MPL Talks: Origins of the Nazi's Final Solution

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, MPL Reference Librarian Dr. John Foster discusses the origins of Nazi (as well as European) racism, anti-Semitism and the crimes of the Third Reich.
How and why did Germany, the home of one of the more integrated Jewish populations in Europe, decide to systematically kill at least six million Jewish people?

[@mcfontaine]

I’m loving this series of lectures. The amount of detail is fantastic. They work great as a series or as standalone talks. Brilliantly written. Thank you.

[@jasonharryphotog]

Yes, agreed

[@towerman123]

My only complaint about the video is that Dr. Foster is blocking the screen as he is talking.

[@MentorPublicLib]

Reasonable complaint. That is the fault of the camera man (read: Me) and not Dr. Foster. In more recent talks, I moved the camera to avoid this.

[@SB-xt5jk]

Great talk. That camera angle tho? Why?

[@MentorPublicLib]

Fair question. I was still learning at this point and thought it was important to keep the speaker in the frame. I was also limited by the room setup, because I didn't want to either block the people attending or film the backs of their heads. Since then, I've learned that most people just want to see the slides, so I've changed how I film to accommodate that. It's a process.

[@SB-xt5jk]

MentorPublicLib it’s all good. Thank you for the response and thank you all for providing such a great lecture series.

[@jonathanbush2938]

These lectures are great. Is there a place I can find the one on the Battle of the Buldge that he illudes to in his Stalingrad talk?

[@MentorPublicLib]

Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, we had an equipment failure the evening of the Bulge lecture, so there's no video. Sorry.

[@Realliberal]

Great topics and knows his stuff. I would consider and this is critical to the future success of Dr. Foster; the speaker join toastmasters to make the delivery of his important information interesting... ( uhs, etc. makes it hard to listen to his presentation).

[@ianmacpherson6093]

I disagree I think he’s an excellent lecturer

[@JosephMuin]

Thank you.

[@michaelprunty3104]

Quality presentation

[@cossav2560]

Very VERY VERY great approach to this incredibly evil event in human history. The connect between rhetoric and political expression to mass murder i think is a pathway that we have not even started to investigate. You have.

[@DasKammergericht]

I have also very much enjoyed these series of 2. Weltkrieg lectures, particularly the talks on the leaders Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt. On that note, when comes the fourth talk on Adolf Hitler?

[@ekesandras1481]

26:10 shops are still closed on Sunday in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is a cultural thing coming mostly from Catholicism, but also Lutheranism, that only sounds absurd to Americans. Also in Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, etc most shops are closed on Sunday. Today the most important political force against changing that are more left leaning labor unions, not some religious groups - the employees and their labor unions just got so used to it, that they don't want any changes. Even England had laws that prohibited opening on Sunday until 1994, while the more Presbytarian influenced Scotland didn't have such laws.

[@Cooliofamily]

Love this dude. Totally ripping bigoted "racial theories" and also alluding to adorno, east Germany, etc.... I feel sure I know where his political alliances lie. Really enjoying all of his talks. I'd love to hear a lecture generally on fascism by this dude. I bet it would be extremely interesting. EDIT: I do not mean to say that this,or any of his other talks are political. In fact they are quite the opposite. Full of facts and truth told through a great narrative. I only mean to say that by certain things he alludes to, I feel like I understand his personal ideology. An ideology that I agree with and that he excellently keeps distant from his talks.

[@paulzellman9632]

Rwanda genocide victims reportedly recognized and selected by a blackskin person's nose and facial structure. Flat nose and fat lips were the Hutus from West Africa. Sharp nose and slim lips were the facial characteristics of East Africans, the Tutsis.

[@stormythelowcountrykitty7147]

For the algorithm

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Speaking of Jewish people in Ancient Rome - The closest genealogy-linked European group (that aren't Jewish) to Ashkenazim Jews is actually Italians, due to this time period when they settled and worked their way up the Italian peninsula from North Africa and elsewhere. The Romans, despite hiccups, were much more accepting of them than future neighbors and so there was markedly more integration (which makes sense considering the ethnic gumbo that the Roman Empire would become) and this imprint is still left behind in both current Italians (especially Southern Italians and Sicilians) and Ashkenazim. This integration was not at play to the same degree at many of their future locations, as persecution, xenophobia, and distrust would help to establish a cycle of isolation, both forced and self-administered.

[@glennmoore6094]

I really enjoy this speaker and have been listening to a lot of his lectures. I will have to disagreed with his statement that Darwins theories have no moral component.

[@roygreenwood61]

Camera work/angels terrible

[@slingerssecretlaboratory]

AD ..... NOT!.... BCE

[@commissary4196]

I know. I always feel this is an unjustified negation of when and why the calendar exists today. Using common era (CE) is just not true historically.

[@danelirimescu6832]

By Hitler standards einstein would have been mr. nobody and Stephen howks would have been dead based on disability fact

[@WhiteSeaLeviathan]

THANK U RUSSIA FOR SAVING EVERYTHING!!!!

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

Well, y'know, it was definitely a trade-off but I'd take the folks that have more conditions for ending up on their shit-list than just who my parents are and my religion. If I'm a Jewish Pole, and I have to choose between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the choice is fairly self evident, comrade.

[@danelirimescu6832]

We had to choose between 2 evils. Hitler and stalin ! Western europe was lucky.

[@zampieritto]

And the USA just opportunities

[@Tralala691]

And then ruining it all. And killing its own people just because.

[@WhiteSeaLeviathan]

@@Tralala691 idiot

[@nickgurpleez2628]

His answers to why Jews didn't leave or fight back are pathetic

[@desbrown5089]

disgusting