped to set the Jews apart and would serve later to justify Hitler's Final Solution, and make it seem more acceptable to the German people.)

Extend: Explore the difficult choices a democracy faces in determining the limits of dissent.

1. Should a civil rights group be allowed to hold a test march or a rally?

2. Should the same rights be given to the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, skinheads and other neo Nazi groups?

3. What are the free speech rights of a former Nazi party member like David Duke, who ran for governor of Louisiana and sought the Republican nomination for president?

Students can research the Nazi party rally planned for Skokie, Illinois, in 1977. Many Skokie residents, among whom were Nazi concentration camp survivors, opposed giving the Nazi party a permit to hold the rally. Town leaders obtained a court order banning the rally and passed local laws to stop it. The American Civil Liberties Union defended the Nazis' right to assemble; arguing that stopping the march violated the Nazis' First Amendment rights. Students can use the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature for 1977 and 1978 to find out more about this incident.

HANDOUT 2A—"The Hangman" by Maurice Ogden

Stanza 1

Into our town the Hangman came, smelling of gold and blood and flame. And he paced our bricks with a diffident air. And built his frame on the courthouse square.

The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, only as wide as the door was wide; a frame as tall, or little more, than the capping sill of the courthouse door.

And we wondered, whenever we had the time, who the criminal, what the crime, that Hangman judged with the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his busy fist.

And innocent though we were, with dread we passed those eyes of buckshot lead; till one cried: "Hangman, who is he for whom you raise the gallows-tree."

Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye, and he gave us a riddle instead of reply: "He who serves me best," said he, "Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."

And he stepped down, and laid his hand on a man who came from another land and we breathed again, for another's grief at the Hangman's hand was our relief.

And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone. So we gave him way, and no one spoke, out of respect for his hangman's cloak.

Stanza 2

The next day's sun looked mildly down on roof and street in our quiet town and, stark and black in the morning air, the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.

And the Hangman stood at his usual stand with the yellow hemp in his busy hand; with his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike and his air so knowing and businesslike.

And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done, yesterday, with the alien one?" Then we fell silent, and stood amazed: "Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."

He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: "Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss to hang one man? That's a thing I do to stretch the rope when the rope is new."

Then one cried, "Murderer!" One cried, "Shame!" And into our midst the Hangman came to that man's place. "Do you hold," said he, "With him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"

And he laid his hand on that one's arm, and we shrank back in quick alarm, and we gave him way, and no one spoke out of fear of his hangman's cloak.

That night we saw with dread surprise the Hangman's scaffold had grown in size. Fed by the blood beneath the chute the gallows-tree had taken root;

Now as wide, or a little more, than the steps that led to the courthouse door, as tall as the writing, or nearly as tall, halfway up on the courthouse wall.

Stanza 3

The third he took — we had all heard tell — was a usurer and infidel, And: "What," said the Hangman, "have you to do with the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"

And we cried out: "Is this one he who has served you well and faithfully?" The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme to try the strength of the gallows-beam."

The fourth man's dark, accusing song had scratched out comfort hard and long; and "What concern," he gave us back, "Have you for the doomed - the doomed and black?"

The fifth.The sixth. And we cried again: "Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?" "It's a trick," he said, "that we hangmen know for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."

And so we ceased, and asked no more, as the Hangman tallied his bloody score; and sun by sun, and night by night, the gallows grew to monstrous height.

The wings of the scaffold opened wide till they covered the square from side to side; and the monster cross-beam, looking down, cast its shadow across the town.

Stanza 4

Then through the town the Hangman came and called in the empty streets my name - and I looked at the gallows soaring tall and thought: "There is no one left at all for hanging, and so he calls to me to help pull down the gallows-tree." And I went out with right good hope to the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.

He smiled at me as I came down to the courthouse square through the silent town, and supple and stretched in his busy hand was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.

And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap and it sprang down with a ready snap— and then with a smile of awful command he laid his hand upon my hand.

"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then. "That your scaffold was built for other men. And I no henchman of yours," I cried, "You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"

Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye: "Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said, "Not I. For I answered straight and I told you true: The scaffold was raised for none but you.

"For who has served me more faithfully than you with your coward's hope?" said he, "And where are the others that might have stood side by your side in the common good?"

"Dead," I whispered; and amiably "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me; "First the alien, then the Jew... I did no more than you let me do."

Beneath the beam that blocked the sky, none had stood so alone as I - and the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there cried "Stay" for me in the empty square.

HANDOUT 2B—THE NEWS FROM GERMANY

The New York Times, January 8, 1935

"Jailed for Failing to Salute"

STRASLUND, Germany, January 7, 1935. Because he failed to give the Nazi salute when a band played the Nazi anthem, a German citizen was sentenced today to two weeks imprisonment. A Nazi paper in nearby Stettin asserts that he stood with his hands in his pockets while the band played the song which is sacred to every good National Socialist.

The Associated Press, August 8, 1937

"115 Seized in Niemoeller Parade"

BERLIN, Germany, August 8. The police arrested, but later released 115 demonstrators who marched through the streets tonight in protest against a ban on public prayer meetings for imprisoned pastors who had opposed Nazi church restrictions. The parade was believed to be the first public mass demonstration against any measure taken by the Government under Nazi rule. Several hundred members of the church of the Reverend Martin Niemoeller, Protestant leader in the fight against government control of church affairs, joined in the march. Niemoeller goes on trial Tuesday charged with having opposed Nazi church restrictions.

The New York Times, November 30, 1937

"Reich Court Takes Children from Parents"

WALDENBERG, Germany, November 29. A district court in this town today deprived a father and mother of their children because they opposed the National Socialist idea, taught their children not to give the Hitler salute, and were pacifists. Both parents are members of the Christian sect known as International Bible Researchers. They had adopted a number of pacifist ideas of Quakers. The father denied that he had tried to influence the children's attitude toward the present political regime. The court ruled that the children could not live in such an atmosphere without becoming "enemies of the state."

HANDOUT 2C—TWO EXPERIENCES OF HITLER'S GERMANY

Rudy Learns Some New Lessons

(Rudy Herz was born in a very small town called Stommeln on the outskirts of Cologne, Germany in 1925. He came from a family of six children. In the years before Hitler came to power, Rudy rarely experienced any open anti-Semitism. He was seven years old when he went to school one day to find some surprising changes.)

My first experience with the new Nazi regime was at school. In January or February 1933, the school marked Adolph Hitler's coming to power. On that day we were all assembled in the school yard. A German national flag was unfurled and we sang the national anthem, "Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles," which translates "Germany, Germany Over All". I did not object to it because I felt myself truly German, although of the Jewish religion.

After the flag was raised, we thought we'd go back to class but instead slowly and majestically the swastika banner was unfurled. That was when we first realized that things were going to change. From then on we experienced overt anti-Semitism and not of a religious nature either. Before that the Poles were prone to holler curses after us like, "dirty Jew". We had long been persecuted for our religious beliefs, but race had not been used to set Jewish people apart. Nazi anti-Semitism was different. It talked about Jews as racially inferior.

One of the most frightening experiences I had as a child was in 1934 or 1935 when young Storm Troopers marched in front of our house and sang such songs with lines such as "When the Jews' blood drips off the knife, then our lives will be twice as good." This made a very grave impression. We talked to our parents about it. They were just as disturbed as we were, but to give us a sense of security, they said, "Well it's just hooligans, young boys who have nothing else to do." We accepted this explanation because what else could we do? We knew that Jewish people had always been Germans, and we felt that we were true Germans by being German citizens.

Leo Adjusts to Life Under Hitler

(Leo Diamantstein was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1924. He was the middle child in a family of three boys. His family moved to the city of Frankfurt where the events he describes below took place.)

All went relatively well for our family until 1933. That was the turning point. That year Hitler came to power, fair and square, winning an election. Other right-wing political parties supported him. It wasn't just the Nazi party who wanted a candidate who stood for law and order. Shortly after he came to power, little by little, Hitler took over. The Parliament was dissolved and a puppet parliament created.

Things started to be very bad for us. One day my brother Maurice and I were walking down the street when a group of Nazi Storm Troopers marched by singing a song which translates, "The heads are rolling, the Jews are crying." It is very vivid in my mind because I was shivering. I was eight years old. Jewish people were beaten. It became common practice when we saw a bunch of kids coming to go to the other side of the street. There was always a good chance they would attack us, and there were always more of them than us. They carried knives and wore the uniforms of the Hitler Youth.

In 1934 my father decided there was no future for us in Germany, and we decided to leave. Whoever would let us in; that's where we were going to go. We had our things packed to go to France; at the last moment the French decided they didn't want any more Jews, and they wouldn't let us in. The only country that would let us in was Italy. They didn't even require a visa. In June 1934 we left without taking anything. We were required by Hitler to leave everything behind.

Overview III—Prewar Nazi Germany

Back to Overview II—Hitler's Rise