George R.R. Martin once wrote, “Memories, the bones of the soul”. Memories create the structure of our mindset. It helps to keep iconic instants in remembrance and even some not so significant moments. It has been over sixty years since the Holocaust and this tragedy is still recalled by billions of people which will be passed down and recollected by future generations. It has been chronicled in hundreds of texts, films, photos which are based primarily on several eye-witnesses testimonials. It is fortunate enough that all these forms of acknowledgements have kept the memory alive of all those that have suffered during that time.
It is a painful recollection to keep looking back. The Holocaust was a terrible atrocity that was once underestimated at first and then snowballed into a mass genocide. It is important for the present and future generations to be aware of the event in an effort to not have a repeat of this historical situation. As it once was said by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. The memories of our history help us learn from our past and live for a better future. By remembering the Holocaust, it honors the victims and their stories as they give us a glimpse into their life-altering experience.
One of the major forms of historical documentation that most people are first exposed to is writing. It begins with excerpts in the grammar school history books and then usually transitions into autobiographical accounts such as “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank and even fictional pieces such as the ever popular “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. It gives the younger audience some insight into the Holocaust without being far too explicit. Adult literature includes more ...
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...Holocaust, it only displays so much. With the internet at everyone’s fingertips and simply typing “Holocaust” into a Google search engine, over 16 billion sources pop up in less than 1 second. With an abundant amount of information that is way more accessible to us compared to the 1940’s it is plain to see how one can take all of the hand-held information for granted.
It may seem that with all of the sources easily available, it may not be a concern that one might forget details about the Holocaust or forget that it even happened. There are movies on Netflix, there are e-books that can be downloaded, and even a university’s library database has various articles and journals uploaded for your convenience. With all that is readily available at our disposal, it is simple to think that there will always be the required and necessary informational accounts accessible.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Elie Wiesel) The Holocaust is a topic that is still not forgotten and is used by many people, as a motivation, to try not to repeat history. Many lessons can be taught from learning about the Holocaust, but to Eve Bunting and Fred Gross there is one lesson that could have changed the result of this horrible event. The Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting, and The Child of the Holocaust, by Fred Gross, both portray the same moral meaning in their presentations but use different evidence and word choice to create an overall
The Holocaust Explained, The Holocaust Explained. National Education Network, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
So why do we study the Holocaust? Is it to know of Adolf Hitler's madness or know about a large part of World War II? I believe it is to know how to recognize and stop something like the Holocaust from ever happening again. It is like Edmund Burke said, "All tyrany needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." The Holocaust gained it's foodhold because we didn't know what was happening so we remained silent. A lot of the suffering and pain could've been prevented if we had simply realized what was going on. Another one of Edmund's quotes is that, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." That is why we must learn and know about the Holocaust so that we do not repeat our mistakes of the past.
For many educated people learning about the Holocaust can send them feelings of sorrow or deep remource. Not only for the meaning of the word, but why it is called that. The pure evil of the final solution created thought of and created by none other than Adolf Hitler will never stop haunting people more than half a decade later. One of the prominat things that everyone missed in his highly sold auto-biography "My struggle". The thought of solid hatrid found within the cover of the horiable book will always burn in the souls that it harmed from the day it began till the dawn of today.
The Holocaust was one of the biggest disasters the world has ever seen. More than 1.5 million children were murdered 1.2 Jewish children, along with thousands of gypsy children, and thousands of handicapped children. The effects of the Holocaust can be felt today, not only by what we learn and read, but by those who have endured the pain of the Holocaust and saw their friends and family being tortured and killed. They victims will never forget, they will always remember.
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).
Evens, Richard; Gotfried, Ted; Lipsadt, Deborah; Zimmerman ,John; Sherman, Michael; Globman, Alex. “Holocaust Encyclopedia.” http://www.ushmm.org United States Holocaust
We need to remember the Holocaust because of all the Jewish people who died and the people who tried to save them. In the book “Book Thief”, the family risked their lives to help one of their friends who was Jewish. If the Nazis found out about the Jewish person in their basement they would take the whole family to the death camp with the Jewish friend. Also in the “Boys who challenged Hitler”, a group of boys who lived in Denmark, risked their Life’s to save Jewish people by putting them on rafts to float over to Sweden. They did that because Sweden was a free country and the Nazi’s did not have control over them.
Because of the length of the war and the devastation of this genocide, Germany will forever be remembered for the Holocaust and the effect it had on multiple people groups. This event sparked from the idea of absolute supremacy and would continue until the damage was complete. People’s views of the German population and the Jewish people alike will be changed, and the Holocaust forever remembered as one of the largest racist genocides in
The Holocaust was an extremely horrific period of history. Millions were killed and lost everything, including money, family, and dignity. However, it has taught many lessons. We can study it today to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
The Holocaust is one of the most learned about events in history. The question is, why do we learn about it? We choose to keep the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in our minds and the minds of our children to keep it from ever happening again. The United Nations was formed to keep another World War from happening. We study the Holocaust so that we can identify the early stages of genocide and stop it before it starts. We put so much effort studying history to keep it from repeating itself.
The holocaust is a incredibly difficult for some people to discuss with others depending on their extent of connection to the event. It is believed to be the worst genocide known to man by many people. This explains discomfort many people experience when discussing the subject. People debate if the absolutely horrific events of World War II will be forgotten as generations pass. Survivors have many different ways of never forgetting the events that happened to them. Some people feel that it is better to completely wipe these events from memory because they do not want to remember what happened to them, while others want to tell all of society of tragic events hoping to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. Many people debate which method is best to never
The imagination and the ability to empathize with others is the key to living a wider life, a key to escaping the prison of a limited self. But, imagination and identification are also menacing. As we read and listen to the words of survivors, as we study the Holocaust from all points of view, our imaginations threaten us. As I pick up Elie Wiesel's novel Night, I take the Holocaust in my hands, and I hear children's' voices in the dark. I am afraid for them and for myself. First, I am afraid my imagination will fail me, and I will be overwhelmed. The terror and humiliation of the Holocaust may so numb me that I will go into "shock." I will isolate myself, deny everything -- suffering, empathy, mercy, family, God. I will experience what Wiesel experienced when his father was struck and he did nothing (36-37), or, in the end, I will abandon my father. Wiesel says to me, "I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn an...
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
... survivors often felt indebted to their parents and searched for ways to honor those who survived and remember those who died. The children of survivors will forever be unable to understand the full extent of what their parents went through. While talking to his father about a stolen box, Spiegelman has a revelation. ‘“You left the box in the barrack? How could it not be taken?” “I didn’t think on it…” “But everyone was starving to death! Sigh- I guess I just don’t understand” “Yes… About Auschwitz, nobody can understand.”’ (Spiegelman, 224). It is difficult, maybe even impossible to fully understand the magnitude of the Holocaust and its impact on not just one generations, but multiple generations after. Questions still remain. Questions will always remain. “Nobody can understand.”