This story takes places during the Holocaust period. During this time the main objective was to capture as many Jews as possible and rid them from society. It was felt that Jews had no place in world and that they should be removed from society. Simon Wiesenthal was one of those many Jews that was captured and taken to one of the many concentration camps to work. While at these concentration camps Jews were expected to work and take orders from the German Army.
In 1944 the Germans decided to clear up the Lodz ghetto completely because the Russian army was getting closer. When they arrived at the Auschwitz, Dr.mengele selected people to work and the others straight to their death. Arek was clueless but he noticed that there were two lines one line had all the healthy people the other had the weak he was on the weak so he snuck into the other line on the right. He was forced to wear a striped suit and leave all his belongings he had his head shaved and body shaved and was made to take a shower he was then tattooed the number B7608 and from that day on he was called by that number and he was no longer Arek as if he was no just and object no a human being. After a few weeks Arek had to work for the SS
She was living in Bielitz, Poland, where she was born, and she reacts with terror as she watches her neighbors meet the invading Nazis with happiness. They were trying to hide the fact of war from Gerda’s father because he was sick and they didn’t want to worry him. When their town was invaded they couldn’t keep it a secret from him any more. Bad things started happening to the Jews, and the Nazis were taking Jewish men. In October, Gerda’s brother Arthur, was forced to leave with a Nazi and all of the other young men in town.
In 1944, the Germans ordered Rumkowski to announce that Germany was in need of workers to repair damage. These ‘workers’ were not sent to work; they were sent to be exterminated at a nearby concentration camp called Chelmo. After many transports, it was then decided that the remaining survivors would be sent to Auschwitz. A combined number of 145,000 Jews were killed at the concentration camps. Rumkoswki believed that he was safe from death after all of his collaboration and hard work with the Nazis, so he voluntarily boarded a train headed for Auschwitz with his family.
First, the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. Then, the Jews were not allowed to leave their houses for three days. The Jews no longer had the right to keep gold, jewels, or any other object of value. The Jews also had to wear a yellow star. “The yellow star?
Not only does the timing add to the automated feel, but so does the reference to the group of workers as “anyone” or “no one”; even though O’Malley is called by his name he is more connected with his specific role on the assembly line. The workers themselves also cannot interact and have relationships; they do not risk being fired because in the factory it is common knowledge that they can “hire... and fire anyone”. Not once do the three men working side by side talk to one other. “Wierzbiki reams”, “Stephanides grinds”, “and O’Malley attaches”. The men pouring the steel
Despite the Jews' belief that Nazis wouldn't be able to come near the capital city, Budapest, the Germans soon move into Sighet. Jews are forced to turn in all valuables, and everything they owned. Eventually, the Jews are confined to small ghettos, crowded together into narrow streets behind barbed-wire fences. Jews remaining in Sighet were thrown into cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. On the third night in the cattle cars, Madame Schächter, a middle-aged woman who is on the train with her ten-year-old son begins to scream that she sees fire outside the window.
The men he portrays are just normal men, drafted to participate in the war in some way. These men were all too old to go to battle so they had to find another job for them. They were drafted to be on a firing squad. They were told to round up the women, children, and elderly and execute them. They were told to execute them because according to Hitler, anyone that isn’t German is a Jew and as we all know Hitler disliked Jews.
I will never forgive the SS officers. The Germans arrived in my town Sighet in 1944. The soldiers billeted in me and my wife Ellen's home. It wasn't so bad at first, they even brought us chocolate. They later wouldn't let anyone keep any sort of valuables, keep everyone inside and they made everyone wear a yellow star.
We put mattresses, clothing, food, dishes, pictures, books, valuables---whatever we thought was most important---on the wagon...My father did not even lock the door behind us. He knew that our non-Jewish neighbors would loot everything” (Singer, 17). Rather than “relocating” the Jewish families, the Nazis had a different plan that they were unaware of. After four days of traveling in an overcrowded train, the SS transported the Jews to Auschwitz; they were forced to leave their luggage aside of the train. They immediately were separated into two groups: boys on one side, girls on the other.