1. Night – Overview and Contemporary Connections

2. A hypothetical…
You’re asleep in your New York high-rise apartment on a cool winter night. It’s about 3:15 am.
You’re suddenly woken by the sound of what you think is a scream. Your window is closed so you can’t make out the words, but you’re pretty sure someone screamed.
What do you do, and why?

3. A hypothetical…continued
You open your window just to be sure, and you don’t hear anything right away.
About ten minutes later, you hear another scream: “"Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!“
You also hear someone else yell, "Let that girl alone!“
What do you do and why?

4. Kitty Genovese Murdered on March 13, 1964
Attack took place over a half hour:
Started at roughly 3:15, picked up by an ambulance at 4;15, died en route to the hospital
Over the course of the attack:
Screaming in highly populated area (many residents reported hearing her)
Ran away, hid, fought back
How many people came out to help her fight back?
How many called the police?

5. Kitty Genovese
Only confirmed call a few minutes before the ambulance arrived at the scene at 4:15
May have been one call slightly earlier
A neighbor found her shortly before the ambulance arrived

6. Psychology
Diffusion of responsibility—"a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present”
Bystander effect—” individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.”
Why?
Connections to Night?

7. The Origins of the Nazi Party
Originally the German Workers Party
DAP - Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
Origins in the final years of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (~1919)
Very harsh sanctions enacted against Germany
Crippled economy
Formed by Anton Drexler, a German nationalist
Strong central government
Antisemitic, anti-Marxist, “Aryan master race”
Due to harsh economic times, the message resonated with workers
“You are working hard! It is the [Jews/Communists/Whoever] who are holding us back!”

8. The Origins of the Nazi Party
1919 – Party is small, but German army grows suspicious of subversive motives
Corporal Adolf Hitler, a press/propaganda officer, sent to investigate
Soon joined the party as the fifty-fifth member
Quickly discovered he had a gift for public speaking
By end of 1920, the party had over 3,000 members, many of whom were brought to the party by Hitler’s oration
1921 – Drexler makes Hitler the party chairperson (Führer), and Hitler becomes the sole leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party

9. The Origins of the Nazi Party
1923 – Hitler and 2,000 supporters attempt to launch a coup in a beer hall
19 Nazis killed, Hitler jailed until 1924
While imprisoned, he wrote the infamous Mein Kampf

10. Rise to Power Upon release, Hitler re-formed the party
Mid-late 1920’s – Financial crisis
1932 – Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
1933 – Hitler granted emergency powers after the Reichstag fire
Communist plot or false flag operation?
Gave Hitler totalitarian control
Established concentration camps to squelch political opposition

11. prop·a·gan·da – n.
Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
The dissemination of such information as a political strategy.
Hitler employed propaganda during his rise and all throughout his reign.

12. Context: Posters leading up to an April 10, 1938 referendum on Hitler

13. Context: Poster for The Eternal Jew, a notorious anti-Semetic film

14. Text: “The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war”
Context: Released in 1943 or 1944

15. “You are the front”

16. Umberto Eco, Ur-Facism January 5, 1932 – February 19, 2016
Writer, philosopher, semiotician
Lived in Italy under facist reign of Benito Mussolini—ally of Hitler
Coined the priniciples of ur-facism—describes what a facist government looks like
Do we see any in Night and related material?
Do we see any today?

17. “Now, we must all fear evil men
“Now, we must all fear evil men. But, there is another kind of evil which we must fear most … and that is the indifference of good men!” ~The Boondock Saints