For Jewish Studies we had to listen to a podcast about Israel. The one I listened to was about two siblings. The sister, was orthodox  and the brother was reformed. In this podcast they discussed their views on religion. I think the sister said something very important when asked if she wanted to make other people orthodox. What she was you should be friends with people who are different from you and she explained that, that is why she doesn’t want to make other people orthodox. I did not choose this podcast for a specific reason, it was just shorter and I had a lot of work to do. Although, I am glad I chose it because it was interesting.

Dear President Roosevelt,
We need to let these Jewish children in our country. They have not only paid lots of money to get on the US St. Louis to go to Cuba, but they are also seeking refuge. Cuba only let 30 out of 937 people in because the had “special visas”! One of the Jews committed suicide, leaving only 906 people hoping for us to take them in. If you want to send them to other Latin American Countries, we can’t because they have already been denied. We also can’t send them back to Germany because they will be sent to a concentration camp. Also, if you are worried about getting them visas we can get them temporary visas during the war. Please consider this.
Sincerely,
Indy

1. How would you summarize the purpose of the Nuremberg Laws?

The Nuremburg laws were made to give people who had pure German blood all the power. Pure German blood meant people with two German parents, neither of  them Jewish. These people got political power, while the people who didn’t have pure German blood had none.

2.  How did the laws you read and discussed contribute to creating the type of “national community” that the Nazis desired?

The laws contributed to the national community by giving all pure Germans power and the non pure Germans none. They did this by giving political rights to Germans and none to non pure Germans. This caused only pure German voice to be heard in politics.

3. How might these laws have influenced the attitudes and actions of the German people? How might their lives and beliefs have changed as a result of this law?

These laws may have made pure German people feel superior to the non pure Germans. This may have caused them to attack those who were not pure German. This also could fuel hate towards the Jews because many of these laws were against Jews which would have caused the Germans to feel superior.  They even did not allow Jews to be German citizens. This would make the Jews a marginalized group. Therefore, Germans would treat Jews like outsiders. Hitler also convinced the Germans that the Jews were responsible for Germany’s bad economy. This would fuel hate towards the Jews also.

To be marginalized means to be an outsider because of differences. Marginalized groups are also considered minorities. When Hitler came into power one of the groups he marginalized were the Jews. There were many different ways he did this.  One way was by holding antisemetic rallies. He also blamed them for many of Germany’s problems. Another thing he did was he forced many Jewish owned businesses to close. Then, he made Storm troopers(Nazi police) make arrests on Jewish people for no reason. Finally, he would have his Storm troopers go and randomly beat up Jewish people. This all shows that he marginalized Jewish people because he said and made Nazis do things that would make Jews feel like and be outsiders in Germany.

The movie the wave effected my thinking. It did this by making me realize how easy it is to be manipulated by a group. In the movie the teacher creates the Wave and people join it for power and to feel special. This was all an experiment to show the students why people joined the Nazis.