Abstract
The author uses Primo Levi's autobiography, "Survival in Auschwitz," to describe the everyday life of a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. The author gives a brief biography of Primo Levi, and describes how he ended up at Auschwitz, including his experiences on the train ride from Italy. Some of the issues discussed are the day-to-day activities in the camp, and how Levi actually managed to survive the horror in which he was living.

From the Paper
"Yet another element in his survival was his friendship with two Italians, Alberto, a fellow Hftling, and Lorenzo, an Italian civilian worker at the Buna installation whom Levi met by chance. Levi was assigned to Alfredo's block after a two-week stay in the Ka-Be (sick house.) Levi and Alberto shared rations and supported each other in their quest for survival. Lorenzo's friendship was of even greater importance. Lorenzo became Levi's protector and brought him a piece of bread and what was left of his ration every day for six months. Lorenzo's conduct was atypical of the civilian behavior toward the Hftlinge in the camp. The civilians saw the degraded and disfigured slaves as deserving of their fate even when they threw them potatoes or bread. Above all, Lorenzo treated Levi as a human being, and it was that treatment which Levi believes kept him alive."

Tags:camps, concentration, poland, levi, primo, italy, lager, chambers, gas, factory, monowitz, friendship, treatment, rations, march, evacuation, ss, tatoo, jews, european, army, red

Abstract
The paper describes how Primo Levi, author of "Survival in Auschwitz" clearly documented life and death in the concentration camp despite the fact that he was physically, emotionally and spiritually part of these horrible days. The paper does show, however, that at times it was impossible for Levi to retain his external journalistic objectivity in face of the cruelty he experienced.

From the Paper
"A good journalist reports the news in an objective fashion, observing and describing everything that is taking place regardless of his or her own personal bias. Some writers feel so strongly about their own beliefs that despite attempting to paint a factual picture, their stance on an issue is apparent. The more one is closely involved with a topic, the more difficult it is to separate oneself from the written piece. Imagine then, how difficult it was for Primo Levi, author of Survival in Auschwitz, to take a journalistic approach to his experiences in a German death camp."

Tags:journalism, objectivity

Abstract
This essay provides an overview of the history of Auschwitz. It takes the reader through the process from the prisoners' arrival by train to their eventual means of extermination or liberation. The paper describes the different groups into which the prisoners were split and their fates.

From the Paper
"On October 7th, 1944, a group of inmates came together during an uprising, taking SS guards by surprise using makeshift weapons of stones, axes, hammers, and homemade grenades. They overcame the SS guards and blew up a crematorium with smuggled explosives. Hundreds of prisoners ended up escaping, but were recaptured and executed promptly. This revolt, although the most effective of all attempts, still did not liberate any of the prisoners."

Tags:Nazi, WWII, Hitler, gas, chamber, memorial

Abstract
This paper studies discusses Etty Hillesum's Auschwitz diary as well as letters she had written to people that are included in the book. The author finds that her story is a remarkable and tragic one and her diary describes her everyday life in a very optimistic and surprising way as she wrote about her love life and her simple adventures and did not fill her diary with hate for the Nazis but only with hope and optimism.

From the Paper
"Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew from Amsterdam. Her life might have been unremarkable and her story might never have been told had she not been an aspiring writer. Through these letters and diary entries, I watched a young woman in her mid and late twenties for almost three years until she died at Auschwitz in 1943. Her book begins about nine months after Hitler's Germany invaded the Netherlands. In addition to her diary, she wrote letters to her loved ones from Westerbork Detention Camp, where Jews were confined before being taken to the death camps. "If I have one duty in these times," she asserted, "it is to bear witness. Etty Hillesum wrote about the little things in her life, like eating breakfast. She also wrote the same things that all young women write about"
men and romance. Considering her circumstances, I expected that much of her day was spent anticipating her empty future and contemplating when she was going to die. Her optimism and her gentle spirit, particularly under these dire circumstances, were astonishing."

Tags:Westerbork, Holocaust, Jewish, joy, Dutch, Aushwitz, 1943, Germany, optimism, Nazis

Abstract
This paper examines and compares the "Memoir Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account" by Miklos Nyiszli with the film "The Grey Zone" directed by Tim Blake Nelson. The paper argues that the two differ significantly in their portrayal of the reality of the gas chambers and crematoriums of Auschwitz. The writer believes that the essence of the book is a stark portrayal of the brutal, belief-defying reality of Auschwitz, however the film in typical Hollywood style, fails to capture this essence. The writer explains that the film focuses on one act of rebellion that took place in the camp, thus focusing on heroism but glossing over the full reality and horror of the SS death machinery, as well as the mystery of why so many people walked passively to their death. The writer concludes that while "The Grey Zone" is a good film with strong acting from an accomplished cast, it is too trapped in the conventions of Hollywood to do justice to the essence of the book on which it is based.

From the Paper
"This is an example of the kind of evil that makes it inadequate to refer to Auschwitz as a moral gray area. Moreover, it should be noted that the detail of the murdered toddler twins is a good example of the way in which the film fails to capture the essence of evil that permeates the book. In the film, there is a very brief scene in which Oberscharfuhrer Eric Muhsfeldt (brilliantly played by Harvey Keitel in what must have been one of the greatest performances of his life) peeks at what looks like the corpse of a young woman on the dissecting table, and remarks that they are usually young. Nyiszli matter of factly explains that it is more usual to find twins together when they are young. This brief exchange does not remotely rise to the level of horror conveyed by Nyiszli's discovery that the twin toddlers have been killed with an injection of chloroform into the heart."

Tags:Hollywood, SS, death, machinery, Nazi, Germany, twins

Abstract
This paper will focus on this process of depersonalization through the experience of Primo Levi which is documented in "Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity". Initially, the techniques that the Nazi's used to depersonalize their victims will be explored. Subsequently, Levi's response to this process will be considered. Specifically, its impact on him, his responses to it and their effectiveness will be assessed.

Abstract
In this paper, the oppressive regimes that reached their apogee during the Second World War are brought to light with personal anecdotes from two individuals who were reduced to prisoners. Ivan Denisovich, who was sent to a Soviet gulag for a crime he didn't commit, and Elie Wiesel, whose only crime was his race, have very similar stories taking place in two regimes that were mortal enemies. The all-too-familiar similarities between Stalin and Hitler's regimes are showcased in this work.

From the Paper
"One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Night, by Elie Wiesel, are two works that have moved many people for half a century. These two books are very lean and concise works that utilize emotional and powerful words strung together to weave a story of triumph over adversity. In less than two-hundred pages, the reader gains a greater perspective on how the human spirit can survive during tough times; the influence of these two works is so powerful that the two authors had received Nobel prizes. However, even with the many similarities, there are many differences as well, and through analysis of the conditions of both stories, the worlds of these two individual authors can be better understood."

Tags:auschwitz, camp, concentration, germany, gulag, nazi, perseverance, russia

Abstract
This paper is written as if the personal journal of Solomon Borenstieein, a Holocaust survivor from Vilna, Poland. The paper includes eight entries, tracing Solomon's life from his childhood to the Nazi occupation of Poland, the ghettoization of Warsaw, the deportation to the death camps, his harrowing experiences at Auschwitz and his liberation by Soviet troops at the end of the war. The paper is about one real man's life and survival, but it is also tells the story of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.

Introduction
November 16, 1938
September 20, 1939
March 5, 1942
January 10, 1943
October 14, 1943
October 31, 1943
January 29, 1945

From the Paper
"My name is Solomon Borenstien. I was born in the city of Vilna, Poland in 1926. I am proud of my town because the Jewish people hold a very prominent place there. Many people consider it to be the capital of the Jewish world, like Israel was in the olden times. In fact, Eastern Europeans call my town "Jerusalem deLithuania." We have a library in Vilna called Strashun. It is the biggest library of Jewish learning in the world. If anybody in the world really wants to learn anything about Jewishness, they have to come to my home town. That is why I am proud of being born in this city. (Zitler 6)"

Tags:Nazi, Germany, Auschwitz, death, camps, march, Poland, vilna, warsaw, liberation, Soviet, allied, world, war, two

Abstract
This paper discusses how William Styron's novel "Sophie's Choice" presents an almost unimaginably terrible moral dilemma to the reader. It looks at how in the novel, the character Sophie and her two children are taken to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Nazi purge of the Jews and how in order to be spared, Sophie must choose the life of one of her children over the other. It analyzes the several ways that one can ultimately view Sophie's decision to save Jan, her elder boy, such as using a Kantian, a utilitarian, or a relativist moral perspective. It also evaluates how Sophie's decision, for Styron, ultimately serves as a theological proof, a proof that, by extension, serves to show that Styron believes in an inherent meaning to morality very much in the same manner that Kant does.

From the Paper
"From the example of the terrible choice that Sophie is forced to make, one might ultimately conclude that Styron, then, accepts a relativist position on morality. Almost anyone would have to reject Kantian values in this application by applying the categorical imperative Sophie would have almost certainly lost both of her children, and how could anyone call a mother immoral for being unwilling to sacrifice both of her children to the "higher cause" of an abstract ethical system? Making such a choice would seem terrible, cruel, and inhuman, so we can say of the Kantian analyzing Sophie's situation that, if he is willing call her unethical, he may be "theoretically" correct, but he has no heart. Utilitarianism seems similarly flawed, and Sophie's good faith efforts to save one of her children probably did not work regardless she is at best uncertain as to her son's survival and doubts of it."

Tags:kantian, utilitarian, relativist, auschwitz, nazis

Abstract
This paper discusses the book written by psychiatrist Victor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning". The paper explains how he personally came to grips with the conflict of the meaning of life by developing a new form of psychotherapy to rival Sigmund Freud's. The paper claims that Frankl was first moved to question his life's meaning and impetus after he was imprisoned, first in Auschwitz and then in other concentration camps for the duration of over five years, during World War II. He had to struggle within himself to find plausible reasons to live, to fight on against his persecutors in the face of overwhelming odds. The result of this struggle was the psychotherapeutic method Frankl eventually came to call logo-therapy.

From the Paper
"Victor Frankl was first moved to question his life's meaning and impetus after he was imprisoned, first in Auschwitz and then in other concentration camps for the duration of over five years, during World War II. Over and over again, in the face of tremendous suffering and guilt because his own continued survival when so many other people he had known before the war's beginning had died, he had to struggle within himself to find plausible reasons to live, to fight on against his persecutors in the face of overwhelming odds."

Tags:survival, life, importance