An event as tragic as the Holocaust can be difficult to comprehend. Hitler Youth played a big part in influencing Germans. Artifact one of the Hitler Youth presentation is a quote from Hitler describing the program. The children of Germany were put in the Hitler Youth program at the age of ten and stayed in the program until they were “smoothed out”, in an effort to ensure that they become “complete National Socialists”. This would have had great influence on the parents as they were made to believe that if their children did not have a certain state of mind that there was something wrong with them and that Hitler Youth would fix that. Childrens minds are easy to manipulate and when you influence a child when they are young those ideas are likely to stick with them for a while. He also says that in those first four years in the program the kids “get a little fresh air for the first time”. He makes it seem like Hitler Youth is as vital to a child's development as playing outside and he implies that the parents can not expose their kids to that kind of influence without putting them in the program. Artifact four in the Nazi Youth presentation is a poster encouraging children and parents that Hitler Youth will help the kids become great leaders. The poster says “Youth is Leader” giving the children and their parents a sense of pride that they are involved in the program. The poster shows a young man standing tall with Hitler behind him giving the allusion that if these children do exactly as he says that they can one day be as powerful and noble as they believed him to be. Another poster from the Propaganda project shows Hitler standing in front of a large crowd of people, many of them giving the Nazi salute, it also says “Yes! Leader We Follow You!”. The crowd behind Hitler shows how many people supported him and looked to him for leadership. If someone saw this poster during the time of the Holocaust it would give them the feeling that they would have to join all those people who look proud to follow Hitler, because thats just how the human mind works. We see others doing something and we copy. That could be the best explanation for something as unfortunate as the Holocaust. It only took one person to make a few people believe that they should follow. Then more and more people joined to be sure that their children were “smoothed out” and just like all the other children. They wanted to be part of the adoring crowd honoring their leader.
Part 2
Artifact six of the Survivors presentation is an excerpt from an interview with Inge Auerbacher who was in a concentration camp as a child. She talks about the fear of being separated from her parents, which was something many children were anxious about. From an outsiders point of view, especially in todays society where genocide is a crime against humanity, it may be hard for some to understand why children thought that way and not about saving themselves. On pages 29-30 of Night, Elie Wiesel also talks about being separated from his family. The men and women were separated so he still had his father but he also didn’t know if her would ever see his mother or sisters again. Elie was much older than Inge during the Holocaust so it just shows that no matter how old you get when someone goes through a traumatic experience, we naturally seek our parents for protection, support and comfort. The language he uses in this passage exposes his real fear of being left by his parents. Even with his father he still felt that they “were alone” without his mother and sisters as he “saw them walking farther and farther away”. Both of Ellie's parents demonstrate how they naturally wanted nothing more than to protect their kids in that moment. His mother “was stroking my sisters blonde hair” and he automatically “felt my fathers hand press against mine”. Children crave that kind of security in horrible situations and not knowing if they would be deprived of that security is an understandable fear. In this passage Elie never mentions that the other children seemed to be in obvious distress, which shows how comforting a parent can be. Even though there were so many things to fear in the Holocaust, it is not surprising that in a child's naive mind leaving their parents is the worst possible outcome.
