A group of Hungarian police sat drinking and laughing, their uniforms reeking of alcohol. One man spit out the name of a Jewish family that he was going to arrest the next day. After a few hours, all of the officers were passed out on the floor, all but one. He slipped into the night and ran down the city street towards a small house, a shadow amongst the darkness. The next morning the Hungarian police barged into an empty home. The family was nowhere to be seen (Michelson 1). The liberator of this family was Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum whose individual heroic actions during the Holocaust resulted in the legacy of the lives of approximately a thousand Jews and a pattern of humanity for generations to come.
Just prior to World War II, persecution of the Jews began with changes in civil law, which increasingly restricted their opportunities and participation in society. According to Marion A. Kaplan, author of Between Dignity and Despair, Nazi-controlled governments confiscated Jews’ “personal property and limited food and clothing purchases” (145). In 1938, the first anti-Semitic law was passed, restricting a Jew’s choice of profession and involvement in the economy. That same year hatred culminated in an event forever known as “Kristallnacht,” “The Night of the Broken Glass” (Ellis and Silinsky). The Germans used this term to “describe the tons of shattered glass spread over public areas, streets, and squares from the ruined homes and shops of Jews” (Kaplan 125). This uproar started when a seventeen-year-old Polish Jew named Henry Grynszpan walked up and shot an embassy official, Ernest Von Rath, after he was not able to free his family from Germany.
This act gave Hitler the excuse to turn Gentile against Jew and inflame a h...
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Anti-Semitism is the hatred and discrimination of those with a Jewish heritage. It is generally connected to the Holocaust, but the book by Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher’s Tale shows the rise of anti-Semitism from a grassroots effect. Smith uses newspapers, court orders, and written accounts to write the history and growth of anti-Semitism in a small German town. The book focuses on how anti-Semitism was spread by fear mongering, the conflict between classes, and also the role of the government.
Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” said by the enlightened Dalai Lama. The Jews, innocent and sympathetic, were treated like trash during Kristallnacht. The Night of Broken Glass was one of the most terrifying and brutal nights of German history, in addition Kristallnacht was an excuse for the Nazi party to eradicate the Jews and other minor ethnic groups. The Secret Police and the Waffen SS could determine if people were Jewish or not if they had certain attributes such as having blonde hair, having light blue eyes, and having a rectangular shaped forehead. Over hundreds were injured and a copious amount had died during Kristallnacht, in addition Jews were not only affected in Germany but also in “territories forcibly seized by Germany, Austria and Sudentland” (Kristallnacht: Overview). Kristallnacht, a doomsday for Jews, inducing in destruction of Jewish property, death of Jews, and social isolation.
The mood of Night is harder to interpret. Many different responses have occurred in readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the holocaust victims. Some encounter disgust as the realization occurs that if any one opportunity had been utilized the horror could of been avoided. Those missed moments such as fleeing when first warned by Moshe the Beadle, or unblocking the window when the Hungarian officer had come to warn them, would have saved lives and pain.
Murders inflicted upon the Jewish population during the Holocaust are often considered the largest mass murders of innocent people, that some have yet to accept as true. The mentality of the Jewish prisoners as well as the officers during the early 1940’s transformed from an ordinary way of thinking to an abnormal twisted headache. In the books Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary men by Christopher R. Browning we will examine the alterations that the Jewish prisoners as well as the police officers behaviors and qualities changed.
As blatantly demonstrated in the past, Hitler had an undeniable hatred for the Jews. There were many forms of intentionalism displayed illustrating this hostility. These actions are believed to be in response to occurrences during World War I. In 1918, Hitler was stricken with mustard gas and partially blinded, while in the Hospital, Hitler was reached with the news of Germany’s withdrawal from the War. The armistice induced Hitler’s fury and lead to his Back Stabbing Theory. The Back Stabbing Myth was, to the anti-Semitic, a theory based on the belief that the German Army could have won World War I, but the civilians (Jews) called off the war; embarrassing the German Military. Soon followed was Hitler’s involvement in politics, h...
Glass shatters easily. Just like the hearts, souls, and lives of so many people who were subjected to one of the most awful crimes against humanity. One of the horrific events involving the Jews prior to the beginning of the Holocaust happened in the fall of 1938. This event was known as Kristallnacht, which translates into “The Night of Broken Glass” and was carried out as the result of the killing of Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan for the forced deportation of his parents and thousands of other Polish Jews living in Germany at the time. The Nazi Party ordered attacks on Jewish communities throughout the country. During Kristallnacht, as the night came to be known, Jews in Germany, whether citizens or not, were targeted and attacked.
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 resulted 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. They set up concentration camps, where Jews and other inferior races were put into hard labor and murdered. They did this because Nazis believed that they were the only ones that belonged in Germany because they were pure Germans. This is the beginning of World War 2. The Nazi beliefs that led to and resulted in the cruelty and suffering of the Jewish people
“ Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people to prepare the country for war.” (Jewish Virtual Library), This piece of evidence shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race a...
Those who survived are here to tell the tragic and devastating history of their lives. The survivors have shared brutal but yet realistic stories from each of their experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust. History shall never repeat itself in the manner of racism, murder, and fear of our leaders. The burning hope of those who were involved still generates an enormous sadness upon the many who have heard the horror of the Holocaust.
Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis. Both the German economy and the Nuremberg Laws stimulated the Holocaust; nevertheless, a majority of the Nazis’ and Hitler’s actions towards Jews were because of the victims’ ethnicity.
It is told that on the night of November 9 and early November 10, 1938, Nazis incited a pogrom against the Jewish in Austria and Germany. It is termed, “Kristallnact” (“Night of Broken Glass). This night of violence included pillaging and burning of synagogues, breaking of the windows in Jewish owned businesses, looting, and physically attacking of Jewish people. Approximately, 30,000...
Those of half and quarter Jewish descent remain largely forgotten in the history of the Third Reich and genocide of the Holocaust. Known as Mischlinge, persons of deemed “mixed blood” or “hybrid” status faced extensive persecution and alienation within German society and found themselves in the crosshairs of a rampant National Socialist racial ideology. Controversially, these people proved somewhat difficult to define under Nazi law that sought to cleave the Volk from the primarily Jewish “other”, and as the mechanization toward Hitler’s “Final Solution” the Mischlinge faced probable annihilation. The somewhat neglected status of Mischlinge necessitates a refocusing on German racialization as well as reconsideration of the implications wrought by the alienation and ultimate persecution of the thousands of half and quarter Jews subjugated in Nazi Germany.
The holocaust was the mass murder of about six million Jews during World War II. The hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group is known as antisemitism. Antisemitism was a centuries old phenomenon. Jews in Europe had always been a minority. In some countries , Jews could not own land, attend school, or practice certain professions. The Holocaust, which was between 1933 and 1945, is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism. A German journalist that was named Wilhelm Marr originated the term antisemitism in 1879. Which symbolized the hatred of Jews, and also hatred of a variety of advanced, catholic, and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that were often joined with Jews. The tendency under attack included equal civil rights, required equality, free trade, ownership, account free enterprise, and self control from violence. Between the most casual definition of antisemitism all through history were pogroms. Pogroms were violent riots that were begun against Jews and many times supported by government authorities. Pogroms were often encouraged by blood libels, which were false rumors that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes. In the modern era, antisemites added a political quality to their ideas of hatred. In the last third of the nineteenth century, antisemitic political groups were formed in France, Germany and Austria. Advertisements such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion developed or provided support for fake theories of a global Jewish plot. A convincing part of political antisemitism was nationalism, whose supporters often falsely accused Jews as disloyal citizens. The Nazi party, which was established in 19...
Anti-Semitism, a hatred of Jews, has been present for centuries in many places. However, the term ‘Anti-Semitism’ itself only came into use in the nineteenth century, and along with it came an ideology which fuelled this deep psychological hatred to develop into a political movement which culminated in Nazism. Throughout history, the reasons for Anti-Semitism have differed and in Imperial Germany, it was a combination of religious, racial and political factors which led to such hostility toward Jews. However, the economic state of the nation is often thought to be the main reason behind the way in which Jews were treated during this period.