Ron Jones, finding himself unable to explain to his students how the German population could have claimed ignorance of the extermination of the Jewish people, decided to demonstrate it to them instead.
It's now called the Third Wave experiment and lasted five days. He named the movement "The Third Wave" after the idea that the third wave in the ocean is the strongest.
The first day's session was closed with only a few rules, intending to be a one day experiment. Students had to be sitting at attention before the second bell, had to stand up to ask or answer questions and had to do it in three words or fewer, and were required to preface each remark with "Mr. Jones."
The second day managed to get them feeling superior. He also had them salute each other in a way similar to the Nazi regimes whenever they saw each other outside of class. The students complied with this.
By the third day, students from all over the school were joining in. Academics and motivation were up. Each student got a member card and special assignment such as designing a logo. He also instructed his students on how to initiate new members, and membership hit 200.
To Jones' surprise, students started reporting other students when they didn't follow the rules even though he never asked them to. This really shows how easy it is to instill a sense of superiority and conformity on a group of people.
The next day Jones decided things had gone too far and decided to end it. He told the students that they were part of a bigger organization throughout the country and that it would be revealed to the nation the next day on tv.
The next day, he told them it was fake and instead showed them a film about the Nazi regime.
