The mindless conformity of the Nazis regime was evident throughout World War II. Hitler was able to convince the Germans into thinking the Aryan race evolved more than all the other races. This lead to the deportation of the Jews into concentration camps as well as mass murder. The poems by Martin Niemoller’s “First They Came for the Jews”, and Karen Gershon’s “Race” use of themes, tone, and organization to show the effects of conformity. Niemoller’s speaker is indifferent to the Jews, Communists, and trade unionist. All of which are seen as a threat to the totalitarian German government. The speaker in Gershons’s poem wants to avoid the cycle of hate, racism, and intolerance towards others and views the world as the diverse place that it is. In “Total …show more content…
Domination”, Hannah Arendt says that for Totalitarian governments, the terror and torment of concentration camps demonstrates that everything is possible” (Arendt 1) and that “total domination is designed to reduce the diversity and complexity of humanity to a single reaction to terror and pain.
Niemoller’s speaker shows his/her conformity by not speaking out, and Gershon’s speaker witnessed firsthand the effects of the concentration camps and how those in authority conformed to Hitler’s idea of hate.
The theme of Gershon’s poem is man vs. man. The Germans vs. the Jews. “Found in every German face/ behind the mask the mark of Cain” (Gershon lines 13-14). The mark of Cain is in reference to the story of Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother Abel because God liked Abel’s offering more than Cain’s. The Jews and Germans were part of a fellowship of people. In 1933, approximately 500,000 Jews lived in Germany. “The Nazis proclamations, repeated ad nauseam, that the Jews would be exterminated like bedbugs” (Arendt 6). The Nazis killed approximately 6 million Jews. The Nazis conformed to Hitler’s ideas and belief is even if it meant killing their own brothers. Niemoller’s theme is that of silence. The silence of the
speaker leads to harm for everyone else. The speakers silence is conformity to the totalitarian demands. It also shows a lack of tolerance for different groups. Because the speak is not a Jew, Communists, or trade unionists he/she does not speak out, so there is nobody to left to speak out for him/her as Niemoller says “Then they came for me” (Line 10). The speaker only has one single reaction which is “I did not“(Lines 3, 6, 9). Total dominations goal is to treat all “human beings as if all of humanity were just one individual” (Arendt 2). Instead of tolerating diverse groups regardless of the differences, the speaker let the Nazis take each group as if they were all one individual group of people. The speaker does not appreciate diversity of the different groups. The Jews were scapegoats for the countries ills. They practiced a different religion, and the Nazis saw their culture as a threat. The communists apposed the fascists Nazis regime and the trade unionists not be controlled economically. These groups were taken because not only the speaker said nothing, but also total dominations goal is to “achieve ideological indoctrination of the elite formations” (Arendt 2). SS men and camp guards conformed to the ideas of reducing humanity to one individual. The tone of Gershon’s poem in stanza 1 is disappointment and stanza 2 starts out as melancholic and then becomes uplifting and defiant in stanza 2. Gershon’s speaker says, “When I returned to my home town/ believing that no one would care” (1, 2), it shows this disappointment. Arendt states that survivors are “effectively cut off from the world of the living, because terror enforces oblivion” (Arendt 13). When Gershon writes, “the unknown body which was mine” (12), the character does not recognize him/her. This is melancholic because he/she has lost a sense of identity. This goes against what it means to be human. Total dominations goal is to “eliminate spontaneity itself” (Arendt 3) and to “transform the human personality into a mere thing” (Arendt 3). Gershon’s speaker has a change of attitude. The speaker’s attitude toward the Nazis is that of tolerance. “I will not make their thoughts my own/ by hating people for their race” (15, 16). This is uplifting in the sense that Arendt claims that personality does not change, “like Lazarus, he rises from the dead, his finds his personality or character unchanged (Arendt 9), but the speaker does in fact change. After having gone through all the pain of the concentration camps, the speaker will not stoop to the intolerant level of Nazis, which leads to a positive result. Niemoller’s poem organization of subject-verb-object is simple in style. It repeats as the Nazis take all the Jews, Communists, and trade unionists. The groups are objectified, and can be interchanged with each other without the poem losing any meaning. The goal of total domination is to objectify humans so they can be exchanged at random for any other. The sentence structure has the same length, same tone, same diction, and shows the “reduction of plurality”, (Arendt 2) caused by total domination. In addition, the repetitive sentences lack spontaneity and character like those who tried to communicate their experiences in the concentration camp but were “no than nihilistic banalities“(Arendt 10). From the speaker’s perspective, he/she does not speak up, as if he/she had the attitude of “as long as it’s not me.” The speaker could have had their own prejudices against the different groups. The mindless conformity of the speaker leads to his/her a bad outcome. The organization of order in which the groups were taken shows whom the Nazis viewed as their biggest threat. The Jews were ushered off to concentration camps. Arendt speaks of the early stages of totalitarian rule. Total dominations goal is to “defeat the opponent and render all further opposition impossible. The speaker in Gershon’s poem could have been fearful to speak out, because he/she may have been taken to the camp themselves or murdered. Both poems show us the horrors of mindless conformity. Niemoller’s poem teaches us that indifference towards others can lead to bad karma for you. He/she did not speak out, consequently “there was no one left/ to speak out for me” (Line 11, 12). The mindless conformity of the SS men and guards lead to the pain of terror for survivors, even those Jews who were not in concentration camps had to deal with an “imagination seen”. We expect Gershon’s speaker to hate, but he/she does not. Conformity is an issue today. People watching television is subjected to commercials and marketers trying to influence us to buy their product. Many of these ads try to tell us that we need their product to have a better life. Unfortunately, many people believe these lies because they watch so much television and hear it all the time.
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
In the poem,”First they Came for,” by Martin Niemoller, the author used several literary elements to support the text structure, which was plot and conflict. Similarly, in the short story, ”Terrible Things: Allegory of the Holocaust,” by Eve Bunting, the author also used several literary elements to support the text structure which was plot and conflict. Not only do these texts share the same text structure, they also share a common theme of standing up against injustice even if you are not affected by it. Another way that these texts are similar is the topic of the content, which is the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the mass killing of people who were Jewish, Homosexual, disabled or Gypsie by the Nazis, throughout Europe during the 1930-40
This connects to the theme ¨Speak up because you never know what might happen¨ and shows how if they were would have spoke up and suck together things could may be different. He said, ¨When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent: I was not a communist.¨(Niemoller, 1,2,3). Also, ¨When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.¨(Niemoller, 13,14). This is an clear examples of the theme and explains it
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
During this dark time in history, people like Miss. Breed from Dear Miss Breed took initial action on what she thought was right, and gave hope to Japanese Internment Camp children by supplying books and writing letters. What these heroes of the past have in common is that they took action for what they truly believe is right. The best way to respond to conflict is based on a person’s general judgment on what they think is right or wrong, this will show how they take action during conflict. In the story, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow, the thoughts of independence and judgement were shown by German student, Sophie Scholl.
Speeches are given for a purpose. Whether it is for persuasion, or education, or even entertainment, they all target certain parts of people’s minds. This speech, The Perils of Indifference, was given by Elie Wiesel with intention to persuade his audience that indifference is the downfall of humanity, and also to educate his audience about his conclusions about the Holocaust and the corresponding events. He was very successful in achieving those goals. Not only was the audience enlightened, but also President Bill Clinton, and the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, themselves were deeply touched by Wiesel’s words.
Along with rhetorical appeals, Wiesel also uses many rhetorical devices such as parallelism and anaphora. Wiesel depicts parallelism when he says, “to fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler” (Wiesel lines 103-104). The parallelism and anaphora, in the quote, provide emphasis on the discrimination and abuse that has taken place around the world. Repeating the same initial phrase shows the significance of the words Wiesel is speaking. Wiesel mentions the victims of this extreme tragedy when he states,” for the children in the world, for the homeless for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society.” (Wiesel lines 17-19). This use of anaphora and parallelism emphasize the amount of people the Holocaust has affected and impacted. The parallelism being used adds value to his opinions and balances the list of people Wiesel is making in his speech.
In conclusion, in the novel Night, the Germens had so much force and power that no minority (Jewish individuals) could stop them. As a result, the Germans took advantage of the power they had and killed a lot of Jews in very unpleasant ways, thus illustrating inhumanity. The Germans had no feelings or sympathy for their actions and through the two quotations provided, it is evident of how the Jewish society lived in fear and helplessness. Elie will never forget what he saw the first night he was at camp and this was the build up of fear, also how the Germens executed the child shows that they are heartless by making the innocent suffer. These examples were very brutal and inhumane ways of dealing with the Jews, as a result the Germans took advantage of their power in the wrong way, abused it by doing whatever they desire.
Dehumanization Through Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations.
Throughout the Nobel Peace Prize award winner Night, a common theme is established around dehumanization. Elie Wiesel, the author, writes of his self-account within the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. Being notoriously famed for its unethical methods of punishment, and the concept of laboring Jews in order to follow a regime, was disgusting for the wide public due to the psychotic ideology behind the concept. In the Autobiography we are introduced to Wiesel who is a twelve year old child who formerly lived in the small village of Sighet, Romania. Wiesel and his family are taken by the Nazi aggressors to the Concentration camp Auschwitz were they are treated like dogs by the guards. Throughout the Autobiography the guards use their authoritative
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
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.
Can you imagine people hating you so much that they would develop a plan to kill you, and everyone like you, just because of your religion? That is exactly what happened when the Nazis decided that they were the “Master Race,” and all others were to be eliminated. This Final Solution is not just documented in the history books, but also in the novel Night by Elie Wiesel. The Final Solution was one of the most horrific events in our world’s history, and Elie Wiesel survived to tell his story. Elie Wiesel writes about surviving the Holocaust as a young teenager. Through his writing, he not only includes all the horrible details that happened, but also the emotion that lets the reader begin to feel more than just facts. Reading the novel is able
...gen who portrays the Policemen as “Ordinary Germans” who willingly took part in the killing. This means he portrays them as a whole, who all reacted in the same way because they were all socially conditioned in eliminaitonalist anti-Semitism. For this reason a completely different portrayal of the perpetrators of the Holocaust is offered in each book, each defined by the way each historian views the way the German’s worked.
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.