A mass murder on an industrial scale: the horrors of the Holocaust were unlike anything the world had seen before. Seeing what a civilized society is capable of doing to other human beings reveals the capacity of evil which humans are capable of. Consequently, 11 million individuals lost their lives due to discrimination, intolerance, and others’ indifference to their suffering, therefore, learning and remembering their stories during the Holocaust is the first step in preventing future genocides from occurring. The systematic murder of Jews began in 1941 with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the use of Gas Chambers, yet discrimination began in 1933 with a national boycott of their businesses and exclusion from various professions. Knowing this allows citizens to recognize warning signs and stand up …show more content…
Moreover, the work of the Holocaust couldn’t have been achieved by the SS alone. It required the cooperation of the German army who partook in the murder of Jews, healthcare professionals who sent thousands to their death during selection, the Reichsbank which funded the killings and served as a depository for stolen currency, the German industrialist who manufactured the Zyklon B gas, and the engineers who designed the gas chambers. Many feared authorities and were merely following orders, yet their silence equated to complacency. Genocides of the Yazidi in Iraq and the muslims in Myanmar are results of those factors. However, unlike the Holocaust, the situation was made public and countries are accepting refugees. Pastor Martin Niemoller captures the importance of speaking up against injustice in this quote. It originally highlighted the Protestant church’s compliance during the Nazi persecution and murder of
Eleven million individuals were victimized by the Holocaust. Six million of those victims were Jewish, while the other five million were groups targeted by the Nazi’s because they didn’t fit their discriminative criteria. Inhumane practices were used in attempts to purify and unify the German state (Novick, 225). When the Holocaust is discussed, the Jewish victims are usually the main focal point of the massive “genocide.”
The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution & also murder 6 Million Jews by the Nazi regimes. holocaust is also a Greek word meaning “Sacrifice by Fire”. The Nazi came in power in Germany in January 1933. They all believed that Germans was “Superior” and that the Jews, were also alien threating to call German racial community. In 1933, The Jewish population of Europe they all stood over nine million. The Jews lived in the countries that Nazi Germany would occupy of the influence during World War 2. In 1945, Germans they killed nearly two out of these three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of
There are so many remarkable people who have gone before us and shaped the world into what it is today. With the passing of yet another Veterans Day, people were reminded of the extraordinary sacrifices made by ordinary men and women who were unfortunate enough to have lived during times when their nations were at war. Many ordinary citizens lost their lives as a result of the war, just as soldiers did. While some survivors simply lived out their post war lives, others survived and influenced the world. One person who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust during World War II and used his experiences to improve social, political, and religious conditions throughout the world, is Elie Wiesel. Through the words of Elie Wiesel, the public can witness the evils of war, keep these memories alive in the collective recall of future generations, and take action upon witnessing injustices of its kind.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a witty and well-written account of the realities of a “tired old town” (4) where there was “nothing to buy and nothing to buy it with” (4). Purposefully, it comes across not merely an innocently portrayed, yet eye-opening, story of a young girl start to grasp the inequalities of her society. Rather, it is accompanied by recollection of the unfortunate pillars of hate of the places Harper Lee matured in. We now perceive this account as an ‘archaic” and “ancient” recount of some historically frowned upon mindsets in an enthralling atmosphere upon which we pin historical quantities of prejudice, racism and most of all, bigotry. The unfortunate reality is that we look at history in a vacuum and ignore the occurrences of our own times. So although we, like Scout’s teachers teaching about the horrible acts of the Holocaust while being outspokenly racist, are able to analyze social inequalities in other places in time or the world yet refuse to open our eyes to the same prejudice, racism and bigotry today. To instance, when reading To Kill a Mockingbird , we often frown upon citizens for judging “folks” based on their family name and race, although, everyday, some member of our current society, such as police officers and employers, do the same thing and no one bats an eye. Alternatively, the issue which we definitely desperately desire to avoid, racism, is explicitly tackled in To Kill a Mockingbird to the point of viral awareness of the problem in
What if there was a choice on whether to be Jewish or Non-Jewish, to either be Jewish and fight back or to go with the flow, and to be Non-Jewish and fight back or go with the flow? Being non-jewish and going with the flow would be the smart choice, if survival is the goal. In that time period being Jewish was awful. Being Jewish basically meant you were an outcast. During the Holocaust it would have been better to not be Jewish and to stay out of the way, or go with the flow.
In his novel, Night, Elie Wiesel recounts the horrific experiences that he faced as a survivor of the Holocaust during World War II. The following passage presents the impossible struggle to maintain a decent quality of life in the face of war:
As we grow up our parents teach us how to be respectful and very well-mannered. They enforce the importance of saying, “Please, thank you, and excuse me,” when needed. Parents also insist we listen and respect our elders, because they have authority over the world since they have been here the longest. We were raised to comply with the demand of someone who had authority over us. According to Patricia Werhane (1), “In the early1960’s Stanley Milgram undertook his noteworthy study of human obedience to authority. Puzzled by the question of how otherwise decent people could knowingly contribute to the massive genocide of the Holocaust during World War II, Milgram designed an experiment that sought to cause a conflict between one’s willingness to obey authority and one’s personal conscience.”
While examining the works of Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi it becomes apparent that the holocaust was a horrendous time in our human history. However, although both writers went through similar experiences during this time; both seem to reflect and dwell on things differently such as their point of view and lives in the camps as well as the different themes they focus on. In this analysis the stories of the two authors will be compared and as stated above will also focus on how they recount their experiences.
Nowadays, people tend to forget the morality of human beings. For instance, the people in today’s world are attracted to greed or power letting their mind and body rot them. However, are we doing a right in letting people like that win? It might not seem much or anything, but as history has shown us otherwise with World War II. Like letting a tyrant leader like Adolf Hitler take over different countries and bring in what is believed the most horrific discrimination ever known. Therefore, it is right to agree with Elie Wiesel a former target of the Nazi Final Solution that the moment race and religion are involved then that soon must become the center of the universe’s attention.
From the two accounts in question we can see that the camps were a horrific experience for many Jews during the holocaust. There are a number of differences between these experiences and the main contributor to the differences in these accounts is possibly location. For example, the Levi account occurred in the Auschwitz camp and the Donat account is focused on Treblinka and within these camps there was a difference in the daily operations and how hierarchies were formed and maintained . In Auschwitz especially, people arriving for the first time and were not killed straightaway were, placed at the bottom of this internal “hierarchy” and treated poorly, not just by the guards, which was expected, but by fellow captives as well . By looking
As Elie Wiesel was taken through the Holocaust as a result of being a Jew, he began to ask himself this: “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because he caused thousands of children to burn in his mass graves...Praise be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar,” (45). As many enter into wars and horrific events stemming from wars, they begin with strong and unwavering faith. As the war continues and nothing is relieved, people begin to question their faith as they lose sight of all hope. This loss of faith results in a shift in one’s mindset and point of view. As danger and violence seem to increase in wars, so does the struggle to maintain faith. As people continue on in horrible conditions for so long, they eventually reach a breaking point, causing them to abandon all hope, pride, or spirituality they have; because if their world is falling apart, being shattered, and becoming what seems to be unamendable, why has a leadership or a higher being not intervened? As wars continue to be waged throughout history, is has become apparent that the struggle to maintain faith is a theme seen universally as a result of dancing with violence, unsafety, and death.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrible and dreaded events in history. Millions of Jews were killed, leaving many families devastated and hopeless. With the goal of racial purity, Adolf Hitler- along with many other Germans believed the Jews caused the defeat of their country, and led the Nazis to the elimination of Jews. For this reason, “Even in the early 21st century, the legacy of the Holocaust endures…as many as 12,000 Jews were killed every day” (The Holocaust). Later, Hitler organized concentration camps, where mass transports of Jews from ghettoes were brought and typically killed also. However, the fortunate Jews that were not killed still had many restrictions on their
“If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example” (Vollhardt). Universally, genocide is viewed in various ways by every party involved and has eight specific steps. In Germany, Adolf Hitler’s persistent lectures on the Jews and their role in World War One created tension in the government and in the people. The Holocaust can be looked at through eight itemized stages. Genocide can only be stopped with intervention on a worldwide scale. It disheartens me to know that mass murders have taken place throughout Europe because the Nazi Party declared themselves the higher being and therefore gave themselves the right to be the judge, jury, and executioner of the people less fortunate. Finally, The Holocaust, driven by the power and influence of Hitler and the Nazi Party, was based on the belief that Jews, inferior to the human race, should be eradicated from existence.
For some, it seems that the Holocaust was just a killing of Jews, but for others it will be something they will never forget. The holocaust was a genocide in which six million Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army in Germany. The Nazi’s belived that Germans were “racially superior” while the Jews deemed inferior and were a threat to the German community. Coming just two decades after the last World War the Second World War was the most widespread and deadliest war in history, involving multiple countries. The countries that were Allies were Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Soviet Union (Russia), China, and USA. And the Axis power which were Germany, Italy, and Japan. From 1941 to 1945, Jews were murdered in
Known as one of the most horrific events in history, World War II (WW2) caused tremendous adversity and suffering amongst the lives of people across the globe. However, what is most concerning about the war, was what happened behind closed doors, specifically within Germany. The Holocaust is still considered one the worst ethnic cleansing attacks in the world. Although there is an endless amount of research and hard evidence of the Holocaust occurring, certain groups of individuals strongly reject it. Known as “Holocaust Denial”, this conspiracy theory has always been personally intriguing due to several reasons and will be analyzed more thoroughly.