History 121
Book Analysis “All But My Life”
February 15, 2013
All But My Life All But My Life is a memoir about a young Jewish girl, Gerda Weissmann, who was able to endure the hardships of World War II and the Holocaust. Gerda went through and saw more horrific things in the matter of a few years than any of us will ever have to face in our lifetimes. The fact that a girl this young and hopeless can withstand so much pain but yet contain so much strength should be an inspiration to all. Reading this book really opened my eyes to what the world can bring. After reading Gerda’s journey, I will never again complain of times being tough or depressing in my life. This book really meant a lot to me for that very reason. It is amazing that
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Also it was written for those who were unable to survive the Holocaust. For those who will never be able to share their hard fought journey and are now just another number to total of lives lost during the Holocaust.
Gerda’s long and eventful journey didn’t just take place in one location or even just one concentration camp for that matter. Her journey had several stops along the way and consisted of days and days of traveling in the harshest conditions. The journey of Gerda’s story begins in September of 1939 in her hometown of Bielitz, Poland (4). Bielitz is where Gerda spent roughly the first sixteen years of her life (43). In the early summer of 1942 Bielitz is Judenreined which means free of Jews basically. Gerda and her family are split and to travel in different directions. Gerda is headed toward Sosnowitz, Poland and gets there in June 1942 (96). From Sosnowitz, Gerda is sent to her first concentration camp in Bolkenhain, Germany (113). While at Bolkenhain, Gerda worked thread machines day in and day out; however, all in all the girls were treated pretty well at Bolkenhain compared to other concentration camps. Gerda would later found out that Bolkenhain was like heaven in comparison to what was to come. Soon Gerda and the rest of the girls are sent to another concentration camp called Marzdorf in September of 1943 (145). Marzdorf was nothing like Bolkenhain and was purely miserable for Gerda. Luckily Gerda doesn’t spend a great deal of
“For the dead and the living we must bear witness”(Elie Wiesel). The book “Night” was published in 1956, by Elie Wiesel. He talks about the Holocaust and how he survived it and what the conservation camp was like and how he was treated. Throughout “night” one of the major themes was the idea of small acts of kindness. These moments in the story are important because they show what a huge difference one person can make.
Jews have perished because of their beliefs since the beginning of time but never have so many Jews been persecuted worldwide as they were in World War II. Anne Frank’s diary reaches a place within all of our hearts because it reminds us how easily the innocents can suffer. Sometimes we may choose to close our eyes or look the other way when unjustifiable things happen in our society and Anne’s tale reminds us that ignorance, in part, claimed her life. Sadly, her story is but one of many of those who died in the Holocaust and as with other Jews, her fate was determined by the country she lived in, her sex and her age.
The fact that the Jew’s lives were harsh is undeniable, but love, laughter, and nature is what brought them together and kept their spirits alive in spite of the horror around them. Even though Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party destroyed their homes, it doesn’t change how they choose to live their lives. The Jews were very supportive and remained remarkably positive during the days of the Holocaust. No matter what happens, they’ll be next to each other and triumph their spirits with love, laughter, and the beauty of
During the Holocaust, Jewish people were submitted to the vilest and most inhumane conditions the world had ever seen. Their most basic freedoms were taken from them. At first, all they lost were items such as flour, eggs, sugar, and cocoa. Later, they were stripped of their land and businesses and separated according to their ability to be productive slaves to Hitler's Third Reich. Those that were deemed unfit were sent to slaughter houses. Entire families were torn apart, much like what happened to Gerda Weissman Klein's family. Despite watching her mother, father, and brother being taken from her, knowing that she would never see them again, she found the strength to survive three years in German labor camps through her family,
All But My Life is Gerda Weissmann Klein’s memoir of her experiences during World War II. Klein was born on May 8, 1924, in Bielitz (now Bielsko), Poland. She remembers her childhood as being happy, even idyllic. The Weissmanns were a Jewish family, and their town had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before 1919. Like most of the residents in the area, the Weissmann family was bilingual, speaking both Polish and German, and Klein’s older brother, Arthur, studied English as well. Klein’s father, Julius, was a business executive who had lived in Bielitz for more than twenty years, and Helene, her mother, was born there, as were both Klein and Arthur. The family was horrified when German Nazi forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Despite the fact that Britain and the United States declared war on Germany two days later, it took the Nazis only eighteen days to conquer Poland.
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity quotes Elie Wielsel’s, “Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and human sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place- at that moment- become the center of the universe.” Many people suffered and had to give up their lives during the holocaust. The days of horror and torture during this time is to be told by many different writers. Elie Wiesel, Corrie Ten Boom, and Anne Frank, three writers I chose, all wrote books about the holocaust to make it a little bit easier to understand the real life situations they had to go through while in hiding. If it wasn’t for them, people today wouldn’t know the pain and hardships people had to face at that time. The holocaust was a life changing event that shaped the world to how it now is today.
There are many tragic events that have happened in history and one of them is The Holocaust. The book Night written by Elie Wiesel is based on him, a Holocaust survivor, and his experience in the concentration camps. There is also an article titled “Wiesel Offers Students First-Hand Account of Holocaust” by Louis Sahagun that is about Elie Wiesel speaking to students on his involvement with The Holocaust. The film Life is Beautiful is based on The Holocaust as well. It tells the story of a family in the concentration camps. The book Night, the article “Wiesel Offers Students First-Hand Account of Holocaust”, and the film Life is Beautiful share a common message of how families were affected during The Holocaust.
When people started to hear stories of what was happening, they didn’t believe them. Even stories coming from a man who survived these cruel actions, Moishe the Beadle. He was persistent in trying to get people to listen, “he went from one Jewish house to the next, telling his story” (7). Others who experienced the holocaust decided to use their knowledge to educate the public, like Elie Wiesel. By writing Night, Wiesel showed how another holocaust could cause mass destruction and death. These examples show that telling your story is important, even if you think people are
In All But My Life, the memoir of Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, the first bystanders the audience
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. Before during and after the holocaust all the choices he made reflected all his hopes and dreams. All his hopes and dreams happened after all the fear he went through. He becomes stronger as a person. He fights for his life through the holocaust. He learns who he really is by going through the
Nobody really can get through life without help, eventually along the way there is something thrown our way that we cannot deal with alone. When you look back at one of the most confusing and unfair times in the world's history, the Holocaust, you can see that this was true for all of the families affected. George Gottlieb, Krystyna, and Elie Wiesel all needed help from upstanders on their road to surviving the Holocaust,and without it survival would have been nearly impossible, these are three different cases that all have one glowing similarity, that being the contributions of others to help them fight the persecution, and from all of these testimonies we can draw something that should be applied today.
People who are nostalgic about childhood, were obviously never children. Few people can remember the truth about adolescence. Their minds "censor" their memories; and have them believe that being a teenager was was one big party, free of cares and responsibilities. Well let me say this, you couldnOt be more wrong if you had a lobotomy. There aren't that many adults around who realise what adolescence was really like. The anguish, the fear, the anxiety, the stress. People don't remember those problems because they want to forget them.
As a very small child I don’t remember too much, but the things that I do remember were seen through a child’s eyes that has made me the person that I am today and I will always have those memory’s with me until my last breath on this earth. In this essay I intend to show how my childhood and adult life to this point has influenced my life, my journey. By utilizing the adult development theories from this class I also intend on showing how they relate to my Life experiences and where I am today as an Adult student.
One's dream and aspirations to supersede in life must be stronger and greater than limitations set forth by others. The experience that were bestowed to me during my short life has elevated me to the woman I am today. Please walk with me as I give you the opportunity to see the world from my eyes:
This explains the beginning of my life all the way to the end of my life. My life from the beginning was very fun as I grew up living with my mom’s friend and my friend. But there were a lot of fights and I was very hyper back then. I have ADHD so back then when I was little; I was very hyper and wouldn't stop moving around the place. I always was annoying back then and never seemed to get my homework done at school.