Who would have thought that one teacher doing an experiment with his history class could recreate the Nazi party? Seems a bit far-fetched, right? But it's not. While the killings may not have accurred like in the Holocaust, the Nazi party returned to Palo Alto, California in April 1967.
The experiment was only a week long, but went way beyond what the history teacher, Ron Jones, had ever hoped for.
On a Friday, Jones had shown a movie to his students about Nazi Germany and the concentration camps. He spoke of how the people were taken from their homes, put into the ghettos, or into the camps to be killed or made to work.
A boy rose his hand and asked a question that most of us have asked ourselves when hearing about this event: "How could the German populace claim ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people. How could the townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, claim they knew nothing about concentration camps and human carnage. How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizen say they weren't there when it happened."
It was a great question, and Jones didn't know how to answer that question.
"Our society today would never do that."
So Jones decided to conduct an experiment. He went in on Monday and explained the importance of discipline. He had them show good posture, then had them get up and walk around, timing how long it took them when told to to go back to their seats and sit with perfect posture. It took about 30 seconds the first time.
He then made them stay really quiet and had them try it again. 15 seconds.
He then told them that they had to stand and say "Mr. Jones" when answering a question. Even if the answer was bad, he still accepted it because they stood and said his name. Those who didn't or were lazy about it, he told them to sit down and keep trying it until they got it right.
The next day, all the students were sitting in perfect posture. His experiment was working.
He gave it the name the Third Wave, and created a symbol, which was holding the hand up and putting it in a C type position to look like the wave falling down. It spread through the school quickly. Students gave their salute to other students and recruited others to join.
Jones even found one of his students by the name of Robert asking to be his body guard. Robert had been left out of a lot of things and found that when the Third Wave began, he was accepted more and was part of the group. So Robert followed Jones everywhere, watching and waiting for anything to happen.
But things turned ugly. Students were fighting with one another because of the Third Wave. People were being hurt, and people were even planning against those who were speaking out against the Third Wave. These deviants had to be stopped!
Jones even found that the principal was doing the salute, and did nothing about the fights happening. Finally, completely sick by what was happening, Mr. Jones ended his experiment with a huge bang.
He called for a meeting with only the loyal members of the Third Wave to attend. The ones who had spoken up were taken from the classroom and made to stay out while he spoke of the details of the meeting.
He told them that the wave was growing after seeing an add in the paper that said The Third Wave Is Upon Us, even though it had no real relation to his experiment. He told them that their national leader would be on the television at the meeting and they would finally all come together.
Over 200 students came to the meeting, all wearing blue and arm bands with the symbol for their group.
The entire auditorium was packed.
And Jones finally turned on the television. Who was on it? None other than Hitler himself. The students watched one of the speeched that Hitler had given, all in German of course.
And this is what Jones told them:
"Sit down." "There is no leader! There is no such thing as a national youth movement called the Third Wave. You have been used. Manipulated. Shoved by your own desires into the place you now find yourself. You are no better or worse than the German Nazis we have been studying.
You thought that you were the elect. That you were better than those outside this room. You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline and superiority. You chose to accept that group's will and the big lie over your own conviction. Oh, you think to yourself that you were just going along for the fun. That you could extricate yourself at any moment. But where were you heading? How far would you have gone? Let me show you your future."
With that, Jones turned back on the projector to show thousands of people saluting Hitler, the cold hard faces of the youths that went in to fight on Hitler's side. The watched the group march in unison. The movie ended, stopping at one specific line:
"Everyone must accept the blame. No one can claim that they didn't in some way take part."
The students filed out of the auditorium without saying anything. Jones found Robert at the side of the stage crying, saying that it was over.
Jones had to spend years showing Robert that he was still important, even without the Third Wave.
This is a true story. Nothing made up, nothing exaggerated. Ron Jones really did try this experiment, and found it sickening to see what people would do.
To read his full report on it, go here: http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/Auxiliary/Psychology/Frank/Thirdwave.html
It's a much more detailed version of the entire story than what I gave you.
But think about it. It wouldn't be that hard for any of this to happen again in our society now. In fact, in some ways and some places, it already is. People conform to the group and do what they may know is wrong, but won't stand up against the group. They turn their head, refusing to take blame.
None of us can know what we would do unless we were in the situation personally. We may THINK we know, but we could NEVER know until we experience it personally.
But I vote we not try to bring conformity and hatred back...
Lets never make Nazi Germany again.
* Emi *
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