Group # 4 Section LS 304

Cruz, Hazel Joy

Miranda, Janella Marie
Castillo, Romel Joshua
Title: The influence of the societys political views on the characters sense of morality
Presentation, Analysis, and Interpretation of the Literary Selection
I.

World War II in Germany (Holocaust)

The Storyteller was set during the World War II in Nazi Germany from
1939 1945. According to the Holocaust Resource Center (2015), from 1941
to 1945, Jews were targeted and methodically murdered in a genocide, the
largest in modern history, and part of a broader aggregate of acts of
oppression and killings of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the
Nazis. This is also known as the Holocaust which is defined by the Holocaust
Encyclopedia (2014) as the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its
collaborators. As stated by Berenbaum (2005) in his book (p. 103), every arm
of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the genocide,
turning the Third Reich into "a genocidal state".

During the Holocaust, Jews were persecuted by the Nazi regime just like
how Josef Weber narrated in the novel. Nazism was the term coined as the
body of political and economic doctrines held and put into effect by the Nazis
in Germany from 1933 to 1945 including the totalitarian principle of
government, predominance of especially Germanic groups assumed to be
racially superior, and supremacy of the fhrer by the Merriam Webster
Dictionary. Moreover, according to Bertrand Russell, British philosopher,
logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist,
Nazism comes from a different tradition than that of either liberal capitalism or
communism. Nazism comprises many ideologies. In accordance with what is
stated in the Holocaust Resource Center, the Holocaust is part of a broader
aggregate of acts of oppression and murder of various ethnic and political
groups in Europe by the Nazis. Also, in Europe, Jews were part of the
minority group with their different set of beliefs and culture. With Hitler being
their leader, the Germans believed in racial "purity and in the white,
Germanic, Aryan or Nordic races" (United States Holocaust Museum, n.d.).
They also believed in racial hygiene which advocated the removal of those
who would not improve the German population and who had no use in
society, those who Hitler called the useless eaters. This meant killing the
mentally ill, those terminally ill, and the physically and mentally handicapped.
They euphemistically called this euthanasia. It also meant eugenics - the
science of improving the race through selective breeding. The Nazis required
the sterilization of those who carried hereditary defects. (Holocaust Night: a

HistoryWiz exhibit, 2008). It also developed anti-semitism which is the

prejudice against or hatred of Jews, as defined in the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum (2014). The Holocaust Resource Center referred to this
ideology as the one that fueled the Jews as archenemies in a racial life-anddeath struggle that had to be won. Lastly, Nazism is also related to fascism
which is defined by Richman (2008) as socialism with a capitalist veneer. He
also stated that under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all
aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture.
Consequently, Germany's rise in their economy under the Third Reich was
a factor that put many of the people's faith on Hitler and his Nazi Party, and
because many of the youth were born and raised in a right-wing era, they had
less of an individualistic viewpoint and instead had a strong sense of
nationalism that Hitler took advantage of. In layman's terms, Hitler used the
wealthiness of many of the Jews in Germany as a scapegoat to blame all of
the misfortunes that Germany had. Hitler enforced national racism and social
Darwinism to create propaganda of Germany being the 'Aryan Race' or the
'Master Race', justifying to many idolizing Germans in their youth in killing off
the Jews as a means for their own race to prosper, which escalated into the
Holocaust. So basically, due to fascism, nationalism and racism, many
Germans like Josef Weber were able to follow orders into killing off many
innocent lives in the name of the 'Fatherland's prosperity.
II.

Nazis Morality

Morality played a major role in developing the character of Josef Weber/

Reiner Hartmann in the novel, The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. The author used
it in order to give the reader a deeper analysis the character, his decision, actions
and life experiences during the Holocaust. Emphasizing these aspects of the
characters, the reader sees how Josef Weber differs from the other characters in
the story and how the society influenced his way of thinking. Josef Weber lived
in Wewelsburg, Germany and was a Nazi soldier during World War II. According
to Josef Weber, anti-Semitism was alive and well in Germany long before Hitler
became powerful. People have strong beliefs about what is right and wrong. Yet,
we all know that morals can vary from person to person, many are basically
universal as a result of human emotions. Nowadays, the cold and inhumane
murder of millions of people is unthinkable, but in the minds of Hitlers, Nazi
soldiers, anti Semitism was a righteous and moral act. The propaganda that
Hitler used pervaded all aspects of a soldiers life, including training, family, and
his personality. Hitlers purpose in the propaganda is to ensure that there was no
escape from Nazi morals, and that the soldiers would begin to believe that Jews
were inferior and deserved to die. Despite of the propaganda made by Hitler,
Josef Weber as a Nazi soldier was aware of all the injustices that have
happened. He would always say that people are capable of doing things that they
least expect. On the back of Josefs mind is the morality of all his decisions and
actions. He mentioned in the book that he wanted to be a young man with his life
ahead of him, not a soldier who walked through death every waking day, and
scraped its entails from his uniform every night. The moral code of the Nazis

can be considered as a mistake of disastrous extent that entitled the Nazis to kill
millions of Jews, a group of people brainwashed from the strong sense of duty to
a dictators beliefs and most especially a part of history that will never be
forgotten.
III.

The Nazi Society and Its Psychological Effects

In studying a societys political condition and its effect to Reiners
personality, particularly on his morality, one must first study the society
wherein the character resided in. Understanding the said societys events and
condition will be key in understanding the characters actions, and thus his
morality. Reiner narrates that he spent his childhood in a town called
Wewelsburg in Germany during the 1920s to 1930s. (Picoult, 2013, The
Storyteller). It is explicitly stated in the novel that it was the time when Adolf
Hitler and his Nazi Party came into power. Reiner went to say that he was
five years old, Hitler tried to take over the government... he learned that the
way to lead a revolution was not violently but legally. And at his trial in 1924,
every word Hitler spoke was reported in the German newspapers... (Picoult,
2013, The Storyteller) Based from what Reiner said, the Nazi Party was just
beginning to seize power during that time, during his childhood. The character
then goes on to narrate his training as a Schutzstaffel (SS) by first joining the
Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). (Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller) The SS were the
Nazi Partys arm in security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and
population policy, and intelligence collection and analysis. (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2014). According to Reiner, the training
included swearing allegiance to Hitler and physical activities like boxing
matches, camping, rock climbing, and sanctioned brawls. (Picoult, 2013, The
Storyteller). Judging from this, SS favored physical strength and ruthlessness
among its trainees. In one boxing match, Reiner had to beat up his brother
Franz, much to their adult leaders approval. (Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller). It

can be said that even at a young age, boys like Reiner were taught to be
brutal, which at first he questioned, but repeat the same action over and over
again, and eventually it will feel right. Eventually, there isnt even any guilt.
(Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller).
As the novel goes, Reiner got to be enlisted in the SS to round up and
execute Jews when World War II started. (Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller) Even
before the war, Anti-Semitism was very much prevalent in Germany. On the
belief that the Jews crucified Christ, added with the fact that the Jews were
good investors and were enviously rich for the Germans (Picoult, 2013, The
Storyteller), the Nazis, believing that a great nation is achieved through
military power by racial purity (Nazism.net, n.d.) made them enemies of
Germany, together with the communists, liberals, pacifists, free masons,
gypsies, Jehovahs Witnesses, homosexuals among others. (Vogelsang &
Larsen, 2002) Due to his brutal upbringing, he rounded up and killed without
even remorse for what he does. In one execution wherein the other
executioners began to fill sick, Reiner said This time, I was the first to fire my
weapon. I would set the example. I did this for the next three sets of
prisoners, and as blood and gray matter sprayed onto my uniform, I set my
jaw and ignored it. (Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller) Through time, the
conditions set by Nazi Germany turned Reiners morality inside out. Though
he doubted it at first, Reiner, through repetitive enforcement starting from a
young age, accepted that what he is doing is right, simply because the society
applauds him for it. (Picoult, 2013, The Storyteller)

Group # 4 LS 304
Cruz, Hazel Joy
Miranda, Janella Marie
Castillo, Romel Joshua
Title: The influence of the societys political views on the characters sense of morality
Outline
I. World War II in Germany
A. Society
1. Time
a. World War II
i. 1939 1945 (A+E Networks Digital, n.d.)
b. Holocaust
i. the
systematic,
bureaucratic,
state-sponsored
persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi
regime and its collaborators (Holocaust Encyclopedia,
2014)
2. Place
a. Nazi Germany
i. The Third Reich

ii. My family, we lived in Wewelsburg, which was part of the

city of Bren in the district of Paderborn. (Chapter 5, p.
111)
b. Poland
i. As is his claim that he was with the 1.SS Infantry
Brigade in 1941, and that he worked at Auschwitz Two
after 1943. (Chapter 9, p. 181)
3. Political Condition
a. Nazism
i. Definition
1. According to Bertrand Russell, British philosopher,
logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic
and political activist, Nazism comes from a different
tradition than that of either liberal capitalism or
communism. (About Nazism, n.d.)
2. the body of political and economic doctrines held and
put into effect by the Nazis in Germany from 1933 to
1945 including the totalitarian principle of government,
predominance

of

especially

Germanic

groups

assumed to be racially superior, and supremacy of the

fhrer (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
ii. Ideologies
1. Racism (About Nazism, n.d.)
a. Anti-Semitism, which eventually culminated in the
Holocaust (About Nazism, n.d.)
i. Definition
1. prejudice against or hatred of
Jews

(United

States

Holocaust Memorial Museum,

2014)
b. Anti-Slavism (About Nazism, n.d.)
c. Belief in the superiority of the White, Germanic,
Aryan or Nordic races. (About Nazism, n.d.)
2. Euthanasia and Eugenics with respect to "Racial
Hygiene" (About Nazism, n.d.)
3. Social Darwinism (About Nazism, n.d.)
4. Related to Fascism (About Nazism, n.d.)
a. Definition
i. Fascism is socialism

with

capitalist veneer (Richman, 2008)

ii. Under fascism, the state, through
official

cartels,

aspects
commerce,

of

controlled

all

manufacturing,
finance,

and

agriculture. (Richman, 2008)

II. Morality of the main character
A. Nationality
1. Josef Weber lived in Wewelsburg, Germany and was a German Nazi
soldier during World War II.
B. Life Experiences
1. Josef Weber mentioned in the novel, But anti-Semitism was alive and
well in Germany long before Hitler became powerful. It was part of
what we were taught in church, how two thousand years ago, the Jews
had killed our Lord. (p. 111)
C. Morality
1. Definition

a. For a topic as subjective as morality, people have strong beliefs

about what's right and wrong. Yet even though morals can vary
from person to person and culture to culture, many are practically
universal, as they result from basic human emotions.
2. Nazi Morality
a. In order for there to be any possible claim of a moral basis for
their actions, the Nazis could not simply cut themselves adrift
from everything which had been thought about morality before
them. In order to present their wickedness as admirable, they
had to use those same concepts about what is good and bad as
we all use.
b. The Holocaust could never be written about by the Germans
because they knew that it defied any normal concept of morality.
Hitlers soldiers were whole-hearted supporters of anti-Semitism
and German superiority.
D. Moral Psychology
1. According to Greg Koukl (2014), humans are universally concerned
with good and evil, although one person's "evil" can be another
person's "good.
2. How do individuals arrive at decisions about what is right and what is
wrong?
a.

Decisions of Josef Weber

i. I promise to be faithful to my Fhrer, Adolf Hitler. I
promise to him, and to those leaders he has assigned to
me, to give them my undivided obedience and respect. In
the presence of this blood banner, which represents our
Fhrer, I swear to devote all my energies and my
strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am

willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me

God. Josef Weber (p.117)
3. How are these decisions influenced by psychological and political
forces?
a. The propaganda that Hitler used pervaded all aspects of a soldiers
life, including training, family, and his personality. Hitlers purpose in
the propaganda is to ensure that there was no escape from Nazi
morals, and that the soldiers would begin to believe that Jews were
inferior and deserved to die.
4. Character Behavior
a. Actions and Experiences
i.
The first person I ever shot was running away from me.
(p. 147)
ii.
How could I explain to my own mother the things I had
done? The Jews whose doors I had kicked in, so that we
could seize radios, appliances, valuables, and anything else
that might help the war effort? The elderly rabbi I had
beaten for staying out to pray after curfew? The men,
women, and children we herded up in the middle of the
night and killed? Josef Weber (p.151)

References:

[1]28th November 1940: Nazi film The Eternal Jew is released. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://ww2today.com/28th-november-1940-nazi-film-the-eternal-jew-is-released
[2]Hitler's Christianity. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
[3] Bard, M. (2001) The Holocaust (San Diego:Greenhaven Press Inc., 2001)
[4] Goldhagen, D. (1997) Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the
Holocaust (Toronto: Random House)