More handpicked essays just for you.
Impacts of Treaty of Versailles on Germany
Impacts of Treaty of Versailles on Germany
Impacts of Treaty of Versailles on Germany
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
On Hitler’s Mountain is a memoir of a child named Irmgard Hunt and her experiences growing up in Nazi Germany. She herself has had many experiences of living during that dark time, she actually met Hitler, had a grandfather who hated Hitler's rule, and had no thoughts or feelings about the Nazi rule until the end of WWII. Her memoir is a reminder of what can happen when an ordinary society chooses a cult of personality over rational thought. What has happened to the German people since then, what are they doing about it today and how do they feel about their past? Several decades later, with most Nazis now dead or in hiding, and despite how much Germany has done to prevent another Nazi rule, everyone is still ashamed of their ancestors’ pasts. …show more content…
At a young age, Germans are exposed to the history of the Holocaust and the scars left by the Third Reich. They are almost taught to feel guilty for what their ancestors did. Today, Germany is not proud of what it had done over 70 years ago. Today, they have made apologies, put in laws against Nazism and made memorials of all the victims of the holocaust to remind the world and themselves of the horror of the event. While Irmgard herself did not support Hitler, she actually met him and was photographed sitting on Hitler’s Lap. “Around the time that I met Hitler, I began to have a nightmare of a horrible monster sitting heavily on my chest… this nightmare recurred with increasing frequency as our orderly ordinary society unraveled in the second world war.”(Hunt 83-84) Shortly after WWII, The American, French, British and Russian forces denazified the European people, almost completely extinguishing the Nazi ideology. Millions of people went through the lengthy denazification process, which was ultimately successful. All Nazi monuments were obliterated and Nazi officials were removed from office or killed, ending the Nazi rule. 70 years after the end of WWII, Germany has changed as a country; they have learned from their mistakes and have set an example of reconciliation for the world; Irmgard Hunt gives us a view of everyday life during the Nazi rule and tells us of the struggles that she, her people, and her country went through during a dark time. Irmgard Hunts’ On Hitler's Mountain talks about the shame and guilt that Germans have and how they must learn from their past.
Even today, German schools teach their students at a young age about Germany's feelings towards the events of WWII. At some point in their education, all German students are required to visit a concentration camp. Basically, German schools treat the Nazi past as a history lesson. As a responsibility, Germans keep the memory alive through school in order to prevent another Hitler-like rule. “But most- and worst- of all, as we and all the world slowly learned about the full extent of Hitler's Final Solution, we realized that all Germans, no matter what they had suffered or whether they had participated in any way in the atrocities, would bear guilt, shame and dishonor, probably forever” (Hunt 218). In 2014, a German Quora user named Rebecca Kaßner gave her experience of visiting a concentration camp when she was on a school exchange …show more content…
trip. As a German when you are in Poland, you have to visit Auschwitz… It was the first time that I really understood the full monstrosity of the Holocaust, not only intellectually but also emotionally—and made the connection to my own family.
And when I saw these things that were taken from the prisoners (there is also one room just filled with hair), all the pieces came together in my mind, and I realized the first time on an emotional basis the whole horror… I found the toughest guy in our group, who would normally never show feelings, standing in front of a display cabinet with baby shoes crying. When the tour ended, we didn't know how to look our Polish friends in the eyes again… When our Polish friends saw us again after their tour and saw that we were all shocked and some still crying, they came up to us and told us that we shouldn't be ashamed at all and that we are not responsible for the deeds of our ancestors. It took me a few years to get to the point where I could really feel that way, but I got there
(Kaßner). Before Rebecca went to Auschwitz, she had no idea of how devastating the Holocaust was. She realized that while her country and ancestors did kill millions of people, she should not look down on herself for something that her ancestors did. Throughout the book, not only is there the feeling of shame, but there is also an element of sadness. “When I tried to sing by myself, I felt sad and empty, for inevitably my father's favorite songs came to me and before it got to… I had to go and cry. He was buried somewhere in France, and I was sure no one had planted a flower on his resting place. Who would have, for a soldier who had fought for Hitler?” (Hunt 218) Germany is not proud of what it did during the war; the country has the blood of millions of people on it’s hands. Although, remembering their sins shows a sign of maturity and the German people accept what their ancestors have done; they themselves have made many memorials to the countless lives lost. Nazi supporters were still around after WWII, so when the Allies swept into Germany and won the war, they proceeded to denazify the German people in order to make them think in a less biased manner. After the war, The Americans, British, French, and Soviet Union took millions of Europeans through a process called “Denazification” where influential Nazis were removed from influential positions, and the German and Austrian public were ridden of the Nazi ideology.“‘It serves me right, fool that I was,’ said my Pohlmann grandfather when he heard that he had to undergo the lengthy denazification process...it took months before his turn came and he was finally declared not burdened and could begin to work again” (Hunt 243). According to Irmgard Hunt, one way that Denazification was executed was that suspects were to fill out a 100+ question questionnaire about activities during the Nazi period including questions such as “Are you alive today? If yes, why?” (Hunt 242) She and her mother simply laughed at the pertinent question. Also, relics, symbols, statues and anything resembling the Nazi rule or ideology was obliterated. Moreover, Nazi figures and war criminals were taken to court and tried. Other Nazis that had hopes of being converted out of Nazism were shown the corpses of Jews from the concentration camps; that also had a profound effect on the German people. “Volumes of twelve questionnaires were to be filled out by all twelve million adults in our zone...of the respondents almost three million were to go before German-run denazification facilities” (Hunt 242). Thanks to the Allies’ efforts, all of Denazification had helped a society rebuild itself after a terrible regime. It was able to protect the social, economic and cultural structures of German society and drove Nazism into the ground, resulting in the German people being radically against Nazism. After the war, and with the country now denazified, the German government continues to prosecute any small indication of Nazi behavior with a heavy penalty. Germany also made hate speech illegal; Germany illegalized the very thing that allowed Hitler to ultimately rise to power. Today, people will be punished if they do a Nazi salute, say “Heil Hitler,” wearing a Nazi swastika and/or denying that the Holocaust was a crime can get one up to three years in jail. Use of the Hitler salute is also illegal in Austria, Italy, Japan and Slovakia. Modern Neo-Nazis have made their own salute called the Kuhnen salute, which is also illegal in Germany. Also, in major cities around Germany, there have been many memorial sites erected to the victims of the Holocaust. There are monuments in the centers of Munich and Berlin, Munich’s is an eternal flame. Today, the concentration camps are now permanent memorial sites for all who died there. In the 1990s, Eastern Germany came out and openly apologized to all Jews who were victims of the Holocaust; they have accepted the responsibility and have paid reparations to survivors of the Holocaust as well as their families. By this time, Germans have been radically opposed against anything relating to the Nazis and openly admit that the Holocaust did happen. “East Germany's first freely elected Parliament admits joint responsibility on behalf of the people for the humiliation, expulsion and murder of Jewish women, men and children… We feel sad and ashamed… Jews in all the world and the people of Israel are asked to forgive us for the wrongs they experienced… “(LA Times). After the evil events during WWII, Germany has been trying to make up for what it’s people did by banning Nazi symbols and gestures as well as erecting memorials of the Holocaust victims and apologizing to the Jews. But since Germany banned Nazi symbols, how did they get rid of the Nazi ideology and more importantly, are there still Nazis today? Over 70 years after the events of the Holocaust, Germans still feel shame for what their ancestors have done and how their actions have placed a big dent in German history. At a young age, Germans are taught about what their ancestors have done in their country. It is not clear if Germany will be able to escape Hitler's shadow, but the German people are trying to make amends and are moving on. Over the years Germany has reconciled, but many Holocaust victims still do not forgive what Germany has done and probably never will. Irmgard's story had a profound effect on me; It gave me a good idea of what it was like living during the Nazi rule through the eyes of a real German citizen as well as the impacts that it had on her and her people and her nation. The memoir was provocative; it told of a nation who lost its moral compass and rational thought and what happened to it and its people. The best thing for Germany to do is to move on and learn from its mistakes so if another “Hitler” were to come along, he/she would not be able to rise to power because Germany will know what to do about it. In the United States, the 2016 president-elect Donald Trump used hate speech to bring citizens out of the shadows who normally would not vote. And because of his hate speech and how gripping it was towards those people, Trump won the presidency off of hate and anger. In the US, citizens have freedom of speech, whereas in Germany, they cannot talk hate speech. Should the US ban hate speech just like Germany to prevent hateful leaders from gaining power?
Adolf Hitler, born in 1889, is an Austrian born man who is known for his instigation and participation in the Nazi Political movement, or genocide, known as the Holocaust. Throughout his later life, Hitler spent the majority of his time organizing discriminatory laws that prevented Jewish citizens’ basic rights and ultimately their demise. However, before he advanced such laws and politics, he served as the Head of State, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, until he became the Fuhrer of Germany’s Third Reich which began in 1933 and ended in 1945 (Jewish Virtual Library). His actions were fueled by an unrelenting and strict hate for the Jewish community, better known as anti-Semitism, much like the vast majority of Eastern countries. Both
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” Desmond Tutu once said (“Desmond Tutu Quotes”). During the Holocaust, the Jews were treated very badly but some managed to stay hopeful through this horrible time. The book Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer shows how Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck who had two very different stories but managed to stay hopeful. Helen was a Jew who went into hiding for awhile before being taken away from her family and being sent to a concentration camp. Alfons was a member of the Hitler Youth where he became the youngest member of the German air force. To him, Hitler was everything and he would die any day for him and his country. As for Helen, Hitler was the man ruining her life. The Holocaust was horrible to live through but some managed to survive because of the hope they contained.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
During this dark time in history, people like Miss. Breed from Dear Miss Breed took initial action on what she thought was right, and gave hope to Japanese Internment Camp children by supplying books and writing letters. What these heroes of the past have in common is that they took action for what they truly believe is right. The best way to respond to conflict is based on a person’s general judgment on what they think is right or wrong, this will show how they take action during conflict. In the story, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow, the thoughts of independence and judgement were shown by German student, Sophie Scholl.
A Child of Hitler by Alfons Heck is an autobiographical account of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 from his perspective as a member of the Hitler Youth. Heck’s autobiography is abundant with emotional treatise and recollections from his childhood. Published in 1985, the book is targeted toward an adult audience. The overarching theme focuses on repentance and the overwhelming power of propaganda and the resulting passion produced by NSDAP indoctrination. Using this theme as guidance, Heck argues that Nazi propaganda was highly efficient and produced an indoctrinated generation that was consumed with Aryan and Third Reich superiority until the defeat of Germany in 1945.
]Haffner, is a book which is hard to define. Only 165 pages long, Haffner has crammed more relevant information into this book than many twice its length. He observes Hitler's roller coaster ride through life and the country that he eventually took along. From Hitler's private life to the complete betrayal of Germany, Haffner evaluates the conditions and impetus for Hitler's accomplishments and failures. These include not only Hitler's psyche, but also the political arena of post World War I Europe.
In the years between 1933 and 1945, Germany was engulfed by the rise of a powerful new regime and the eventual spoils of war. During this period, Hitler's quest for racial purification turned Germany not only at odds with itself, but with the rest of the world. Photography as an art and as a business became a regulated and potent force in the fight for Aryan domination, Nazi influence, and anti-Semitism. Whether such images were used to promote Nazi ideology, document the Holocaust, or scare Germany's citizens into accepting their own changing country, the effect of this photography provides enormous insight into the true stories and lives of the people most affected by Hitler's racism. In fact, this photography has become so widespread in our understanding and teaching of the Holocaust that often other factors involved in the Nazi's racial policy have been undervalued in our history textbooks-especially the attempt by Nazi Germany to establish the Nordic Aryans as a master race through the Lebensborn experiment, a breeding and adoption program designed to eliminate racial imperfections.
"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children" (Nelson Mandela). If this statement is considered true, then it's fair to say that during times of the Holocaust, the German society was at an all time low. Children during the Holocaust did not have a carefree childhood, like they should have, but instead were placed under strenuous conditions. They had to go through being separated from all family and friends, being chosen the first to go to, and in most cases a permanent loss of family members. The Holocaust was undoubtedly a horrific experience for everyone involved but for children it must have been traumatizing.
During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were murdered due to Hitler’s plan to rid Germany of “heterogeneous people” in Germany, as stated in the novel, Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche. Shortly following a period of suffering, Hitler began leading Germany in 1930 to start the period of his rule, the Third Reich. Over time, his power and support from the country increased until he had full control over his people. Starting from saying “Heil Hitler!” the people of the German empire were cleverly forced into following Hitler through terror and threat. He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty.
Hitler had a lot to do with Germany and he was remembered but not because of anything positive, but because he was one of the worst coldhearted dictators Germany or the world could’ve experienced. My view and Topic is worth consideration by the reader because it will inform them more about Hitler’s actions in 1933 and so on.
The Holocaust tends to be a bitter memory and an unpleasant subject to discuss. Although this event took place many years ago, repercussions are still present in the twenty first century. Especially in Germany, the Holocaust not only influences patriotism, but it also influences education and immigration policies. In contrast to other countries where nationalism is common, Germany has been forced to lessen the sense of nationalism in order to dispose false beliefs some individuals have of German racism. By allowing people from other countries to become German citizens, Germany avoids transmitting the sense of being a better and a cleaner race. A further sector influenced by the Holocaust is the education system. Approaches to teach about this event are difficult since the Holocaust is a sensitive issue and continues having vital importance in numerous families. Although the Holocaust continues conveying negative influences, the Holocaust also led to positive medical and technological improvements. In fact, numerous improvements are unknowingly implemented in societies today. Therefore, the Holocaust is one of the most horrific and influencing events in history whose repercussions are still felt in Germany today. However, in spite of the horrific occurrences, the associated medical findings and technological improvements make it intricate to look at the Holocaust as plainly evil. Thus, societies should view the Holocaust with a broader perspective.
On Hitler’s Mountain is a memoir of a young girl’s life in the time of the Nazis’ rise to power. This riveting story is written by Irmgard A. Hunt who was born on May 28, 1934. Her and her family resided in the Bavarian village of Berchtesgaden in Germany. This Bavarian village happened to be on the very mountain that Hitler chose to place his future headquarters and retreat. Living in close proximity to Hitler’s retreat meant that Hitler influenced Irmgard and her family’s domestic lives and thoughts.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth [growing up in Hitler's Shadow]. New York: Random House/Listening Library, 2006. Print.
These children were expected to be proper Nazi children. The children were brainwashed to forget who they were before and only know the new
Hitler had to overcome many roadblocks on his way to power, one of which was internal strife within the Nazi party. On several occasions the Nazi party was afflicted by desertion of several high profile members, including Gregor Strasser who was the second most powerful man in the Nazi party before his leaving. The Nazi party itsel...