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the history of holocaust and its effects
the history of holocaust and its effects
the history of holocaust and its effects
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The Jewish Holocaust was a tragic event in world history. The containment and extermination of the Jews and other minority groups began on January 30, 1933 and lasted until May 8, 1945. During this horrific period in time millions of lives were lost. The Jewish community alone lost nearly a million people per year. In total throughout all of Europe sixty-three percent of the Jewish population was estimated to have been killed (Rutgers University). That's a total of 5,962,129 Jews. Only 3,546,211 Jewish people survived the Holocaust. 1600 of those 3,546,211 Jews lived to share their stories of horror and survival because of a greedy businessman who needed workers to make him money. That man was Oskar Schindler. Oskar was a drinker, a gambler, a cheater, a liar, and a money hungry egoist with a taste for the luxuries that life had to offer. And he was a Nazi, go figure. But according to Steven Spielberg, director of Schindler's List, Oskar Schindler was a decent man, not a saint, just a decent man.
Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908, in Svitavy (Zwittau), Moravia, it is located on the Czechoslovakian side of the German border, with the border running through the town (United Holocaust Memorial Museum). He spent his youth working in various factories and other business ventures like opening a driving school and selling government property in Brno (UHMM). He married Emilie Pelzl in 1928 before joining the Czechoslovakian army at the beginning of WWII where he rose to the rank of lance corporal in the reserves. A year later he joined the Nazi party. It was only after the invasion and occupation of Poland that he moved to Krakow. In the film he made this decision to take advantage of the new business opportunit...
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Marrus, Michael R. “The Holocaust in History”. University Press of New England. 1987. p 126.
Rutgers University. “Holocaust Statistic”. April 28, 2013. Web. February 5, 2014.
Schindler's List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal. 1993. DVD.
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Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist during World War II. As a greedy businessman, he was looking to profit from the times. He took over an enamelware factory in Krakow Poland, after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. He used cheap Jewish labor in his factory to manufacture and sell pots and pans to the German Army. By 1941, he had become very wealthy from his efforts. He had power, prestige, and wealth beyond compare – he had it all, and gave little thought to what (or whose) expense he had gained it.
The effect the Holocaust had on Wiesenthal played a major role on the person he made himself to be. Born on December 31, 1908, Simon Wiesenthal lived in Buczacz, Germany which is now known as the Lvov Oblast section of the Ukraine. The Nazi-Hunter came from a small Jewish family who suffered horrifically during the Holocaust (The Simon Wiesenthal Center). Wiesenthal spent a great amount of time trying to survive in the harsh conditions while in internment camps and after escaping the last camp he attended. Wiesenthal spent weeks traveling through the wilderness until he was eventually captured by the Allies, still wondering the entire time if his wife was even alive (The Simon Wiesenthal Center). Of the 3000 prisoners in the camp Wiesenthal escaped from, only 1200 survived and Wiesenthal was one of them (Holocaust Research Project). Once Simon was safe, he began working for the War Crimes Section of the United States Army and was later reunited with his wife (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The two were under the impression that their spouse was dead. After their reunification, they had their first child in 1946 (Holocaust Research Project). Wiesenthal opened a Jewish...
Oskar Schindler was the protagonist of the film and is portrayed throughout the story as wealthy, alcoholic and also appears to be a womaniser given the historical accuracy of his personal features shows how useful it is for historians. Schindler is given an approval to open up a factory and manufacture army kits by upper class Nazi officers. During the holocaust the SS or the Schutzstaffel which are Nazi officers would sell to Nazi members newly destroyed Jewish business and property . This would mean that this would have easily of happened considering that Schindler was a fast talking money hungry person. His biography indicates that he was a very arrogant man and only cared about profit so when he heard that Jews cost lest for more labour he instantly bought upon that idea. He was an opportunist and was motivated by profit . He did witness a Ghetto raid in 1942...
As it is said that during wars, a third party always benefits; the movie also shows how a Nazi-Czech business man (who is more of an opportunist and war profiteer) Oskar Schindler, uses Jewish laborers to start a factory pre-occupied in Poland. As a member of the Nazi party, Schindler is essentially politically driven and knows how to deal with the bureaucracy and those in power to get what he wants. Over time, he gets deeply affected by the treatment to Jews and begins to take steps to protect around 1500 people who worked for him. He was successful in convincing the authorities to build a new factory where the employees were interned and goes out of his way to hire those who face the rage of the camp commandant, Amon Goeth. When the camp is closed, he somehow manages to transfer "his" Jews to a new factory in Czechoslovakia. During all the hardships and struggle when the train carrying the women is diverted to Auschwitz, Schindler races to free them using a part of his fortune and his power to have them released. By the end of the war, Schindler has lost everything but has managed to save the lives of around 1100 of his employees. As World War II progressed, and the fate of the Jews became more and more clear, Schindler's motivations switched from profit to human sympathy, and Schindlerjuden, (literally translated as Schindler Jews) a new community was formed of around 1100 Jews who were saved from the deadly holocaust by Oskar
Oskar Schindler accomplished many things within his life, such as saving the Jews, being a German spy, and helping the economy. His accomplishments have benefited those throughout his life. Although his kindness for his fellow man ran deep, so did his greed for boosting his own personal status within the community. There are still those today that believe that Oskar Schindler only saved the Jews for his own personal gain, but there are also those that believe that he did it out of kindness. Whether he did it out of good morale or simply for his own greed, Oskar Schindler 's many accomplishments have impacted plenty of lives.
Rosenbaum, Alan S. Is The Holocaust Unique?. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2008. 387. Print.
Oskar Schindler, a German middle-classed officer who worked for the Nazi, saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. He
Haugen, David M., and Susan Musser. The Holocaust. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2011. Print. Perspectives on Modern World History.
"The Holocaust." World War II Reference Library. Ed. Barbara C. Bigelow, et al. Vol. 1:
Most people would have the Jews all sent to camps, and get a new bunch when they arrived, but not Schindler. He packed up the whole bunch and took them with him to Czechoslovakia. He couldn’t bear to send them away. But there was a mix up and the women were sent to Auschwitz. Did he stop there? No sir, that man rode a train back up there and made an excuse why he needed every one of them, even the little girls. He cared enough to go all the way up there, and do that for them.
Dwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
Schindler’s List begins with the early life of Oskar Schindler. The novel describes his early family life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his adolescence in the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. It tells of his relationship with his father, and how his father left his mother. His mother is also described in great detail. Like many Germans in the south, she was a devout Catholic. She is described as being very troubled that her son would take after her estranged husband with his negligence of Catholicism. Oskar never forgave Hans, his father, for his abandonment of his mother , which is ironic considering that Oskar would do the same with his wife Emilie. In fact Hans and Oskar Schindler’s lives would become so much in parallel that the novel describes their relationship as “that of brothers separated by the accident of paternity.'; Oskar’s relationship with Emilie is also described in detail as is their marriage. The heart of the novel begins in October 1939 when Oskar Schindler comes to the Polish city of Cracow. It has been six weeks since the German’s took the city, and Schindler sees great opportunity as any entrepreneur would. For Schindler, Cracow represents a place of unlimited possibilities because of the current economic disorder and cheap labor. Upon his arrival in Cracow he meets Itzak Stern, a Jewish bookkeeper. Schindler is very impressed with Stern because of his business prowess and his connections in the business community. Soon Schindler and Stern are on t...
The film begins in 1939 with the German-initiated relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to the Kraków Ghetto shortly after the beginning of World War II. Meanwhile, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an ethnic German businessman from Moravia, arrives in the city in hopes of making his fortune as a war profiteer. Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party, lavishes bribes upon the Wehrmacht and SS officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a close collaborator in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), an official of Krakow's Judenrat (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the Jewish business community and the black marketers inside the Ghetto. The Jewish businessmen lend Schindler the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced. Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his newfound wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", while Stern handles all the administration. Schindler hires Jewish Poles instead of Catholic Poles because they cost less (the workers themselves get nothing, the wages are paid to the SS). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or being killed.
Oskar, in the beginning of the film, was much like Amon, using the plight of the Jews for his own personal gain. He hires Jewish labor and uses Jewish money to start up a business. As he told his wife, the only thing he had been missing on all his business ventures was war. Though there isn’t any dialogue to give us any direct clues, the scene in which Schindler witnesses the liquidation of the ghetto at Krakow hints at the changes that start to overtake him. He appears to be absorbed by the blunt realization of what the Nazis are really doing. He watches from a hill overlooking the ghetto, as Jews are slaughtered and children are ignorant to what is happening. The horror of it all is too much for his mistress to handle, and she begs him to leave the terrible scene.