Illegal immigration-human rights violations

Keith Frey

Rector

Composition

27 November 2011

A!er dozens of anti-Semitic laws, deportations, and annexations, the Holocaust officially begins in

the year 1944. It is not until the extermination of over one million Jews and three years a!er the onset of

this genocide that the Nazis invade Elie Wiesel's hometown in Sighet, Transylvania, which was annexed by

Hungary in 1940 (Fine 13). #e Nazis invade Sighet at night and strip its inhabitants of their property and

force them into two ghe$os. In short order, Nazis command Elie and his father to be deported to Auschwitz

and send his mother and sisters to a female concentration camp (Wiesel 1). "Eight words spoken quietly,

indifferently, without emotion. Eight short, simple words. Yet that was the moment when I parted from my

mother" (qtd. in Wiesel 3). #is split from his mother severely disillusions him at the tender age of 15. Elie

witnesses hundreds of thousands of women, children, babies, and men be burned in the crematorium or be

gassed in the gas chambers. Machine gunners use babies as targets and it takes three days for a young girl to

die (Wiesel). His morbid experiences in the concentration camps sha$er his dreams and make him lose faith

in humanity, God, and in the importance of life, "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my

God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned

to live as long as God Himself. Never" (qtd. in Wiesel 3).

It is important to realize that genocides are just one example of many human rights violations that

have occurred and are occurring in history. Some other forms of violations include human trafficking,

forced child labor, and oppressive governments. #ese violations are inherently unjust and...