 |
|
Where is the outrage of Else von Löwis and her neighbors at the discovery that the mentally ill are being murdered? How does she seem to define her "universe of obligation"? Who belongs and who does not? Where does she draw the line? Why is she uncomfortable with the idea of a "public secret"? Can something that everyone knows be a secret? Why does the idea cause her so much disease?
|
|
|
|
How do each of the other individuals featured in this section define their universe of obligation? Where does each draw the line? What were the consequences of the ways each defined his or her universe of obligation?
|
|
|
|
What is the moral or lesson of the bishop's sermon? What if he and other church leaders had rallied their followers in 1933 in opposition to the sterilization laws? What if they had rallied their followers in 1935 to protest the removal of Jews, "Gypsies," and other minorities from the life of the nation?
|
|
|
|
Compare and contrast the choices open to individuals in this section with those they had in the 1920s and early 1930s. What options were no longer possible? What choices were now more risky? What do your answers suggest about the difficulties of taking a stand at the eleventh hour?
|
|
|
Friederick Reck-Malleczewen, a monarchist who fought in World War I, kept a journal from 1936 until his murder at Dachau in 1944. In March 1943, he wrote of the Scholls: I never saw these two young people. In my rural isolation, I got only bits and pieces of what they were doing, but the significance of what I heard was such that I could hardly believe it. The Scholls are the first in Germany to have had the courage to witness for the truth…. On their gravestones let these words be carved, and let this entire people, which has lived in deepest degradation these last ten years, blush when it reads them: … "He who knows how to die can never be enslaved." We will all of us, someday, have to make a pilgrimage to their graves, and stand before them, ashamed.1 Why do you think he believed that it takes courage to "witness for the truth"? What does he mean when he writes, "We will all of us, someday … stand before them, ashamed"? What is he suggesting about the responsibility of bystanders? Do you agree?
|
|
|
|
Define the words hero and courage. Which of the individuals featured in this section made a courageous choice? Which made the right choice? Which question is easier to answer?
|
|
|