In The Freedom Writers, why do you think Erin refers to the Nazis as the most famous gang in history?

In linking the Nazis to a "gang," Erin reaches her
students in both a thematic and culturally relevant manner.  Consider how she is able to
bring the subject up to her students:

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One day, Gruwell intercepted a note
being passed between students; the paper revealed a racist caricature full of hate.
Gruwell told her class that it was this sort of hate and misunderstanding that led to
the Holocaust. Gruwell was shocked to learn that her students had never heard of the
Holocaust.

In
being able to link the Nazis to a gang, Gruwell is able to forge the link between
content and student life.  Her students understood the realities and corresponding fears
of gang life.  Gruwell was able to link this knowledge to content, in articulating that
the same socially destructive behaviors in gang life could be found in the practices and
beliefs of the Nazis.  It serves as a rallying cry for teacher to students because
Gruwell was able to argue that the antisocial and destructive behavior of gang life
could be in the same realm as the Nazis with regards to the Holocaust.  In doing so, she
is able to empower her students through expansion of moral imagination to envision their
own world as it should be as opposed to what is via curriculum and
content.