The Essay

The posting of this essay was slightly delayed, but here it is, in all its glory.

Hitler's Turtle Descendant

The fear and cooperation of the turtles in Dr. Suess' Yertle the Turtle which was caused by Yertle’s rise to power in Sala-ma-Sond closely parallels the fear and cooperation present during Hitler’s reign in Germany. Yertle has the turtles stack themselves underneath him so he can see more of his surroundings (he is under the impression that he is “ruler of all that he sees” [Dr. Seuss]), ignoring the turtles’ discomfort, in the way Hitler ignored the plight of the German people with the aim of conquering and ‘cleansing’ the world. Both Yertle and Hitler had unattainable goals, and weren’t afraid of using people in their attempts to attain them. Mack, the little turtle on the bottom of the stack, protests to the oblivious Yertle. This parallels the few resistance groups in Germany, like the White Rose [Hornberger]. The other turtles in Yertle’s stack represent the other Germans, who believed Hitler would make everything right in Germany. When this belief was shattered, they were too scared to oppose him. Life in Yertle’s turtle stack was not pleasant, and neither was life in Nazi Germany [McDonough].

A dictatorship requires one person and one party to be in control. It also requires a climate of fear – this was provided by the Nazi police, or the Gestapo. Once secured in his position of power, Hitler eliminated the personal freedom of the people of Nazi Germany and kept them under his control though state terrorism and censorship of all opposition to him and his regime. The Gestapo ensured the compliance of the people by intimidation, and Gestapo law meant their activities were free from any review by courts of law. They did as they pleased. Anybody suspected to be a political threat was arrested. People were believed to be employed in each street and building complex to spy on the people and report them to the authorities. The tiniest mistake could lead to arrest. Upon being arrested, one was forced to sign an order for protective custody and then sent to a concentration camp [History]. The camps were deliberately barbaric and acted as an example to the German people, who were well aware of their presence in Nazi Germany. They did not speak out against them and constantly feared for their personal well being.

Along with the mental abuse of Germany, the conquered countries were starved and exploited by Hitlers policy of Lebensraum (living space). Conquered countries were forced to provide Germany with cheap goods and their people were abducted and used as slave labourers, with Germany abducting a total of about twelve million people [USHMM]. Many of these workers died as a result of their poor living conditions or mistreatment. Even pre-war, slave labour was not uncommon. Undesirables (the homeless, homosexuals, criminals, communists, Jews, and political threats) were sent to day labour camps [USHMM], and this practise only grew as the war progressed.

Similarly, Yertle manages to instill a fear in the turtles of his pond, intimidating them with his position of power (as the Turtle King) and forcing them to stack themselves underneath him (although not with the radical methods Hitler so loved like concentration camps and police brutality, as this is a children's story). The turtle’s compliance and the way in which Yertle's exploits them parallels the state of the German people under Nazi rule. Yertle secures himself a position of ultimate power and, through intimidation and at the expense of the turtle’s physical well being, he rises higher and higher on their backs. "I've pains in my back and my shoulders and knees. How long must we stand here, your Majesty, please?" [Dr. Seuss]. Mack (the bottom turtle) complains many times during the time that Yertle is in power, mirroring the plight of the German people. Regardless as to the discomfort of the people, Hitler and Yertle kept ploughing forward.

Yertle is clearly representative of Hitler - they both share unrealistic goals, which eventually lead to their downfalls. King Yertle, the king of Sala-Ma-Sond, fell from the top of the turtle hill and into the mud, while Hitler ended up comitting suicide because his empire was falling. Hitler wanted to take over the entire world. Yertle did too.

After World War One, Hitler was angered by Germany's defeat. The proceeding Treaty of Versailles further angered him, and lead him to take complete control of Germany and retaliate against the world. Hitler's army of Nazis were set to invade neighbouring countries of Austria, then Czechoslovakia, and soon seven more countries followed in a pattern of greed.

While Yertle didn't have this type of grudge, he had the same thirst for more that Hitler had. Everything in Sala-ma-Sond was fine "Until Yertle, the king of them all, decided the kingdom he ruled was too small," writes Dr. Suess. Upon seeing the many different landmarks such as cows, mules, bushes, King Yertle wanted to be ruler of more, just like how as Hitler conquered each country, he wanted to conquer even more.

While resistance was strongly suppressed in Nazi Germany, it did still exist. Individuals, political parties, and labour organizations all fought to protect Germany from Hitler and Nazism. Resistance activities included everything from refusing to salute to assassination attempts of Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials. Another area of protest was the distribution of pamphlets and newspapers reporting the real news (as opposed to the state papers, which churned out propaganda from the Nazi party) or calling for the public to oppose Hitler [McDonough]. The publishing of these ‘illegal’ papers is quite like what Mack tried to do in Yertle the Turtle. Mack tried to tell Yertle about the real situation, he tried to protest the starvation and pain the turtles were facing, but each time he was simply told to be quiet and stay put, which is the more child-friendly alternative to executions and disappearances [Hornberger].

One such group was the White Rose. The group was made up students of the Munich University, including Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell and their psychology and philosophy professor Kurt Huber. The group distributed a total of six pamphlets highlighting Nazi crimes and denouncing Hitler. The first was circulated simply around the university campus, but later pamphlets were distributed and mailed around the country [Lisciotto]. These young people are similar to Mack in that both they and Mack started out believing in and trusting their leader, and as their belief and trust died, they peacefully protested, by speaking out [Hornberger]. It cannot be said that these six pamphlets had a catastrophic effect on Hitler, in the way Mack’s burp had a catastrophic effect on Yertle, but the pamphlets did reach many people, and quite possibly ‘woke’ some citizens to the cruelty of the Nazi regime. Sadly, the story of the White Rose did not end in the members seeing freedom. On February 2, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were executed, and later on that year, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, and Kurt Huber were also executed [Hornberger].

Germany was eventually liberated from Hitler, like Yertle was eventually cast down into the mud. Unfortunately, the Germans' suffering was more real and more radical than the mistreatment of the turtles. The Germans also had heightened consequences if they tried to fight back [McDonough]. Mack was only told to be quiet, but the members of the White Rose were executed [Lisciotto]. Hitler's goal was never achieved, and neither was Yertle's. “All the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be” writes Dr. Seuss to end his tale. Thankfully, neither Hitler nor Yertle conquered the world.