On March 23, 2000, Pope John Paul II delivered the speech “At Israel Holocaust Memorial” at Yad Vashem’s Holocaust Memorial. This breathtaking speech pays homage to those that lost their lives during the events of the Holocaust. What makes this speech unique is that the Pope was alive when these events transpired, and although it has been half a century later, he still mourns the loss of his Jewish friends. Pope John Paul II condemned the murder of the millions of victims and took time from his day to meet with Polish Jewish survivors. The Pope recognizes that evil had prevailed and how the world must remember to make sure that complete domination never occurs again. The Pope made the mistake of not talking about the calamity when it first …show more content…
The Pope achieves this by using rhetorical devices throughout the speech to make it as impactful as possible. Ethos, also known as convincing someone because you are an idolized figure, is the main technique that Pope John Paul II uses. For people of the Catholic religion, the Pope is like God’s right-hand man; the Pope makes all the decisions, and the dioceses must adhere. The Pope is clearly seen using his jurisdiction when he says, “As bishop of Rome and successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love, and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place” (Paul II 8). In this sentence, the Pope is using his authority to assure the people that Catholics are motivated by truth and love, and that Catholics are devastated about the losses that the Judaism religion has endured. The Pope has religious and moral credibility and uses his command over the common people to ascertain that his speech will be …show more content…
The Pope quotes the Bible numerous times, which is extremely effective as most of the audience is religious. As the Pope talks about people heroically giving their lives to help their fellow neighbors, the Jews, he says, “That is why the Psalms and the entire Bible, though well aware of the human capacity for evil, also proclaims that evil will not have the last word,” conveying the message that there is still human kindness in the world (Paul II 5).. God is seen as a strength for people when there is nothing else to hold onto, which the Pope recognizes when he suggests, “‘I trust in you, O Lord: 'I say, you are my God’”(Paul II 6). Pope John Paul II is seen bringing people of two different religions together and even says, “Jews and Christians share an immense spiritual patrimony, flowing from God's self-revelation,” and that while we can pray, we must “commit ourselves to their cause” (Paul II 7-8). Yes, this event was terrible, but by acknowledging that it happened, more people can be educated and can see that this is an important era to
This essay will review Daniel Goldhagen’s controversial moral inquiry, ‘A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair’, published in 2002. Goldhagen attended Harvard University as a graduate, undergraduate and assistant professor until he was denied tenure in 2003; this possibly indicates his limited status as an academic. Goldhagen notes that he is ‘indebted’ to his father, a Holocaust survivor, for some of his findings on the Holocaust. This personal connection to the Holocaust on the one hand allows Goldhagen to write more passionately. On the other hand, it obscures his ability to view evidence objectively, evident in this book under review. Goldhagen status rose to notoriety due to the controversial nature of his first book, ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ published in 1996. This received much criticism and perhaps more importantly to Goldhagen, plenty of publicity. The contentious assertions of the book, whether academically valid or not, established the relative novice amongst historians. This is evident in the abundance of secondary literature that comments on Goldhagen’s work including that edited by F. Littell and F. Kautz. Goldhagen’s credentials as a controversial author explain the extremist content of his second book, ‘A Moral Reckoning’. Goldhagen’s academic background in political science is evident in the books emphasis on the church as a ‘political institution’ and the pope as a ‘political leader’ (p. 184). . This limits his work as a historian as he fails to fully examine the role of the individual.
In conclusion, from local governments to large influential organizations, people around the world turned their back on the Jews during the Holocaust. Almost every day in our lives we have the opportunity to be more than a bystander. We should put aside our own individual fears in order to pursue fairness for others around us. Being a Boy Scouts has taught me to do for others “…to help other people at all times.” When I consider our oath, it reinforces how selfless we all must be to make the world a better place to live.
The Holocaust or the Ha-Shoah in Hebrew meaning ‘the day of the Holocaust and heroism’ refers to the period of time from approximately January 30,1933, when Adolf Hitler became the legal official of Germany, to May 8,1945. After the war was over in Europe, the Jews in Europe were being forced to endure the horrifying persecution that ultimately led to the slaughter of over 6 million Jews with about 1.5 million of them being children as well as the demolition of 5,000 Jewish communities.
The warm blood trickled down his chin. It was the first warmth he’d felt in a while. The warmth fell to his hand and he looked at it through his swollen eyes. It was almost brown instead of red because of the dirt on his face. He had finally grown accustomed to the pain he’d endured for so long… In Germany, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler tried to establish the German “Master Race” or Aryans, and rid the world of minorities including Jews, Gypsies, the physically and mentally disabled and political opponents with the ultimate goal to conquer the world. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, the Nazis started ripping Jews from their homes and throwing them in concentration camps. With Hitler ruling Germany, the Nazi’s invaded Czechoslovakia,
The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).
For my outside enrichment I decided to watch the message Pope Francis delivered to the United States Congress. In his memorable speech, Pope Francis speaks powerfully about topics ranging from the refugee crisis, the death penalty, and the arms trade. In our society, we are thought to treat religion and politics as two completely separate entities, but Pope Francis overcomes that nonsensible topic and exemplifies politics as source of unification, similar to the purpose of religion. One topic that he mentioned was the refugee crisis in the wake of radical extremism. Should America accept Syrian and Iraqi refugees? Pope Francis makes it clear that not all these refugees are members of Islamic extremism, and that the US should listen to their
an And The Controversy Over The Bombing Of Auschwitz." Journal Of Ecumenical Studies 40.4 (2003): 370-380. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2014 Rice, Rondall. "
Holocaust Facts The Holocaust has many reasons for it. Some peoples’ questions are never answered about the Holocaust, and some answers are. The Holocaust killed over 6 million Jews (Byers.p.10.) Over 1.5 million children (Byers, p. 10). They were all sent to concentration camps to do hard labor work.
“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.”
When individuals think about the Holocaust, most place the responsibility of the terrible events on the perpetrators. However, bystanders played one of the largest roles in the Holocaust (Evans, Carrell) simply by staying safe for way too long (Florida Center) and the world wants to make sure it never happens again (Shriver Jr., Donald W).
When I signed up for this course, I had limited knowledge of the holocaust and was not very interested in its history. This course ended up being one of my favorites and the most informational courses that I have taken. Other Political leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin had committed mass murders that caused a much higher victim rate than Hitler, so my thoughts were that the holocaust was just another tragedy in human history. This class has given me a different perspective in the way I view the holocaust. It has personalized this horrific event in that it begs a person ask themselves how could this tragedy take place? How come the Jews and the world did not do more to prevent it from happening? The course has spiked my interested in the the holocaust in that I have found that if I come across a holocaust program while watching the television, I will stop to watch that show or read a holocaust article that I would not have read in the past. The four books assigned for reading by Browning, Sierakowiak, Lengyel, and Rajchman expounded on the personalization of the holocaust by giving insight into the experiences of
Many historical events took place in the 20th century that will be remembered forever, but the one occurrence that everyone knows of and will forever be remembered was World War Two. World War Two, the greatest tragedy that has ever happened on the face of the earth, the genocide of Jewish people, a complete nightmare. When people think of WW2, many of the time the image of “those poor Jewish people” comes to mind. Many ask themselves how this could have happened. It just doesn’t make sense to them. Did people around the world at the time of WW2 have these kinds of deliberations? If they did have this kind of reflection then how did six million people perish? During the time leading up to the outbreak of World War II, the Western Press consistently carried numerous reports of the German's anti-Jewish policies and their purposeful victimization of the Jews living in Nazi Germany as well as the annexed territories. The general public cannot claim that they did not know what was going on, that they were uninformed. Whether or not they chose to believe it however, is a completely different story. The public were indeed outraged in many of the cases but the governments of the major European democracies felt that it was not for them to intervene for they felt that the Jewish problem classified as an internal affair within a sovereign state. The attempt to discover what exactly the people around the world did to save the Jewish race is not going to be an easy task but it is going to be a worthwhile one which should uncover a lot of unknown facts to many people.
This speech was articulated to the Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and political individuals. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder presented the speech on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camps. He gave this speech on January 25, 2005, right before his time in office was up. The focus of his speech was meant to express the shame of what had happened in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder expressed his anger toward those that were responsible for the agonizing pain they made these individuals go through, claiming that this was the "the greatest crime in the history of mankind." He contends that "words by the government leaders are inadequate" in regards to this horrific event.
My name is Eva Berlinski. I’m only 13 years old and I was brought up
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro