Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Ilse Koch witch of Buchenwaldem
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Ilse Koch witch of Buchenwaldem
Ilse Koch was born was in Dresden, Germany on September 22, 1906. In 1932, she became part of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Koch met her husband, SS Colonel Karl-Otto Koch while working as an SS-Helferin at Sachsenhausen. She was married to Karl-Otto Kochin 1937, and soon after, he became the commandant of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Weimar, Germany. She was known for her twisted and violent behavior toward prisoners. Koch was even nicknamed “Die Hexe von Buchenwald” or “The Witch of Buchenwald.” She was arrested twice and had two trials before she was finally sentenced to life in prison on January 15, 1951. One trait that Ilse Koch possessed was cowardice. During her trial in 1951, she fainted. In this trial, Koch was
Livia Bitton-Jackson was born in 1931, in Czechoslovakia. At the age of 13 she was taken to a concentration camp in Auschwitz, and was liberated in 1945. She studied at the New York University and is a Doctor of Philosophy in Hebrew Culture and Jewish History. For thirty-seven years, Bitton was a professor of history at City University of New York. One of her books, “Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust”, received numerous awards, such as the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award and the Jewish Heritage Award. Some of her other books include: “I Have Lived a Thousand Years” and “My Bridges of Hope”. In her books, Bitton describes events she took part in, such as her life in Auschwitz. In her books, the author describes her own experiences, which makes her a credible author.
The title of Barbara Blaugdone’s memoir is An Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone, with “travels” highlighted by its enormous size. Indeed, when reading the book the reader is perhaps most struck by Blaugdone’s excessive, nearly constant travel habits. It may even be argued that at its heart the book is a travel narrative and not a memoir or even a religious account. She traipses about the seas around the British Islea, not only in England but also venturing to Ireland to proselytize and preach to those yet untouched by the Quaker message.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, many people have realized that the witch trials may have started for a variety of reasons. In the witch trials, people started accusing the innocent, saying that they have bewitched either themselves or someone else. The trials took place in the little town of Salem. In Salem, the majority of the citizens had beliefs in the Puritan religion, which is where they believe word for word the bible. Some of the possible reasons as to why the Salem witch trials started could be peer pressure / bribery, illness and/or emotion, and something that happened in the past, for example grudges that people might have.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Disaster in Salem, the author discusses how the Salem Witch trials started and how the Puritans believed the witches should be tortured or killed for being a witch. Many people were accused of being witches. Many people thought the accused should die but some were somewhat nice and didn’t think they should die just in prison. Every puritan believed them because the dad was a reverend and everyone believed him so they all accused people. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials were disease, revenge, and attention.
“’Is my mother a communist?’ Staring. Straight ahead. ‘They were always asking her things, before I came here.’ … ‘Did the Fuhrer take her away?’ … ‘I knew it.’ The words were thrown at the steps and Liesel could feel the slush of anger stirring hotly in her stomach. ‘I hate the Fuhrer’ she said. ‘I hate him.’” (115)
Dr. Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911 to his parents Karl and Walburga Mengele. He was the eldest child of three boys. He studied at Munich for Philosophy and studied at Frankfurt University for Medicine. In 1935 he was dismissed from Frankfurt University due to discrepancies in his racial views. He became apart of the Nazi party in the year of 1937. One year later he decided to join the S.S. (Schutzstaffelor Protection Squad). He married Irene Schonbein in 1939 and had one son named Rolf. After five years of being together he divorced her and married his late brothers wife Martha Mengele.
In the strict Puritan villages of Massachusetts Bay Colony in the late 1600s, people were uncomfortable about foreigners and strange manners. Puritans were bothered about the “evil eye”, where a sudden illness or death of an animal was commonly misinterpreted as the “devil’s work”. It was a place where anybody different was not trusted and Tituba was perhaps the most different among them. Maryse Condé’s novel I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, is the story of a black woman who was born into a troubled life plagued with many challenges. Born by a mother who was a victim of rape, Tituba’s life is set for one that is filled with tragic and unlucky events. She seemed doomed for misfortune and grief due her trials and tribulations of the fact that she was an African American woman. Tituba, as well other female characters in this book are continually pushed around because of their gender. Anytime a woman tried to defend her human rights she was punished for it in the most extreme way possible. Maryse Condé takes on race, gender, religion, the idea of America as a land of wealth, the idea of the victim’s guilt, revenge, sexuality, and many other powerful motifs, and weaves them together in Tituba.
In May of 1944 she wrote, "I don't believe that the big men, that the politicians and the capitalists alone are responsible for the war, oh no, the little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There's in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage, and until all mankind without exception, undergoes a great change wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown will be cut down and disfigured, to begin all over again after that!" Meaning anyone can be responsible for something so big as to war or the holocaust.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific event to ever happen in history. A young boy named Elie Wiesel and a young woman named Gerda Weismann were both very lucky survivors of this terrible event who both, survived to tell their dreadful experiences. Elie and Gerda both handled the Holocaust in many similar and different ways.
Nikolaus “Klaus” Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, a district of Bonn, on October 25, 1913 (JVL). Both of his parents were teachers at the school he had attended for most of his life. His father was a very abusive alcoholic who had served in the First World War. Shot in the neck at Verdun, the elder Nikolaus Barbie had come home a broken man. He was very harsh and demanding of his children and wife. After the death of his father in 1933, Klaus was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, or Nazi Labor Service, because he had no money to continue his studies. Klaus volunteered for a six month stint in Schleswig-Holstein at a work camp.
In the book Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem, Rosalyn Schanzer describes what happens all because two girls fell ill. When Betty and Abigail started having fits, a doctor diagnosed them as bewitched. Almost immediately they accused the first witch, their slave Tituba. From there all the accusations started pouring out, Ann Putnam Jr., a friend of Betty and Abigail, became “afflicted” as well as multiple others, and soon the jails were overflowing. The first “witch” was hanged on June 10, and the last “witches/wizards” were hanged on September 22. The most likely reasons for the accusations were a thirst for revenge, boredom, and peer/parental pressure.
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928. Elie is a writer, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and surviver of the Holocaust. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a “messenger to mankin”. Elie was born in Sighet, a small town in Romania, to his father Shlomo and Mother Sarah Wiesel. Elie Wiesel had three sisters: Hilda and Bea, who were older than he, and Tzipora, who was the youngest in the family. On May 16, 1944, the Hungarian authorities deported the Jewish community, including Elie and his family, in Sighet to Auschwitz – Birkenau. Auschwitz was the first camp Elie was sent to. On January 28, 1945, just a few weeks after the two were marched to Buchenwald and only months before the camp was liberated by the American Army on April 11. Sadly Wiesel's father suffered from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion, and was later sent to the crematoria. The last word his father spoke was “Eliezer”, Elie's name. After the war, Elie was placed in a French orphanage, where he learned the French language and was soon reunited with his two older sisters, Hilda and Bea (Tzipora was murdered at the camps), who had also survived the war. In 1948, Elie began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. Elie also taught hebrew, and was a choir master before going on to becoming a Journalist, for Israli and French newspapers.
Lola was separated from her family after a large group of Nazis arrived in Sarajevo. In the chapter “An Insect’s Wing,” it claims that, “On April 16, the Germans marched into Sarajevo and for the next two days, they rampaged through the Jewish quarter” (56). After a couple of weeks they started with the arrest of the Jews in Herzegovina, that
Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel was born September 30, 1928 in Sighet Transylvania, now Romania. Wiesel was the third child of four. His two older sisters were Hilda and Beatrice Wiesel, whom he was not as close with compared to his little sister, Tzipora. His mother and father were named Sarah and Shlomo Wiesel. In 1944, Wiesel’s family and the remainder of the community were placed into two separate ghettos in Sighet, formed by the incoming Nazis. Later on, they were relocated to Auschwitz, where Elie’s mother and Tzipora were killed. Then, he and his father were moved to Buna and finally Buchenwald. In Buchenwald, Elie’s father died, and only days later Elie was liberated, now sixteen years old. Elis Wiesel did not write Night until 10 years after his liberation, and continued on to write books such as, And the World Would Remain Silent in 1956 and Dawn in 1961 (“Elie Wiesel”).
Random House Webster's dictionary defines a foil as "a person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast." This essay will focus on the use of the foil to contrast another character. The characters of Nora and Mrs. Linde provide an excellent example of this literary device. Mrs. Linde's aged, experienced personality is the perfect foil for Nora's childish nature. Mrs. Linde's hard life is used to contrast the frivolity and sheltered aspects of Nora's life. Nora's optimism and belief in things improbable is an opposite to the rationality and down-to-earth mentality of Mrs. Linde. Finally, the rekindling of the flame between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad is a direct contrast to the burning down of Nora and Torvald's "doll's house."