Holocaust

During the Second World War, and unspeakable injustice occurred. Six million Jewish people were slaughtered solely based on their religion. Men, women, and children were plucked from their homes and taken under control of the Nazi's. Their valuables were stolen. They were put to work in concentration camps where they were starved, beaten and tortured. Their identities were stolen, their names taken away, and identification tattoos were engraved in their bodies. Scientific experiments were preformed on these people with no anesthesia. Men and women alike were dragged to death pits where they were shot in the back of the head at point blank range, falling into mass graves while other were gassed in large chambers and tossed into the crematories. Could you even begin to fathom a bias so despicable? Although the holocaust was a time of sickening wrong doings, it helped to shape the identities of the following generations.

English: Elie Wiesel Français : Elie Wiesel

Maison natale d'Elie Wiesel à Sighetu Marmaţiei,...

Jewish slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentrat...

It is important to learn about the Holocaust and the effect that it has had on individuals and society as a whole for this helped to shape who we all are today. By using the Holocaust, we learn the importance of group conformity and how it is important to be able to find a balance between this and your individual identity. We learn that, "Memories, even painful memories, are all we have. In fact, they are the only thing we are. So we must take very good care of them." (Wiesel) Through texts, such as "Night" by Elie Wiesel, films, such as "Europa, Europa" directed by Agnieszka Holland and testimonies from Holocaust survivors such as Jack Trumpeter, we learn about the various struggles that people have had with identity.

The main character within the book "Night" was Elie Wiesel himself. Throughout the book Elie struggles with many identity problems. The events of his childhood shaped who he is today. While in the camps Wiesel witnesses hangings, beatings, starvation, and torture. He witnesses his family, friends, and fellow Jews degraded and murdered. Weisel's identity as a person and as well as a religious boy, was stolen from him. Wiesel searches throughout the book for his God. At one point he inquires, "Where is God now? Where is He? Here is - He is hanging here on this gallows..."(Wiesel, 62) With this quote we can feel the hurt and loss Wiesel must have felt. Within the concentration camps, the Jewish people had nothing but their faith to hold on to, and when this one single thing that you have is torn away from you, just imagine the torment Wiesel must have felt while experiencing the destruction of his faith. Wiesel mentions that his God was "murdered" by the Nazis people. He blames the Germans for his lack of faith during the hardest period of time in his life. Wiesel witnessed so much evil (more than any person should have to witness) that his belief in the existence of God continued to weaken. Again he asks, "Where is my God? Where is He?"(Wiesel, 61) His religious identity was stolen from him. He used to be a religious person, but after such acts of inconceivable horror, how could he believe in God? People worship God because of the hope, faith, and passion that God brings to their lives. God would not let this sort of thing to happen Likewise, within the film "Europa, Europa" directed bye Agnieszka Holland, Solomon Perel was taken away from his family, home and friends. He was forced to run away. At the young age of thirteen, Solomon was able to fool the Nazi men. He concocted a fake identity, called himself Joseph Peters, and tricked the men into believing that he was actually a German orphan. The Nazi's took Solomon in as their own and treated him like a hero. They called him "their good luck charm". He had to watch the destruction of his own people, including a friend of his, be killed, beaten, and tortured. He saw decapitated children and bodies being thrown out of apartments windows. He had to sit there and listen to the same man that wanted to adopt him talk about how repulsive the Jewish people were. He rode trains through the ghettos, seeing the poverty and death that was swarming through the area. I can just begin to imagine how confused he was. Solomon asks an actor during the film if it is hard to pretend to be someone else. The actor replies by saying no, and that it can be a whole lot easier than being yourself. Solomon asked such a question in reference to himself and the situation he was currently in. He had no one to turn to while he was living fallacy. He had to hide his identity from his girlfriend, his friends, and teachers. He had to change all of who he was just so he wouldn't be killed.

Similarly, a man named Jack Trumpeter was born into a time where he had to he hidden because he was Jewish. Trumpeter was born in 1942, during the heat of Nazism, in Northern Holland. As soon as he was born his parents knew that they had to send him into hiding for if they didn't, they knew that he may be one of the many males that were dragged out into the streets, laid on their backs, and beaten in the legs until the couldn't walk. Trumpeters parents knew if the Nazi's were capable of doing this, they were capable of doing anything. Trumpeter wasn't given the name Jack at birth. Originally he had a very Jewish sounding name, so his parents knew that they must change it. They changed his name to Jack and sent him into hiding in central Holland. (Trumpeter had darker features, so central Holland would be safer where there was more of a Spanish population) By the time Trumpeter was only three years old, he was living with a new family with a new name. Not surprisingly, Trumpeter suffered from a nervous breakdown at this young age. Trumpeter, the family he lived with, and his parents all ended up moving to the United States. Shortly after, he suffered from yet another nervous breakdown. Trumpeter does not remember his childhood. Perhaps this is because he was able to block it all out. I know that if I was in his situation, I would. While I listened to Trumpeter talk, I just wanted to run up and give him a big hug. What a life this man has had! Having to change your name and parents when you are only three years old? This must have played a huge impact on who his is today. I wonder if it is still difficult for him, knowing that his name is actually not Jack? I personally don't know how people were able to be strong enough to survive through such tough times, not only physically but also emotionally, mentally, and ever more so, religiously. To me, it is hard to learn about such a time when such hated took place. I cannot even begin to image how or WHY people can hate each other so much that the feel the need to have a genocide such as this. It makes me feel sick to know that the human race is capable of such self-destruction.

It is important to learn about the Holocaust and the effect that it has had on individuals and society as a whole for this helped to shape who we all are today. By using the Holocaust, we learn the importance of group conformity and how it is important to be able to find a balance between this and your individual identity. We must be able to have a self-identity, but as we can see, during the Holocaust that was difficult. It was more about self-preservation than anything. We learn that, "Memories, even painful memories, are all we have. In fact, they are the only thing we are. So we must take very good care of them." (Wiesel) Through texts, such as "Night" by Elie Wiesel, films, such as "Europa, Europa" directed by Agnieszka Holland and testimonies from Holocaust survivors such as Jack Trumpeter, we learn about the various struggles that people have had with identity. In all the horrors of the Holocaust, we have learned that being an individual is one the greatest blessings that god has given us and that we should not have to live in a society that deigns us that individual right. After reading, watching, and listening to all that I have this quarter, I still must ask myself this one simple question, "Why?" Works Cited Page: Audiogallery.com Holocaust Survivors: Audio Gallery - "Simply Because We Were Jews" Holland, Agnieszka. "Europa, Europa" Trumpeter, Jack. Testimonial Wiesel, Elie. "Night"

Elie Wiesel writer and spokesman on Holocaust issu...

English: Writer and political activist Elie Wiesel...

English: Elie Wiesel Français : Elie Wiesel