WWII. One of the most talked about wars, and certainly one of the worst wars in modern history. A popular topic dealing with WWII is the Nazis and their discriminatory acts against the Jewish. We all know that what they did to the Jewish was cruel, inhuman, and unacceptable. But do we really know what it was like to be Jewish under Nazi Germany? Being Jewish under the reign of Nazi Germany was dangerous because of the abuse, discrimination, and characterization.
Being Jewish during WWII wasn’t nice. With Hitler’s new plan, and through his widespread propaganda, he was able to silence the public from talking about the horrors that were inflicted on the Jewish for a long time. Some of these horrors include the incarceration and murder of
…show more content…
Characterization. Or in simpler terms, a description of the distinctive nature or features of someone or something. Many times in the war, Jews were faced with characterization, inside, and outside of the camps. Examples of this being the act of painfully needling numbers onto prisoners, and the act of tagging Jewish residents like cattle. This characterization allowed for discrimination to be very likely, since anyone could see a Jew’s ethnicity, just by looking at the yellow star on their clothes. “In the same month came the notorious edict requiring Jews over the age of six to wear the yellow Jewish Star (Magen David) on their outermost garment.” (Holocaust Memorial Museum, German Jews). The Stars weren’t the only problem however, the Numbering system also made efforts to characterize the Jewish Prisoners. Being captured as a prisoner at that time meant that they were now just a series of numbers to the Nazis. No one knew the Jews' backstory, their name, or their connections, all they knew was their number. This way of treating people like livestock would’ve damaged many, in addition to the labor and abuse they also faced. “Originally, a special metal stamp, holding interchangeable numbers made up of needles approximately one centimeter long was used. This allowed the whole serial number to be punched at one blow onto the prisoner's left upper chest. Ink was then rubbed into the bleeding wound.”(Holocaust Memorial Museum, Tattoos). This shows just how damaging the Nazi's ways were toward the Jewish, and just how much the Jewish had to suffer. Needles and Stars, however, weren’t the only driving factors in what made characterization so brutal for the Jewish. One of the main engines driving this hatred was the people themselves, as their ideologies, fueled and morphed by the propaganda, were directly aimed at the Jewish themselves. This can be seen in this excerpt from an article talking about the significance of
“The Hungarian police burst into every Jewish home in town: a Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables”(p10 & 11).This memoir is discussing about the dehumanization of Jews by a man named Elie Wiesel who has survived the holocaust. The process of getting rid of Jews began in 1944 starting by grabbing any valuables Jews have and forcing them to wear stars on them. When Jews don’t have any valuables and making them wear the stars , the Jews can’t buy anything showing that Jews are weak and poor and they are just people that should not be in this world. “The yellow star? So what?
“The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal. . .” The Jews were under the impression that the star was as far as the Nazis would go, shortly after came the ghettos. The Jews were all moved into the ghettos and told not to leave, Elie shares how they felt about this “The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear.
It was right before Wiesel’s ghetto was moved to a concentration camp and their whole worlds were going to change. One of the first acts of dehumanization Wiesel faced was when all the Jews had to wear a yellow star, “The yellow star? So what? It's not lethal” (Wiesel, 11) All of the Jewish people had to wear a yellow star on their sleeve signifying that they were Jewish.
“An SS came toward us wielding a club. He commanded: ‘Men to the left! Women to the right!’” (29). Jewish prisoners lost some of their personal identity because they were unable to interact with familiar faces due to their gender-based separation from their families when they arrived at the Auschwitz camp. No first or last names were used to identify a prisoner; only their number was used.
This Star meant more than just a star. This was their own. Religion, some jews will die for it. Some of the Jewish men went out and one came back and nobody believed him when he came back. He goes to say, "He went from one Jewish house to another, telling the story," but people did not believe him".(4)
Throughout the entire story, one can perceive many objects as being symbolic. Three in particular are the yellow star that the jews were forced to wear, the captured Jews’ empty homes, and the German officer’s baton. Taking a closer look at the symbols in Night, one can see that the yellow star stands for segregation, the empty homes stand for deprivation, and the officer's baton stands for the social hierarchy.
The Jews are treated terribly and are made to work in extreme conditions all because they were considered as outcasts for their religion. First, they are taken from their homes as in the story it says,”The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them,finally, our illusions''. (?) All the jews were taken from their homes and sent to work in concentration camps that treated them horribly. People who were Jews began to feel afraid and some even changed their identities to not get caught which shows the punishing experience in being judged as an outcast because of how people are fearing being a Jew.
During the Holocaust, prisoners were dehumanized and weren’t seen as the people they were, they were recognized as numbers and any form of identity they previously knew was stripped from
In Night by Eli Wiesel, Eli showed many examples on how the Nazis tried to dehumanize the Jews during the Holocaust. One example of the dehumanization of the Jews took place just before the Ghettos and their transportation. On page eleven, Elie narrates, “Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear the yellow star.” This yellow star, that at first seemed harmless, would cause them great pain. This labeled the Jews just like they would tag animals.
When they 're being separated the Jews were packed into train cars with little food and water. They had no bathroom so that use the corners to do their business. “ forbidden to go outside, people relieve themselves in a corner. ”(Wiesel 22) the Jews lost their “names”, they were given new names that were tattoo to them. “ the three veteran prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms.
When Jews first arrived in concentration camps, they were sent through many treacherous stations. The worst of all was the moment when Eliezer became non-existent. “The three veteran prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then
The second and the third quote show us that the flames have transformed the bodies of children and students of Talmud and also other Jews into a smoke from their burning bodies. What does the book have to say about identity? “The yellow star?” “Hungarian police take them from their homes” Jews are taken from their homes and treated not like humans.
The German Nazi party, which was recognized as a political party and a political movement at the time of its creation, disrespected and displayed acts of cruel and unusual punishment towards the Jewish People, and this message was spread around to the masses through multiple very calculated moves and acts of propaganda at the time, spread by ex-German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, whom of which displayed and possessed a definitive hate of the Jewish
The Nazis were determined to have their identity be stripped away from them, starting with the choice of clothes being worn, forced to wear prison uniforms. Next they were forced to shaved their heads and every hair on their body, losing the choice of appearance. Finally the Nazis gave each person a tattoo of a number
Jews were carted away into prison or segregated areas by the cartful each day on the streets. Furthermore, Jews were not allowed to do simple actions, such as take pictures or play sports. They were regarded by the government as “subhuman”. The hate grew even stronger on November 19, 1938 when the Nazis destroyed every synagogue or Jewish owned store in Germany. Hitler’s book Mein Kampf became propaganda which allowed him and his National Socialist Party to rise to power.