'This Way For The Gas, Ladies And Gentlemen' By Tadeusz Borowski

When the Starzynski family was taken from their home by the French police, the onlookers exhibited dehumanization. In this instance, dehumanization was portrayed in the form of indifference, “...shutters began to open, faces peered out from behind curtains... nobody moved, nobody said anything. They simply watched” (Rosnay 18). The onlookers did not view the Starzynskis as their human equals, and they allowed the police to take them to their death without saying a word. Their Jewish religion made them be viewed as less than human, and therefore they felt it was acceptable for them to be taken away to be killed. Once the Starzynski’s friends and acquaintances discovered that they were Jewish, by the yellow star on their clothing, they began to treat them differently. “...most girls stopped speaking to the children with the stars. Or... stared at them with disdain” (47). Once captured and inside the Vel’ d’Hiv, the Jewish people of Paris are treated as animals; the conditions inside the Vel’ d’Hiv are heartless and inhumane. “The girl had to squat against the wall to relieve herself, fighting against the overpowering urge to vomit, her hand clapped over her mouth. People were... defecating wherever they could... cowering like animals near the filthy floor” (30). The captured Jews are not only deprived the basic right of privacy,

As he nears the end of his time in the concentration camp, the violence create environment that makes genocide possible. In the end of the story, Jews are being shipped out of the blocks and murdered. “Every day, several thousand prisoners went through the camp gate and never came back” (118). Elie describes the mass murders in the end of the novel, It illustrates how acts of prejudice to violence can lead to genocide. Jews were first not recognized as human, then murdered, to as last extermination. Acts of Prejudice helped the Nazi’s build up their ruthlessness leading to killing all Jews without hesitation. Elie’s description of the Holocaust is effective in revealing how things can escalate quickly in the Pyramid of Hate to the worst.

The Holocaust was one of the world’s major tragedies. If you were a Jew the Nazis would take you to concentration camp and you would have to do everything they said, you would get your head shaved, and be treated awful. Millions died. They would choose Jews to take to the gas chamber, usually the weakest and most unhealthy ones because they weren’t much good to work anymore. “Yolen, Jane. The Devil's Arithmetic. New York, NY, U.S.A.: Viking Kestrel, 1988. Print.”

Totalitarianism is a form of rule in which the government has complete or “total” control over society. In a totalitarian dictatorship, people do not have individual freedom, and the government controls every aspect of an individual’s life. In order to achieve this type of dominance over society the dictator instills fear into everyone which makes totalitarianism a cruel form of government.

The Jewish people in the Holocaust were treated similar to animals. The Nazi party believed in forcing them to work and live in terrible conditions. This was to ‘rid the world of them’. The book Night displays the awful conditions forced upon them. “The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion” (Weisel 11). These ghettos were a way to keep in the Jews, to

Totalitarianism diminishes the idea of individuality and destroys all chances of self-improvement, and human’s natural hunger for knowledge. In George Orwell’s famous novel, “1984”, totalitarianism is clearly seen in the exaggerated control of the state over every single citizen, everyday, everywhere. Totalitarianism can also be seen in the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, in which humans are synthetically made and conditioned for their predestinated purpose on earth. The lack of individualism will lead a community towards a dystopia in which freedom is vanished by the uncontrolled power of the state.

"It was crying and praying. So long we survived. And now we waited only that they shoot, because we had not else to do" (267). This quote from the end of the novel ironically describes what the Jewish people endured after the concentration camps. Vladek Spieglman among other suffered through traumatic experiences; though Vladek certainly did survive the holocaust, old Vladek did not. Post-Holocaust it is revealed by Spieglman that his father, Vladek, develops two personalities—before and after the concentration camps. Vladek’s post-holocaust life was haunted by the horrors he witnessed while being in the concentration camps; he went from a young, handsome resourceful man to a miserable, old man who does nothing but complain.

This summary paper on Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men will provide a summary and an overview of the main ideas of the text while attempting to focus on Browning's overall central argument which revolves around these seemingly “normal” and “ordinary men” and how they were transformed into murderers due to various elements. The summary paper will also be dedicated to the overall significance of the book and its significance in relation to the history of the Holocaust as a whole. Browning's novel is significant in generating a greater awareness towards the Holocaust but more specifically providing awareness towards who the perpetrators were as Browning provides an in depth examination into the ordinary men which were transformed into these mass murderers, while centering his argument on how and why did these normal and seemingly ordinary men transform into the mass murderers in which they became. The novel also takes the reader into an in depth, detailed account of the horrific actions of the German battalion towards the innocent Jewish population, as Browning details the

"It was crying and praying. So long we survived. And now we waited only that they shoot, because we had not else to do" (267). This quote from the end of the novel ironically describes what the Jewish people endured after the concentration camps. Vladek Spieglman among other suffered through traumatic experiences; though Vladek certainly did survive the holocaust, old Vladek did not. Post-Holocaust it is revealed by Spieglman that his father, Vladek, develops two personalities—before and after the concentration camps. Vladek’s post-holocaust life was haunted by the horrors he witnessed while being in the concentration camps; he went from a young, handsome resourceful man to a miserable, old man who does nothing but complain.

Arendt explains that the ultimate power of a totalitarian government is the acceptance of the ideology being propagated. The laws that are put into place in totalitarian government are not to empower the people and protect their rights. Instead, the laws tell the people what they must do, not what they must not do. Arendt tells how the law of nature is the foundation for Hitler's Nazis, and the law of history for Russia's communist regimes. According to Arendt, both the Nazi and communist regimes maintained that those laws gave them justification for their cruelty. These laws of nature and history are not permanent or stable. They are in motion to keep history and nature moving, so that it progresses without ever stopping. <p>Arendt claims that these laws of motion sustain the terror fueling the totalitarian government. Arendt says that terror is the realization and execution of these laws with nothing standing in its way. Throughout the selection, Arendt speaks of terror. Terror is essential for the state to keep its power, or else it will fall. According to Arendt, in a totalitarian state terror terminates individuality among the people. Individual men become a mass of humankind, in the eyes of the state. "Terror exists neither for nor against men", claims Arendt, "it substitutes for the boundaries and channels of communication between individual men a band of iron which holds them so tightly

This implies a relationship in which the state through its instruments dominates society. Hence in the totalitarian state all political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual activities should be directed towards fulfilling the aims of the state” (“Totalitarianism”, 1999). In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights and they must obey the government without question. If individuals questioned or disagreed with the government, they were silenced by death or prison.

For what happened to the Jews they had no choice in what got done to them. They could not stick up for themselves; it showed who was the weakest and who was the strongest. If they tried to fight back the Nazi’s could kill them just simply because they tried to protect themselves. ‘’ They were forced to dig huge trenches… Without passion or haste they shot their prisoners. ’’ (pg. 6) .The Nazi’s had no emotion or conscience to what happened to the Jews. All they cared about was getting them from one place to another. ‘’ Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently.’’ (pg. 24) No matter how much the Jews cried the Hungarian Police just ignored them and let them continuously cry.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever

A Totalitarian state is defined as a government that subordinates the individual to the state and strictly controls all aspects of life by coercive measures. A Totalitarian state aims to establish complete:

Many people have sought to evaluate the vulnerabilities associated with states and markets that are under totalitarianism, which is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society. First developed in 1920 by the Italian fascists, and in particular Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy for over twenty years, totalitarianism embossed the minds of those who lived under it. This system was conceptualized mainly to highlight the similarities between Nazi Germany and other fascist states. There’s one underlying difference that one must understand for one to assess the restrictions that totalitarianism puts on one’s liberty. One should realize that totalitarianism states are states where there is a single party rule, where a dictatorship is type of government in which a single person rules. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell are famous authors who opposed totalitarianism, and through their philosophical ideals, attempted to inform people of the dangers faced by society under this restricting system, where people are inhibited from holding any sort of authority. George Orwell, in 1984, discusses concerns relating to big government and big brother and Aldous Huxley, in Brave New World, discusses predatory markets impinging on our personal freedoms. Through their works, they attempt to question societal beliefs on brute force and physical coercion verses the manipulation of preferences and tastes leading to willing submission. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley each