The Mysterious Major

Schmahling meant that by destroying the little boy's joy and confidence that he was destroying the boy's and the students liking of him. This meant that his students probably thought of him as a mean old teacher because he destroyed that one boy's joy. The Nazi's were like this because by crushing the German's free speech, they were destroying the German's liking of them, making them think that the Nazi's were kind of like dictators.

Sonia Wietz Poem

I chose the Black Messiah poem. I felt that the first 3 paragraphs expresses depression and shock, how the black G.I first saw the concentration camp and what was happening. The last 2 phrases symbolizes a small ray of hope through the darkness because it says 'to live, to hope, to smile... and yet we vow not ever to forget'. The Messiah (meaning savior), which was what the girl called the G.I in the beginning of the poem, is what I thought was a metaphor since she thought he would save them all from the camp and she made the connection. The part that really stood out for me was the phrase 'The shock, the horror on his face, he didn't weep, he didn't cry, But deep within his gentle eyes...a flood of devastating pain, his innocence forever slain.' because he was probably just an innocent soldier until he saw the horrible sight of what the Nazi's were doing at the concentration camps, the kids and adults there were starving to death and the shock of it all must have scarred him for life. If I were in his place, my reaction would have been more or less the same, probably even worse. As I think back, I don't really have anything to relate to this situation, I have not seen anything that has left me shocked and scarred me, or at least not anything I can remember. But for the phrase 'And on we went our separate ways, for many years without a trace' It reminded me of a good friend of mine I had when I was in 3rd grade who moved to Manila and up until now we've actually never conversed, which is exactly the same connection Sonia had with the American soldier.

Germany 1918-1933

The 2 conditions that made the Nazi's take power over Germany was because they took advantage of the people of Germany's suffering and the Reichstag Fire. The treaty of Versailles made it so that Germany had pay for all the reparations after World War 1, thus hyperinflation and economic crisis hits Germany. Because of hyperinflation (making it so that the country's currency is pretty much worthless) the Germans were desperate for their daily needs such as food, heat and a job. Many people, including Hitler, were against this and they thought it should be abolished. He took advantage of this by saying that if the Germans voted for the Nazis, they would abolish the Treaty, making them want to vote for Hitler even more. The Reichstag fire also contributed to the Nazi's gaining power because afterwards, Hitler blamed the Communist for the fire making the Germans think that the Communist were bad people, so that they wouldn't vote for them and instead vote for the Nazi's.

Laws in Nazi Germany

1. A Jew was not defined by their religion, they were defined as a jew if they had 3 or 4 grandparents who were Jewish, regardless of what the individual thought.

2. This means that the Jewish employees and manegers were kicked and were replaced by non-Jew Germans and had bargains made by the Nazi's.

3. The Jewish doctors weren't allowed to treat non-Jews and lawyers weren't allowed to practice law

4. They stamped a red J on it and gave the Jews middle names that sounded Jewish, like 'Israel' for males and 'Sara' for females to help the police to identify the Jews easily

5. This laws requires that a couple about to get married has to visit a public health authorities and get a fitness certificate to marry which were refused to those who were suffering illnesses and contagious diseases

Hitler's Taking Control

1. Civil rights are the rights that the civilians have in their country. 2 examples of civil rights are the right to vote and the freedom of speech, press and assembly

2. Because the people believed Hitler when he said that the building was set on fire by the communist so they thought it was only fair to abolish there freedom like reading their mail or listening in privat phone calls in case the communist were trying to communicate with each other.