“Now that you have started reading this essay, you and I are now connected by a web of connections.” This is what Susan Griffin, author of “Our Secret”, a chapter taken from Griffin’s insightful book A Chorus of Stones, most likely would have declared. Griffin argues that, “all of us, especially all of us who read her essay - are part of a complex web of connections” (265). She implies that people are part of a “larger matrix” and have a “common past” (265). The “common past” between people that Griffin asserts can be proved by examining the unique paragraphs in the chapter. In “Our Secret”, Griffin recounts her own life story to the life stories of others, including Heinrich Himmler, Heinz, a painter, a friend, Holocaust survivors, a homosexual …show more content…
Griffin had almost personally witnessed the murdering of a homosexual man in Maine, and Himmler’s orders had killed Heinz. Before the two men were murdered, they both were in anguish over their lovers. These two homosexual men also share the same pasts in a way because they had similar lives of being homosexual, losing a lover, and being murdered. Although it was Himmler’s command and notion to capture and kill thousands of Jews and homosexuals, he “did not like to watch the suffering of his own prisoners” (256). This juxtaposition is powerful because it meant that he did not wish to witness the consequences of his decisions and refused to accept responsibility for the deaths that he had caused. This is yet another similarity that Himmler has with Griffin as she had bullied another girl, however disowned her acts afterwards as if she had not done anything. Griffin accordingly proceeds to write about a Holocaust survivor who had watched and even joined in a circle of kids who beat her friend because he was Jewish. Griffin, Himmler, and the Holocaust survivor are part of a “web of connections”, connected to every other person in the world that have also tried to disown their actions. This confirms Griffin’s idea that people do indeed share a “common past”; in Griffin, Himmler, and survivor’s case, this would be bullying other
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Show MoreThis book also uncovers how a few Nazis like Arthur Rudolph were glorified in America. For Example, Although Rudolph contributed the moon landing rocket, he used camp slave labors back when he was a Nazi to build enough V-2 rockets for Hitler. I was very blindsided on what occurred to those who participated in the War Crimes and Holocaust survivors after World War II. The Nazis Next Door really cleared up the confusion and taught me about the Nazi’s contribution during the Cold
She taught the world that even though Nazis caused pain and suffering to her family, her love for God has allowed her to forgive those who caused the deaths of her father, sister, brother, and nephew. Corrie states, "When Jesus Christ tells us to forgive our enemies, He gives us the power He demands of us. "(“Her Story | Corrie ten Boom Online Archive”). Corrie also wrote an autobiography called, “The Hiding Place”, where she writes about her family enduring the hardships sent their way.
We can’t go out in the world without being captured. The Germans are killing us jews because they think it's our fault that they lost WWI. It’s hard. We hide. Jane is who lets hide in her house.
Gerda Weissmann Klein, had to become the man of the house during the times of the holocuast considering the many family issues that had forced her to do so. As a young teenager, she and her Jewish family were forced into the life/ages of the holocuast. They suffered many challenges and had to many opportunities to deport from the country. The strong family choses to risk it and stay together while not knowing whats to come out of it. In Gerda Weissmann Klein’s memoir, All But My Life Gerda Weismann Klein, a daughter, and brother to a family during the holocaust, realized that she is now having many issues with the family status and is now becoming “the man of the house”.
In the documentary, One Survivor Remembers, Gerda Weissmann recalls her miraculous survival of the Nazi concentration camps. Throughout her survival, Gerda Weissman shows personality traits of courage, perseverance, and compassion. When Gerda Weissmann was fifteen years old Germany seized control over Poland and all Jewish Poles were confined to small living quarters of their houses. Gerda Weissmann’s ability to keep calm and go on living in that situation showed true bravery because a girl her age would surely panic and develop a negative personality. Gerda Weissmann is possibly most courageous when she separated from her family and has to go to Dulag transit camp, while the rest of her family is sent to Auschwitz.
“Homeland is something one becomes aware of only through its loss, Gunter Grass.” In Peter Gay’s memoir, My German Question, he articulates what it was like living in Germany with the presence of the Nazis or in his own experience the lack there of. Peter lived in a family that didn’t directly practice Judaism and most German families didn’t perceive them as Jews until the Nazis defined what a Jew was to the public. The persecution of other Jewish families in Germany where far worse than what Peter experienced growing up. There was a major contrast between how Gay’s family was treated and how other Jews who actively practiced the religion in Germany were treated which played a contributing factor for why the family stayed so long before they left.
The abuse of human life that has happened over the course of history is something that no one should have ever experienced, although similar violence still goes on today. It is a question to ask as in the book Night, “Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed?” Although people have grown over time to accept people of different color, religion and believes there is still hate crimes in the world today.
“By 1945 I had lied, stolen, cheated, deceived, and even killed,” Marion told the audience assembled Rackham Auditorium for the seventh Wallenberg Lecture in October 1996. Marion even killed a policeman “I felt I had no choice, but to shoot him.” She kidnapped children to save them from being killed by the Germans. Many people knew what Marion was doing and many helped her save people and children by not telling what she was doing. She took long bike rides up North up north to provide food for the Jews.
Thane Rosenbaum, in his “Should Neo-Nazis Be Allowed Free Speech?” essay, used the Supreme courts justifying the right of a church group opposing gays serving in the military to picket the funeral of a dead marine with signs that read, “God Hates Fags” as well as neo-Nazis marching in a holocaust survivors’ town as an opportunity to oppose on justifying hate speeches with offensive intentions. Even though it was a strong topic, by missing an ethos appeal and stressing pathos appeal, Rosenbaum failed to make an effective and convincing argument. Rosenbaum did not share that his parents survived the holocaust, and that he is heavily involved in opposing the Nazi regime. He is a law professor in the U.S., and he was also visiting professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in Israel, where he has been a frequent speaker, including at the annual Yom HaShoah Lecture hosted jointly by the American Society for Yad Vashem and Cardozo 's Program in Holocaust & Human Rights Studies on “Remember How the Law Went Horribly Wrong”; the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials on "A Reappraisal and Their Legacy"; and as the Uri & Caroline Bauer Distinguished Lecturer on Rosenbaum 's book, “The Myth of Moral Justice."
Griffin mentions on the common “mask” Himmler’s parent’s wore in photographs. He comments that “but his face has become harder, and his smile, though faint like his mother’s smile, has gained a new quality, harsh and stiff like the little collar he wears” (Griffin, 245). The rigide and tensed postures of the family even makes the audience to catch the awkwardness and heavy atmosphere at that time. As Griffin follows back to Himmler’s life, it is evident that it is inevitable
By outwardly conforming to the Nazi’s expectations, Marie-Laure is able to save lives and soothe her conscience in doing what is right. Marie-Laure is motivated to act upon her inner questioning conscience and finds the strength to aid the resistance while appearing submissive to the
There is immense pressure to report anything the goes against the Socialist Party’s principles, no matter the person. For example, Thomas turns his father in for defending his Jewish colleagues thus insulting Hitler, and is essentially the cause of his death. However, Peter is asked to spy on his boss at the bookstore, but after finding incriminating items he keeps it to himself. These contrasting reactions is an example of how Nazi persuasion is testing loyalties and driving friends apart.
Type 4 Nora FCAs Summary Character Opinion Forgiveness “Is it possible to forgive and not forget? How can victims come to peace with their past, and hold on to their own humanity and morals in the process?” In The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal writes about an incident that occurs when he is imprisoned in a concentration camp. One day, when he is working in a hospital, he gets summoned to the room of a dying SS member.
Gerhard Schroder Speech Analysis Seventy some years ago, over five million Jews, and six million non-Jews were persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s forces during what we call the Holocaust. POW’s, homosexuals, mentally/physically disabled, communists and more were all subjected to Nazi crimes. This abhorrent reign of terror started in 1941 to 1945, whereas in 1944 Russian soldiers liberated the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Gerhard Schroder, Germany’s chancellor from 1998 to 2005, held a commencement for the sixtieth anniversary of this liberation, and gave a remarkable speech, called “I Express my Shame”, delivering concise points regarding the Holocaust.
Analyzing Hoss’ childhood to his time in prison is very important because it shows how Hoss was shaped into obeying orders from higher authority and how he developed a sense of duty and devotion to protecting Germany. Hannah Arendt, the author of Origins of Totalitarianism, explains that National Socialism was a totalitarian ideology that built itself on the idea that higher authority from Himmler and Hitler was never to be judged whether they were right or wrong because by following these orders