FInal Thoughts

Coming into this course, I definitely had a skewed view of the Holocaust and what really happened, and Nazi Germany as a whole. In Hebrew School every year when we got to the section of the Holocaust we didn't learn more than that Hitler was a horrible man and cause all of these atrocities. I am glad to have taken this course because I learned that it wasn't just Hitler. There was a whole process that lead to this final horrifying result.

Recently in class the talk of who is to blame has been making me think a lot as well. I was talking with someone the other day and we were saying these events could be compared in a way (on a much much smaller scale obviously) to those television shows called "What would you do?". They secretly stage a scene of a person being in distress and film pedestrians to see if they will help. The German soldiers clearly knew something was wrong, but didn't step up and do something about it. As much as we may say that it was impossible, if they had all banned together changes could have been made.

Another thing that had stuck out to me from the beginning of the semester was how much Hitler's come to power seemed like luck. Things like not getting into art school and being able to join the German army are just small circumstances, but seemed to add up and become a prominent theme for me.

This was a really great class to take and learn about more than just Hitler in relation to the Third Reich and the rise of the Nazis.