Life for the Sonderkommando during the holocaust was different from other inmates. Survival came with a different meaning. Both the film Son of Saul and the reading This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen gave an inside look on their means of survival, resistance and the effects it had on their human dignity. The Sonderkommando had better living conditions than other Auschwitz inmates. They were given food, sleeping areas and were able to wear normal clothing. They were accommodated with the basic physical human needs. From the reading This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen it was evident that the Sonderkommando found comfort in their cabins, comfort you would not expect to exist in such a place. “I lie against the cool, …show more content…
Each inmate possessed important skills which were used when needed. This allowed the inmates to band together and covertly conduct basic operations within the camp. Jewelry and other valuables smuggled from new shipments of inmates were often used in exchange for help or bribes between the Sonderkommando. In some cases, the Sonderkommando were even able to bribe the guards. An example of which can be seen when a guard was bribed to allow Saul into Ella’s cabin. Relationships between the guards and the Sonderkommando were as expected. Inmates had to follow given protocols and if they refused or did not comply to what they were required; they were either punished or killed. The execution of the rabbi after he had jumped into the river exemplified such intolerance to out of order behavior. Another example was seen in the reading This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, when the guards threatened to kill any Sonderkommando that were to steal from the shipments; “Whoever takes gold, or anything at all besides food, will be shot for stealing Reich property” (Borowski 348). The guards would also consistently keep the Sonderkommando in the dark. They were notified only moments before they were needed or just before an arrival was set to come in. This made informants very important for the Sonderkommando. In the film Son of Saul, a Renegade within a commanding office passed on information to …show more content…
This was common among all victims of the holocaust. Human dignity was rarely present during this time. New inmates were treated like animals being herded into the slaughterhouse. This was expected by the oppressors but certainly not by the Sonderkommando. Their actions towards their own people were no different than the actions of the oppressors. It was evident in This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, that sympathy for their own people was not felt; “I don’t know why, but I am furious . . . furious because I must be here because of them. I feel no pity. I am not sorry they’re going to the gas chambers. Damn them all! I could throw myself at them, beat them with my own fists” (Borowski 350). Based on this reading, it was clear that the Sonderkommando had very little regard for the new inmates, only viewing them as shipments for their own survival rather than the continual death of their people. The Sonderkommando spoke of these shipments without a hint of despair. The men were even able to eat and drink among the corpses, showing how detached they were from their emotions. It was clear that in order for these men to survive they had to adapt in ways that defied the human dignity within them. It’s was difficult to consider these men heroes based on their view and treatment depicted in the reading towards their own people. That being said, we also cannot blame
Paralyzing terror and enduring agony bind the characteristics of the Holocaust together. It expressed man’s carnal barbarism to the fullest with the rarity of human kindness to illuminate the darkness bestowed. Thankfully, there were some people who preserved the hope for humanity’s future. (The Shalom Show on TV) The Bilecki family were a part of the remarkable men and women who risked their lives to preserve others. Their heroism shone while conserving the lives of twenty-three Jews. Though their lives have been mauled and battered beyond compare, they continued to live an honourable life after the destruction caused by the Holocaust. The Bilecki family with their grace and lenity is a role model worthy of following.
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.
“The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people”. (Thought for Today) Napoleon spoke those exact words. Jews never deserved the punishment they received. Victor Rona was put in labor camps and received numerous punishments from the Jews during the Holocaust. Victor Roana had a loving family. His life dramatically changed from before the Holocaust to during the Holocaust. The life at labor camps was grueling. Many victims suffered from this devastating time.
These were civilians, not Nazi soldiers. Their indifference led to the deaths of over 6 million people during the Holocaust. Indifference is the most ruthless accomplice of evil, carrying two main weapons and leaving evidence of its dangerous ways throughout
The sleeping conditions for jew were in terrible conditions. “Several hundred three-tier wooden bunk beds were installed in each building” (“Auschwitz…”) The barracks were highly populated with rats and other vermin. There were straw mattresses for people who had abdominal issues (“Auschwitz…”). To many who
Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicted upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes “the denial of humanness” constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (“Dehumanization”). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanization has not only on those dehumanized, but also on those who dehumanize. He establishes an earnest and reflective tone with his audience yearning to grasp the reality of genocide.
At the entrance to each death camp, there was a process of Selektion or selection. Pregnant women, small children, the sick or handicapped, and the elderly were immediately condemned to death. As horrific as it was, it didn’t surprise many that Hitler had the audacity to do these terrible things. The Holocaust was an act of genocide in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany killed about two thirds of the population of Jews in Europe from 1941-1945 but the trouble started brewing much before that. Though there were only a small amount of survivors, very few alive to this day, there are many pieces of literature that help prove that this in fact happened. Literature can help us remember and honor the victims of the Holocaust because, it gives different
Son of Saul is a historical fiction film that gives the jewish and nazi experiences within a extermination camp. Son of Saul authentically portrays the Holocaust through the perspectives of the Sonderkommandos and the Nazi SS by attempting to film every scene in first person with the camera focus on one Sonderkommando. The film is authentic, because its cinematography exposes taboos of Holocaust filmmaking as well as the juxtaposed mentalities of survivors and victims within an extermination camp in first person. The definition of authentic applied in this instance is something original with genuinely reliable value. This film’s cinematography is instrumental in the expression of these juxtaposed mentalities and Holocaust film-making taboos.
The conditions of the camp were unbearable. The prisoners were barely fed, mainly bread and water, and were cramped in small sleeping arrangements. "Hundreds slept in triple-tiered rows of bunks (Adler 51)." In the quarters that they stayed, there were no adequate cleaning facilities or restrooms for the prisoners. They rarely were able to change clothes which meant the "clothes were always infested with lice (Swiebocka 18)." Those were sick went to the infirmary where also there were eventually killed in the gas chambers or a lethal injection. The Germans did not want to have anyone not capable of hard work to live. Prisoners were also harshly punished for small things such as taking food or "relieving themselves during work hours (Swiebocka 19)." The biggest punishment was execution. The most common punishment was to receive lashings with a whip.
According to “I’m Telling the Story” by Magdalena Klein, the prisoners were not given proper clothing. She writes “In rags, soiled, infested with lice” (Klein, stanza 2) and “Unclad frail feet were trudging in the snow” (Klein, stanza 4). The Nazi’s not only neglect to give the prisoners proper clothing, they also force them to walk barefoot through the snow! This problem is still present in the world today, not with the Nazis, but tyrannical governments still do this. In short, Nazi prisoners were not treated with the respect that is due to every human being, and suffered greatly because of it.
Not only were the prisoners told this but put through torture that is cannot be explained or understood. Before they arrived to camps, they were even treated unwell. When being transported to the ghettos, and going through an unnatural famine caused by the Germans. They mentally had to accept these ways as normal. “Llittle by little life returned to ‘normal.’ The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear.” (11) The Hungarian police where rude to elders, children, and crippled, “used their rifle butts, their cliubs to indiscriminately strike old men and women, children and cripples.” (16) The officers did not care how they felt, even when they felt like, “the heat was oppressive. Sweat streamed from people’s faces and bodies. Children were crying for water.” (16) They called them such horrible names and yelled, “Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!” (19) It made the Jewish feel like this was the only world that they knew of was torture and sadness. They knew nothing of true happiness or kindness. When being shipped into the cattle cars on the way to concentration camps, Elie says, “The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car.” (24) They felt like they were being treated like cattle, “’We must do something. We can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse. We must revolt.’” (31) The inmates felt like they lost their self-respect, they feared others, and only knew pain. They were so scared that they started to think they were dreaming, “I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?”
In the camps, the prisoners were continuously being persecuted and there were always selections going on as well. The selections would determine whether you were valuable to them or not. If you weren’t, you were killed and if you were, you continued to work. All of these things caused the Jews to be in a state of hopelessness and apathy while always being quite anxious too (Gutman, 1). With
“The SS made us increase our pace. “Faster you swine, you filthy sons of bitches.” (pg 81 pg parag 2) This is the first example of how feeling dehumanized can break the spirits of the strongest wills by the SS comparing the Jews and others in the concentation camp to swines and, calling them names. That can break peoples spirits and lower their self esteem. “ I raised my eyes to look at my fathers face leaning over mine, to try to discover a smile or something resembling one upon the aged, dried-up coutenance.” “ Nothing” “ Not the shadow of an expression.” “Beaten”(pg 65 parag
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
There is a part where we watch as humans are so ugly that it is hard for us to imagine that what they had done is possible. Liesel is playing soccer in the park and all of a sudden all the kids stop because of a noise they hear coming down the street. They think it could be a herd of cattle, but that not what it is. It is a group of Jewish people being led, or forced, to the death camps by German soldiers. On there way we watch a man die “He was dead. The man was dead. Just give him five minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch”(Zusak 393). This is talking about how when a Jewish person would die, the Germans wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t care that a man died right in front of them. While the Jews are walking Hans, Liesel adopted father, gives them bread. While Hans is giving this man bread a German soldier notices what is going on. He walks over to the man and, “The Jew was whipped six times. On his back, his heart, and