The Cost of Obedience

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The Cost of Obedience

The Nazis follow through with Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. Many of the soldiers who work at the death camps were not even members of the Nazi party originally. However, most follow orders obediently

It begins with one subject strapped into a chair and an electrode strapped to his arm. He is the "learner." The "teacher" is ordered to ask the learner questions and to shock the learner if he answers incorrect (New Life).

t is 1919 in Germany. The Army's political department commands a young man named Adolf Hitler to investigate a group called the "German Workers' Party." Hitler ends up joining the group and takes over organization of the party's propaganda (Christy's sec. 15). The party is renamed the Nazi Party, and they adopt a flag with a swastika as their symbol. Hitler quits the army enabling him to devote more time to his party.

The "teacher" starts of with low voltage shocks of 15 volts. With each shock the "learner" receives, the voltage is raised by 15 volts (New Life).

It is 1921, and Hitler gains leadership over the German Worker's Party after threatening to quit. Hitler is an unlikely leader; he is short-legged, and has a hollow chest. He has a nervous tic in his face and is not a very imposing figure. When he speaks, he begins very nervously and his speeches are rambling (Nizkor). Nevertheless, Hitler is able to captivate his audience by controlling their emotions (Nizkor). He always speaks in the late evening when people are tired and their defenses are down. He makes dramatic entrances, usually escorted by storm troopers and a band playing a fanfare (Nizkor).

Hitler exercises his power cautiously at first, but in 1923 he takes over a government meeting. Nazi storm troopers seize official buildings and Hitler is arrested on account of treason (Project GCSE sec. 2). Though Hitler spends the next ten years in prison, he and the Nazi party get incredible publicity (Project GCSE sec. 5).

While Hitler is in jail he publishes Mein Kampf. Hitler is very devious in his writing of Mein Kampf. It is a glorified autobiography mixed with political propaganda, but he writes it like a fairy tale:

In this little town on the river Inn, Bavarian by blood and Austrian by nationality, gilded by the light of German martyrdom, there lived, at the end of the '80's of the last century, my parents: the father a faithful civil servant, the mother devoting herself to the cares of the household and looking after her children with eternally the same loving kindness (Qtd.

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