The Continuing Impacts Of The Holocaust: The Holocaust Analysis
analytical Essay
707 words
Noreen Minnock
Professor Katrya Byram
German 3252
13 February 2014
The Continuing Impacts of the Holocaust on Families Analyzed through German Literature
“Mainly I remember ARGUING with him… and being told that I couldn’t do anything as well as he could” – Art
“And now that you’re becoming successful, you feel bad about proving your father wrong.” – Pavel
“No matter what I accomplish, it doesn’t seem much compared to surviving Auschwitz.” Art
Maus Volume 2, Page 44
The second portion of the semester has had a focus on how the Holocaust has continued to cause devastation and familial conflict even after the war ended. Of the texts we have read, Maus by Art Speigelman and Still Alive by Ruth Kluger were two very different accounts of the Holocaust, however there was one strong continuity between the texts: the effects of the Holocaust were not exclusive to any single person or family, survivors and their offspring continued to suffer long after escaping the camps. The constant tension documented in Maus between Speigelman and his father was not exclusive to their family as Holocaust survivors; Ruth Kluger also incorporates her family struggles into her book by detailing the differences between her and her mother, even after her mother has passed away. Because their experiences differ, with Speigelman being the son of a Holocaust victim and Kluger actually enduring it, the texts took different forms, both linguistically and aesthetically, to communicate their messages of familial conflict.
Speigelman uses the selected quote to engage the reader and make them aware of how it feels to be raised by Holocaust victims, his dad in particular. In this passage, Speigelman speaks with his friend Pavel about how he has recently been experie...
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...is father did allowed the reader to really see the torment Nazi Germany brought on families. Kluger’s specific word choice – calling her mother paranoid and often eluding to the distain she felt towards her – also allowed the reader to experience the resentment among the family members. Even still, the Holocaust’s terror is not exclusive; those who endured it struggled to find their way in the world, and their family members struggle to understand why their parents act as they do sometimes, as well as how to come to terms with the fact that their parents had to endure such a terrible time.
Klüger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: Feminist at the City University of New York, 2001. Print.
Spiegelman, Art, Louise Fili, and Art Spiegelman. MAUS: A Survivor's Tale, II: And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon, 1991. Print.
In this essay, the author
- Describes the continuing impacts of the holocaust on families analyzed through german literature.
- Analyzes how maus by art speigelman and still alive by ruth kluger were two very different accounts of the holocaust.
- Analyzes how speigelman uses the selected quote to engage the reader and make them aware of how it feels to be raised by holocaust victims, his dad in particular.
- Analyzes how kluger's first-hand account of her survival of the holocaust documents her life before, during, and after the war.
- Analyzes how each book took a different form to explain how the holocaust impacted their family. speigelman accompanying the selected quote with the physical deflation of the image, changing the proportions, and saying how he simply cannot succeed at something as amazingly as his father did allowed the reader to see the torment nazi germany brought on families.
Related
- opinionated
- analytical
- explanatory
- argumentative
- The Holocaustopinionated essayThe world that people lived in during the Holocaust is described by the personal experiences of the oppressed throughout the story Jack and Rochelle, written by Jack and Rochelle Sutin, and the memoir by Alexander Donat titled The Holocaust Kingdom. The horrifying mindset of the oppressors, particularly the Nazi`s, is illustrated in both books. The vicious and relentless emotional, physical, and psychological abuse the Nazi`s targeted at their victims is depicted in detail. The unspeakable cruelty received by the Jews dramatically altered their state of mind and how they lived their lives. The emotions of despair, distress, depression, hopelessness, helplessness felt by the Jews eventually turn to hate, anger, hopefulness, faith, and ultimately revenge against all oppressors.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the holocaust experience is described by the personal experiences of the oppressed in jack and rochelle and alexander donat's memoir, the holocaust kingdom.
- Explains that the holocaust was a traumatic and tragic time in history. jack and rochelle, both families were used to some form of oppression.
- Opines that hitler is coming and hell off the heads of all you jews. jack and rochelle would tell them that it was worth losing their independence just to get rid of the jews
- Narrates how jack experienced mistreatment even before the germans came. he attended a grade school where he was singled out for special criticism.
- Explains how jack and rochelle knew that they couldn't stay in poland. they knew there was no freedom, no future for them.
- Explains that they knew jews were hated in poland from the time they were two, three years old.
- Explains how the soviets invaded poland on september 1, 1939, and turned on their russian allies who were caught by the nazi blitzkrieg and did not put up much fight.
- Illustrates how jack's mindset changed him into a braver individual who would try to take some control of his life.
- Explains that the group was doing their best to survive, even to resist, but no one expected to come out alive from that hell. the main thing was not to be taken alive by the germans.
- Illustrates how jack and the rest of his group would go on food raids to stay alive. they would pick farms owned by nazi sympathizers and located only two miles from german police headquarters.
- Analyzes how donant and others described the horrors of the german occupation in the holocaust kingdom.
- Opines that the jews fought back against their enemies to a degree no other community anywhere in the world would have been capable of.
- Opines that no quote can even illustrate the horrible things experienced by the unfortunate victims during the holocaust, but this quote seems somewhat adequate. the jewish people were heroic during this embarrassing time for the human race.
- Opines that the traumatic experience of the camps has deeply scarred many unfortunate prisoners during the holocaust.
1569 wordsRead More - Maus Two by Art Spiegelmananalytical essayArt Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of the Holocaust.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how spiegelman's maus ii is a book that tells more than the story of one family’s struggle to live through the holocaust.
- Analyzes how spiegelman believed that his parents thought that richieu was the perfect child; unlike art, he would have made all the right choices. pavel is a survivor like his father and mother.
- Analyzes how art has a hard time dealing with the feeling that no matter what he accomplishes it will never equal the fact his parents survived auschwitz.
- Analyzes how vladek calls art richieu because he is proud of what his son has done and sees no difference between the two.
444 wordsRead More - By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how vladek's behavior leads him to become emotionally disconnected from his son. in flora hogman’s “trauma and identity,” the first generation of holocaust survivors transfer their struggle to express pain on to the following generations.
- Describes spiegelman's maus ii: a survivor’s tale: and here my troubles began.
- Analyzes how art spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about his parents, vladek and anja, before and during the holocaust.
- Analyzes how art's emotional growth is shattered because of his father’s behavior.
1130 wordsRead More - Genocideanalytical essayLiving through genocide is a horrific tragedy that no one should ever have to endure. While there have been numerous genocides within the last century, the holocaust was a genocide that killed over 12 million innocent people and segregated them by religion, sex and age. Since the end of the holocaust, many survivors wrote their stories accounting the horrific lives they led, while some eliminated parts of their story, others felt that it was necessary to show the entirety of what had occurred. With these first hand accounts, the reader is able to see the differences between how men and women lived their everyday lives as well as how they were treated by Hitler’s regime. In Elie Wiesel’s, Night, and Sara Nomberg-Przytyk’s, True Tales from a Grotesque Land, Auschwitz, men and women prisoners lived lives that the everyday reader would find impossible. By reading these accounts, the readers can question themselves as to why this occurred as well as to why it matters.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that living through genocide is a horrific tragedy that no one should ever have to endure. the holocaust killed over 12 million innocent people and segregated them by religion, sex and age.
- Analyzes how elie wiesel, who entered the holocaust at a young age, made decisions that would benefit his family by falsifying his age.
- Analyzes how elie's dependence on his father became a challenge during the holocaust. he stood petrified and questioned why he didn't say anything.
- Analyzes how elie was a spoiled child who refused to eat the food he liked before entering the camps.
- Analyzes how elie's peers were interested in what was going on within the camps sexually, meaning when people were having relations with others.
- Analyzes how sara nomberg-przytyk, living with other women in auschwitz, changed her life forever.
- Addresses the concept of humanitarianism and what it is meant to be humane.
- Argues that the overlying image of genocide is important for people to learn about. elie wiesel's, night, and sara nomberg-przytyk’s true tales from a grotesque land, auschwitz, preserve the history of the men and women within the holocaust.
1567 wordsRead More - The Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victimsexplanatory essay"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how adolf hitler promised germany a new age, an age of prosperity, and that his 'perfect race', the aryans, would be dominant in cultural sense.
- Explains that the germans identified each group with a triangular patch sewn onto the people’s clothes. they also placed letters on the patches showing the country of origin of each person.
- Explains that the roma gypsies, like the jews, were chosen for complete genocide based on their respective race. they were not respected throughout history and denied certain basic rights within countries.
- Explains that the pols were part of a larger group of people known as the slavs. they were not characterized by religion or physical trait, but because of the area of their birth.
- Explains that when the nazi party came to power, the members of the communist and socialist parties resisted its takeover. the nazis sent most of them to concentration camps where they were considered political prisoners.
- Describes how the 'euthanasia project' was secretly used by the nazis to kill the mentally and physically handicapped in the holocaust.
- Explains that jehovah's witnesses were persecuted based on religion, like the jews. they refused to salute flags, raise their arms to hitler, and serve in the german army.
- Explains that hitler's view of a perfect world, homosexuals were not part of it and deserved to be killed.
- Explains that african-german people were persecuted based on their skin color and lineage. during world war i, germany brought in africans to help fight the war.
873 wordsRead More - The Effect of the Holocaust on the Children of the Survivorsanalytical essayIn the years after the Holocaust the survivors from the concentration camps tried to cope with the horrors of the camps and what they went through and their children tried to understand not only what happened to their parents. In the story of Maus, these horrors are written down by the son of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek. Maus is not only a story of the horrors of the concentration camps, but of a son, Artie, working through his issues with his father, Vladek. These issues are shown from beginning to end and in many instances show the complexity of the father-son relationship that was affected from the Holocaust. Maus not only shows these matters of contentions, but that the Holocaust survivors constantly put their children’s experiences to unreasonable standards of the parent’s Holocaust experiences.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the son of a holocaust survivor, vladek, wrote maus' horrors down to show the complexity of the father-son relationship affected by the holocaust.
- Analyzes how spiegelman's story if maus shows the complexity of the father-son relationship that was affected from the holocaust.
- Analyzes how vladek's animadversion touched artie, and how his mother was more supportive of him. the depth of the trauma people endure from their parents' torture shows the embedded and deep rooted mental instability.
- Concludes that maus represents the strife of the survivors while in the concentration camps, as well as the children surviving their parents' comparisons and expectations.
- Explains spiegelman, art. maus i: a survivor's tale: my father bleeds history. new york: pantheon, 1992.
593 wordsRead More - A Comparison Of The Life Of Maus By Vladek Spiegelmananalytical essayThe Holocaust is one of the most horrific and gruesome events in world history. It took a great toll on millions of lives in one way or another. One person in particular is Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor. Maus, by Art Spiegelman, consists of two main narratives. One narrative occurs during World War II in Poland, and the other begins in the late 1970s in New York. In relation to each other these two narratives portray the past and present.Throughout the novel, we often see Art Spiegelman questioning why his father acts the way he does. Although the war is over, the events of the Holocaust continue to influence the life of Vladek. Why do we allow the past to effect the present? Vladek's personality is largely influenced by his Holocaust experience. In Maus I and II, Vladek was stubborn, selfish, and cheap because of his experiences in the Holocaust.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the holocaust took a great toll on millions of lives, and vladek spiegelman's personality is influenced by his holocaust experience.
- Analyzes how vladek's relationship with his second wife, mala, is strained and lacking love from both ends. he is kind, caring, wealthy, and charming.
- Analyzes how vladek shows that he is not a compassionate and understanding person. he manages to make it through the holocaust experience with luck and his wits.
- Analyzes how vladek became cheap and stingy with food, money, and other valuables during the holocaust. he was a wise businessman who kept everything and put it to good use.
- Analyzes how vladek has never fully recovered from the horrors of the holocaust. the holocaust affects each survivor differently.
717 wordsRead More - The Use Of Humor In Art Spiegelman's Mausanalytical essayIn Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how spiegelman's maus is an emotional story of a holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with , who is his son, and his wife.
- Analyzes how spiegelman's humor helps detach the reader from the tragic events of the holocaust.
- Analyzes how vladek tries to keep as much humor as he can for his family, even though their situation could be so much better.
- Analyzes how vladek's inner story and his outer story are humored by the relationship between his father and , art.
- Analyzes how humor displays outer story relationships between vladek and his second wife, mala.
- Analyzes how spiegelman manipulates the inner and outer story to allow glimpses of humor to break up the horrendous events that happened during the holocaust.
1269 wordsRead More - The Holocaustexplanatory essayDwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
In this essay, the author
- Explains how the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was approved unanimously in 1948.
- Explains that adolf hitler gained support by promoting anti-semitism with charismatic oratory and propaganda and transformed the weimar republic into the third reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of nazism
- Describes heinrich himmler's role as reichsführer of the ss, a military commander, and leading nazi party member. he oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the gestapo.
- Explains reinhard heydrich, a high-ranking german nazi official, chaired the wannsee conference in 1942, which discussed plans for the deportation and extermination of all jews in german-occupied territories.
- Explains that adolf otto eichmann was a german nazi and ss-lieutenant colonel and one major organizers of the holocaust. he was charged with the task of simplifying and managing the logistics of mass deportation of jews to ghettos and extermination camps in german-occupied eastern europe.
- Explains that richard glücks was a high-ranking nazi official directly responsible for the forced labor of the camp inmates.
- Describes rudolf ferdinand höss, a ss-lieutenant colonel, who was the first commandant of auschwitz.
- Explains that christian wirth was a german police and ss officer during the program to exterminate the jewish people of poland during world war ii.
- Explains that germans blamed the jews for all their misfortunes, including their lack of food, their defeat in world war i, and high interest loans on the government’s purchase of weaponry.
- Explains that jewish teachers were fired regardless of their education, teaching ability or accomplishments. the nazis warned that the jews were threats to germany and world peace, which made the schools a hostile place for the jewish students.
- Explains that the treaty of versailles installed a democratic government called the weimar republic, unaccustomed to democracy; many germans had little faith in their president and elected reichstag.
- Explains that jews were not allowed to participate in politics, nor had professions like doctors or lawyers. they were initially in the ghettos, where they were isolated from the society.
- Narrates how jewish homes and businesses were vandalized, doors and windows broken, about 800 were destroyed, and synagogues burned to aches. insurance companies did not cover the costs for repairs.
- Explains that concentration camps and extermination camps were built by germany in their territory or in occupied territories. the number of camps increased during the years 1939 to 1943.
- Cites buignion, françois (2002-11-05). "dialogue with the past: the icrc and the nazi death camps".
- Explains bartoletti, susan campbell, and hitler youth.
- States that dwork, deborah, and r. j. van pelt. holocaust: a history. new york: norton, 2002.
- Analyzes samantha power's "a problem from hell": america and the age of genocide.
- Describes gottfried, ted, and stephen alcorn's deniers of the holocaust. brookfield, ct: twenty-first century, 2001.
- Explains goldhagen, daniel jonah, hitler's willing executioners: ordinary germans and the holocaust.
- Explains the term anti-semitism, which refers to the prejudice or hostility against the jews.
- Explains that anti-semitism became a political force in germany after the historian heinrich von treitschke's article stating that "the jews are our misfortune". nazi propagandists used propaganda to create external and internal enemies.
- Explains that the sanctions of the treaty of versailles in 1919 forced germany to relinquish its territories and pay an enormous sum of money as reparations for war damages.
- Explains how hitler established an absolute dictatorship, requiring officers and men to take an oath of allegiance to hitler. hitler invited the austrian chancellor, kurt von schuschnigg, to bertesgarden and forced him to sign an agreement.
- Explains that the reichstag members approved hitler's request to suspend civil rights, including the sanctity of the home, the privacy of mail phone conversations, and the freedom of speech, press and assembly. anti-semitism became a nazi government policy in 1935.
- Explains that the évian conference was held in 1938 to free jews from their persecutors, but internal situations in those countries did not allow them to get results. the international committee of the red cross did little to save jews during the holocaust.
- Opines that society has to remember the events in the world during the nazi dominion and to avoid events like the spanish inquisition, napoleonic wars, world war i, especially the holocaust.
2615 wordsRead More - The Plight of Groups: The Holocaust and Slaveryargumentative essayWilliams, Sandra. “The Impact of the Holocaust on the Survivors and their Children.” at http://www.sandrawilliams.org/HOLOCAUST/holocaust.html, 1993
In this essay, the author
- Explains that jews had no home to return to, and many anti-jews started riots against their jewish neighbors in order for them to leave.
- Analyzes the impact of the holocaust on survivors and their children.
- Compares the effects of segregation in the aftermath of the holocaust and africans through american slavery.
- Opines that the arab-israeli war was their fight for freedom, but it still continues in wars to this day.
- Compares the struggles of african americans and blacks in the 20th century. the black power movement was aimed at achieving racial pride.
- Compares how the jews and blacks used their backgrounds to bring themselves together and make them stronger. the jews fought for their rights throughout and after the holocaust.
1079 wordsRead More