I am assuming you are American, so this is what you should know and then what really happened.
The American books are very poorly written on this topic and I think its unfair you should have to write such a letter. This letter would not have happened in real life. Most employees DIDN'T want to loose their employees, Jewish or not, and had a hard time letting them go. Often times, little was even said, the employee just knew when it was time to leave the job when the boss came up to him. This is based on first hand accounts of many Jewish people and Regular Germans.
Secondly, Hitler only promoted anti-Jewish racism, he did NOT openly encourage killings to the public, you as the employee would probably not know about anything, with the exception of ghettos and work camps or work programs at best. This false information American books seem to print a lot. Be aware that he promoted German Superiority over others, not just Jews. Gypsy's, roman Catholics, Hungarians, Russians, gays, blacks, etc. were all in the same category as the Jewish. Hitler, in fact, had an EXTREMELY hard time getting a handful of people with the power to approve such mass killings, a reason why Himmler was so special. The people who then worked there, if not imprisoned, were often carefully selected. Many German officers snapped and had mental breakdowns. They were swiftly removed to prevent kinks in the system and replaced. After some time, a small but efficient group of officers could control the camp. This number is extremely small though, some camps were only monitored by as little as 70 people or less. In comparasion to the thousands imprisoned.
Besides those living in directly around the camps or ghettos, it was on the hush. Now, this is where you can make a point in your letter. An officer by the name of Karl Ludwig openly told people about the camps, killings, etc. He was never punished for saying anything. He helped many escape and was known for being kind. He is not alone. But men selected to work there had to be completely loyal and submissive or it wouldn't have worked. Ludwig was an exception, for what ever reason. He was acquitted at the trials by Jewish survivors.
Another point to make in your letter, Anti-Jewish attitude was strongly rooted in Germany hundreds of years prior to Hitler. Although he did go on a propaganda fit, it doesn't take much to convince a majority that agrees anyway. This does NOT mean they approved of the methods. These is case of a woman, I forget her name right now, but she was very close friends with Hitler when he was in power. She had the marbles to scold Hitler. She accidentally saw Jews from a Ghetto being loaded on trains. She did hold some position of standing, right now I am drawing a blank though.
If you want to be accurate, take the position of a person who doesn't want to let the employee go. Take the route that worse things come about from opposing. You can highlight the good things Hitler did for Germany, out of recession, unification, somewhat peaceful conference and treaties (depending on how you look at it), public projects, free services for children, modernization, etc. One of the most popular phrases you could use is something along the lines of "He has been good to us and negotiated with other countries without war so far. His plans have all proven good for the country. Even if I don't agree, or am unsure, he has so far been correct." Many Germans went on Hitler's track record which was amazingly good up until the middle of the war. Even those that did know about the killings, struggled to find some comfort for their minds by justifying it for the good of all. Of course this was a mental ease, not practical, but they had little choice.
To be honest I would be p****d off if my teacher ever had the nerve to make me write a letter. But its a grade and in honest it won't matter 20 years from now whether you wrote it from a regular German view point, or American version. Of course there were people who followed Hitler to the book and approved of killings, but this minority seems to have dominated the American view. Tragically really. I feel bad for you, having to write this. Good luck though.
Answered By: Person - 5/12/2010 |