Holocaust

During our first lesson, as a class we went through a slide show of different shocking pictures. These shocking pictures represented what the Jewish people had to go through during the period in which the Holocaust took place. As a class, we discussed about how we felt looking at these pictures and these feelings and emotions were going to help us create a new piece of drama later on.

The pictures that were being put in front of us made me feel disgusted, it made me feel disgusted that a whole race can happily discriminate and wipe out another race simply because they did not fit in or because they were not liked. I was shocked and angry because no one took action as no one really knew this massacre was taking place. We were going through the slide show which showed these horrid pictures of innocent women, men and even children getting killed, dead in piles of bodies or being in really bad conditions, these pictures made the atmosphere feel different; it made the atmosphere feel gloomy and depressing.

Everyone who sat in the room went from feeling happy to feeling sad and miserable but suddenly a picture of a man who was behind all of this cruelty came up, at this point all I felt was anger but I also felt pity for him. I felt pity for him because I didn’t understand how someone can be this cruel to human beings. When the photograph of soldiers and one of Hitler laughing with some people was juxtaposed with the photos of the Jewish people in the camps it made me feel confused with different emotions such as anger and sadness.

This was a picture which really made me think about what Jewish people really had to go through. I could see a huge group of heartless and cold blooded German soldiers at the back watching Jews being shot in the back of the head one by one, it seemed like it was some sort of entertainment for them and this was a day to day event. While the soldiers are just watching, a Jewish man is sitting beside his own death waiting to join all the others who have already been sent down. There was nothing he could do to stop him from falling into the ‘death whole’. I think there is some sort of juxtaposition in this picture. The soldiers who are enjoying and the Jewish who are next to their death have been put side to side despite their differences and despite the contrast between them. When we were thinking about being a Jewish person it made me feel miserable. People who were Jewish knew they were going to die one day or another, they were just waiting for their life to be taken by one of the heartless Germans, and living like this everyday with such a thought must have been horrific.

I later then used these well-built feelings and emotions to help me maintain a strong and realistic character. These feelings made me focus on the character in which I was playing; it made me focus on what the character may have felt like and what the character went through. I then used all these factors to change the tone of my voice and the way I behave accordingly and appropriately to match the character I was playing.

Task 1

After the discussion we were told to create three still images in our groups. We used all the emotions and feelings that a Jewish person may have had and interpreted it as our own. The still images had to include a family who represented three stages of their lives;

1. Life before anything happened

2. When they received the letter about what was going to happen to them

3. The family falling into pieces

1st STILL IMAGE; Happy family before anything happens.

1. The height between each character is different. Brandon is much higher then the rest, this shows that Brandon has higher authority and is a much important member of the family, they have used height arrangements in a clever way as the audience can quickly spot out who has higher authority within the family.

2. The group uses hand gestures to try and tell the audience thing. This particular gesture shows that the family are going to eat their dinner; this is represented with the way their arms and hands are positioned. However all the hand gestures are regular hand gestures, the group should have tried using different variations.

3. Facial expression has been used to express emotion, khaled has a smile on his face; this indicates that he is happy. However this expression looks unrealistic so to make this better khaled should have done a more realistic smile.

4. Proxemics has been used by the group to show the spacing between each character. They are all tightly packed in showing a good family atmosphere.

5. The group has tried to use their body language to show the audience that they are a family who are comfortable around each other. This is done well as they are well packed in together and are slouching in towards each other. The posture also shows the same, the way they are sitting around each other shows that they know each other very well.

2ND STILL IMAGE; this still image shows the stage in which the family has received shocking news

1. Facial expression has been used again by Brandon to show the emotions. The facial expressions that have been used by Brandon show that the family are in shock due to something that has happened or due to shocking information they have received. From this image you can see that Brandon has his face wide open while looking at the document. This has been successful as the audience can quickly spot out that Brandon is shocked.

2. Hand gestures have been used by khaled. In this image khaled look like he is holding something such as a young infant or a baby. However, holding a young infant does not fit in the scenario and it seems like it has been put there ‘randomly’. The group should have picked hand gestures that are connected to the situation.

3. The body language and posture between Rebecca and Calleh shows that they are trying to comfort each other as they are in distress; this has been done well as they are both very low down and their head are facing downwards while holding each other.

4. Proxemics has been used again in this image to show the relationship between two individual by putting them very close to each other. From the body image of the two characters, we can tell that they are in great distress and they are trying to comfort each other by holding each other’s arm.

5. The levels show you who are more upset within the family and who are in more distress. We can tell that the men are taking the situation calmly although they are in shock but the women are in more distress.

3rd STILL IMAGE; Stage in which each family member has to leave and make their own way.

1. Brandon has used facial expression; we can tell that he is not happy; in fact he is quite angry and upset about leaving everyone. His facial expressions are quite powerful as it looks realistic.

2. Their postures and body language gives a hint to the audience that they are not happy. Everyone has their head down showing that they are in distress but the character that had the higher authority (Brandon) is looking back at everything.

1. Everyone is now at the same height and stages, this shows that they are all at the same stages and shows that they all have the same values and destiny (they were all going to die).

2. Gestures have been used, each member have put out their hand, this tells the audience that they do not want to leave each other, and want to come back together as a family. Using arms as a method of connection within individuals is quite powerful.

3. Proxemics(the use of space) represent that they are all now separating from each other to go live their own lives, this is shown as they are further apart from each other and there is no way of coming back together.

This group told the audience something new, we were told that Jewish family were like any other families and they lived a normal life such as having family dinners together. Jewish families had nothing that was different from other families but due to new laws and rules they had to leave each other and it’s not very easy to leave someone who is part of your family. This group have worked well as a group to show real emotions and all the gestures they have acted out were realistic making the whole performance realistic and effective.

We analysed the poem at first as a class, we could feel the tension around the classroom building up as we were going through the poem. When the poem was being read by the teacher, it felt like a Jewish boy was talking to us directly, it felt so realistic as when the poem was read out, slow and emotional string music was going on in the background making every individual feel upset and emotional. The mixture of the long and short sentences (stanza) makes an impact. Also I like that the writer has used simple use of vocabulary for such a serious situation. However, while analysing the poem I realised that turning such a serious situation into a performance was hard because we had to bring all the different emotions together.

When we then got into a group to start a performance, we chose music to accompany our performance. Our group chose music that had a slow pace to it, this fitted in well as our performance in a whole was quite slow. However it was very hard to find unique motions for different sections of the poem.

During our performance we put a lot of emphasis on particular words, at the beginning of our performance one individual said; “and thrown into the fire”. We put emphasis on the word ‘thrown’ by saying it together at the same time with a strong loud voice and the person, who started the sentence alone, finishes the sentence. This made it so much powerful as it tells the audience how bad the Jewish were treated and makes the audience think. Also when shouting a powerful word out in a quiet surrounding, the audience gets shocked and feel more emotional towards the performance. When saying it we also dropped on the floor making it more effective as it was quite loud.

“Lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers”; we gave each word to different individual and they all said it in unison. I was sitting in the middle as a child ‘who had dreams, then had no hope’ with each character saying one word that was a career which I could have had. After saying their career they walked off, this showed that the dream I had, has gone and I have now no hope. Saying it unison made an effect as it shows how it not only affected a group of people, but it affected every individual deeply.

We also used echoes. “We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe” The lights completely switched off and we all came together in a circle facing outwards. When the light turned back on I started saying ‘we were taken away in the dead of night’ then another individual said ‘like cattle in cars, no air to breathe’. The other two individuals where quietly whispering ‘no air to breathe’ creating an echo. It made the atmosphere feel tensed and spooky. We could have improved this as the lights were not switched on and off at the correct times not giving us enough time to go into our position, we should have made it clear to the person who was doing the lighting. Also as we panicked about the light we forgot few bits which we had to say together.

“Smothering, Crying, Starving, Dying”, we all had a particular word to say and while saying it got into a position. We were all in a line in a different level. The person who said ‘Smothering’ were stood higher up and the person who said ‘dying’ was completely on the floor. This showed the different stages a Jewish person went through. Saying it in unison showed that everyone went through the same stages and ended up in the same place ‘dying’. I think this really worked well as saying it in unison and doing the movement to match the word really explained each stage that a Jewish individual had to go through.

“From the ashes, hear our plea”; we said ‘hear our plea’ together as it made it more clear to the audience that ALL the Jewish children were upset and frustrated and wanted someone to listen to them. Our motion to this was sitting on the floor with our arms out looking upwards as if we were praying to have justice and for people to listen to us. I think we could have improved this by saying this together at the same time and improve our timings.

“This atrocity to mankind can not happen again”; we shouted out ‘can not’ together to show our anger against what has happened and show that this certainly cannot happen again. I personally believe this worked well as it showed our anger because we did not shout many things out so shouting these particular words out really meant something.

At the end we all got in a line and sat down, we then each said few words from this sentence; remember us/, for we were the children/ whose dreams and lives/ were stolen away. After saying our section we looked down and the lights slowly switched off. I think this was a good end because it seemed like we came back from dead to give a message to everyone and then went back.

I believe that we worked well as a group and rehearsed well towards our performance. We had few errors during our performance in which one individual forgot to say something and some repetition were forgotten but these errors were not noticeable.

Comparison of the Rwanda Genocide with the Holocaust The events of both Rwanda and the Holocaust were equally horrific parts of history that will never be forgotten. In the years of April and June of 1994, the Rwanda genocide occurred. The history behind this was the resentment of being inferior. When Belgium claimed Rwanda and surrounding areas for German East Africa in about 1924, there became tension between two tribes.

The Belgiums favored the Tutsi (which were 12% of the population) and the Hutu (85% of population) grew angry for being considered inferior. This struggle waged on for sixty years and finally hit its peak. The catalyst of the genocide was when President Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan leader and Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. The Hutus blamed the Tutsi for his death and with various other problems, the true battles began. When a Tutsi ruler took control, the Hutus were greatly angered.

The Tutsis and their supporters were being slaughtered in anger and retribution. Most of Rwanda’s population took action in this event, spreading the genocide throughout the nation. About 800,000 people died in this tragedy. Though both events were in different time periods, the Rwanda genocide and the Holocaust are very similar to each other. Both were the killing of a specific group(s) of people. People in both genocides killed their friends and even family members, whether directly or indirectly.

Hundreds of thousands and even millions of innocent people were sentenced to death just by a prejudice of others. Anyone or anything that was associated with Jews or Tutsis were completely decimated. Both groups tried to flee to safety, whether that was Sweden or Zaire. However, a difference in these two genocides is that the Jews were pulled into concentration camps, where they stayed, awaiting their deaths. In Rwanda, the Tutsis were killed outright and there was not a specific organization that led in these attacks.

The genocides in both Germany and Rwanda were eventually stopped with the help of outside forces. The casualties in these events are still remembered and still have a great impact on the world. However, the casualties in Rwanda still climb over the years that have passed, but this is not part of the genocide because both Tutsis and Hutus were being killed by the opposite sides. The Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide are some of the darkest moments in history that have affected the world in ways that will never be forgotten.

Why the Holocaust Didn’t Happen,” the author, only identified as Ted, puts forth a list of reasons that individuals who are already convinced that the Holocaust is a myth can use to persuade others. It is found on a forum called The CODOH Revisionist Forum, a website that lends itself specifically as a safe space for Holocaust revisionists. The post begins with a few sentences of introduction, briefly mentioning why it can be hard for many to give his point of view a chance. He goes on to criticize the media, comparing them to the church during the dark ages in the way that they can withhold information, with random and slightly irrelevant statements sprinkled throughout. He concludes the preface with the statement “No proof has even been given that 6 million were murdered,” and proceeds to go more in depth.

The rest of the article is arranged in a numbered list format. The reasons are listed unsystematically, each one being followed by explanations of varying length. Many of his reasons focus on criticizing the media for refusing to allow Holocaust revisionists to have a voice. Others try to prove the Holocaust either scientifically or fiscally impossible. He makes many statements that attempt to paint witnesses and historians as liars, and goes as far as to accuse many of having an agenda that would benefit from the falsification of an atrocity such as the Holocaust.

The article is void of a concluding paragraph, instead ending on a proof numbered 50, consisting of three unrelated and vague statements that offer nothing but confusion. Brown 2The posting as a whole is a vague and disorganized mess. Failure to proofread is obvious; there is no clear form of organization, it is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and irrelevant ramblings are left in the middle of what could have been a strong statement.

The author manages to include a few decent rhetorical questions that can cause a feeling of doubt to arise in the reader, but the evidence included is rarely tacked on to these. When evidence is used it is often either false, from an unknown source lacking in credibility, or merely quoted and left unexplained. The author’s argument is presented in an unorganized and visually cluttered manner. Contradictory to the title reason five is skipped, reducing the list to only forty-nine author specified reasons.

The evidence is often listed in a fashion that betrays the numbering, with a shift in focus occurring multiple times within one section. For example, instead of expanding on the statement, “Reinhold Elstner burnt himself alive in protest against the holocaust lies,” that begins the concluding reason, we see an illogical shift in discussion topic to “German farmers are told to shut up if they find bones and try to arrange their burial” (Reason 50).

Many pieces of evidence appear on screen as if the formatting was ruined in a copy-paste mishap with unnecessary jumps to new lines appearing prior to the end of the quote. While not terrible, it can be slightly confusing for the reader when it appears that a new paragraph has been started, only to see that the quote continues on. This author makes similar mistakes when it comes to expanding upon his case, again including unnecessary jumps in spacing when simply starting a new sentence would be sufficient.

Vague statements, “Germans highly civilised and more so than the Brits and Yanks etc.,” (Reason 40) fragments, “Obliteration propaganda.,” (Reason 32) and run on sentences and comma splices “People can’t understand how so many eyewitnesses can lie, they have seen the television programmes,” (Reason 2) litter the posting. In addition, the Brown 3author occasionally goes on racist tirades that add little to his argument and can deter readers who may come looking for an unbiased argument.

For example, “Are Jewish lives worth more or something? And if we are westerners why should we give a damn? Are we too gentle to survive in a harsh world?” (Reason 20). The above coupled with the frequent spelling errors further add to the confusion that could be experienced by the reader, making it look more like a set of notes meant to be understood only by the author than an article intended for consumption. It even contains conventional errors in the title, with the failure to capitalize any word in it and the lack of an apostrophe for the word “didn’t.”

While the posting is filled with links and quotations, often they are either unreliable, false, or left without explanation. While it is rather easy for a reader to look up a name that is mentioned, attempting to establish credibility for sources within the piece could add weight to what one pulls from a source. Writings from individuals such as David Irving, a revisionist author, are linked without even formally identifying him in. Some quotes are even from individuals identified in ways as vaguely as “one guy on the BBC,” (Reason 6) and “From a letter from the British ministry of information,” (Reason 10).

In the author’s attempt to criticize the media, he claims that they have made repeated efforts to silence those critical of the Holocaust; however, not one specific example is listed. In his attempts to criticize accounts given at the Nuremberg trials, he claims that “It takes about 5 minutes of reading the Nuremberg documents to realise that the Holocaust is a hoax,” (Reason 8) but again, gives not one clear example. He continues to claim “Violation of Occam’s razor, again and again,” (Reason 12) an extremely vague statement that is expanded upon only by asking the reader to examine the counterargument of a book.

The author could have very easily added weight to his argument by citing at least one example, but he neglected to do so. Due to the lack of concrete evidence used in the author’s attempts at making logical appeals, the strength of this posting is rooted in the author’s ability to manipulate the reader’s emotions. In quoting a 1958 text from Tel Aviv, “If some know-it-all tries to expose you, the others will not listen to him and will condemn him, because by exposing you he is proving them guilty of stupidity, and the crowd will not forgive this,” (Reason 2) the author provides a statement that can make the readers feel somewhat guilty for their refusal to question what they have been taught.

Decent use of figurative language is employed to describe the media with the metaphor “The carrot and stick are there to make people obey” (Reason 26), which again can pull on people’s fear that they have overlooked something. His plays on fear and guilt do begin to get somewhat excessive at times, as his deliberate use of language becomes offensive. In using phrases such as “politically retarded,” (Reason 16) “The parallels with religious arguments should make intelligent people suspicious,” (Reason 34) and “Only an idiot would believe in stories such as lampshades of human skin,” (Reason 40) to describe those who disagree with him, the author may invoke an insecurity in some readers that can cause them to give his viewpoint a second chance.

Just as easily, however, it can cause readers to disregard the writings due to the offense that they may take. The author’s attempt to create a list of reasons that would help a fellow revisionist argue their case mostly for naught. While like-minded individuals can pull some rhetorical questions to get others thinking, there is little offered in way of credible argument material. It is organized in an unpleasant and confusing fashion that makes the posting almost unreadable.

The grammatical errors and failure to proofread suggest an apathy, or perhaps an intellectual incompetence, from the author that does not help his case. Individuals who are willing to look can surely find something to aid them in whatever they sought the posting for, but for a casual reader not Brown 5desperate for argument material, the posting is comically inarticulate and slightly frightening when the sincerity behind the writing is considered.

Work Cited

1. Ted. “50 Reasons Why the Holocaust Didnt Happen.” The CODOH Revisionist Forum, 25 Aug. 2004, https://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t

Bullying and the Holocaust: Competition versus Cooperation When an animal is faced with starvation it often turns to cannibalism and may attack and kill a weaker animal of the same species. The German Nazis followed this system of competition versus cooperation. The Nazis felt they had no other choice to survive than to kill millions of Jews, Gypsies, and disabled people. After the Holocaust, researchers uncovered many Journals kept by those who were persecuted.

Here is a short exert from a fourteen year old girl: “October 27, 1937: The other girls and I were moved for the sixth time today. This time they moved us to a factory closer to Auschwitz. I’m beginning to fear that I’m at the end and I might die soon. At some points I wish they would go ahead and kill me so I wouldn’t have to endure this pain. Through all of this I still don’t understand why the Nazis hate us. We never did anything to them. I often wish someone would speak up on our behalf and save us from this terrible life. Looking back on the Holocaust people wonder xactly why no one spoke up and fought for the persecuted for so long during the war. It was like they were all students in school who pretended not to notice when someone was getting bullied so they didn’t have to get involved in it. Half of the mass slaughter of the Holocaust was due to bullying by peer pressure. People felt pressured by others to turn in Jews to Nazi officials. They wanted to save themselves and let the Jews be persecuted.

As this happened more often no one even thought twice about it and had little regret that they probably Just sent omeone to their death. 2 As a part of the “Final Solution”, the Nazis did everything possible to exterminate the Jews. Through all of the hateful words, excruciating torture methods, and unreasonable forced labor, the Nazis believed that they threatened their way of life and the world would be better without them. World War II and the Holocaust officially ended on May 8, 1945, but only about two-thirds of the Jewish population remained.

WWII and the Holocaust were two key events of the 20th century. Each had their own causes and historical factors leading up to their development. While the two events occurred close to each other each developed independently and neither was cause for the other. Anti-Jewish prejudice has a long history and was present in Germany long before WWII. The German people elected the Nazi party and it was its rise to power that lead to WWII. The Nazi party had many other strange policies that, while not as extreme as the Jewish policies, were odd and extreme in different way.

The roots of WWII are based on the Nazi party’s economic policies and not as a mask for genocide. Therefore WWII was not a cause of the Holocaust and it was not used as a mask for the Holocaust. Prejudice against Jews has existed from pre B. C. times through the Holocaust to the present day. There are countless examples throughout history of Jewish persecution. One of the earliest references to other nationalities persecuting Jews is told in the Bible’s Book of Exodus. The Exodus of the Israelites (Jews) from Egypt is the theme described in the above-mentioned book after the Egyptians treated them as slaves.

In the First Crusade, 1096, communities on the Rhine and the Danube were utterly destroyed. In the Second Crusade, 1147, the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds’ Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including in, 1290, the banishing of all English Jews; in 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France; and, in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. These examples show how throughout history Jews have been persecuted and discriminated against by various nations.

Several European writers twisted Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to suggest there was a hierarchy of races with Jews at the bottom. “In addition, misuse of the theory of evolution was an important factor in the extreme forms of racism, especially that against blacks and Jews, that flourished at the turn of the century and for many years beyond. ” This quotation helps support the idea that The Theory of Evolution has been used in only extreme cases of racism and the Nazi party used this theory to prove that Jews are inferior.

Jews have been portrayed as moneylenders and manipulators of financial systems. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the character Shylock is a Jew and seen as the villain of the story. To begin with the Merchant of Venice, for most of the history of the reception of the play, Shylock has been seen as fundamentally an unsympathetic character if not a villain. He is also often seen as a caricature of a grasping, vicious and resentful Jew. The debate is not about whether or not Shylock is bad, but really is about whether Shylock is bad because he is a bad Jew or bad because he is simply a Jew.

This quotation, as said by Hussein Ibish, proves that even Shakespeare was racist towards Jews. This is another historical example that the Nazis used to suggest that the Jews were the cause of the poor German economy. The Nazi party tapped into shared German feelings of the above points to rise in popularity with the voters. The Nazi party utilized the German people’s prejudices and worries to get democratically elected. Due to the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI, Germany was sentenced to make payments to the victors.

This crushed the German economy and made the people unhappy and in search of someone who could bring them out of this mess. The Nazi party rose in popularity due to poor economic conditions and the people’s fear of the rise of the communist party given the mess that Russia was in due to communism. In December of 1928, Joseph Goebbels posted an essay to persuade the Germans not to buy goods from the Jews. The essay was called “Deutsche, kauft nur bei Juden! ” When translated, it means “Germans: Don’t buy from the Jew! He believed the Jews produced bad quality goods and would cheat you out of a good price. Because the Jew sells cheap, but shoddy merchandise, whereas the German sets a proper price for good merchandise. Because the Jew cheats you, whereas the German treats you fairly and honestly. Because you can buy all sorts of trash from the Jew, but the German sells mostly only quality goods. The Nazi party promised a solution to the economic problem that was affecting all of Germany. In 1928 the Nazi party came in 2nd and by the 1932 election they won the majority of seats. The economy was still in crisis.

In the election of July 1932, the Nazi Party won 37% of the Reichstag seats, thanks to a massive propaganda campaign. For the next six months, the most powerful German leaders were embroiled in a series of desperate political maneuverings. Ultimately, these major players severely underestimated Hitler’s political abilities. It was the people of Germany that put Nazi party in power which caused them to takeover and become greedy with power. In January 1933 Hitler was appointed German Chancellor. In the March 1933 final election the parliament votes to give Chancellor total power putting an end to the Catholic party.

Later that year, President Hindenburg died and Hitler blended the two roles of President and Chancellor under the title of Der Fuhrer. The people had so much faith in the Nazi party that they allowed them to take complete control by democratic elections. The people voted in the Nazi party which allowed them to enact numerous extreme policies. The Nazi party also had many other oppressive policies at this time besides the anti-Jewish ones. The party promoted removing women from the workforce to help male employment rates and offered money to women to have kids; more kids more money.

The money came from taxing single men and childless families heavily. On November 14, 1935 a law was passed banning German marriage to gypsies, negroes and people of mixed race (this would include jews). NOVEMBER 14, 1935? NUREMBERG LAW EXTENDED TO OTHER GROUPS? The first supplemental decree of the Nuremberg Laws extends the prohibition on marriage or sexual relations between people who could produce “racially suspect” offspring. A week later, the minister of the interior interprets this to mean relations between “those of German or related blood” and Roma (Gypsies), blacks, or their offspring.

This policy displays how the Nazi party was not just racist towards Jews, but they viewed themselves as the dominant race above all others. Women were expected to have at least 4 children and if they did they received a medal every year on the birthday of Hitler’s grandmother. The Nazi party also forced teachers to follow revised textbooks. School lessons were based on Nazi ideas. Math problems involved calculations about bombing targeted countries such as Poland and killing invalids. Schools were single sex and girls were educated much differently.

They studied no foreign languages and the only subjects they were taught related to cooking and childcare. By changing the textbooks for children in school is made Germans look good in history; history has to show they are the superior race and make up for the fact that they lost WWI. The Nazi party also banned Mickey Mouse and Disney movies. The fate of Mickey Mouse under the Third Reich offers a bizarre insight into the impact of Nazi policies relating to the media and the control of ideas. … Hitler ordered the Disney films featuring him and other cartoon characters to be banned.

The Nazis accused Walt Disney himself of having Jewish ancestry and feared that his innocent-seeming cartoons threatened Germans with being ‘infected by undesirable cultural influences’. Even more striking is the interpretation that Mickey Mouse … could be seen as positively symbolizing the Jewish ‘outsider” overcoming adversity and that, Hitler loathed the portrayal of the mouse as clean and harmless since his propaganda machine was focused on representing Jews as dirty vermin. Walt Disney was thought to be a Jew and mice are vermin, like Jews.

This goes to show how twisted the minds of the Nazi party really were to ban an innocent cartoon character because of what it could be morphed to stand for. It wasn’t until 1941, well after the start of the war, that the Nazis decided to kill the Jews and began sending them to extermination camps in eastern European countries such as Poland. This was the Holocaust. This policy was created by Hitler’s senior officers in the party (Himmler, Heydrich and Eichmann) and Hitler allowed it. This policy was not made public and only after the war ended was the full extent of it discovered.

The Nazi party also had extreme solutions for their economic issues. The attention of the Belgian, Czechoslovak, G reek, Jugoslav, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norwegian, Polish, Soviet, United Kingdom and United States Governments and also of the French National Committee has been drawn to numerous reports from Europe that the German authorities, not content with denying to persons of Jewish race in all the territories over which their barbarous rule has been extended, the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler’s oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe.

This was the most extreme of the policies, but it was just another policy, not the idea intended from the start. The above policies show that the Nazis could provide extreme solutions and this will be shown in their economic solutions as well. The true cause of WWII flows from the Nazi party solution to Germanys economic problems. The Nazi solution to shortages was to create a plan to acquire more land and raw materials. I today present the following as the new Four-Year Plan.

In four years Germany must be wholly independent of foreign areas in those materials which can be produced in any way through German ability, through our chemical and machine industry, as well as through our mining industry. The re-building of this great German raw material industry will serve to give employment to the masse. This quotation was a proclamation from Hitler proving that the Nazis was not just simply to take over. They were mainly focused on acquiring more raw materials. Germany deployed the strategy by taking over Austria, parts of France and Czechoslovakia. He attached Austria to Germany in just few days, without the help of his army. In fact his generals were against an Austrian invasion. Italy was supposed to defend Austria; they had a pact. Italy did not respond; not against Hitler. ” Britain and France continued to let Hitler expand more in hopes he would soon be satisfied, but their assumptions were wrong and he continued to expand. In an effort to avoid war, the leaders of several European countries met in Munich to discuss how to avoid war and establish a peaceful Europe.

Hitler demanded parts of Czechoslovakia be absorbed into Germany, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed, giving Hitler a chunk of Czechoslovakia that was home to three million ethnic Germans. With these deal in place, Chamberlain believed he had satisfied the German war machine. Germany expanded into other countries while Britain and France foolishly allowed it. Germany invading Poland was finally too much for Britain and France to handle so on September 3, 1939 they declared war. At 4:45 a. . , some 1. 5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. … Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. Germanys invasion per their economic policy pushed France and Britain too far and finally triggered the war. It was Germanys economic policy of expansions that triggered the war, nothing else.

The above paragraphs of historical fact show that the war started before the Holocaust and its causes were independent of the causes of the Holocaust. We have seen how prejudice against Jews has built up over time and how the Nazi party took it to the extreme by starting a mass genocide in 1941 – the Holocaust. We have also seen that the Nazi solution to Germany’s economic problems relied on taking over countries to get resources and cheap labour, which eventually lead to the declaration of war in 1939. These were two independent paths.

War was declared before the Holocaust and for reasons that had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The world didn’t even know in 1939 about the atrocity that was to come. This it is clear from historical fact that WWII was neither a cause of the Holocaust or a mask for it. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Bible Gate Way, Exodus 1:8-14 http://www. biblegateway. com/passage/? search=Exodus+1&version=GNT [ 2 ]. Wikipedia, “History of the Jews and the Crusades. ” http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_and_the_Crusades [ 3 ]. Dr.

Jerry Bergman, “Darwinism, Evolution, and Racism. ” Bible Believers, http://www. biblebelievers. net/creationscience/kjcevol1. htm [ 4 ]. Hussein Ibish, “Anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta,” The Weblog of Hussein Ibish, http://ibishblog. com/blog/hibish/2009/12/05/anti_semitism_merchant_venice_and_jew_malta [ 5 ]. Joseph Goebbels, “Germans, Buy only from the Jews!. ” Calvin College – Minds In The Making. (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP. , 1935), pp. 331-333 http://www. calvin. edu/academic/cas/gpa/angrif10. htm [ 6 ]. The Florida

Gevorg Petrosyan Professor Wonser Intro to Sociology 23 June 2012 Final Project, Assignment 2: Nazi Germany and Holocaust The Holocaust was the genocide of around six million European Jews during World War II. (Holocaust History) Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler had targeted every single Jew to be perished. Unfortunately Nazi Germany succeeded to murder two-thirds of the nine million Jews who were stationed in Europe. (Holocaust History) The Holocaust can be viewed at in many sociological perspectives of the sociologists mind. Adolf Hitler used everything in his power to exterminate any non-German ethnic that lived in Germany. Hitler) Authority played a key point in the Holocaust against the Jews. The following are the many perspectives of this horrific act against humanity. One of the main sociological perspectives that fall into Nazi Germany and how Holocaust was looked at was social stratification. The Aryan race was supreme; anybody else was lower then they. (Nazi SS) Jews, homosexuals, handicapped, prisoners of war, and minority groups were all prosecuted. As talked about in lecture, Max Weber’s theory of social class portrayed Adolf Hitler’s wealth, power, and prestige. Hitler used these components to his advantage and started an empire.

Brainwashing Germans to hate and murder humans that are not in their “social class”, as said the Aryan race. Social class and inequality played a big role for the non-Aryan. Everything was stripped away from them such as cars, money, children, clothes, food, and eventually their hope. The people of culture of poverty had strong feeling of not belonging, helplessness, no faith, and all hope was gone. Jews and others were treated as aliens or non-humans. Adolf Hitler was a functionalist in my point of view because in that way he would think social stratification was both natural and beneficial to society.

He promoted deviance in the way of the labeling theory. If you are not Aryan or German you are not welcome and also considered as a threat. (Nazi SS) In that case you are labeled through judgment and that changes the way others respond to you. Another labeling theory in the Holocaust was the yellow Star of David patch. This patch often put against right side of the chest, implemented and labeled the person as a “Jude”. Nazi persecutions used this to label to their prosecutors in an organized way. (Nazi SS) With this patch you had implanted in your mind that you are going to die.

It was intended to be the badge of shame and now the public knew you as a Jew. The Jude community was treated like dogs; they were given a name and badge similar to dog tag or collar, and looked upon as animals. Erving Goffman’s term of stigma was given to the Jewish because of their social attribute. Nazi Germany used all three types of stigma in their society such as physical for the impaired or handicapped, moral for mentally challenged, and tribal for Jewish and other non-Aryan or German. The Erving Goffman’s term of stigma was lectured in class. Nazi Germany was big in-group created by Adolf Hitler.

They felt loyalty and brotherhood towards each other. Anyone besides them was a major out-group, such as the Jews. The rivalry and hatred they had for the Jews was a usual thing by other fellow Nazi. Such a big in-group had and influence on any Nazi to believe what they were doing is right. Group cohesion strongly powered the Nazi for the loyalty and solidarity. All the members felt strongly tied to each other as family in a way. Any one else was not like them and was to be treated differently. Adolf Hitler’s social influence was the image to all Nazi.

His social influence gave them their individual attitudes and behaviors towards others. This became ideal for a dictator, because the group norms made the members want to gain acceptance to their own country. Any negative sanctions were looked down upon and so Germans followed one after another into agreement. Weber’s idea of charismatic authority fell into the category of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler served in the army and soon enough became known as the “Furher” of Germany. (Hitler 1) Hitler’s demanding voice and humorless speeches dominated audiences.

He had all the qualities of a leader from the minute he was born. He didn’t like taking orders from his own strict father. (Hitler 1) Hitler also had many bureaucracies under him, such as the SS. The Schutzstaffel translated to Protection Squad was responsible for many of the crimes towards humanity during World War II. Heinrich Himmler was in charge of a vast bureaucratic empire. He was responsible for the SS, as well as the municipal police. (Nazi SS 4) The SS was feared amongst all Jews because of their deadly rules and punishments.

These bureaucracies were so useful to the empire because they ran all the operations needed for power. Hitler used them to keep order and organization between the country, plus not to get his hands dirty. The Nazi Empire and Holocaust was made up of many total institutions. First one would be the military; Hitler knew he had to get the military on his side and soon will obey any command. Soon the military had a mortification of self in which they were brainwashed to dehumanize Jews. They were taught to have “racially pure” Germany and life. (Chronicle 2) The Holocaust wasn’t carried out by crazy or unusually violent people.

The SS deliberately tried to ensure that those responsible for the actual killings were not especially eager, or emotional. They wanted the task to be as business-like and impersonal as possible. (Nazi SS 4) People stop worrying about what the ‘right’ thing to do is because the right thing is always to do what you’re told, and that was because of discipline and authority. Another total institution would be the death camps or also known as concentration camps. Which norms or laws were among the prisoners society? The prisoners had a whole new social life.

Resocialization took an impact on them to which fighting for survival was needed and communications between prisoners and officers. Some type of achieved status controlled the whole environment of the prisoners and changed their outlook on life, which soon enough became a mortification of self. Prisoners under hunger, extreme working conditions, and terror of death mortified one to go toe extreme lengths of survival by obeying every rule given or going slowly insane to the point of no return. (Chronicle 2) One of the most disastrous theories for the Holocaust would be dehumanization.

What people failed to realize why the Holocaust happened was because what the people were enabling each other to do. (Holocaust History 3) All they did was gather statistics and data and didn’t realize that it was human beings for those stats. The order is different from the act because the person who gave the order doesn’t interpret in their head what kind of order they just gave and the action part of it. The generals and Nazi didn’t focus on the fact that they were committing mass murder to a great amount of human beings with families and connections.

There actions weren’t “bad” at the time so no problem in doing it but when later on in life they realize what they’ve done is very different outlook. The Holocaust would have been impossible without the advancements of modern society. The slaughtering of Jews and other was just like a factory but instead of producing goods, it was producing death. Without modern industrialization and technology they would have never killed mass amounts of people that fast. Gas chambers, trains importing prisoners, concentration camps, not much food source for prisoners, and workload were all components to modern society. Chronicle 3) This is what moved the genocide to speed up its movement of extermination. Letting Adolf Hitler get to his achieved status brought up to Holocaust idea. Without letting him get to this status of “Furher”. He would not turn a great country into a mass murdering empire of bureaucracies. His speeches, authority, leadership skills, and discipline is what made the Nazi Empire what it was. His authority and discipline is what made the soldiers make the choice they made. Why did Hitler target the Jews mostly?

Why not another race? He blamed Jews for everything that happened within the country such as lost of World War I, and for the Great Depression. (Hitler 1) He also hated Jews because he regarded them as mostly Communist. (Hitler 1) Society killed the Jews because of their statuses and way of life. Jews were the most significantly affected by the Holocaust but others were targeted too. These included political opponents, soviet prisoners of war, communists, homosexuals, mentally challenged, non-Aryan, and gypsies. Holocaust History 3) They labeled it as “people that were killed in Holocaust” and didn’t seem to realize how it affected those peoples families and friendships. To this day Jews still mourn over the six million that died. Germany also takes in the guilt of what their country has done in the past. The Holocaust affected such large numbers and was one of the most mass killing genocides. It is taught all around the world in textbooks and classes. Society revolves under it because now Jews are looked at differently even if they deny someone doesn’t.

“Night” by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography in which Elie’s life during the Holocaust is explained. Elie Wiesel uses imagery, figurative language, and pathos as tools to express the horrors he experienced while living through a nightmare, the Holocaust. Elie describes his experiences with imagery. “Open rooms everywhere. Gaping doors and windows looked out into the woid. It all belonged to everyone since it no longer belonged to anyone. ” “Some were crying. They used whatever strength they had left to cry. Why had they let themselves be brought here?

Why didn’t they die in their beds? Their words were interspersed with sobs. ” (35). Elie explains how people reacted to finding their friends alive. You can picture how desperately they cried with an understanding as to why they were crying. “The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing. And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death…He was still alive when I passed him.

His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished” (64-65). As a way to show control, keep fear and prevent rebellion, “prisoners” were hung. Elie describes the gruesome hanging of a young boy as he died a slow, painful death. The imagery throughout the book describes, with detail, things that couldn’t be imagined alone. Elie writes his autobiography with figurative language. “My soul had been invaded-and devoured-by a black flame” (37). Elie no longer felt like he was living. He uses a metaphor to compare the feeling of his defeat to his soul being eaten. All I could hear was the violin, and it was as if Juliek’s soul had become his bow. He was playing his life. His whole being was gliding over the strings. His unfulfilled hopes. His charred past, his extinguished future. ” (95). Elie meets Juliek, a man he knew before who played the violin in the Buna band, at the concentration camp in Buchenwald, and as Juliek plays his violin, Elie sees it as Julie expressing how he felt. Elie writes how Juliek and his violin symbolized everyone’s thoughts and feelings.

Using different types of figurative language, Elie conveys the feelings of defeat and anguish they felt. The element of pathos is also used by Elie as means to describe his experience as he appeals to our emotions. “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this with my own eyes … children thrown into the flames. ” (32). Elie describes how the ones that couldn’t work were treated.

Because children were seen as a hindrance to the work, they were burned to their death. Even babies who haven’t had the chance to live life were mercilessly murdered. “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. ” (86). Elie was in so much pain living, her felt that dying would feel better then living. He was suffering so much to the point where he would even accept death if it came.

Elie writes with pathos, as he appeals to the readers’ emotions. Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, “Night”, uses many components in writing a story that would indulge readers as they read how he lived and felt during the Holocaust. He uses things such as imagery, figurative language, and pathos as means to do so. The pain, the horrors, the fear, the defeat felt during that nightmare, the Holocaust; things that we wouldn’t ever be able to truly understand unless we experienced it, he tries his best to speak of his experience as a survivor.