Arieh Klein Research Paper

Arieh Klein was a Jew born in 1927 in Zilina, Slovakia. During the Slovak National Uprising in 1944 Arieh’s parents got a phone call to escape Slovakia because the Germans were advancing. Arieh’s family moved to the village of Kaliste. The Germans, however, also arrived in Kaliste, and the Klein’s were advised to stay in a cottage with the rest of the village. However, Arieh’s father didn’t go out of fear of it being too dangerous with so many people in one place. He made a good decision because every person in that cottage was killed. A year had passed. Arieh went to the other side of the village and his leg was shot in some crossfire. He went to an abandoned house, occupied by 2 other boys, in order to bandage his wounds. The German’s then followed Arieh to the house, set it on fire, and shot the 2 other boys. Arieh escaped, barely, and went back to his parents, but his mom died of typhoid that day. Arieh then went to the hospital for his leg only to find out that it needed to be amputated. From these pictures we’re basically the same kids. We both have stuffed animals and we’re both are 3 in the pictures, but the boy on the left lost most of his family, his leg, and suffered only because he was a Jew.

Learning about the Holocaust has taught me that just one person turning a blind eye to the evil around him is all that it takes for evil to succeed.

If the Europeans opened their eyes, they could’ve prevented the atrocities that were unfolding in front of them and stopped it. The citizens saw the ghettos and the mistreatment of Jews, but they kept on walking. It didn’t affect them, so they didn’t care about it. The prejudice and hatred spread by the Nazis could only be made possible by the indifference of the bystanders. As I learn more of the Holocaust I keep thinking what if the people took a stand for their fellow citizen even if he was a

Jew.