A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

The Holocaust was very extreme, forcing victims to make a choice between prioritizing their own survival or allowing a close friend or family member to live. Some people would not have survived unless they could steal clothes or food from another person else, and countless others selflessly surrendered their own resources allowing a family member to stay alive. Night is a novel written by Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel. In Auschwitz, the officers deprived Elie and the other prisoners of food, resources and clean living space. Prisoners had to sacrifice morality if they wanted to live. My Life in Germany is a short story by Rosa Marie Burger. It takes place in the Holocaust's early days and highlights the sharp loss of rights that the German Jews endured. They felt betrayed when their fellow citizens did not speak out. Most people will not remain loyal if it means putting themselves in imminent danger.

During the Holocaust, about six million Jews died. Some were taken to concentration and execution camps, such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Chelmno. Others were kept in ghettos with terrible living conditions in order to segregate them from the rest of society. Regardless of the suffering, these people miraculously managed to keep their head up and look on the bright side. To some, it may be a mystery of how they stayed strong. However, it is clear that love, nature, and humor allowed human spirit to triumph during the Holocaust.

Luba Frederick, a holocaust survivor, answered “To die was easy.”, when discussing the tragic and horrible events of the holocaust. In the Nazi concentration camps, life was miserable. Jews were oppressed by Nazi’s and forced to do their dirty work. Families, jobs, dreams, were nothing more than an illusion as cruel and inhumane treatment replaced them. People felt hopeless and looked to death as an option. Many were intrigued with the idea of death, since it was easier to give up rather than choosing to continue. Majority of people stopped eating, gave up their religious faiths and hope, welcoming the darkness to embrace them. Surviving was a constant struggle for these people and the only way to overcome it was the acceptance of death.

The conditions that the Jews and other were put through were super horrible. They were forced into boxcars that didn’t have anything in them and they wondered where they were and where they were going. They stood in the boxcars for days with no food or water to keep them alive. (Joseph)(Source 3) Along their way to the concentration camps they were exposed to harsh weather. In the summer it was scorching hot and in the winter it was freezing cold. Since they were shoved amongst each other they suffered from suffocation. Along their journey many young and old died along the way (“The Holocaust”)(Source 2). Inside the boxcars there was no windows or anyway to breath. It was also very unsanitary because of the abundance of people in them and they didn’t have any water to at least wash themselves with. All they could do was stand there in the dark and wait (Joseph) (Source

The Jews were so scared of hearing what the Nazis were doing to the Jews that they would do anything to feel a sense of comfort, even silence those who spoke about the fate of the Jews. “They struck her several times on the head”(Wiesel 24). A female Jew screamed the fate of the Jews and knew that everyone was going to die, so in order to feel safe the Jews killed her to feel comfort. In the end the Holocaust became a survival of the fittest for the Jewish people. “Soon nearly everywhere, pieces of bread were being dropped into the wagons. The audience stared as these skeletons of men, fighting one another to the death for a mouthful of bread”(Wiesel 95). The Jews were so hungry and beaten up that they killed each other if it meant survival or food. Because of the Nazis, the Jews had experienced so much, they started to treat each other like the Nazis had treated

During the Holocaust, the living conditions for the Jewish population were horrifying and unthought of. The lack of sanitary facilities meant they had to remove dirt and pests from clothing by waiting in a line that took up most of the day. The barracks that the prisoners slept in was in terrible conditions and the rooms were damp with leaky roofs (“Auschwitz…”). The health and how the jewish lived was no concern of the Nazi soldiers.

It is amazing to hear from the people who have actually survived the Holocaust. It shows us how much we still have to learn about the world and the civilizations and how hard it is to understand the reason why we do such things to our fellow human beings. "By 1945, two out of every three European Jews had been killed and the survivors continued to be oppressed." (Telles 51) In addition, thousands of political and religious dissidents such as communists, socialists, trade unionists, and Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for their beliefs and behavior and many of these individuals died as a result of maltreatment.

One of the most sorrow thing that human would ever have been through is to be treated inhumanity and brutally abused. Like the quote clearly stated, “Band-Aids don’t fix bullet hole”, Holocaust had given the Jews a deep scar that would follow them until they buried down under the ground. The nightmare began when Hitler took over the control and targeted to assassinate 6 millions of alive Jews who were living in Germany. They were all murdered in different ways, it could be starving till death, forced to do overwork or got whipped as a punishment for not working hard. Overall life was tough for them, they were forced to work long hours and lived in a poor conditions. Jews were born to be the target for Hitler and the Nazis to discriminate

Many European Jews could make it and remain alive, but in reality, most of them are not really still alive from their inside. It is true that their bodies have healed; however, their minds are still psychologically sick. It is hard for many people to see their beloved ones dying because of the hanger or even the harsh treatment. Imagine how hard was for Vladek and Anja to see their little son Richu dying, and they could not do anything to him. Many survivors had this sense of regret about why they were the ones who get to survive while others died. They could see the images of dead people who were lying above each other. Aaron Hass from California State University, Dominguez Hills, California talks about a woman called Rose who was in her 19th year of age during the Holocaust. In his interview with Rose F., he explains how the Holocaust has shaped her life and personality. For example, Rose states that “I felt guilty for many years that maybe I should have run back and tried to get her [he sister] with me or stay with her. Maybe I didn’t do enough to stay together. Maybe I was too selfish about saving myself” (Hass 163). This shows how Rose could not and still can not get over the loss of her sister, and she keeps blaming herself for her sister’s death. The Holocaust and its brutality are hard to be forgotten by Jewish

This statement depicts a glimpse of what the Jewish people had to endure during the holocaust. The holocaust was an extreme form of massacre. It is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The duration of the holocaust was from January 30th, 1933 to May 8th, 1945. The holocaust began in the year of 1933 when the Nazi party came to power, the leader Adolf Hitler believed that the Jewish people belonged to a 'low' and 'evil' race, and they were affecting the lives of the Germans pessimistically. Hitler's motto was to punish, alienate, and torture anyone who differed from him, with religion being a main factor. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for all the social and economic problems

Hypothesis: The jews had to become strong, fast and good at hiding. They had to remember their old life and were treated worse than slaves.They had to be hopeful and determined and worked about 2\3 of the day.Without these traits jew had a low chance to survive.

In the camps, the prisoners were continuously being persecuted and there were always selections going on as well. The selections would determine whether you were valuable to them or not. If you weren’t, you were killed and if you were, you continued to work. All of these things caused the Jews to be in a state of hopelessness and apathy while always being quite anxious too (Gutman, 1). With

“The fact is they know I went through hell.” -Professor Bacharach, Holocaust Survivor. Ever since many centuries ago, Jewish people were treated unfairly and unjustly according to their religion and characteristics. The Holocaust was a fearful and painful genocide because of anti-semitism throughout European countries. Up to six million Jews died in the harrowing genocide, along with the death of many other religious and ethnical groups ("Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution"). As much as a fraction of the number of Jews survived. With much grief and sorrow during the Holocaust, the survivors had to suffer the emotional and physical trauma after the event. Survivors had to face the reality of rebuilding their lives after the

The Holocaust was a horrible event and had many tragedies and losses of family and friends. This event starts in 1933 where Hitler rises to power, and ends in 1945 where Hitler is defeated and the holocaust has ended. There are many topics about the holocaust that people would want to know, but this topic is a crucial and important one. The topic is Life during the Holocaust where we learn about how Jewish people live during the holocaust and what happened to them in the concentration camps.

Jewish people did not only suffer physically, but psychologically throughout the Holocaust. The Jewish prisoners were deprived of food and water, which resulted in a decline of morale, cruelty among fellow prisoners instead of unity, and crushed friendships. Some of the Jews did not have the desire of anything, including the desire to live because they endured such a great amount of pain and suffering (Jewish 3). Sometimes, best friends throughout life were cruel and threatening towards one another for one small piece of bread. When Jewish people were organized by gender, families were forced to split apart and never witnessed the presence of each other again.