Creative Response:
Soldiers Silence.
An SS officer stood up, machine gun in hand. He looked ready to use it. His expression was stone cold and harsh, if he faced you begging for mercy you know he wouldn’t help you.
He loved his family and music, but cared nothing for the innocent Jewish people dying around him. His name was Herman. He believed in the Third Riech and a better Germany. Even as an officer he was afraid. Afraid of dying in the war, like his father had 25 years earlier, afraid of the deaths of his family and wife, who remained at their home in eastern Germany and afraid of Germany losing the war and afraid of prosecution for War Crimes.
Herman showed no empathy towards the innocent people he was killing, or were dying under his watch. He considered himself an exemplary example of an SS officer and was proud to be one. He thought extermination of Jewish people was probably unnecessary and his superiors gave him no reasons, but he never questioned his orders.
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At Auschwitz, I stayed silent cared about nothing except my survival and my ration of soup. No one ever attacked anyone because they were scared of dying and of torture. If I rebelled I wouldn’t get my rations. I would only die faster. Defiance on a large scale in the camps was non-existent.
I was afraid of what they would do to my father. Fathers were afraid of what would happen to their sons. Those whose family had died were trying to stay alive to not let their family die out and those without family members in the camps, where trying to stay alive with the hope of reuniting with them once more.
No one risked their survival enough to organise an uprising and other inmates would have told their plans to the
Starting in 1939 during the Holocaust, many Jews were deported to concentration camps by the Nazis where they will meet their end, but how did some of them survive? Even though most of them died, some lives were saved by the very few people with moral courage. One of the people with moral courage was Carl Lutz. Moral courage is the actions a person takes because of his/her belief of what is right or wrong, even though it may risk his/her life. Lutz was born in Switzerland in 1895 and he emigrated to the United States at the age of 18. During more than 20 years of temporarily staying in the United States, he worked at the Swiss Legislation in Washington and became chancellor of Swiss Consulates in Philadelphia. These events lead him to be appointed as Swiss vice-consul in Budapest, Hungary. During his life as a Swiss vice-consul, he decided to save the Jews because of his belief. By the time of his death in Bern, Switzerland in 1975, Lutz earned the title of Righteous Among the Nations
Simon Wiesenthal lives throughout his life asking the same crucial question, “What would I have done?” (Wiesenthal 98). I would not accept the SS officer forgiveness, because I am not the one who was mentally and physically hurt by him. In the symposium section, Abraham Joshua Heschel quoted, “No one can forgive crimes committed against other people. It is therefore preposterous to assume that anybody alive can extend forgiveness for the suffering of any one of the six million people who perished.”
I think he felt that if he got your forgiveness then he could die in peace for all the bad he had done. A lot of Jewish people had died due to what Hitler ordered everyone in Germany army to do. Albert Speer was a high-ranking Nazi member and he was also Hitler’s minister and even though he knew he was going to jail no matter what was said at the Nuremberg trials he had confessed to all the things he had done. According to Speer “My moral guilt is not subject to the statute of limitations, it cannot be erased in my lifetime” (245). In making this comment, Speer knew that even though he was punished with twenty years of imprisonment that they only punished his legal guilt. Speer was haunted by the things he had done and he knew that he did not deserve anyone’s forgiveness. Even Speer, Hitler’s minister, knew that no one in the German army deserved anyone’s sympathy or
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a “righteous gentile” who had a relatively normal life before World War II. He was born in 1904 (jfr.org). He worked with the international coffee trade (jfr.org), established a deep connection with the Danish people (forces-war-records.co.uk), and became friends with Werner Best (jfr.org). "Duckwitz was drawn to the Nazis’ ultranationalist propaganda and joined the party. However, as Hitler’s violent intentions came to light, he became disillusioned with the party (facinghistory.org)." He felt sorry for the Danish Jews and was disappointed that he had joined the Nazi party (facinghistory.org). Little did he know, his friend, Best, had overseen the murder of French and Polish Jews and well as requested (through
His exposure to the criminal acts of his oppressors changed his whole personality. All he cared about was protecting the other Jews from experiencing the same things he did.
The short documentary video “Prisoners of Silence” focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders with a clear emphasis on autism. It further delves into the rather controversial method of treatment for autism known as facilitated communication, which was first developed in the early 1990s. The video follows the introduction and ultimately the downfall of such a treatment as controversy quickly ensues after a series of sexual abuse cases and ample scientific evidence are produced.
Prisoners in concentration camps committed small acts of rebellion against the Holocaust that outlived the guards and the Nazis. Even though their acts could not save their lives, they sparked questions that the survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, could recall years after the Holocaust ended.
Defiance is the act of boldly resisting authority or any opposing force. The cause of defiance is usually a feeling of discontent with one’s life or a strong belief that the opposing side is wrong. In “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, the characters revolt against their government because they are unsatisfied with their lives. This leads to their discovery of who they really are. In Fahrenheit 451, all books are banned and anyone who possesses them gets their house burned. In The Book Thief, Hitler’s Nazi party is very strict and enforces many harsh laws for the citizens of Nazi, Germany. However, many of the characters in both of these books chose to defy the law rather than stand by passively. Despite the often negative consequences, defiance liberates the characters because they are standing up for their important values and following their beliefs, leading them to a fulfilling life.
I stated before about how I would have forgave Karl for his wrongdoing to the Jewish people and others. The Holocaust was a tragic thing and we can all agree to that. When I think of the military, I think about learning respect for your commanding officers and other soldiers and civilians. Karl was commanded to shoot anyone who was trying to escape from the burning house so he listened to his orders when a family did jump. If I was there in Karl 's shoes, I for one would have shot the family when they jumped even though it would have been wrong and I wouldn 't want too. In the symposium responses, Lawrence L. Langer stated, "When we call the murder of a helpless Jewish father and a child a 'wrong, ' we ease the crime into the realm of familiar and forgivable transgressions and relieve ourselves of the burden of facing its utter horror" (188). No matter what word we use to describe the killing of millions of helpless Jews, it will still feel like what Langer
“Pervasive racism and the resulting exclusion of the Jewish victims form any common ground with the perpetrators made it all the easier for the majority of policemen to conform to the norms of there immediate community (the battalion) and the society at large (Nazi
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man of love, faithfulness, and integrity was alive during World War II. He was a Gentile who stood up for the Jewish people and others who suffered horribly under Nazi rule. His life has been described in a few simple words: “pastor, prophet, spy, and martyr.” Dietrich loved God, the church, and truth. He was willing to give everything, even his life in order to protect these important rights.
“I commanded Auschwitz and estimate, at least 2.5 million victims were executed and exterminated by gassing and burning, and another half a million succumbed to starvation and disease making a total dead of about 3 million” (Source 1) calmly explained Rudolf Hoss, an Auschwitz Nazi commander. Hoss was the leader of the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1941 to 1943. He ordered to kill millions of people and inflicted pain and suffering upon the Jews. He did whatever it took to protect his leader, Adolf Hitler. For Hoss, mass murder was a daily routine. Rudolf Hoss was an inhumane Auschwitz Nazi commander who ordered to massacre thousands of innocent Jewish people using fatal punishment and violent killing methods.
Gita Sereny was an Austrian journalist who believed that Speer’s personality was shaped by the ‘tragic Nazi’ image. Sereny alleged that Speer undoubtly knew about the issues surrounding him like that of the murder of the Jews. However she portrayed Speer as a man who sought to unburden himself of guilt asserting that, “most of all, his continuing and tormenting awareness of guilt- out of all this, came to be another Speer” . She depicts Speer’s personality to be that of avoidance and regret as he ‘turned away’ from the appalling crimes being committed against the Jews and portrayed remorse through his acts of penance such as donating money to Jewish charities. This shows that Speer being described as an ‘emotionally blocked man’ was the reason behind his appalling actions. However, Gita Sereny was also willing to consider Speer’s ‘genuine’ commitment to repent after the Nuremburg Trail. This renders the transformation in Speer’s personality due to the surplus of evidence that was emerging such as the weight of knowledge he had on the ‘final solution’. Sereny succinctly stated that “he felt personal guilt”, and “If Speer had said as much in Nuremburg, he would have been hanged” . Therefore, this portrays Speer as a ‘penitent Nazi’ who was partially to blame for many Jews ending up in concentration
On August 14, 1971, the twelve men that were given the role as “prisoner” were arrested without warning and taken to the police station on charges of burglary and armed robbery in front of their family and friends. There they were processed, fingerprinted and photographed, by the police. Then were blindfolded as they were transferred to the mock prison that was built in one of the basement of a campus building. They were deloused, had their heads shaven, and given their uniform and ID number and then placed in a cell as they would in a real prison setting. The other twelve men were the “guards”, those men were given a guard’s uniform, sunglasses, and a baton. Their orders only being to do what they thought was necessary to keep order in the prison but not to use any kind of violence. Even though the first day was uneventful you could see within hours both groups began to settle into their roles very quickly. It wasn’t until the second day there was a situation when the prisoner started a rebellion, which made the guards further adopt their role and began using more mental
"I prayed with them and cried out to my God and theirs. How glad I should have been to go into the gas chambers with them! How gladly I should have died the same death as theirs! Then an SS officer in uniform would have been found in the gas chambers. People would have believed it was an accident and the story would have been buried and forgotten. But I could not do this yet. I felt I must not succumb to the temptation to die with these people. I now knew a great deal about these murders."