Using all the sources, videos on the website and texts write an empathy account of a Nazi meeting held in March 1932.

You are a journalist. It is late in the evening and you have just returned home from a Nazi Party rally. You have to write an article ready for tomorrow’s paper. You have witnessed Hitler speak and interviewed one individual who you are going to write about in your article. The person you interviewed is the same one who wrote a letter to a friend in America nearly 10 years ago. As a consequence of the meeting they have decided that in future they will vote for the Nazis. In your article you hope to explain why.

Some guidelines:

Good empathy is imaginative but always based on fact. It is not fiction but rather ‘faction’.  You live in Hamburg and the meeting you attended was on the 23rd of March. Good empathy seeks to do more than describe events as they are witnessed. Description is important but empathy also attempts to “step into the shoes” of someone who might has lived in the past. This means explaining attitudes and emotions in a convincing way. The videos should be able to help you do this. The scene from Cabaret is excellent at capturing the atmosphere and emotion of crowd mentality.

The reasons for their conversion are complex and not everything that the Nazis stand for appeals to them. They have hopes and fears. In your explanation of why they are now going to support Hitler remember to refer to more than just the evening’s events. Hitler did give a great speech but their experiences of the last three years have also been important. Again see the video on the fatal attraction of Hitler and the interview with the elderly former social worker. Read about the impact of the Depression on German people in Walsh 152-55.