ipl-logo

An Analysis Of Tomi's Belsen

1269 Words6 Pages

I was a boy in Belsen by Tomi Reichental is a story that invokes an incredible range of emotions in one’s self and makes us question the nature of humans. The book written by Tomi, to paint a picture of an era in history that shook the world asks to be read, it is a must. This is an inspirational story of courage, bravery and ones determination to survive against all odds. In this book we as readers are transported through time With Tomi, he draws us into his unbelievable and incredible story, he takes us from childhood, Bergen-Belsen, his adulthood life, the move to the Homeland of Jews, Israel, how he ended up in Ireland and even his relationships, which gives us an all-round view from an Inside perspective on Tomi’s journey.
The book is …show more content…

Tomi as a child was confused as to why people would throw away toys such as this , only to come to the horrific conclusion that these dolls were in fact dead infants, discarded amongst human waste. Tomi ‘in the early days used to wonder about the dolls in the latrines, their naked glazed limbs and empty staring eyes’ , he was bewildered by such wanton carelessness, then realising the truth of these so called dolls, can be seen as Tomi losing his childhood innocence in Belsen, tearing away at him bit by bit, Tomi had to become grown up quite quickly. He also explains how parents tried to hide the truth behind the endings in the gas chambers in Belsen , parents worked hard to shield their children from the horrific truth while trying to be brave themselves, he portrays the courage of these Jewish people in a light we as readers don’t always get to see. Seeing the events of Belsen through a child’s mind allows for readers to mourn not only the losses amongst the camp but also the loss of a …show more content…

Moving to Israel before the red wave of communism took over his home country of Slovakia, he grew up having many jobs and trades throughout his life, starting a family and eventually accepting a job in Ireland. Tomi never let the Nazi cruelty he and his family endured break his spirit. What is good about this book is the fact, as Tomi explains even with this war era over , people attitudes towards Jews did not change immediately , many still had prejudice against the Jews and those who tried to return for their family possessions could be killed. As a reader it can be clearly seen that even though the German people were involved in these massacres of the Jews, Tomi does not hate average German people, he bears no ill will to them for what has happened to him and his family, though he does find it strange that some claim to never have known about the camps ‘we didn’t know anything about the camps, we had no idea……. Could they really know nothing that was done on their behalf? How is that possible? ‘ . Tomi has a forgiving nature and does learn to move on from the tragedies that have occurred to him, his forgiveness allows for him to carry on in life, this is an example that many people could look upon, such bravery and courage despite horrendous circumstances, and it is truly something

Show More
Related
598 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

The memoir begins with the author detailing his life prior to the onset of the war. He explains that he, “had a very happy childhood” that ended “too soon... thanks to Adolf Hitler”

Read More
1444 Words | 6 Pages

In the book, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli he tells us his story of his time in Auschwitz. In May of 1944 the author, a Hungarian Jewish physician, was deported with his wife and daughter by cattle car to the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. Dr. Nyiszli is a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp which is located in Poland. Dr. Nyiszli eventually got separated from his wife and daughter, and volunteered to work under the supervision of Josef Mengele, the head doctor in the concentration camp. It was under his supervision that Dr. Nyiszli witnessed many innocent people die.

Read More
399 Words | 2 Pages

In December 1939, Poland was being torn apart by the savagery of the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler took his first faltering steps from the darkness of Nazism towards the light of heroism. “If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car,” he said later of his wartime actions, “wouldn't you help him?” Poland had been a relative haven for Jewish people and it numbered over 50,000 people, but when Germany invaded, destruction began immediately and it was very harsh. Jews was forced into crowded ghettos, randomly beaten and humiliated, and continuously murdered for no reason.

Read More
679 Words | 3 Pages

Many lives were lost during the German’s attempt to wipe out all Jews, and those who lived lost a part of their life during this time. The young boys lost their childhood and ‘innocences’. They witness more death and suffering than anywhere in the country. Today, there is still death and violence against others.

Read More
281 Words | 2 Pages

From the small town of Sighet in Transylvania to the huge concentration camps of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel, the author and victim of the book Night, the horrifying experience of the Holocaust. Wiesel is a 15 year old Jewish boy who was captured by the Germans or “Nazis” during WWII. He went through an overwhelming amount of trauma, like when he got separated from his mother and sisters and watching his father suffer an unbearable amount of pain that eventually killed him. The fact is, power is a tool that can corrupt itself and others, it can ruin people’s lives and it can do that without people even realizing it.

Read More
577 Words | 3 Pages

In Livia Bitton-Jackson’s memoir I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Bitton-Jackson recounts her experience of surviving the Holocaust through the character of Elli Friedman. Elli is a blossoming, intelligent adolescent girl who lives a normal life until the events of the Holocaust take place. Even a broken relationship with her mother does not stop Elli from giving up. This illuminates aspects of Elli’s admirable personality, such as wisdom beyond her years and her strong ambitious attitude. Elli’s young spirit still fights keep her mother alive in the camps despite her mother’s animosity.

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

What kind of world do we live in? In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, the reader learns how Jews were treated during the Holocaust, how blind the world was, and how survivors’ lives were forever changed. This book goes through many optical and is a really good book to read and learn about all those things. What would happen if society knew what was actually going on in the world?

Read More
1380 Words | 6 Pages

When asking anyone what the Holocaust is, there is a very standard answer as to what it was. It is infamously known as the mass killings and imprisonment of Jewish people throughout most of Western Europe. What people fail to acknowledge is that there is more to the Holocaust than this “standard answer.” There have been multiple accounts of what it was like to be in the Holocaust such as the famous books The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel. The memoir A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal serves the same purpose as any text about this atrocity has served: to inform the public about what truly went on in the concentration camps and beyond.

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

Two extremely differentiating documents of the Holocaust relay to their audience unlike tones, yet similar purposes. Both authors use specific writing tolls to share their insightful information about the Holocaust with their audience. Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, concerns the inexplicable the inexplicable dehumanization of people in death camps. The fact that she is a Jew in real life contributes to the tone of compassion through pure demoralization. However, Peter Fischl poem, “To The Little Boy Standing With His Arms Up,” has a tone of regret, ignorance, and what it is to be a bystander, Both authors have a universal message.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

It is a common assumption among numerous people in the world that the Holocaust never existed. In fact, almost fifty percent of the world population never even heard of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel helped people around the world learn about the Holocaust through his book “Night.” He wanted people to see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews through his book. “Night” shows the horrific and malicious acts in the German concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Read More
1111 Words | 5 Pages

Many people also feel that this book is irrelevant to student’s lives. However, kids should learn what life would be like for kids at their age in a different time period. Like what was stated before, in a history class, when we learn about the history, we learn about the straight facts, not as much of the personal lives of people living in that time. Since the novel is showing the personal recollections of one boy in the time period, students can identify the similarities between the two lessons. Since the similarities will be present, the students could make connections to both of the

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

The Holocaust is one of the darkest times in history. The Holocaust was started by Hitler, defining people if they were Jewish, part Jewish, or Aryan. Little did these people know that it would get a lot worse for Jewish people after a few years. In a few years innocent people were being sent to gas chambers just for being Jewish.

Read More
1742 Words | 7 Pages

Perils of Indifference delivers his message effectively, but not to the same degree of his memoir, for it isn’t able to explore these the horrors of the Holocaust, and use the same extent of literary terms because of its length

Read More
701 Words | 3 Pages

More than 12,000 children under the age of 15 passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp, also known by its German name of Theresienstadt, between the years 1942 and 1944. Out of all the children, more than 90% lost their lives during the time of the Holocaust. Additionally, throughout this time, children would write poetry describing how they would like to be free and their faith in believing they would one day be free again and see the light of the sun. They would also write about the dreadful experiences they suffered through. To add on, the poet’s word choice helps to develop the narrator’s point of view.

Read More

More about An Analysis Of Tomi's Belsen

Related Topics

Open Document