Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal life and legends were extraordinary, he has expired people in many ways and was an iconic figure in modern Jewish history. Szyman Wiesenthal (was his real named and later named Simon) was born on December 31 in Buczacz, Galicia (which is now a part of Ukraine) in 1908. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Humanistic Gymnasium (a high school) in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University
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Until 1939 their life together was happy, then when Germany and Russia signed their "non-aggression" pact and agreed to partition Poland between them; the Russian army soon occupied Lvov, and shortly afterward began the Red purge of Jewish merchants, factory owners and other professionals. In the purge of "bourgeois" elements that followed the Soviet occupation of Lvov Oblast at the beginning of World War II, Wiesenthal's stepfather was arrested by the NKVD which was known as a public police force. (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs - Soviet Secret Police) and eventually died in prison, his stepbrother was shot, and Wiesenthal himself, forced to close his business, became a mechanic in a bedspring factory. He saved himself, his wife, and his mother later by bribing an NKVD commissar from deportation to Siberia. When the Russians were displaced by the Germans in 1941, a former employee of his, then serving the collaborationist Ukrainian Auxiliary police, helped him to escape execution by the Nazis. But he did not escape incarceration. Following the initial detention in the Janowska concentration camp just outside Lvov, he and his wife were assigned to the forced labor camp serving the Ostbahn Works, the repair shop for Lvov's Eastern Railroad. (“Simon
The Book Night was the autobiography of Eliezer Wiesel. This was a horrible and sobering tale of his life story. The story takes place in Sighet, Translyvania. It's the year 1941 and World War II is occurring. Eliezer was 12 at this time and wasn't really aware of what was occurring in the world concerning the Jewish people. He had a friend who went by the name Moshe the Beadle. Moshe was very good friend of Elezers'.
Must one forget before one can forgive? Forgiveness involves not holding a sin against a person any longer, but forgiveness is a decision of the will. Since we cannot selectively remove events from our memory, it is impossible to truly forget sins that have been committed against us. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, in his book The Sunflower, writes of an experience that occurred when he was a prisoner in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. He recounts a day when he was taken from work and lead to the bedside of a dying man. The dying man Karl, a member of the SS, confessed to Simon about his dreadful act for he sought absolution from a Jew. As Karl begs for Wiesenthal to forgive him, Wiesenthal remained silent and walked away. Wiesenthal’s purpose is to argue whether the inhumane acts of the SS should be forgiven. Because
Elie wiesel born sep 30 1928 in sighet , Transylvania. Elie wiesel overcame many things in his life . But one of the things are fear that he will die also there was starvation that took place and that is the most terriblest thing that can happen. Also there was death of the many jews and his mother and sisters. These adversities made Wiesel become the man he is today; he is truly a humanitarian.
callous to the death of their peers, and going so far as to murder fellow
Forgiveness is to stop feeling angry, to stop blaming someone for the way they made a person feel, and stop feeling victims of whatever wickedness was directed towards them. Is forgiveness necessary? Can everyone be forgiven despite the circumstances? If forgiveness depends on the situation, then is it necessary at all? Does forgiveness allow someone to continue their life in peace? Is forgiving someone who causes physical pain to someone, as a pose to forgiving someone who murdered a member of the family the same? If someone can forgive one of these acts so easily can the other be forgiven just as easy? Forgiveness allows for someone to come to terms with what they have experienced. In the case of murder forgiveness is necessary because it allows for someone to be at peace with themselves knowing they no longer have to live with hatred. It also allows someone to begin a new life with new gained experience and different perspectives on life. Forgiveness is necessary from a moral perspective because it allows someone to get rid of hatred and find peace within him or herself to move on with their lives.
“The Perils of Indifference” In April, 1945, Elie Wiesel was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp after struggling with hunger, beatings, losing his entire family, and narrowly escaping death himself. He at first remained silent about his experiences, because it was too hard to relive them. However, eventually he spoke up, knowing it was his duty not to let the world forget the tragedies resulting from their silence. He wrote Night, a memoir of his and his family’s experience, and began using his freedom to spread the word about what had happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again.
On June 19, 1953, there came an end to what would become known as “the trial of the century”. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted for being Soviet spies and leaking crucial information about the creation of atomic weapons to the Soviet Union. They were sentenced to death and executed by use of the electric chair, leaving behind two orphaned children. However, they have never admitted to committing this crime and their involvement in the leaking of the so-called Manhattan Project was never thoroughly proved. Their execution came to be known as one of the main events characteristic of the Cold War environment in the United States of the 1950s, which was influenced by the phenomenon of McCarthyism. This essay will examine the Rosenberg Case up close. It will first look at the course of their trial. Then it will take a step back and describe the Cold War environment in which the trial took place, which was being dominated by anti-communist sentiment, the Red Scare and Joseph McCarthy. In combining these two sections, this essay will seek to explain how the Rosenberg Case neglected American values of freedom and tolerance, and how this neatly fitted the environment of the Cold War.
• On Rosh Hashanah, Eliezer says, “My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now.…” (page 68) Eliezer isdescribing himself at a religious service attended by ten thousand men, including his own father. What do you think he means when he says that he is alone? In what sense is he alone?
“99 subhuman Jews in the row, 99 subhuman Jews! Shoot one down, kick it around, 98 subhuman Jews in the row!” ~ Concentration camp worker during the holocaust. How could you begin to describe what’s always said to be such a horrible and tragic event? The Holocaust or Final Solution only seems as bad equal to the amount the person describing it values human life. To answer all of the topics presented to me I will be discussing the following; What is meant by “The Holocaust” or “Final Solution”, Why the Jewish were dehumanized, The choices made during the Holocaust, and My personal view on events that took place during the holocaust.
Six million perished in the flames, mass shootings and gas chambers of concentration camps during the Holocaust. This started when the Nazi party established a “Final Solution” that sought out to eradicate the inferior Jewish race from Germany and the world (“Holocaust”). A person cannot look at this event and see nothing except for the dark, evil side of human nature. However, if a person looks at the Holocaust from a survivor’s point of view, they can see the good side of human nature, especially if someone looks at it from Elie Wiesel’s perspective. Elie Wiesel and his family were Romanian Jews who were, unfortunately, swept into the Holocaust’s horrors. Elie managed to escape the Holocaust using tools of survival, including love for family and impassivity. He did not let being a victim of the Holocaust define him, so Elie moved on to become an inspirational figure that represented and spoke out for all of those who constantly suffer due to the oppressive aspects of society. No one could have predicted such an outcome that is Elie Wiesel’s life story in the face of catastrophe like the Holocaust.
11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, 6 million of which were Jews. Night is Elie Wiesel’s autobiography that takes place during the Holocaust. In his book, Elie quickly loses faith in every aspect of his life during his harsh journey. He begins to lose all faith in himself, in mankind, and in God.
”Lie down on it! On your belly! I obeyed. I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. One! Two! He took time between the lashes. Ten eleven! Twenty-three. Twenty four, twenty five! It was over. I had not realized it, but I fainted” (Wiesel 58). It was hard to imagine that a human being just like Elie Wiesel would be treating others so cruelly. There are many acts that Elie has been through with his father and his fellow inmates. Experiencing inhumanity can affect others in a variety of ways. When faced with extreme inhumanity, The people responded by becoming incredulous, losing their faith, and becoming inhumane themselves.
What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind.
According to the definition, inhumane is described as an individual without compassion for misery or sufferings. The novel Night by the author Elie Wiesel, illustrates some aspects of inhumanity throughout the book. It is evident in the novel that when full power is given to operate without restraint, the person in power becomes inhumane. There are many examples of inhumanity in this novel. For instance, "Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky." Through this quote Elie is explaining his first night at camp and what he saw will be in his head forever - unforgettable. In my opinion, the section in the novel when the Germans throw the babies into the chimney is very inhuman. An individual must feel no sympathy or feelings in order to take such a disturbing action. In addition to that "For more than half an hour stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed." This is also very inhumane example since the child's weight wasn’t enough to snap his neck when he was hung and so he is slowly dying painful death as all Jewish people walk by him, being forced to watch the cruelty.
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928. Elie is a writer, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and surviver of the Holocaust. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a “messenger to mankin”. Elie was born in Sighet, a small town in Romania, to his father Shlomo and Mother Sarah Wiesel. Elie Wiesel had three sisters: Hilda and Bea, who were older than he, and Tzipora, who was the youngest in the family. On May 16, 1944, the Hungarian authorities deported the Jewish community, including Elie and his family, in Sighet to Auschwitz – Birkenau. Auschwitz was the first camp Elie was sent to. On January 28, 1945, just a few weeks after the two were marched to Buchenwald and only months before the camp was liberated by the American Army on April 11. Sadly Wiesel's father suffered from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion, and was later sent to the crematoria. The last word his father spoke was “Eliezer”, Elie's name. After the war, Elie was placed in a French orphanage, where he learned the French language and was soon reunited with his two older sisters, Hilda and Bea (Tzipora was murdered at the camps), who had also survived the war. In 1948, Elie began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. Elie also taught hebrew, and was a choir master before going on to becoming a Journalist, for Israli and French newspapers.