Plan of Investigation
RQ: How effective were the Righteous Gentiles in saving lives during World War II? The Righteous Gentiles, also known as the Righteous among the Nation were people who stood out among the rest in the attempt to save the Jews and other victims of the holocaust. Although these people are recognized today as heroes for helping the Jews, how effective were the Righteous Gentiles in actually saving their lives? During the time of the Holocaust the Righteous among the Nation tried to stand up for what was right, through small or extreme actions. In doing so they accepted the consequences of getting thrown into a camp or of being executed if they were caught helping. They took it upon themselves to save people who at heart were just like them. Throughout the investigation, I will attempt to discover if the Righteous Gentiles actually made a difference in the amount of lives lost. To find an accurate answer, information regarding the Righteous Gentiles will be gathered and analyzed. Sources such as survival stories and rescue stories will be looked at. Some of these stories include the story of Mallgorzata and her children, and the story of Bartali. Along with these stories I will watch the movie Schindler’s List to further my understanding on the Righteous among the Nation. This information will then be analyzed and compared to sufficiently support evidence for the research question.
Summary of Evidence
Background Information
• Approximately 6 million of
Many people believed that the Jews would never survive the concentration camps. However, the Jews managed to stay alive physically and spiritually by working with all the strength they could muster, making the best with the rations they were given, believing in family’s promises, and having faith that they would be free once again. Therefore, people should always stay strong even when it seems like all hope is lost.
Millions of lives were taking during the holocaust, adults and even children. However thousands of children were saved by the operation know as the Kindertransport.
Literature helps us remember the Holocaust and how other people tried helping the Jewish. In the text The Grand Mosque of Paris it states ¨Other Muslims also took a stand against the Nazi oppressors by refusing to reveal the whereabouts of the fugitives. Some helped Jews avoid detection by coaching them to speak like a Arabs. In The Diary of Anne Frank it states ¨Ration cards, the kind Miep Gies might have used to get food for the Franks.¨ both explain how other people helped
When Oskar Schindler saw how bad the jews were treated he decided to help them out. Oskar took in at least 900 jews from the
One of the most memorable events about World War II was the holocaust. Most people remember the many lives that were lost in this massive genocide. Although many lives were lost a few were able to survive and share their experiences in those harsh times. Many non Jewish people helped in anyway possible such as Stefania Podgorska. During the holocaust Podgorska kept resistance by hiding and providing for Jews in the most necessary times.
In the article “Righteous Christians Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Honored for Their Sacrifice” it talks about many non-jewish people taking grave personal risks to save their jewish friends and neighbors from German extermination programs (“Righteous Christians Who” 1) and how they sacrificed pretty much all they had, to help others in need of material
Many Jewish prisoners were killed during the Holocaust, while others managed to stay alive. The Jewish prisoners’ mental will combined with their faith in God enabled them to
During the Holocaust, German citizens residing near concentration camps were fully aware of the atrocities being committed so close to their homes. Though they hopefully realized that the mass slaughter of innocent Jews was horrific and inhumane, no one stood up for the Jews’ violated human rights or made an effort to save Jewish lives. King Jr. writes that if he had “lived in Germany at the time, [he] would have aided and comforted [his] Jewish brothers” (King Jr. 1350). By not siding against the Nazis, German citizens essentially showed that they supported the Final Solution. Had they taken direct action, even by simply petitioning to the government or by voicing their disagreement, countless Jewish lives could have been
The term “Righteous Gentile” or “Righteous among the Nations” is used to name those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The title is used informally as referring to anyone considered to be a savior of Jews, but it has an official role in the Israeli program of Holocaust remembrance, administered by Yad Vashem. The criteria established by Yad Vashem include the following: — “The rescuer ensured the survival of a Jew or Jews by extending aid to them when they were in danger of being killed or sent to a concentration camp; — The rescuer knew that he was risking his own life, freedom, and safety by acting to save the Jewish life; — The rescuer did not receive and did not expect any
Many heroes worked hard to save Jewish people during the Holocaust, a genocide of anti-semitism, and their stories live on in the people who they saved. In September 1943, Bishop Giuseppe Nicolini received a letter from the Pope in Vatican that told him that the church should organize help for all refugees, especially the Jewish people and the Assisi Network was born. The “Assisi Network” began as a refugee camp with help from the surrounding Church community, but soon evolved into a huge organized operation. The people who risked their lives to run the Assisi Network helped to save hundreds of people and fought to hide Jews who would have otherwise been prosecuted. The story of the Assisi Network preserves the legacy of the Holocaust by using
The United States’ response to the Holocaust is a much-discussed and very sensitive subject for a variety of groups close to or related to the situation. The opinions on the subject are diverse and far-reaching, and the analyzations and comparison of some of these can lead to a greater understanding of not only the happenings of the Holocaust itself but also the social reactions to the event by the many groups involved. Four sources I intend to compare include Martin Gilbert’s Auschwitz and the Allies, David Wyman’s The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945, W.D. Rubinstein’s The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved the Jews from the Nazis, and Peter Novick’s The Holocaust in American Life, because I believe that these four sources make up a diverse and widespread selection from which nearly all opinions, or the most conflicting ones, can be observed and interpreted. The first work uses an investigatory style that proposes pieces of evidence from the period shortly before the Holocaust that could have allowed the allies further and more prudent action. Similarly, the second work argues that there is substantial evidence that the United States and the rest of the allies could certainly have saved thousands of lives with earlier and more aggressive action, but argues from a more opinion and theoretical style that focuses less on
Also, the actions of Oskar Schindler determined the fate of the Jewish. He set up his own enamel factory and employed a little under one thousand Jews. Schindler again pulled some strings and opened a new factory in a new location making defective bullets for German guns. “Beyond this day, no thinking person could fail to see what would happen,” Schindler said. “I was now resolved to do everything in my power to defeat the system.” That is exactly what Schindler did too. Though many Jews died because of the holocaust, Schindler did save over one thousand Jews from death, which practically saved an entire race from becoming extinct.
The Holocaust was a terrible time for many people, but the part that is often over looked is the psychological and physical effects after liberation. This research essay will work to answer the question; How did the Holocaust from 1933 to 1945 affect the Jewish population in the years following? This will be answered by examining many different types of sources. Most of the sources used are secondary with primary sources embedded within. For example, in many of the books used, there were some quotes from survivors and related persons included as well. There are also some, not many, online sources used which give a modern point of view. All the sources were written in America including both the physical sources and the online sources.
When many think of the Holocaust as a solely negative experience, and while it may seem easy to write the event off as a dark time in history that seems remote and unlikely to affect us today, there are some positive results, including the lessons that it brings for current and future humanity. The lessons that the Holocaust brings are applicable to every person in the world. While many of these lessons do focus on the negative aspects of the Holocaust, like what circumstances permit such a vast genocide and how many people can die because of widespread racial hatred, there are also those that focus on how some people, in all parts of Europe and throughout the world, retained their good human nature during the Holocaust. For example, what made some gentiles in Europe during that time willing and able to help Jews. Currently, Yad Vashem has recognized 26,513 rescuers throughout the world (Names), and the actual number of rescuers could likely be close to twice that amount (Baron,1). It is important that we analyze the reasons behind these rescuers’ choices to be upstanders instead of bystanders because we can learn about our own motivations when we face decisions between helping others and protecting ourselves, and possibly those we love, from harm. Fulfilling one’s self-interest was a potential motivation for helping Jews that will only be briefly addressed. This type of rescue potentially benefitted both the Jews and the Gentile rescuers; these Gentiles only helped Jews survive because they found personal gain, likely social or economic, in the action (Baron). However, in the situation that existed while rescuing the Jews, most efforts included the high possibility that both the rescuer and the rescued would end up worse off than they had begun with no potential for personal gain on either side. So those rescuers’ motivations are less easily explainable.
This website has a strong overall reliability and usefulness score because the information given in the article has little to no bias and the author states facts instead of explaining their opinion about the topic. Links are also given below the article for additional information related to the Holocaust and how Jews were unfairly treated by Germans, along with information about the sponsoring institution, making the overall reliability score for this website high. Accurate information is provided and is fairly relevant to the research question; the article length may be too lengthy, however, it is reasonable for the large amount of given information. Thus, the overall usefulness score for this website is high.