In the 1940’s the Germans wanted to take rights and terminate the Jews. Some people tried to save Jews and help them by hiding them in their houses. Germans put over 6 million Jews in concentration camps and made them do work without pay, little food, and water. Women and very little children often got sent to gas chambers upon arrival. Jews usually work in the camp and did outside labor like factories, construction projects, farms or coal mines (Vashem). They walked miles to get to their work. If they did not corporate they were shot on sight. 11 million Jews were killed in the holocaust(Rosenberg).
During the time Hitler was beginning to rise to power, a huge population of Germany was supporting the newly coming leader Adolf Hitler. Little did they know the horrible devastating mass murder of the Jewish people Hitler called “The Holocaust”. The Holocaust started on January 1933 and ended on May 8, 1945. The Holocaust was made purposely to eliminate the Jews and any other person and religion that got in Hitler’s and the Nazis way. Many ways were used to kill and eliminate the Jews, one of the most brutal ways was when Nazis would shove prisoners of the concentration camps or the death camps and slowly heat them to death. Concentration camps were camps where Jews would be worked and barley fed. Sometimes they would be even starved to death, many prisoners would also often be hung or shot in front of prisoners so the prisoners wouldn’t try to escape from the concentration camp. While on the other hand if anyone got sent to death camp it meant they were there for one reason and one reason only, to die. Inside the death camps were usually huge ovens Jews would be cooked alive in, there would also be giant chambers that Nazis filled with people and spread
“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”(“Words Quotes - BrainyQuote”). In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, words are expressed to change the minds of Hitler’s followers to believe his every word. Words are also used against German citizens if they do not conform to the societal expectations. On the other hand, Liesel has a lust for words and she wishes to use them to positively impact others. Unlike Liesel, Hitler is focused on using his words to corrupt. There are many instances in the novel that words are used to mend and also harm. For example, Liesel reads to her neighbours during the air raids to
Throughout Europe, during World War II, fear abided in many people causing closed mouths and the idea of individuality and absurdity. Opinions were kept silent and the dictatorship in Germany persevered and became prosperous. Though many people were hushed by the fear of what could happen, few did stand out for their beliefs. Although many people did not voice their opinions, people like Raoul Wallenberg and Irena Sendler bravely hid and saved many Jewish people. Similar to Hans in The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, he too helped harbor a Jewish man named Max in their basement. Mark Zusak, in The Book Thief, uses similes, situational irony, and symbolism to demonstrate the human trait of standing up for what they believe in.
During the Holocaust, many people were killed. Many people were killed not by what they did but by who they were, how much money they had, how old they were, and what gender they were(Hitler's rise to power). The Holocaust was a time of sorrow for the Jews whose family members were
Today, Adolf Hitler is known by many as the epitome of evil, but his followers saw him as equal to God himself. Hitler commandeered control of the suffering nation of Germany and then quietly convinced them that the Jews were to blame for their country’s distress. He spoke so passionately and so eloquently, nearly every German adored him. Even children were taught to pray,
By showing death has a human-like nature, Mark Zusak, the author of The Book Thief, exemplifies that death does, in fact, have a soul death feels for the people that he has to take to the afterlife. With World War II occurring in Europe, death tells the story of a life of a particular young girl who piques his interests in the midst of a chaotic time in history. Zusak shows author's style by using personification, symbolism, and foreshadowing of death in The Book Thief.
Jewish people were excluded from public life on September 15th, 1935 when the Nuremberg Laws were issued. These laws also stripped German Jews of their citizenship and their right to marry Germans. When the Nuremberg Laws were established, the Jewish population began the process of losing their identity and eventually themselves. As soon as Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the human race would be forever scarred. Although it is estimated the number of people killed in the Holocaust was around 11 million, there is a high chance of the death toll being much higher. The sheer amount of lives lost in this horrid time astonishes a large quantity of today’s population. Not only were people being tossed into the concentration camps, but soldiers and civilians were killed in the fight for their lives’. Human beings were given numbers and made to look like clones, as if to hide the misery of dehumanization. Loss of self and personal identity is shown throughout Night by Elie Wiesel.
Over 11 million civilians were murdered in between the time period of January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945. These innocent people were murdered in various, inhumane ways such as firing line, terrible living conditions, gassing with the use of carbon dioxide and Zyklon B, and forcing people to work until death. The Holocaust is one of, if not the darkest time in the history of human life on Earth. Many people committed suicide or suicide by guard because they did not and could not stand the conditions they were forced to live in. Most knew what their fate was and when it came time for them to meet their fate, they would kill themselves or have guards kill them. Auschwitz was the main camp everyone knew about, but there were other camps that were unknown or forgotten such as Chelmno or Belzec.
Words in The Book Thief demonstrates that words and language have immense power. Words can be used in a negative or positive ways. Hitler used words to spread propaganda in a fallacious way which led to deleterious human beings. The people (Germans) that lived during the war were credulous about what Hitler said therefore their life turned out to be debacle. Hitler used words to deceive and outsmart the others, he implanted words and images into the Jews heads to think a certain way(Zusak, Markus Frank. The Book Thief. MZ, 2005, p. 301. ). The author of The Book Thief , Markus Zusak demonstrates the idea that a person's survival or life may strongly depend on the power of words.
The Nazi regime killed about six million jews during the holocaust.During the 1940s German authorities targeted Jew and many other people, they would be put in death camps and forced to do hard labored. The atrocities the Jewish people had to face was terrifying. Going day after day not knowing if you will be the one selected to die;having your love ones die and suffer. Doing hard labor and very little food. losing your humanity as they take everything away from you. The jewish people change because of the suffering, they lose faith and hope and give up on going forward or living on through the tough times.
The power of words in “The Book Thief” and the endless strength they carry is a prime topic throughout the book. “The Book Thief”, a novel narrated by Death about Liesel, a young German girl who is given up for adoption to live with the Hubermann’s shortly before World War II. Liesel discovers the power that words, written or spoken, have to transform people, relationships, and lives. In the novel, Mark Zusak uses the relationship between characters to signify the power of words. Within “The Book Thief” the author suggests that words hold much power and have a major role in crafting the relationships between the characters.
During WWII, the anti-Semitic Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler emphasized purity of race and opposed any forms of variation in the racial distribution of his country. To achieve his goals of racial purity, Hitler began to unfairly assert that the reason for the humiliating defeat of Germany was the betrayal of the Jewish population in the country. Through his memoir and propaganda, he provoked the public to discriminate against the Jews, or even eliminate them completely in the country. In addition, Hitler utilized many unethical and unjust means against the Jews such as destroying all the books written by Jews, and shutting down all Jewish-owned business. He even enacted the law to humiliate the Jews, and make them to become the targets of the public by forcing them to wear a yellow star mark. Hitler’s acts to the Jews were completely unethical and disrespectful of human dignity. Furthermore, Hitler’s massive killing of the Jewish people with poison gas in the concentration camps in Germany, and his allied territories were unlawful because all the Jewish victims were innocent citizens and had their human rights to live. About 6 millions of Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and that tragedy was all caused by people’s hatred and selfishness. Today, although the German government acknowledged their responsibility for the crime committed during WWII and provided financial assistance to the victims’ families, the massive illegal killing of Jewish people were
The Nazis believed the Germans were “racially superior” and the Jews were inferior (The Holocaust). Over 6 million Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust (The Holocaust). The main targets were Jews, disabled, Gypsies, and slavic people (The Holocaust). If they did not match the “social norms”, they were killed (The Holocaust). Between the years 1941 and 1944, Jews were deported to concentration camps where they were then killed (The Holocaust). In all, 200,000 gypsies and disabled people were killed (The Holocaust). On May 7, 1945 the Germans surrendered unconditionally to allies (The Holocaust). Displaced persons camps opened up all over and this is where majority of the survivors were found (The Holocaust). Those that did not make it, died in gas chambers, starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment (The Holocaust). The last displaced persons camp closed in 1957 (The Holocaust). Millions of people died during this time period (The
The Book Thief revolves around Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Rudy Steiner, Max Vandenburg, and the infamous ten-year-old book thief, Liesel Meminger. The setting is Himmel Street, Germany during World War II and the narrator is Death, who busily runs to and fro taking souls and stumbles upon the Book Thief’s very own handwritten book. Though Death might not be the narrator someone would think fit to be point of view for the book, he manages to catch and describe the beauty and destruction of war whilst telling the stories of the people living on Himmel Street. Along with Markus Zusak’s captivating writing, he will tell an unforgettable story set during the Holocaust from the views of a Jew on the run and four Germans while a war wages on. Whereas other authors would prefer writing from the victim’s perspective during the war, Markus Zusak gives insight on the Germans that had no choice but to grudgingly obey throughout Hitler’s rule. Though Markus Zusak has written many other good books, The Book Thief is his bestselling book for its outstandingly distinct writing, perspective, and story of love.