The Story of Blima

The twentieth century witnessed some of the worst hostilities that have ever been witnessed in the history of human beings. It was also during this time that weapons of mass destruction were developed as people sought to beat humanity out of each other. There were two World Wars that were fought, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and different other kinds of wars. Each nation and race was seeking for a niche on the global scene and as a result, dialogue was one of the methods that were poorly utilized to solve conflicts. There was also an element of segregation of certain communities in the society that were afflicted because of the faith, race or background. Among the worst affected communities were the Jewish communities that were fought hard in Europe in what is known as in the modern language as the holocaust.Research Findings and DiscussionThere are different types of discrimination that were carried against the Jews that are identified by Shirley Russak Wachtel in her book 'The Story of Blima: A Holocaust Survivor'. To begin, the Jewish people were discriminated against based on religion. The Nazis had a negative attitude towards the Jewish religion and as a result, anyone who identified with Jewish religion was persecuted either by being put in a crowded camp that had no excellent sanitation, water and food. As a result of this, there are many Jews who converted to Christianity as a way of salvaging their lives from the blood-hungry Adolf Hitler. There are also other Jews who migrated to different areas throughout the world as a way of finding refuge where they could stay. Therefore, it was a crime for one to adhere to the Jewish religion. The German Nazis believed that the Jewish religion was a wicked religion and therefore it needed to be eliminated. On the other hand, Christianity too participated at great length in reinforcing the persecution of the Jews whom they believed were against God (Wachtel 3).Racial discrimination also prospered during this period against the Jews. Any identification on racial basis as a Jew was able to earn a person critical punishment that included being deported to a secluded camp called the ghettos that were in inhuman conditions, being deported outside the European boundaries or facing death (Wachtel 109). The Jews were believed to be impure people who threatened to stain the Aryan race in Germany that was seen as a superior race in Europe. At the same time, the multiplication of the Jewish community and their economic prosperity threatened the Nazis who thought that without eliminating this race, Europe was destined to being fully controlled by the Jews. Therefore, the Nazis set out to identify anybody who looked like a Jew and annihilate him/her, believing that by doing this, they would be able to reduce their impact in Europe.