Gerda Weissmann Klein’s personal account of her experiences during Germany’s invasion of Poland and of the Holocaust illustrated some of the struggles of young Jewish women at the time in their endeavors to survive. Weissmann Klein’s recount of her experiences began on September 3, 1939, at her home in the town of Bielitz, Poland, just after Nazi troops began to arrive and immediately enforce their policies on Polish Jews. On that night, which had only been the beginning for her and her family, Jews within Nazi Germany had already felt the effects of Adolf Hitler’s nationalist ideals for almost five years. From 1933 until 1939, when Weissmann Klein’s experiences began, “anti-Semitism was a recurring theme in Nazism and resulted in a wave of …show more content…
She described in her memoir witnessing the changes in her town that came along with the new Nazi policies, including several examples of Jewish definition and expropriation, which played a vital role in her experience of the Holocaust. Very early on, following the invasion of the Nazis, the Jews were made to publicly identify themselves by not only having JEW stamped on their ration cards according to Weissmann Klein, but also wearing a prominent yellow Star of David with the bold lettering JEW on their clothing at all times (Weissmann Klein, 36). During this time the Jewish only received half the rations of non-Jews. Shortly following the required identifiers, several other regulations were put into place further denying Jews civil rights. The first of these instances experienced by Weissmann Klein being her family’s forced relinquishing of personal belongings and then the removal from their home into their basement. As in many other instances that Weissmann Klein had observed, a former family maid took was permitted by the SS to take up residence in the main house. The Weissmann family lived in that state of poverty and unknowing for several years, until the morning of April 19, 1942, when “all Jews were ordered to prepare to move to the shabby remote quarter of town…” (Weissmann Klein, 72), which further separated the Jewish …show more content…
According to Spielvogel, “virtually 90 percent of the Jewish populations of Poland, the Baltic countries, and Germany were exterminated” which overall was the death “of nearly two out of every three European Jews” (Spielvogel, 871). The march to the camps alone was rarely survived by many of those who marched. The death march that Weissmann Klein experienced herself lasted from late January until mid-April of 1945. As Weissmann Klein explained there were nearly four thousand girls total from surrounding labor camps, including her own, separated into two groups of two thousand. Referring to the group in which she was placed, she remarked that “out of two thousand only a hundred and twenty survived” (Weissmann Klein, 183). Conditions during the march were brutal as the weather was extremely cold and there was snow fall. Many of the girls were ill prepared having no warm clothing or shoes, which Weissmann Klein briefly recounts: “Many of the Hungarian girls had no shoes. To save their lives they stole shoes off the feet of those who slept” (Weissmann Klein 183). Luckily, early in her experiences she was advised by her father to wear her skiing shoes to which she says “Those shoes played a vital part in saving my life. They were study and strong, and when three years later they were taken off my frozen feet they were good still….” (Weissmann Klein
In researching testimony, I chose to write about Eva Kor’s experience during the Holocaust. Eva and her family were taken to Auschwitz II- Birkenau from a Ceheiu which was a Romania ghetto in the 1940’s. Eva’s story starts out in Port, Romania where she was born and raised with her family before the Holocaust. Eva’s family consisted of her twin sister Miriam,two older sisters Aliz and Edit, and her parents Alexander and Jaffa. The last time Eva saw her father and sisters were when they arrived in Auschwitz after exiting the train. Eva and Miriam were with their mother until a man asked if they were twins.Their mother said yes, after asking if that was a good thing and then they were taken away never to see her again. Once taken away, they were brought to a barrack for twins where they were kept for Mengele to conduct experimentations.
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
In researching testimony I chose to write about Eva Kor’s. Eva and her sister Miriam were taken to Auschwitz II- Birkenau from a Ceheiu which was a Romania ghetto in the 1940’s. Eva’s story starts out in Port, Romania where she was born and raised with her family before the holocaust. Eva had two older sisters Aliz and Edit who were murdered during the Holocaust along with her parents. The last time Eva saw her father and sisters were when they arrived in Auschwitz. Eva and Miriam were with there mother until a man asked if they were twins. There mother said yes after asking if that was a good thing and then they were taken away never to see her again. Once taken away they were brought to a barrack for twins were they were kept until liberated.
Who was Elie Wiesel? Elie Wiesel is a famous Holocaust survivor, a political activist, professor, and a novelist. He is the recipient of many different accomplishments and achievements throughout his life. He is most known for his novel Night, which is about his survival during the Holocaust.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it talks about the holocaust and what it was like being in it. The Germans were trying to make the German race the supreme race. To do this they were going to kill off everyone that wasn’t a German. If you were Jewish or something other than German, you would have been sent to a concentration camp and segregated by men and women. If you weren’t strong enough you were sent to the crematory to be cremated. If you were strong enough you were sent to work at a labor camp. With all the warnings the Jewish people had numerous chances to run from the Germans, but most ignored the warnings.
November 9th, 1938: The precursor to the Holocaust or the start of it itself? In either case, by November 11th––with thousands of Jewish stores looted and/ or destroyed, several hundred synagogues burned down, and houses vandalized and robbed––the appearance of war had seemingly passed through Central Germany. Kristallnacht, otherwise known as the “Night of Broken Glass”, was one the events that most likely struck fear into all the hearts and minds of the Jewish family's within Hitler's Third Reich. The atrocities committed against a whole population within a region were all caused by one young man's actions, which shows how ruthless yet organized the Nazi regime truly was. Oppressing Jews was the Nazi's way of showing Germany who was in control and those against it would be silenced in one way or another.
“My mind was so dull, my nerves so worn from waiting, that only an emotionless vacuum remained” (213). Gerda Weissman Klein was one of the few fortunate Jews to survive the Holocaust and tell her story. She explains her tragic story through her own her memoir called “All But My Life”. Gerda made it through the Holocaust because of her loving family, loyal friends, and intuition of her own.
Weitzman, Lenore , and Dalia Ofer. Women in the Holocaust. Yale University Express, 1999. eBook.
“There exists no luck, everything is, as it should be, we meet the people who we are fated to meet, we experience what we are fated to experience in our life.” (-George Brady.) The Holocaust was a very catastrophic time in history, and it should never happen again. Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis created over hundreds of Ghettos all around the world (Wood). Hana Brady was a 13-year-old girl who died in the Holocaust. She had blond hair, blue eyes, and a pretty face. Although the Holocaust was a calamity, if the Holocaust never happened, then people would not have the opportunity to learn about Hana Brady.
“Arbeit Macht Frei” (Norbert). These words, frozen in time, from another world, or so it may seem. These words sung not so long ago, hang in the air, shut away behind 75 years of painful memory.
Elie Wiesel was born in 1928, in a small village in Romania named Sighet, where was regarded as Hungry possession during 1941-1945. He grow up with 3 sister and devoted his effort into the religious studies, and he was strongly influenced by his father’s liberal expression of Judaism which aid him in the formation of the fundamental concept of Humanity.
There were many people that helped stopped the Holocaust come to a slow end. One of those people being Irena Sendler. Irena Sendler was a person who saved at least 2500 people and wasn’t known for it until many many years after the Holocaust. She put her life in risk in order to save others and this makes her a hero because it shows her courage, hope, and inspiration.
During the night of Kristallnacht many Jewish shops, synagogues, and houses were destroyed by German Nazis. The nazis were instructed to destroy and ruin any Jewish property but cannot hurt the Jewish. This night affected the Jewish financially, emotionally, and socially.
Young children, babies with mothers, and the elderly were all immediately eliminated in the daily sorting upon arrival at a concentration camp. It was as if they were nothing but troublesome vermin. The famous diary written by Anne Frank shows just how lowly society thought of those belonging to the Jewish faith in Europe during World War II. “Jews must wear a yellow star, Jews must hand in their bicycles, Jews are banned from trains and are forbidden to drive. Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between three and five o'clock and then only in shops which bear the placard “Jewish shop.” Jews must be inside by eight o’clock and cannot even sit in their own gardens after that hour. Jews are forbidden to visit theaters, cinemas, and other places of entertainment. Jews may not take part in public sports. Swimming baths, tennis courts, hockey fields, and other sports grounds are all prohibited to them. Jews may not visit Christians. Jews must go to Jewish schools, and many other restrictions of a similar kind.” (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl 713) Not only did the Jewish people face discrimination and segregation, but they were also taken from their homes and brutally
In September of 1939 German soldiers defeated Poland in only two weeks. Jews were ordered to register all family members and to move to major cities. More than 10,000 Jews from the country arrived in Krakow daily. They were moved from their homes to the "Ghetto", a walled sixteen square block area, which they were only allowed to leave to go to work.