Activity 7: Fascism, Hate and Fear

Fear is a natural human emotion. Fascist groups play on people’s fears for their own ends.

Fascists try to make those they are appealing to afraid of certain groups of people.  They use fear as a way of having power over people.

From what you have learned about the Nazis so far, try to answer the following questions:

• Who did the Nazis hate?
• How did the Nazis try to make the 'Aryans' afraid of the people they hated?

To find out more about how the Nazis stirred up hatred, click here for the propaganda section.

The TV film ‘Conspiracy’ shown by the BBC was about the secret meeting of leading Nazis at Wannsee outside Berlin in 1942. This meeting was called to agree to the industrialised murder of millions of Jews. This is known as the ‘Final Solution’.

Towards the end of the film, the character of Heydrich (Head of the Nazi Security Police) tells a cautionary tale to a fellow Nazi. A version of his tale follows. Read the tale and discuss the questions below.

The story is about a little boy who hated his father and adored his mother. When his mother died at a young age, the little boy did not cry and was unmoved. When a few years later, however, his father died, he was distraught and his life was unbearable. It had no meaning once the hatred had gone.

• Why do you think one of the key people in organising the genocide of the Jews might tell this tale?
• What is he afraid of?
• If the meaning of someone’s life is based on hate, what happens when there is no-one left to hate?