Eleanor H. Ayer Parallel Journeys

In 1938 the Nazis banned Jews from almost everywhere.The Nazis persecuted the Jews by banning them from public places and making them lose jobs. “The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public schools,universities, theaters, sports events, and “Aryan” zones”. Then Jews had to have a J stamped on their passports. The Nazis also destroyed Jewish places and killed close to 100 Jews.

Nazis saw the use of gas to murder over population as a solution to their problem. They began liquidating the ghettos and transferring all Jewish occupants to concentration camps. As well, the Nazi Army moved through Europe and began exterminating the Jewish population of the territories conquered by firing squads, by loading them on trains to concentration camps, or forced marches across the vast land of ruins.

In the book Escape Children of the Holocaust, author Allan Zullo highlights the struggles of three innocent Jewish children, Hanci Hollander, Halina Litman and Gideon Frieder. All three children were born in different countries affected by the Holocaust; Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. If you did not know, the Holocaust was a gruesome time in the world’s history. There were concentration camps for Jews. All because of one Austrian man, Adolf Hitler, who hated the Jews so much he did not want one Jew left standing. Consequently, he made the Nazi Germans hunt, enslave and kill the Jews.

In the mid 1930s heading into the the mid 1940s, The Nazis created harsh living conditions for Jews living in Europe. The Nazis, lead by Adolf Hitler, were an right wing group that took control of Germany and eventually expanded to the other European countries around them including Poland and Austria. Using the Nuremberg laws in 1935, the Nazis began removing Jewish people from everyday society. Four years later in 1939, Jews were forced to live in Ghettos that were overcrowded and barely maintained. Not long after in 1945, The “final solution” was implemented. Innocent Jewish men, women and children were shipped in train cars to Concentration camps. The conditions in these train cars were brutal. Passengers would go days without water, food

January 30, 1933 started the calamity that would result in the mass murder of some six million Jews. It occurred in all countries that the Germans, also known as Nazis, occupied during World War 2, including Germany and Poland. Jews were sent to enclosed ghettos where they were given insufficient amounts of food and were in unsanitary conditions. By the time of 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution”, for their plan was to wipe out the Jewish people. Jews were sent to death camps of which they were put into gas chambers and killed. Many died from malnutrition. It was the time of genocide, of mass destruction. To the leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were considered a threat to German racial purity and community. They were an inferior

After nearly two years of misery, a young boy finally saw the first ray of hope on the horizon; the Americans had finally arrived, and the Nazis were gone. In his autobiography Night, Elie Wiesel shares his experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of Hitler’s concentration camps. Wiesel was one of the minority of Jews to survive the Holocaust during World War II. His family did not make it through with him, and this had lasting effects. Wiesel’s identity changed completely during his experiences in Auschwitz; he lost his faith in God and he became indifferent to his survival and the survival of his family members. Despite these hardships, however, he ultimately became a stronger person than he was before.

During the Holocaust many things that occurred in concentration camps caused despair among its prisoners.Mr. Wiesel tells about the treatment in death camps in his book Night by Elie Wiesel. He faced starvation, physical, and mental abuse. In 1944, Wiesel and his family were deported from Hungary. He lost everything including his family, religion, identity, and faith in humanity. Wiesel and his father were sent to Birkenau where they were held, but were later moved to a different death camp.

In the book Parallel Journeys, by Eleanor Ayer, World War II events are described through the experiences of two people during this time. Excerpts from both character’s own memoirs are included to get the perspective from their lives. Some events that took place throughout the book include the severe reality of the Holocaust and the effect of the Hitler Youth on young Germans. Parallel Journeys specifically portrays these events through the eyes of Helen Waterford, who was a Jewish girl, and Alfons Heck, a Hitler Youth member mesmerized by the power of Adolf Hitler.

Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.

The actions the Nazis committed during WWII were unbearable for even the strongest people. Prisoners were tortured, starved, and slaughtered just for being Jewish. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, had to endure the atrocities at the age of 15. Wiesel describes these events in his memoir Night. A result of the dehumanization and other cruelty that he faces leads Elie Wiesel to a loss of his faith.

On the flipside in Elie Wiesel’s memoir he was a very different person after his catastrophic stay at Auschwitz. After Elie was rescued for the

Elie Wiesel talks about his experiences he encountered at the concentration camps during World War II in his novel Night. Under Hitler's command, the Nazis rounded up Elie and his family. They were taken from their home town Sighet and was put into the ghetto. Then, they were put onto a train and transported to Auschwitz. Their experience in the concentration camps changed the Jews’ attitudes, personalities, and behaviors.

SS officers in the concentration camp treated the Jews harshly. In these camps the Jews forgot how to function normally. They would do anything to survive. One of the most vivid scenes in the memoir is when Wiesel and his father arrive at Auschwitz. In the camp, guards strip them of their clothes and brutally wash them.

The Change in the Nazis Treatment of the Jews Why did the Nazis treatment of the Jews change from 1939-45?

The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, considered "inferior," were a major risk to the Germans. They came up with a plan called “The Final Solution” to murder all the Jews in Europe. It all began with their leader, Adolf