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Reflection Rick Steves

The documentary by Rick Steves highlights the origins and rise of fascism in Europe following World War 1. Fascist dictators like Hitler and Mussolini capitalized on the power vacuum and economic instability to gain support by promoting nationalism and targeting ethnic and religious minorities for persecution. Fascist rule emphasized uniting citizens around a single vision that excluded individualism and targeted Jews, Roma, and other groups with violence and atrocities like concentration camps. While fascism led to immense suffering, the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini were ultimately defeated through military action. The film cautions that fascist ideologies promoting antisemitism and white supremacy still exist today and must continue to be confronted.

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Vincent Francis
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38 views4 pages

Reflection Rick Steves

The documentary by Rick Steves highlights the origins and rise of fascism in Europe following World War 1. Fascist dictators like Hitler and Mussolini capitalized on the power vacuum and economic instability to gain support by promoting nationalism and targeting ethnic and religious minorities for persecution. Fascist rule emphasized uniting citizens around a single vision that excluded individualism and targeted Jews, Roma, and other groups with violence and atrocities like concentration camps. While fascism led to immense suffering, the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini were ultimately defeated through military action. The film cautions that fascist ideologies promoting antisemitism and white supremacy still exist today and must continue to be confronted.

Uploaded by

Vincent Francis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reflection: Rick Steves' The Story of Fascism

Student

Institution
Rick Steves' The Story of Fascism

The film by Rick Steves highlights the origin and growth of fascism in Europe. Steves

explains that fascism began after World War I. During this time, dictators saw a vacuum in

leaderships and aimed to bring “hope” to people. It was the beginning for leaders like Hitler and

Mussolini. They mobilized people to hold specific views on nationalism even if they were

barbaric or threatening to others.

From early 1920s to mid-1940s, Hitler and Mussolini relied on politicizing fear and

resentment in their followers. People were informed to hate people that were inherently different.

People that could be identified as minorities in their populations were targeted. Hitler, for

instance, ensured that minority groups were sent to concentration camps where different

atrocities happened. While in concentration camps, prisoners were given different designations

based on how they identified. Those that identified as gay were identified differently from

culturally minority people. Jews were given the lowest rank in the concentration camps.

Fascists believed that you could not unite everybody but only those that had specific

views. People identified with specific groups that promoted a specific agenda. Individualism was

a thing of the past under Hitler’s fascist rule. Anyone that identified as German was considered

as belonging to one team. At rallies, people chanted their support for Hitler and agreed with his

vision for the German people. They were motivated by turning Germany into a country that

dominated the world.

Whenever one hears of the term fascism or fascists, one moment in history comes to

mind. Fascism resulted in the brutal torture and murder of more than 6 million Jews. Hitler had

viewed Jews as people that did not fit into the German culture. A common view of fascists
during Hitler’s regime was that Germans were a master race and any one that identified

differently was treated with brute force and murder. It is at this moment Jews found themselves

on the wrong side of history. There businesses were destroyed and the majority of them were

sent concentration camps.

The film by Rick Steves has come at the right time amid what is happening across the

world. Over the last few days, Israel and Palestine have been involved in a conflict. As a result of

the conflict, lots of Jewish people across the world have been targeted with antisemitism. These

attacks completely disregard the fact that people are not their government. The attacks that some

Jews have had to endure in the past are based on the fact that many in society still hold fascist

views. In the United States, for instance, there are groups of people that have been identified as

holding white supremacist views. These groups have often targeted Jewish people in public and

places of worship.

Even though over 6 million Jews were killed as a result of Hitler’s fascist regime, the

film demonstrates that there is still hope. After a battle which involved the United States, the

regimes of both Mussolini and Hitler ended. In Italy, Mussolini was executed by his followers in

a firing squad. Hitler, on the other hand, went in hiding and later took his own life. In Germany,

former Nazi generals were taken into custody and tried by allied powers. This demonstrates that

despite the different evils these people committed, they still met justice. In a similar manner,

those who engage in fascism or any form of hate in today’s society can also expect to answer to

their crimes. Antisemitism is an evil that needs to be rooted out by countries, even if it means

targeting specific groups of people that peddle it.


Reference

Rick Steves’ Europe. (2019). Rick Steves' The Story of Fascism. Retrieved May 18, 2021 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU1IVW6uqM0

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