Facing Hate: Women of the Holocaust Elie Wiesel once said in his book “Night”, “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time” (Wiesel xv). Nazi Ideology saw women as fertilizer who would just increase Jewish population thus leading them to believe that they should be exterminated to prevent future generations. Today many work hard to keep the memory alive of two million women who perished due to terrible living conditions, mental abuse, physical abuse, medical experiments and further. To explain these things would just be doing the bare minimum. In particular throughout this essay the goal is to discuss women’s prior life to the Holocaust, what women did to survive the Holocaust, and the worst struggles they faced. Before Hitler came to power, life was average for most women they had jobs, kids, husbands, and were typically excluded from the world of business. For instance “in both Eastern and Western Europe, the lives of most Jewish men and women followed traditional gender patterns” (Ofer). In 1930’s Western Europe men were accountable for financial responsibilities and women were responsible for taking care of the home and family. Therefore this caused many women to not have many “non-Jewish business partners, professional colleagues, close friends, spouses and extended Christian families to protect them during the years of Nazi persecution” (Ofer). On the contrary in Eastern Europe it was the complete opposite of the traditional gender pattern happening
At the entrance to each death camp, there was a process of Selektion or selection. Pregnant women, small children, the sick or handicapped, and the elderly were immediately condemned to death. As horrific as it was, it didn’t surprise many that Hitler had the audacity to do these terrible things. The Holocaust was an act of genocide in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany killed about two thirds of the population of Jews in Europe from 1941-1945 but the trouble started brewing much before that. Though there were only a small amount of survivors, very few alive to this day, there are many pieces of literature that help prove that this in fact happened. Literature can help us remember and honor the victims of the Holocaust because, it gives different
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 mid 20th century was a time of grief and genocide in Europe, which created a life of anger and despair for those who were affected. Family was so important during the holocaust as it was the only way that someone would be able to handle this time. Elise Wiesel, a survivor of the holocaust, created a work of art with his personal account called Night about his journey during the 1940’s. He uses a plethora of literary devices to convey a theme of strong family bond within his book. During the 1940’s, the Nazi Party in Germany created an era of anti-Semitism and genocide which involved the lives of Jews living in western Europe. During this time in Germany, over 6 million Jews died and only a few lived to tell
The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.
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
If one hates someone or something that means they have an intense dislike towards them. Sometimes this hate can be so large it can be an influence for mass destruction. We have learned, or even have seen examples of hate turning into something bigger throughout our history. These examples include the multiple wars, terrorist’s attacks, and genocides. Many of these incidents were drove by hate, and did not end well. What drives this hate? How can people turn on one another with just feeling hate towards them? The Holocaust being one of the many genocides in our history was indeed influenced by an intense dislike. That intense dislike was towards certain types of people it ended up taking multiple lives.
The Holocaust, yet another unpleasant time in history tainted with the blood and suffering of man. Human beings tortured, executed and starved for hatred and radical ideas. Yet with many tragedies there are survivors, those who refused to die on another man’s command. These victims showed enormous willpower, they overcame human degradation and tragedies that not only pushed their beliefs in god, but their trust in fellow people. It was people like Elie Wiesel author of “Night”, Eva Galler,Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser, and Solomon Radasky that survived, whose’ mental and physical capabilities were pushed to limits that are difficult to conceive. Each individual experiences were different, but their survival tales not so far-reaching to where the fundamental themes of fear, family, religion and self-preservation played a part in surviving. Although some of these themes weren’t always so useful for survival.
The aim of this book review is to analyze Night, the autobiographical account of Elie Wiesel’s horrifying experiences in the German concentration camps. Wiesel recounted a traumatic time in his life with the goal of never allowing people to forget the tragedy others had to suffer through. A key theme introduced in Night is that these devastating experiences shifted the victim 's view of life. By providing a summary, critique, and the credentials of the author Elie Wiesel, this overview of Night will reveal that the heartbreaking events of the Holocaust transformed the victims outlook, causing them to have a lack of empathy and faith.
According to the Preface to the Study of Women and the Holocaust, "every Jew, regardless of gender, was equally a victim in the Holocaust" (Ringelheim 17). Women, men and children were equally threatening to the Nazis. Children were seen as "the next generation of Jews" and, therefore, would have to be banned too. "Jewish women and men experienced unrelieved suffering during the
Nazis, death, atrocities and girlfriends? During the Holocaust millions of European Jews were inhumanly killed. In dire times, companionship increases one's chances of survival. This is shown in Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night” and Michele Ohayon’s documentary “Steal A Pencil For Me”. These two works are both non-fictional and show how companionship helps lead to survival.
The most obvious and elementary instance in which gender analysis is relevant to the topic of Jewish deportation during the Holocaust is when gender is referenced explicitly. For example, the scene in Schindler’s List where female and male Jews are told to group on opposite sides of the street in preparation for transport to the Płaszów concentration camp is a clear invocation of gender to frame a depiction of deportation. However, in order for gender analysis to be constructive, it is necessary to also discuss the underlying power relations that gender subtly affects. Joan Scott addresses this concept directly when she asserts that ‘the implementation of Nazi policy in Germany’ was an example of power that was justified as ‘masculine’. Furthermore, Scott emphasises that oppressive actions against women by the state, such as the Holocaust, can ‘only be made sense of as part of an analysis of the construction and consolidation of power’. Using this broad framework of characterising gender as an essential element of power and politics, we can apply Scott’s theoretical structure to the Holocaust and glean insight that would otherwise be impossible to achieve under
The Holocaust is widely known as one of the most horrendous and disturbing events in history that the world has seen; over six million lives were lost, in fact the total number of deceased during the Holocaust has never been determined. The footage of concentration camps and gas chambers left the world in utter shock, but photos and retellings of the events cannot compare to being a victim of the Holocaust and living through the horror that the rest of the world regarded in the safety of their homes. Elie Wiesel recognized the indifference that the
Each of these histories reveal a story of suffering that is endured by both Gentile and Jew, but also a story of humanity and salvation. In Five Chimneys: A woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz, Olga Lengyel tells of her family assisting other Jews fleeing the Nazi military. Later, after her own ordeals in Auschwitz, she was saved by citizens in a small Polish village. An essay written by Vera Laska is included in Women and the Holocaust: Different Voices, which is an anthology of essays about women in the Holocaust. In addition to the many stories of survivors and rescuers, I am using several scholarly articles
As anyone who studies the history of the Holocaust can tell you the Holocausts extremely complex. There are many sides as many factors that permitted this atrocity. One side that isn’t always highlighted is the role that women played in the resistance. Sadly, throughout most of history women have not usually been seen in Key roles or of having any real part in these events. The history of the Holocaust is no different. The Holocaust which took place between 1941-1945 was the largest most widespread act of genocide in human history. By the end over 11 million individuals had been killed, six million of those were European Jews (xiv). Besides killing two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe the Nazis killed German defectors as well as others who they saw as racially inferior. These were gypsies or Romani as they prefer to be called and Slavs from all over
The Holocaust is a very large topic with many subtopics within, which many people have never heard of. One in particular is the Hidden Children of the Holocaust. Like a majority of individuals, I never heard of this topic before, until I started my inquiry work. Hiding children during the holocaust was an effort to save thousands of children’s lives. The children were hidden in different ways, either with false identities, underground, and with or without their parents. The children with false identities were allowed to participate in everyday life activities, like attend school and socialize with children their age, which in the long run this lead to less emotional and mental issues. However, the children that were hidden and not allowed to leave their hiding spots often faced boredom, pain, and torment. Some children were capable of being hid with their parents while other children were not. Depending on the situation the child was in, depends on the effects it had on the child during this time. In this paper, I will be discussing works by two scholars, Natalia Aleksiun’s Gender and Daily Lives of Jews in Hiding in Eastern Galicia and Judy Mitchell’s Children of the Holocaust. Aleksiun’s article talks about the daily lives of Jews in hiding and also about how they prepared their hideouts. Aleksiun’s article mainly focuses on children that were hidden with their families. In Mitchell’s article, he focuses on the hidden children and gives examples/survivor stories on what it