Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum: Holocaust Hero

2647 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reasons that led the Nazis to power

A group of Hungarian police sat drinking and laughing, their uniforms reeking of alcohol. One man spit out the name of a Jewish family that he was going to arrest the next day. After a few hours, all of the officers were passed out on the floor, all but one. He slipped into the night and ran down the city street towards a small house, a shadow amongst the darkness. The next morning the Hungarian police barged into an empty home. The family was nowhere to be seen (Michelson 1). The liberator of this family was Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum whose individual heroic actions during the Holocaust resulted in the legacy of the lives of approximately a thousand Jews and a pattern of humanity for generations to come.

Just prior to World War II, persecution of the Jews began with changes in civil law, which increasingly restricted their opportunities and participation in society. According to Marion A. Kaplan, author of Between Dignity and Despair, Nazi-controlled governments confiscated Jews’ “personal property and limited food and clothing purchases” (145). In 1938, the first anti-Semitic law was passed, restricting a Jew’s choice of profession and involvement in the economy. That same year hatred culminated in an event forever known as “Kristallnacht,” “The Night of the Broken Glass” (Ellis and Silinsky). The Germans used this term to “describe the tons of shattered glass spread over public areas, streets, and squares from the ruined homes and shops of Jews” (Kaplan 125). This uproar started when a seventeen-year-old Polish Jew named Henry Grynszpan walked up and shot an embassy official, Ernest Von Rath, after he was not able to free his family from Germany.

This act gave Hitler the excuse to turn Gentile against Jew and inflame a h...

... middle of paper ...

...enachem. “Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum.” The European Jewish Times Sept.

2004:1.

“How many people died at Auschwitz?” The Nizkor Project.

http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-09.html

“Prayers and Blessings.” Judaism 101. 2001. 19 Feb. 2009.

http://www.jewfaq.org/prayer.htm.

Seltzer, Stefanie. Chairperson of World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the

Holocaust. Interview with author. 18 March 2009.

The Holocaust History Project. 25 Jan. 2009. 13 Dec. 2008

http://www.holocaust-history.org/hungarian-photos/.

“The Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 7 Oct. 2008.

“How many people died at Auschwitz?” The Nizkor Project. 2009. 22 March, 2009.

http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-09.html

Unlikely Heroes. Documentary. Dir. Richard Trank. Narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, 2005.

Show More
Related

  • Elie Wiesel's Horrifying Holocaust Experience

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.

    Read More

  • The Butcher’s Tale by Helmut Walser Smith

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anti-Semitism is the hatred and discrimination of those with a Jewish heritage. It is generally connected to the Holocaust, but the book by Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher’s Tale shows the rise of anti-Semitism from a grassroots effect. Smith uses newspapers, court orders, and written accounts to write the history and growth of anti-Semitism in a small German town. The book focuses on how anti-Semitism was spread by fear mongering, the conflict between classes, and also the role of the government.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Night, by Elie Wiesel

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most historical events, whether beneficial or detrimental to society, bear witnesses. Regardless of how many total were affected by the event, each person owns a personal account of what they endured during the event. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, expresses the personal account of Elizer, a Jewish teenager, who fought to stay alive during the holocaust, and shows the importance of witness accounts, the will to survive, and the remembrance of past historical events. Night encompasses the idea of “Literature of Witness” by simultaneously showing how millions of people were affected by the holocaust and how each person, principally Elizer, has their own personal story to tell to understand and remember that horrendous time.

    Read More

  • Adolf Hitler's Decisive Role Essay

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kershaw later depicts a comment made by Hitler discussing the dire need to deport German Jews, away from the ‘Procterate,’ calling them “dangerous ‘fifth columnists’” that threatened the integrity of Germany. In 1941, Hitler discusses, more fervently his anger towards the Jews, claiming them to responsible for the deaths caused by the First World War: “this criminal race has the two million dead of the World War on its conscience…don’t anyone tell me we can’t send them into the marshes (Morast)!” (Kershaw 30). These recorded comments illustrate the deep rooted hatred and resentment Hitler held for the Jewish population that proved ultimately dangerous. Though these anti-Semitic remarks and beliefs existed among the entirety of the Nazi Political party, it didn’t become a nationwide prejudice until Hitler established such ideologies through the use of oral performance and

    Read More

  • Inhumane Treatment in "Night"

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What Is The Purpose Of Night By Elie Wiesel

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Night, Elie Wiesel descriptively portrays the Holocaust and the experiences he has in each part of his survival. From the ghettos to the Death March and liberation, Elie Wiesel shares his story of sadness and suffering. Specifically Wiesel speaks about his short experience in the Sighet ghetto, a historically accurate recount illustrating the poor living conditions, the Judenrat and Jewish life in the ghetto as well as the design and purpose of the two Sighet ghettos. Wiesel’s description of the Sighet ghettos demonstrates the similar characteristics between the Sighet ghetto and other ghettos in Germany and in German-annexed territories.

    Read More

  • Dehumanization in the Holocaust

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Murders inflicted upon the Jewish population during the Holocaust are often considered the largest mass murders of innocent people, that some have yet to accept as true. The mentality of the Jewish prisoners as well as the officers during the early 1940’s transformed from an ordinary way of thinking to an abnormal twisted headache. In the books Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary men by Christopher R. Browning we will examine the alterations that the Jewish prisoners as well as the police officers behaviors and qualities changed.

    Read More

  • Three Aspects of Night by Elie Wiesel

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mood of Night is harder to interpret. Many different responses have occurred in readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the holocaust victims. Some encounter disgust as the realization occurs that if any one opportunity had been utilized the horror could of been avoided. Those missed moments such as fleeing when first warned by Moshe the Beadle, or unblocking the window when the Hungarian officer had come to warn them, would have saved lives and pain.

    Read More

  • Ordinary Men Book Review

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men provides a graphic portrayal of Police Battalion 101's involvement in the Holocaust. The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent.

    Read More

  • Compare the way Goldhagen and Browning present the perpetrators of the Holocaust

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...

    Read More

  • The Mischlinge: The Forgotten Victims of The Holocaust

    2520 Words  | 6 Pages

    Those of half and quarter Jewish descent remain largely forgotten in the history of the Third Reich and genocide of the Holocaust. Known as Mischlinge, persons of deemed “mixed blood” or “hybrid” status faced extensive persecution and alienation within German society and found themselves in the crosshairs of a rampant National Socialist racial ideology. Controversially, these people proved somewhat difficult to define under Nazi law that sought to cleave the Volk from the primarily Jewish “other”, and as the mechanization toward Hitler’s “Final Solution” the Mischlinge faced probable annihilation. The somewhat neglected status of Mischlinge necessitates a refocusing on German racialization as well as reconsideration of the implications wrought by the alienation and ultimate persecution of the thousands of half and quarter Jews subjugated in Nazi Germany.

    Read More

  • Surviving Hitler Essay

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.

    Read More

  • Who Should Be Blamed for the Holocaust?

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    “ Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people to prepare the country for war.” (Jewish Virtual Library), This piece of evidence shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race a...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Janet Gross

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.

    Read More

More about Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum: Holocaust Hero

Open Document