“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing” -Simon Wiesenthal (Simon Wiesenthal Quote). During the Holocaust, an estimated eleven million people died agonizing deaths from methods such as gas chambers, scientific experiments, beatings, and malnutrition (Concentration Camps 1933-1939). This staggering number is almost as much as the current population of the state of Ohio (United States). The big question is, why did the
Allied countries, such as America, do nothing about this horrific tragedy? Over the
years, there has been major speculation surrounding what America did or did not do
during these mass killings. There are three big topics that come to mind when thinking
of this question: how did America find out about
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Although the State Department (influenced by Anti-Semitism) tried to keep the
message (meant for Stephen Wise) a secret, Stephen Wise was finally informed by a British
leader the extent of what Adolf Hitler was doing.
Stephen Wise approached Secretary of State Sumner Welles and asked him to verify the
message before they publicized it (American Response to the Holocaust).In November 1942,
Sumner Welles confirmed the plan stating to Wise and other Jewish leaders, "Gentlemen, I hold
in my hands documents which have come to me from our legation in Berne. I regret to tell you,
Dr. Wise that these confirm and justify your deepest fears” (The Film&More: Sumner Welles). Information of the Holocaust was finally sent out to American citizens. The first source
was in the New York Times. Although this was a major step in informing the American
public, authorities and journalists still strove to hide what was really going on because
of the false information they were given during World War I. Therefore, they were even
more cautious about what information was true and what information was
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When the Depression hit America, government officials and citizens gained a mistrust of immigrants. Since there was already a loss of jobs, having immigrants come into the country meant that there would be even larger competition for open employment. During World War II this mistrust carried over and government officials were worried that immigrants could be blackmailed into working as spies for Germany. Also, visas were almost impossible to obtain. Possible immigrants would have extensive and almost impossible amounts of necessary documents to pass through (Obstacles to Immigration), including "five copies of the Visa application, two copies of the applicant’s birth certificate, two sponsors that had to be United States citizens, copy of a recent tax return, German certificate of good conduct, physical examination, proof of permission to leave Germany and proof that they booked a passage" (Documents Required to Obtain a Visa). The United States refused to make Visa applications easier to receive which resulted in many Jews not being able to find a safe haven. During the war, the State Department made immigration laws even stricter (Obstacles to
The Boston Celtics current roster has as average age of 24 years old, with more than half of that roster having been in the league for less than four seasons. It’s safe to say the Celtics are teeming with youth and energy. Leading this group of young guns is a tenacious 21 year old point guard entering his second season with the C’s.
These camps were designed and constructed for hard labor and terminations”(Eastern Illinois University Homepage).The quotes explains what the tragedy that took place during the holocaust, that 20,000 concentration too place to kill all jews. However, the concentration camps helped to kill nearly 6 million jews. We shouldn't forget what happened to the jews, we should learn from it. Nor should we repeat the tragedy. Concentration camps should not be forgotten because we can learn to not repeat
We are truly blessed to live in this day in time. But it often causes us to lose track of the fact that the world is cruel. During the Holocaust, roughly 6 million Jewish people were murdered. Millions of those were starved or worked to death. And Jewish babies and young children were thrown into pits of fire.
Why is the Holocaust such a horrendous genocide? The Holocaust was an event that spanned nearly four years, and over six million humans of the Jewish religion were enslaved and executed. To know how gross, unbelievable, and horrendous the Holocaust is, the memoir “Night”, written by Elie Wiesel, will surely tell you how. Furthermore, the book starts in a town named “Sighet” in Poland, in which a community of Jews lives in. Wiesel and all the Jews are then grouped up, and freighted off to a concentration camp called “Auschwitz.” Moreover, Auschwitz is one of many of camps; however, Auschwitz is the largest and famous of them all. Wiesel and his father will have many battles with faith and survival throughout the whole book. The Holocaust is the worst genocide ever to happen in the history due to the battle with faith, loss in humanity, and lives that are ruined.
These two documents and the article show that the United States was affected by World War I. For example many people like Charles Schenck tried to
During the Holocaust the Jews were seen as creatures and treated as if they were creatures. When Moishe the Beadle came back from the forest where he was forced to dig holes by the Hungarians, He said he saw terrible scenes. Moishe said, “Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns.”(Wiesel 6), But the people of Signet didn’t believe Moishe, The jews that were in the camps probably could’ve avoided all the pain and suffering throughout their time in the camps.That quote proves that the Nazis did not care about the Jews and were doing it out of pure joy and following orders. That quote also showed to what low-level we can come down to.Living in the concentration camp meant your life could be taken away any second for any reason. The Nazis took lives that didn't matter to Jews but it could’ve meant the world for them.
The infamous Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “Being a neutral bystander helps those who are evil; that remaining silent encourages even more evil to happen.” Wiesel was part of the millions of Jews and protesters who Nazis shipped off to numerous concentration camps during the Holocaust. The apprehended and inaccurately claimed convicts had to go through many terrors to survive. Wiesel was one of the few Jews who survived the time Hitler ruled. I agree with Wiesel’s significant quote for many various reasons. To begin, I agree with Wiesel’s statement because victims that could have helped others during the Holocaust ignored that there were evil actions occurring around them during the time Hitler ruled. The victims also ignored
Six million Jews were persecuted during the Holocaust. Those still alive, were reduced to bones and forgotten identities. At that time, many people had difficulties comprehending the atrocities the Nazis committed. For example, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel quotes, “This is the 20th century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed?”
In Roosevelt's first term, thousands of Jews applied for immigration to the United States. Unfortunately for the Jews, because of the Great Depression, opportunities for immigration was significantly reduced. Prior to Roosevelt becoming the president, immigration to the United States was already limited to certain amount of aliens admitted each year. Also because of the high unemployment in the United States in early 1930, President Herbert Hoover restricted immigration to those who could financially support themselves. This made it even harder for prisoners of war to escape Hitler and his armies, resulting in many
Imagine being in a highly populated concentrated area with many people fighting to just get by each day. Would you try to help others for the sacrifice of your mental or physical health? Would you give up your food so that you can give it to someone who is in worse condition than you? Night shows Elie Wiesel’s experiences with the concentration camp called Auschwitz. Even if people would say that they would help others for sacrificing your health there is always a breaking point. If people think that life will be better in some sort of way in the long run, that is sometimes not true and if that is true as hopeful as they are that could be threatening to their lives. This mental and physical suffering that these people of Auschwitz endure could cause them to become senseless to tasks that would be unethical or immoral to them.
"The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it." This is a quote by the Angel of Death himself, a man who brought medical advancements and discoveries to the Nazi society. Throughout the Holocaust there have been many experiments for the better of medicine and the disregard of its patients. These experiments had no regard to the patient's' well being and partly due to the hate of the victims but mainly due to the medical breakthroughs that brought forth. The holocaust in retrospect was very beneficial to the medical and experimental society as a whole.
A quote from Albert Einstein states “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. As difficult as it is to describe the terrible deeds of those who were part of the Holocaust, it is true that those who did nothing are at fault just as much as those who carried out the actions. When one thinks of the Holocaust today it is difficult to picture that such events were done by human beings. Societies have advanced but it is important to acknowledge the reason as to why many bystanders refused to help or why they were so indifferent to the pain felt by the Jews. “The psychological mechanisms used to come to terms with the suffering of another appear to be very similar, whether the person is standing right before us or is 2,000 miles away. (Barnet:118) Barnett explains that ideological and moral principles also come into play, as do self-interest and the weighing of the possible consequences of our actions. We try to establish what is or is not possible. In the end, our decision will be determined not so much by whether we actually have the power to change a situation, but whether we have the will to do so. (Barnett, 118). In the case of many of the individuals who chose to become bystanders rather than change the situation they were not willing to get involved. Although not every German was a bystander, those who
The Holocaust was inhuman. “The IMT defined crimes against humanity as ' murder,extermination, enslavement, deportation...or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds'” (Trials). Murder, extermination, persecutions all occurred during the Holocaust. Nonetheless the Nazis tried to hide what was going on in Germany. After Soviet Union's attack in eastern Belarus, the Germans began moving all the prisoners in every concentration camp in Europe. The Nazi did not want the public, especially the Allies, to know the stories in these camps. They viewed these prisoners as labors and bargain chips (Death Marches) and treated those poor men and women's lives as dust under their feet. They kept the prisoners alive only because they were “hostages”, and Germans needed those labors to work for them in order to continue fighting the war; in short, the prisoners were still useful to the Nazis. Fortunately, no matter how hard the Germans tried to cover up their crimes, the Allies found enough evidence for the trial after World War II. After the Allied troops captured the concentration camps, the survivors testified and provided evidence for British officials to use on the trials of Nazi war criminals (Testimony). The Allies sentenced the criminals guilty, executed many of the high ranking Nazi officers, and officially ended the bloody chaos.
Eighteen million Europeans went through the Nazi concentration camps. Eleven million of them died, almost half of them at Auschwitz alone.1 Concentration camps are a revolting and embarrassing part of the world’s history. There is no doubt that concentration camps are a dark and depressing topic. Despite this, it is a subject that needs to be brought out into the open. The world needs to be educated on the tragedies of the concentration camps to prevent the reoccurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler’s camps imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions of Jews for over five years. Life in the Nazi concentration camps was full of terror and death for its individual prisoners as well as the entire Jewish
The tragic events that occurred during world war two and the holocaust were not only horrific but also morally wrong. The Jewish culture was targeted for mass genocide, by the hand of a mad-man bent on world domination, and the only way to prevent another incident like this from happening again, is to thoroughly educate the public. The actions and events that Hitler and his followers proposed not only helped the world realize the extent of his destruction but also how horrible it would be if the events were to happen again. The aftermath of the war and holocaust left half of Europe in ruins, and more than six million Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, and Africans dead, not including