Jewish Badges

Yet, the Nazi occupation created a reality where the Jews were cut off from society in their countries of residence, thus casting the initial acts of persecution upon the Jews. Following the occupation, the Jews of France, the Netherlands, and other countries were subjected to discriminatory legislation that revoked their citizenship and banished them from economic life. Consequently, the Jews had to reorganize themselves separately in order to function as a self-sufficient group. In the course of time, the Jews in these countries, like those in Germany itself, were forced to wear the yellow star or the equivalent of such. Ultimately, Nazi policy became more extreme and Jews of Central and Western Europe were deported to death camps in Eastern Europe.”

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.

At the beginning of WWII in 1939 Jews were required to wear the yellow star of David stiched into each article of clothing to ensure easy indentification. Many would be forced into sterilization while many others were sterilized unknowingly as an attempt to stop the procreation and growth of the Jewish

Aryan were told not to shop in Jewish shops and Jews could not shop in Aryan-owned shops. In 1935 The Nuremberg Race Laws were passed. These stated that Jews could not go to public swimming pools, theaters, schools, etc. In addition Jews were forced to sew a Star-Of-David on their clothes to identify them as Jews. At this point in time, Jews could do very little. Some were arrested just for taking a walk outside.

Millions of people dead, all because of a little thing called religion. During the Holocaust, the Nazi’s judged the Jewish community because of the success, or lack of success, of the Germans. Judaism has been prejudiced for hundreds of years. But only recently has the Star of David represented the religion; although the Holocaust has changed the outlook on this symbol drastically. All throughout time the significance of the Star of David has changed: from its original meaning to the way we see it today.

The Nazi’s went day after day without feeding the Jewish individuals. When the Nazi’s gave the Jews food, it was extremely scarce while it still had to be rationed out to others. The documentary stated that “ if they were given food it would be stale bread and the guard would toss water at them.” Not only were the Jewish starved as if they were animal, but they would be called by a number on their arm rather than their name. The tattoo on their arm was a reminder that they were not people, but they were simply the number on their arm. The Nazi’s also killed thousands of people appoximatly an hour after they arrived at camp. After the Jews were killed the Nazi’s would strip the Jews of their values such as gold teeth, jewelry, etc. Whether the Jewish individuals were dead or alive, they were treated like animals with no way

The quote, “We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three “veteran” prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (42), Eliezer was assigned a number in order for the Nazis to call him using that instead of his real name. The Nazi took away their main source of identity. Getting an identity taken away is something that only a few people experience. The line, “Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear a yellow star” (11), is describing how the Jew were marked so that they stood out from the rest. The yellow star was a way to mark them as outcasts of the community. Their new identity was to be criminals or people at fault for the problems. The Jews’ identities were changed completely in order to show that they were lesser than the Nazi and their supporters. It’s hard to imagine how that must have felt unless someone experiences that

This identity as disgusting, impure creatures helped to set them apart from the pure Aryan race in society. This set up the Aryan race as superior and the Jewish race as inferior. This was reinforced physically through structural discrimination such as the Nuremberg laws and the forced wearing of the Star of David. The Germans the then found a false concreteness in this distinction that the Jews were evil and were ‘rats' who conspired against them. This allowed them to find concreteness in their belief that the Holocaust was legitimate. However, it was false considering that the Jews had fought in the German army and proved their loyalty to the German state. The Germans' perception of the Jews' identity allowed them to deny the freedoms of the Jews. They began by denying the Jews' right to be Germans, which opened the door for other denial of freedoms, such as even the right the life. These included the boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933, the Nuremberg

According to the text of the Old Testament, Jewish authorities treated Jesus and his followers with hostility. Many Christians to this day, even though it has been proven not to be true, believe that Jesus’ crucifixion was a direct result of the Jewish people. Christian antisemitism was born from a misconception by Jesus’ followers that was then eternalized by being written in their bible. Christian antisemitism would continue onward through the Crusades in which the persecution of the Jewish people reached an all-time high in Europe, where communities were destroyed, Jewish people were killed, and others were expelled from their lands. Many stereotypes for Jewish people arose from this period because they were restricted to specific “inferior” occupations by the Christian authorities such as tax collectors and moneylenders. This early on compulsory requirement to wear a yellow star began in certain parts of Europe.

It was at first a slow progression from limiting the rights of the Jewish people, to wearing the Star of David and then to the attempted extermination. The Germans then began a race to kill the Jews as quickly as they could (Wiesel, 2008).

One thing that the Nazis did was once the Jewish people arrived at the camps they were given tattooed numbers and those numbers were there new names. Instead of being called by their names they were now identified by their numbers. “ In the afternoon we were made to line up.Three prisoners brought a table and some medical instruments.With the left sleeve rolled up, each person passed in front of a table. The three ‘veterans’ with needles in their hand engraved a number on our left arms.I became A-7713. After that I had no other name” (39).The Jews were no longer by there names but by their names to show that they are weak and have no right to have a name. The Jews having number to replace their names was one of the ways the Jews were dehumanized.

     When Germany invaded Holland during the beginning of World War II, the Jews were the German soldiers and Adolf Hitler’s main targets. Jews were required to wear a yellow star on their shirt, and if they walked around town during the day, they risked being taken into captivity by the German soldiers. This, among other racism against

“Being a Jew or a German is a part of the blood” (Feldman,), this is a statement from the Nuremberg Laws, which was consigned to the Jews in September of 1935 ("United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."). The Nuremberg Laws consisted of five discriminating guidelines such as: 1. “The “Reich Citizenship” (it stated that only a person of “German or related blood” could be a citizen, have political rights, or could hold office), 2. the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor” (this made it illegal for Jews and non-Jews to get married or engaged in sexual relations together), 3. Jews were not allowed to have non-Jewish female servants under forty-five years old, 4. Jews were forbidden to fly the German flag, 5. (being a Jew is a part of a person’s blood) (Feldman,)”. Jews were not able to eat, shop, or even use the restroom in certain places. Children that went to school were taught anti-Semitic lessons, and the Jewish children were taunted and chaffed, not by peers’ alone, but teachers as well. This dreadful method compelled children to refuse attending school ("United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.").

2). Even though this was not a violent treatment of the Jews, it was an attempt to bankrupt and dehumanize them of everything they had worked for their whole lives (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). As a result, Jews became a segregated people. They had to ride on buses and trains only in the seat that were clearly marked for them (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Jewish children were allowed to be bullied at school in an attempt to keep them from coming to school. Hitler used this to brand the Jews as a lazy people (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 gave even more power to the Nazis and took away more dignity of the Jews. The Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and marriages between Jews and non-Jews were not allowed (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). At this point, the Jews who could afford to pay a fine to leave the country were allowed to do so, but the ones who could not afford it had to stay behind and were not allowed to get food or medicine (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Hitler’s campaign against the Jews escalated in 1938 with “Krystalnacht” – The Night of the Broken Glass (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). After a Nazi diplomat was found shot to death, Hitler began a seven day war of terror against the Jews (Jews in Nazi Germany pg. 2). Shops that were owned by Jews were destroyed and robbed, homes and synagogues burned

as a Jew in German-held territory was marked with a yellow star, making them open targets. Tens