50,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from poor sanitary conditions, lack of food, shelter and water, and an outbreak of diseases. The concentration camps held Jews, Poles, Soviets, Dutch, Czechs, Germans, and Australians. All the information in this article is from “I saw Anne Frank die” by Irma Sonnenberg, and “Bergen-Belsen” from the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Bergen-Belsen was a death camp, because of the terrible living conditions and the many diseases. It wasn’t and extermination camp, but it killed plenty of people.…
Helmuth Hübener was born in Hamburg, Germany during Hitler's rise to power. He and his two best friends, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudolf Wobbe committed high treason. They listened to a radio, which had foreign stations, and was against the law. The books “The Boy Who Dared” and “Hitler Youth” tell about Helmuth’s life and the things that happened that lead to his execution.…
In his memoirs entitled Inside Third Reich, Albert Speer depicts his time as Adolf Hitler’s head architect and a very close personal friend. Their friendship lasted nearly 12 years, ending when HItler committed suicide in his bunker. After the war Speer was certain that he would be sentenced to death by hanging like many other Nazi leaders. Instead he was sentenced to a 20 year sentence in Spandau prison. He was granted this sentence in lieu of death due to a convincing case made at the Nuremberg trials.…
Never Forget In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel wrote “I became A-7713. After that, I had no other name.” In other words, it shows how the Nazis take the Jews identity, including their names, shoes, houses, hair, and even their clothes, which means a lot to them; they treat them like they were not human beings. One would think that in this world no such things could happen, and some people out there may think that it's not going on.…
Although Hitler may have only personally killed himself, and possibly a few others, he was responsible for the slaughter of millions. “Adolf Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.” (S8) Although there are many different opinions and theories on the topic, it is still officially recorded that Adolf Hitler committed suicide. At first, the story was told that he died an honorable death.…
Before the trial, Eva Kor, an Auschwitz survivor stated “He is a murderer because he was part of the system of mass murder” (Qtd. Groening Sentenced to Four Years). Oskar has said that he is only morally guilty, and will probably never serve time in jail. Groening’s appeal will probably not overturn his sentence- his age and health are simply a large factor, and he will have to be evaluated by a health team after his appeal. This is trial is expected to be the last of its kind, and he may not even receive the sentence he deserves.…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is often celebrated as a “prophet of justice for the op-pressed” who identified the need “to see the great events of world history from below” (Guth, 2013). As a theologian of resistance his writing, teaching and acting during the Nazi regime in Germany, impacted immensely on the community, the Church, and politics and provides significance for today’s society. In the following, Bonhoeffer’s background will be explored, how he impact-ed during his time and why, it will be critiqued to what extent he applied the “Principles of Hospitality”, and addressed what learning has taken place for myself and today`s society. Bonhoeffers life and work are inseparable.…
In the February of 1965, Norah has already moved to her new house and left the old house behind. This would be a logical symbol for letting go of the past and having a fresh start. However, this wasn’t the case here, Norah continues to reflect upon her past, such as driving through the narrow roads to her old house late at night (83). Now I wonder why is she always going back to what has happened in the past. Like why does it mean so much to her?…
The reason the Holocaust began was because when Hitler (I’ll talk about him later) came to power of Germany on January 30, 1933, he wanted to get rid of the Jewish people, so he and the Nazis started the assault against the Jews. It began on April 11, when they started boycotting the Jewish businesses. One week later, the Nazis dismissed Jewish people from civil services. By the end of the month, Jews were not allowed at German schools. On May 10, thousands of Nazi students and professors stormed throughout university libraries and bookstores in thirty cities throughout Germany throwing tens of thousands of books written by non-Aryans and people who were against Nazi ideas.…
The perpetrators should be blamed for the Holocaust. I feel this because they were the ones who committed the crimes. If they really think it was not right by killing the jews, they shouldn't have committed the crimes. Not only that they killed the jews, but they also did terrible things in the death camps where they forced them to do all sort of unusual work such as going through a dead body to find any hidden jewels. Also the perpetrators made at least 100 jews to go to a room where they had gas chambers that looked like shower.…
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions,” a relevant quote by Primo Levi (Primo Levi 1). Primo Levi was an Italian scientist, and a Jewish Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz. He experienced many hardships of the concentration camps, and was a witness to the atrocities committed by Holocaust criminals. Franz Stangl, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, were sentenced to death in the War Crimes Trial, but Ilse Koch, Gustav Wagner, and Heinrich Himmler seemed to have escaped justice forever.…
There were the hangings of a young boy and several men during his containment. The boy was caught a culprit in trying to sabotage the camp. After not giving up information he was hanged to intimidate the other inmates. He did not weigh enough to have an instantaneous death but instead “he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death” (65). The death of this boy caused change…
The horrors that Jewish and other groups of people faced during the Holocaust were tragic. Ihe book Night, by Elie Wiesel follows his struggle through life as a Jew in this time and place. His whole world was flipped around when Germans invaded his home, and through the tragic events he witnessed, he watched the people around him become less and less human, going into survival mode. He managed to survive, and wrote this book about what he experienced. Some of the atrocities that the Jewish people faced were living in horrible conditions, being starved and beaten, or being tortured and executed.…
The victim at the first hanging was executed for theft. Likewise the victims at the second hanging were executed for possession of weapons. Additionally, at both of the hangings, the prisoners of the concentration camp were forced to attend and witness the executions. Once the victims were executed, the prisoners were forced to look into the eyes of those who were hanged. “The Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face.”…
Another way in which the Jews are brutally dehumanized by the Nazis is when they are hung. On pages 61 and 62 of the novel, there is a gruesome two page description of the hanging of a child pipel for a crime that the Dutch Oberkapo allegedly committed. This crime deeply disturbs Eliezer and haunts him for the rest of his life. In response to a “man asking: ‘Where is God now?’” (62), Eliezer “heard a voice within [him] answer [the man]: ‘Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on the gallows’” (62).…