Monday, August 6, 2012

A commentary on the reliability of 'The Eternal Jew' poster

Source 1:

A movie poster from the movie ' The Eternal Jew'

Jews are the vermin of the human race and similarly spread disease and corruption. Unlike rats, however, the narrator continues, Jews have the uncanny ability to change their appearance and blend into their "human hosts." A scene depicts four bearded men in traditional religious Jewish clothing, then shows them shaved and in modern business suits, while the narrator explains that only a "trained eye" can distinguish their Jewish features.

Source 2: An excerpt from Mein Kempf, written by Adolf Hitler
Since the Jew is not the attacked but the attacker, not only anyone who attacks passes as his enemy, but also anyone who resists him. But the means with which he seeks to break such reckless but upright souls is not honest warfare, but lies and slander.  Here he stops at nothing, and in his vileness he becomes so gigantic that no one need be surprised if among our people the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.

Source 3: Hitler's Willing Executioners, written by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
The perpetrators of the anti-Jewish slaughter, Mr. Goldhagen contends, did not kill Jews because of threats or some German propensity for obeying authority. They participated in the slaughter because they were steeped in a historical culture of anti-Semitism. They tortured and massacred Jews, starved them, toyed with them, punished them for their birth, and they did so voluntarily, even eagerly, with unsurpassable malice and cruelty.


Commentary on how reliable the image of the Jew has been depicted in the poster.

I disagree to a certain extend that the image of the Jew that has been depicted in the poster being reliable. From source 1, i could infer that the author was bias against the jewish as he said "Jews are the vermin of the human race and similarly spread disease and corruption". They could meant that the author dislike Jewish and assume them to be as good as vermin. Not only that, the author also commented that Jews have the ability to change their appearance and blend into their "human hosts". This could mean that the author had an impression that Jewish are as if plastic dolls. 

However, this source could not be reliable as both sources were one sided and not supported by both pros and cons. The author of the three sources might be bias or forced to only publish the negative side of the Jews and not publishing the whole story behind the scene.

An opinion piece about Hitler's rise to power

Is the issue of money allow Hitler to rise to power?

Money makes the world go round, and in case of Germany in 1933, it allowed a certain Adolf Hitler to rise to power. I disagree with this statement as I feel that besides money issues, Hitler's own attributes allowed him to rise to power.

The Weimar government lost the support of the middle class was one of the cause that allowed Hitler to rise to power. After WWI, Germany had to pay reparations. The Weimar government printed money to pay off its debts. Therefore, this created inflation. The savings of the people became worthless overnight. Due to inflation, the country will have less revenue to improve the people's lives. When people's lives does not improve, they might start a riot against the Weimar government. When the people turned to Adolf Hitler for help, he promised the Germans to give what they want.

One of Hitler's attributes is being an excellent speaker and charismatic leader. People would listen to him for hours as if he seem to understand their problems. He told the people what they wanted to hear and promised to bring back order in Germany. By having this attribute, people will trust him and have confidence in his leadership.

Another one of Hitler's attributes is fear. He used propaganda to spread fear about communist's aims. He recruited ex-service men into a private army - Stormtroopers and committed acts of violence against communist. Since Germans did not support communist and by taking action to remove them, he won favour with the people.

Furthermore, Hitler was arrested for trying to overthrow the Weimar govenment forcefully. After his jail sentence, he realised that he could not take power by force. He decided to win power through elections. He created youth movement to win the support of the young and public meetings to recruit more new members. By winning the support of the young and new members, it will increase the number of supports. When the number of Nazis supporters increases, there is a higher chance of winning the elections.