Darkness in the Holocaust

Nazi youth organizations focused on teaching youth members the ideology of the Nazi party. The Hitlerjugend group contained young boys who aged from 10-18.  This group participated in in activities that focused on sports and physical strength. These children had to learn the ideology in which the Nazis supported. They also focused on learning and strengthening their commitment to Hitler and military training. The Bund Deutscher Madel group was made up of the Jungmadel (young girls league) & Glaube und Schönheit (Faith and Beauty). The Jungmadel group contained girls who were 14 and under. They focused on physical strength and ability, along with different Hitler based ideologies. These womans also learned what was said to be "a woman's place in society".  Glaube und Schönheit, was made up of girls whose ages ranged from 17-21. This group followed a similar idea but, it also empasized Nazi women ideals. The National Socialist Teachers League was established in 1929. This organization was responsible for the control and education of teachers. This course emphasized the Nazi ideology. Teachers were required to take this course so that it was assured that children were learning exactly what Hitler wanted.

A child’s environment often influences the way that a child develops and grows up. If a young child is taught to worship Hitler and his lifestyle, they are likely to grow up worshiping his views and ideas. The nurture theory implies that people learn based off of their environment and what they are surrounded by. This idea is demonstrated in Bandura's BoBo Doll Experiment which is shown in the image of a child and the doll. A child would be shown aggressive actions towards a play doll by an adult. Once the adult left the room, the child would then replicate the same actions. These findings demonstrated that children learn based off of their environment. By teaching violence and this ideology at such a young age, children are more likely to grow up with these tendencies and act as if Hitler had, which would increase the amount of violence in the society. 

Nazi's felt that they needed to assert their authority in some sort of way. The way that the Nazi’s asserted their dominance was by becoming aggressive and capturing all of the Jews, putting them through tourterous actions. The Nazi ideology is that their self image has a possibility of being affected if the Jews are around longer. The Nazi’s refer to the genocide as an immunology. By ridding all of the Jews, they are essentially cleaning up all of the unclean and dangerous parts of the environment. These unclean and dangers can affect and harm the Germans and their environment.

This exerpt from Pinkers book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature" explain what is known as the Hobbesian Trap. Pinker explains that the presence of competition often encourages fear. If a group or a specific person is suspicious that they are being viewed as a target, people will take charge and attack the other group first. This idea suggests that the reason a person is going to attack and be violent is due to the fact that they are triggered by an act of aggression or a suspicion of being a target. 

Propaganda informed society about the horrors Hitler was taking on. In order, for people to get information they looked at what they were being surrounded by, as shown in the image to the left. These civilians are looking at a newspaper stand to learn about what Hitler is doing. By posting this information everywhere, Hitler was gaining support, one by one. Propaganda had the power of influencing large groups of people. This portrayal of persuading information and posters made the ideas seem as if they were socially acceptable, although they were not. Propaganda increased the amount of followers that Hitler had which in regards then led to more people listening to him and following in his footsteps. Essentially, more people were willing to commit violence for the cause of Hitler. This exerpt taken from Kiril Feferman, explains how propaganda has the power of shaping a society.