The Nazi’s enacted a universal weight loss plan for the Jews that helped to advance their agenda with no regard to the Jews’ well-being. Supporters of an over-simplified definition of the term “weight loss plan” argue the Nazi’s achieved the simple goal of “weight loss”. Although, weight loss plans are complex agreements between a person and their diet, and the Nazi’s failed to consider this in their arrangements. The Nazi’s weight loss plan was not perfect by any means because it was short-term in nature, lacked a balanced diet, did not incorporate behavioral techniques, and was only intended for men.
Without a doubt, most dieticians would agree that a weight loss plan should be long-term in nature. But the ultimate goal of Nazi Germany was to exterminate all Jews by the war’s end and the food the Jews ate was merely to sustain them until their demise. In fact, so little food was given to the Jews that many died from starvation according to Elie Wiesel’s book Night. A 2011 publication by Scientific American titled How to Fix the Obesity Crisis points out that weight loss should consist of “moderate, gradual changes”. In Night, Eliezer quickly dropped his weight after the Nazi’s scaled back his diet. Wiesel made hunger a central theme in Night indicating that it was one of the biggest challenges to his survival during the Holocaust. After escaping from Nazi Germany, the reader can assume he quickly gained back his weight, reversing the effects of the Nazi’s weight loss plan.
With reference to the Scientific American article, the central tenet of a weight loss plan is stated to be a balanced diet. Restricting food groups is listed as a key mistake by dieters that should be avoided for health reasons. Eliezer often men...
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... be viewed as “perfect”. The plan was essentially weakening Jews to prepare them for their untimely demise and damaged their health. The strict working conditions and tasks forced upon the Jews deteriorated their physical condition and the nutrient-deficient food kept them from recovering. The Nazi’s weight loss tactics were not actually even intended for weight-loss, but were a byproduct of the poor economic conditions in Europe at the time. The Nazi’s utilized behavioral techniques with their diet for the Jews, but not in the conventional manner outlined in Scientific American’s article. Rather, they utilized a diet as a psychological weapon against the Jews to reinstate feelings of inferiority inside of them. The Nazi’s had the most contradictory “weight loss plan” in history, as it fails to meet all the criteria used today to identify a “weight loss plan”.
Being confined in a concentration camp was beyond unpleasant. Mortality encumbered the prisons effortlessly. Every day was a struggle for food, survival, and sanity. Fear of being led into the gas chambers or lined up for shooting was a constant. Hard labor and inadequate amounts of rest and nutrition took a toll on prisoners. They also endured beatings from members of the SS, or they were forced to watch the killings of others. “I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time” (Night Quotes). Small, infrequent, rations of a broth like soup left bodies to perish which in return left no energy for labor. If one wasn’t killed by starvation or exhaustion they were murdered by fellow detainees. It was a survival of the fittest between the Jews. Death seemed to be inevitable, for there were emaciated corpses lying around and the smell...
While obtaining food seemed to be the entire purpose of life for the people imprisoned in the camps, it often killed more people than it saved. Though focusing on food seemed like a logical thing to do when you are being starved, it was not always very effective in helping people survive. There are many situations in the book illustrating how living for the sole purpose of acquiring food—under any condition—could turn out to be lethal.
Geissler continually argues that one should make their own choices and others should worry about themselves (Geissler). She also makes the point that dieting is without positive results, supported by her quote from Allison which states, “suffering does not enable; it destroys” (Geissler). While in extreme cases dieting can be dangerous due to the risk of starvation that extremists may put themselves at, healthy eating of smaller portion sizes a proven way to care for our bodies. Although dieting is not guaranteed to give remarkable results, it is the stepping stone for many to climb out of obesity. The viewpoint used by the author in her argument tends to constantly turn a blind eye to normal circumstances, and it instead looks for the negatives that support her.
In the 1940s, under the rule of Adolf Hitler, German soldiers caused great destruction throughout Europe. Elie Wiesel, a young boy at the time, was caught in the traumatic crossfire of the devastation occurring in that time period. The memoir, Night, tells the horrific stories that Elie Wiesel experienced. Elie was forced into concentration camps with his dad where he soon had to grow up fast to face the reality of his new life filled with violence, inhumanity and starvation, many of which he had never endured before. In Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, he validates his theme of violence and inhumane treatment toward Jews through the use of excessive force such as the brutal beating to show Eliezer that he should not have been roaming the camp and see Idek sleeping with the girl; killing in the camps for no reason to show the hatred toward the Jews; and the limited food portions to starve them and the constant psychological torture.
Starvation was crucial during the Holocaust, which separated you from life or death. This affected most of the prisoners from doing their tasks. In the book Ellie says, “ Bread, soup - these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.” Elie Wiesel was starving at some point of every day since he was forced into labor and torture. He talks about how these two items were his whole life, because that's all the food they received. With only focusing on food they must have been in the ultimate stage of starvation. When in the ultimate stage of hunger you become “prone to Muscle spasms and twitches happen when the potassium level becomes dangerously low. Extreme
For many reasons, the translation of the cat-and-mouse metaphor from America to Nazi Germany succeeds brilliantly. As Spiegelman’s research incontrovertibly bears out, in many instances Nazi propagandists represented Jews as mice or rats, claiming thereby that the Jewish presence in Europe was an infestation of vermin that needed to be wiped out. And there are various grotesque ironies that Spiegelman noted in the course of his research; for instance, Zyklon B, the poison used in the gas chambers, was first developed as a pesticide.
Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and his sudden control over Germany sparked a new age of reform within the new “Nazi-state” (Hunt 848). As Nazism became a major aspect of everyday life in Germany, Hitler plotted against his enemies and those he blamed for Germany’s defeat in World War I: the Jewish race. In his biography, Mein Kampf, Hitler discusses the artistic, social, and technological superiority of Germany (“Aryans”), why he believes the Aryans are the ultimate dominant human race, and he makes many anti-Semitic remarks against the Jews. (Lualdi 224). In 1935, the “Nuremberg Laws” were enacted to deny Jewish Germans of their citizenship; this ultimately led Hitler to carry out his “Final Solution,” in which he hoped to fully exterminate the Jewish race from all of Europe (Hunt 864). After gathering the Jews from their “ghettos” and forcing them into concentration camps all across Europe, Hitler and his Nazi advocates began one of the most destructive and horrifying genocides in history, known today as the Holocaust. Only after being introduced to the conditions of these concentration camps, the hatred and abuse put towards the Jewish, and the gruesome lifestyle they were trapped into living can one understand why the Holocaust affected so many as it did. What exactly were the conditions of these camps, and how did a few lucky survivors prevail while their friends and families perished?
The following is an analysis of Joe Smith's food intake for one day by using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) website using a food tracker program. The analysis addresses the serving sizes consumed, which food groups were represented, and adjustments in consumption that should be made since Mr. Smith would like to loose weight. Visual representations are attached for reference in the appendix.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Food is essential to basic life. It provides people with the energy to think, speak, walk, talk, and breathe. In preparation for the Jews deportation from the ghettos of Transylvania, “the (Jewish) women were busy cooking eggs, roasting meat, and baking cakes”(Wiesel, 13). The Jewish families realized how crucial food was to their lives even before they were faced with the daily condition of famine and death in the concentration camps. The need for food was increased dramatically with the introduction of the famine-like conditions of the camps. Wiesel admitted that, although he was incredibly hungry, he had refused to eat the plate of thick soup they served to the prisoners on the first day of camp because of his nature of being a “spoiled child”. But his attitude changed rapidly as he began to realize that his life span was going to be cut short if he continued to refuse to eat the food they served him. “By the third day, I (Elie Wiesel) was eating any kind of soup hungrily” (Wiesel, 40). His desire to live superseded his social characteristic of being “pampered”. Remarque also uses his characters to show to how a balanced diet promotes a person’s good health. Paul Bäumer uses food to encourage Franz Kemmerich, his sick friend, “eat decently and you’ll soon be well again…Eating is the main thing” (Remarque, 30). Paul Bäumer feels that good food can heal all afflictions. The bread supply of the soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front was severely threatened when the rats became more and more numerous.
Finally, as part of “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, they created concentration and killing camps. Another thing the Nazi’s did was to use eugenics as another means to micromanage the population. What is eugenics, you might ask? It’s the field of scientific study or the belief in genetically improving qualities, attributes and traits in the human race and/or improving the species as a whole—usually done by controlled/selective breeding. Those with positive, desirable, and superior traits are encouraged to reproduce and may be given monetary incentives by the government to have large families.
Food in Elie Wiesel’s Night is of the upmost importance. The starved Jews become animals for even the smallest crumb. For many people today, this animalistic hunger is never something commonly experienced. A cup of black coffee meant the world to them, but is now overlooked by many. However, in the beginning, Elie had the same thought of food as we do. This difference in appreciation of small things shows how belittled the Jews were.
Life and Death in the Third Reich. 1st Ed. -. ed. a. a. a. a. a. a. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard UP, 2008.
Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consume too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight. These last two years, however, I started to gain weight and have become concerned with my diet. Changing my poor eating habits has been difficult for me, however, having this assignment has taught me that it is not as difficult as I previously imagined.
A sad fact in American society is that thousands of people search for the elusive dream of being thin. On any given day, one finds neighbors, friends, and relatives on some kind of diet. Dieters assume various disguises, but the noteworthy ones are the "bandwagoneer," the "promiser" and the "lethal loser."