Write a four-page, 1,000-word essay on the following subject (Don’t forget you’re your fifth page, a “Works Cited” page):
“You are a German male college student (Gerhard Schmidt) in August 1940 and regard yourself as a pious Lutheran Christian. Hitler declared war on Poland, England, and France in September 1939. He successfully subdued the western half of Poland, which he split with the Soviet Union. Earlier in 1940, the German blitzkrieg swept through the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) and defeated France whose capital, Paris, is now occupied by the German Army. Hitler is preparing to invade Great Britain. Many of your family’s neighbors, most of whom are Lutheran, are ecstatic at Hitler’s success in the war effort. They say they are proud to be German again.
You recently received a notice from the government that you are to report for induction into the German Army. You know that the German Government has passed anti-Jewish laws, proscribing Jews from working in the professions, barring them from service in the armed forces, and confiscating their property. Jewish families in your hometown are disappearing, allegedly to be resettled in Poland. There are rumors of concentration camps from which people never come back. You have personally witnessed the maltreatment of Jews, Communists, Socialists, and others who, in one form or another, have criticized or fought Hitler. Your parents think that, as a good German, you should enlist because Germany needs you. A few of your friends have told you secretly that they will not show up for induction and will go underground to resist the Nazis. You are going to have to make up your own mind. Your best friend, Johannes Goldschlager, has likewise received his draft notice. Unlike you, he is a Calvinist. Both of you take your Christian faith seriously.
During your childhood, both of you belonged to Lutheran and Calvinist youth organizations which were absorbed by the Hitler Youth in 1936. You are intimately familiar with Nazi ideology which you and Johannes privately find repugnant. You and Johannes have done your best to remain faithful Christians during this time by reading the Bible and going to church with your families. Based upon your analysis of Luther’s 1523 work On Secular Authority and Johannes’s analysis of Calvin’s 1556 work On Civil Government, both of you have made your decisions. Describe your conversation(s) with Johannes about whether you will accept induction into the German Army or join your other friends in the resistance.”
Works cited page is for quotes on the books.
