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Essay on the warsaw ghetto conditions
Adolf Hitler's role in the holocaust
Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust
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At the start of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, no one would have been able to foresee what eventually led to the genocide of approximately six million Jews. However, steps can be traced to see how the Holocaust occurred. One of those steps would be the implementation of the ghetto system in Poland. This system allowed for Jews to be placed in overcrowded areas while Nazi officials figured out what to do with them permanently. The ghettos started out as a temporary solution that eventually became a dehumanizing method that allowed mass relocation into overcrowded areas where starvation and privation thrived. Also, Nazi officials allowed for corrupt Jewish governments that created an atmosphere of mistrust within its walls. Together, this allowed …show more content…
However, in September of 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which absorbed the country into the Third Reich. Due to earlier migration, this left Nazi officials with the task of dealing with Poland’s even larger Jewish communities. Reinhard Heydrich, Director of the Riech’s Main Security Office, declared on September 21, 1939 that Jews be confined to small areas separate from the rest of the city. Shortly thereafter, Jews were being relocated to ghettos so a temporary solution could be made and as a continued method of isolation from other non-Jews. This dehumanizing method made Jews who were relocating feel even more inferior as they continued to be isolated. Jewish families were uprooted from their homes and forced into small areas. Families were only …show more content…
Another method of dehumanizing the Jews was to make sure they turned on one another. Once the Jews began turning on each other, it kept them in their place and allowed them to mistrust one another even though the Germans were the real culprits. Since goods were scarce, it did not take long for the ghettos to descend into chaos. Stealing became a common practice amongst those who could not afford to buy illegally on the black market. Another way to make sure Jews constantly mistrusted one another was to make sure Jews were the ones who kept the ghettos running. Within the ghettos, a Jewish police force called Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst was created to keep Jews from escaping the ghettos. They wore armbands with an identifying marker and a badge. They were not permitted to use guns but were allowed to carry batons. The Jewish police reported any mishaps to the German police who were assigned to check perimeters outside the ghettos. They were recruited from two groups: lawyers and criminals. The criminal group was larger and soon became the dominating force behind the police and life inside the ghettos. In the Warsaw ghetto, a special group called Group 13 was created for the purpose of combatting the black market that thrived during this time. The group was also known as the Jewish Gestapo and had orders to report back to the German Gestapo. While officially the group’s job
The term ghetto, originally derived from Venetian dialect in Italy during the sixteenth century, has multiple variations of meaning. The primary perception of the word is “synonymous with segregation” (Bassi). The first defining moment of the ghetto as a Jewish neighborhood was in sixteenth century Italy; however, the term directly correlates with the beginning of the horror that the Jewish population faced during Adolph Hitler’s reign. “No ancient ghetto knew the terror and suffering of the ghettos under Hitler” (Weisel, After the Darkness 20). Under Hitler’s terror, there were multiple ghettos throughout several cities in numerous countries ranging in size and population. Ghettos also differed in purpose; some were temporary housing until deportation to the final solution while others formed for forced labor. Although life in the ghetto was far better than a concentration camp, it shared the commonality of torment, fear, and death.
“Dehumanized” by Mark Slouka explores the issue of our nation’s education and how science and math are being used to primarily teach students about business and capitalism. Although I believe that students should have a good understanding of economics for the sake of their future. I, like Mark Slouka, believe that the humanities should be taught and accepted in our schools to help students further their education.
Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).
Dehumanization was a big part of these camps. The Nazis would kick innocent Jewish families and send them to concentration or death camps. The main way they dehumanized these Jewish people is when they take all their possessions. In Night they go around taking all there gold and silver, make them leave their small bags of clothing on the train, and finally give them crappy clothing. All this reduces their emotions; they go from owing all these possessions to not having a cent to their name. If I was in that situation I would just be in shock with such a huge change in such a short amount of time. The next way they dehumanized the Jewish people were they stopped using names and gave them all numbers. For example in Night Eliezer’s number was A-7713. Not only were all their possessions taken, but also their names. Your name can be something that separates you from another person. Now they are being kept by their number, almost as if that’s all they are, a number. If I was in their place I would question my importance, why am I here, am I just a number waiting to be replaced? The third way they were dehumanized was that on their “death march” they were forced to run nonstop all day with no food or water. If you stopped or slowed down, you were killed with no regards for your life. The prisoners were treated like cattle. They were being yelled at to run, run faster and such. They were not treated as equal humans. If the officers were tired, they got replaced. Dehumanization affected all the victims of the Holocaust in some sort of way from them losing all their possessions, their name, or being treated unfairly/ like animals.
When the author of Night, Elie Wiesel, arrives at Auschwitz, the Jewish people around him, the Germans, and himself have yet to lose their humanity. Throughout the holocaust, which is an infamous genocide that imprisoned many Jewish people at concentration camps, it is clear that the horrors that took place here have internally affected all who were involved by slowly dehumanizing them. To be dehumanized means to lose the qualities of a human, and that is exactly what happened to both the Germans and the Jewish prisoners. Wiesel has lived on from this atrocious event to establish the dehumanization of all those involved through his use of animal imagery in his memoir Night to advance the theme that violence dehumanizes both the perpetrator
The Sighet Jews appointed a Jewish Council (known as the Judenrat) as well as “a Jewish police force, a welfare agency, a labor committee [and] a health agency” to govern the ghettos and manage issues within the ghetto (Wiesel 12). The Judenrat and the Jewish Police Force were integral to the management of each ghetto. Soon after Germany’s annexation of Poland, chief of the Gestapo Reinhard Heydrich ordered the establishment of a Jewish governing council in almost every ghetto. Generally comprised of twenty-four prominent Rabbis and authority figures in the Jewish community of each town, the Judenrat managed and instituted new legislation introduced by the Germans. The Judenrat also managed the needs of the Jewish community and ultimately were tasked with carrying out the liquidation of the ghettos (Berenbaum). As in Night, Judenrat members’ lives were threatened to ensure they obeyed orders and did not revolt. Aside from the Judenrat, many other ghettos also had welfare organizations. In the Warsaw ghetto, the Judenrat supported an orphanage system and a financial aid society among other welfare organizations (“Warsaw”). Similarly, the Lublin Judenrat administered the local Jewish hospital, orphanage and home for the elderly (“Lublin”). The Sighet ghettos mirrored other ghettos during the
Imagine if you were an object. That you were an item that could be possessed and you had absolutely no say in what happen to you. People could use you and throw you out whenever it was convenient for them to do so. Elie Wiesel is someone that can describe to you first hand exactly what this feels like. He is a survivor of one of the darkest times in human history, the Holocaust. He made the decision to turn the pain and suffering he endured into something meaningful by writing the book Night. In this essay I will explain the ways dehumanization occurs throughout the novel.
From 1933 onwards, Adolf Hitler and his Nazis began implementing simple discrimination laws against the Jews and others who they did not see part of their master race. Hitler and the Nazis believed that German power was being taken by the Jews. Hitler was able to convince his followers of this issue with the Jewish question as it was known, and get away with murdering millions of people in an attempt to cleanse society of anyone inferior to the master race. The Holocaust lasted for 12 years, until 1945. Starting as early as 1944, the Allies were finally advancing on the Germans and began taking over their camps. These liberations and takeovers by the Soviets, American’s and other allies slowly began to remove Hitler from power. In my essay I will go into detail on the final years of the holocaust and how it ended.(1)
Prejudice and the Holocaust Prejudice was the main factor that led to the holocaust. For some, resisting these forms of oppression was survival. Considering the dehumanizing the Nazis had forced upon the Jews, people took whatever courage and strength they had to get through this period of time. I believe luck also had a part to play in survival.
In particular, the Germans began ghettos like this one, in order to gather and contain Jews until the “Final Solution” could be further implemented. In particular, after the Germans invaded Poland, they knew that it would be necessary to get rid of the Polish Jews, knowing that with 30% Jews, Warsaw had the 2nd greatest Jewish population. An area was needed to contain the Jews as the concentration camps would take time to build and had limited human capacity. As a result, they chose to create a closed ghetto, as it was easier for the Nazis to block off a part of a city than to build more housing for the Jews. The Germans saw the ghettos as a provisional measure to control and segregate Jews while the Nazi leadership in Berlin deliberated upon options for the removal of the Jewish population. In essence, the Warsaw ghetto was a step from capturing and identifying the Jewish to deporting them to another location. So how exactly was the ghetto
As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.
As a result of unfortunate situations six million Jews were killed, families were taken out of their own homes and put in ghettos, which were large prison type establishments that housed dozens of people in one small apartment. They were then separated from their famil...
In 1984, George Orwell presents an overly controlled society that is run by Big Brother. The protagonist, Winston, attempts to “stay human” in the face of a dehumanizing, totalitarian regime. Big Brother possesses so much control over these people that even the most natural thoughts such as love and sex are considered taboo and are punishable. Big Brother has taken this society and turned each individual against one another. Parents distrust their own offspring, husband and wife turn on one another, and some people turn on their own selves entirely. The people of Oceania become brainwashed by Big Brother. Punishment for any uprising rebellions is punishable harshly.
...throughout Europe as they did in Auschwitz and Majdanek. These horror stories are only a few out of the hundreds of camps that the Nazis built during World War Two. The Holocaust was a devastating event for the Jewish population as well as many other minorities in Europe. The Holocaust was the largest genocide that has ever occurred. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. This death toll is extremely high compared to smaller camps. These camps were some of the largest concentration/death camps that existed during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a tragic time where millions of people considered undesirable to the Nazis were detained, forced to work in the harshest of conditions, starved to death, or brutally murdered.“The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.” –Stephen Ambrose
The Gestapo, established in 1933, controlled originally by Georing and later in November 1934, was controlled under Himmler. The Gestapo’s job was to investigate and suppress all anti-state activities, and had a reputation of being very brutal and ruthless. It was not secret and was much feared. Terror atomised the nation, people thought the Gestapo was everywhere but in fact they were a very small number. The Gestapo controlled concentration camps.