Personal Narrative: The Holocaust

Seventh grade, bowl cut fresh, skinny jeans tight with poppy orange Asics to complete the look. It was the day I had been dreading. Today was the day that a group of thirty-two thirteen-year-olds was to travel to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. I remember feeling nervous, my stomach sinking, shaking on the bus while my friends giggle and talk. I understood how incredibly horrific the Holocaust was and knew that once I stepped into those exhibits I may, at any time, lose it. As we pulled up everyone got off the bus, we all proceeded to the entrance of I didn't. I was able to stay composed the entire time which was fairly surprising. I broke that night outside of a Subway near Port Hueneme. I remember slamming my fist into a concrete

Art Spiegelman's Maus is a renowned comic book that won a Pulitzer Prize. The book was published in two parts, Volume I: "My Father Bleeds History," in 1986, and Volume II: "And Here My Troubles Began," in 1991. It was later integrated into one single volume. The book told Spiegelman's desire to write about his father's experiences during the Holocaust, as well as the experiences themselves. There had been numbers of Holocaust books over the decades, but Maus is different among all. After reading numerous Holocaust books, they become repetitive, because most people are aware of the tragic event. Maus offers not only the tale of the Holocaust, but stories about its victims, and the next generation as well. Its distinction was already

Imagine walking through a hallway of pictures and artifacts, feeling so much emotion, reliving the past of the Holocaust. Once a person walks through those doors to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum he or she immediately feel those emotions pouring from the walls and flooding from the visitors all around feeling what it once felt like to be apart of the Holocaust and witness such a horrendous tragedy. Because the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides many exhibitions and visuals for visitors, it really gives a person a vivid view into what the Holocaust was truly like.

World War II ended in Europe on May 7, 1945, but to many survivors of the Holocaust, the war would remain with them for the rest of their lives. Not only had it brutally stripped them of their families, but also of their own humanity. As the survivors came to realizations that their families would not return to them and the initial hardships of returning to a normative life wore off, the memories of the concentration camps and the shock of brutal separation from family came flooding back into their minds. These memories often caused radical change in mental behavior and, to a degree, somaticized themselves into the “survivor’s syndrome.” (Niederland 14) The symptoms seen in “survivor’s

Hitler has taken over Russia and surrounding countries to try and take over the world. He has used the people to elect him into government and try to put down all the Jews. Hitler thought that Jews were a disease so he rounded up all the Jews first in the town slums but after in concentration camps. The Jews were lined up in front of mass shooting squads then burying them in mass graves all around the country, Jews weren't the only being taken. He also took gypsies, black people, homosexual and disabled people, Hitler burned books, and destroyed museums to make sure people didn’t become smarter than him. In the end on September, 2 1945, 6 years later the war finally ended with Hitler shooting himself, now almost everyone knows the story of

Being in the camps was horrible. They smelt like dead flesh and were as cold as Antarctic. Ever since I was a kid, my mum said I had a big heart and the camps had proved that. Even though I was on the Germans side, I didn’t support anything they were doing; it was disgusting, to say the least. The Germans would shoot the Jew’s as if they were wild animals just running around waiting to be shot. Their faces so stiff, that they no longer seemed human themselves. Days spent hearing cries of despair and sadness, all caused by one guy who believed that, this is what they had deserved. A human life being put in the hand of another. I hated it, and the worst part was being able to do nothing but watch on and see hundreds, thousands lose their precious lives. It was silly and stupid, an unimaginable experience that doesn’t even sound real. How someone could be that evil is something that I could never comprehend.

This was my last night in Sighet. In the morning, the Nazi’s are coming to transfer us to Auschwitz because of the “war.” I, unlike everyone else, knew something else was going on. Im not sure what but it isn’t because of the war. I was honestly just worried about how my little brother is going to handle himself. He knows to be strong when times are tough but he may not be tough enough.

After WW1 Germany had to pay reparations to the allies, During this time Hitler blamed the Jews for the hardship that came to Germany. The Holocaust started in 1993 Nazi Occupied Germany to 1945 Germany. The Holocaust took place during the years 1933-1945 during that time German Citizens wanted something to believe something to help them get out of this hardship and Hitler was a very successful talker he managed to convince that war will help them get out of the pain after successfully invading parts of Europe he felt invincible and decided that the Jews needed to be taught a lesson. In technicality Hitler did not kill but he gave the order to his elite police the Waffen SS, The Waffen SS is the Nazi partys armed division.

The phrase ‘history repeats itself’ is applicable only to learning from experiences. Mass genocide, world revolt, corruption on a governmental scale. Such things are put away from us now aren’t they? Surely no one does those things anymore, right? Such was the argument of my sheltered mind. After all, to awaken those haunts from the past, would be a regression of the now established world would it not? It would be horrendous, it would be uncivil. Funnily enough, none of these rationales meant anything as I witnessed these monsters of mass genocide, revolt and the like, who I had long thought had been laid to rest, ravage and in a bloodthirsty massacre steal the lives of 34 minors.

The Holocaust was a government sponsored persecution of six million Jews in Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler. This is considered the second World War which lasted from January of 1933 till May of 1945. This tragic event is an important part of education, and can be taught in a variety of ways whether it be through books, scholarly journals, movies or even historical fiction books. Learning about history through a textbook is much different than learning about history through historical fiction or other types of literature. In this paper history is discussed based on three different sources, a historical fiction novel, a historical article and a personal interview with a Holocaust survivor and how they create different experiences for readers. The imaginative experience of history brings readers closer to the past and lets them make a personal connection by reading true accounts or stories rooted in truth of survivors or characters, while the informational experience removes readers from the past because textbooks do not recount personal stories, instead write about hard facts and the general overall experience of the historical event.

The Holocaust is regarded as one of the worst events in human history. In fact, the vast majority of those who were sent to a concentration camp perished there. When prisoners view the despair all around them, they find it hard to see meaning behind all the suffering. Life is no longer worth living, so many prisoners see suicide as the only option to escape the pain. As a psychiatrist who was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp notorious for its crematoriums, Viktor Frankl has a special perspective on the loss of the will to live that those imprisoned exhibit. In his own words, “Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths”(Frankl 94). Frankl discovers in himself not only the shock and apathy he displays, but also the strange hope that comes with imagining his freedom. The brutality of the Holocaust changes Frankl and brings out his true self while teaching him that he and others can survive the worst of terrors by setting a purpose in life, which only they can individually determine.

Recently, our class visited the Holocaust Museum. We learned about how 80 to 100 people would be packed into a train car with no food or water. They were taken to concentration camps where they might never see their families again. Many were killed immediately, and others were forced to do hard labor. Although not to this extent, things like this still happen today. Every 19 seconds, someone dies because of genocide. Sometimes, the world seems like it is cloaked in evil, but Romans 12:21 one says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Even though there is a lot of evil in this world, there is a lot of God’s goodness and beauty in it to. Remembering the good left in the world can help us overcome the evil, and we should start with our own lives.

Holocaust was out on the streets of Dakota City again as the news highlighted him on the television. Static flew pass the people gathered around the television out a store on his saucer. Traveling as fast as he could, he saw Holocaust throwing a officer into his squad car. Then, he saw Static as he got back to ground level and got out of his saucer. Holocaust smiled at the sight of Static as he said, "Static. How are the wounds for our last battle doing?".

I hear the shrieks of small children, and the desperate pleas of adults begging for mercy. You would think that one would be immune to it all by now; I once believed that too. I was raised in a completely Jewish household, and was separated from my parents and siblings merely a few years ago. They arranged for me to be adopted into a military family to keep me safe. My new family kept in contact with my biological one in secret. Despite my religious beliefs (of which I follow audaciously), I had no choice but to join the forces as well. Refusal could lead to not only suspicion, but ultimately death.

Mr. Ritter was old, older than most of my teachers, with a washed-out red moustache and three pairs of trousers. He seemed like a harmless older middle-aged man, and some people really liked him because of the occasional movie he would show. I had him every afternoon, seventh hour, the last period of class before I would be free. It was having him for Social Studies seventh year that I learnt just how freeing that last school bell would become.