Writing As Resistance: Bearing Witness In The Warsaw Ghetto

Though many innocents died without having the chance to smell freedom again, there have been survivors that have had the chance to openly describe their memories during the Holocaust to others. Each sentence, phrase, and word that the survivors expose through the testimony, are over and above powerful than anyone can imagine. It not only grabs you deep into another dimension, but it proves that no matter what religion, race, belief, or type of person you are, everyone's voice is powerful to change someone fully inside and outside… just like Cesia's

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 terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.

As the famous journalist Iris Chang once said, “As the Nobel Laureate warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” After experiencing the tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust, Eliezer Wiesel narrated “Night”. Eliezer wrote “Night” in an attempt to prevent something similar to the Holocaust from happening again, by showing the audience what the consequences are that come from becoming a bystander. Elie illustrated numerous themes by narrating the state of turmoil he was in during the Holocaust. In Night, Eliezer provided insight into what he experienced in order to teach the unaware audience about three themes; identity, silence, and faith.

The resistance of the Holocaust has claimed worldwide fame at a certain point in history, but the evidence that the evil-doers themselves left crush everything that verifies the fantasy of the Holocaust. For an example, in Poland, the total Jewish population of over thirty-three hundred thousand suddenly plummeted to three hundred thousand. Ten percent of the population survived the Holocaust in Poland. Almost every country that the Nazis have conquered has the same percent of survival as Poland. In Elie Wiesel Wiesel’s memoir Night, the activities in the concentration camps, the suffering of Jews, and the disbelief of the inhumane actions of the Nazis result in making people resist the truth.

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

The word Holocaust refers to the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi regime during World War II. It began in 1933 and ended in 1945. The ruler of Germany during this time was Adolf Hitler. He and the Nazis put the Jew in concentration camps, where thousands were killed everyday. This was one of the worst if not the worst genocides in history. Many books have been written to document survivors’ testimony of this horrific event. Elie Wiesel shares his story and Art Spiegelman shares his father’s story in the books Night and Maus. Comparisons can be drawn between Maus and Night through the author's purpose for writing , the survivor’s experiences, and the author's perspective.

The Holocaust was a horrible event that treated people less than human. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night shows the dehumanization of the Jewish race during the Holocaust while violating most, if not all, of the rights of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR ) . The UDHR declares all the rights that every human being is inherently entitled to. By using Article five and thirteen of the UDHR one could see how horribly the Jews were tortured, their lack of freedom, and the pure dehumanization the prisoners of concentration camps had to go through.

The Holocaust is widely known as one of the most horrendous and disturbing events in history that the world has seen; over six million lives were lost, in fact the total number of deceased during the Holocaust has never been determined. The footage of concentration camps and gas chambers left the world in utter shock, but photos and retellings of the events cannot compare to being a victim of the Holocaust and living through the horror that the rest of the world regarded in the safety of their homes. Elie Wiesel recognized the indifference that the

Each of these histories reveal a story of suffering that is endured by both Gentile and Jew, but also a story of humanity and salvation. In Five Chimneys: A woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz, Olga Lengyel tells of her family assisting other Jews fleeing the Nazi military. Later, after her own ordeals in Auschwitz, she was saved by citizens in a small Polish village. An essay written by Vera Laska is included in Women and the Holocaust: Different Voices, which is an anthology of essays about women in the Holocaust. In addition to the many stories of survivors and rescuers, I am using several scholarly articles

The audience can only fully understand what the people of the Holocaust feel and went through. Yvonne Engleman (‘Holocaust Survivor reflects on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz’) states that “many people like her have no pictures of family that died in the Holocaust, so returning to the camp is a way of remembering their loved ones”. This indicates how commemorating the Holocaust is very important as it brings families closer to other family members that they did not get to meet or know. Bernie Sanders (“The Holocaust and Jewish identity”) makes a comment in a democratic debate talking about his family that has been in the Holocaust and says that he is very proud to be Jewish. This shows how even though the Holocaust happened many years ago; it still affects the people of today.

“Germany's Holocaust Memorial Problem-and Mine” is an article that analyzes the complexities of creating a memorial that will represent a great amount of Jewish people that perished in the hands of the Nazi Germany during the 1930's and early 1940's. James E. Young author of this article, was part of a five member committee that would agree whether or not to build a memorial and the process was very difficult because they had to make sure that the jewish community accepted the memorial and the Germans would not feel offended or targeted. What made things awkward in a way was that Young was Jewish so he would be responsible of the criticism for either accepting or denying a memorial option. What was significant in the article was that the topic

Like sheep led to the slaughter; this is one of the most famous analogies used to refer to the Jews during the holocaust. The Jews were being systematically murdered, beaten, and abused day after day, and there was almost no refusal on their part. Almost no one fought back. This however was not the case in the Warsaw ghetto.

Many Jews across Europe tried to organize resistance against the Germans. Many Jews did this by smuggling homemade weapons. The most famous attempt at resistance against the Germans was, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Ghettos were put in to segregate, restrict, and isolate the Jews from the rest of the population. Unlike Ghettos set up in medieval times, the Nazi Ghettos had walls around them and were guarded. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Europe and it was built in April 1940. The Warsaw Ghetto was a residential district in Warsaw until it was designated as a Jewish ghetto in World War II by the Nazis. (Warsaw Ghetto Facts). All the Jewish people that lived in the Warsaw were sent to the ghetto. This meant that 30 percent of the population were forced into 2.4 percent of the city's area. They set up these ghettos, so the Nazis knew exactly where to find them to persecute them (Holocaust Ghettos). The Ghetto was liberated on January 17, 1945 by the Soviet army, and 300 Jews were found hiding despite the fact that the ghetto was almost completely destroyed.