The Characters Of Courage In Eva Fogelman's Conscience And Courage

The narrator of Sophie’s Choice, Stingo, meets a young Polish woman at the Pink Palace in Brooklyn after World War II. She has a dark past due to some horrendous experiences during Nazi occupation in Poland and time in Auschwitz. It is important to take a critical look at her fictitious narrative and deem whether Styron has produced a plausible character. Also, it is key to assess if the stories told by Sophie attribute positively to real accounts of the Holocaust without trivializing the history in order to create a popular

In the early 1940s, over six million Jews were slaughtered due to the irrational belief of their imperfection. Each day, people make decisions, and those decisions are guided by thoughts, and everyone has the right to those opinion; however, many people fail to believe that their thoughts and actions can affect the lives of others. There are people with a strong moral compass that carry around the weight of the horrific actions of others such as Peter L. Fischl, author of the poem, “To the Little Polish Boy Standing with His Arms Up.” Throughout the poem, the author expresses how some people are in denial but others are haunted by the horrific events of the past. The narrator speaks to this young Polish boy, standing with his arms above his head, waiting patiently for his demise. Life is full of difficulties; if there were no struggles in life then it would not be life at all. The author creates a lead into the poem with the title, using a symbol for vulnerability. If someone stands with their arms in the air it means they are surrendering, they are vulnerable and defenseless. As the little Polish boy walks past the guards, he has his arms raised, knowing he has no say in what is yet to come. In the poem “To the Little Polish Boy Standing With his Arms Up” Fischl uses repetition and symbolism to enhance, that one’s actions affect the lives of others, and at times those on the sidelines have a worsening effect after all.

One man was lucky enough to be saved, his name was Max Diamant, he was one of the jews she decided to hide and Max had just escaped off the train headed to the death camps. He later changed his name to Josef Burzminski and became Stefania’s husband for 50 years. He became a dentist in Poland and the couple immigrated to New York to have raised two children. When people stand by and watch something go on that they know is wrong, they are just as guilty of the people themselves who are doing it. This women had a heart and saved a man who ended up to be the love of her life, I believe that good deeds come around, she starred with her husband on the Oprah Winfrey show. Her apathy for the people who were being prosecuted shows that we all can take action and do something to prevent bullying or racism. She chose not to be a bystander, because she saw no difference in human but

The memoir,”Night”, shows the perspective of Elie Wiesel, a young boy that was sent to a concentration camp alongside hundreds of other Jews, that lost their valuables , faith and family.The terror within the concentration camp slowly deteriorate the Jews ,physically and mentally.The jews had a choice to be selfish or selfless,given the jews’ situation it is best to do what was in their best interest. Throughout Elie Wiesel’s memoir, “Night”; many individuals had a hard time navigating the brutality within the concentration camps.Through these times of brutality, many people in the camp had to choose to either be selfish or altruistic. Given the jew’s situation, it is better to act selfish than to be altruistic.

Vladek shows heroism in life threatening situations when everyone else has given up. After receiving a letter from the Polish government, Vladek leaves his family to fight the war against Nazi, Germany. After facing the terrible conditions of a P.O.W. camp and the back-breaking work of the “volunteer labor assignments” (Spiegelman 54) Vladek returns home to his family only to find their situation in shambles. In Vladek’s efforts to bring in money when there is none to be made; he constantly risks his life so the Zylberberg’s can live a modest life, compared to the luxury they were used to. When the Jewish families are forced to move to Stara Sosnowiec Vladek

As the Former First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt stated, “People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” Author of the nonfiction book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, shows Louis Zamperini is bravery. Louie proved that Roosevelt’s statement in his case was true. Whether in the Olympics, a fight, or serving his country Louie maintained a brave face demonstrating his true character to the world.

“It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” (Anne Frank) Anne Frank was one of the many children who fell victim to the Holocaust during the World War II. Anne’s story is nothing short of a tragedy; she died at the early age of fifteen from Typhus while being held by the Nazi Regime, in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Before dying, Anne and her family went into hiding and lived secretly in her father's office building in the Netherlands. While living in the “Annex,” a secret hiding place, she developed many interests such as reading and writing. Anne is famous because she is one of the best-known victims of the Holocaust, her story has been shared with millions in a publication of her diary, and through her writing’s she introduces many people to the massacre and its horror.

The Holocaust, yet another unpleasant time in history tainted with the blood and suffering of man. Human beings tortured, executed and starved for hatred and radical ideas. Yet with many tragedies there are survivors, those who refused to die on another man’s command. These victims showed enormous willpower, they overcame human degradation and tragedies that not only pushed their beliefs in god, but their trust in fellow people. It was people like Elie Wiesel author of “Night”, Eva Galler,Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser, and Solomon Radasky that survived, whose’ mental and physical capabilities were pushed to limits that are difficult to conceive. Each individual experiences were different, but their survival tales not so far-reaching to where the fundamental themes of fear, family, religion and self-preservation played a part in surviving. Although some of these themes weren’t always so useful for survival.

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.

In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.

“I pray you never stand at any crossroads in your own lives, but if you do, if the darkness seems so total, if you think there is no way out, remember, never ever give up. The darker the night, the brighter the dawn, and when it gets really, really dark, this is when one sees the true brilliance of the stars.” These words were spoken by Gerda Klein, a Holocaust survivor. Her story is filled with desperation and an overwhelming sense of hope. Gerda Weissmann was born in Bielsko, Poland. Both of her parents and her older brother died during the Holocaust. She was somehow able to survive “the ghetto, deportation, slave labor camps and a three month death march. She was rescued by an American soldier named Kurt Klein. She ended up marrying him and moving to the United States.

Life is a precious thing, and it is so precious that some people will undergo severe anguish to hold on to it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany, people of the Jewish religion were diabolically oppressed and slaughtered, just for their beliefs. Some Jews went to extreme measures to evade capture by the German law enforcement, hoping to hold on to life. Krystyna Chiger was only a small child when her family, along with a group of other desperate Jews, descended into the malignant sewers to avoid the Germans. After living in the abysmal sewers for fourteen months, her group emerged, and when she became an adult, she authored a novel about her time in the sewer. When analyzing the literary elements utilized in her novel, The Girl in the Green Sweater, one can determine how tone and mood, point of view, and conflict convey the message of struggle and survival that was experienced during the Holocaust, and how they help the reader to understand and relate.

Tadeusez Borowski describes in his many short stories that some victims during the Holocaust had to choose between their one lives or loved ones. In “The People Who Walked On” there’s a situation between a young woman and a camp leader. The young woman and her mother were forced to undress and the camp leader was “struck by the perfect beauty of her body” and asked her to step aside. The man deceives her and tells her to trust him and follow him into the chambers. The woman still worried but hopeful asks “what will they do to us?” The man, in an effort to keep her calm responds “Remember, be brave, come. I shall

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

Morality is adaptable in extreme situations. The Holocaust is an example of what happens to one’s morality when forced to adapt to animalistic behavior in order to survive. Life in Auschwitz required a purging of one’s human dignity for survival. Prisoners were constantly exposed to perpetual dehumanization, which inevitably led to the dehumanization, and restoration of one’s mental, physical, and social adaptation. Because of this, one’s morality begins to erase. It is in the adaptation of living in a merciless world that the line separating right and wrong begins to blur. Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, both represent how morality and ethics are challenged in the means of survival.