On the Other Side of the Fence

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Recommended: Effects of the holocaust

According to Merriam-Webster, a holocaust is a destruction involving widespread death, specifically by fire. In 1943, World War II was at its’ peak. At that time, Jewish people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and homosexuals were all herded like cattle into concentration camps by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army. Hitler’s goal was to form what he believed to be a “superior” race known as Aryan. Hitler believed that the Aryan race (blond hair and blue eyes) was “superior” to these groups of people. According to Hitler, “When human hearts break and human souls despair, then from the twilight of the past, the great conquerors of distress and care, of shame and misery, of spiritual slavery and physical compulsion, look down and hold out their eternal hands to the despairing mortals. Woe to the people ashamed to grasp them!” Here, Hitler illustrates how the Aryans are “conquerors” above the “despairing mortals”. The Nazi party was led by Adolf Hitler, a manipulative and cruel dictator. Although John Boyne describes the appearance of the prisoners in Auschwitz, he leaves out significant details when describing Berlin’s setting in 1943, what the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was like, and how the people in the camps were treated.

In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, a young naive boy, Bruno, tells from his perspective how the occurrences in the Holocaust took place. In 1943, the beginning of the story, Bruno’s father, a commandant in Hitler’s army, is promoted and moves to Oswiecim with his family. Oswiecim is home to the hideous Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While Bruno is out playing near a fence at the edge of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, against his father’s orders, he becomes friends with a young Jewis...

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...Camp was like, and how the prisoners in the camps were treated.

Works cited

"ARYANISM | Aryan Race." ARYANISM | main. Accessed on 15 Mar. 2011.

Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York: David Fickling Books, 2006.

Easton. "Humanities 221." SUNY Geneseo | SUNY Geneseo. Accessed on 15 Mar. 2011.

Oakman, Daniel. "The Battle of Berlin - Issue 25 - Wartime: Official Magazine of the Australian War Memorial." Australian War Memorial - Home. Accessed on 10 Mar. 2011.

Smart, Victor, and Chris Webb. "Treblinka, the Removal of Eberl and Camp Restructuring. Us www.HolocaustResearchProject.org." Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Accessed on 10 Mar. 2011

"Tattoos and Numbers: The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed on 15 Mar. 2011.

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