The Mysterious Major

What did Schmahling mean when he said that in crushing the boy in his classroom, he was destroying something in himself? What was he destroying? How was it like what the Nazis were destroying in the people they ruled?

In this story, a major in the army is a protector of Jews, but he only helped anonymously. He sent anonymous phone calls warning Jews of raids, and so on. He was a teacher before he was in the army, and one day the Major was telling about beasts, and he was talking about the lion when the class dunce interrupted him. The class dunce interrupted him by saying that he had seen a rabbit yesterday. The teacher was angry because, obviously he did not like to be interrupted by the class dunce, who was not even talking about beasts, but about a rabbit. The teacher got very angry at the boy and called him a lot of unpleasant names and told him to shut up. The boy did not talk again for the whole year (in class). Later on, Schmahling looked back on this moment and was very ashamed of himself, and he said he had destroyed this young boys moment of happiness. He said that when he crushed the boy in the classroom, he was destroying something in himself. I think that what he meant was that, in ruining a boys moment of happiness, he was destroying a piece of his heart by being hurtful, and watching the boys happiness fade because of him. He was destroying the boys happiness, making him feel small and powerless, while the teacher told him what to do, similar to how the Nazi's made life for the Jewish people miserable, and making other civilians feeling like they needed a leader, and that they were powerless, and small, but with the help of the Nazi's they could be powerful and big, so they had to help.

In Memory to My Mother

I chose the poem In Memory to my mother, I chose this poem because I thought it was a really powerful poem. The part of the poem that painted a picture in my mind was mainly the part that said "Where is your grave" it paints a picture of a lonely gravestone, in the middle of a field. I also thought that the questions at the beginning of the poem was a great way to start the poem. Something that makes the poem seem gloomy is a " a rainy autumn day" This gives the impression that the day was already quite gloomy, and it adds to the desperation of the situation. "Your eyes as green as emeralds" was a simile that I found in the poem, it makes it seem as if the girl was analyzing her mother deeply as she was taken away. Another simile was "Silent like a stone.". " It pierced my heart and made it dry is one of the metaphors in the poem. "Those dizzy eyes" is another metaphor. I wondered when it said that the mother pressed something into her palm, what it was that had been pressed into her palm, the mood of this poem was very depressed, and sad and heartbroken. I was a little confused where it said about a nightmare that was true, because I was not sure if here she was dreaming or not. When it said that countless lips whispered help but didn't make a sound it meant that no one listened to the pleas for help. " O No, It can't be told" This is sort of like the saying a picture is worth a thousand words, or seeing is believing/understanding. A part of the poem that really stood out for me was the first part, " Where is your grave?Where did you die? Why did you go away?" Because it sounds like a young girl who can't understand why anyone would do anything that cruel, an can't understand why she was forced to endure this torture, and she is stricken with grief that her innocent mother has been taken away. The only personal connection I could make to this terrible thing is in a nightmare, when I was little I was always haunted by horrible dreams where a masked figure came and took my mother away and I always woke from these nightmares crying ( was only 5 or 6 ). Of course that is nothing to what happened to Sonia Weitz, but its the closest personal experience I have. This poem made me feel heartbroken, and I was really sad for Sonia Weitz, and it made me imagine what it would be like to lose my own mother in the own way, and it made me even sadder.

How did Hitler take control?

Did you ever wonder how Germany allowed Hitler to take control? There were two main reasons that allowed Hitler to take control, they were- a huge depression, and of course anger at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler had a wonderful opportunity to get people to vote for him in 1923. There was a hyperinflation( which means all of their money became almost worthless) and everyone was desperate. Hitler told them that if they voted for him, the country's economic situation would become better,so many people voted for him out of desperation, but in the 1928 elections the Nazi's still only received about 2% of the votes . Then there was the treaty of Versailles . This was a treaty signed after Germany lost the first world war. It forced Germany to pay for all of the damage done by the war and many other things. Many Germans thought that this treaty was unfair and humiliating. Hitler told them that he also thought it was unfair too,and if they voted for him,he would abort the treaty. Of course,some people realized that Hitler was crazy and did not vote for him,but they were not enough,Hitler became Chancellor of the Weimar republic in 1933, because the Weimar republic was worried that Hitlers new percent of 33% of votes would rise if they did not do something aboutit.When the old president died,Hitler became leader of Germany, and took all of the necessary steps to ensure that he did not lose his position, and he enforced many new rules that eventually led to the second world war.

The Nuremburg Laws

In Nazi Germany, the Nazi's introduced a new set of laws called the Nuremburg Laws. These laws were to restrict Jewish people from doing certain things and to make them easy to identify. Under these new laws, anyone with 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, even if they themselves were Christians. Some people who had forgotten the religion of their grandparents found themselves being called Jews. The Nazi's also began to "aryanize" Jewish businesses, making them "pure" and Jew-Free. This meant that Jewish workers were no longer allowed to work in the shops, and their shops were taken over by Nazi's. Jewish doctors were only allowed to treat Jewish people, and Jewish lawyers were no longer allowed to practice law. Anyone who was Jewish was not allowed to sell to non'Jewish people. Also, Jewish people like all other Germans, had Identity cards, but now Jewish Identity cards needed a big red J stamped on them to show that they were Jewish. Then those that did not have very Jewish sounding names were issued a new middle name- Sara for girls and Israel for boys.

The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People was a law that made sure Aryans did not poison their offspring;s blood with Jewish blood. All would be married couples had to go to the health office and make sure they were fit to marry the other person. Anyone attempting to marry someone bad was breaking the law