War. Such a short word with so much controversy. There are endless reasons the government will find to use battle. Fighting is a means to gain freedom or revenge. However, history tends to think otherwise. In the Holocaust, the heartless Nazi's tried to banish the Jewish people. The survivors of the Holocaust are still struggling with the disturbing memories and lost loved ones. Although their reminiscences haunt them, the heroes of the Holocaust have not let the destruction ruin their lives. To compare the voices each victim has, I will show how different authors portray the lives of the Holocaust survivors.
Henry Greenspan used a longitudinal study, studying the same people throughout a period of time, to track the improvements the survivors made in each interview. In his book, On Listening to Holocaust Survivors, each survivor tells their own story; but the stories they tell do not come close to the experiences they faced. Survivors take on the part of being a witness and retell their memories. By becoming a narrator, each participant being interviewed will mix the two worlds; one world being their mind before the Holocaust, and the other after (Greenspan 60).
Greenspan noticed how the individuals being interviewed start the conversation. They start with their mind all rumbled together. Then as the conversation moves on, they diverge in a different direction and change their mood instantly. If the participant starts off confident, they slowly become doubtful and vice versa. There are different reactions for each survivor. Some return to their normal state, but some voices become stentorian (Greenspan 61).
One of the first survivors he studied was Rueben. After the Holocaust, Rueben talked to one of the social workers. The ...
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...the most devastating world event will always remember what they went through. They are moving on the best they can despite their memories. On the bright side, the survivors, or should I say heroes, haven't let this ruin their life.
Works Cited
Costas, Bob. "Wiesel Talks About Night and Life After the Holocaust." Readings on Night. Ed. Harry James Cargas. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 2000. 146-56. Print.
Fridman, Ayala, et al. "Coping in Old Age with Extreme Childhood Trauma: Aging Holocaust Survivors and their Offspring Facing New Challenges." Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 15. (2010): n. pag. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Greenspan, Henry. On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc, 1998. Print.
Smith, Lyn. Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust. New York: Avalon Publishing Group, Inc, 2005. Print.
When in America, Helen found that it was hard not to talk about past and the stories of her imprisonment. “Some survivors found it impossible to talk about their pasts. By staying silent, they hoped to bury the horrible nightmares of the last few years. They wanted to spare their children and those who knew little about the holocaust from listening to their terrible stories.” In the efforts to save people from having to hear about the gruesome past, the survivors also lacked the resources to mentally recovery from the tragedy.
Most historical events, whether beneficial or detrimental to society, bear witnesses. Regardless of how many total were affected by the event, each person owns a personal account of what they endured during the event. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, expresses the personal account of Elizer, a Jewish teenager, who fought to stay alive during the holocaust, and shows the importance of witness accounts, the will to survive, and the remembrance of past historical events. Night encompasses the idea of “Literature of Witness” by simultaneously showing how millions of people were affected by the holocaust and how each person, principally Elizer, has their own personal story to tell to understand and remember that horrendous time.
The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel gives an in depth view of Nazi Concentration Camps. Growing up in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel, a young Jewish boy at the innocent age of 12, whose main focus in life was studying the Kabbalah and becoming closer in his relationship with God. In the memoir, Elie Wiesel reflects back to his stay within a Nazi Concentration Camp in hopes that by sharing his experiences, he could not only educate the world on the ugliness known as the Holocaust, but also to remind people that by remembering one atrocity, the next one can potentially be avoided. The holocaust was the persecution and murder of approximately six million Jew’s by Aldolf Hitler’s Nazi army between 1933 and 1945. Overall, the memoir shows
Between 1939 and 1945, five to six million Jewish people died, and about seventy thousand men, women, children, handicapped, and the mentally disabled died in the conflict known as the Holocaust. The victims and survivors of the Holocaust had a positive standpoint on the horrible conflict. Members of the Holocaust with famous accounts were Anne Frank, Leib Lejzon ( Leon Leyson). Anne Frank and Leib Lejzon had both an very hard childhood, but both children responded to conflict with a good viewpoint. They responded like many people have a hard time doing, they make the best out of a bad time. Leib and Anne were both very young and around the same age when they were put in the concentration camps. In an time of war or any conflict you should respond to an situation with a positive outlook because with a negative outlook, there’s going to be an negative
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).
Morretta, Teresa. "Teaching the Holocaust: Grades 4-12." Timeline. 1997. Teresa Morretta, Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
"Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 19 May 2014. .
in which it branched. Over the past few decades, the survivors of the Holocaust retold their stories time and time again, stories which would forever be marked into history; However, there is so much more to this disastrous event than what appears upon its surface. There are so many untold—often times completely ignored—stories, documents, and truths that are hardly brought into light. This is why I want to partake in this in this rare event. I want to be able to hear the stories untold, read the documents unread, and so much more. Additionally, I want to be able to educate others on the Holocaust—much more than what their teachers can read out of the small, unforgiving section in their textbooks.
The tragedies of the holocaust forever altered history. One of the most detailed accounts of the horrific events from the Nazi regime comes from Elie Wiesel’s Night. He describes his traumatic experiences in German concentration camps, mainly Buchenwald, and engages his readers from a victim’s point of view. He bravely shares the grotesque visions that are permanently ingrained in his mind. His autobiography gives readers vivid, unforgettable, and shocking images of the past. It is beneficial that Wiesel published this, if he had not the world might not have known the extent of the Nazis reign. He exposes the cruelty of man, and the misuse of power. Through a lifetime of tragedy, Elie Wiesel struggled internally to resurrect his religious beliefs as well as his hatred for the human race. He shares these emotions to the world through Night.
Through selection at the extermination camps, the Nazis forced children to be separated from their relatives which destroyed the basic unit of society, the family. Because children were taken to different barracks or camps, they had to fend for themselves. In the book A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal, the author describes the relief he felt when reunited with his mother after the War.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
Rittner, Carol, & Roth, John. Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust. New York: Paragon House, 1993. Print.
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
Kaplan, Marian A., Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1999