Kristallnacht Analysis

The night of Kristallnacht and the rising tensions between our community forced our family to flee to the french border city of Natzwiller. Our family was strong in business as we were successful in revolution and our small workshop grew into a family empire as generations of Schneider lived to keep our proud business open through the wars and the depression. This shoe factory was crucial to us as it provided us success until the night of Kristallnacht. That night, the SA and our neighbors killed our Jared and family’s business. Almost two years in the city of Natzwiller, our family grew into eighteen and a new shoe empire was building until the Nazis invaded the city. The city quickly fell under the control of the SS, who were looking specifically for the Jewish civilians. They came to our workshop and shot our patriarch, my father. The remaining thirteen of us were moved into a prisoner of war camp, where we would be separated. Us six boy were decided to build another camp with some other Jewish teens from the city. This camp was brutal as it pushed and beaten us.

During the Holocaust, a great number of brave individuals wondered whether they should have reacted to the Nazi forces through passive or violent acts of resistance. Any form of resistance was vital for even the slightest possibility of survival for the jews. In “Resistance During the Holocaust”, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, and “Violins of Hope,” it gave real examples of Jewish people who chose to arm themselves and fight the Nazis head on or Jews who opted for passivity in order to hide their loved ones. Nevertheless, the main goal of these methods for resistance was to defy the enemy at hand that was the Nazi party. Therefore, people can best respond to conflict by active resistance in order to avoid late shame and humiliation, escape the

The “Spiritual Resistors” did simple things such as maintaining their regular day to day schedule that they would’ve maintained outside the Ghetto. Some “Spiritual Resistors” simply still followed their own religious beliefs although they were specifically instructed NOT to do so. Although there is a distinct lack of significant spiritually resistant cases, this was by far the most peaceful form of resistance, and relatively unparalleled by other forms of resistance amongst Jews.

The deeply rooted antisemitism existed earlier in time gave the blueprint to start the Holocaust, the inaction of the bystanders can be viewed as the main ingredient that allowed the Holocaust to reach the magnitude it did. The psychological factors, ordinary people refused to acknowledge the crimes of the Holocaust, the bystanders stayed silent and the hiding behind words is a way to look at the role of the bystanders in the Holocaust. During the Holocaust you could do three things, (1) you do the right thing, (2) you do the wrong thing, (3) you do nothing. Bystanders are considered to be in the third category. There are many definitions of what a bystander is, but according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “‘Bystanders’ as

The Jews were stripped from their basic god given human rights. The Jews were isolated in fenced towns called ghettos. Wiesel’s friend Moishe Chaim Berkowitz described his travels in Hungary and encounter with antisemitism, “The Jews of Budapest live in an atmosphere of fear and terror. Anti-Semitic acts take place everyday, in the streets, on the trains. The fascists attack Jewish stores, synagogues. The situation is becoming very serious…” (Night, Wiesel, 9). Soon after they were prohibited from owning gold, jewelry or any valuables and prohibited from being anywhere after six o’clock, both of these edicts came with the penalty of death if not followed. Jews had lost the basic right of freedom and religious freedom, one night referred to as as Kristallnacht where German forces and civilians smashed the windows of Jewish owned stores, buildings, and synagogues. Many died and were incarcerated in labor camps on this

Conformity and group mentality are major aspects of social influence that have governed some of the most notorious events and experiments in history. The Holocaust is a shocking example of group mentality, or groupthink, which states that all members of the group must support the group’s decisions strongly, and all evidence leading to the contrary must be ignored. Social norms are an example of conformity on a smaller scale, such as tipping your waiter or waitress, saying please and thank you, and getting a job and becoming a productive member of society. Our society hinges on an individual’s inherent need to belong and focuses on manipulating that need in order to create compliant members of society by using the ‘majority rules’ concept. This

During the Holocaust, many people suffered from the despicable actions of others. These actions were influenced by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic views of people. The result of such actions were the deaths of millions during the Holocaust, a devastating genocide aimed to eliminate Jews. In this tragic event, people, both initiators and bystanders, played major roles that allowed the Holocaust to continue. Bystanders during this dreadful disaster did not stand up against the Nazis and their collaborators. This action of silence encouraged more people to follow, which lead to Hitler and the Nazi Party’s rise to power without having to face formidable opposition. Following the Nazi Party’s rise to power, the Holocaust began to take form. Fueled by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic beliefs under Adolf Hitler’s rule,

Taking place on November 9 and 10, Nazi-led mobs attacked Jewish communities all over Germany, Austria, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia. The attacks were so brutal it was nicknamed “Night of Broken Glass”.

Cruelty surrounds the world constantly, and frequently appears in works of literature to reveal certain things about the theme. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, these acts of cruelty express and enhance the theme. One of the large themes revealed by these acts is “man’s inhumanity to man,” which includes the mistreatment of Jews by the Nazis, the common people, and other Jews. Watching the large amounts of violence, abuse, and discrimination that occur in this memoir show us the horrors of the Holocaust and how it transformed the men and women who experienced it, as well as those who caused it.

November 9-10, 1938 was known as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. Anti- Semitic Germans carried out this vicious attack targeting innocent people of Jewish faith. During this event, over 1000 synagogues were scorched and over 7500 Jewish run businesses were looted. The Jews were victims of the horrendous practice of scapegoating. As defined by dictionary.com, scapegoatism is “the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself.” The German extremists blamed the Jews for the problems in their country such as hyperinflation caused by the German government printing an excess of money, not by Jewish bankers. This would lead to the Holocaust. While scapegoating was

Kristallnacht happened in 1938. This was when German mobs attacked Jewish synagogues and Jewish homes were destroyed and so were their businesses. Germans citizens were responsible for the Holocaust because no one did anything to stop this from happening nor did they try to help the Jewish people . This was a form of polarization because since they hated the Jewish people, they decided to destroy everything they had. In document #1, in 1938, Ernst Hiemer wrote a book for German children that talked about how Jewish people were being stereotyped as cheaters. He drew a picture that showed a Jewish man showing material to an Aryan woman trying to persuade her to buy it for a lot amount of money. The author of this was trying to communicate negative ideas about Jewish people because he has hatred towards Jewish people. The author and many other ordinary Germans were supporting the polarization of Jewish people by developing hate towards Jewish people (anti-semitism) among young adults. They were trying to brainwash Germans by trying to develop hate towards the Jewish at such an early age. This led them to support actions against Jewish people because they were teaching children to be racist towards the Jewish. Germans wanted their German children to also hate the Jewish people. Additionally, Document #5, written by Daniel Goldhagen in 1996, said that Germans had the ideology that all Jewish people had to be killed. Ordinary Germans were responsible for the Holocaust because they supported anti-semitism and didn’t say no to Hitler. No one tried resisting from the Nazis; they all supported actions against Jewish people. However, in document #7, by Yad Vashem, an organization that honors those killed in the Holocaust, said that many Germans saved Jewish lives by hiding them in their homes, faking identities, taking in children and helping Jewish people escape.

Following his father’s death, Elie Wiesel continues to stay in Buchenwald for a number of months. Despite the length of his stay, he refuses to describe his life during the period, as he believed it wasn’t important. This was mainly because of the death of his father, and the fact that “nothing mattered to [him] anymore,” after his passing (113). Wiesel appears to broken at this point, and the contrast between his previously determined attitude and this newly established one is greater than ever. He states that his only desire is to eat, and he “no longer thought of [his] father, or [his] mother” (113). Although, things begin to change for Wiesel after it was announced that Buchenwald inmates would begin to be evacuated every

How does an ordinary group of people turn into bloodless killers? The author of Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning offers the most captivating argument towards how it is possible for ordinary men to commit extraordinary atrocities. This paper will analyze the different viewpoints of what caused ordinary men to commit murder.

The topic about this essay is about a movie we saw in class called “The Pianist”. The main character of the movie is called Wladyslav Spizllman who lived with his family in the Warsaw Ghetto also in the war he lost all of his family, he was alone, but he went ahead with his life and achieve to survive. The director of the movie is called Roman Polanski.