“Seeing Amon was laying eyes on death itself,” said the Schindler Jew, Poldek Pfefferberg. Throughout the corse of his life, Amon Goeth solidified Pfeffeeberg’s statement through his murderous actions. Goeth was born in Vienna, Austria where he joined a Nazi youth program then transferred to the para-military. He later joined an outlawed Austrian Nazi party in 1930 at the age of twenty two. Soon after, he fled to Germany to avoid arrest from the Austrian authorities for crimes involving explosive materials. Once in Germany, Amon was able to make use of his standings in the Nazi party and became one of the most infamous men during the time of the Holocaust (“Amon Goeth”).
Amon Goeth’s most famous events he took part in were the liquidations of Jewish ghettos throughout Poland. The most infamous of these was specifically the Ghetto in Kraków, or Podgōrze Ghetto (“Schindler’s List”). The Kraków Ghetto was the first ghetto to be brutally liquidated under Goeth’s command; taking place between March thirteenth March sixteenth, 1943 (“Kraków liquidation). Within the camp, there were two sides in which the Jews were living. There was an A section which was designated to Jewish men, women, and children older than twelve years of age. These people were the Jews capable of hard labor. Meanwhile, the B section of the Ghetto was filled with Jews of all genders and ages who were unfit to work. (“Tarnow Ghetto”). The people living in the B section of the Ghetto knew that their fate was death at an extermination camp. This caused attempts to hide from the SS officers, attempts to escape to the A section, and rebellions against the Nazi oppression. After eliminating all who rebelled against him, Goeth’s Kraków liquidation resulted in over two th...
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...he most infamous work camp of all time. He topped off his time with a last stand of rebellion as he was hung after his trial. Amon Goeth was a monster in the holocaust, but he was only one of many who killed simply for the purpose of killing.
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The editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Plaszow (Concentration camp, Poland) .” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Briyannica n.d.
Schindler’s List. Dir. Stephen Spielberg. Perf. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes. Universal Studios, 1993. DVD.
Simon Wiesenthal: The Nazi Hunter. There are many heroic individuals in history that have shown greatness during a time of suffering, as well as remorse when greatness is needed, but one individual stood out to me above them all. He served as a hero among all he knew and all who knew him. This individual, Simon Wiesenthal, deserves praise for his dedication to his heroic work tracking and prosecuting Nazi war criminals that caused thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other victims of the Holocaust to suffer and perish. The Life of a Holocaust Victim The effect the Holocaust had on Wiesenthal played a major role in the person he made himself to be.
Shields, Jacqueline. "Concentration Camps: The Sonderkommando ." 2014. Jewish Virtual Library. 20 March 2014 .
Between May and July, they deported most of Hungarian Jewry to Auschwitz-Birkenau.” German SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann was named chief of the team of deportation experts. “One of the salient points about the deportation of the Jews of Hungary is the extent of the involvement of the local authorities. Eichmann was impressed by the eagerness and zeal of the local auxiliaries.” This massive and rapid deportation led to problems for the Germans.
"Treblinka Death Camp Revolt". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Niau S. Archer H.E.A.R.T., n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
“He’s the man who’s lived through hell without every hating. Who’s been exposed to the most depraved aspects of human nature but still manages to find love, to believe in God, to experience joy.” This was a quote said by Oprah Winfrey during her interview with Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor. No person who has not experienced the Holocaust and all its horrors could ever relate to Elie Wiesel. He endured massive amounts of torture, physically, mentally, and emotionally just because he was a Jew.
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
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Morrison, Jack G.. Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp, 1939-45. Princeton, NJ: Wiener, 2000. Print.
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