German Ambush Description

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 carnage at St. Francis deserves a brunt of the detail. It was now good marching ground and the men pressed on with celerity till on the 22nd day after their departure from Crown Point, one of them, by climbing a tree, discovered the village of St. Francis at three miles distance, when the party were ordered to halt and refresh themselves. At eight o'clock in the evening, Major Rogers, Lieut. Turner and Ensign Avery left the company and went forward for the purpose of reconnoitering the place. They found the Indians engaged in a dance, evidently entertaining no apprehensions of an enemy in the vicinity. They returned about two o'clock in the morning and at three o'clock, Rogers advanced with the whole party, within three hundred yards of the village, where the men were lightened of their packs and formed for action. About an hour after this, the Indians broke up their dances and retired to their cabins for repose; and soon the whole village was asleep, the more oblivious from the weariness induced by their late diversion. About half an hour before dawn, the troops, having been arranged in three divisions for the purpose of making simultaneous attacks, in as many directions, were ordered to advance. Never was a place more completely surprised, nor in a condition less capable of making any sort of

Memoirs of war often reflect the positive or negative experiences endured throughout battle. Considered by many to be one of the best memoirs of World War I, Hervey Allen’s “Toward the Flame”, recalls his own experiences of battle. His recollection of events shows that he had a negative image of war and that there was nothing glorious about it. What started out looking like a man’s greatest adventure turned into a shell-shocking reality that war is actually horrible and trying. Allen’s experiences with consistent hunger, mustard gas, and artillery shellings led to his disillusionment with war, and left him with a permanent hatred of battle.

Don’t leave me here alone.’ The narrator simply shakes him off and moves on. The soldiers have been trained like beasts and they have been dehumanised; they have been taught that no life is to be spared. Death is now the norm and they have been desensitized to it. The narrator relates an incident where he volunteers for a raid on the German trenches. He experiences much trauma; he kills a soldier, Karl. Karl’s death is terrible- the bayonet is trapped in Karl and eventually the narrator has to shoot him. When he returns to the trenches with two German prisoners he tries to suppress what has happened: ‘It is better not to think’. The narrator knows that he would indubitably go insane if he thinks about his action. Karl’s death epitomizes the fact that soldiers on both sides are killed in horrific way for no discernible reason. There is definitely nothing glorious or heroic about war.

Every morning we had the counting of the prisoners. We were arranged in groups of five with just small distances between us. The SS trooper would come by and start counting one, two, three, four, five. If he miscounted, he went over it again. Sometimes we stood there two hours. I kept wondering why none of us tried to overpower this lone guard who had just a small pistol. But what could we have done? There were guardposts on either end and high tension wires in between. We would all have been killed.

On October 3rd, 1918, Major Charles White Whittlesey, along with 500 soldiers of the 77th division, was trapped behind enemy lines without much food or water. Surrounded by hundreds of thousands of German soldiers, many of his men were killed or wounded.2 Within 24 hours, roughly 200 of the Allied

“Discovering Dad.” Guideposts, vol. 71, no. 5, July 2016, p. 48. MasterFILE Premier, proxy.lib.wy.us/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=11 6404283&site=ehost-live. Accessed 16 Mar. 2017. Accession Number: 116404283; Issue Information: ; Subject Term: EDMONDS, Roddie; Subject Term: WORLD War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners & prisons; Subject Term: PRISONERS of war -- History -- 20th century; Subject Term: ; Number of Pages: 4p; ; Document Type: Article; ; Lexile: 830; ; Full Text Word Count: 1630; A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of discovering the experience of his father Roddie Edmonds, as an American prisoner of war in Stalag IX-A in Ziegenhain, Germany after the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, who protected Jewish-American prisoners of war.

This assignment gave me a deeper insight into the minds of the captured, abused, scarred prisoners who found themselves trapped behind the bars of Germans for no reasonable explanation at all. Completing this quote journal helped me realize that they didn't lose all of their humanity, the prisoners and Nazi's both. Although many German soldiers could care less about the thoughts and feelings of the Jews, some showed that their heart still had compassion, even if it was just a little bit. Riva was filled with despondency at times, yet her strength remained and she survived. The memories of her family was with her during the time she was held at camps, and the little bit of hope that they too could be alive still was a reason to keep herself

Both animal and human world were very precious to Robert. He wouldn’t harm anyone from either world. However, as he was witnessing and experiencing the World War I, he became more drawn to the animal world. The reason for this was that all of the despair and grief in his life was inflicted by the human world. In the end, he thought animal’s life was more valuable than a human life. Robert even considered himself as some kind of animal and not a human. Therefore, Robert became a misanthropist in the end.

Not only did German soldiers exhibit struggle and perseverance, but so did the prisoners they captured, such as the Russians. The Russian prisoners were now reduced to wearing poor clothing, and they had to scavenge for minute morsels of food in garbage cans, yet they did not give in (189-191). Likewise, Paul Baümer and Albert Kropp did not give in when they were injured in French fire in Chapter Ten. They ran for cover and eventually found a dug-out for protection. Their perseverance and hard work may have saved their lives, for each’s injury placed them in the hospital (240-241).

In the article, “Teens Who Fought Hitler” by Lauren Tarshis it shows the challenges and bravery shown when in the middle of a war. A kid named Ben lived in one of the world's harshest times in history. He and his family were forced into a concentration camp. They were not allowed out until the war was over. Ben had to survive in the harsh conditions. Eventually he left his family to join the “war” against Hitler. He would never see his family again. He managed to live through the war, but his family was never to be seen again. They tried their best to fight against Hitler.

Although Russians and Germans were on opposing sides of World War II, they experienced a great deal of situations that were similar if not the same. Their emotions and reactions were comparable during this depressing time of war. Physical responses to the rigorous journeys, emotional responses to the horrific events that occurred and the overall circumstances that these men were, majority of the time, forced into; forever changed who they were. With mechanized weapons ringing in their ears and nationalism in their hearts the war was not easily forgotten by these men.

My grandfather’s story was an amazing one. While he talked he spoke about so much passion the soldiers had fighting in the war. He told the story how the one day he had to go out into battle. The United States troops fought in the horrible plains, and tangled, unbearable woods. They walked through swamps, and lived in horrible conditions. My grandpa said that being on the field there was an almost seventy percent chance of being killed. The living conditions were so bad than many of the soldiers died along the way while moving locations.

The story of the European invasions conducted by Adolf Hitler is a story of a deep animosity towards Russian civilization by Hitler. During World War II, much of Europe fell under Nazi-German control – this was all a strategy conjured by the German chancellor in order to strengthen the German Empire enough to invade their only real military threat, Russia. This embedded hatred of the aggregate Russian society was the catalyzing factor that led to German occupation of much of Europe. World War II is a series of political manipulations by the German Empire in order to propagate the Aryan race.