Unexpected Valor!

The article ‘Teens against Hitler ', by Lauren Tarshis, Describes the hardships and courageous acts of Ben Kamm, a Jewish ‘Partisan’ or fighter against Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust, and all Jews who faced the challenges during that tragic time. The Jewish only wanted a normal life, but German leader, Adolf Hitler, wanted to make sure all Jew would perish. So, they began piling Jews into concentration camps to kill them, Hitler would work them to death, starve them, and even murder them in gas chambers. Then, The ‘Partisans’ began to fight against Hitler and his army. This act of courage, despite the challenges and risks they faced, help many Jews survive the most horrific event in history, The Holocaust.

A German boy in the time of Concentration Camps in WWII, Heinz was a homosexual who knew to conceal his secret. Heinz knew that he would be killed if anyone found out about his lifestyle, and told no one about his secret besides his mother. However, the Nazis eventually discovered a picture of Heinz with his lover, and sent him to a Concentration Camp to be killed. These individuals being forced to conceal their lifestyles is, in a way, forcing them to conceal who they truly are. Keeping secrets from others, in a way, means that they have not fully come to terms with who they are.

It is just one of many stories of ordinary people taking the heroic call for action upon themselves. For example, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl whose family was hidden for years in the annex f oan office building with the help of the family's friends and coworkers. Many Jewish people’s choice Anne Frank and her family had little choice about their lives simply because they were Jewish. Anne Frank’s family was forced into hiding to avoid being sent into concentration camp and to avoid Anti-Semitic practices. Members of the Assisi Network believed that all refugees should have a choice: in what religion they practiced, to not be discriminated against, to have a life and personality outside of their race and religion. Gertruda Babilins was the nanny of a rich Jewish family and saved the boy who had she cared for when the war began. She worked very hard to give him a good childhood because she thought that the Nazis had robbed him of that. Gertruda wanted Mickey to practice Judaism even though she was a Catholic and he was immersed in Catholic culture. Even though it was hard for her to pay for his Jewish schooling. Just like those of the Assisi network allowed the people they rescued to practice Judaism even though it made the hiding process more

Jews have perished because of their beliefs since the beginning of time but never have so many Jews been persecuted worldwide as they were in World War II. Anne Frank’s diary reaches a place within all of our hearts because it reminds us how easily the innocents can suffer. Sometimes we may choose to close our eyes or look the other way when unjustifiable things happen in our society and Anne’s tale reminds us that ignorance, in part, claimed her life. Sadly, her story is but one of many of those who died in the Holocaust and as with other Jews, her fate was determined by the country she lived in, her sex and her age.

A particular question that is seldom pondered over and yet is capable of carrying so many doubts within it: who are we? Who are we as a society who can do the things we do? Who are we who can suffer from them? Award winning poet and essayist Susan Griffin confronts these distinct questions in her work titled, “Our Secret”. Griffin believes that a basic understanding of the things that play a part in the growth of an individual is essential to understanding who we are. The way a child is raised dictates how that child is going to become later on in life. One of the distinct highlights of Griffin’s essay was her use of describing the progress of the V1 rockets in World War II. Griffin studies the aspects of human nature by using these missile developments as a metaphor to symbolize the raising of children and the factors that can influence a growing individual. One of the prime figures that Griffin uses pertaining to these growing individuals was Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi secret police. Griffin uses Himmler as an example to demonstrate how big of a role a parental figure can play in the development of a person.

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.

This project is about a brave woman who survived the Holocaust.Eva Galler was born in january 1,1924 and she died on january 5,2006. She was the oldest of eight children.Her father,Israel Vagel,was the head of the jewish community in their town.Eva’s family were well off compared to the other.Eva,unlike most girls at the time,she went to high school,educated herself and got employed at the local office as a secretary.

The first time I walked through the streets of Warsaw, the most populated ghetto, housing over four hundred thousand Jews was June 1, 1937. From over the ghetto’s fence, the smell of retched death seeped over. Every man with me pinched their faces in disgust. An officer walked over to greet us at our station wagon. The excitement in his eyes of meeting greeting me was admiring. He reached his hand out and nervously stated, “I can’t believe I am meeting the one and only Adolf Hitler. How do you do, Sir? Sargent? General?” I shot my hand out confidently, and shook his hand, “Good Day, officer. I have finally gotten the time to visit Warsaw, my apologies for waiting so long. You know what they say,

“For nearly 50 years I don’t and can’t speak about what has happened to me… I was silent when I was hidden and I stay silent even when I am not” (Rein Kaufman). Because the memories of her childhood were so painful, Lola did not tell anyone what had happened; not her uncle, who raised her after the holocaust, not her husband, and not her children. Lola decided to share her story in May of 1991 when she met Jane Marks, a reporter who was writing a book on hidden children. After Lola is handed the microphone at a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reception and told, “Go ahead and talk”, she tells her story once again - but this time in public. “My silence, it seems, has been fully broken” (Rein Kaufman). Since that moment, Lola has spoken many times at synagogues and schools. Lola has shown courage and trust by sharing her story, but that wasn’t all she

In Susan Griffin’s work titled “Our Secret”, she discusses the relationship between the present-day and the earlier life of different people. She also compares the private and public lives of other people. Her piece is set during World War Two in the 1940s. Throughout the entire piece, Griffin compares the lives of people evolved in World War Two, people who were affected by the war, and her own life. She shows how even though they lived separate lives, they are still closely related.

When Irene Safran was only twenty-one years old, her carefree life ended in the face of the Holocaust. Born to two Jewish parents as one of ten children-- four girls and six boys in all-- in Munkachevo, Czechoslovakia around the year 1923, her world changed in early April 1944 when she and her family were transferred to a Jewish ghetto. For the next year, Irene's life was a series of deaths, losses, and humiliations no human should ever have to suffer, culminating, years later, with a triumphant ending. Her story is proof that the human spirit can triumph over all manner of adversity and evil.

Her story is an example of a person who struggled with adversity but searched for a reason to hope. She has used her remarkable survival as an inspiration for those who have no reason to believe they can overcome struggles. She has a foundation named Citizenship Counts which teaches students about their rights and the importance of their citizenship. She has written many books about her experiences and her belief that hope will help a person overcome darkness. She travels the world today telling people her story to increase their knowledge of the Holocaust. Her story of survival serves of as an inspiration to people who are suffering and are looking for a reason to have hope.¹

There are many challenges that partisans facing the Nazis and other Jews faced around the 1940s. The struggle to survive was constant, and many died. When a boy named Ben Kamm was forced into the Warsaw ghetto, his family went into starvation, and needed help quickly. But when Ben was informed by his aunt that a partisan group was hidden in a forest 100 miles away, he snuck to join them. There he quickly became respected by many, and helped out as much as he could. Here we will talk about the rise of Adolf Hitler, many of the challenges he faced while in the ghetto and with the partisans. This is the story of Ben Kamm.

Listening to him quote his own words from his book and realizing that this old man endured all this at the age of 16, the same age as me made me realize all that we young ones today take advantage of. Describing himself lying helpless, listening to his father’s cries, unable to answer, as the SS beat his father, is a paralyzing thought. I cannot begin to imagine the guilt, pain, and suffering that he lived with all his life. To imagine the face of my father, and listening to him

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.