If you lived in the time of the Holocaust and you were a non-Jewish person, would you want to take the chance of fighting back and having the consequences of your actions affect the lives of your family? Or would you just “go with the flow” and stand back as the Jewish people were punished? This is a question that people in this time had to ask themselves. Some decided to take the chance and fight back, but many did not. Most people, who had families to think about, chose to stand back from what was happening. Honestly, the non-Jewish people who chose to stand back had every right to make this decision for themselves and their families.
Although the decision that was made by these people can be explained, some may not see it that way. Some may see it that the people who chose to stand back were simply being weak or that they were immoral. They could’ve fought back if they wanted to, but they chose otherwise. They chose what could be looked at as the, “easy way out”. Another side to this could be that not everyone had a family to think about, and those who did have a family could have acted in a way that didn’t get them involved. They should’ve thought that maybe if they spoke out then other people would be more willing to stand up for what was right. If the thought that one person can’t make a change crossed their mind then they should’ve tried to get more people together to fight back; they should’ve tried to take a stand. Even though this is all true, the non-Jewish people
The Holocaust is a time that no one will forget. People's lives were in danger by the Nazis for several years for no reason. Why did the Nazis think Jews weren’t human? That question has still not been answered today. Even now, survivors of the Holocaust share their astonishing yet frightening stories about their lives during that time.
How are Jews supposed to live normally when every human being around them, including other Jews, are fighting against them? Due to dehumanization, the survivors of the Holocaust are as lifeless as the victims psychologically. It is nearly impossible that after experiencing a traumatic event such as Holocaust to feel normal again, to feel like a human again. Throughout history and in the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it is evident that gentiles did not care about the Jewish nation. Moreover, not even the Jewish people stick together and cared for one another. Thus the Jews ceased to feel like human beings during and after the Holocaust.
The Jewish people at this time had different responses to these events, just because they didn’t know what was to come (Boag).“Similar to their fellow citizens, German Jews were patriotic citizens,” (“Holocaust Memorial Council”). “In the previous two hundred years, they [the Jews] had made tremendous progress and some had fully assimilated and a few even converted,” (“Why Didn’t The Jews Leave?”). Many Jewish families had lived in Germany for a very long time, most were taken in and considered citizens by the early 20th century (“Holocaust Memorial Council”). When they converted the last thing they would happen was the
The infamous Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “Being a neutral bystander helps those who are evil; that remaining silent encourages even more evil to happen.” Wiesel was part of the millions of Jews and protesters who Nazis shipped off to numerous concentration camps during the Holocaust. The apprehended and inaccurately claimed convicts had to go through many terrors to survive. Wiesel was one of the few Jews who survived the time Hitler ruled. I agree with Wiesel’s significant quote for many various reasons. To begin, I agree with Wiesel’s statement because victims that could have helped others during the Holocaust ignored that there were evil actions occurring around them during the time Hitler ruled. The victims also ignored
The Jews were so scared of hearing what the Nazis were doing to the Jews that they would do anything to feel a sense of comfort, even silence those who spoke about the fate of the Jews. “They struck her several times on the head”(Wiesel 24). A female Jew screamed the fate of the Jews and knew that everyone was going to die, so in order to feel safe the Jews killed her to feel comfort. In the end the Holocaust became a survival of the fittest for the Jewish people. “Soon nearly everywhere, pieces of bread were being dropped into the wagons. The audience stared as these skeletons of men, fighting one another to the death for a mouthful of bread”(Wiesel 95). The Jews were so hungry and beaten up that they killed each other if it meant survival or food. Because of the Nazis, the Jews had experienced so much, they started to treat each other like the Nazis had treated
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest," a quote by Elie Wiesel. In history we always make sure that we remember what was important, and even some of the things that weren't. This may seem like it doesn't matter, like it's utterly irrelevant, but I promise it is actually very important. The Holocaust was a exceedingly important event in history, it should be known by everybody and every generation, while never being forgotten. This is because it is a significant example of what cruel people can do in this world, it shows us what mistakes not to make again, and it helped our world believe that people can be different without being killed.
For thousands of Jewish children the only way to survive the holocaust was to hide. When World War two was in action all Jewish people that lived in Europe were ordered to be killed no matter their wealth, religion, age, health, beliefs etc.. When children were put into hiding they were most of the time crammed into small spaces such as attics or cellars with large groups of people which caused very tight living quarters for long periods of time. Almost all of the children that were in the Holocaust that were not hidden were killed and those who survived and continued in school had to be able to pass as “non-jews” including not having an accent or strong “jewish” features that could possibly give away them or their family that was in hiding.
During the Holocaust, German citizens residing near concentration camps were fully aware of the atrocities being committed so close to their homes. Though they hopefully realized that the mass slaughter of innocent Jews was horrific and inhumane, no one stood up for the Jews’ violated human rights or made an effort to save Jewish lives. King Jr. writes that if he had “lived in Germany at the time, [he] would have aided and comforted [his] Jewish brothers” (King Jr. 1350). By not siding against the Nazis, German citizens essentially showed that they supported the Final Solution. Had they taken direct action, even by simply petitioning to the government or by voicing their disagreement, countless Jewish lives could have been
During the Holocaust, many people felt powerless, but in the face of great adversity, people did resist the terror and the violence of the Nazis by inspiring others to stand up against them knowing people can make a difference, and when it's not right to take a stand when you know that the person is right and not wrong. First of all, it is right to take a stand when you are inspiring others to stand up against them or in this situation the Nazis. Some evidence for this is when in the book night one person revolted against the germans in the camp, then all of them revolted against them and beat them up and stole all of the germans food. Also another is that when the Sonderkommanods blew up the crematoriums with lots of gunpowder and when it blew up the other camps around it heard the explosion and started to revolt against the
The Holocaust and the Enlightenment The Holocaust was a major event in history that affected a lot of people. Jews that were leading normal lives were suddenly swept away to be put in camps or ushered into ghettos. Hiding Jews was a serious offense and could lead to the German police breathing down your neck.
It is hard to grasp the number of lives lost during the Holocaust. How someone could have so much hatred towards one group of people. Or how so many people could set back and watch something like this take place without protest. To begin to understand how a tragedy like the Holocaust could have took place without intervention we need to understand antisemitism.
This statement depicts a glimpse of what the Jewish people had to endure during the holocaust. The holocaust was an extreme form of massacre. It is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The duration of the holocaust was from January 30th, 1933 to May 8th, 1945. The holocaust began in the year of 1933 when the Nazi party came to power, the leader Adolf Hitler believed that the Jewish people belonged to a 'low' and 'evil' race, and they were affecting the lives of the Germans pessimistically. Hitler's motto was to punish, alienate, and torture anyone who differed from him, with religion being a main factor. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for all the social and economic problems
While Jewish resistance was a help was big influence to the Holocaust, the non-jewish resistance was substantially bigger. Some of the groups that helped were, the US, USSR, and Germans. All of these groups had many reason why they wanted to fight/rebel against the Axis of Power. Some wanted to keep their country's interest and beliefs.
There have been many atrocious acts that the world has had to endure, but there is not one that stands out as much as the Holocaust . Millions of Jews were used as scapegoats because of the declining economy. This all eventually led to the Germans trying to completely eradicate their race. Even though the Germans did kill 7 million Jews there were many survivors of the Holocaust who live to this day with profound effects in every facet of their life. The effects that we’re looking at are: the psychological abuse that the holocaust kids went through and how it affects them in them in their everyday life in the present, how the adult survivors transmit their trauma unto to their kids, how second generation holocaust are biologically different from the normal human, and how the Jews are starting to go back to their homeland to deal with their stress.
The holocaust had a major effect on Judaism as a whole. This conflict between tragedy and faith is not new. Jewish history shows us that the jewish people have undergone the most terrible persecutions and genocide at the hands of many oppressors. Whether it be about the pogroms, crusades, destruction of the Temples, the jewish people have been at the brunt of the most terrible atrocities, and yet this does not shake their faith,Anti-Semitism was nothing new. This became even more evident with the unmasking of the holocaust.The philosophical question of “Shall the Judge of the earth not do justice?” applies just as much to the seemingly useless suffering of an individual as to that of six million individuals. If it could be dealt with on an individual basis before the Holocaust, why couldn 't it be dealt with in the same way afterwards? The difference is one of quantity, but the quality of the question remains the same.