The Holocaust and Nazism in the Media

The Man in the High Castle Part 1

One of the most popular television shows currently 'airing' is not on a television network. Instead, it is only available through Amazon.com's Prime Video Service over the internet. This series stars Rufus Sewell and a large ensemble cast, and loosely adapts Philip K. Dick's, the famous sci-fi writer, novel, also entitled the Man in the High Castle.

This work is an alternate history that plays with the famous 'What if" scenario, "What if Nazi Germany (and Japan) won World War II and split the world between themselves?" This of course is a counterfactual history - a term that means a claim, hypothesis, or belief that is contrary to the facts. A counterfactual history is an attempt to discuss an event that didn't happen and what might have happened if it did. Many historians do not like counterfactual histories, but they are still fun to think about, and 

What makes the Man in the High Castle so interesting is it not about what is going on in Nazi Germany. It is not about what happened around the world. It is not about why the Nazis managed to win. While there are multiple realities and a bit of sci-fi going on in the world, that is not what it is about. It is not about Americans fighting back against the Nazis and launching a revolution to overthrow them. 

Rufus Sewell as John Smith

What is it about? It is about how a society could be corrupted, entwined with, and even receptive to Fascism. Fascism is a type of government, a dictatorship, that is characterized by a single strong leader, nationalistic rhetoric, use of race or other characteristic to create an 'other,' and is very militaristic. This governmental system rose to prominence in the 1920's and 1930's in Germany and Italy. The particular brand of even more extreme Fascism in Germany is known as Nazism after the party that ran the country under its dictator, Adolf Hitler. 

The Man in the High Castle is about how American society could become used to and accepting of the hateful Nazi ideology, or way of thinking. It is about how quickly and seamlessly many would move on with their lives and live under Nazi occupation. How some would trade off their neighbors being persecuted or killed if they would be left alone or treated as a better race. The world of the Man in the High Castle features America divided between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and many 'Americans' frequently express a preference for the Germans over the Japanese, because the Japanese seem more foreign than the European Germans. In the Japanese sector, being white is not a good thing, while in the German sector, being white ensures you superior status, particularly if you are of German descent.   

Watch this clip from the show, and think about our society.

Some questions to consider in the comments: Please answer at least two of these questions in the comments, and reply to at least three of your classmates' answers. Please response to any comments on your answers. 

What differences do you see between the daily life and rituals of this clip of the beginning of a school day and your daily life in school? What similarities do you see?

Do you think this show presents a plausible take on how American society would react to such a scenario?

What do you think you would do if you were in this world?