The Holocaust: Fortitude And The Civil Rights Movement

As I began to hear the testimony, I recalled all the various wars that have created us into what we are today. Brother against brother, kings that ruled the land, and dictators that overtook anything they desired. Survivors from various disasters have had a chance to let others hear and feel what they have gone through when they were younger like us. Cesia Kingston, one of the many survivors of the disastrous Holocaust, shares her many experiences throughout her life. Some too precious to forget, but others filled with pain and sorrow. Through every word Cesia spoke, they filled my thoughts like a wave, but at the same moment I remembered the times when pain and fear overtook me.

     Throughout history the Jewish people have been scapegoats; whenever something was not going right they were the ones to blame. From Biblical times through to the Shakespearean Era, all the way to the Middle East Crisis and the creation of Israel, the Jews have been persecuted and blamed for the problems of the world. The most horrifying account of Jewish persecution is the holocaust, which took place in Europe from 1933 to 1945 when Adolf Hitler tried to eliminate all the people that he thought were inferior to the Germans, namely the Jews, because he wanted a pure Aryan State.

In the book Escape Children of the Holocaust, author Allan Zullo highlights the struggles of three innocent Jewish children, Hanci Hollander, Halina Litman and Gideon Frieder. All three children were born in different countries affected by the Holocaust; Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. If you did not know, the Holocaust was a gruesome time in the world’s history. There were concentration camps for Jews. All because of one Austrian man, Adolf Hitler, who hated the Jews so much he did not want one Jew left standing. Consequently, he made the Nazi Germans hunt, enslave and kill the Jews.

First of all, Anne Frank is only one of a million Jewish children who died during the slaughter and she represents the lost potential of all the children. However, she is one of the most recognized victims because of her diary. Only a small amount of children persecuted during the catastrophe wrote diaries that have survived. Her diary reflects a varied and complex view of a young girl who lived and died during the mass murder. Her diary is one of the best-written diaries authored by a teenager living and hiding during a catastrophe and details a

The Holocaust was a horrifying time period for the Jews. Nearly 2,700,000 Jews were sent to extermination camps, where they were immediately killed. Millions of others were sent to concentration camps, where they were either killed or used as slave labor. However throughout this hellish time period, there were still some people who managed to stay positive. Etty Hillesum said that “big things” helped people’s spirits survive. During the Holocaust, love laughter and nature were the things that helped many spirits triumph.

The Holocaust, a morbid atrocity that made people question humanity, was the cause of millions of deaths. One of those victims of this brutality was Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis along with her family. Although she was merely ordinary, Anne Frank kept a diary which became a significant, historical artifact in the modern world as it details her account of concealing her identity from the outside world. Her story, told in an innocent perspective, allows individuals to reflect the dreadful events of the Holocaust and acknowledge how far we have come since then. Even though she died along with millions of other victims from the Holocaust, her spirit still exists thanks to her articulately written words in her diary which is now considered one of the most famous works of literature. Anne Frank’s legacy still lives on today because her story provides a primary source of a dark period in history, insightful contemplation of humanity, and motivation for people to stand up against unjustified persecution.

As Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel once said, “To forget a Holocaust is to kill twice,” that is why we are called to remember. Many movies, novels, and story representations of the Holocaust have been created in order to spread the memory of the past. An important part of remembering is learning, and therefore not repeating the same mistakes once again. Movies may find it difficult to represent the Holocaust accurately, while also giving it meaning and artistic expression. The writer, Edwin de Vries, and the director, Jeroen Krabbé, strive to represent the legacies of the Holocaust and Jewish culture in the film, Left Luggage (1998), based on a novel by Carl Friedman through a portrayal of the daily lives of Holocaust survivors and their children in late 1960s Antwerp, their direct confrontations with their memories of the Holocaust, and character development. The film shows us many examples of the legacy of the Holocaust as it is passed through the children of survivors, and how it continues to affect their daily lives. The audience understands the intentions through depictions of muteness and the necessity to remember.

The Holocaust was a time period in which Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Nazi Germany. He prosecuted many Jews because he believed they were the reason World War 1 started, causing the death of 100,000 German soldiers. Because of this, he made sure nearly every Jew was put into concentration camps or killed. Adolf Hitler was a man who wanted everything his way, and because of this he killed innocent people. The Holocaust was an unfair period for the Jews. The Jews were killed because of who they were, and the citizens didn’t try to do anything to help them

When the war ended in 1945, millions of Jews had perished. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime had almost entirely wiped out a single race of people in what would become known as the Holocaust. However, the Jews were not the only people who had been stripped of their dignity and killed. There were other groups who the Nazi’s persecuted against. The Roma, homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Political Prisoners were all systematically gathered up and killed. When the Holocaust gets mentioned, many don't talk about the other millions of innocent people who were murdered alongside the Jews. Many don't see these people as victims at all. The number of people murdered during the Holocaust reaches close to eleven million people. “Contragenics” is the term used to talk about all of the groups who were murdered under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. These innocent lives were lost in the Holocaust, and while history hasn’t forgotten, humanity has.

The Holocaust is a topic that some think of as a very essential part of history that students should learn about. On the other hand, some would argue that it is too severe for middle school students. Without a doubt, Nazis abused their large power and used it towards destruction and in so, violated civil rights and killed 6 million Jews. The Holocaust was a turning point in history that is only taught based on the judgement of schools. The Holocaust Museum in Houston says, “During the Holocaust religious, moral, and legal systems failed in deterring the dangers of prejudice.” This can compare to how there is a large debate on whether students should or shouldn’t learn about the Holocaust and topics similar to it. The Holocaust was a major part of history that has influenced many people and advanced the future to where we are now; thus, we should educate the the younger generation since teaching about the Holocaust enables you to advance into a better human being, students can use their critical thinking skills, and it honors those who have passed and survived.

During the Holocaust, about six million Jews died. Some were taken to concentration and execution camps, such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Chelmno. Others were kept in ghettos with terrible living conditions in order to segregate them from the rest of society. Regardless of the suffering, these people miraculously managed to keep their head up and look on the bright side. To some, it may be a mystery of how they stayed strong. However, it is clear that love, nature, and humor allowed human spirit to triumph during the Holocaust.

Examining any issue pertaining to the Holocaust is accompanied with complexity and the possibility of controversy. This is especially true in dealing with the topic of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. Historians are often divided on this complex issue, debating issues such as how “resistance” is defined and, in accordance with that definition, how much resistance occurred. According to Michael Marrus, “the very term Jewish resistance suggests a point of view.” Many factors, both internal such as differences in opinion on when or what resistance was appropriate, as well as external, such as the lack of arms with which to revolt, contributed to making resistance, particularly armed resistance, extremely difficult. When considering acts

During the Holocaust, Jewish people were submitted to the vilest and most inhumane conditions the world had ever seen. Their most basic freedoms were taken from them. At first, all they lost were items such as flour, eggs, sugar, and cocoa. Later, they were stripped of their land and businesses and separated according to their ability to be productive slaves to Hitler's Third Reich. Those that were deemed unfit were sent to slaughter houses. Entire families were torn apart, much like what happened to Gerda Weissman Klein's family. Despite watching her mother, father, and brother being taken from her, knowing that she would never see them again, she found the strength to survive three years in German labor camps through her family,

Many European Jews could make it and remain alive, but in reality, most of them are not really still alive from their inside. It is true that their bodies have healed; however, their minds are still psychologically sick. It is hard for many people to see their beloved ones dying because of the hanger or even the harsh treatment. Imagine how hard was for Vladek and Anja to see their little son Richu dying, and they could not do anything to him. Many survivors had this sense of regret about why they were the ones who get to survive while others died. They could see the images of dead people who were lying above each other. Aaron Hass from California State University, Dominguez Hills, California talks about a woman called Rose who was in her 19th year of age during the Holocaust. In his interview with Rose F., he explains how the Holocaust has shaped her life and personality. For example, Rose states that “I felt guilty for many years that maybe I should have run back and tried to get her [he sister] with me or stay with her. Maybe I didn’t do enough to stay together. Maybe I was too selfish about saving myself” (Hass 163). This shows how Rose could not and still can not get over the loss of her sister, and she keeps blaming herself for her sister’s death. The Holocaust and its brutality are hard to be forgotten by Jewish

During the reign of the Third Reich, the symbolization of the pink triangle was used to identify the thousands of gay prisoners who were sent to extermination camps under Paragraph 175, the law that criminalized homosexuality between men. Researchers say that an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 gay men died in these camps, however this figure does not include those who were interned and later released, let alone those who died undocumented and forever forgotten to history.¹ These thousands of men were forced through excruciating cruelties with little to no reprieve or recognition of the atrocities perpetrated against them. It is because of this that while they are not a distinct racial, ethnic, or religious group, the treatment of those who bore the pink triangle during the Holocaust follows the genocidal process and as such gay Holocaust victims should be considered sufferers of genocide.