Aim: Why did most Germans follow the policies dictated by Hitler and the Nazi Party?

Video
Obedience Milgram part 1
Obedience Milgram part 2
Obedience Milgram part 3
Do Now:

1. What is obedience? think about the words “obey” and
   “obedience.” When you hear the words “obey” or “obedience,” what experiences, questions,
   thoughts or comments come to mind?

One of Hitler’s first acts as dictator of Germany was to establish a law mandating that
soldiers and government workers take an oath of allegiance, not to the country or a constitution,
but to Hitler himself. The oath was worded as follows:

I swear by almighty God this sacred oath: I will render unconditional obedience to
the Führer [leader] of the German Reich [empire] and people, Adolf Hitler, Supreme
Commander of the Wehrmacht [armed forces], and as a brave soldier will be ready at
any time to stake my life for this oath.

Unconditional Obedience

I was employed in a defense [war] plant…. That was the year of the National Defense
Law…. Under the law I was required to take the oath of fidelity. I said I would not; I
opposed it in conscience. I was given twenty-four hours to “think it over.”13

Handout 1
Strength Through Discipline: The ThirdWave (Part One)
The following story is told by Ron Jones, a history teacher in California:
On Monday, I introduced my sophomore history students to one of the experiences that characterized
Nazi Germany. Discipline . . .
To experience the power of discipline, I invited, no I commanded the class to exercise and use a new
seating posture; I described how proper sitting posture assists mandatory concentration and strengthens
the will. In fact I instructed the class in a sitting posture. This posture started with feet flat on the floor,
hands placed flat across the small of the back to force a straight alignment of the spine. “There can’t you
breath more easily? You’re more alert. Don’t you feel better?“
We practiced this new attention position over and over. I walked up and down the aisles of seated students
pointing out small flaws, making improvements. Proper seating became the most important aspect
of learning. I would dismiss the class allowing them to leave their desks and then call them abruptly
back to an attention sitting position. In speed drills the class learned to move from standing position to
attention sitting in fifteen seconds. . . . It was strange how quickly the students took to this uniform
code of behavior. I began to wonder just how far they could be pushed. . . . 14
To provide an encounter with community I had the class recite in unison “strength through discipline,
strength through community.” First I would have two students stand and call back our motto. Then add
two more until finally the whole class was standing and reciting. . . . As the class period was ending and
without forethought I created a class salute. It was for class members only. To make the salute you
brought your right hand up toward the right shoulder in a curled position. I called it the Third Wave
salute because the hand resembled a wave about to top over. . . . Since we had a salute I made it a rule to
salute all class members outside the classroom. When the bell sounded ending the period I asked the
class for complete silence. With everyone sitting at attention I slowly raised my arm and with a cupped
hand I saluted. It was a silent signal of recognition. They were something special.15
Questions:
1. What are two things Mr. Jones asked his class to do? How did they respond?

2. At the end of this excerpt, Mr. Jones gave the Third Wave salute. What are three different ways his students might have responded to this action?






3. How do you think they did respond? Explain your answer.

Handout 2
Strength Through Discipline: The ThirdWave (Part Two)
Ron Jones continues his story:
Without command the entire group of students returned the salute. . . . Throughout the next few
days students in the class would exchange this greeting. You would be walking down the hall when all of
a sudden three classmates would turn your way each flashing a quick salute.
On Wednesday, I decided to issue membership cards to every student that wanted to continue what I
now called the experiment. Not a single student elected to leave the room. . . .
To allow students the experience of direct action I gave each individual a specific verbal assignment.
“It’s your task to design a Third Wave Banner. You are responsible for stopping any student that is not a
Third Wave member from entering this room. . . . I want each of you to give me the name and address
of one reliable friend that you think might want to join the Third Wave.”. . . The school cook asked
what a Third Wave cookie looked like. I said chocolate chip of course. Our principal came into an afternoon
faculty meeting and gave me the Third Wave salute. I saluted back. . . . By the end of the day over
two hundred students were admitted into the order. . . .
While the class sat at attention I gave each person a card. I marked three of the cards with a red X and
informed the recipients that they had a special assignment to report any students not complying to class
rules. . . . Though I formally appointed only three students to report deviate behavior, approximately
twenty students came to me with reports about how Allan didn’t salute, or Georgene was talking critically
about our experiment. This incidence of monitoring meant that half the class now considered it
their duty to observe and report on members of their
class. . . .
Many of the students were completely into being Third Wave Members. They demanded strict obedience
of the rules from other students and bullied those that took the experiment lightly.16
Questions:
1. What are two things Mr. Jones asked his class to do? How did they respond?
2. Why do you think that many of the students and the larger school community “were completely into
being Third Wave members” and followed all of Mr. Jones’s instructions, even demanding “strict obedience
of the rules from other students”? What factors encouraged their obedient behavior?
3. What might have prevented so many students from obeying Mr. Jones? Under what conditions do individuals resist authority?

Handout 3
Do You Take the Oath? (Part One)
Excerpted from pp. 198–201 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior
A German man recalled the day he was asked to pledge loyalty to Adolf Hitler:
I was employed in a defense [war] plant. . . . That was the year of the National Defense
Law. . . .Under the law I was required to take the oath of fidelity [loyalty]. I said I would not;
I opposed it in conscience. I was given twenty-four hours to “think it over. . . .”
[R]efusal would have meant the loss of my job, of course, not prison or anything like
that. . . . But losing my job would have meant that I could not get another. Wherever I went I
should be asked why I left the job I had, and when I said why, I should certainly have been
refused employment. . . .
I tried not to think of myself or my family. We might have got out of the country, in any
case, and I could have got a job in industry or education somewhere else. What I tried to think
of was the people to whom I might be of some help later on, if things got worse (as I believed
they would). I had a wide friendship in scientific and academic circles, including many Jews,
and “Aryans,” too, who might be in trouble. If I took the oath and held my job, I might be of
help, somehow, as things went on. If I refused to take the oath, I would certainly be useless to
my friends, even if I remained in the country.

Handout 3
Do You Take the Oath? (Part One)
Excerpted from pp. 198–201 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior
Questions:
1. List reasons to support why he should obey authority (take the oath) and why he should resist authority
(refuse to take the oath).
2. What do you think this man decided to do? Place an “x” on the place in the scale below that represents
whether or not you think this man took the oath of loyalty to Hitler.
I am certain this man I am certain this man
did not take the oath. did take the oath.
1 2 3 4 5
Explain the reasons why you placed an “x” at this place on the scale, referring to ideas from the passage
and your own ideas about obedience to authority.


Handout 4
Do You Take the Oath? (Part Two)
Excerpted from pp. 198–201 in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior
The man explains his decision:
The next day, after “thinking it over,” I said I would take the oath. . . . That day the world
was lost, and it was I who lost it.
There I was, in 1935, a perfect example of the kind of person who, with all his advantages in
birth, in education, and in position. . . . If I had refused to take the oath in 1935, it would have
meant that thousands and thousands like me, all over Germany, were refusing to take it. Their
refusal would have heartened millions. Thus the regime would have been overthrown, or,
indeed, would never have come to power in the first place. The fact that I was not prepared to
resist, in 1935, meant that all the thousands, hundreds of thousands, like me in Germany were
also unprepared, and each one of these hundreds of thousands was, like me, a man of great
influence or of great potential influence. Thus the world was lost. . . .18
Questions:
1. What does the man mean when he says, “If I had refused to take the oath in 1935, it would have meant
that thousands and thousands like me, all over Germany, were refusing to take it. . . . Thus the regime
would have been overthrown”?
2. Do you agree with his statement? To what extent do you believe that the choice of one individual can
make a difference (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree)?
3. The man says that he “was not prepared to resist.” What does it mean to resist? Under what conditions
are people more likely to resist authority?
4. Compare the opportunities for resistance for this German man and for the students in Mr. Jones’s
class. In what ways were they the same? In what ways were they different? For whom was resistance
more of a possibility? Explain your answer.
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