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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. The account of Jedwabne is unique in the fact that it focuses on one mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jewish residents, which occurred in July 1941. The murder occurs during the violent German campaign of anti-Semitism in Poland. The main occurrence seen across Germany and Poland of the anti-Semitism campaign was the killing and justified harassment of Jewish residents. Without a doubt the event in Jedwabne was triggered by Nazi influence. What is interesting is how Gross represents these influences. He shows that the killings of Jedwabne were planned, organized, and enthusiastically conducted by local authorities and citizens of the non-Jewish community. Gross also points out that it is possible that Germans did not participate in this killing and that it is even possib... ... middle of paper ... ...e of Jedwabne to seriously examine what occurred in their town. What truly influenced the murders to have occurred by the non-Jewish citizens? Gross used excerpts of the accounts that occurred. Often they seem to be untold stories that were hidden away. The stories are heart wrenching and painful. It can be understood why for so many years these people chose to hide the truth. These people murdered their friends, co-workers, and neighbor whom they lived with on a daily basis. Those involved made a conscious decision to partake in the murders they were not innocent bystanders. Some chose to partake out of fear for themselves and their families, while others had deep resentment and hate for these people. Some of it was inspired by Nazi Germany, but there had to be something deep inside those people that prompted them to act with such hate and disregard for others.
The reader is confronted with an interpretation of life in Jedwabne as a shared experience. With the town population of 2,500 and about two-thirds of the residents are Jewish and the rest Polish and Catholic, it was hard for anyone to participate in the economic, social, and political area without inflicting conflict on people with different ideas. Although, Gross claims that religious or ethnic difference did not partake in a role of the engagement between the Non-Jewish and Jew individuals of Poland. He avoids situating the Jedwabne experience among other anti-Jewish mass murders. The Jedwabne experience is represented by Gross's reliance on individual testimonies by direct interviews, interviews done by other interviewers, and memoirs. Court documents from the 1953 trial such the recounts from perpetrators and memoirs from survivors or family of the survivors assist in further evidence of the event. Although, the reliance on testimonials clearly highlights the issue of responsibility. Put another way, rather than providing a clear choice by disregarding the massacre as a hate crime, Neighbors gives the reader the ability to interpret the actions done by the Non-Jewish Poles was completed due the belief of kill or be killed. When a community is demoralized by war,
A Ghetto is a section of a city were members of a racial group are
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.
The atrocities of war can take an “ordinary man” and turn him into a ruthless killer under the right circumstances. This is exactly what Browning argues happened to the “ordinary Germans” of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during the mass murders and deportations during the Final Solution in Poland. Browning argues that a superiority complex was instilled in the German soldiers because of the mass publications of Nazi propaganda and the ideological education provided to German soldiers, both of which were rooted in hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism. Browning provides proof of Nazi propaganda and first-hand witness accounts of commanders disobeying orders and excusing reservists from duties to convince the reader that many of the men contributing to the mass
Tragically, the butchered upper-torso of Winter’s once-robust body was stumbled upon by his father, who had noticed the absence of his son since Sunday, March 11 (Smith 2002, 25-26). Unsurprisingly, an investigation occurred to obtain the identity and whereabouts of the murderer. When the various pieces of the body are found in differing areas of the town, theory begins to formulate that the murder was conducted by one of the two butchers in town; Adolph Lewy, a Jew, and Gustav Hoffman, a Christian, due to the precision of the cuts made upon Winter’s body (Smith 28). As fragile relations between Konitz-residing Christians and Jews increasingly began to deteriorate, rumors and speculation that Winter had fallen victim to ritual murder by local Jews, set the ball in motion for a virulent anti-Semitic nature characteristic of Imperial Germany.
Throughout The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town, the murder of Ernst Winter in Konitz is very much a reflection of the overall attitudes of many Europeans during the early 20th century. It was clear that once the anti-Semitic attitudes started to become prominent in society, they spiraled out of control and started to take over entire communities. The Jewish people were blamed for crimes they did not commit, were excluded from society, and suffered from acts of violence and hate speech. Wild stories began to be spread all over town and people started to believe everything they heard, even if there was no substance behind it. This caused lots of problems in Germany, as well as Europe in general, since many people got
During World War II, many German soldiers killed thousands of innocent lives, especially Jewish. However, not all lives lost during World War II, and the Holocaust be accounted for by German soldiers, and the mobile killing task force, Einsatzgruppen, but citizens themselves. In the book, Neighbors by Jan Gross, studies a Polish town called Jedwabne during World War II. The book provides evidence on a mass killing on July 10, 1941, by Polish citizens. The Polish citizens murdered roughly 350 victims, Jewish, in Jedwabne. This evidence brought to light by the author shows not all Germans were accountable for all the mass murders during the time period.
The arguments of Christopher Browning and Daniel John Goldhagen contrast greatly based on the underlining meaning of the Holocaust to ordinary Germans. Why did ordinary citizens participate in the process of mass murder? Christopher Browning examines the history of a battalion of the Order Police who participated in mass shootings and deportations. He debunks the idea that these ordinary men were simply coerced to kill but stops short of Goldhagen's simplistic thesis. Browning uncovers the fact that Major Trapp offered at one time to excuse anyone from the task of killing who was "not up to it." Despite this offer, most of the men chose to kill anyway. Browning's traces how these murderers gradually became less "squeamish" about the killing process and delves into explanations of how and why people could behave in such a manner.
Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. 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 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...
During the interwar period of the twentieth century, Jewish immigrants and American born Jews faced increasing ant-Semitism and discrimination. The external pressure of anti-Semitism and discrimination led to many Jews facing internal anxieties and conflicts about being Jewish and fitting into American society. Assimilation during this period meant fitting into the white gentile majority’s standard of appearance, mannerisms, and middle class ideals. Common stereotypical images from the time depict Jews with large noses and curly hair, women were often portrayed as dominant over their Jewish husbands, and Jews were often seen as manipulative, controlling, and money grubbing. Jews’ limited social acceptance came on by completely abandoning their Jewish identity and avoiding falling into stereotypical images, which was often impossible. These external pressures and internal anxieties did not make assimilation difficult, they made it impossible. Therefore, assimilation only existed as a term and not as an achievable reality. Although many Jews tried to assimilate during the interwar period, they could not because assimilation was only an illusion, a fallacy that no Jew could achieve.
On July 13, 1942, the Jewish community of Jozefow, Poland was annihilated by Reserve Police Battalion 101, who was working with Einsatzgruppen, the most fanatical members of the SS. This group received orders to collect the town’s Jews and to kill them all, except for the young boys who could perform labor. Christopher Browning’s arguments in his essay, Reserve Police Battalion 101, reveal that the humans who partook in the killings of Jews were just humans doing typical things. They were blindly obedient and pressured by their peers. Also, when people are around their friends, they can have a tendency to be less moral and humane.
Goldhagen, Daniel. Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Afred A. Knopf, Inc., 1996.
Imagine you’re eating dinner with your family on a quiet, normal night in your small town. Suddenly, a seemingly mad man comes to warn your family that millions of people of your race are being slaughtered. He advises that you immediately pack everything you own, and leave the place that has been your home your entire life. You probably wouldn’t take his warning very seriously, would you? Living in the twentieth century it was hard to imagine that such a barbaric act was actually occurring. Not adhering to this warning, however, cost millions of Jews their lives. Night by Elie Wiesel lets us into the minds of the Jews who were victimized, and Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning offers us the point of view of the
Timothy E. Pytell, (2003). ‘Redeeming the Unredeemable: Auschwitz and Man's Search for Meaning’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 17.1 89-113.