How schoolchildren studied the behavior of the German people under Nazism in practice: Experiment "The Third Wave"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This history project was spontaneous. It was conducted together with his students by the talented American teacher Ron Jones in 1967, but then for about 10 years the results of the weekly "training" were not widely advertised. The reason for this silence was very simple - the participants were ashamed of what they saw inside themselves. Even the teacher and author of the unique experiment was shocked at how successful his pedagogical experience was.

One April morning, during a history lesson in the 10th grade of a California school, one of the students asked the teacher a question about ordinary people in Germany during World War II. The boy sincerely could not understand why a huge number of people turned a blind eye to the concentration camps and mass atrocities. Since the class was ahead of the material, Ron Jones decided to get creative and spend a week of study time on this topic, conducting a psychological experiment on the students.

Monday

On the first day, the teacher explained the need for discipline to the children and gave examples from history where societies in which order reigned were more successful. Then, for practice, in a commanding voice, he ordered the children to take the "correct" posture: hands are folded behind their backs and bent in the lumbar region, feet are flat on the floor, knees are bent at an angle of 90 degrees, back is straight. Then, at his command, the students got up and sat down in a new position several times, and also left the classroom and quietly and quickly entered it. The teacher also required students to answer all questions quickly and clearly, without spending more than three words. According to the teacher's recollections, by the end of this lesson he was amazed at how willingly the children joined in this "game" and how neatly usually lax American teenagers began to fulfill simple and clear requirements. To his surprise, even the normally passive students took up the experiment with interest.

Tuesday

Upon entering the classroom, the teacher found that all the students were sitting still in the exact position they had learned the day before. Now Jones explained to them the power of community and unity, the importance of being a team and acting as one. Children enthusiastically chanted the slogans:. In order for the participants in the experiment to be able to further distinguish each other, at the end of the lesson they learned a special greeting, which the teacher called the "Third Wave salute": the right arm is bent at the elbow parallel to the shoulder line and bent in a wave-like manner. By agreement, the gesture could only be used “among friends”. The enthusiastic students greeted each other for the rest of the day in the hallways of the school and in other lessons.

Wednesday

On this day, 13 volunteers from other classes joined 30 students. Jones spent this lesson explaining The Power of Action. According to him, to be successful, it is not enough to be disciplined and friendly. Everyone needs to do something for the common cause. The guys agreed to start “work with young people” - to explain to elementary school students how important it is to sit in the “right position” and maintain discipline. In addition, the participants in the experiment had to develop the symbols of their organization and name one person each worthy to join it. Jones gave out special membership cards to all students. Three of them had crosses - this meant that these "members of the organization" have the right to keep order and report all violations. In practice, about 20 people started reporting violations to the teacher. One of the students, a huge slow-witted Robert, who never showed zeal in the classroom and could not boast of success, volunteered to be the teacher's "bodyguard" and from that moment accompanied him everywhere.

True, by the evening of that day, Jones finally waited for at least some kind of opposition. It turned out that the three best students, who in the new conditions could not show their knowledge and turned into a gray majority, complained to their parents. As a result, the local rabbi called the teacher. He, however, was satisfied with the answer that the class is practically studying the type of personality of the Nazis. The next morning, the headmaster greeted Jones with a "Third Wave salute."

Thursday

On the morning of that day, the auditorium was destroyed by the raging father of one of the schoolchildren. The man himself was waiting for the experimenter in the corridor and explained his behavior by German captivity. However, he was also quickly reassured. The teacher himself already wanted to complete the pedagogical experience as quickly as possible, as it began to take on an alarming scale: the students ran away from other lessons to join the professor's group, arranged interrogations with addiction to their classmates, testing them for their ideology. The lesson in the class has already gathered 80 people. In the crowded auditorium, Jones began teaching the students about Pride:

The teacher told the children that in fact, the Third Wave is a nationwide movement, the purpose of which is to find talented youth, the “golden fund of the future”, from which the managerial staff will be formed in the future. He said that the next day will be very important, as the new presidential candidate will appear on TV and announce the “Youth Third Wave” program for the whole country. The first to join it will thus be at the very top of the new movement. At the end of the lesson, Jones "denounced" the three girls who "betrayed the movement," and they were escorted out of the classroom in disgrace "under guard."

Friday

On the morning of the decisive day, the teacher had to occupy the largest room in the school, since a regular classroom could not accommodate two hundred people. Even informals came, who had never been able to be attracted to any school events before. Several of Jones's friends were posing as photojournalists, and students chanted slogans: to show what they had learned. In the center was a television on which a presidential candidate was about to begin his speech. The leader of the new movement solemnly turned it on, and the students tried for several minutes to see something on a blank screen. Then, when the outraged screams were already heard, Jones turned off the TV and took the floor:

In deathly silence, the teacher turned on footage from the newsreel of the Third Reich on the screen: military parades, crowds of thousands raising their hands in a Nazi salute, shooting from concentration camps, court sessions at which the accused were acquitted: … The former bodyguard cried bitterly.

According to Jones, most of these students later tried not to remember the experiment and did not tell anyone about it. The teacher himself, shocked by the results, also did not tell anyone about him for a long time. Only in 1976 did he publish this material in his book, and, of course, they were instantly interested. Since then, several novels have been written about the Third Wave, and a feature and documentary film has been shot. In preparing the latter, only a few of the participants agreed to be interviewed. For most, it remained too heavy and shameful a memory.