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The Nuremburg War In The Diver By Friedrich Schiller

Decent Essays

The final stanza from Friedrich Schiller’s poem, “The Diver”: The breakers they hear and the breakers return, / proclaimed by a thundering sound; / they bend o’er the gulf with glances that yearn / and the waters are pouring in fast around; / though upwards and downwards they rush and they rave, / the youth is brought back by no kindly wave. (157-162) Viewing a tragedy such as the Holocaust with a lens of any other shade besides remorseful compassion is nearly impossible. Even harder is trying to imagine a group of victims other than the souls whose lives were ruined and then cut down during their prime because they were deemed unworthy by their own government. It’s easy to view these events from the comfortable distance of our own time period and point blame at the German military under the command of Adolph Hitler; those men and women who carried out his orders with unwavering loyalty. This essay is designed to take a step back to the beginning: before the Final Solution was put in place and millions of innocent people were slaughtered, before Kristallnacht when Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked …show more content…

One of the first key events, which pit the people of Germany against each other, was the Nuremburg Laws. These laws were directly targeted at Jews, not as a religious group, but as a race of people. The defining characteristic of a Jew, to the Nazi Party, was whether someone “had three or four Jewish grandparents” (The Nuremburg Race Laws). The Nuremburg laws featured a strong framework that attacked Jews and prevented them from progression in Germany. For example, Jews were not allowed to practice law, medicine, or worship in public. Jews were not allowed to marry someone of Aryan descent. Jewish businesses were boycotted and eventually bought and re-sold to Aryan Germans. These laws are viewed as a crucial point for Hitler’s domination in

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