In our continued study of the Second World War, we will turn our attention to the atrocities of the German regime known as the Holocaust. While many people now know of the horrible slaughter of millions of Jews and other groups, the story has not always been widely understood, and even now, in Europe and the Middle East, some groups are claiming that it never happened.
In class we briefly discussed antisemitism (the hatred of Jews) and its origins. It's rather difficult to imagine that Americans were once generally antisemitic, holding all Jews accountable for the crucifiction of Jesus and continuing the European tradition of blaming Jews for all wide-spread financial woes. The Ku Klux Klan, in addition to the mistreatment of African-Americans, also targeted Jews and Catholics in their abuses. It was only after the revelation of the evils of the Holocaust that most Americans adopted a sympathetic view of the Jewish people.
Jews have lived in America almost since the very first settlers arrived. Because most of the colonies were founded by determined Protestant groups, however, Jews weren't welcomed many places. It was Maryland, with its guaranteed religious freedome for all, and New Amsterdam (New York), with its secular society, where most of the Jewish settlers made their homes. Following World War II hundreds of thousands of American Jews, called Zionists, would emigrate to the new country of Israel, recreating a nation that had been non-existent for almost 2,000 years. They even revived the ancient Hebrew language in order to assimilate all the Jews that would arrive from countries like the US and the Soviet Union and many others. Israel was even governed by a Jewish-American - Golda Meir.
Today millions of Americans claim Jewish heritage. Although there has never been a Jewish-American president or vice-president, Jews have served in every other capacity in government. Because American Jews aren't always possible to identify strictly my physical appearance, many Americans are unaware of this minority group (thank goodness for Adam Sandler's Hanukah song, right?). Still concentrated in New York, some pockets of Jewish Americans cling to the traditions that set them apart in the earlier days of our nation's history. They even speak a language called Yiddish - unique in that it never belonged to a country, and was entirely made up of slang and bits of other languages. (Some of the words have become common in English, such as schmooz and klutz). So even if you think this assignment is megilla, be a mensch - not a nudnik or a neddish - and get it done, mach shnel. Fershtay?
Please go to the National Holocaust Museum education web site - http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/ - and report on one of the articles you find there. Also, if you have visited the holocaust museum or been to a European museum of similar focus, share your experience. The requirements for this assignment are exactly like those of all previous assignments. Good luck and God bless!
Well, I went to the site and just clicked on the first article. It was titled "Hitler Comes to Power." The article is about how Hitler came to be the leader of Germany. Well, Hitler came at a very opportune time. Germany was wounded and desperate for change. The recent economic depression had really got them, causing a large number of people to become unemployed. And, if you recall, Germany had suffered a rather humiliating defeat in World War I, just fifteen years earlier to the Allied powers. This caused the people to be rather ashamed of their weak government. All of these circumstances gave Hitler and the Nazi (National Socialist German Workers' Party) a chance to rise to power.
ReplyDeleteHitler was, in fact, a great speaker and attracted many followers, especially the people who were out of work, young, or not doing so well financially, who really wanted to see a change in Germany. He promised people an improved life and a new and better Germany.
Around this time the Nazi party really rose from the ashes. Before, hardly anybody had even heard of them. From 1924 to 1932, the percentage of votes for the Nazi increased elevenfold, to become the party with the highest percentage of votes. Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and would then lead the country into events such as the holocaust and World War II.
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ReplyDeleteI know the assignment called for us to choose one article to report on, but to be honest, I read several trying to decide what to write about and decided that there were things from a few different ones that I just had to include.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I am going to be reporting on “Kristallnacht” or “The Night of Broken Glass.” Even before the assignment, I had read some things about this horrific night. The night was November 9th of 1938 and it was the beginning of what would become one of the saddest, most disappointing periods of all human history. It was the beginning of The Holocaust.
Earlier that night, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels gave a powerful speech to several members of the Nazi party in Munich who were meeting to commemorate Hitler’s first attempt to sieze power. The topic of his speech was none other than the problem known as the Jewish race. Following the speech, following orders from senior Nazi officials, so called “Storm Troopers” to systematically attack Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues and to cause as much damage as possible. The mayhem and flurry of hatred lasted well into the morning of November the 10th. Several dozen Jews are killed and tens of thousands are soon after arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Three days after the now infamous night, Jews are ordered to clean up and repair the mess made on “Kristallnacht”. They are not allowed to collect insurance for the damages and in fact are issued a fine by the German government which totaled around $400,000,000.
The amazing thing is not that this could happen or be allowed to happen, because it was done so quickly and overnight by a group of radical extremists. In a split moment, terror can be committed, as we know from the attacks on America on September 11, 2001. However, it is frightening and, indeed, sickening that nothing was done afterwards. Evil is unavoidable and often unpreventable, but it is also punishable and detestable. The fact that this was merely the beginning of what would become so much more and last for so long is a sad testament to us as a race. We must remember the lessons we have learned since this period in our history.
To close, I will quote a man who spent seven years in Nazi concentration camp as a prisoner. His quote gave me chills and holds a great moral for us all, which is that we cannot sit idly by and let evil flourish. His name was Martin Niemoller, arrested July 1st 1937, tortured for years afterward. He said, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me."
Colby, I read your post. I think that Hitler's "racial purity" idea was really a horrible thing. I dunno, before you really think about it, it doesn't seem like terrible thing that it is. But then you realize how horrible the things that they did to people was, and especially with a Christian mindset, you can see the wrong that was being done. Your post was informative, and I did learn a few facts from reading it.
ReplyDeleteVanessa, I read youe essay. I thought that it was very informative, as I didn't know very many of the facts about that night. What happened was terrible, but the worst thing about it was that it was just the beginning and that the worst part had not even come. I can't belive thier extreme hatred for the Jewish people. I thought that your 4th paragraph was very good and I agree with what you said about how we need to take action against these crimes. Even if everybody else doesn't commit horrific acts like those, they will still occur if no one tries to stop them.
ReplyDeleteI did not research an article, but am writing on my trip the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
ReplyDeleteIn the eighth grade, I had the privilege and honor of being able to visit the Holocaust Museum. Now, most of the sophomores have known me long enough to know that the Holocaust/WWII ranks high up there on my favorite historical events to study. (That does not mean I like what happened; I just like to learn about them.) Anyways, we arrived at the museum, we were led through the “children’s” section. It was a story about a little boy in the holocaust, but his story was not extremely graphic like most others. From there we went to the actual museum. I cannot begin to try to describe the things I was shown. There were displays on everything from Hitler, to reasons why he did what he did, to the events leading up, to pictures and videos of experiments being performed on humans, to whatever else you can think of; it was horrendous.
There were two visuals I remember that will remain with me forever. The first was right outside the entrance. Written in Hebrew was the word “Remember”. That made me think-history cannot be erased. Nothing, no matter how hard people try, can be wiped out of history. Moreover, if people forget, we are doomed to repeat it.
“The problem with people today is that they remember what they should forget and forget what they must remember.” -Del Tackett
The second, we walked through the museum and saw replicas of gas chambers, photos of dead and starving children, videos of millions of youth pledging allegiance to Hitler, but then there was this hallway. It was a simple little path with rails on either side, dark walls, and it smelled like old leather. Why, you ask. This hallway was filled with shoes from Holocaust victims. I tried to find the exact number on the Holocaust website and had no luck, so I’ll make an educated guess here and say there were maybe 400,000-500,000 shoes. There was a quote on the wall above the shoes which read…
“Because I am made of flesh and blood, and not of leather, my life was taken…”
That broke me. To think about what happened to these people is heart wrenching, and as sad as it is, I find myself furious to think about those who could have done something to help, but instead stood by and watched the lives of over 6 million people be taken.
“During the Nazi Holocaust an entire nation of otherwise civilized people allowed a malevolent insanity to rule them, not by becoming insane themselves, but simply by looking the other way. They refused to recognize the evil for what it was…When ashes from the crematoria rained on their sidewalks, they simply went inside. The ugly spectacle of those mass rallies of the Nazis, the banners, those thousands of voices shouting “Seig Heil!”…the ugliness was far surpassed by the monstrous horror of silence.”
-Charles Colson from Gideon’s Torch
The “Night of Broken Glass” known as Kristallnacht, occurred November 9, 1938. Sources say that this event was not planned but an outbreak of Germans anger after the murder of a German official. Just in two days more than 250 synagogues were burned, more than 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and many Jews were killed while the police stood by and did nothing. The name “Night of Broken Glass” came from all the glass from the broken windows the covered the streets. And the next day 30,000 Jewish German men were arrested for the so called crime of being Jewish and they were sent off to conservation camps. And many women and other men were arrested and sent to jail. The many Jewish-owned businesses were not even allowed to re-open unless they went under new non Jewish management. The Jews were even given curfews, making it difficult for the Jews to leave their home.
ReplyDeleteAfter the “Night of Broken Glass” life was even more complicated for German Jews kids. They were already prohibited from going into museums, playing on public playgrounds, basically anything that would put them out of place. Making the young totally segregated, just like their parents.
Vanessa, I remember the exact moment in sixth grade when I first read that quote. It made a huge impact on my life.
ReplyDeleteThe Nazi Camp System:
ReplyDeleteThe Nazi camp was first created for the political opponents of the Nazi state. At first mostly Communists and Socialists were imprisoned but around 1935 they began to imprison those racially or biologically "inferior" or any one wwho dared to resist German rule. Once World War II began the camps rapidly grew bigger. The purpose of the camps changed as well. They became more than just imprisonment camps. Forced labor and even murder became common in these camps.
The people who resisted germans were generally sent to forced-labor concentration camps. The camps began to grow even more rapidly and because they couldn't hold and keep up with the number coming in the prisoners were worked to death.
The Jews were usually sent from all over Europe to the extermination camps in Poland. There they would be killed systematically by many things such as: Work, gas chambers, being shot, starvation, death marches, physical abuse, hangings and such.
The German concentration camps (Nazi camps) were horrible and millions were murdered or died from sickness, starvation, overworking an so on.
The Holocaust has always fascinated me. Though it was harsh and cruel time, I am so interested in it. I read the article entitled “Life in the Ghettos” and did not stop. I then went on to read the personal accounts and from there, read about Auschwitz. It is hard to believe that people actually made it through these camps to tell us the story today. One woman named Gerda Klein told her story of her birthday in a ghetto. She received an orange. She loved oranges and was so excited to get one, but she later found out that her mother had sold a diamond and pearl ring outside of the ghetto to get that for her. That was the final present she got from her parents. The ghettos were tightly packed without the modern luxury of plumbing. Everything was thrown out into the streets promoting disease. These places were guarded and dangerous.
ReplyDeleteAuschwitz was worse. I read the survivor’s stories and it is hard to imagine. Many of them lost their families in these camps and are here because they ran away. They would come in and were told to take off all of their clothes and shoes. They would then come to long tables where their bodies were shaved and they were given a tattoo of their number. Whatever number they had meant that that’s how many people had gone or been there before them. They were then given a new set of clothing to wear all of the time. Their food given to them was equal to about 200 calories so they were sick and weak. They would do anything to not be chosen for the gas chambers where it was certain death. Women who had hair growing back would take coals and try to color their gray hair black because they would then look young enough to work. Your survival became more important than anything.
In one ghetto, they were brought into a semi-circle and asked who’s child this was (presenting a child and woman), when no one answered, the man took the child and threw it against the wall killing it. The people became numb to death, numb to their surroundings; they had to do whatever they could to keep alive. For some they were willing to give their own lives for their children. Many people got sick due to the unsanitary conditions and one mother would carry her child to “roll call” so she would not be taken to a hospital camp or beaten, but because of her weak state they were going to kill her. The mother was willing to go into the gas chamber as well, but they were able to escape.
I do not think we realize the agony that took place during the Holocaust. We can read stories and watch videos, but I do not think words can describe what happened. Survivors who tell their stories can only sum up what they saw.
Zach, you brought up a good point. We have good record of all of the organized attacks and such that went on during the wars, but what about those that weren’t? I’m sure there were riots and massive groups of people that did crazy things out of anger or hate. We can see how people act in the eccentric way even today, so then when people were surrounded by that violent and cruel lifestyle, why wouldn’t they do something like that?
ReplyDeleteJon, what you wrote sounded so right to me. When a country is looking for change and enthusiasm, they will often make unwise decisions for government. We see here and even in American government that desperation for what’s new and exciting gets in the way of good judgment. Little do they realize that they are hurting themselves in the long run. I don’t know what people thought about Adolph Hitler, but we see now that the decision to put him in power was not a good one.
ReplyDeleteThe article I chose to write about was "Life in the Ghettos"
ReplyDeleteThe ghettos this article describe sound like a bad dream that will never end. Over crowding was the standard in these places. Plumbing rarely worked, so human waste was thrown into the streets. As a result of the previous facts, disease spread like wildfire through the encampments. Some bacteria was so bad that it would literally strip the flesh off of the bones of a living human. Since there was no medical care in the ghettos, if you got sick, you would more than likely not recover.
Food was also very scarce in the ghettos. Germans inflated the price of goods many times over the actual value. Some Jews were actually were able to smuggle enough goods into the ghettos to be able to afford the inflated food, often times the Nazis would just flat out deny food to these individuals.
The article then shifts its focus to children. Many kids were orphaned in the ghettos when their parents either died of disease, or starved to death trying to ensure their children had food. It was not uncommon to see 9 and 10 year-olds taking care of infants.
Since the Nazis believed the Jews were an inferior, inbred race, they also denied them education. However, many adults held out hope that these circumstances were only temporary, and had children attend secret lessons every day. One of the first lessons was to teach kids how to hide their books in their close if they were stopped on the street.
Today, this stories seem like horrific nightmares. But we have to remember that this actually happened only 60 years ago. Even in this age of tolerance, such a thing reoccurring is not out of the question. People are easily blinded and will commit horrible atrocities thinking that they are benefiting society. We are far too quick to forget.
Prisoners of the Camps
ReplyDeleteThe main target for the Nazi concentration camps were Jews, but there were also other types of people placed in these camps as prisoners. There was a colored system in these camps so that the Nazis could catagorize each group and place all the different ones against each other. Those who were Communists and Socialists wore red triangles, criminals wore green, and those who were considered “inferior races” wore black triangles. The Roma(Gypsies) were of particular interest to me while reading this article because I am Roma myself. Back then, the Roma were considered to be just as inferior as Jews were. They had a separate concentration camp for those who were Roma. One “Gypsy Camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau was where 23 thousand Roma(gypsies) were forced to go. Women and children were put in gas chambers and men were worked to death, or filled with disease, as the conditions were horrible. Starvation was no stranger to these people either. After this particular camp closed, those who still remained alive were killed through gas chambers. The article said that up to 220,000 Roma were killed during the Holocaust. I don’t think I really need to describe how wrong this was. The Holocaust happened alright-need I say more?
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ReplyDeleteEmily, you included a lot of good information in your essay. It is just hard to believe how some of the people survived the concentration camps. I think the stories that people from World War II like Gerda Klein tell are amazing and yet sad. You just can't understand how those people lived in the ghettos and concentration camps, and why the Nazi's wanted to persecute so many people. The Holocaust is one of those things in history that people try to forget. It is our job to not forget the Holocaust, but remember all of the people that suffered through it. Good essay, Emily.
ReplyDeleteI chose to do my report on the article entitled “Nazi Propaganda and Censorship”. Hitler became leader of Germany by a democratic election, but soon transformed the democracy into a dictatorship. He then began a campaign of propaganda, led by Joseph Goebbels, to gain the trust and loyalty of the German people. This campaign included government control of all media, so that the anti nazi programs could be removed. In 1933, student organizations, professors, and librarians who believed in the nazi ways of Germany created long lists of books which they believed should not be read by Germans. Then, on the night of May 10, 1933, Nazis marched by torchlight in nighttime parades while singing chants, and threw books into fires. more than 25,000 books were burned on that night . Most of the books were by non-Jewish writers, including such famous Americans as Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis, whose ideas the Nazis viewed as different from their own and therefore not to be read.
ReplyDeleteSchools played an important role in Nazi Germany. While many books were destroyed or taken from classrooms by censors, other newly written textbooks were brought in to teach students to have blind obedience to the nazi party, as well as love for Hitler, and antisemitism. After-school meetings of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls trained children to be faithful to the Nazi party.
I am doing my report on the section about Hitler's SS Police State. SS stands for Schutzstaffel. For obvious reasons history has chosen to identify them as the SS. The SS started as a special guard force for Hitler and other high ranking officials in Germany. The Black-Shirted members of the SS were an elite group who served as a police force.
ReplyDeleteUnder their leader Heinrich Himmler the SS became the Nazi party’s secret police force. Another term for this police force is the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo for short. The Gestapo was non-uniformed and used to rat out the Nazi parties enemies.
The prisoners taken by the Gestapo were kept in warehouses. These "camps" were the predecessors to the concentration camps. In the camps the prisoners were held without trial and in extremely harsh conditions. The camp that would become the "model" for the ones to come was Dachau.
Based on my findings Hitler did not care who you were. If you did not agree with what he said he hated you. True he hated Jewish people more than others but his hate was not exclusive. I think that we can all agree that Hitler was a horrible person.
Jon Byrd, you had a really good essay. I was really impressed by your use of the word "elevenfold." That was really impresive. You also did a really good job showing the reasons why Hitler became popular in Germany. You had an awsome essay. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI will be reporting on “At the Killing Centers.” I chose this one because it gives us an idea just how horrible the Holocaust really was.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Jews would be packed shoulder to shoulder in trains and shipped to killing centers. The trip would often be several days. When they arrived at the camp, the men would be separated from the women and children. Then, a Nazi doctor would decide look at them one by one and decide if they were healthy enough for forced labor. If not, they would soon be killed. If they were healthy enough, they would be literally worked to death or killed later. The elderly, babies, young children, pregnant women, sick or handicapped were almost always selected to be killed immediately. They would be told they were going to be taking a hygienic shower and were ordered to give up all jewelry and clothes. They were then locked in a large room where pulric acid pellets poured in gas would fill the room and asphyxiate everyone in minutes. The bodies were then cremated.
While in Washington D.C. I visited the Holocaust Museum. I don’t remember that much of it, but some of the things I saw in there are hard to ever forget. I went in and first visited an exhibit called “give me your children.” It was about the Lodz ghetto and life in it during the holocaust. It wasn’t too bad, although it showed how bad life was in a ghetto. Later exhibits showed some horrific things like images of enormous piles of dead bodies, actual canisters that poison pellets were contained in, and an actual door from a gas chamber. There were actual items taken from prisoners such as jewelry, forks and spoons, and one room I won’t forget was full of actual shoes taken from Jews right before they were killed. It was quite an experience I won’t forget.
Colby, your essay really helped me realize just how stupid Hitler's idea of a perfect race was. I find it interesting that Hitler hated the jews for hindering evolution by only marrying other jews. I find this interesting because the whole idea of man creating the perfect race is essentually an attempt to mess with evolution.
ReplyDeleteUpton,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your essay. You emphasized on some of the horrors that went on for the Nazi children, not only the Jews. Hitler pursed racist with some a demented ambition that he was willing to alienate those of his own ethnicity in order to create the mythic "perfect race" that he envisioned. The fact that they would measure the children's skull and nose size is simply incredible. It's like modern day school, except the teachers do the ridiculing for you. Absolutely amazing.
Anna, you bring up a good point about the Roma prisoners being hated as much as the Jews. As you may know Micheal Pope recently went on a mission trip to Poland. When I was talking to him about it one thing that he mentioned was that people in Poland still have an intense hatered of the Roma people. Clearly the Polish did not learn from the past.
ReplyDeleteRoberto,
ReplyDeleteyour essay also stood out to me. You really did a good job on telling the horrors of the Holocaust from the Jews perspective. Waiting shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other HUMAN BEINGS knowing that death waited at the end of the ride would be more than unbearable. And the fact that they would either burn or gas pregnant woman and babies is incredible. It will never cease to amaze me how cruel human kind can be.
It is very hard as Americans to understand the atmosphere of Germany during the beginning of Hitler's rise to power. Communism was on the horizon and the world watched as Russians excuted their king, and queen and family.
ReplyDeletePeople were hoping that Hitler would be the one to defeat Lenin and make the world a safer place. Germany, because of the great war, had many domistic issues. It was a perfect set up for a german born savior that could rescue them and bring back honor to the German country.
Reading material from 1900 and on let's you get the feeling for an attitude that people placed on Jews. A stigma that has been there not only in Germany but through out the world.
I enjoyed reading on the Holocaust Memorial Museum sight as well as attending the American Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
One of the men that was not mentioned on the Resistance Inside Germany site was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a German pastor and theologian. He was one of the few pastors that joined the underground movement convicned that it was his duty to work for Hitler's defeat. His particpation in plans by memebers of Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence office) to assassinate Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and then excuted 1945 right before Hitlers defeat. He was 39 when he died.
The Holocaust site talks about a german medical student and sister who protested Nazi genocide against the jews. They and many others gave their lives to speak up.
Sources: Holocaust Memorail Museum and Wikipedia
I chose to do my report over the "Moblie Killing Squads." After the German army invaded the Soviet Union, under cover of war, the Germans turned from the imprisonment of Jews to mass murder. Special action squads, or Einsatzgruppen, were given the job to kill any Jews that they found in the Soviet terrotory. Some people who lived in the Soviet Union not apart of the Squads even helped the soldiers kill the innocent.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people caught and killed were taken by surprise and din't have a chance to escape. Once, the Squads entered a town or city and rounded up all Jewish men, women, and children. Victims were forced to surrender any valuables and remove their clothing, then the killing squad members marched their victims to open fields, forests, and ravines on the outskirts of conquered towns and cities.There they shot them or gassed them in gas vans and dumped the bodies into mass graves. The killing squads murdered more than a million Jews and tens of thousands of other innocent people. Only a few people in the general population helped their Jewish neighbors escape. Most people were afraid that they too might be killed.
The massacres of innocent men, women, and children wasn't the crimes of hardened criminals, but the work of ordinary men who followed their orders without thought. Many of the men had wives and children in Germany. These men would drink heavely in order to dull the pain of their actions, and would refer to them as "special treatment" instead of murder and killing innocent men, women, and even children.
Ok, I know that this isn’t what you wanted us to write about Mr. Akers, but I think you will like it.
ReplyDeleteI read a story last year about a young boy whose family was in a concentration camp, and a young girl whose family lived in a house right outside of the camp. I don’t remember all the details but, for some reason, the boy was out by the fence one day. The thing that he was looking at is what changed his life.
He was looking at an apple tree that was growing in the yard of a house that was on the other side of the fence. The only problem was pretty obvious, the fence that stood between him and the tree. And there was that girl that stood on the porch and watched him all the time.
The girl on the other hand, was trying to figure out if she would get in trouble or not if she were to give the boy what he kept looking at every day. He looked hungry and finally her childish nature got the best of her, and she took an apple to him one day. Being mistreated by so many people so recently in the past, the boy didn’t know if he should trust the girl or not. The shiny red apple in her hand answered the question for him.
The two started meeting every day, sharing apples, starting a friendship, and talking about their everyday lives. One day the boy didn’t come to the fence, or the day after that , or the day after that. Finally the girl stopped going and tried to not think about the boy that had disappeared.
Three to four years latter, the girls best friend wanted the girl to go out with her one night. The deal was that there was going to be two young men there. One for reach girl. The four young adults started talking about their pasts and one of the boys said that there was a girl that he would like to find some day, the girl that had thrown apples over the fence to him when he was younger. The girl, having not forgotten about the boy on the other side of the fence, asked him if there was a white house and lots of other questions about the girl and the conversations with her.
As you can guess, it was the same boy and girl. That night he asked her to marry him. And, as you can guess, she said yes.
To fill in the blank when the boy disappeared, he had been moved to a different camp where he was forced to work or risk what the guards might do to him.
Don’t make fun of me. I read this story in the Reader’s Digest.
the census. what is it? well the census is basically a count of the ppl living in a certain polled region. ur prolly thinking, what does that have to do with the halocaust. well, the Nazis that were killing the jews found their targets using a census taken previous to hitlers democratic election or whatever akers said it was. the census included info as to where they were, age, religion, maritual status, and race. these factors made it o so simple for the Nazis to murder many jews.
ReplyDeletesomething really interesting that I found out was onApril 7, 1933, legislation passed a law that forces all jews out of certain areas of the globe. in august of 1938, jews were required to gain jewish names.. odd but ok.. and if that’s not enough.. they forced jews over 6 to wear a badge that was a six-point star with the word jude on it. not a great experience.
to summarize this, jews were easily hunted and traced due to their name, religion, place of living, and the badge. and the ways these jews were killed were wrong and unimaginable in some cases.
chuckoo... the mobile killing squads is similar to an ice cream truck i guess u could say.. except they delivered gas and hot lead... well thats really a crazy way but seems like it would quicken the pace of the killing.. still not right but it seems a little late for morals. good esay tho.. it really interested me
ReplyDeletecamden, on ur coment to anna, wow. i didnt even know that romas were polish lol. and on top of that that they were hated just as bad as the jews.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry if somebody already did this but i have not read any one else's yet. So I'm going to write about the "death marches" that the Germans would put Jews through as enemy forces neared the camps.
ReplyDeleteThe main reasons for these marches were to keep the Nazis out of the hands of the Allies. For example: As the Soviets got close to Auschwitz the Nazis at the camp would kill thousands then start marching the rest of the Jews to a "safer" location. These marches were a lot like the marches that the Japanese put the American POW's through after they over ran the Philippines. The Jewish people were forced to march great distances and along the way if you weren't strong enogh and fell behind they would just shoot you. Most of the time the Nazis just led the Jews straight to a place like the Baltic Sea, forced them in then shot them all. Usually not even half of the prisoners of war would survive.
These prisoners of war were treated worse then dogs. Nobody who reads this could ever imagine what they have been through. These "Death Marches" were not even close to what they went through during World War II though. Most of the people that had to go on these marches had already been through hell and back in the horrible concentration camps like Auschwitz, Stutthof,Buchenwald, and many many others just like this. Most of the People alive that went through these camps and marches lost many loved ones and are very lucky to be alive today.
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ReplyDeleteThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
ReplyDeleteEveryone is familiar with the holocaust and the terrible thing it was. No matter how many crazy muslims say it didnt happen. it is one of the worst things in all of human history. the holocaust shows evolutions true nature and how with out God we are really useless and have no defense for the millions of people who have been killed for their race or physical deformity. I would like to ask those in acedemia how they condemn the Holocaust yet say it is impossible that evolution could be false, when hitler used evolution to justify his actions.
One book ive read that relates to the topic of the holocaust and the Ghettos of warsaw is A Father's Promise. in 1942 a man named Mordecai Anielewicz lead and uprising in the ghettos of Warsaw, Poland. he founded the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). there was news of jews who had been moved from the ghettos and killed by the germans. mr Anielewicz lead a revolt that lasted for a month and held of some of the most trained and prepared troops on the planet. but what did this uprising really stand for? these people in Poland stood for freedom, and though nearly 700 where shot they died for something they believed was worth dying for. our freedom is never as secure as we think, if we lose our will to be free and take it for granted we will loose that freedom we enjoy.
ben, your essay is interesting. i think its very clear and at first i wanted to think you where smoking something but then i saw your point and how evolution changes the views and the rights and wrongs of life. its impossible for a christians to justify the holocaust in any way, however, millions of so called christians justify and support abortion that kills millions of babys, but nevertheless when evolution is there and is your guide line i see how hitler thought he was doing what he thought was write. but he was way way way off.
ReplyDeleteWow, hannah i really liked your essay, now im not much for chick flicks but thats really cool. its very interesting to see how people remember things that can totally change their mindset and view on where they are. the holocaust was awful and these were real people who had real lives who were the same as us in that they lived, loved, and wanted to feel love. i really enjoyed your essay
ReplyDeleteHitler comes to power
ReplyDeleteAs we have already learend,germany was in a very bad state in the 1930's.the depression had struck them very hard with ubeliveable inflation,wich meant that many germans were stuggaling just to stay alive in this time.Thais also meant that they were desperate for a change.Which gave a chance for adolf hitler of the nazi party an oppertunity to rise to power in germany.Which wasnt very difficult for hitler beacouse he was a very good and powerfull speaker who had a strong following of germans,and the nazi party appield to many germans with the promise of a better life for all germans.
In the time befor the german depression struck no one knew about the nazi party.But after the depression hit the popularity of the nazi party skyrocketed.which lead to 33% of germans supporting then in the 1932 elections,shortly after this the nazi party appointed hitler as their chancellor in 1933.
Vanessa, your essay was really good. I like how you combined several different things you read into one, it made it more efficient that way. Your quote was my favorite part though, it really had a powerful impact. It really spoke to me, because now I realize in a better way that it is very important to speak up for those being mistreated. When I hear someone being a jerk to someone else, I always get angry but sometimes I never say anything about it. Sticking up for people is the right thing to do, or even just being a friend to someone and showing Christ’s love. You never know what an impact it can have on a person to know that someone cares about the injustice being done to them. Showing concern for others even helps you in the end, when you need somebody to lean on. Which reminds me of a song. But anyway, good essay!
ReplyDeleteJake, I enjoyed reading your essay. I never even thought about life in the ghettos before, so it was interesting to see how that tied in with the Holocaust. The part about the human waste being dumped in the streets was pretty gross, and it’s also sad that many of the children were orphaned because of their parents dying from disease or starvation. I only really had heard about the concentration camps being like that in the Holocaust and I didn’t know about the ghettos, that’s really sad. Also, you’re right about what you said at the end- people are quick to forget about how recent things like this happen and that history does repeat itself.
ReplyDeleteI doubt either of you will read this, but I'd like to comment on a comment. lol
ReplyDeleteStotts, Camden was right, there are some Roma who are Polish. There are also Roma in Romania, Spain, Egypt, Mexico, Hungary, the Czech Republic and lots more. Originally the Roma descended from somewhere in India, it just depends on where they all migrated to.
"Rescue in Denmark"
ReplyDeleteDenmark was one of the only countries that had the back bone to actively stand up to the Nazi regime. I belive that takes some.. guts. Major ones too. To think about standing up to a hate group backed by a COUNTRY makes me shiver. That's basically what were doing in 2001. Anyways, Hitler hated the jews as we know. I always heard that when there's no good reason for hating someone, it is usually because they were jealous. This Hitler guy sounded really insecure to me.. even to the point of fear. He couldn't take the fact that the jewish people were doing well while his people were spending money like crazy. Denmark was a fearless people. Respect is given this day from me to them.
Camden,
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from your essay. I did not know that the romas were polish. Hitler obviously researched to find new ways to take out resistance. Like I said. Hitler was a coward.
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteYour research on the Nazi Cencorship really made me think about present day america. Not that we are there, but i see its roots everywhere. People have been payed by the government to not say certain things in public. The government is growing weary of resistnace and I think America should stand up for not only THEIR rights, but the rights of others. Who's to say they won't take yours if they've already taken your friends?
I decide to do my essay on Ghettos in Poland. I found out that although the Germans created at least 1,000 ghettos in “New Germany” the largest ghetto was in Warsaw ,Poland (the Capital) where almost half a million Jews lived in harsh conditions. Also, as I continued to read I found that not only did the Jews live in these ghettos but Roma’s (gypsies) . And during this process sometimes the German leadership took out families that lived in these impoverished areas just to put more Jews in… To me that’s a lot of work to do for someone that you hate.
ReplyDeleteOn top of all this many of the ghettos were enclosed by barbed-wire fences or high walls, with the only entrances guarded by police. And they weren’t allowed outside of their apartments during the night’s curfew hours.
The ghetto in Warsaw wasn’t the only one in Poland. There was also an “imprisonment” in Lodz. At both of these ghettos there were train lines that ran through the middle and to avoid from re-routing the tracks they just put a fence up and posted guards. And what got me is that people would ride these trains simply just to look at the inside of these prisons and laugh at the people that were subjected to this treatment.
There were also some dates that were important:::
OCTOBER 12, 1940 =WARSAW JEWS ORDERED INTO GHETTO
This was the date that they were ordered to go to these camps. But the camps would be completely closed off from the city in November. The wall would be 10 feet high and the top squirreling with barbed wire.
JULY 22, 1942 =WARSAW JEWS DEPORTED TO TREBLINKA KILLING CENTER
During this time more than 250,000 were taken to the Treblinka killing center.
Here is a quote from the article:
“They are crowded into freight cars and most are deported, via Malkinia, to Treblinka. The overwhelming majority of the deportees are killed upon arrival in Treblinka. In September, at the end of the 1942 mass deportation, only about 55,000 Jews remain in the ghetto.”
APRIL 19, 1943 =JEWISH FIGHTERS RESIST GERMANS IN WARSAW GHETTO
Was pretty much a fight to the death. Many of the Jews hid in bunkers that they had previously prepared and fought from there. By May 16, 1943 the area was reduced to nearly nothing. Thousands were killed and those that remained were sent to forced labor camps.
When I scrolled down the page of the website you gave us, Akers, I saw a familiar name of a place that we all know of stories from. Auschwitz. At first I did not want to write about this subject, but i was still interested in it. So when I was reading it I read some of the same stuff that i knew, but some of the other things just hit me in the face and it grieved me deeply. So I knew this would be the subject that i would write about. So here we go- Auschwitz.
ReplyDeleteOn May 20, 1940, a concentration camp was built and over the course of its years of existence, it exceeded in killing over 1 Million Jews. And that DOES NOT include people of other races. What i knew before was confirmed by reading what I found, the gas chambers, the pore living conditions, and the cruelty. But I never knew to the extant. I guess I will never truely fathom the hurt and the despair that they had, but my heart just brakes for them. Even the little and pore things that they made the prisoners do. Some were appointed to be "watchers" over the others, and many Jews afflicted pain on their own kind, and in return the "watchers" would get only a little bit better treatment then the others. The clothing that the Nazis gave the inmates was there only things they WOULD wear. The shoes were poorly made and already worn out buy others. Some even worked in CLOGS! Could you imagine that?! geezz. That’s Horrible. But I would absolutely lovee to write more about this, so maybe I will follow up with it in the morning. But I got to go! (:
For my essay, I chose the topic “Rescue in Denmark.” This topic was about how the country of Denmark tried to protect its Jews from being deported. Most people in Europe at this time would just ignore what was happening and say it was none of their business; however, there were few who gave in their efforts save the Jews. One example is the country of Denmark. In an attempt to save their Jews. The Danish people would smuggle Jews into neutral Sweden. Fisherman would ferry them over there and people would hide Jews in their homes and other establishments. Even though they were not completely successful, they still saved a lot of lives.
ReplyDeleteHaving been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, I can say it is quite the experience. When I went with Mr. McGuire on the DC trip we decided to view the children’s exhibit first and then decide if we were emotionally prepared for the real exhibit. I remember entering this elevator and riding it to the top floor. As we went through the museum we would start at the top floor and walk to the bottom. After exiting, the first thing that came to my mind was could this have really possible. Is the human heart really that wicked? This did happened and the point of showing it happened is so that it will might never happen again.
I’ll be talking about the time I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. Throughout the whole museum they video rooms. Each video showcased something different, but one specific set of a couple videos focused on Hitler’s rise to power. The videos showed, just like Mr. Akers pointed out so many times, that Adolf Hitler had been elected fair and square. Most of the people in Germany, and many elsewhere, truly adored Hitler. Though, once in power, Hitler changed. The videos said that Germany’s economy started to rise and he immediately took the credit and basically set himself into the dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteThere are two other sections that are more prominent in my mind than others. The thing that comes to mind was this table shaped container with screens in the middle of the box-like item. The screens each flashed pictures of the medical experiments the Nazi’s performed on people. The experiments ranged from research on blood and body measurements of different races to research on twins. The tests they did were humiliating and painful.(If you’re interested I recommend you research it yourself. Pictures are often graphic.) Their “research” of different races was actually set up propaganda. They claimed certain races blood caused them to be inclined to commit certain crimes or that body measurements (such as head size and nose size) made certain people inferior (as well as hair and eye color).
The other station that I remember was one I know Madyson wrote about. The corridor filled with shoes, the shoes of children who were killed for no reason, people who were forced to suffer all because of their race. The shoes are such a powerful image. Mounds of worn, shoes that were falling apart mounded on top of each other. That hall is burnt into my memory forever.
One last thing, when you went in the museum you were given a card, a card that had a person’s picture and a story. At the end of the museum there were two large white walls with tons of names on them. Stationed against the walls were computers for you to look up the person on you card to see if they survived the holocaust. Knowing someone’s story and then knowing they died makes you think about the holocaust differently; it makes it almost personal when you can see someone’s life then see how it was forcefully and wrongly taken away.
"The Murder Of The Handicapped"
ReplyDeleteThis was absolutely orrible, killing handicapped people. The Nazis killed these people just because they weren't normal. It makes me so mad. In what I read it said that the handicapped were viewed as useless and unworthy to life. It also said that "At the begining of World War II, people who were mentally retarded, Physically handicapped, or mentally ill were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the "T-4" or "euthanasia" program." Ok really I think, no scratch that, I know that the Nazis were the retarded ones. I had never heard of this before but when I read it, I was more furious than before when readin or just hearing about the holocaust. They killed these innocent people with injections of deadly drugs, gas, or by starvation. Then they would just burn the bodies. Between 1941 and 1945 200,000 handicapped people were murdered. Yes, I know this is very gruesome. It's inhumane. I was surprised when I first read this but I don't know why because thats what they did, they killed innocent people for no good reason. It's not like they were a threat or anything and neither were the Jews. Just so stupid. I also read that the doctors were the ones who decided which people would be killed. After readin this a question came into my mind, If they were the ones deciding then why couldn't they see that Hilter needed to be killed too. I mean he was obviously mentally ill. He was a very sick, in the head, man. There was NO good reason for them to do any of the crap they did. Absolutely no good reason.
Nazi Racism....
ReplyDeleteEven before Hitlar came to power in Germany, his ideas against races was well known between all of his speeches and writings. Hitlar believed in a "perfect race" which for him was a blue eyed, blonde haired and tall person. His plan was for one day his race to take over the world.
After Hitlar and the Nazis came to power in Germany, many strong actions for his "perfect race" to become in effect. Beginning in 1933, German physicians were allowed to perform forced sterilization surgeries on people Hitlar considered "inferior" which included the mentally ill, those born blind or death, the Gypsies, and the African-Germans, which were the offspring of the German women and African colonized allied soldiers in the German Rhineland.
But Hitlar and the other Nazis did not see the Jews as a religious group but as poisonous "race" that infected and brought down the other races. After Hitlar took power Nazi teachers began applying the principals of the "perfect race", they measured the sizes of skulls and recorded the color of there eyes and hair to determine if they belonged in the "perfect race". Many Jewish and Gypsies students were humiliated in the process of the studies
I went and looked at the “Murder of the Handicapped” article. It was very interesting; pretty self explanatory really, but ridiculously cruel. I’ll list a few specifics. Adolph Hitler said he was “purifying society”, “taking away the threat to Aryan genetic purity”, and killing those “unworthy of life”, by killing off all those Jews and gypsies with physical impairments. Hitler called this process the T-4 or euthanasia process. T-4 began in October 1939. He hired doctors to review the files of all the above mentioned people and decide who should and should not be killed. These doctors were also in charge of overseeing the killing itself which was usually done via gas chambers. The bodies were then piled to be burned and placed in crematoriums. This program served as training for the members of the camps who had to kill the handicapped. Despite a ton of protestors, the Nazis continued the T-4 program, and by the end of this process over two-million handicapped people had been killed. In August third of 1931 Hitler called for an end to the euthanasia killings. I unfortunately haven’t had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum though it does sound very interesting and like something I would really enjoy. I do plan to visit it eventually.
ReplyDeleteGuffey. Meow. I liked your essay. Not liked, but you know what I mean. I had heard of Auschwitz and knew it was a concentration camp but didn't really know how bad it was. Five hundred men and thirty-six bunks: that's ridiculous. I don't even understand why they thought this was the right thing to do. I can’t imagine living in those circumstances. Luckily, I’m fortunate enough that I haven’t had to, but nonetheless, it could have been you or me. One thing that really stuck out to me was that one of the first things the Nazis did to the members of the camp was to give them a number that became their name. They were apparently trying to take away any form of identity that the people had. They wanted the Jews and gypsies and others to feel that they were nothing more than animals destined to die, not humans.
ReplyDeleteAshley, your essay was good. And I couldn't agree more with you. Hitler believed that in killing these handicapped people that he was actually making society better, but in reality, he couldn't have been more wrong!! And you were COMPLETELY correct in saying that the Nazi's were the ones with the problem. They had become so sick with power that they thought innocent lives were something worth sacrificing for the growth of Nazi Germany. What a disturbing thought.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job Ashley.
Charity, your essay was also good. And the information that you discovered really is disturbing. I mean, killing over 1 million people in not even four years?! That is just evil, no way around that. And the terrible thing about it is that the Nazi's thought this was the right decison! They thought that they were making Germany a better place for themselves! Gosh it truly is just evil. Pure evil.
ReplyDeleteGood Job Charity.
Sam I enjoyed reading your essay it was intriguing. It really is sad that there was no more resistance than there really was because what this Ferdinand guy did showed that maybe if there had been more resistance and help for the Jews or anyone else that Hitler was targeting many live could have been spared. Many were killed trying to resist Hitler and his control. But it seems that most didn't agree with his ideas an so on so they might could have ended this a whole lot faster and spared many more lives if there had just been more people to rise against the Nazi rule. Just this one man organized a way to save like 7,800 Jews so what could more people like him have accomplished?
ReplyDeleteInteresting story Zack. I liked how you noted that the Night of Broken glass wasn’t government enacted, but was caused by angered Germans. The police didn’t even care. They just stood by and watched the destruction. After that they even arrested the Jews, the victims. The destroyed business were not even aloud to reopen unless they were managed by non-jews. The kids were not allowed to do anything. Basically all they could do was sit in their houses.
ReplyDeleteWow Sam, Mr. Ferdinand really did some heroic stuff. Risking his career and life to save 8,000 others is pretty big and it's good that someone actually saw Hitlers actions horrible and did something to stop them.
ReplyDeleteJaykub, I like your essay. I like that Jews actually stood up for themselves and tried to rebell against the German soldiers. While it is almost a suicidal task going up such a large force, it takes some guts to actually do it. Although in the end the failed, the fact that they even tried is amazing.
ReplyDeleteZach, you had a good essay. You’re essay on the topic of “The Night of Broken Glass” was very interesting. I had never heard about Kristallnacht, when I read that in two days that 250 synagogues were burned and that 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed I was shocked. It’s a little hard to grasp that this attack was simply a group of outraged Germans, but I’ll never know for sure. And then I read on to see that the next day 30,000 Jewish German men were arrested just for being Jewish and that along with them women and children were sent to the concentration camps as well. I thought that it was also quite sad that the German Jew children couldn’t even go to the museums, parks or anything else along those lines. Making them just as segregated as their parents.
ReplyDeleteSam, you had a really good essay. That is pretty amazing how that one guy stepped up and saved all of those Jew's. It is a tradegy that the others had to die but he did all he could which was pretty great. I just wish that more people had stepped up to the Germans like George Ferdinand Duckwitz did. Maybe more Jew's could have been saved. But anyways, very good job on your essay Sam.
ReplyDeleteJarred, you had a really good essay. Oh my goodness, this is awful. I knew that he was insane but why would you kill off the disabled people? To say that you are “purifying society”, “taking away the threat to Aryan genetic purity”, and killing those “unworthy of life”; is absolutely insane. T-4 (as Hitler called it) began in October of 1939. Hitler also hired doctors to be in-charge of the mass homicides that were done in gas chambers. And then the bodies were burned in crematoriums. Also I found that it was quite disturbing that they used this program to train the people that would be in charge of killing the handicapped in the concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteJake Anderson, that is absolutely horrible that all that happened. I can't imagine living in that, or being a child who lost their parents and having to take care of little kids when they were little kids themselves. It's horrible that they couldn't be educated and even when they were, they had to be extremely careful and had to hide their books so that they wouldn't get in trouble. You are completely right in what you said, "People are easily blinded and will commit horrible atrocities thinking that they are benefiting society." It's ridiculous. Anyways, good essay Jake.
ReplyDeleteVanessawyatt, when I read the quote by Martin Niemollu it gave me chills as well. "First they came for the socialist, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me."
ReplyDeleteBecause of our ability to broadcast information in a better way then in the 1930's and 1940's I think we feel we have a better knowledge of what's going on in the world. Roe vs. Wade happened when we were sleeping.
Sam Wier, I loved your story on the "Rescue in Denmark". The hero of the Danish Jewish people Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz. Responding quickly to the news of what Germans were going to do, says that he was listening. It also says that he was planning. It shows you about the importance of accurate information.
Elizabeth Bettina wrote a book "It Happened in Italy". In the early 40's in a tiny village of Campagna, Italy there was a concentration camp that was so different to those of Nazi Germany. They had more freedom to come and go as they please a long as they were present for roll call in the morning and at night. When Italy surrendered to the Allies the Germans acted quickly to depart Italian Jews to death camps. Italian police official Giovanni Palatucci know as the Italian Schindler played a major role in saving thousands of Jews. The Nazis caught him, he died the death from which he saved so many.
Colby,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your essay, I began to think about Hitler's "Superior Race", and then I realized something-I would probably have been killed or put in a concentration camp. I am not blonde I'm brunette. I have brown eyes, not blue. I am short, not tall. (Although I like to think I am.)
Your essay first off was really good, and second, caused me to think. We all talk about "rascim" in our country, but I mean, Hitler is a prime example of an extreme rascist.
Anyhow, good job Colby.
Jarred,
ReplyDeleteI read your essay, and it reminded me of a scene in a movie entitled "The Pianist." It's obviously a movie about the Holocaust, and I've only seen the first half due to the fact it always comes on television around 9, and I am out around 10. Anyways, there is a scene where the main character is watching Nazi police raid a house across his street. The soldiers proceed to shoot people and throw them into the streets. However, they come across a man in a wheelchair and roll him off the fourth story balcony.
That's about all I had to comment. I think we all understand how horrific the Holocaust was.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article. It’s sad to look at all the different forms of hatred and discrimination there are and have been in the world. I know personally, as a Christian, I am called to accept every color of humanity as my brethren and to show the love of Christ to those of other religions. To think that people could be so closed minded is hard for me today and I am glad I was not born during a time or in a place when I might have been raised to believe such lies. Very informative. Thank you!!
Jarred,
Even though you wrote on the same subject as Jessica, I got something different out of yours. It’s interesting how everyone gives their essay something different. Anyway, as a Health Career Explorer who has volunteered in the Emergency Room and is planning on going into the medical field, it is appalling to me that certified, educated Doctors were buying into these dangerous ideas and supervising systematic murder. It is terrible that those who went to school to learn how to better the human life were destroying so many of them. But then again, look at our own American holocaust of millions of innocent healthy babies through abortion. The world is an evil place. Anyway, not to end on a depressed note, but yeah. Good essay.
Ashley, your essay was really good. It is frustrating to think that they killed handicapped people just because they were viewed as useless. It’s just sickening to think that they murdered over 200,000 handicapped people. The ways the Nazis killed them are so gruesome and inhumane, like you said. Hitler was a messed up man.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJon....
ReplyDeleteI like your essay on how Hitlar came to power. I liked how you mentioned that Hitlar knew how to come in at the perfect opportune time and how his great persuasive speaking easily influenced the Germans. Also mentioning the Nazis came up from nothing an in a few short years were the biggest party with the highest percentage of votes.
Colby...
You had a wonderful essay even though my essay was similar to yours, but I really enjoyed the part about the "Racial Purity Law" I think it was very cruel not only to judge people by race but also judging those who had no control over there disabilities (not saying people could choose there race) but forcing sterilization surgeries on children was what really caught my attention could you imagine yourself having to do that...but that’s why Hitlar is one of the most hated people in World History
Mady, we had visited that museum together, and it’s interesting to see what stuck out to you. One, the Hebrew word “remember” outside the entrance. That’s very important and we don’t tend to see why here because we all would think it’s ludicrous to deny the Holocaust, but in other places that’s not so. Many people claim the Holocaust did not happen to the extent that people claim. They say things like: the Nazis had no intention of attacking Jews specifically, current death estimates are extreme over estimates, and Nazis did not use any mass murder devices to kill Jews. Some even claim that the Holocaust was made up so the Allies could frame the Germans as evil, but a museum filled with photos, stories, and names of the murdered seems to be more evidence then any argument could bear. The next thing you wrote about was something I remembered too, the room filled with shoes, so I won’t focus on it.
ReplyDeleteWow, Sam, your essay was awesome. What a story! One whole country that wasn’t going to let something as terrible as the Holocaust just happen and one man who was in the right position to help reaching out. Could you imagine being able to save 7,900 lives, but the risk was huge for him as well. Sam, you chose an amazing topic, and I’m glad you wrote on this so this story could be passed on to more people.
ReplyDeleteSide note- Vanessa, I read your essay because everyone was talking about it so I decided to read yours as well. What a powerful quote you had. That quote shows what not speaking out against the evil in the world does, and I hope everyone would at least look at Vanessa’s essay and read the quote.
Blake, I found it very interesting reading what you had to say about visiting the National Holocaust Museum. It is so hard to even imagine how people could have so much hatred that they would kill and torture so many people. It is so sad to think about and what you said about the clay models of the gas chambers and cremators struck me. To see models of what really happened to people would have to leave a sickening feeling in your stomach. And what you said about when you left you could see that everything had hit everyone hard really shows how awful and horrific this was.
ReplyDeleteHannah, I really liked your essay. That is such an amazing story and I love how they end up running into each other in the end and getting married. I am glad to read this because during the holocaust there were so many terrible endings but in this one you see a man make it through the pain and eventually finding love in the end. I also like how the girl went every day and it shows how innocent we are as kids and don’t realize the dangers of the things going on around us. She took him apples everyday and little did she know that she would one day marry him. I just find this to be a very neat story.
Zach, your essay was very interesting to read. I had never heard of that event before but sadly, I’m not surprised. It sounds like it was the point where all the prejudice against the Jews broke loose. Good essay.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I find learning about the Holocaust interesting as well. It’s so heartbreaking to hear about the sacrifice that mother made for her child; it just shows you what all of those people had to go through. I had never heard of the women coloring their hair like that. It was very interesting to hear.
I just randomly clicked on the article “Nazi racism.” After reading through this article I was pretty much in shock that one man could pretty much change a whole country’s perspective to his own. Somehow he and his high raked leaders convinced the majority of the population that if you didn’t have blonde hair, blue eyes, and were tall. You were a “poisonous” race in superior to the Aryan race. One way he did this was by teaching his ideas in school. Start kids off at a very young age with these ideas. Another thing that he did was write a book while in prison called Mein Kampf . If you ever get a chance you should at least skim through this book. I have and I can personally say that Adolf had some off the wall ideas. The book basically blames the Jews and some other races for about every problem man has ever faced. Despite this when Germans read this book they said hey he’s got a good point, and his ideas became very popular. Adolf was so popular that Germany elected him to be there chancellor.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way this article explained some of the ideas of Adolf Hitler, and also how he got others to follow him and believe in his concepts. I also liked how it told most of the groups or peoples that Adolf believed to be undesirable or impure.