Poem
We leave the cattle cars behind,
footsteps crunching as we walk.
I fear the future is not kind,
As they prod us like a flock.
The S.S are on all sides,
shooting, shoving, yelling.
I concentrate on my strides,
As other people try rebelling.
The man in charge yells,
I go left, my son goes right.
As we head to separate hells,
I realize my true plight.
To the "showers" I am brought,
Hundreds of people in at a time.
No one has fought, we are caught,
nothing to do against this crime.
As people realize they've been deceived,
They weep and cry out in hate.
But their cries go unrecieved,
and they must just sit and wait.
Down come the canisters of gas,
The easiest way to kill us all.
And our lives, away they pass,
The last sound, a child's squall.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Holocaust blog #2
This second blog for the Holocaust is about connections between artifacts that were in the presentations that we did and either the book Maus or the book Night. The artifact that I am going to look at is one from the Survivors presentation. The artifact is about the life before and during the Holocaust of Eva Galler, a Polish Jew born around 1925. Her story involved escaping from a cattle car that was bringing her to a concentration camp, and subsequent survival of the Holocaust by pretending she was a Catholic whose family had resettled and did not know where she is. Eventually, the Holocaust ended and she was able to go to the US.
"They took us to a cattle train. People started to run away from the train, but they were shot. Once on the train we had to stand because there was no room to sit down. A boy tore the barbed wires from the train window. The young people started to jump out of the window. Many jumped. The SS on the rooftop of the train shot at them with rifles. My father told us, the oldest three, "Run, run--maybe you will stay alive. We will stay here with the small children because even if they get out, they will not be able to survive." To me he said, "You run, I know you will stay alive. You have the Belzer Rebbe's blessing." He was very religious and he believed this. My brother Berele jumped out, then my sister Hannah, and then I jumped out. The SS men shot at us. I landed in a snowbank. The bullets did not hit me. When I did not hear anything anymore, I went back to find my brother and my sister. I found them dead. My brother Berele was 15. My sister Hannah was 16. I was 17."
This quote shows the horrors that the Holocaust had, with the main horror, and the focus of my blog, being the children that were killed unnecessarily during it. In this quote, the survivors sister and brother were killed at the age of 15 and 16, while their younger siblings just continued on their way to imminent death at the concentration camps. This willingness to kill children is a common theme throughout the Holocaust and is also shown in the book Night. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel and his father also see children being killed by the Nazis. Since the little kids could not work, there was no use for them in the camps and it was easiest to just kill them and spare the hassle of feeding them or taking car of them.
"Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes... children thrown into the flames."
This quote from Elie Wiesel's book, Night, about him seeing the babies thrown into the fire, shows that the killing of children was a common theme in the Holocaust and was widespread since both him and the person from the artifact used saw the unnecessary killing of children in their Holocaust experiences. These connections also show the similarities that all of the Holocaust survivors had, having been through an extremely traumatic experience where they witnessed things that no human should even have to see or go through.
"They took us to a cattle train. People started to run away from the train, but they were shot. Once on the train we had to stand because there was no room to sit down. A boy tore the barbed wires from the train window. The young people started to jump out of the window. Many jumped. The SS on the rooftop of the train shot at them with rifles. My father told us, the oldest three, "Run, run--maybe you will stay alive. We will stay here with the small children because even if they get out, they will not be able to survive." To me he said, "You run, I know you will stay alive. You have the Belzer Rebbe's blessing." He was very religious and he believed this. My brother Berele jumped out, then my sister Hannah, and then I jumped out. The SS men shot at us. I landed in a snowbank. The bullets did not hit me. When I did not hear anything anymore, I went back to find my brother and my sister. I found them dead. My brother Berele was 15. My sister Hannah was 16. I was 17."
This quote shows the horrors that the Holocaust had, with the main horror, and the focus of my blog, being the children that were killed unnecessarily during it. In this quote, the survivors sister and brother were killed at the age of 15 and 16, while their younger siblings just continued on their way to imminent death at the concentration camps. This willingness to kill children is a common theme throughout the Holocaust and is also shown in the book Night. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel and his father also see children being killed by the Nazis. Since the little kids could not work, there was no use for them in the camps and it was easiest to just kill them and spare the hassle of feeding them or taking car of them.
"Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes... children thrown into the flames."
This quote from Elie Wiesel's book, Night, about him seeing the babies thrown into the fire, shows that the killing of children was a common theme in the Holocaust and was widespread since both him and the person from the artifact used saw the unnecessary killing of children in their Holocaust experiences. These connections also show the similarities that all of the Holocaust survivors had, having been through an extremely traumatic experience where they witnessed things that no human should even have to see or go through.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Holocaust project blog #1
How can something like the Holocaust happen?
When trying to answer a question such as this, when there seems like there is no way that such a thing that could actually happen. To try and put reasons to this is almost impossible, especially when the acts committed were so inhumane. The first driving factor for something like the Holocaust is that you need a person like Hitler who is in power and is doing a good enough job with something that the people do not question his orders. Besides for a leader, there are many other things that contributed to the beginning and carrying out of the Holocaust. These reasons were The Hitler Youth, the propaganda by the German government and passiveness by bystanders.
The propaganda that the German government used was a major reason for their being able to kill most of the Jews without much resistance. Throughout the war and the pre-war years, the Germans released a lot of propaganda that showed the Jewish people in a negative light.
This artifact is one example of German propaganda. This specific poster displays Jews as stealing all of your money, taking advantage of the common people and getting rich. The words under the Jewish Star read, "Without a solution to the Jewish question, there will be no salvation for mankind." This shows that in Germany, Jews were shown as a problem that needed to be solved, which was the power of propaganda.
The second reason that Hitler was able to carry out the Holocaust was the Hitler Youth, an organization created by Hitler to create an upcoming generation that would be prepared for war. The organization lasted for 12 years and forced the kids to love Nazism or else. "These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [armed forces] will take care of that." This artifact is a quote from Adolf Hitler and the language used shows the harsh attitude that they took towards making all of the children follow Nazism. This large following of people is one reason why Hitler was able to kill so many Jews. Without such a large following, Hitlers commands would never have been carried out and the Holocaust would never have happened.
The third reason why Hitler was able to carry out the Holocaust was the fact that people that were not involved in the Holocaust did not do anything to help the Jews. In essence, there were a very large number of bystanders that did not do anything to try and stop it for fear of retribution by the German government.
When trying to answer a question such as this, when there seems like there is no way that such a thing that could actually happen. To try and put reasons to this is almost impossible, especially when the acts committed were so inhumane. The first driving factor for something like the Holocaust is that you need a person like Hitler who is in power and is doing a good enough job with something that the people do not question his orders. Besides for a leader, there are many other things that contributed to the beginning and carrying out of the Holocaust. These reasons were The Hitler Youth, the propaganda by the German government and passiveness by bystanders.
The propaganda that the German government used was a major reason for their being able to kill most of the Jews without much resistance. Throughout the war and the pre-war years, the Germans released a lot of propaganda that showed the Jewish people in a negative light.
This artifact is one example of German propaganda. This specific poster displays Jews as stealing all of your money, taking advantage of the common people and getting rich. The words under the Jewish Star read, "Without a solution to the Jewish question, there will be no salvation for mankind." This shows that in Germany, Jews were shown as a problem that needed to be solved, which was the power of propaganda.
The second reason that Hitler was able to carry out the Holocaust was the Hitler Youth, an organization created by Hitler to create an upcoming generation that would be prepared for war. The organization lasted for 12 years and forced the kids to love Nazism or else. "These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [armed forces] will take care of that." This artifact is a quote from Adolf Hitler and the language used shows the harsh attitude that they took towards making all of the children follow Nazism. This large following of people is one reason why Hitler was able to kill so many Jews. Without such a large following, Hitlers commands would never have been carried out and the Holocaust would never have happened.
The third reason why Hitler was able to carry out the Holocaust was the fact that people that were not involved in the Holocaust did not do anything to help the Jews. In essence, there were a very large number of bystanders that did not do anything to try and stop it for fear of retribution by the German government.
“First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
This artifact and famous poem perfectly describes the issue of bystanders in the Holocaust. As this person writes, whenever the Nazis came for someone that wasn't you, you didn't speak out, you just were thankful that it wasn't you. This passiveness, the Hitler Youth, and propaganda were three of the main reasons why Hitler was able to pull off the Holocaust.
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