Description of the Museum
This was not my first visit to the Holocaust Museum; I attended this museum during my 12th grade year of high school. However, this time around as a graduate student, I paid more attention than I did as a 12th grader. The museum had a complete timeline of the relationship between Germany and Jewish people before, during and after the Holocaust. The museum had a mixture of pictures, videos and writings. The three exhibits that I visited were “Some were Neighbors: Collaboration & Complicity in the Holocaust, the Permanent Exhibition: The Holocaust, and Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story”. These exhibits explained the events before the Holocaust, how it affected Jewish people, and who were the people involved. The
…show more content…
They had regular jobs, children attended regular schools, and families enjoyed community activities such as shopping, movies and swimming. Once Hitler came into power, one of his objectives was to purify Germany of all Jews. He created policies and laws that discriminated against Jewish people. Daniel’s Story created a vivid description of how those policies and laws affected Jewish people. They were fired from their jobs, and if they owned businesses, people could no longer support them. Also, they were not allowed to go public swimming pools, shopping stores and movies. There were also laws that prohibited interracial mingling between Germans and Jewish people. Lastly, they were moved out of their neighborhoods, and pushed into “ghettos”.
Worldviews
Adolf Hitler created the Nazi’s anti-Jewish propaganda to manipulate and change the worldview of the Germans. This propaganda was used to make sure everyone believed and understood that Jewish people were not like Germans, but were dirty and not human. These messages were communicated through the press, schools and the radio. The Germans also did a “book burning” in which people burned books that were considered “un-German” to purify the German culture. Not all Germans had a worldview that was against Jewish people, but laws and policies made it a criminal offence to disagree.
After the Great Depression and World War I, Germany was left in a fragile state. The economy was ruined, many people were unemployed and all hope was lost. The Nazis believed it wasn’t their own fault for the mess, but those who were inferior to the German people. These Nazi beliefs lead to and result in cruelty and suffering for the Jewish people. The Nazis wanted to purify Germany and put an end to all the inferior races, including Jews, because they considered them a race.
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).
The Jewish people were targeted, hunted, tortured, and killed, just for being Jewish, Hitler came to office on January 20, 1933; he believed that the German race had superiority over the Jews in Germany. The Jewish peoples’ lives were destroyed; they were treated inhumanly for the next 12 years, “Between 1933 and 1945, more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately six million of these were Jews” (Levy). Hitler blamed a lot of the problems on the Jewish people, being a great orator Hitler got the support from Germany, killing off millions of Jews and other people, the German people thought it was the right thing to do. “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community” (History.com Staff).
The Holocaust is considered the largest genocide of our entire world, killing more than 600,000,000 Jewish people during the years of 1933-1945. The memories and history that have filled our lives that occurred during the Holocaust are constantly remembered around the world. Many populations today “think” that constant reminders allow for us to become informed and help diminish the hatred for other races still today. These scholars believe that by remembering the Holocaust, you are able to become knowledgeable and learn how to help prevent this from happening again. Since the Holocaust in a sense impacted the entire human race and history of the world, there are traces of the Holocaust all across our culture today. As I continue to remember the victims of this tragic time period I think of all the ways that our world remembers the Holocaust in today’s society. Through spreading the word, works of media and memorials across the world, I am continually reminded of the tragedy that occurred.
I think a big impact on the life of Jews would be their belief in God
The Holocaust is a period of the world’s history many heard of, but few know the extent
Holocaust Hero: A One of a Kind Man. What is a hero? A hero can be classified as a number of things. A hero can be a person who, in the opinions of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.
Millions upon millions of people were killed in the holocaust, that is just one of many genocides. There are many similarities between different genocides. Throughout history, many aggressors have started and attempted genocides and violence on the basis of someone being the "other".
Many people before the Holocaust, and before Hitler, still hated the Jews. But Hitler made it his goal to kill this imperfect race.“Born in Austria,Hitler served in the German army during World War One.”( The Holocaust) To him the Jews were an inferior race the needed to be eliminated. He thought that by using anti-semitism he would become more popular with the crowd. “While imprisoned, Hitler wrote,
Dwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
One cold, snowy night in the Ghetto I was woke by a screeching cry. I got up and looked out the window and saw Nazis taking a Jewish family out from their home and onto a transport. I felt an overwhelming amount of fear for my family that we will most likely be taken next. I could not go back to bed because of a horrid feeling that I could not sleep with.
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach,” Adolf Hitler (The National World War Museum). The German Nazi dictator utilized his power over the people using propaganda, eventually creating a sense of hatred towards Jews. After World War 1, the punishments of the League of Nations caused Germany to suffer. The Nazi party came to blame the Jews in order to have a nation-wide “scapegoat”. This hatred and prejudice towards Jews is known as anti-semitism. According to the Breman Museum, “the Nazi Party was one of the first political movements to take full advantage of mass communications technologies: radio, recorded sound, film, and the printed word” (The Breman Museum). By publishing books, releasing movies and holding campaigns against Jews, antisemitism came to grow quickly, spreading all across Germany. The Nazi Party often referred to the notion of a “People’s Community” where all of Germany was “racially pure” (Issuu). They would show images of ‘pure’, blond workers, labouring to build a new society. This appealed greatly to people who were demoralized during Germany’s defeat in World War 1 and the economic depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hitler, along with Joseph Goebbels, used developed propaganda methods in order to suppress the Jews and spread anti semitism.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum was built to honor those who were directly affected by the Holocaust. “Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never” Elie Wiesel (“Holocaust Encyclopedia”). While some believe the building of the museum was a political act for President Carter, others were very optimistic of the outcome. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was a marvelous achievement for this country and those who dedicated their time and effort to this wonderful building. This museum not only has an interesting history and opening, but exhibits inside are nothing in comparison to the statistics of this grand foundation.
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro
Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, after World War 1 when tensions were high because the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for the destruction the war caused and they were faced with the payment for all the damages, which sent Germany into economic downfall. The Nazi party got a lot of electoral votes that year in the government, and started creating propaganda against the Jews; they blamed the Jews for the terrible things happening in Germany at the time. Some of the propaganda the Nazi party made were pictures of Jews pointing out what makes them Jewish and their distinctive traits, so you can spot them. These were on the front of newspapers printed everywhere in Germany. (An Introductory History of the Holocaust) They began to take away individual rights, and picked the Jews apart. They also put the Star of David on all Jews clothing, so they could easily be spotted in public.