2. It seems strange that Carl Orff would be forgiven since he played an active role in the Nazi Party. It’s even stated that one of his great works “Carmina Burana” was composed for the Nazi leaders (Eylon). I feel the main reason why Carl Orff may have been forgiven is although he was asked to rewrite “A Midsummers Night Dream” and, agreed he never did (Eylon). The Nazi’s were trying remove the composers name because he was Jewish, Mendelssohn. It can be easier to forgive something that is not actually done even if it is said that it will be where as Wagner hurt himself by writing criticizing articles about the Jewish people and Artist. Wagner’s pieces were never composed for Nazi leaders but, the ideas of his writing stayed with him. Which
In the symposium section, Abraham Joshua Heschel quoted, “No one can forgive crimes committed against other people. It is therefore preposterous to assume that anybody alive can extend forgiveness for the suffering of any one of the six million people who perished.” (171). Simon Wiesenthal would possibly never forgive the SS officer because he doesn’t represents to those who suffer and died by the SS officers because he is just one jewish person out of many different jews that died. At that point, Simon Wiesenthal does not represent the rest of the jews and other Holocaust
He should not have forgiven him because, “One soldier got up from the bench and looked at us as if we were animals in a zoo” (Wiesenthal 20). “Rectifying a misdeed is a matter to be settled between the perpetrator and this victim” (Wiesenthal 54). This shows only a small portion of what the Jewish people were treated as during this time. They were treated like animals, yet they are completely human. Also, an approximate eleven million people were killed during the Holocaust. Six million were Polish citizens, three million were Polish Jews, and another three million were Polish Christians. A single person who was not affected by the soldiers decisions cannot represent the eleven million people who were affected. In order to achieve actual “forgiveness” he would need to speak to every single person who was
When Simon was asked to forgive the SS officer, he blankly looked at the man, stood up, and left. One of the main problems that he faced is he definitely was not able to absolve the man of the crimes considering he could not speak for his entire people. Wiesenthal did not have authority to absolve the actions of those who were responsible for the holocaust nor did he want to in the first place. Different people have different ideologies about the way that one can accept forgiveness. Literature from the Jewish culture has a lot to say about this and understandably so. For one, it is clear they thought little about verbal apologies from the Nazis for the atrocities they had committed in the
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a “righteous gentile” who had a relatively normal life before World War II. He was born in 1904 (jfr.org). He worked with the international coffee trade (jfr.org), established a deep connection with the Danish people (forces-war-records.co.uk), and became friends with Werner Best (jfr.org). "Duckwitz was drawn to the Nazis’ ultranationalist propaganda and joined the party. However, as Hitler’s violent intentions came to light, he became disillusioned with the party (facinghistory.org)." He felt sorry for the Danish Jews and was disappointed that he had joined the Nazi party (facinghistory.org). Little did he know, his friend, Best, had overseen the murder of French and Polish Jews and well as requested (through
Speer’s Rise in the Nazi Party Albert Speer rose from a mere architect to be one of the most influential Nazi leaders of the Third Reich, and self-admittedly Hitler’s closest friend. As a young, struggling architect Speer joined the Nazi Party as a ‘Septemberling’, and subsequently began to design many of the displays and structures that succeeded in promoting the Fuhrer Myth. Within the NSDAP Speer progressed to the position of Minister for Armaments and War Production in 1942, a reward for his superior managerial skills, and effectively utilised in the Nazi war effort. However, Speer’s rise in the NSDAP was often degraded by the members of the ‘old guard’, who thought that he had not earned his affluent position in Nazi society, but was rather a result of his friendship with Hitler. Albert Speer was born on 19th March 1905 into an upper-middle class family in the German city of Mannheim, and as a result of his families affluent position in society, they were relatively untouched by the Second World War.
In The Sunflower while in a hospital, Simon Wiesenthal was approached by a nurse who leads him to a dying SS soldier named Karl who confessed to Wiesenthal of his heinous acts against Jews, He asked Wiesenthal for his forgiveness. Instead of replying Wiesenthal walked away and later that night the soldier passed away. Through Karl’s confession you could see that he was remorseful for the actions committed through his time as an SS soldier; therefore, Karl should be forgiven.
Turner argues that the representatives of big business did not support Hitler financially on his rise to power because the fear of a Nazi socialist government. Business representatives used their money and political power to keep a government free of Marxism. They realized their businesses would not thrive when politics totally controlled the economy. Turner says that big business' role in politics where to preserve a nonsocialist government by forming nonsocialist parties, funding nationalist candidates, and by supporting the conservative wing of the Nazi party.
Similarities between Nazis and the Party of 1984 The government of Nazi Germany greatly resembled the Party, the government in 1984. Both operated similarly and had similar aims. Anything either government did was an action for maintaining power. Both the Nazis and the Party maintained similar ideologies, controlled mass media, educated children in their beliefs, had a secret police force, and had forced labor camps.
Heinrich Himmler was the Reich Leader (Reichführer) of the dreaded SS of the Nazi Party from 1929 until 1945. Heinrich presided over an immense ideological and bureaucratic empire that defined him for many (on the inside and outside the third Reich) as the second most powerful man in German during the time of World War Two. Heinrich was born on October 7, 1900 into the middle- class. He was born in Munrich, Germany. (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/himmler.html)
The Nazis are infamous for their heavy use of propaganda during their reign in the Third Reich, they used many means of propaganda such as posters, cartoons, radio, film, etc. The German citizens’ constant exposure to all of this propaganda from all directions had a deep psychological and psychoanalytical impact on them, it redefined their identity and who they were as well as what they thought of the world around them. Nazi propaganda often had deep symbolic meaning usually associated with anti-semitism and German nationalism, these elements were already present in the minds of the majority of Germans so it wasn’t hard for Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party to further provoke and enrage the emotions of people concerning these things, they merely had to tap into these pre disposed emotions in a way that would have the most favourable psychological impact for the Nazis. Some of the opinions and mindsets that German citizens had may have been there even before the Nazis came into power and made it seemed like they were brainwashing people with their propaganda, but with what justification can it be said that Nazi propaganda had a psychological and psychoanalytic impact on the German population to a great extent, rather than it being the work of pre set psychological states of mind of people due to the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, Hyperinflation, and other sources which may have led the German population to support and hold anti-semitistic and nationalistic ideologies.
n January of 1933 the Nazi regime took control of Germany with the belief that Germans were “racially superior.” Throughout this time period called the Holocaust, which is a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire,” the Jewish people were deemed inferior, and were the main threat to the German racial community. Though the Holocaust was a systematic and bureaucratic war, racism is what fueled the persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime. Racism is defined as “a belief or doctrine that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” This framework of racism was what Hitler believed would “carve out a vast European empire.” (Perry,
The Holocaust was a state sponsored, systematic, mass genocide of around six million Jews that started in 1933. The Holocaust was initially fueled by the thought by the German Nazi’s that Germans with blonde hair and blue eyes were superior over any other group that did not match up to the Germans appearance wise.. With the Jewish people generally not fitting the so called perfect racial and physical criteria, Jews were persecuted by the Nazis. The Nazi leader , Adolf Hitler was the poster man of the campaign against the Jews. Hitler is well known for his “ toothbrush ” moustache and his responsibility of the Holocaust. Hitler and his fellow German leaders used the term “The Final Solution” to disguise their ultimate plan for total Jewish annihilation. To accomplish Hitler’s mission for Jewish extinction, Hitler had Jews taken to concentration camps that ranged from Germany and Poland to Ukraine and all the way back to France. Concentration camps served two main purposes. To dehumanize and to demoralize. Concentration camps were meant to make the Jewish people so desensitized and so fearful that they would never think to rise up in rebellion. Jews were taken to concentration camps for mainly three reasons alone. To be killed, to be laborers, or to be held before being killed. One particular camp in itself had over one million casualties, the same camp is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable and commonly talked about concentration camps even in the modern world today. That particular camp is known by the name of Auschwitz.
Hitler’s full name was Adolf Hitler. His birthplace was Braunau am Inn, Austria (Hitler). He was born on April 20, 1889 (Hitler). His parents, Alois and Klara Hitler, both died before he reached the age of 20 (Hitler). His only sister that reached adulthood was Paula (Hitler).
Speer’s well structured and thought out defence shaped historical interpretation for years to come. At Nuremberg he presented himself as a pure technician and not involved in the politics or ideology of the party. He also claimed collective responsibility for crimes against Jews but also his ignorance of the Nazi intentions. As he stated at a later time: “I just stood aside and said to myself that as long as I did not personally participate it had nothing to do with me. My toleration for the anti Semitic campaign made me responsible for it.” This admission of guilt won a fair amount of sympathy from the court. The reasons he gave for being with the Nazi party was that he was taken by Hitler’s personality and also realised that if he was to achieve his dream as an architect he will have to sell his soul to the party. This image of Speer was to be accepted for a while by most historians and was given little attention. This was probably because Speer was a little less ‘spectacular’ than Hitler’s other henchmen. There were however some suspicions. John Galbraith, a member of the US team that debriefed Speer before the Nuremberg trial, said in Life magazine 1945 that Speer’s claims contained “elements of fantasy”. He also believed that Speer’s confession was a part of his “well developed strategy of self vindication and survival.”
One must understand the effects of the war on the morality of humans - everyone is fighting for survival. With these extenuating factors and wartime conditions, the narrator must forgive the dying Nazi. Karl is honest in his desperate plea for forgiveness. Therefore, the narrator should allow Karl his temporary forgiveness until God and the ones sinned upon can make their personal decision of whether his sins are indeed justifiable.