The first section of the story takes place in Frankfurt. Daniel lives a good and comfortable life there. One day, Daniel is unsure why the word, “Jew” is written on his Father’s store window. Daniel was very confused and asked himself, “What was wrong with that?” He doesn’t see anything wrong with the word. To him, it means a different way of celebrating religion. Unfortunately, Mr. Schneider (Daniel’s public school teacher) was always so cruel to him just because he was Jewish. One day, Mr. Schneider had told his class, “We must all thank God that he sent Adolph Hitler to us, for only he has had the courage to deal with this Jewish problem.” Daniel was angry and went to a Jewish school (he wasn’t German enough to go to a public school). Daniel knew that he was no different than the Germans, and yet sometimes - he wondered. Daniel’s Uncle was arrested the next day for pleading guilty for two parking violations. Auntie Leah had said, “Oh God help us, what is happening?” Daniel began to question God. Unfortunately, Daniel’s grandmother killed herself. Although, she made sure that she attended Daniel’s “Bar Mitzvah”. Daniel was overcome with shock, but soon regained control. Daniel thought, “Thank God she didn’t live to see us thrown out of our homes and out of our country. And right now,…
It would take six million life times or more to replace the lost love of those murdered within the Holocaust. However despite the incomprehensible disregard for humanity witnessed throughout the persecution of Jews, not all had their lives taken from them. Many Jews fought back and whether they succeeded or not- they didn’t go down without a fight. These are a few of many stories in which Jewish citizens used hope and determination to their advantage, to fight for their survival and through resistance, have an impact upon the Holocaust.…
Between Dignity and Despair, a book written by Marion A. Kaplan, published in 1998, gives us a portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany by the astounding memoirs, diaries, interviews with survivors, and letters of Jewish women and men. The book is written in chronological order of events, from the daily life of German Jewish families prior to when the Holocaust began to the days when rights were completely taken away; from the beginning of forced labor and exile to the repercussion of the war. Kaplan tries to include details from each significant event during the time of the Holocaust. Kaplan tells us the story of Jews in Germany not from the perception of the Holocaust, but by focusing on the persecutors from the confused and vague viewpoint of Jews trying to direct their lives on a day to day basis in a world that was becoming more and more insane. Kaplan shows us that the Holocaust was impossible to predict exactly because Nazi oppression occurred in random and impulsive steps until the massive violence of November 1938. Between Dignity and Despair focuses on the destiny of families and mostly women’s experience, taking the reader into neighborhoods, kitchens, shops, schools and it gives us form and consistency. It is giving us the exact impression of what life was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany, except we are sitting behind the book taking it all in.…
When learning of the devastations of the Holocaust we are often only offered one side of the story, one view of the event, one account of the pain—that of the direct survivor. However, the effects of trauma live on forever, and stay with people even when they are not first-hand victims. In particular, there are children of Holocaust survivors or second-generation survivors whom face enormous difficulties as they come to terms with the horrendous plights faced by their ancestors. For Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, this was the struggle. Growing up with survivor parents exposed him to the presence and absence of the Holocaust in his daily life, causing confusion and great amounts of self-imposed guilt and blame. This havoc led to an underdeveloped identity early on—a lost and prohibited childhood, a murdered one. The effect of having survivor parents was evident in Art’s search for his identity throughout Maus, from the memories of his parent’s past and through the individual ways in which each parent “murdered” his search to discover meaning.…
The Holocaust destroyed 11,000,000 people's lives. It’s hard to imagine people being killed just because of their religion. Men, women, the elderly, children; all Jewish families were separated. In his book “Night”, Elie Wiesel, who was separated from his mother and sister, describes his experiences and the inhumane conditions he endured at the concentration camps at the hand of German officers. As a result of his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel changes from a religious, sensitive little boy to a spiritually dead, unemotional man.…
As a survivor of the inhumane, annihilating Holocaust, Elie Wiesel once said, “Having survived by chance, I was duty–bound to give meaning to my survival.”(“Having Survived”1). Elie Wiesel did not know at the time that he had a reason for surviving this tragedy, but soon realized that he survived to offer a story and message about the horrors of that time to a world that often seemed to block it out completely and forget (“Having Survived”1).To spread his message to the world, which is one of peace, redemption, and human nobleness, Wiesel speaks all over the world as a public orator. (“Elie Wiesel” 3). Elie Wiesel, an influential speaker and writer of the 1940s to present times, helped to render a further understanding of the abomination of The Holocaust through eloquence and deep thought, elaborate actions, and most of all, his strong traditional values.…
Amongst the many events that the world has captured in history books, the holocaust is one that is recognized by almost everyone. The Holocaust was a controlled, state financed torture and killing of roughly six million Jews by the Nazi government led by Adolf Hitler. While many Jews died in the concentration camps, there are some who made it out alive and told their story. Their witness accounts contribute information the world needs to understand what really took place in Germany and the concentration camps. Author, Elie Wiesel, voices his time in the Nazi concentration camps, in his autobiographical novel, Night. Throughout the story, Wiesel physically, mentally, and spiritually changes due to the horrific events of the holocaust.…
During the Holocaust, over 11 million people were killed. 1.1 million were children and 6 million were Jewish. In the novel titled, “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he speaks about a young boy named Elie Wiesel. This novel also explained his thoughts/feelings during the tragic event. During, Elie Wiesel lost his mother when the Holocaust started and lost his father at the end of the Holocaust. Three qualities that contributed to Wiesel’s survival was his intelligence, when he hid his left arm, his bravery, when he refused to separate from his father during the selection, and his determination, when he decided to not stop running during the flee.…
The Jews had to go through terrible atrocities. They were being treated terribly, but they stood strong against the cruelty. The Jews enduring those terrible acts show how, even while being treated at the lowest levels humans can still persevere, retain their humanity, and live on. This is shown through how they kept their faith, how they treated each other, how they pushed on while being treated like animals, and how they kept on living and pushing on. All of these claims can be explained and supported by, Elie Wiesel's Documentary, his memoir, Night, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and the official documentary of Night and Fog.…
One of the survivors and author of his own personal life Elie Wiesel was a victim of the Holocaust. Elie witnessed his own father get beaten and tortured in front of him, yet he stayed still and felt crushed inside” my son, they are beating me!” “ who?” I thought he was delirious.”…
One of the saddest aspects of the Holocaust was not how many lives were lost, but how many souls were lost. Those lucky enough to survive Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and the like came out changed men and women, and not for the better. While some, such as Elie Wiesel, were able to contribute to the world and keep alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, many left the experience shells; shadows of their former selves. So much had changed during their time in the concentration camps and they had lost so much of their dignity and identity.…
Every person that has ever walked on this earth has experienced the gut wrenching feeling of missing an opportunity you know could have offered a path for escape -knowing that you can pinpoint an exact moment in time that could have altered the course of your story. The Wiesel family is no exception to this statement. The novel, Night, by “Elie Wiesel” is a survivor's story of his experiences in the Holocaust. It is an autobiography of his life before and during the concentration camps. In these times the path was not always straight and the overwhelming circumstances caused people to make decisions that were rushed or insensible. People got caught up in disbelief and chose not to take action where action would have saved their lives These opportunities presented were missed or brushed aside and eventually caused thousands of people to die a merciless death within the four walls of the gas chambers. The Wiesel family missed many opportunities within the story Night that could have altered the course of their lives.…
The Holocaust and war was no joking matter. Millions were executed both intentionally and unintentionally. Men, women, husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, and children; The SS didn’t care. Nor did the Poles, Germans, or anyone at all for that matter. Nobody cared about the “dirty Jews”, the “filthy dogs”, or the “swine dogs”. There were so many insults that it’s impossible to name them all. People were malnourished, lonely, and hopeless. This torture was part of the everyday life of a young man named Lucek Salzman (George Lucius Salton). This boy lost his parents at age 14 and his brother at age 15. He was beaten, he had paint poured over him, his latter was kicked by a German soldier (this ended up causing him to have an infected leg). What this man went through as a child was brutal, but the fascinating part is that he never gave up and he knew that he had a chance. Lucek Salzman had hope in the end.…
The Holocaust changed the lives of many people and survivors and had many adverse effects. Some began to question their faith in their beliefs and even questioned their god. They pondered upon the thought of how God could sit idly by and allow the atrocious actions committed within their own homeland be unjustified. Those that survived have many terrifying stories to tell. Many survivors are too frightened to tell their story because their experiences are too lurid to express in words or even comprehend. One of Wiesel's main objectives in writing Night is to remind readers that the Holocaust occurred, and hopes that it will never happen again. Night themes include the inhumanity of humans toward others and how death can cause potent harm to one’s psyche. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses many literary devices such as Tone, Imagery, and Repetition to portray the acts of death and inhumanity as well as their traumatizing effects.…
The feelings of anxiety, deception and suspense are three of the many words used to describe the Holocaust. Source B revealed how genocide was demonstrated in the Holocaust by providing evidence of classification and preparation. Likewise, Source C, a poem written by Pastor Neimoller, in which he describes the fear that the people felt when groups of Jews were disappearing each day. The day they came for them there was no one left to take a stand for the minority. In a similar way Source D, “The Terrible Things” by Eve Bunting, delivers a similar explanation by a group called “The Terrible Things” that caught groups of animals living in the forest one by one. Although when they came for the rabbits there were no other animals left to stand up for them. Exposing to us how in a similar way the Nazi’s would diminish the Jews rights though they had done nothing and no one said nor did a thing to prevent it. Therefore, the segregation of the Jewish people, also known as the Holocaust, is identified as the responsibility of the people.…