The Lives of Others was a film that chose to display the notion of lies through the other side. The filmmaker chose to use a committed worker instead of using a citizen trying to get away from the East German regime. Wiesler the focal character is a very serious and committed officer of the East Berlin government. He fought with himself the entire film about what type of person he would be. The filmmaker chose to compare and contrast the feelings of Wielser. He showed he did not have control of his own life, but had to live the lives of others by force. This was an example of how the communist regime controlled the lives of its people. Wiesler was not able to become his true self until the end of the film. The East German Communist mantra had a tight grip on the people in East Germany. The wiring of …show more content…
The most tumultuous act of the Communist party in the film was the hiding of the suicide statistics. Jerska a blacklisted director committed suicide and it was not going to be documented. They did not want to overshadow their “great” regime with the true number of suicides that were being committed. The Lives of Others portrayed the subtle change of a man who had been controlled most of his adult life. He was controlled by a regime who truly only saw him as an asset for despair in other’s lives.
Good bye Lenin brought more of a subtle and comedic approach to the life of the average citizen under Communism in East Germany. Many lies were told in this film, but they were told to save the life of a mother who committed her life to East Berlin. The catch was Christiane, who
Wiesel can neither justify nor comprehend the inhumane atrocity he endured during his enslavement, however discovers brutality becomes a way of life to outlive the Holocaust.
Soon after gaining the trust of the people, the Nazis begin placing restrictions on them and later, segregate the Jews into ghettos. It’s only then that many of the Jews begin to realize the danger they have been placed in due to the German soldiers being there. After some time in the ghetto, Wiesel’s life truly spirals from his control when his family is sent to the Birkenau Concentration Camp. From there, prisoners are sorted by gender, separating them from family and other loved ones, and abused by guards and other prisoners.
Throughout the book Wiesel’s he loses his innocence do to violins and traumatising actions by the Nazis . At first he is a good kid who practices his religion a lot and, towards the middle of the book he completely changes he loses his innocence because violence. Because of violence has been so traumatising to him as only a 15 year old , in his mind is nothing but an everyday thing because he goes through it almost everyday for example Wiesel States “I did not move.What happened to me?My father had been struck Before my very eyes And I had not Flickered and eyelid” This shows how for a 15 year old boy he has gone through many terrible things end changes All the violence that you was put through is just very normal to everyone now no one really
Both examples serve as a reminder of the inhumane conditions that the Jewish people were put through by the Nazis as they attempted to make them feel like they were not human. Weisel’s words have a lasting impact on the reader who is left to think about their emotions and reflect on the value of human life, something which the Nazis did not value. A third way that the Nazis tried to dehumanize Wiesel and the other prisoners was through the process of tattooing. If prisoners survived the selection process, they would quickly get a number tattooed onto their wrist. From that point on, the prisoners were not known by name but by the number that was permanently tattooed on their body.
He shows us how the two can become very similar in bad situations such as his. One example of when this happens is when Wiesel is in the hospital. He meets a man who seems to have no will to live. He speaks very bluntly about an oncoming death and it seems like he feels he is already dead. He says, “Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve… Hitler alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” (Wiesel 80-81). The man speaking so bluntly and without emotion about his own extermination really shows that he already feels dead, especially because he is in the hospital and knows that he will likely be the first to die. Wiesel’s ability to express the man’s bleak tone and readiness to die shows that he was able to teach people that sometimes the line between life and death can become blurred, and that one can feel dead even though their body is still
However, when they reach the camps, the soldiers transformed from men to monsters because of the cruel ways the Germans began to treat them. This leads to moral lessons and how, Wiesel's love and bond for his father is stronger than
The emotional connection Wiesel has to the injustice and inhumane acts from other people being a survivor from the Holocaust
Having gone through it, Wiesel is obviously extremely passionate about the events that took place during his time in Birkenau. Throughout the duration of his speech, he continuously makes it a point to persuade and emotionally move the audience. He starts off his speech with a third-person story of himself as a child, recently rescued from a concentration camp. He says that he “was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again” as well as “he will always be grateful to them (American soldiers) for that rage, and also for their compassion”. In doing this, Wiesel is able to grab the audience’s attention as well as elicit emotion out of them, causing them to be easily persuaded by the things he will say during the remainder of his speech. At the end of his speech, Wiesel again appeals to human emotion by questioning the fate of children. He pleads for the public to see and read about the children, and does so with a broken heart. “Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably,” he says, “We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine. Some of them – so many of them – could be saved”. By using this example of children, as well as stating that they can be saved, Wiesel is making the audience feel bad for the children who suffered and at the same time persuading them to not let
This is the first of many examples of Wiesler abusing his position of power to act cruelly. It cuts between the brutal interview and the classroom where students listen to a recording of the interview while Wiesler explains the techniques he used to break the interview subject. Wiesler is shot from low angles to appear more intimidating while the man he interviews is shot from above; almost as if the audience is watching from Wiesler’s point of view. These angles force the audience to quite literally look down on the man in question. For the first half of the movie Wiesler is portrayed in a similar manner to the Mise en Scene.
Although, at the same time German SS guards still treat the workers poorly having physically and mentally worked to death. It is to show how the Germans atrociously plan their ideas to exterminate the Jews simply because they are viewed as animals. By using light and dark atmospheres, Wiesel could successfully let the reader understand his overall message.
In the May of 1944, Wiesel is first sent to Auschwitz. This is where he, along with the other Jews, learn how people are no longer treated like human beings. They are not treated like human beings anymore because, they are forced to give up the things that mean a lot to them such as their hair, shoes, and even their lives if they are not considered strong enough to be working. Not only do they realize that, but they just can not come up with an answer to why people could be so harsh and heartless. Wiesel starts to think to himself, “ How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent?” (Wiesel 41). How is possible that any human would want to hurt a child? How can others
Goodbye Lenin! Final Essay In Goodbye Lenin! the plot of keeping a GDR (German Democratic Republic) loving mother from knowing the truth is supported by the actual difficulties of transitioning to a unified Germany. Early in the film, the characters frantically look for their mother’s stash of GDR currency in their modest apartment, when they finally find it, it’s too late to convert.
The films, “The lives of others” and “The Murderers are among us” are very inspiring movies that were set post World War II. Not to mention, both films focused on the Soviet Union controlled part of the Germany, that became known as the East Germany. Correspondingly, the plot of the two films revolve around political agendas with some drama and romance added for a twist. Additionally, the two films’ share a similar theme that involves the main characters fighting for justice and truth. In “TLOO”, the main character, Dreyman, was fighting a battle against the government officials to expose the truth about the alarming rates of suicide among the country.
The parallels between the theme of the film and rising fears of communism and related topics of concern during that time are captivating. Communism was an ideology originating in the Soviet Union with the ideas of establishing a
“Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.” This is a direct quote from one of the most notorious men in history, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid 1920’s until his death. The period in which he ruled over the Soviet Union was known as the Reign of Terror because he was a malicious leader who was ready to do anything to maintain the level of power he achieved. He will forever be remembered as a cold blooded and heartless leader, who took the lives of millions without remorse. This research paper will cover this notorious and deceitful dictator and his early life, rise to power, his reign of terror, and the aftermath of his actions.