LEE A. ZITOHOLOCAUST IN WORLD LIT. Notes/JournalsMELTZER(4):Is it important to remember?Yes, it is extremely important to remember, otherwise how will we learn from the past? Like Meltzer says the best way we can get to the truths is through the past, through past eye-witness accounts, letters, journals, diaries, all of it. Sometimes the past is a key to the future.ROGASKY(8):What elements contributed to discrimination of the Jews prior to 1800?One element that contributed to the discrimination of the Jews were anti-Semitism from Christians who unfortunately blamed Christ's death on the Jews. As a Christian myself I know this is totally untrue. Jesus was born to die. So if he was born to die how could the Jews be blamed? It was already meant to happen. They have no blame. For anyone to blame a certain group for the death of Christ is completely absurd. But throughout time Christians were lead to believe that Jews were Christ killers, pouring fourth relentless racism on Jews that still goes on today.ADLER(14):Why were there relatively few protests about the treatment of the Jews inside or outside Germany?There were relatively few protests inside or outside Germany about the treatment of the Jews because Hitler had said the discriminatory laws against Jews were a way for the majority of Germany to gain economic opportunity. This in no way justifies the horrible treatment and discrimination Jews endured at that time. If anybody was caught protesting against the Nazi's they were shot or arrested.FREIDMAN(22):How did the Nazis use fear, threats and intimidation to control people?Through threats and intimidation the Nazis could throw the people into such fear that they would do whatever they were told. In Freidman's story because of the deaf girl's family's fear, they complied with whatever the Germans told them to do. It was the same case with the nurse at the hospital where the girl was sterilized because she was deaf. The nurse explains with Hitler they have to be quiet. They can not rebel in any way or it would mean imprisonment or death.PLANT(25):How did the Nazi Party use postwar social unrest to its advantage?At the end of the war, Germany was in an economic depression. The people had nothing, they were poor and starving. The Nazi Party used this postwar social unrest to its advantage. They created this propaganda which made it look as if the Jews were to blame for Germany's economic slump. This of course was untrue, but because the German people were in such a depression they bought Hitler's lies. This was their only answer presented them about the economic depression. Although Hitler's plans were racist and evil they accepted them.WEINBERG (34): Along with physical terror, what psychological terror could an event like Kristallnacht produce?Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, was a full out riot on the Jewish community all throughout Germany. They call it the night of broken glass because for hours it seemed as though the sound of shattering glass would not stop. Besides physical terror, Kristallnacht produced psychological terror for Jews who grew paranoid and fearful of their own neighbors. Now nothing and no one was considered safe to them.KEREN (46): Why was going into hiding often the only avenue to survival?Going into hiding was basically the safest way to survive the Holocaust. It took a huge toll over those who chose this path, but it was indeed the safest if one could find a good hiding place with some way to get provisions. Whole families hid together, sometimes families split up, sending children away to hide in safety.SEIDEN (49): How would you describe a pogrom?A pogrom was when Nazi soldier's would round up a whole town and wipe it out completely by executing the whole community. They would gather them into trenches and shoot them with machine guns. Other executions followed along those lines of mass death and horror. The chances for any Jews to escape these pogroms were very slim. Nazi's success of exterminating all the Jews in each town through pogroms were many.STERLING (54): What is meant by the statement, " . . . it would have been comforting to know we weren't the only ones" (58)?During the Holocaust Sterling was hidden along with his little sister at a Catholic orphanage. They were scared and terribly upset, missing their family and constantly worrying about them. They thought they were the only Jewish children there, but later they find that they weren't to which Sterling says it would have been comforting to know they weren't the only Jews in hiding at the orphanage.ORENSTEIN (60): How would you characterize the people who helped the Jews compared with those who refused to help them?The people who helped the Jews during the Holocaust were either the most selfless people or the most selfish. There were many people who helped save the Jews for nothing. They are the ones who helped because they were unselfish and kindhearted. The others were people who hid the Jews for money or with something in return from Jews whom they helped.LUSTIG (88): Did Hynek Tausig see himself as a brave man or a coward?I feel he was a coward, because he has a conversation with himself in which he calls himself a swine. He feels like a beast, unhuman. He knows that someday he will be chosen to be transported in the ghetto and he fears this, even though many people around him are being transported to their deaths. He sums up some courage, enough to flea the ghetto and escape transportation and Nazi terror, but this is a coward running.JOFFO (94): What motivated the doctor to give the diagnosis that saved the boys?The doctor is motivated to say that the boys circumcision is actually an operation that was performed in their youth. He says this lie to the Nazi soldier because the doctor is in fact Jewish too. He sympathizes for the boys because he knows what the Nazis will do if their cover is blown. The same thing they'll do to the doctor if his cover is blown. Get rid of them.RASHKE (109): What qualities did Esther have than made her the leader of the group?Esther had hope and faith in what she believed was true. She believed that her mother told her in a dream that when she escaped from the Nazis, to run away to Janow where a family owned a large farm. The people who know Esther's tale is not logical, follow her anyways because she was hopeful. Something that was very rare from the people who were in the Holocaust.WIESENTHAL (136): How were adults and children treated differently in the ghetto?Children were given no chance to survive in the ghetto. The Nazi's wanted to exterminate them. They would run a "kindergarten program" where the children would be collected by Nazis. The children's parents thought they would be ok, but they weren't. The children were never to be seen again.MEED (145, 149): What were the ghetto conditions that led some Jews to "voluntarily surrender" for deportation?Jewish Ghetto conditions were awful. Families were packed tightly and uncomfortably into tiny houses they had to share. They had no privacy or comfort among the ghettos. The Jews would stay optimistic about their situation by thinking it couldn't get any worse. Of course they were wrong. The ghettos did get worse, causing Jews to voluntarily surrender for deportation.BUSH (174): Why did the author write this short story in a diary format?I feel the author wrote their story in diary format because it feels more personal. When you read someone's diary it is as if the person never meant for anyone else to read it, it's personal, totally honest. You also get a day to day feeling about what the author is going through. All in all it creates a very personal piece.ROMANO (203): What characterized the transformation of Oswiecim to Auschwitz?Romano describes the old town of Oswiecim as a peaceful town. There the jail was only filled with drunks or disruptive people who disturbed the peace. Now the Auschwitz is filled with innocent Jews who are guilty of nothing. The once peaceful town is now hell.LEVI (213): How does Levi describe and interpret how people act when they are condemned to death?Levi describes those who are condemned to death and arbitrary. They want only necessity and justice. They are granted solitude and spiritual guidance in they want. This however was not so for the Jews of the Holocaust. He says how they had committed no crime and their time was short because there were so many of them.DELBO (251): How does Delbo use language to create a mood of despair and hopelessness?The language of Delbo's "Gypsies" consist of descriptive sentences, which sometimes can be short, but very powerful. To create the mood of despair and hopelessness the sentences are reimbursed with powerfully emotive adjectives that can appear simple yet horrifying at the same time. Everything is described at each second as the reader follows the story which creates a vivid image of despair in a concentration camp.FRANKL (267): How did Frankl transcend the conditions of the concentration camp to find a way to survive spiritually?Frankl had a strong spiritual belief that kept him alive inside. Throughout his time at the concentration camp which produce relentless terror upon him physically, mentally he kept his faith. This helped him survive the terrors of the camp, and also contributed to the fields of psychology and psychiatry.VAN MANSUM (295): What factors influenced van Mansum to help Jews and work for the resistance?Mansum explains he helped the Jews because it was just good timing and he felt anyone would have done the same. Of course not everyone one would have done something that is extremely heroic as what he has done in my opinion. Mansum got such satisfaction in helping that he quit his job and worked with the resistance full time. The Jews who were just people in need to him were his influences. He just wanted to help.ELIACH (307): What can you infer about the kind of person Zvi was?was a clever boy. Its almost like he timed it just right to miss the bullet during the mass shooting at the graves. When no Christians would let him inside, he went to the next house claiming he was Jesus and the woman believe him and took him in. I found this story very ironic. Jesus was a Jew, he died and rose from the grave, and Christians accepted him. Here is Zvi, a Jew who went into the grave, came from the grave, and no Christians will accept him. My father always says to try to see the Jesus in one another, and of course there is ironic similarities with Zvi. Although he tricked the woman by proclaiming he was Christ, I feel she got what she deserved. In my book, I accept what he did because he was dealing with hypocrites and blasphemers. I would have taken him in, no question.ASA (323): How did chance play a significant role in the Jewish community saving itself from deportation?Chance played a significant role in the Jewish community because like Asa says no one can really pinpoint how or why Bulgarian Jews were spared. All Asa can really say is that the simple, kind-hearted people of Bulgarian stuck together. The non-Jews marched and protested along with the Jews. No one knows the chances that Germany could have conquered them too.MEED (326): How did the attitudes of the local Polish population change the longer the uprising continued?At first they were excited that the Jews in the ghetto were fighting back without any help from the poles. As the fighting continued the Jews kept their battle going, but their fight was slowly diminishing. Soon the Germans hit the Jews of the ghetto with full force, defeating them. But they were remembered as heros. They were one of the only ghettos who fought back. WIESEL (337): What is the author's emotional state at the time of liberation?The author's emotional state at the time is almost nothingness. It is like he is dead inside, he feels nothing, only hunger at first. Emotionally he has an epiphany when he looks into the mirror at the end of the story. Wiesel looks into the mirror and sees a corpse staring back at him. He thought he was alive, but when he looks at his reflection in the mirror he realizes he is a living dead body.LEVI (345): What emotions did Levi experience during the first few hours and days of liberation?Levi describes many emotions that are going on during the first few hours and days of liberation. He expresses marvel, wonder, terror, and confusion. His mind is reeling with all these thoughts. He suffers a bit of nostalgia, as a man cries. He feels moved and diffident. Liberation released the Jews from their emotional prisons and awakened them emotionally.SELZER (358): How did the former prisoners react to the Germans? Did their reactions influence the American soldiers?Former prisoners despised the German soldiers. They wanted revenge on them for torturing and murdering their families as well as themselves. The American soldiers observed this and although they were told they were not to take matters into their own hands, it was hard for them to sit back and let the Nazis live. So, yes, the former prisoner's reactions to the Nazis influenced some of the American soldiers.EICHENGREEN (397): How does this selection portray life in a displaced persons' camp?The Holocaust victims have been liberated which is still shocking to them. As they leave the concentration camps, they enter another. The displaced persons' camp has Jews still feeling like prisoners. It is not the freedom they hoped for or joyously thought they would achieve. Eichengreen wonders if it's her. Has she lost all capabilities to experience joy? They aren't being treated like people, they're still being treated as less.GOTFRYD (403): What does the protagonist learn when he and his brother are reunited?He learns that at such a moment there are no words to describe anything. No emotions either. There is just awe and wonder. It's all almost unbelievable to him. Over the next few days both he and his sister talk at length about things, everything except the war.LEITNER (410): How does the author describe dangers survivors continued to face after liberation?Dangers survivors continued to face were uncertainty, struggle, and hunger. Many survivors had no where to turn, no where to go home to. They still starved, bargaining anyway they could for food. Survivors also worried about their family. They wondered who could still be alive, or who had died. Struggle is still amidst and they still go on clinging to what small amounts of strength they have left.LEVI (431): How did the author react to being on German soil?The author feels intolerance, and frustration. With his first steps onto German soil he has the urge to inform every German about what he has to say. He wants to speak what's haunting his mind. All of the injustices his people experienced he wants to shout out. He feels that this will settle his soul. He yearns have his story be told.WIESEL (437): Why has the narrator been crying?The author has been crying because he has forgotten what God has said to him in his dream. In my opinion, it's like Wiesel has realized that God really does exist, and that there was a reason he survived the Holocaust. Maybe these are tears of understanding or realization.ELIACH (454): Why did Jacob's mother push him away?Jacob's mother pushes her son away because she knows what is going to be her fate. While she may be in shock she still is able to function in a mother's instinct way enough to push her son away from her, so that he may have a chance to survive.NOMBERG-PRZYTYK (456): Why do you think Dr. Mengele kept Natasha alive just to listen to her tirades day after day?I feel in someway Dr. Mengele was intrigued by her. Maybe he was intrigued by her courage or intelligence? Natasha was a strong, courageous, Jewish woman. Jews were thought to be less than rats to Germans, yet Dr. Mengele experimented them, observed them, he was fascinated and obsessed by them. Natashia was just that, another obsession of Dr. Mengele's. I wouldn't doubt that if the other Nazi didn't shoot her, Mengele would have performed surgery on her brain just to dissect her.BRECHER (460): What motives might have Schindler had for what he did?Schindler was a business man. He helped save his Jewish workers but til this day his motives are not clearly understood. I think at first he helped save Jews because it benefitted him financially. Then after he grew close to these people, he felt sorry about could not let them die.KRAUS (491): How does it seem that children had to grow up quickly in order to survive?Children had to grow up quickly in the sense that they had to follow distinct directions and comprehend what was being said to them in such a short time under a lot of pressure. They needed to understand directions like an adult, and sometimes they followed them better than an adult.PAPANEK (514): Why does the unanswerable question "why me?" have such an impact on many survivors?Because for many survivors it was too unreal that they had survived because of sheer luck. They needed something to justify why they had been so lucky as to survive a camp where they were marked for death. Where their families, friends, communities perished. They felt they needed to ask this question, because what justified their survival, what purpose did it serve.ADLER (520): What lessons can be learned from the experiences of the survivors?There are many lessons we can learn from the experiences of survivors. We can learn why hate, racism and discrimination are ugly injustices that should not be tolerated in our world. But this is useless to know unless we take the time to discuss and understand the experiences of survivors. That is how we truly learn and comprehend the real lessons as best we can.ZABLE (526): Why does the German man feel he must atone for his father's actions? What does he do?The son feels he must atone for his father's actions because he is ashamed of what once happened. He can not even comprehend how such hideous things could have ever existed, like concentration camps. Every year him and a group of SS soldier's children visit Auschwitz where they atone for their parent's crimes.FURTH (550): How does Furth justify her return to Auschwitz? How do these reasons evolve during the journey?Furth justifies her return to Auschwitz by saying her art is at a stand still. That she needs that connection again. But when she truly returns to Auschwitz she remembers it was all real, it was not a dream. This had really happened to her, and that she made a promise in her art, to make people know the truth. Through her art she will tell her story of the Holocaust.
