Category: Holocaust

This paper is an attempt to analyze the following aspects of the graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman. Firstly, the novel as a depiction of postmodern ethnography and the experience that is enriched in the narration. Secondly, the reflexity of memory and how the author has brought in the relation between memory and history. And finally, how ‘graphic novel’ as a genre, is an ample and unique platform selected by the author and how effectively he has executed it.

Ethnography

Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is identified as a graphic novel that put the genres into the map. Although there are several other novels such as Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel that Maus are related to in the matter of form and narrative, the text is clearly different because, those novels are largely autobiographical and they are narrating a story of specific time and space. While in Maus, even though it can be considered as an autobiography weighing the parts of the story where Spiegelman’s life story is interrupting his father’s account of Holocaust, the narrative does not completely fall in to that category. Moreover, Maus is considered to depict postmodern ethnography. Even though the text unravels in an order, following Vladek’s account of Holocaust and Nazi Germany, it is not a historical documentation of the same. Unlike other stories and documentaries and films that have been based on holocaust, Maus is a depiction of a personal history as well as official history. It throws light on the personal experiences of Spiegelman’s family during the world war and on the lives of other Jews and their survival. The autobiographical part which describes the author’s life itself focuses on how “his family’s Holocaust trauma has become his trauma, and the ways in which he has inherited his parents’ survivor guilt”.

History is a narrative that combines heterogeneous elements. It can be said as a construct which might appear objective at the surface but is actually subjected to various prejudices and is distorted. But here, the dominating voice of Vladek throughout the story is what gives the readers a clear picture on the magnitude of larger historical events. Here the account of history is given through the voice of the subject who underwent the trauma. Hence, Maus cannot be considered as an accurate, indisputable testimony of the genocide. The author himself has said that the despite the fact that the story seems to be concrete in an order arranged box by box, it is a recollection of the past and a retelling of how much truth the father was willing to share. And that’s why more than the horrors of Holocaust what strikes the reader most are the second generation trauma experienced by the author and the guilt of survival.

Memories about past: Personal and collective

More than simply telling a story, Maus is a process of transferring and recording memory. The reflexivity of the memory, of the past is well portrayed in the story through the intrusions made by daily life. While the author is very much interested in his father’s account, the father is trying to mend his relationship with his son. He often complains about Mala and sighs that he has no one to share it with but Spiegelman. He tries to invade into his son’s life style, his way of dressing, smoking habits et cetera. And the fact that Spiegelman has involved all this in the comic shows that he is trying to prove how memory is not based on definitive fact, rather a part of the construction of the past. Thus the story generated as a result of this father-son interaction is not something that is already known, but a unique experience that belongs t the teller. The medium of comics allow the author to show this process the circumstances that lead to this interaction and he achieves a mixture of picture and text which makes the mutually constructive relationship between the teller, listener and the reader. The part where Art is trying to obtain his mother Anja’s journals prove that he was also in search of another perspective or another experience within is family. Though later the realization that those have been destroyed in the war brings immense pain to the author, this is a metaphor that points out the difficulty in recovering different narratives of the Holocaust and other historical incidents.

Through the illustrations, he makes note of the small things like his father pedaling, his Auschwitz tattoo, the family members around the dining table in Vladek’s story and the picture of himself eating with Vladek and Mala and so on. These illustrations show us the ways in which the present is continuously trapped, shaped and evolved with the past. The images of the past ad present are hence not clearly distinct in Maus but closely interwoven on several levels. The first frame itself does not begin with the Vladek’s account of world war but with Art’s traumatic experience of his friends leaving him. His experience as a secondary victim, an inheritor and witness to traumatic memory. This again makes the point clear that Maus is not specifically about Holocaust but about the relationship of memory of the trauma to the present. This demonstrates that memory and history are not two distinct entities objective and constructed, but rather they are dependent on each other. And that there is no definite beginning or ending to both.

Formative innovations

A large number of debates and discussions that surrounded Maus were on the ‘appropriateness’ of portraying the Holocaust in the form which Spiegelman has selected. Usually, comics and illustrations are for the large crowd, the strip of entertainment mixed with humor, normally viewed as trivial. However, Spiegelman’s creative move was not to trivialize Holocaust. He chose this genre because first and foremost, he is an artist, an illustrator and this was a medium he was comfortable with. Spiegelman has also managed to break the conventions and understandings of modes of representation and literature. Through these complex narrative structures arranged in order and made to seem simple, he has transgressed the conventional ways of telling or retelling a story. Instead of repeating what has already been done, Spiegelman makes a re-representation of a familiar history while also escalating the seriousness given to the genre of comic medium, widening its highly expressive, multifaceted, and layered structure. The author himself has admitted that transferring memories and depicting them through illustrations in a normally considered ‘trivial’ medium has been a daunting task for him. However he has succeeded in establishing order and accuracy. He has successfully portrayed the process of recollecting the memory and then orderly laying them in a chronology starting from classification, separation, deportation and extermination done by the Nazis. The minute detailing given to each of the illustrations, the emotions, body language and such gives makes it more commendable. Spiegelman’s conscious employment of animal characters in Maus has been controversial and criticized by many who argue that it casts the significance of the Holocaust as commonplace and comedic. He justifies it by saying that this adaptation makes possible an authentic portrayal, avoiding unnecessary emotions. By portraying Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, and Poles as pigs he is also trying to evade misrepresentation and overdetermination of human imagery. The animal imagery also helps in showing some of the brutal events of the Holocaust in a less gruesome way. These anthropomorphic imageries are however secondary to the narration which focuses on relationships. This conscious mask as a matter of fact only amplifies the human characteristics helping the readers to identify the characters as humans rather than animals.

Works Cited

1. Hathaway, Rosemary V. “Reading Art Spiegelman’s Maus as Postmodern Ethnography.” Journal of Folklore Research, vol. 48, no. 3, 2011, pp. 249–267. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfolkrese.48.3.249. Accessed 18 Apr. 2020.
2. Laga, Barry. ‘Maus, Holocaust, And History: Redrawing The Frame’. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal Of American Literature, Culture, And Theory, vol 57, no. 1, 2001, pp. 61-90. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/arq.2001.0014.
3. Spiegelman, Art. Maus:1 A Survivor’s Tale, My Father Bleeds History. 1st ed. ebook Pantheon. 2011. https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=DA720D554E758977466A01E612A115B2 Accessed 20 March 2020.

Maus Dear art Spiegelman, In Maus My Father Bleeds History Art Spiegelman has simultaneously expanded the boundaries of literary form and found a new way of imagining the Holocaust, an event that is commonly described as unimaginable. The form is the comic book, once dismissed as an entertainment for children and regarded as suited only for slapstick comedy, action-adventure, or graphic horror. And although Maus includes elements of humor and suspense, the horror it envisions is far worse than anything encountered in the pages of Stephen King it is horror that happened; horror perpetrated by real people against millions of other real people; horror whose contemplation inevitably forces us to ask what human beings are capable of perpetrating and surviving.

Maus has recognized the true nature of that riddle by casting its protagonists as animals mice, cats, pigs, and dogs. As Spiegelman has said ‘To use these ciphers, the cats and mice, is actually a way to allow you past the cipher at the people who are experiencing it.’ When Maus first appeared as a three-page comic strip in an underground anthology, the words ‘Nazi’ and ‘Jew’ were never mentioned. Spiegelman’s animals permit readers to bypass the question of what human beings can or cannot do and at the same time force them to confront it more directly. His Jewish mice are a barbed response to Hitler’s statement ‘The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.’ His feline Nazis remind us that the Germans’ brutality was at bottom no more explicable than the delicate savagery of cats toying with their prey. And although Vladek Spiegelman and his family initially seem even more human than the rest of us, as the story unfolds they become more and more like animals, driven into deeper and deeper hiding places, foraging for scarcer and scarcer scraps of sustenance, betraying all the ties that we associate with humanity.

Many books and films about the Holocaust founder on its hugeness those caught up in it blur into a faceless mass of victims and victimizers. But Maus is the particular story of one survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, a young man who treated his mistress badly and may have married for money, whom we first see in his stubborn, tight-fisted, infuriatingly manipulative old age. Because he is not a saint, what happens to Vladek is all the more horrible. And by its very nature the comic book is a specific medium, in which even the slightest background details tell a story of their own. Students who read Maus will come away knowing the workings of the ghetto black market, the architecture of false-walled bunkers, and what was happening in the town squares where Polish Jews lined up patiently for deportation. They will know the words on the sign above the gate to Auschwit. In addition, Maus is the story of the aged Vladek’s tortured relations with his son, Artie, who is both a character in this book and its narrator; with his first wife, Anja, who killed herself twenty-three years after leaving Auschwitz; and with his long-suffering second wife, Mala, who reminds Artie that Vladek’s cheapness and paranoia are not wholly attributable to his ordeal.

The elderly Vladek’s conversations with his son give the Holocaust narrative a frame and also an ironic depth. Vladek and his son are at odds, and what stands between them is Vladek’s unexamined past, which has left deep wounds in both of them. Maus is subtitled ‘a survivor’s tale,’ and the survivor is not just Vladek it is also his son. In reading this simple book, students are driven to ask large and complex questions about the nature of survival, about suffering and the moral choices that people make in response to it. They are compelled to consider the terrible relation between history and the real human beings who are history’s casualties.

The Holocaust took place during World War II. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s both Japan and Germany began nationalistic and imperialistic campaigns of expansion. Then the US got involved after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. While all of this madness was happening a man named Adolf Hitler was rising to power in Germany. He was responsible for the the Holocaust which was the murder of at least six million Jews and twelve million innocent people in total. Inside these camps there were horrors of women having to deal with sexual violence during this horrific time.

What I read goes more in depth about what happened in the camps. In the article written by Katarzyna called, “Sexual Violence during the Holocaust–the Case of Forced Prostitution in the Warsaw Ghetto” talks about how women, that aren’t even mothers, were manipulated for sex for their own and or their families survival. This is one of the untold stories of the holocaust. It also brings up the spread of venereal disease in the closed quarters because of all the sexual violence. Women were told “sex for survival.” Women could gain a higher chance of survival by offering their bodies to protect their parents, families, and siblings. I read an another article by Hassmann called, “Sexual Violence against Jewish Women During the Holocaust.’ This article goes more in depth about how women why were survivors were shameful to admit what happened to them. Many of them were subjected to sexual abuse. Before the 1990s women survivors didn’t even want to touch on the subject, They would be stripped naked and their heads would be shaved. They had felt like they lost their femininity. Many of these women were extremely religious so they didn’t was to talk about being raped because that means they had lost their “purity.” Another thing that is talked about is how lesbian rape by female guards was a big issue along with so much more.

There were two more articles that I read. One is the one, by Shik, that we got in class was my favorite out of all of them and explains two different narratives within the Chapter. It is also similar to the other ones when it talks about sex in exchange for survival, rape, and physical abuse. What I really like about this article is that it give testimonies from the women survivors. For example there is a testimony of sexual harassment. “From time to time SS officers came in, walked around the room, and jeered at the sight of our naked bodies. It amused them to pinch the buttocks of the women who were young and pretty. When now of the men passed beside me pinched my buttocks. I felt really humiliated.”

The women were subjected to being stripped of their femininity and SS officers would even shave their heads. There is also other accounts of rape and abuse not only from the male officers but the women officers as well. Lesbian rape was believed to run rampid in the camps just as much as male rape with the female prisoners. They SS officers would make them strip in front of everyone. For example this testimony talks about one of these accounts. ‘We were led to a block, there wait for us SS men and SS women armed with cudgels and yelling at us: ’Strip!’ We took off out coats and stood there looking helpless at6 each other. Then again that scream: ’Strip!’ Yes, to strip naked, totally naked in front of this herd of animals…”

The final article by Kerstin called, ‘No ‘Innocent Victim: Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust as Trope in Zeugin Aus Der Hölle.’ This article talks about This article talks about Jewish women’s experience during the Holocaust. Women were subjected to rape, forced prostitution, sterilization, and sexual abuse during medical experiments. Some women were put into camp brothels. THe women were told by working in theses brothels then they would be granted food and other goods. They were also offered survival in exchange for their bodies. Other women were even told if they did so they would be released from the camp.

Within the text by Shik talks about two different arguments as to what has happened with sexual violence during the Holocaust. The first interpretation in on page 225 where it talks about how there isn’t that much evidence that sexual violence and assault happened. Also due to the strict Nazi belief to eliminate all Jews why would Nazis be attracted to them and want to have sexual relations with them For example the reading states, “It concludes that there is little evidence of harsh sexual abuse, particularly incidence of rape, in the various camps. Scholars taking this position argue, correctly, that this is mainly due to strict prohibitions in Nazi ideology, in short, the interdictions against sexual relations, by a consistent or by force, between members of the Supreme race and inferior race, particularly Jews. To engage in such relations was considered a crime of race defilement.”

This quote tries proving the argument that there wasn’t any sexual violence because such realations with these jewish women would be considered a crime and probably punishable in some way. Nazis if caught having intercourse with a prisoner could be shipped to Russian fronts and the Jewish prisoner would be shot for defiling the “master race.”

The Second interpretation or argument was that sexual abuse did happen but women were ashamed or too afraid to talk about it. For example on page 226 it states “ Harsh sexual abuse including many cases of rape, did in fact take place in various Nazi camps. The lack of evidence for this can be explained by the reluctance of female survivors to talk about these experiences.” it says the author Shik doesn’t fully agree with this interpretation on page 228, but at the same time with the first interpretation she doesn’t agree with that at all.

The Holocaust was a terrible time that women also had to deal with sexual violence and sexual assault within the camps. They were stripped of their femininity and went through mental, physical, and sexual abuse. They experienced this from not just the male SS officers but also the women SS officers. Women used their bodies for survival and made to believe that they could use sex in exchange for survival. There was many horror that happened in the camps and sexual violence and assault is just one of them.

In Night by Elie Wiesel, he continually mentioned the theme of faith/optimism/hope. The deeper into the memoir, the more Wiesel lost his faith. Initially, in the beginning of the book, he had a really close relationship with God, but as the Holocaust went on, he lost his faith more and more. Wiesel went through many occasions of a loss of faith throughout his ordeal in a concentration camp. He questioned God’s existence and his belief in religion after undergoing atrocities during the Holocaust. Therefore, Wiesel’s faith was in question, whether he loved God or not.

Wiesel started to realize that his faith began to diminish, and his belief in God became distant. He struggled with his decision to support God, especially with his quote, “‘…May His name be celebrated and sanctified…’ whispered my father. For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (33). Wiesel seems resentful and frustrated with God. He feels that he doesn’t see any reason to exalt and praise him. Wiesel doesn’t understand why anyone would want to praise a God who lets horrible things always happen. That is when his constant struggle with his faith throughout the memoir, begins. For so long, he had praised God for all the ‘less important things’, especially in recent times; however, when he begins to notice without God, he wonders why he is allowing these terrible events to unfold without divine intervention, as well as why he ought to praise a God who isn’t doing anything good for him. I chose to use the tone word ‘bewildered’ because it seems like Wiesel is puzzled and confused about why he should continue to worship a God who, to him, thinks that he does nothing for him. I decided to accentuate when he was asking questions since ‘bewildered’ means puzzled or bemused.

In conclusion, Wiesel struggled throughout the memoir with his faith. In the beginning, practicing his faith was very important to him, and he cared about it, a lot, but towards the end of the book, God is no longer with him. He started losing faith when he realized how bad the situation was. His experiences in concentration camps diminished his faithful connection. At night, people also have hope that their circumstances get better and that they will get through this tough time. When worse comes to worst and you can’t do much, you just have to have hope. 

Night, written by Ellie Wiesel, is written by an author in first person; detailing their haunting experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. He and his father embarked on a deadly and involuntary journey, moving from one death camp to another. Throughout the book, the author provides numerous anecdotes that provide the reader with an image of what these concentration camps were really like. Throughout the book, the author shares personal accounts of what it was like to really be living in a concentration camp. The author had a direct purpose through sharing these ideas; what was it really like to live in this period of time?

This story chronologically goes in order of what kind of atrocities a teen, or anyone for that matter, would have endured during this period of time. The book follows a young boy as he navigates through the atrocities that were enacted upon his people. Although, for me, the Holocaust seemed to be a tremendous part of my upbringing due to being on the East Coast where many survivors settled; each account seems to be another reminder of the demoralization of these people.

This story does a really exceptional job of portraying the fear Jewish people had of being sent to the Crematorium, to me, it really exhibits the idea of constantly living in “flight for life.” Being a parent myself, it was quite emotional to read about the pain this boy and his family were forced to endure. Then further into the book, it was even more painful to read the contempt people had for the ‘weak’ as they saw them as a burden upon themselves. It was a direct reflection of not only taking humanity away from these people but taking humanity away as a whole.

I feel that this book was answered in personal and historical chronological order. It contained autobiographical and historical context and was related to the writer experiencing his own story within the timeline of what was occurring during the Holocaust. This means that more than just being historical this book is raw and real.

The book begins in 1941 in Wiesle’s hometown, Sighet. It talks about the beginning stages of how the Jews were treated until the period when they were forced to live in one or two of the Sighet Ghettos. After the Ghettos were closed down Wiesel and his Dad were shipped off to Auschwitz. At this point, his mother and one sister attempted to survive the gas chamber but one of his sisters was not so lucky. After this Wiesel and his father also spent time in Birkenau and Monowitz. In 1945 they were transferred to Buchenwald, where on April 11, 1945, Wiesel would be liberated by Americans. Sadly, his father passed away shortly before he could be liberated.

Since this book is written about the author’s experience, it shares tons of information about not only the author but his family and his experiences. The book opens sharing where the author is from, Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. It talks about his interest and pursuit of studying the Torah and the Cabbala. It also shares where his family went and endured during the Holocaust. The book also talks about an injury the author received while in the camp.

This book follows Wiesel from his hometown to internment camps, to the liberation of his camo by the Americans as he is no longer the many he once was. Night touches on not only Wiesel but his family as well. It is raw and shocking the pain and heartache that Wiesel and the others had to endure.

Once this assignment was mentioned; I knew I would choose this book as I had it at home and have yet to read it. Also, I have always had a fascination with the Holocaust and how something so horrible could have happened on such a large scale. I knew that I wanted to read something based on the Holocaust, and some of my favorite things to read are first-hand accounts that share people’s personal and real experiences so this book fit perfectly with the assignment and my personal interest.

The author said it best; “Only those who experienced Auschwitz know what it was.” That is why first-hand accounts of the Holocaust have always intrigued me. I have read and listened to stories of people who experienced the Holocaust first-hand and the stories never feel “told” out or any less shocking than the first. The night was nothing short of my expectation to yet again be shocked how something so terrible could have happened for so long and on such a large scale. One thing this book touched on, that I really hadn’t heard before; was Wiesel’s honesty and ability to share his discontent and anger for humanity as a whole. He shared that he was almost just an empty shell existing. A good example of this was when his father died, he referred to him as a ‘dead weight’. If you enjoy the Holocaust, I would recommend this book as a great read. It is powerful and deeply moving, and shares the author’s personal account of what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was a extremely tragic event that occurred in history. Many of the tragic stories belonging to the jews throughout history were not told, and lost from generation to generation. Movies like Schindler’s List or books such as Maus try to make sure stories like this will never be forgotten, and hopefully they won’t.

The movie Schindler’s List was constructed in a unique way, in which various theatrical elements were used to create a unique and memorable film. For example, the movie begins in color and quickly turns into black and white. Another example is that the cameras always angled to the people of power. Throughout the film, the jews’ lives were depicted as being sad and suffering. The Nazis’ happiness went hand in hand with the jews’ suffering. The Nazis were shown as rich and powerful while the jews were shown as poor and filthy. Although the movie was in black and white, there was a little girl wearing a red coat which was seen as symbolism for the rest of the jews, as she made her way around the soldiers and when she was piled up and tossed with the other corpses.

Maus was also a great visual due to the fact that it was a comic book. This was also a story about the Holocaust, but mainly seen from only one perspective. Images in Maus were also black and white. The characters in the book were depicted as animals which made it an easier read because of the intensity of the book. Maus shows an example of a lost story where Artie is obsessed with trying to find his father’s story so that he can share it with others. Artie is angered by the fact that his father burned all of his mother’s stories about the Holocaust after she commited suicide, which was due to thefact of the things she witnessed during the Holocaust that are imprinted in her mind. Artie realizes that no one will ever truly know what happened to her, as well as what she went through. It is also clear which race is which, since each animal has its own race. There are also flies in the book that may symbolize death. Flies are surrounding Artie possibly as a reminder of all the memories that involved death including his mother’s tragic suicide. Masks are also used to show that being a jew doesn’t make a person any different , it’s just the bad reputation that they had been given because jews were seen as scapegoats.

Overall, the purpose of both of these informational visuals was to better understand the Holocaust and the truth of what really happened. Both of these were very effective and clearly got the message across about genocide. Just hearing a story is different than watching or reading about it. Many people are unaware about the specifics in history, sometimes this topic can be briefly discussed and easily overlooked when it really shouldn’t be. Everyone has a preference on how they learn or better understand information, but the information is provided in multiple ways so everyone should be able to be educated on the horrific truth of the Holocaust.

Introduction

Chicken Run, an animated film directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park, may seem like a light-hearted comedy about a group of chickens trying to escape their impending doom on a farm. However, upon closer examination, the film reveals underlying themes and parallels to one of the darkest periods in human history: the Holocaust. In this critical essay, we will explore the connections between Chicken Run and the Holocaust, examining the themes of oppression, resistance, and the human spirit.

Oppression and Concentration Camps

One of the most striking similarities between Chicken Run and the Holocaust is the theme of oppression. In the film, the chickens are confined to a farm run by the tyrannical Mrs. Tweedy, who plans to turn them into chicken pies. This confinement and control bear a resemblance to the concentration camps where innocent people were imprisoned during the Holocaust. The chickens’ limited freedom and the constant threat of death mirror the experiences of those held captive during the Holocaust.

Resistance and Determination

In both Chicken Run and the Holocaust, we witness the spirit of resistance and determination in the face of oppression. The chickens in the film, led by the courageous Ginger, form a plan to escape their confinement and fight for their freedom. Similarly, during the Holocaust, individuals and groups engaged in acts of resistance, such as underground movements, hiding Jews, and attempting escapes from concentration camps. Both narratives highlight the indomitable human spirit and the refusal to succumb to despair.

Dehumanization and Objectification

Another parallel between Chicken Run and the Holocaust is the dehumanization and objectification of individuals. In the film, the chickens are reduced to mere commodities, seen only as a means to an end for Mrs. Tweedy’s profit. This echoes the dehumanization of Jews during the Holocaust, where they were stripped of their dignity and treated as subhuman. Both narratives expose the consequences of reducing individuals to objects and the importance of recognizing the inherent worth and humanity of every person.

Sacrifice and Solidarity

Chicken Run also explores the themes of sacrifice and solidarity, which resonate with the Holocaust narrative. In the film, the chickens come together as a community, supporting and helping one another in their quest for freedom. They demonstrate selflessness and bravery, willing to risk their lives for the sake of their fellow chickens. Similarly, during the Holocaust, acts of sacrifice and solidarity were evident, as individuals risked their lives to protect others from persecution. Both narratives highlight the power of unity and the willingness to make personal sacrifices for the greater good.

Conclusion

Chicken Run, a seemingly light-hearted animated film, contains deeper themes and parallels to the Holocaust. Through the exploration of oppression, resistance, dehumanization, sacrifice, and solidarity, the film sheds light on the dark chapters of human history. It serves as a reminder of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust and the importance of remembering and learning from such events.

While Chicken Run is not a direct representation of the Holocaust, its subtle parallels allow viewers to engage with complex themes in a relatable and accessible way. By drawing connections between the film and the Holocaust, we can further appreciate the resilience of the human spirit, the significance of solidarity, and the importance of standing up against oppression in all its forms.

Ultimately, Chicken Run serves as a testament to the power of storytelling and the ability of animated films to convey profound messages. It reminds us that even in the face of darkness, hope, resistance, and the pursuit of freedom can prevail.

During the year 1933, the Nazis came into power led by Adolf Hitler without using any force. Hitler convinced the Nazis to help him get rid of all the Jews. He forced all or most of the Jews onto crowded train cars and hauled them off to either any of the various ghettos, any of the various concentration camps, or any of the various labor camps. The ghettos were not much better to be living in then labor or concentration camps were. The ghettos were overcrowded and not sanitary at all. The only difference was that the Jews could walk around the ghettos without the fear of being killed at any time. At the concentration camps men with their sons and women with their daughters were both separated from each other. At the labor camps men, women, and their children were all separated from each other. Both the labor and concentration camps were horrible places to be. During the Holocaust about 11 million Jews died. Out of the Jews who survived, some of them felt as though they were guilty for having survived instead of another Jewish person. A filmmaker should have to be able to do his or her absolute best at trying to depict a story as it actually happened because any movie could become controversial if not depicted correctly. A filmmaker also has a set timeframe, so he or she might move around or get rid of a few events during that historical period to meet within the set timeframe while still trying to keep the important information in.

The movie I used as a historical representation of the Holocaust was ‘Schindler’s List’. As, it is about a guy named Oskar Schindler. Schindler wants to have Jewish people working in his factory as he thinks he could make more money this way. It doesn’t end up being entirely about money as the days go on. The workers in Schindler’s factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed ‘essential’ by the Nazi bureaucracy, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or even being killed. Schindler prevails upon Göth to let him keep ‘his’ workers so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of Zwittau-Brinnlitz, in Moravia — away from the ‘final solution’ now fully underway in occupied Poland. Once the Schindler women arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Schindler institutes firm controls on the Nazi guards assigned to the factory; summary executions are forbidden, abuse of the workers is as well and the Nazi guards are not allowed on the factory floor. The Schindler Jews, having slept outside the factory gates through the night, are awakened by sunlight the next morning. A Soviet dragoon arrives and announces to the Jews that they have been liberated by the Red Army. ‘Schindler’s List’ tells a larger view of the war instead of a single personal story as it tells the story of almost all of the Schindler Jews and how he saved them.

There are tons of historically correct things depicted in the movie ‘Schindler’s List’. For example, James Weeds, a descendant of one of the Schindler Jews stated, “It is true that Schindler actually saw the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto”. Seeing this type of thing happen in real life and be only a few miles away from it had to be especially hard for Hitler. It also must have been traumatizing to see all those people die and the SS officers not giving any second thoughts about what they were doing. Another historically accurate thing in ‘Schindler’s List’ that James Weeds mentioned was that “the girl in the red coat was real”. This girl in the red coat represented the innocence of the Jews being slaughtered. She also represented Schindler’s change from being all for the Nazi party to being against the Nazi party because of all the horrible things they are doing. James Weeds stated that it is also true that the “roads were paved with Jewish Tombstones”. In one scene of the movie, you see a car driving through the ghetto/concentration camp, but in one particular frame during that scene you see the road the car is driving upon. One might be able to notice that the road isn’t paved with cobblestone or rock, it is paved with the headstones of the Jewish people who were killed. It is also historically accurate that “Goth was a complete bastard in real life”. Goth got very drunk all the time and was okay with just shooting random people he didn’t care about. He also beat his servant, Helen, for no reason other than letting his drunken anger out. Just as there are historically correct things depicted in this movie there are also historically incorrect things depicted in this movie as well. For example, Koprivčić, a descendant of one of the Schindler Jews stated, “there was no Schindler’s list”, per-say. This fact became known pretty early on in the discovery of the list. The only “problem is that Schindler was in prison at the time”. During the time that Schindler was in prison, the Red Army was drawing nearer and Hitler was ordering all Jews weather essential or not to go to the death camps. During this point in time, “Stern didn’t work for Schindler”. One of Schindler’s many workers helped him consist of the lists while he was in prison. These choices do affect the story in many ways. For example, in the movie, having Schindler present during the making of the list, helped show how he had compassion for the Jewish people. Even though, it is documented in history that he wasn’t present during the making of the list.

Spielberg’s artistic choices do not do a disservice to the truth as he tried his best to have the scenes in the movie be as close to historical accuracy as he could. Before he started filming, he went to Poland to interview Holocaust survivors and get their perspectives on what happened. He also went to visit the real-life locations that he planned to portray in the movie. Spielberg filmed the parts of the movie that were set in Kraków and Auschwitz in those exact concentration camps. The truth in storytelling is very important because it gives us a glimpse of what it might have been like to be there during that period of time in history. It also can shine a light on experiences that some people might not be aware of. If there isn’t any truth in the storytelling then we wouldn’t be able to have a glimpse of what it might have been like to be there or be able to shine a light on experiences.

In summary, the importance of the role Schindler played in helping to save as many Jewish people as he could during the Holocaust shouldn’t be overlooked. The movie ‘Schindler’s List’ gives as close to historically accurate information on what Schindler did as it could. Spielberg did his absolute best to stay as close to what was historically documented about Oskar Schindler. Overall, ‘Schindler’s List’ is a great movie to understand the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust.

The most immediate and prominent thing that changed values for the Jewish people in the Holocaust was food. Straight off the bat, the Jewish people were deprived of food. In Elie’s situation, as soon as he was forced to wait in line to load up into the train, and when he was actually on the train, he and his fellow community members were already very hungry. The Jewish people were starving from the beginning of the book. Immediately, the Jewish people craved any source of food to make their hunger go away. Their value of food changed in this situation because they realized that food was no longer a luxury or a convenience; it was their only means of survival. They became very uncomfortable with the idea that they wouldn’t have access to good food, enough food, or food whatsoever in the near future. This textual support backs up my claim that the value of food changed for the Jewish people during the Holocaust because food transformed from being something of regularity that had minimal value, to something that was rare and had much more value.

Another example of when food’s value changed was when Elie would dream of food instead of anything else; it’s all that was on his mind. After Elie’s father passed away, he had no motivation to push forward. However, since food was so scarce and rare, it became the only thing he wanted or thought about. It became more valuable than his father toward his father’s demise. Elie no longer thought of his dead father or his mother; he just wanted an extra ration of soup. He would dream about getting more soup and bread and that was the only thing that he would ever dream about. This not only happened with Eliezer however. A fellow Jewish man, when given the chance, dove for a scalding caldron of soup. He understood that his life was at risk for this, but food became more valuable than life at that point in time. He stuck his head into the boiling pot of soup since he was so hungry, and was shot and killed by an SS officer soon after. This textual support demonstrates the change in the value of food because it further shows how food became much more important than it ever was in the past, and people would even risk their own life for it.

The third and most shocking example from ‘Night’ that demonstrates the altered value in food was when Jewish prisoners would murder each other for food. When Elie and fellow prisoners were being shipped to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, the prisoners experienced hunger as never before. They would eat snow off of their friends’ backs with spoons because they were so deprived of food. Even more shocking, bread would be tossed into their train car by SS officers or even random pedestrians. The Jewish prisoners were so hungry, that they scrapped and fought for every last crumb of bread. This includes Elie’s account of when a man killed his own father for a couple bites of bread. He murdered his own father, his very source of creation, just for minimal amounts of nourishment. This example strongly supports how the value of food changed for those in the Holocaust. Food went from something that was nice, luxurious, and overlooked, to something that people would murder each other for.

One excellent quotation from ‘Night’ that demonstrates the change in value of food for the Jewish people says, “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father… I have bread…for you too…for you too..”(Wiesel ,101). This quotation helps the argument because it goes to show how extreme the need for food was during the Holocaust. Its value went from something that was plentiful and comforting to something that you would kill your very father for. This quote demonstrates that well because it shows the terror in the man’s father when he was getting murdered by his son for nothing more than a little piece of bread.

Another thing that had a change in value during the Holocaust was the value of family and unity. One example that shows that there was a change in the value of family was when Elie was separated from his family and his family changed. Straight off of the bat, Elie’s need of family changed. He realized that normal conveniences didn’t matter anymore, and he needed to stick with his family to stay safe. Soon enough, Elie was separated from his mother and three sisters. This made Elie realize that he always took his family for granted and that his family would mean much more to him now that he couldn’t see them. This change in value strengthened his bond with his father, whom kept Elie going when Elie thought he couldn’t make it. His father became that much more important to him now that his other family members were gone.

Another time where a change in the value of family members was prominent was when Elie and his father were evacuating their old camp. The conditions were horrible; Elie had an infected food, it was snowing and was very cold, they had to run without any food or water for several hours, and they had nothing to protect themselves from the harsh weather. They were not to fall behind or they would be shot instantly. Eerily enough, the thought of death did not scare Elie anymore. He actually welcomed that idea and considered letting himself die on purpose so he didn’t have to suffer. However, his father meant much more to him now that he ever did before. This fueled Elie to keep pushing forward and made Elie try that much harder to stay alive. He needed to live not for himself, but for his father. Everything he did was for his own him; selflessness plagued Elie. This example shows how the value of family changed because his bond with his father became so strong that he endured the harshest possible conditions so he could stay with his dad.

The last piece of support that demonstrates a change in value of family is the very opposite of what Elie and his father experienced. Many families actually grew apart because of the Holocaust. Their value in family decreased as time went on. The best illustration of this idea was when Rabbi Eliahu’s son left him during the evacuation of Buna. Rabbi Eliahu was falling behind since he was losing strength, and his son even noticed that. However, his son took this opportunity to continue forward and leave his father behind him. In regards to why he would do this, nobody really knows. He and his father stayed together for over 3 years in camps, and he just now decided to leave his father? This example, as sad as it is, shows that family’s meaning for these two eventually depreciated to the point where he would leave his own struggling father to die.

A good quotation from the story that shows how the value of family changed within Elie’s life says, “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me” (Wiesel, 86). This quotation means a couple of different things. For one, it shows how hopeless Eliezer was during that death march. He was friends with the idea of death, wishing it even upon himself, wondering what it would feel like to no longer suffer. He would no longer have to deal with little food, no family, an injured foot, and all of these horrible events led by Hitler. He wouldn’t have to suffer anymore, if he simply just stopped running. However, something stopped him from doing this; Elie’s father. His father was the only thing that motivated Eliezer to continue to run through the pain and suffering. He realized that his dad meant more than anything else at that point. He couldn’t bare the idea of dying on his father. He couldn’t let it happen. So, he kept pushing. Before these traumatic events, it’s hard to say if Elie would do the same for his father.

One final example of something that changed values for the Jewish people throughout the book is religion. The first example that demonstrates a change in value of religion is when Moishe gets back from his time under imprisonment with the Nazis. Before he got shipped away, Moishe was extremely devout when it came to his religion. He always prayed with Eliezer, went to the synagogue, and worked his absolute hardest to reach enlightenment in his religion. However, after he witnessed the horrors of the Nazi party, he became completely numb to religion. He never prayed, he never visited the synagogue, he never tried to spread word of God. Instead, he kept to himself even more so than he did before. Eliezer said that Moishe became basically traumatized from his experiences, and I wouldn’t blame him. After seeing babies being used as target practice for machine guns, I would keep to my own thoughts more as well. More importantly though, Moishe’s value in religion changed from these events. He went from being extremely devout so not caring about religion whatsoever.

Another example of how religion’s value changed for the Jewish men, women, and children within the Holocaust is when they used religion even more than before. With such little food, motivation, and will to live, the Jewish people went to religion as their last resort to stay alive and well. This is the exact opposite of what happened with Moishe; Moishe lost faith, and these people gained faith from their experiences. This might be due to the fact that these Jewish people were already devout in the first place, but equally important, they needed something to believe in so they could have some sort of continued hope. Religion was their last resort. It not only brought the Jewish people together, but drove them forward through these times of extreme cruelty and inhumanity.

One final instance where religion’s value changed was when Eliezer lost his faith in God. Through Eliezer’s time under imprisonment of the Nazis, he actually lost his faith in God. This is similar to Moishe, and different from others who endured the same struggles as both of them. This is definitely interesting because these people took completely different routes regarding how they valued religion. Eliezer’s reason behind his loss in faith of God was driven by the obvious factors around him. People were starving, dying, being slaughtered in the thousands, and were rotting away beside Elie. He brought up and very significant question; why would God, if there even is one, let this happen? Elie thought eventually it would get better, but these events went on for years and years. God would have stopped the suffering of his very own followers if he was real right? Not in this situation, according to Eliezer. This lack of change within the camps made Elie lose all of his value in God and religion.

One great quote that makes this all clearer is when Eliezer says, “Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days?” (Wiesel, 67). This quote helps my argument because it further backs up how value of religion was changed during the Holocaust. In this situation, it is very clear that Eliezer is openly defying his own religion and is questioning his faith. Before all of these events however, Eliezer was very devout and believed very strongly in his religion. This just goes to show how his value in religion altered throughout his time in the Holocaust.

To conclude, the Holocaust greatly impacted the values of the Jewish people. This shocking story proves that inhuman behavior, brutality, and cruelty can completely change the values of hundreds of thousands of people in a very negative way. This is true because the Jewish people’s values in food, family, and religion changed significantly throughout ‘Night’ and the Holocaust itself. This relates back to the real world because it shows what power can do in the hands of the wrong person. It can change people’s value of life completely as it did to the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

There are numerous crossroads in history that understudies have considered which have incredible significance to the United States or even to the remainder of the world. It might influence the understudy on an individual level or even instruct them of the recorded importance it has on present society. A significant occasion that occurred in the United States was World War II including numerous occurrences that have affected numerous parts of our day-by-day lives. Scandalously, The Holocaust, which occurred during World War 2, was the massacre of European Jews and the cruel treatment and passing of they looked in internment camps, which have influenced numerous parts of the present society. This occasion has been instructed progressively all through the United States in high schools passing on the significance it has towards our nation.

The Holocaust was a significant occasion in history as a result of the exercise it educates about the uncalled-for treatment of a gathering and slaughter. In the article ‘A Changed World: A Continuing Impact of the Holocaust’ by the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, they present the impacts of the Holocaust and its impact on our present reality by expressing ‘A significant number of the issues raised by this destructive occasion keep on affecting our lives and the world in which we live.’ This directly affects the present society as despite everything we learn of the mischief and harm the horrendous occasion has done to the undeserving race of Jews. Numerous history specialists and teachers today accept that this occasion additionally corresponds with the present issue of bigotry and the segregation of a particular sort of race. Specialists state that since the Holocaust, America has become progressively associated with significantly more segregation and shows a consistent update that occasions in the past never show signs of change and will be rehashed.

The Holocaust likewise has affected our general public through popular culture and the media that still live on the memory of the Jews and their horrendous conditions. In the film ‘The Kid in the striped night robe’ coordinated by Mark Herman, it recounts to the tale of a Nazi elimination camp through the eyes of two 8-year-old young men; Bruno (Butterfield), the child of the camp’s Nazi commandant, and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), a Jewish detainee.’ Through numerous motion pictures and popular culture references, the noteworthy occasion still lives on today as portrayed in this motion picture of a kid and his voyage inside a Nazi Internment camp. Through this delineation, it very well may be seen that the motivation behind passing on the scandalous occasion through secondary schools shows understudies of its issues and what number of the fundamental thoughts may identify with true circumstances. The Holocaust has become a major cultural symbol in numerous motion pictures portraying its occasions and effects on today’s society in significant manners.

Although numerous different occasions in history may noted as progressively significant, the Holocaust had the option to train the United States of the dreadful things Germany had done. Through this numerous exercises and objectives enable our general public to flourish and accomplish a progressively associated lifestyle. As separation is as yet significant today, the occasions of the Holocaust show the significance of keeping alive the memory of a notable occasion they may show understudies effective ethics that may help them further down the road to treat others well. Secondary schools should show more about the Holocaust and the huge token of a notorious occasion.