“We have to do it for the ones murdered” (Hertwig 1). Just a few words which had enough power to convince Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig to return to a place that caused her endless hours of missed sleep, and years of distress. As Monika Hertwig, the daughter of Amon Goeth and Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, holocaust survivor as well as one of Schindler's jews, walk through the old villa at the Plaszow Memorial Monument in Poland, many years worth of dreadful memories rush through Jonas-Rosenzweig's mind. In the year 1942, a young Helen Sternlicht was doing her daily tasks in the Plaszow labor camp when Commandant Amon Goeth approached her and selected her to be one of his housemaids. For 2 years her and another maid, named Helena Hirsch, shared a room
When Irene Safran was only twenty-one years old, her carefree life ended in the face of the Holocaust. Born to two Jewish parents as one of ten children-- four girls and six boys in all-- in Munkachevo, Czechoslovakia around the year 1923, her world changed in early April 1944 when she and her family were transferred to a Jewish ghetto. For the next year, Irene's life was a series of deaths, losses, and humiliations no human should ever have to suffer, culminating, years later, with a triumphant ending. Her story is proof that the human spirit can triumph over all manner of adversity and evil.
Vladek is depicted as a hero who shows countless acts of selflessness and generosity and a villain who is, “opinionated, tight-fisted, and self-involved”. (Brown 6) Art Spiegelman’s book Maus, tells the story of how Vladek and Anja Spiegelman survived the Holocaust. Spiegelman illustrates Vladek as a man who single-handily saved his family from starvation and Auschwitz in World War I. During Spiegelman’s interviews, we get an idea of Vladek’s darker side since the war ended. Mala to speak of her astonishment and disgust in Vladek’s character. Which leaves us to question how truthfully these stories are being told. In the end, Vladek’s unsuccessful heroism is a constant reminder of his failure; survival with Anja was always easier, after her death, Vladek pushes everyone away with his “guilt and manipulation” (Brown 7)
In the year 1941, Lithuania was invaded and many Jewish families fled from Lithuania. Margarets family didn't leave because her brother Alik was at a children's holiday camp. Margaret was never sent to a camp, she lived in the ghetto. Margaret's description of the ghetto years as “dreadful”. The people were forced to do hard labour and were deprived of their food.
Born in Poland, Henia Weit was the youngest of nine children in her family. She lived in a town by the name of Sambor. Unfortunately, the town was bombarded by German soldiers shortly after Hitler started his reign of terror on the Jews. Henia’s family was forced to do laborious work in a ghetto until they were all deported to a concentration camp. Fortunately for Henia, she was able to escape and never went to the concentration camp herself. Instead, she had to survive for several years alone, with only her sister to turn to.
Over 5 million people died between 1933 and 1945. Additionally, around half of these deaths happened in a concentration camp. This point in time is commonly referred to as the Holocaust. In Elie Wiesel’s book "Night” that documents Elie Wiesel’s struggles in a ghetto and then being transported throughout Germany to these awful places that are made for death. However, in the novel “Night,” Elie Wiesel uses dialog, ellipses, and symbolism to show the bond he has with his father. (73)
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
“Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again.”
In 1940 , Hungary annexed sighet and the wiesel’s were among the jewish families and forced to live in the ghettos.May 1944,Nazi Germany with the Hungary’s agreement, forced jews living in Sighet to be deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. At the age of Fifteen Wiesel’s family were sent to Auschwitz as part of the holocaust, which took the lives of more than 6 million jews. Wiesel’s family was affected during the holocaust, all jews were forced to have their heads shaved and a number tattooed on their heads after all the men left the barber they were all standing around naked finding acquaintances and old friends, they are joyful at finding each other still alive. Elie Wiesel’s Night highlights the overarching issues of discrimination toward the Jews as they are forced to abandon their lives and face a death that consumer their existence, relationships and faith.
The holocaust can be regarded as one of the most awful events in history and the swastika continues to be a constant reminder of the horrendous acts of hate that were bestowed onto human lives. More than 1 million people were brutally murdered at the hands of an evil dictator named Adolf Hitler. Some of the vivid events and actions that took place during this time have been highlighted in the poem “The Trains” written by William Heyen. Heyen discusses the trains of Treblinka which carried the prized possessions of the many people who had been dropped off to death and/or concentration camps. In the poem, the author attempts to appeal to audiences of the 21st century around the world who do not fully understand the horrific incidents that occurred during the holocaust and the tragedy inflicted on its victims.
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
Ellen Cassedy’s memoir, We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, charts her journey to her family’s past and her own reckoning with what she finds. As she explores her own family’s Jewish past, she struggles to learn Yiddish and gets to know the broader cultural landscape that is contemporary Lithuania, the place where her family came from. As she sets off to study Yiddish and connect with her Jewish forebears, her uncle Will, a holocaust survivor, gave her a slip pulled from his pocket and told her to read it. It was a sheet that had been folded and refolded multiple times which spoke about a day in the Shavl ghetto. It was a sheet that made her personal conquest into an exploration of Lithuania, on how Jews and non-Jews are confronting their Nazi and Soviet past in order to move forward in the future. The sheet read “On November 5, 1943, a kinder-aktsye, a roundup of children, had occurred. Soldiers were snarling dogs and bayonets had rampages through the narrow streets, ripping apart walls and floors in the search for every last child. A Jewish policeman stood at the ghetto gate as the sons and daughters of the ghetto-hundreds of them-were shoved into trucks and driven away, never to be seen again” (Cassedy, 2012, p. 51). Here she
“To the world, you may be only one person, but to one person, you may be the world” (Unknown), in the eyes of the thirteen individuals that Stefania Podgorska saved from the clutches of the Nazi regime, she meant the world. Stefania, a young Polish national, made a decision at a young age that the comfortable farm life was not the life for her to live. She traveled to a nearby town to visit relatives, after the death of her father. Stefania found the town “quiet and peaceful” (Fogelman 2), and vowed to stay and not return to her old life. In Eva Fogelman’s book, Conscience and Courage, Stefania, a young Polish national, dedicates her teenage years to save Jews during WWII. When presented with the question, which reading had the greatest impact on myself, Stefania’s story immediately came to mind. For an individual to yearn for more than a comfortable life, to then assist those in need, to then risk their personal well-being in order to help save the lives of strangers, speaks volumes about their character. Stefania’s selflessness, courage, and cunning actions not only helped save the lives of those in need but also helped her mature into an extraordinary and thoughtful human being.
In February 1942, the Jewish girls in Slovakia were rounded up to serve as prostitutes for the German soldiers at the Russian war front. Iby’s mother was alerted of this by a friend, she decided
The Holocaust, or a jewish sacrificial offering that is burned on an alter, largely refers to the massacre and slaughter of over 6 million european jews from 1933 to 1945. One of the largest genocides took place less than 100 years ago. A recently fresh event on the historical timeline, and yet there would be little known on exactly went on inside the camps without the testimonies of survivors. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, produced the book “Night” as a way to cope with his time in the labor camps and to shed light on the reality of the inhumanity that engulfed numerous concentration camps across europe. After ten years of silence, the book was written by Wiesel to express his personal experiences inside the labor camps, as well as his testimony to horrifying and inhumane actions inflicted upon his beloved family and bunk mates. In “Night”, Elie Wiesel explores the evils in humanity by sharing his personal experiences and personal witness of inhumanity, and shares his own moral values of man.
Between 1933 and 1945, 11 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, of this six million were Jews and of this, 1.1 million were children. Of the nine million Jews who lived in Europe before the Holocaust, an estimated 2/3 were murdered. Despite all these odds and statistics, Vladek Spiegelman managed to survive, and then share his story with his son, so he could share their story with the world. Another reason that Vladek Spiegelman is a good subject to write a biography on is, his personality. He seems to have to sides to him, Vladek Spiegelman before war and Vladek Spiegelman post - war. We get to see the impact and affect the Holocaust had on it’s victims, with our own eyes. Moreover, Vladek Spiegelman is an inspiration and a reminder of the potential dark side to human nature. Thus, writing a biography on Mr. Spiegelman is informative, moving and above all, inspirational.