Denmark During World War II
“The one condition necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” ( Levine vii) said Edmund Burke, an eighteenth century political philosopher. Unfortunately this is what happened in many countries all over Europe during World War II. However due to special circumstances in Denmark, the Nazis did not succeed in spreading the evils that they did in other countries there. Although it was partially due to convenient location of the country, mainly because the Danes wanted to stay independent and not be occupied by the Germans, they were motivated to resist them and save their fellow citizens, the Danish Jews.
At the beginning of the salvation of the Danish Jews, their rescuers helped them because they had been living together for many years, and did not find anything wrong with them. However as the war progressed, the Danes were also motivated to save the Jews as an act of defiance towards the Nazis. Most of the Danes did not support Germany, and would do what they could to resist the German power. As a country, Denmark had wanted to stay free, like it had been during World War I, but after Germany invaded, this was no longer possible.
Germany had many reasons for choosing to invade Denmark. The country had railroads to Sweden, for supplies, and was close to Norway, so they could attack. Denmark also served as a buffer between Germany and the Allied forces, including Britain. Also, because of Denmark’s good farm land, the
German soldiers who were stationed there were able to get enough to eat. They referred to Denmark as the “Whipped Cream Front”, since it was easier to serve there than to fight anywhere else.
The Germans did not ...
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...ey were for Jews during the Holocaust, there will always be at least one person who still has a sense of morality and is willing to help.
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Yahil, Leni. The rescue of Danish Jewry, test of a democracy.. [1st ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969. Print.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited “About Simon Wiesenthal.” – Simon Wiesenthal Center. N.p., n.d. Web.
Murders inflicted upon the Jewish population during the Holocaust are often considered the largest mass murders of innocent people, that some have yet to accept as true. The mentality of the Jewish prisoners as well as the officers during the early 1940’s transformed from an ordinary way of thinking to an abnormal twisted headache. In the books Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary men by Christopher R. Browning we will examine the alterations that the Jewish prisoners as well as the police officers behaviors and qualities changed.
In a short story called, “Thank you ma’am”, the author is trying to convey the theme, or message, of the importance of showing random acts of kindness towards others to help institute change. Mrs.J show one act of kindness when she washes his face. Another when she makes Roger food at her house. Mrs.J is kind and shows multiple examples throughout the story.
The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men provides a graphic portrayal of Police Battalion 101's involvement in the Holocaust. The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent.
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...
After World War I, there was a spiritual void left within the people of Germany. The outcome of the war had ripped the German society along the class lines causing great stress and tension among the people. The people of Germany had believed all along that they were winning the war, and therefore the news of surrender came as a great shock to them. To make things worse, the peace treaty established placed the entire fault of the war on Germany and left them responsible for paying for the costs of the war for all who were involved. This sparked a conflict between the middle and working classes in society. Then, the depression followed, creating even more unhappiness among the people. With all of this unhappiness because of the class divisions and the depression, the Nazi...
Jacob G. Hornberger“Holocaust Resistance: The White Rose - A Lesson in Dissent” Jewish Virtual Library April 11 2014.
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Norton, James. The Holocaust: Jews, Germany, and the National Socialists. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2009. Print.
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Buergenthal, Thomas. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy. New York: Little, Brown, 2009.
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.
“I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.” A quote given by a holocaust upstander, Raoul Gustav Wallenberg. Raoul Gustav Wallenberg, along with many others, helped Jewish people escape from Nazi’s during the holocaust. He was one of many who helped hide Jews, and or helped Jews escape the holocaust horrors, proving that he is an upstander to the holocaust.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
"Cracking The Code Of Genocide: The Moral Psychology Of Rescuers, Bystanders, And Nazis During The Holocaust." Political Psychology 29.5 (2008): 699-736. Business Source Premier. Web. The Web.