Abstract Elie Wiesel is best known for his autobiographical novel, "Night", which tells about his experiences as a young boy in the Holocaust. This paper examines his life story, the atrocities he faced, and his incredible ability to come through it all to become one of the most recognized speakers for the downtrodden and persecuted around the globe. The paper also touches on criticism Wiesel faced regarding his supposed disregard for the rights of Palestinians. It also touches on the role of women in the Holocaust.
From the Paper "Other countries, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, have taken similar actions and are addressing the issue of property stolen from their Jewish population during World War II. Poland has begun to face atrocities committed in that country against Jews in World War II as well. Wiesel can rightly be credited with helping bring some of these changes about because of his tireless efforts to expose to the world what really happened during the Holocaust."
Abstract This essay takes a brief look at the meteoric rise of Nazism, a phenomenon that brought destruction and grief to millions of people. It also takes a look at the causes behind its rise in Germany.
From the Paper "The most immediate cause of the formation of the Nazi Party and the subsequent rise of Nazism was the aftermath of World War I in which Germany was defeated and humiliated under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Under the one-sided terms of the treaty, Germany was solely held responsible for the war, stripped of its colonial empire , its armed forces largely disbanded, and the Rhineland permanently demilitarized and occupied by Allied forces for an indefinite period. (Jarman, p. 75) Most of all, the provision kept in the Treaty for "reparations" as compensation to the Allies for the damage caused by Germany, created the greatest resentment among the Germans. Even J. M. Keynes, then the Treasury representative at the Conference convened for the Treaty, pointed out that Germany would be unable to make the payments."
Tags: adolf, hitler, fascism, post-world, war, i, europe, worker's, party, munich, weimar, republic, social, democrats
Abstract This paper examines how many critics and theorists have speculated about the reasons behind fascism and the horror of the holocaust in Nazi Germany before and during the Second World War, how violence was prevalent, and how Hitler used it to alternately intimidate and incite his followers. It attempts to determine the roots of these causes by examining the historical and social context that made Germany so ripe for fascism and dictatorship by 1933.
Outline
Historical Context: The Weimar Republic
World War 1 and Political Upheaval
The Treaty of Versailles
The Economy
Hitler and the Socialist Workers? Party
The Golden Era
The Rise of Hitler and Fascism
Social Context: Functionalism
Structural Functionalism
Function
Structures
Interdependence
Equilibrium
Consensus
Conclusion
From the Paper "The German political structure in World War I (from 1916) had been subordinate to the military. At this time the country was an Empire, ruled by the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), or the Supreme Army Command. The Chief of Staff at this time was Paul von Hindenburg. At the end of the War the OHL installed a civil government for the benefit of the remainder of Germany after the war. The 1971 constitution was then amended. The Reich (Empire) had become a parliamentary democracy. The Parliament, or the Reichstag, instead of the Emperor, was now responsible for the political welfare of Germany. Such welfare was almost unattainable however, as the end of war meant returning soldiers. The fact that many of these soldiers were wounded both physically and psychologically brought chaos to the German society."
Abstract This paper compares the content and tone of two short stories, "If Not Higher" by I.L. Peretz and ""The Kozshenitser Rebe" by Binyamin Orenshtayn, in an effort to determine if the authors were affected by the Holocaust and the great wars that took place between the time the two stories were written. The paper concludes that the authors were indeed affected by these events, as was Jewish literature in general, and, by comparing the literature, we can see a shift from a religious and faith centered approach to life to a socially motivated and political approach to life.
From the Paper "The Yiddish short story "If Not Higher" by I.L. Peretz was published in Warsaw in 1900, decades before the holocaust. Fifty years later, the short supposedly true story of "The Kozshenitser Rebe" was published in Yiddish by Orenshtayn in a book of memorials to Jewish leaders. Both stories tell of the behavior of a specific (assumably Hassidic) rebe on an important Jewish holiday. However, apart from this basic similarity, these two stories are radically different. This may be partly a function of having different authors and of coming from different historical areas. However, if the differences between style and content with these two works is indicative not of the personal styles of the authors, then one is left with another option: namely that the striking differences between these two works is a result of the holocaust and the slaughter of the Jewry of Eastern European. If these two works are representative of the short story genre before and after the holocaust, then it appears that this traumatic event may have drastically changed the way that Eastern European Jews view themselves and their culture."
Abstract This paper explains that Hitler believed that to achieve his dream of a pure racial state in Germany, he had to totally eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth. The author points out that the first working session of the Reichszentrale began the process of concentrating all matters concerning Jewish emigration into the hands of the police. The paper relates that in the concentration camps German doctors practiced "medical experiments", known as eugenics, on the Jews in which experiments were made regarding the purity of German blood as opposed to that of the Jews.
From the Paper "Hitler's first stage of this act toward racial purity and a racial state was aimed at accomplishing two ends?first, Germany had to purge itself of its internal enemies, and second, Germany had to make itself strong. The first step in this process was purgation, which had been achieved with the promulgation of the laws of 1933 and the Nuremberg Laws. At the end of August of 1936, Hitler went to Berchtesgaden, where he prepared his memorandum on the Four Year Plan. A portion of this document provided for the expropriation of all Jews when Germany went to war, for the Reichstag was to pass a law "making the whole of Jewry liable for all damages inflicted by individual specimens . . . upon the German economy and thus upon the German people"."
Argues that a history of anti-Semitism in Europe became justified by religion and paved the way to the social and political climate that led to the Holocaust.
Abstract Thousands of years of anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe became rooted and emboldened in the Christian religion. This paper traces the development of anti-Semitism from the late Greco-Roman era through the life of Christ, the Crusades, and the Protestant Reformation. As Robert Wistrich observes, ?Only on a soil watered for centuries by such fearsome demonology could the Holocaust have been conceived, let alone carried out with so little opposition.?
From the Paper "In his 1543 work "Concerning the Jews and Their Lies" Luther presents a case against Jews and calls for retribution for their crimes against Christianity. He makes the familiar comparison between Jews and the satanic when he writes "If they are not God's people, then they are the devil's people" (Rubenstein and Roth, 57). He proposed setting fire to Jewish synagogues and schools because they were the source of the "lying, cursing, and blaspheming" against the Christian religion (Wistrich, 13). Luther further advises the German rulers to revoke the passports and traveling privileges of all Jews and to make them "earn their bread by the sweat of their noses" through hard labor (Wistrich, 13)."
Abstract This paper summarizes "Night" by Elie Wiesel and explains how the book is about Wiesel's gradual loss of faith as a result of his experiences in the camps.
From the Paper "Night by Elie Wiesel was first published in English in 1960 and gave the most chilling and most faithful account of his experiences during the Holocaust. We have heard a lot about concentration camps and how Jews were made to suffer simply because of their religion, however this book gives us something deeper to think about. The book studies the Holocaust experience in the light of Jewish beliefs and the author narrates the gradual loss of his faith in God. The novel begins with a normal description of life in Elie Wiesel's house. This is done to show how devout a Jew he was and how firmly he believed in God before all was taken away by the Holocaust. "I believe profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." (p.13) He was a strong believer in the powers of God and saw Him as an absolutely fair and just Creator. The book opens in the year 1943 when Elie's family and others in his Hungarian town of Sighet had not yet heard of concentration camps or Nazi atrocities. A pious Jew man who had been imparting religious knowledge to Elie tells everyone of his experience during a brief journey when all his fellow Jews were brutally killed by Nazi forces. It is not easy for the villagers to trust his stories but eventually Nazi forces enter their village too and this is when the real journey of faith or should we say, loss of faith begins."
Abstract This paper explains that the mobile lifestyle of the Gypsies, who migrated from southern Asia over one thousand years ago and settled in many areas of Europe, especially Germany, frightened many sedentary town dwellers. Even today, the most common aspect of Gypsy life is to be persecuted. The author points out that the objective of the Nazis was to remove the Gypsies from society by using a three-track program similar to the treatment of Jews: Harassment and anti-Gypsy legislation, incarceration in concentration camps that included experimentation, and finally, extermination. The paper relates that even though thousands of Gypsies died, their case is not as well-known as that of the Jews because the Gypsies were less educated and did not record their experiences in writing as frequently. Also, their beliefs and culture regarding ritual purity and sexual conduct had been violated in the concentration camps, making them reluctant to talk about what had happened.
Table of Contents
Background
What it is like to be a Gypsy?
Before the War
Track Number One
Track Number Two
Track Number Three
During the War
The Nazi Experiments
From the Paper "Even before the advent of war, the Gypsies were persecuted and shunned by society. As early as 1929, the city of Frankfurt Germany set up a "concentration camp for Gypsies" outside the city limits because of complaints by citizens. Therefore, the persecution of Gypsies began long before the Nazi regime took power, and in fact, historian Lewy notes, "When the Nazis intensified the harassment and persecution practiced by earlier regimes, most of their neighbors remained superbly indifferent". Adolph Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, and his regime initially had many other people to consider than the Gypsies. There were the Jews, whom Hitler despised and hoped to eradicate from Germany. However, the Gypsies soon became a priority in Hitler's administration for a variety of reasons. The Nazis began to refer to it as the "Gypsy Problem," and gave increasing attention to removing the Gypsies, thereby continuing the "pure" "Aryan" race of white Germany."
A look at the German Christian Church and the movement behind it, as well as how the German political and religious culture contributed to its formation.
Abstract This paper focuses on the German Christian Church and movement. More specifically, the paper focuses on the Protestant Church (people's church) after WWI and through WWII and the Nazi movement. The attempts to illustrate that the Protestant German Christian Church's ideology was not a product of Nazi orders or a response to Neo-Pagan influences, but in fact, was derivative of the post-WWI culture of Germany.
From the Paper "Twisted Cross: the German Christian Movement in the Third Reich goes on to explain that many members of the movement were simply attempting to make Christianity acceptable to Nationalist socialist society. The author argues that the German Christian Movement was indeed the result of post war influences of the larger German culture. The author asserts that there were several cultural events that led to the emergence of the German Christians. One of the major events occurred in the 1920's when many of the Protestant association led efforts to promote ethnicity and German culture. The book asserts that these events were instrumental in the creation of the German Christian Movement that eventually took prominence in Germany."
Abstract This paper describes the type of person Heinrich Himmler was and discusses how he managed to rule the Gestapo with such an iron fist. It looks at his attitude towards Jews and his creation and implementation of the Final Solution.
From the Paper "In 1925, Himmler joined the newly-formed SS ("Schutzstaffel"), a group of elite German officers assigned as Adolph Hitler's personal protection squad (the "Leibstandarte"SS Adolph Hitler?). Not long after, Himmler became the leader of the dreaded SS and then decided to ensure the absolute autonomy of this organization by decreeing that all members of the SS were in a class of their very own and that those that committed a misdemeanor were above normal justice and could be tried only by an SS court which in effect meant that German law no longer applied to them."
Abstract This paper focuses on the five main factors that led to Germany's defeat in the Second World War. It first examines the lack of focus of German operations. Next, it looks at Germany's inability to make lasting allies and how Germany's cruelty to conquered nations caused unnecessary antagonism and united other countries against her. Next, the paper discusses America's industrial and manpower contributions to the war, which was far greater than Hitler had expected and boosted the strength of the Allies greatly. The paper then discusses how Germany never achieved its economic potential. Finally, the paper describes Hitler's unwillingness to end the war. These five factors combined to form a great Allied threat to Germany and a German denial and arrogance, which ultimately resulted in its defeat.
From the Paper "This policy was not conducive to political alliances and ultimately was a major factor in Germany's downfall The nature of Nazism combined with Hitler's distrustful nature and "Hitler's well-proven untrustworthiness" made it impossible for Germany to have any lasting allies. In 1941, Germany tried to organize an anti-British alliance of Spain France, Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan, but failed. No one believed the propaganda about a united Europe. The propaganda about a "European Partnership" was not believed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway or Denmark. The alliances with Italy and Russia that existed early in the war deteriorated."
Abstract When used by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the term 'discipleship' is used to describe the commitments and sacrifices required to truly realize a relationship with the Almighty and the part these factors play in an individual's life. This paper provides a review of Bonhoeffer's book, "Cost of Discipleship," and an analysis of three selected chapters, followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.
From the Paper "In this regard, Bonhoeffer firmly believed that it was not enough for people to seek justice, truth, honesty and goodness for their own sake and patiently to suffer for them; rather, people must do so in loyal obedience to Him who is the source and spring of all goodness, justice and truth and on whom they should felt absolutely dependent. "Bonhoeffer was firmly and rightly convinced that it is not only a Christian right but a Christian duty towards God to oppose tyranny, that is, a government which is no longer based on natural law and the law of God" (Leibholz in Bonhoeffer, 1959, p. 30)."
Abstract This paper explains that the parallelism between the Germans and Americans in their fight to keep a race not only down but also tortured is profound; both countries harbored feelings of ethnocentrism, believing that their own race was superior to others. The author points out that people argue that America's treatment of its minorities would never result in genocide; however, Americans must remember that, even though their discrimination may not appear to be as extreme, it is still victimizing African-Americans and minorities: Minorities in America still do not have the same opportunities as the white man. The paper concludes that education is the only thing that will eliminate ignorance and allow a peaceful ending for Americans.
From the Paper "For centuries in Europe the Jews have been discriminated against by Christians. All of it stems from a difference in religious beliefs and actions. According to many scholars of anti-Semitism, "In the minds of anti-Semites, Jews represent mysterious, mythical, and evil forces; are all-powerful; and play a sinister role in world history" (Microsoft Encarta "Holocaust" 1). Furthermore, some Christians blamed the Jews for crucifying Jesus Christ. The Bible of the Christians teaches that the purpose of Jesus Christ was to come and take the sins of the world as his own and be the ultimate sacrifice. Therefore, there is not any rational thought in being upset at the Jews because they were only fulfilling prophecy. These Christians were using the Bible when it was convenient for them and not being thorough in their research."
Abstract An overview of medical experiments conducted on prisoners in the camps by Nazi doctors. The writer looks at the main 'doctors' who were responsible for these experiments and includes personal accounts by some people who were lucky enough to survive. The paper concentrates on the types of medical experiments performed and the reasons why these were made possible, due to the way the concentration camps functioned.
From the Paper "World War II was a period in which millions of atrocities were committed and millions of people were killed. Under the eye of the war, Hitler was able to perpetuate the massive killing of millions of people; the majority of them were Jewish, some others were gypsies, prisoners of war, political prisoners, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and more. The holocaust, as we called it today, was a massive genocide that changed the course of the world; the atrocity, and sadistic murders committed against innocent people marked forever the history of humankind. Hitler as the head of the Nazi Party was with no doubt the guiltiest person in this crime; however, camps were run by SS guards and SA guards, the perpetrators of the killing that were guilty as well. The concentration camps were indisputably, killing factories whether it was a death camp or not, where massive numbers of death and murders were occurring daily. The concentration camps were death factories due to the exploitation, starvation, the massive killing in gas chamber in some camps, and of course due to Medical Experiments."
Abstract This paper discusses Elie Wiesel's autobiographical book "Night", that presents an account of how Elie and his entire family were taken by the Nazis to concentration camps during World War II. The paper describes how Elie emerges as a much different person from his father. The paper presents a clear comparison of Elie and his father, through the character portraits provided in the book.
From the Paper "Elie himself, at least at the beginning of Night, seems to be on his way to becoming someone studious and cultured, like his father. As Weisel recalls: "I was twelve. I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple" (p. 1). As the story opens, all Elie has on his mind is his own fascination with the cabbala, and how he might be able to study it sooner than he should, according to Jewish law. Soon, however, that changes, as the Nazis threaten his family and their community of Sighet. The first warning sign is when all the foreign Jews of the community are deported, including Moshe the Beadle. When Moshe escapes, miraculously, he returns to Sighet to warn others, but is ignored. At this point in the story, it seems Elie and his father are very much alike."
