Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Mein Kampf (which means My Struggle) is a book by written by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler following the failed Beer Hall Putsch after which he was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment. It combines elements of an autobiography with an outline of Hitler's Nazi party agenda and goals. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and volume 2 in 1926.

During this time in prison, Hitler underwent something of an epiphany with regards to his use of violence: from now on everything was to be done in a legal manner. With non-violence in mind and Hitler's ability to understand people, Hitler felt that he needed to make sure that the public knew what he stood for, so began to dictate a book to friend and fellow Nazi Rudolf Hess.

In Mein Kampf, one very prominent aspect is the violent anti-Semitism of Hitler and his associates. Hitler uses the main thesis of “The Jewish peril”, which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. The book describes the reasons he became increasingly anti-Semitic and militaristic, especially during his years in Vienna, Austria.

After Hitler’s rise to power, the book gained enormous popularity and became the virtual Bible of every Nazi and all German soldiers received a free copy. By the end of the war in 1945 there were almost 10 million copies in print.

Germany does not allow any copying or printing of the book though owning and selling used copies is not illegal.

All text from Wikipedia

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The following quotes from Mein Kampf were taken from just a single chapter:

• "Jew’s know how to create the illusion that this is the only way of preserving the peace, and at the same time, stealthily but steadily, they conquer one position after another, sometimes by silent blackmail, sometimes by actual theft, at moments when the general attention is directed toward other matters"
  
• "Wherever I went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the more sharply they became distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity."


• "it became positively repulsive when, in addition to their physical uncleanliness, you discovered the moral stains on this 'chosen people.'"
  
• "Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it?"
  
• "for the first time I recognized the Jew as the cold-hearted, shameless, and calculating director of this revolting vice traffic in the scum of the big city, a cold shudder ran down my back."
  
• "I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their [Jewish] tongues or their virtuosity at lying. Gradually I began to hate them."

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This site would be used during History 20 - Unit Two: The Toalitarian State.

In this unit students focus on:

1. How the pervasive nature of totalitarian regimes affected the rights of the citizens of those totalitarian nations.


2. How the inclination of totalitarian regimes to utilize state violence at both the domestic and international levels was to continue.


3. How the inability and/or unwillingness of the international community, particularly the Western democracies, to confront the aggressive tendencies of these totalitarian regimes was to have profound consequences.

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This website could be used in a variety of ways for a variety of assignments.

If teaching a unit on the Holocaust, I would use the site and have students comb through it looking for examples of Hitler's political agenda regarding the Jews. He spells out a lot of what his overall goals are in the book (though the idea for the Holocaust was several years away at the time of publication) but there are plenty of examples on his beliefs.

By having the students look for specific things in the text they will learn and practise the basic research skills of finding information; classifying information into meaningful categories; distinguishing between relevant and less relevant information; and,
summarizing information.

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World War I is often referred to as a turning point in world history. Its consequences were to significantly impact the course of history in this century and Hitler believed that the German people were made scapegoats by the French and even the ruling German party.

Another assignment or way to utilize the site would be a research project on Germany and the conditions which made that war a possibility and an actuality.

The Treaty of Versailles was not kind to Germany and Hitler, who served in the German army, always felt betrayed by the terms Germany was forced to surrender. In Mein Kampf Hitler discusses the "betrayal of the German people" and teh effects the Treaty had on Germany. Using the online version of Mein Kampf students could do a research project or paper discussing Hitler's views on the Treaty.

One such assignment could be "A Trip back in Time" where a student or students research and present a 5 minute oral report with a suplimentary paper to be handed in, on the topic as if they were actually there witnessing the event. Everyone in class will experience it as if they were there too, thus getting Hitler (or an average German citizen's) perspective on the Treaty.

Anne Frank and the Children of the Holocaust

As most people know, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was in hiding from the Nazi's, betrayed and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she died of typhus. What set Anne apart from so many other persecuted Jewish people was she put her thoughts in writing in her Diary. After the war, the diary was retrieved by Frank's father, Otto Frank.

The Diary was first published in Amsterdam in 1947 and was translated into English in 1952. Since then, more than 25 million copies of the book have been sold and it has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Anne Frank began to keep a diary on her thirteenth birthday about three weeks before she went into hiding with her mother, father, sister and four other people in the secret annex of her father's office building. With the assistance of a group of Otto Frank's trusted friends they remained hidden for two years and one month, until their betrayal in August 1944, which resulted in their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Of the group of eight, only Otto Frank survived the war.

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This webquest will allow students to get to know Anne and others that were victims of the Holocaust.

Anne Frank Webquest

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I would use this webquest in the Social Studies 20 unit on Defining Human Rights

While it is designed for English, I think the tasks would be a good introduction to the horrors of the Nazi regime and their abuses of human rights.

Anne Frank inspired many people including some of the most powerful and influential people in the 20th Century who spoke of her.

"Of the multitudes who throughout human history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank."

- President John F. Kennedy

"Some of us read Anne Frank's diary on Robben Island and derived much encouragement from it."

- Nelson Mandella

Both quotes are applicable for any discussion on Human Rights and Anne Frank personifies human Rights abuses by people in power.

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I would get the students doing Anne's webquest and use selected passages from her Diary before introducing the Human Rights so that the students would have in their minds what happens when someone has no regard for other people based simply on their religious beliefs.

I think this type of exercise would help students learn in a fun way (everyone likes to surf the web) while letting them do the research and learning on their own with the teacher as a guide.

Further self-learning could possibly take place as well with a link to Anne Frank House which offers virtual tours, plenty of information and pictures.