The Ordinary Men of the Holocaust

Challenge: The truth that he is used to these words. Anti-semitism prejudice against jewish people is a fact of life in warsaw as many european cities, warsaw 350,000 jews, Ben doesn't dwell on the petty hatreds of ignorant people. (6 )

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 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.

Spiegelman’s book presents us with a unique way of showcasing a person’s personal experience of a historical occurrence, that being the Holocaust. According to Hatfield, Spiegelman’s manner of sharing this tale is not exactly the best. Hatfield states his disagreements over Spiegelman’s book.

Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning is subtitled Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. This title is a perfect overview of the subject of the book. Browning discussed Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the part it played in the World War II during the Holocaust, especially in the “Final Solution”, which was the attempted eradication of Jews. Not only does Browning discuss Battalion 101, but he uses them as an example of how ordinary people can commit atrocities such as mass murder.

Brainwashed, heartless Nazis. Many believe these were the kind of men who were involved in the Holocaust, which makes it much easier to dismiss them and believe we could never become like them. However, this was not truly the case for many of those who participated in the Holocaust. These men were not brainwashed, and some were not even Nazis— they were simply ordinary men.

The Holocaust was one of the largest genocides in history. An estimated eleven million people were killed- six million of these people being Jewish. Not only were millions murdered, but hundreds of thousands who survived the concentration camps were forever scarred by the dehumanizing events that they saw, committed, and lived through. In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel recounts the spine-chillingly horrific events of the Holocaust that affected him first-hand, in an attempt to make the reality of the Holocaust clear and understandable to those who could not believe it. What was arguably one of the worst punishments the victims of the Holocaust faced, was how they were dehumanized within concentration camps. To dehumanize means to steal away the attributes that make one human, be it loyalty, faith, kindness, or even our love for one another and ourselves. The inhumane treatment of the Jews alongside millions of other victims by the Nazi’s was rooted from the systematic dehumanization of these groups. Although the extent of the brutality cannot ever be fully understood by those uninvolved, Wiesel’s terrifying record of his involvement proves how the unlivable conditions in Auschwitz not only typically concluded with death, but on the way stole the Jews’ faith, forced them to turn on one another in an attempt at survival, and even tore apart the previously unbreakable bond between family members.

The Holocaust began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, to May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe officially was over. About six million Jewish civilians perished because of it. There were some people that survived. What impact did the Holocaust have on its survivors? When the Holocaust ended, all survivors suffered from different emotions because they survived the tragedy. The survivors lost loved ones, and they had to keep that memory of the event with them for the rest of their lives. As a result of these emotions, they coped in many negative ways. Survivors of the Holocaust experienced guilt, isolated themselves, and suffered from a mental illness.

There were many groups of people, other than the Jews, that were victims of persecution and murdered by the Nazis. The groups affected by the Holocaust were the Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, political dissidents and dissenting clergy, people with physical or mental disabilities, Jehovah’s witnesses, and homosexuals. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, There is evidence as early as 1919 that Hitler had a strong hatred of Jews. As Chancellor and later Reichsfuhrer, Hitler translated these intense feelings into a series of policies and statutes which progressively eroded the rights of German Jews from 1933-1939 (“Victims”).

Maus has an interesting way in approaching a historical account such as the relationship with his father and the Holocaust. One of the most interesting aspects of Maus is the way in which Spiegelman uses animals to distinguish the various races within the comic

During World War II, the Nazis persecuted and executed over six million Jews and placed them in concentration and death camps such as Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka. This event, named the Holocaust, is the worst known case of genocide in human history. Even though the Holocaust ended quite some time ago, the question “how could the Holocaust have happened?” still lingers in the minds of many. To answer this question, you must determine possible motives behind why this would happen. Another way to answer this question is to utilize different sources to help form some explanation as to how it was allowed to continue for so long. The purpose of this essay is to provide and explain some possible motives as to why the Holocaust happened while

Josef Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” The holocaust isn’t seen as personally victimizing to anyone, except the ones who survived; no one remembers who died, people just remember a number. In Maus, Art Spiegelman personalizes the horrors of the holocaust by showing how his dad, Vladek Spiegelman, took more damage internally than externally as shown by his miserly behavior when it comes to junk, food, and money.

The Holocaust was more than just Jewish citizens being taken to labor/extermination camps to be killed or to work. There were many non-Jewish victims during this time who were thought of as different or "evil". For example, Jehovah's witnesses, Roma gypsies, and Homosexuals. I would like to discuss some epiphanies I experienced during the reading of this memoir, although there are not many. Going back to the point I made about the Holocaust not only victimizing

The books Maus I and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman over a thirteen-year period from 1978-1991, are books that on the surface are written about the Holocaust. The books specifically relate to the author’s father’s experiences pre and post-war as well as his experiences in Auschwitz. The book also explores the author’s very complex relationship between himself and his father, and how the Holocaust further complicates this relationship. On a deeper level the book also dances around the idea of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. The two books are presented in a very interesting way; they are shown in comic form, which provides the ability for Spiegelman to incorporate numerous ideas and complexities to his work.

Between 1933 and 1945, 11 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, of this six million were Jews and of this, 1.1 million were children. Of the nine million Jews who lived in Europe before the Holocaust, an estimated 2/3 were murdered. Despite all these odds and statistics, Vladek Spiegelman managed to survive, and then share his story with his son, so he could share their story with the world. Another reason that Vladek Spiegelman is a good subject to write a biography on is, his personality. He seems to have to sides to him, Vladek Spiegelman before war and Vladek Spiegelman post - war. We get to see the impact and affect the Holocaust had on it’s victims, with our own eyes. Moreover, Vladek Spiegelman is an inspiration and a reminder of the potential dark side to human nature. Thus, writing a biography on Mr. Spiegelman is informative, moving and above all, inspirational.