The Rescuer: Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz

Synopsis – Hitler’s Willing Executioners is a work that may change our understanding of the Holocaust and of Germany during the Nazi period. Daniel Goldhagen has revisited a question that history has come to treat as settled, and his researches have led him to the inescapable conclusion that none of the established answers holds true. Drawing on materials either unexplored or neglected by previous scholars, Goldhagen presents new evidence to show that many beliefs about the killers are fallacies. They were not primarily SS men or Nazi Party members, but perfectly ordinary Germans from all walks of life, men who brutalized and murdered Jews both willingly and zealously. “They acted as they did because of

While working at a bank, Wallenberg heard stories of German Soldiers taking Jews as prisoners. In the early 1940’s he took a job at a Jewish-owned food exporting company. The owner could not safely travel for business, so Wallenberg took his place. By going on these trips he become familiar with Stockholm,

The Holocaust took place during the late 1930s to the early 1940s, a time when many external and internal factors were affecting Germany and its people (Hill 1). Nevertheless Nazi leaders and common Germans killed almost two thirds of an estimated nine million Jewish people (Hill 2). One of the most puzzling questions about the Holocaust is why did common Germans take part? It is difficult to formulate an exact answer to the question because it deals with a whole nation, but many historians have hypothesized explanations related to the German’s unwilling and willing participation (Goldhagen 375).

Many really bad issues in the holocaust Szpilman explains in his autobiography. In this essay, religious discrimination, human rights, and punishment in crimes involving genocide were explained on how the author does not want them to happen again after the holocaust. Szpilman survives after many obstacles by escaping, hiding and with luck. After this whole essay, I can say that Szpilman was a very important person in our society, he had to overcome the life that he could live one day but die the next

A common misconception about the Holocaust is that the world was naïve of the atrocities happening under the Nazi’s rule. The horrors of the Holocaust were not left undocumented. Unfortunately, many saw these malicious acts as insignificant to the global population; people only start sympathizing when the hindrance affects them. Hitler, with the help of his many allies, achieved to murder millions of innocent men, women, and children. After spending this semester studying the Holocaust, I have realized that the Nazis’ greatest ally was neither an individual nor a country; Hitler’s greatest ally was indifference.

Holocaust: Survivors The Holocaust was a very tragic and memorable experience for Jewish people and others around them. However, between 1945 and 1952 more than 80,000 survivors from the Holocaust managed to immigrate into the United States (Life After The Holocaust, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). A few people include Thomas Buergenthal and Blanka Rothschild. These people were to live each one of their lives successfully even after experiencing the torture of the Holocaust which was like experiencing the pain of death for eternity.

My goal with my research is to look into the resistance of both the Jewish people and the others in European society who assisted in Jewish escapes. The perceived image of the Jews during the Holocaust is of “lambs to the slaughter.” The pictured painted of the rest of European society is one of either knowing accomplices or silent spectators. The Jewish people had many forms of resistance, some small and some large. While many of their neighbors were silent spectators, but many people were actively resisting the tyrannical Nazi government by assisting Jewish escapes. Each of these individuals risked their lives and the lives of their families and friends to aid these hunted individuals. They all deserve to have their stories heard and honored. In a time of complete chaos and destruction many people would not have the ability or fortitude to save the life of another person. The people that I will discuss in this paper were not only able to take that step, but put themselves and their families in real and eminent danger for the life, at times, of a complete stranger.

Much attention has been paid to the non-Jews, around 20,000, recognized by *Yad Vashem as *Righteous Among the Nations, who risked their lives and, in most cases, the lives of their families and friends to rescue Jews who were fleeing the Nazis and earmarked for extermination. This recognition is correct and appropriate. However, what has been overlooked is that there were thousands and thousands of Jews who also acted during the Holocaust to rescue other Jews and arrange for them to be hidden or smuggled out of the country; or provided them with false identification papers so that they could pass as non-Jews. These efforts were often an organized response. In Bulgaria, Solidarite was active. Thousands of Jews survived thanks to this Jewish organization that found hiding places and arranged for false documents for Jews, many of whom were smuggled out of the country and sent to Palestine.

The dictionary definition of “rescue” is to save someone from a harmful, dangerous, or violent situation. This perfectly describes rescue during the holocaust because many people were being saved during a very harmful, dangerous, and violent event. Rescue was a very critical part of the holocaust that people need to learn about the importance and the examples of rescue during the holocaust. There were a few key parts of holocaust rescue: dangers of rescue, famous and less famous rescues, specific details of rescues, and persecution of rescuers. The holocaust was a terrible event that showed how some humans can be violent and cruel.

Chaim Chefer wrote, No other event in current history created so many stories of atrocities and horror as the Holocaust. Much has been written on the victimization of millions and the senseless murder of 11 million human beings. It is rare to find any sliver of goodness during that horrible time in history. Yet there are incredible stories of courage and humanity that are just beginning to be told… Just as we should never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, we should also never forget the heroes of the Holocaust... Most of the victims unfortunately had no control -- no choice in their destiny. The rescuers, on the other hand, had choices. They could have chosen to have looked the other way -- as many around the world did. But not the heroes.

When Nazis began death marches Wallenberg issued thousands of Swedish safe passes. He followed groups of Nazis that were carrying Jews. Wallenberg also protested for the release of Jews from German and Hungarian custody. Wallenberg began offering bribes and he stood between Jews and their captors saying that they should take him instead. He also forged papers and driver’s licenses (Kallen).

September 1, 1939 was a nightmare in history for the Jews and it even “hit home” for some of the people across the seas. When the books usually talk about the Holocaust the almost immediate thought that comes to the brain were the Nazis, the horrible, the “bad guys”, but there are those people that were there that gave the Jewish race hope, and we call those our Heroes.

Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust between the year 1939 and the year 1945. There were many resistance efforts in this time. Many revolts erupted when the talk of killing centers came around. Clandestine parachutists were dropped over Hungary and Slovakia to aid all Jews in hiding. One person involved in these resistance efforts was Eugene Lazowski. Eugene was a doctor who was a hero in the Holocaust. He became a hero by saving lives by sneaking over a fence of a ghetto to treat the ill or wounded and creating a fake epidemic.

Countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway declared their neutrality (Danish 1). Danish government had consistently refused to engage in any debate of the "Jewish questions "as they insisted there existed no "Jewish questions "(Danish 1). Millions of people saw Jews, Guppies and other enemies getting departed. Alot of by standers told themselves it wasn’t their business. These people had courage to help by providing escape roots, false papers, food, clothing, money, and sometimes weapons (Holocaust 1). Some Danes decided to do something about it.

The Nazis even had to arrest the Danish police because they thought that they were allowing the resistance to occur. This showed that not following the Nazis can save many Jewish