...Throughout the movie, "The Holocaust", the phrase, "I just do my job," was usually the only excuse most people who committed crimes against the Jews could come up with. For example, when Helena and Rudy Weiss were staying in Kiev, the city was bombed. During the bombing, one of the Nazi soldiers, who happened to be Heinz Muller, a friend of Inga's family, was hit by falling debris. Hesitant, Rudy helped Muller escape from the collapsing building, gave him some water, and asked him why he was taking part in the mistreatment of the Jews. "I obey orders," Muller replied, unrepentant about what he did. Also, when Bertha Weiss was sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, Dr. Joseph Weiss asked the Kapo what happened to her. The lady bluntly retorted, "Don't blame me, I just take orders." Whether to keep a job, remain loyal to their cause, or just because they had no other excuse, everyone used that phrase to justify what they did wrong against the Jews. Anti-Semitism and unfair grudges are two factors that can cause Genocide. During the movie, Eric Dorf claimed he did not feel bad about Kristallnacht or what happened to the Jews, because he said the Jews provoked it. Even though Kristallnacht was the first major pogrom, a government sponsored attack on the Jews, and was terribly destructive, Eric said that they killed Christ and they deserved what they got (The Holocaust). In addition, Heydrich believed that Germans and the Aryan race was superior to the Jewish race and they had to...
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...remove this darkness from one of the most tragic events to ever happen in history, the Holocaust. There is a classic German legend about a man named Faust. He was a highly successful scholar but was dissatisfied with his life. His legend has created stories of his success in art and music, but the legendary of this man doesn’t end there. According to the legend, Faust sold his soul to the devil in exchange for vast earthly rewards. Millions of innocent Jews were killed by this so called legend, driven by a force of madness and evil of his own ancestors. In his own sick twisted mind he saw an opportunity to solve the problem once and for all by killing off the Jews. It is said that the Holocaust was based upon vague, trivial, or even inaccurate representations. With so much controversy and doubt on the Holocaust did or did it not really happen, everyone has their own point-of-view. Ironically for the people of Germany this legend had an all too real comparison to true events on its history. According to stories from survivors the voices of the dead can still be heard crying out for help. There are many authors who wrote books with great detail on the Holocaust, giving their perspective point of view on this tragic event. During the Holocaust it is said that over six million Jews suffered countless amounts of obscenity throughout the history of time. In the book Histories of the Holocaust by Dan Stone, the author describes the legendary of one man, the will to survive, the...
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...The Holocaust The Holocaust was a tragic event that lasted from 1933-1945 for a total of twelve years. The group of people that was the cause of this was known as the Nazis, their leader’s name was Adolf Hitler. He gained power of Chancellor in 1933, the first year of the Holocaust (Holocaust). Hitler had violence in his past, so it was no surprise when he wanted to cause more harm and violence to others. “He thought that the Jews were an “alien” threat to the German racial purity and community” (Concentration). The Holocaust went on during the battle of World War II. The Holocaust was a tragic event that should never happen again, and here is a few things that went on during these brutal twelve years. The first concentration...
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...Sanjida Afrin Morality of Massacres and Genocide Prof. Harman Salton 2nd March, 2016 Nazi Memorandum The Holocaust was an extreme incident of genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention that took place in the 20th century in Germany as a religious, political and economical manifesto targeting an ethnic, national or racial group such as the Jews. The plot of this heinous genocide however started back in the 1930 before the WWII when Hitler and the Nazis started spreading propagandas to wipe out Jews from Germany. This memo will give a critical overview on the purposes behind the holocaust, how propaganda were used to conduct such extreme genocide and the role played by the Nazis and the Germans, followed by a brief comparison between the genocide in different countries and the Holocaust. When we start talking about Holocaust, one of the basic terms to use is “Anti-Semitism” which refers to hatred against the Jews. Even though factual evidences hold Hitler’s strong hatred towards the Jewish population as a major reason behind the holocaust, it is still a debatable issue. One of the most interesting facts that come to attention is the wide support of many of the educated German elites in the Nazi propaganda. This might be result of the flourishing economic conditions of the Jews in the then Germany. The Jews were open to modern education, they flourished in business and basically not as much affected as the Germans after the WWI. This might have led to economic and political...
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...During the Holocaust, millions of Jews, gypsies, and members of other groups were persecuted and murdered by Nazi occupied Europe. However, many forget to acknowledge that among these were children. It may never be known exactly how many children were murdered but it is said that as many as some 1.5 million children may have fell victim to the Nazi party. Although children were not a main target of the Nazi's violence, they did fall subject to persecution along with their parents. Jewish children were first exposed to persecution in school. Many of their friends who were not Jewish began not socializing with them and even began to treat them in prejudice ways. This was soon followed with the announcement that, "German Jewish children were prohibited from attending German schools (www.mtsu.edu/.baustin/children.html). The life of children had quickly become as torn apart as their parents. However, there were more efforts to help the children escape the grips of the Nazi rule. Before 1939, several thousand children were able to escape in "Kindertransports to the Netherlands, Great Britain, Palestine, and the United States (www.mtsu.edu/.baustin/children.html). Those who were not able to escape were placed in ghettos and transit camps. These ghettos and transit camps served as the foreground to the death and slave labor camps that would soon follow. It was written in a Jewish diary, A Jewish ghetto in the traditional sense is impossible; certainly a closed ghetto is...
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...still arguing about the exact cause of World War II, however the common belief of fault resides on the implementation of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was possessed by a passionate set of ideals to expand Germany, and with his election as German chancellor in January 1933, marked the start of an accelerating progression towards world war. Under the dominion of Hitlers ambitions, Germany invaded western Poland as a result of the intransigence between both countries. World War II ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict, and served as the justification for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany, under the order of Hitler. To fully understand how Hitler attained the support of a nation to agree with his ideology, one must know the conditions before the wake of World War II, and how Hitler instilled influential ideas of national pride. In this essay, I intend on showing why it is important to understand a certain aspect of World War II. I will first focus on establishing the importance of knowing what events led Germany into the circumstances it was in prior to World War II. Accordingly, I will then analyze Hitlers ideology, and why it is vital to understand his point of view. That being the case, I will then narrow the focus on the genocidal killing of Jews by Hitler, and emphasize the importance of understanding why this was happening. From there I will probe through the writings of Hitler in his work of Mein Kampf, and discuss how knowing...
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...Japanese and Holocaust camps were very active during the mid 1900's, causing a vigorous movement between each group. The camps tended to be unfair, and were created due to dictatorship by one persep or group. The Holocaust and Japanese internment camps were major events in the mid 1900's that moved thousands of people to different locations, that people never thought would be relevant in their lives. The Holocaust work camps were harsh labor camps that were spread across Europe. Each camp was planned out by the Nazi soldiers. The Japanese relocation camps were located along the Pacific Coast. The Japanese were sent to a location ordered by the government...
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...Shannon Trubatch Imaginary Worlds Assignment 2 ENG201 Behind the Lens: Photographs of the Holocaust Religion has been found to be, time and time again, a factor that influences the actions taken by many, both kind and cruel, across the globe and throughout history. My mother is a Christian, and I grew up in a household celebrating Christian holidays and attending church on Sundays. My father, however, was raised in Long Island in a Jewish home, where he celebrated Hanukah, had a bar mitzvah, and went to temple. As I grew up, I would learn of the history of the world, but nothing would strike me more than the events of the Holocaust. As I continued to learn and grow older, I would begin to understand the atrocities that took place during this time, half a world a way, and the images and films that I saw in regards to the Holocaust would haunt me most of all. A photo essay, compiled by the English department at the University of Illinois, contains a number of photographs from the Holocaust that demonstrates the atrocities that occurred during this time. These photographs support the argument developed by Susan Sontag that photographers must make the decision between a photograph and a life, and that the viewers of these images also have a responsibility to actions of atrocity and human suffering. In Susan Sontag’s book On Photography, she develops the argument that photography is an act of nonintervention; that the photographer is faced with the choice between capturing...
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...The Tragedies of the Trail of Tears and the Holocaust The U.S government stole millions of dollars and millions of acres of land from the native americans. Likewise, the Nazi Regime stole the same from helpless Jewish people who were forced to live in ghettos. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. When the white settlers first came to America they encountered the Native Americans they thought they were savages, and that they were dumb and could easily steal from them. The white settlers moved the Native Americans to oklahoma and in this process they stole from them and killed their livestock. They also killed them and stole their homes while they made the Native Americans walk all the from their homes to Oklahoma. This is very similar...
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...makes us think that we know the truth? Or even what about the people back during the holocaust. They were utterly tricked/ fooled into becoming moraless monsters, seekers without the ability to see, and hopelessly hoping for a better nation. A. “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach”-Adolf Hitler B. “All news is lies and all propaganda is disguised as news.”-Willi Munzenberg 1. aAn information/idea put out in order to persuade a certain group of people to behave in a certain manner/ bias is propaganda. 2. Hitler needed a way for everyone in Germany to in gulp, and develop his thinking on the Jewish race, thus leading to the mass production of Nazi propaganda throughout the German population. C. “No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.”- (Elie Wiesel, 1928-2016) 1. Holocaust is a word referring to a genocide, or massive slaughter of something/someone. know the word holocaust...
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...Holocaust Essay The Holocaust is one of the worst tragedies in our history. Millions of people had died and thousands were left with mental or physical disabilities. All of this was simply because of intolerance and hatred towards Jews and other “minorities” The Holocaust is a very significant part of our history. It gave us an example of how prejudice our society can be. Today we are taught that we shouldn’t discriminate other people based on their religion, race or gender. Most countries don’t have dictators anymore, but instead give the power to their people. Discrimination, prejudice and racism are often frowned upon these days. Those are just a few examples on how the Holocaust has really affected us in ways that we haven't really given...
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...The Holocaust. What comes to mind when this single event is mentioned? Tragedy, fear, death, sadness? For many, the thought of the Holocaust sounds like it occurred a lifetime ago. However, the atrocities which the Jews faced transpired less than seventy-five years ago. The Holocaust is not another shrapnel of ancient antiquity to be disserted – it is a chapter of modern history which must be deliberated and reflected upon. For this time, history cannot repeat itself. The nefarious concentration camps had their own social climate, as Jews braced themselves every day for the same endless battle of survival and did anything they had to do in order to outlive their relentless enemy – death. The story of how countless people were ripped from their homes and thrown into death camps is told firsthand, by the autobiographical novel, Night, written by Holocaust survivor Eliezer Wiesel. According to Wiesel’s recollection, it all commenced when German officers began to enter Jewish towns and occupy them. There was talk of German tensions, but almost everyone was indifferent. Before they knew it, Jews were being placed into ghettos, curfews were being imposed on them, and they were having more rights taken away from them. Anti-Semitism became...
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...Dehumanization: Essential for the attempt to execute a population The Holocaust was one of the most devastating events leading up to World War II, was the Holocaust, which millions of people were tortured and murdered by the Nazis. Hitler was an anti-Semitic political leader of the Nazi regime, who believed that the Jewish “race” contaminated the Aryan population, and therefore needed to be eliminated. The Nuremberg Laws were laws that excluded Jews and non-Aryans from German citizenship as well as their natural rights. In addition, “Jewishness” was defined in racial terms. One strategy that allowed the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust was their disregard for non-Germans, treating them as less than human. Dehumanization is considered...
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...Jared Livingston Grade 12 Period 3-4 February 11, 2014 American History The Holocaust The Holocaust was one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedy that left a mark of tragic and horror to all Jews. The tragedy began at January 30th, 1933 and ended at May 8th, 1945, when the war in Europe ended. Millions of people died during the Holocaust, some were killed by machine guns, gas chambers, getting burned, while others died due to starvation, abuse and diseases. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, was a heartless and uncaring man. He was born on April 20, 1889 in a small Austrian town of Braunau near Germany’s border. Hitler’s father Alios Hitler was a short-tempered, strict and brutal father. It is known that Alios would always beat Hitler when he was young. Hitler’s mother, Klara Hitler, was the opposite of Alios Hitler. She was very caring and loving to her son. When Hitler’s father died, Hitler dropped out of school at an early age because he lost his strong influence into keeping him at school. His mother supported him with this idea. Hitler loved and showed so much companionship to his mother more than his father. When she died at 1907, her death affected him far more deeply than the death of his father. He carried her picture wherever he went and, it is claimed that he had the photo in his hand when he died in 1945. Hitler and the Nazis were the masterminds of the Holocaust. Hitler had so much arrogance in him. He hated and envied the Jews. The Jews at...
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...The Holocaust: Suggested Reading There is a wealth of information about the Holocaust. So much has been written, in fact, that it can be difficult to determine where to start. This reading list is collected from recommendations from other members of The Holocaust History Project. It is not a complete bibliography but represents our opinion as to what are the most useful starting places for research. Since this list concentrates on works that are easily available and useful to a person unacquainted with the history of the Holocaust, many excellent books which are rare or out of print are not listed. Another class of books that are not included is works that are controversial because of their contents or the unusual theories they propose. Some of these are excellent works, others are not. But we feel that the reader for whom this list was compiled would not have the knowledge needed to evaluate these discussions of the legitimate controversies about the Holocaust. Just as a medical student must learn anatomy before he or she is taught surgery, someone studying the Holocaust must know the factual background before some of the more technical studies can be understood. As well as general works we have included books of specialized interest concerning the matters about which we at The Holocaust History Project are most frequently asked. Many of these books deal with more than one subject, but in the interest of brevity we have not cited a book more than once. General history of the...
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