Hidden Childhood

1.1. Explain the legal status and principles of the relevant early years framework/s, and how

French wants to draw attention to the harrowing nature of Hitler’s ideas. We are then forced to contemplate and question the dramatic pause and about how these prejudicial ideas impacted upon the lives of the Jewish people.

The obliterate event of the holocaust in 1933. The Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most of the Jews lived in the countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence in World War 2. By 1945, Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as the ‘Final Solution’ the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe (Introduction to the Holocaust). The cause and effect of the holocaust was due to racism, prejudice and stereotyping since, Jews were isolated in their communities that caused distrusted and discrimination against the Jews in Europe.(Cause and Effect of Holocaust ). In the boy in the striped book, when Gretel and her brother Bruno looked out the window to figure out what the hut were in the distance at the time Gretel said ‘’ it’s a countryside. This is our holiday home’’. Then Bruno said’’ i don’t think so’’. After this Gretel discriminates against Bruno saying’’ your only nine years old, how would you know ( The Boy in the Striped Pajamas pg.34 John Boyne). Adolf Hitler and the Nazi operation on the anti-semitic racist beliefs that germans are superior people with the ideology, using World War 2 as their primary to achieve their goal. The Nazis targeted the Jews as main enemy, killing six million Jewish men,

“If you say 1.5 million, it’s just a number. When you see a person, you realize what it was, what it meant, and the one life lost, and then you can multiply that by a million and a half, and you realize what a horror it was” (Burstein). The Holocaust is one event that captures how hideous the world can be. During the duration of 12 years, 11 million people of different cultures, religions, and races were executed because of the Nazi party. Of those 11 million people, 1.5 million were children (Burstein). Hana Brady was one of these children who was persecuted because she chose to practice a religion other than what the Nazi party thought was proper. Although the Holocaust was a deplorable time in world history, humankind had the unfortunate

Summary: This article was an introduction to the Holocaust. The German Nazi’s thought that the Jews were a community. Not only the Jews were targeted, anyone with a racial inferiority was targeted. For example, although the Jews were the main threat the gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals and the disabled were also targeted. The Holocaust was a way to decrease the Jewish population; the final solution was to murder the Jews of Europe or anyone that was a threat to their German culture. Many died of incarceration and maltreatment. During the war they created ghettos, forced-labor camps between 1941 and 1944 the Nazi German Authorities would deport the Jews to extermination camps where they were murdered in gassing facilities. May 7, 1945 the German armed forces surrendered to the allies.

Throughout the book “Au Revoir Les Enfants” Louis Malle highlights at several points the typical associations which the majority of people have when discussing the role of the Germans during the war. However Malle approaches the topic from a more complex angle thus forcing the reader to question the general stereotypes and examine the varying attitudes of both the French and Germans, by portraying them in certain situations in which they adopt a sometimes unexpected attitude.

“One of the most extraordinary aspects of Nazi genocide was the cold deliberate intention to kill children in numbers so great that there is no historical precedent for it.” (Lukas, 13 Kindle) About 1.5 million children were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust—one million being killed because they were Jews (ushmm.org) The Germans had a clearly defined goal of killing the Jewish children so that there would be no remnants of their race to reproduce, resulting in extinction. Not only were the children that were victimized in the Holocaust persecuted and murdered, but they were all stripped of their childhood. Children were not allowed to be children—they had to, for their own survival, be adults. The oppression of children because of

From 1937 until 1939, the Jews were segregated from society to an even greater extent. They could no longer live normal daily lives in the fact that they could not attend public schools, travel to resorts, or walk in certain areas of German cities. At this time, the Jews were expelled from economic life. To remove

France officially fell to the Nazi’s on June 14, 1940. Thousands of civilians tried to flee all traveling south in cars, bikes carts or simply on foot in desperation taking only the

The Holocaust is known as one of the most devastating, or perhaps even the most devastating incident in human history. On paper, the dizzying statistics are hard to believe. The mass executions, the terrible conditions, the ruthlessness, and the passivity of the majority of witnesses to the traumatic events all seem like a giant, twisted story blown out of proportion to scare children. But the stories are true, the terror really happened, and ordinary citizens were convinced into doing savage deeds against innocent people. How, one must ask? How could anyone be so pitiless towards their neighbors, their friends? In a time of desperation, when a country was on its knees to the rest of the world, one man not only united Germans against a

Children were especially vulnerable in the era of the Holocaust. The Nazis advocated killing children of “unwanted” or “dangerous” groups in accordance with their ideological views, either as part of the “racial struggle” or as a measure of preventative security. The Germans and their collaborators killed children both for these ideological reasons and in retaliation for real or alleged partisan attacks.

Adelaide Hautval was born in France. When her mother died, who had lived in occupied Paris, she was wanting to attend her mother’s burial. When she asked the German authorities for permission to enter the “Occupied zone” they refused for her to enter. She then decided to risk crossing the demarcation line to enter the Occupied Zone. When she tried to enter, her attempt failed, and Hautval was captured by German police and transferred to the prison in Bourges.

Even though childhood has change for the better there is an argument stating that childhood is disappearing “at a dazzling speed” (Postman, 1996) says that there is a closing gap between childhood and adulthood. Neil Postman (1996) claims this in his book “The Disappearance of Childhood”. Postman theory was purely based on the way that communications through technology were made which shapes society today. He thinks that due to the technology such as television and the Internet children nowadays are much likely to have more access to the ‘adult world’, thus childhood to be disappearing (Postman, 1982). He claims its “Frankenstein Syndrome” consequence of the mass media is mainly the responsible for the usage of television, and the social media.

Childhood as disappearing/not disappearing will be discussed within this essay. There is no universal definition for childhood however in the western culture childhood is a period of dependency, characterised by learning the norms and values of society, innocence and freedom from responsibilities. Sociologists such as Postman and Jenks would argue that childhood is disappearing however Opie and Opie and Palmer would contradict this.

The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori Maria Montessori passionately reveals to us the inner workings of children as they develop into their full potential in an effort to assist adults in understanding and supporting this process. The ideas and methods shared have become the foundation for the Montessori model of education. In the introduction, Maria Montessori asserts “there is no real place for children” in today’s modern society where parents are working, cities are crowded and deemed dangerous, and the home is often filled with furnishings off limits to children. We are asked to consider where children feel they belong and are understood. Though Maria believed that great progress was underway when writing this book, with an