Journal 1 entry: early 1942 How can they be so blind? Hitler was right about how we Germans should eliminate those filthy Jews. My fellow Nazi leaders and I do not understand why the worlds, besides our allies, are against us. We are not harming any humans, but instead exterminating those who wish to be human. Jews are the reason that jobs are not available for every German.
Hans is portrayed as a selfless person when, “He made his way…onto the road…and presented a piece of bread like magic” which shows that it was in Hans’ nature to help those in need. This was however soon met by a Nazi soldier who then proceeded to whip both Hans and the Jew who received the bread, juxtaposing the beautiful scene of a German helping a Jew with a Nazi soldier punishing their own people who were only doing the morally correct thing. Furthermore, despite its many human qualities, Death fails to comprehend the dualities of Nazi-era Germany and the acts of generosity and cruelty humans are so seemingly capable of. Death sees people more objectively, “The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle…I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” Death distinguishes himself from mankind, metaphorically using a line to represent life showing that he is immortal, separating him from humanity and by being beyond the boundaries of the human race, can impartially judge the actions of humanity. Yet it is this clear sense of mind Death possesses that makes him perplexed as to how the
Now that he became really successful, he felt bad that he proved Vladek wrong because at similar ages;Vladek went through Auschwitz while Artie became successful and famous through the publication of Maus. Pavel then points out that they were both in two totally different circumstances, Auschwitz and Rego Park, and that Vladek might have done these actions because he felt guilt that he survived the Holocaust while many of his relatives and friends died in concentration camps. Due to this guilt, he tried to imply that he was always right to
In the Holocaust memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel, he demonstrates how individuals who suffered the Holocaust were forced to make decisions that were greatly influenced by the interplay between fear and foresight. This is shown throughout Wiesel’s horrifying journey of the Holocaust in which fear and foresight intensified the consequences of one’s choices. The denial caused by fear of the unknown impeded the people of Sighet from leaving their town. Fear and foresight also force Eliezer try to keep his gold crown, and to leave on the indefinite death march. When individuals are attempting to make decisions in the face of a life altering situation, the lack of foresight may instill emotions of fear.
Schindler was originally seen as a selfish entrepeneur with a love of luxury and someone who thrived off the profits of slave labour during WW2. His pot factory, however, soon became a haven for jews as Schindler collected them from labour camps, mostly in poland. As Schindler went to the labour camps he would become witness to many brutal shootings of innocent and underserving jews. As the holocaust worsened Schindler heard more horrific stories which he could no longer ignore and quickly wrote up a list with the help of his financial advisor, an intelligent jew, Hzak Stern. With the names of hundreds of jews, Shindler took the list to the commandant of the labour camp and
The Danger of the Ordinary In Ordinary Men, the author Christopher Browning asserts that the members of the Nazi Police Battalion 101 were ordinary men prior to becoming the ruthless killers that fueled the violent extermination of the Jews. This assertion is frightening because if true, people like us, which believe such actions to be only possible by abnormal men, are made no different than the Nazis and repeats of such horrific events are made less unfathomable. The closest way to test such hypothetical assertions is through social experimentation, in which volunteers go through experiments that emulate the respective situations being recreated. Through the analysis of two psychological studies, Stanley Milgram’s experiment in 1961 and
“Motivations of the People” 05/09/12 “The history of the Holocaust has no happy ending, no uplifting message of redemption. It leaves us only with human beings, with their startling capacities for good and evil, and with an awareness of the complex ties that connect victims, perpetrators, and bystanders in Nazi barbarity.” The holocaust left little for direct interpretation. Neighbors became enemies, best friends became denouncers, and anyone who had something to gain was willing to give up the people they were, to be the people that survived the war. Though not everyone was willing to place their hand on the trigger itself, the actions that proceeded might as well have been one in the same. There was a choice, there is always a choice.
The concentration camps of Germany withheld unthinkable and inhumane acts towards Jews including deathly experiments. Genocide is the last step in a continuum of actions taken by those who are prejudiced. It is what cost millions their lives and their futures. I feel that learning more about the Holocaust at this museum is essential and I greatly benefited from the trip. It encourages evaluations of moral and ethical standards and our responsibilities as citizens.
If we go back to World War 11- when the Germans had forced the Jewish people to wear yellow stars that identify who they were. This was just so they could be placed in the concentration camps later by the Nazis. You had most Germans believing that the Jews were below them. There for they never felt anything for discriminating against them, just because of whom they were. Because they had prejudged the Jews and felt that they were not worthy to live, so they decided to kill them all.
No words can explain why these horrible actions were taken against these innocent people. During the 19th century in Europe Jews were classified an inferior race with specific physical characteristics. Some people believed that these traits would go away if Jews were emancipated from society. Others felt that the traits were passed genetically and couldn’t be changed. This history is what planted the seed for the Nazi’s program of genocide.