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Examples Of Franz Justified In Tobias Wolff's '

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This book is not written to find Franz Stangl guilty or not guilty for his crimes. A court had already done that, this book sets out to introduce the type of personality needed to carry out the horrific crimes which served Franz a life sentence. Franz is a classic example of cognitive dissonance. Franz adopted abandoned his morals to allowed him to carry out and make peace with his work during the Nazi regime. One, he wants to make sure people know he knew right from wrong. Two, Franz victimizes himself to justify his actions. This essay will demonstrate how he justified his actions by blaming his upbringing, the ways in which he viewed himself as a victim and differentiate himself from those he believed were the true evil. Franz is a very …show more content…

First, he makes it clear that he was being threatened. Whether it was direct or indirect threats he makes it clear to have feared for his life. To further his victim ideology, he sets out to make the Nazi regime as these manipulative and brainwashing villains. The reader can see that the criminal was aware of the crimes that he was partaking in. Yet, he attempts to paint the Nazi officials as secret holders that kept him and other officers out of the loop. When he brings up the killing of Jewish prisoners to an official, he gets offered time off. In fact, he points out that high ranking officials refuse to listen to his complaints. He lets the issue go and learns to live with the fact that he is simply just another minion following orders. As a person who once chowed drive an ambition, he was quick to let go of the matter. In the end he begins believing the lies he has told himself to live with what he has done. One can believe he was afraid of losing comfort. Franz was once a man who held a labor-intensive job. He had worked so hard to become a police officer for Austria. His life was simply too comfortable to give up what he had grown accustomed to for silly morals. Morals that would not gain him a higher-ranking …show more content…

He presents as selfish. He sees himself as ambitious but is quick to move onto the next thing when he believe to deserve better. It is this ideology that lands him a job as a police officer in Austria. He is climbing the ranks as Nazi Germany take control of Austria in 1938. He is believed to have been a “secret party member,” which he denies, but later the accusation benefits him as he is able to climb the ranks by being identified as an early member. He is quick to deny the accusation to his wife and those around him, knowing that the Nazi name will taint him. On the other hand, he embraces the title as he will benefit from it. Ways he justified his actions was disassociating from his work and acting as if nothing had taken place when he was with his family. This is made clear when he omits things from his wife fearing her reaction. He lies to his wife fearing that he could read him better than anyone else. Another experience he has with the Nazis earlier in his career is when he carries out instruction from his superiors knowing that it is wrong but excuses himself by saying his life and job were on the line. Later, he goes on to say that he should have killed himself then. He contradicts himself by making himself the victim when he knows what he did is wrong. Mostly so, he does not value his life enough to not die with his morals

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Because of how he behaves in the narrative, particularly how he was kidnapped from his home and imprisoned in death camps, he establishes his orphan status. He also endured all the sufferings brought on by the Holocaust. Sadness overwhelms him, and all he wants is to get back home. “ Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned

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448 Words | 2 Pages

“In a few seconds, we had ceased to be men” (Wiesel 36). This quote from Night, by Elie Wiesel, shows how almost immediately, the victims of the Holocaust were dehumanized. The prisoners were stripped of every quality that made them human and were changed to fit the Nazi’s needs. In his memoir, Wiesel tells the tragedy from his memories as a prisoner of the concentration camps, while gradually losing his faith in his religion and humanity. The loss of his identity, dignity, and the inhumane conditions he had to face are the most prominent ways the dehumanization changed Wiesel’s attitude, outlook, and identity.

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2340 Words | 10 Pages

Now, though, during this event, he confesses to the reader that he feels hate – a strong emotion – for the Hungarian police, and he foreshadows that there is more hatred to come. This passage symbolizes the beginning of Wiesel’s transformation over the course of events in Night. 4. This passage makes me realize that hate is one of the main emotions that caused the events of WWII to unfold the way they did. The Germans’ hate for the Jewish people, the Jewish people’s hate for their oppressors, the hate that kept going around and around…and look what it did.

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This is highlighting the internal struggle faced by bystanders who must make difficult choices in extreme circumstances. Through these traumatic events, Weasel draws attention to the complex nature of bystander responsibility and prompts us to reflect on our capacity. In conclusion the ethical question of bystander's responsibility raised by “Night,” we are confronted with the moral difficulties of human behavior in times of extreme atrocities. Through external sources and powerful moments within the novel, some argue that bystanders bear responsibility for Hitler and the nazi actions, but evidence suggests otherwise. The holocaust shows the consequence of others' actions.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

As he experiences multiple harsh moments, Schindler becomes a decent, unselfish, and a positive manipulating man. Schindler once said, “War brings out the worst in people.”, but he proves his own statement wrong by himself becoming a better man. As Steven Spielberg directs Schindler’s List, he profusely provides us with great details of how Oskar Schindler’s character has

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lie Wiesel’s experiences of dehumanization in the Nazi concentration camps extraordinarily influence his behavior and identity. During his time in the camps, Elie demonstrated extreme behavioral adaptations to survive the treatment; these were made possible by the erasing of his identity. Elie’s identity is established in the opening pages of the book. Elie is characterized as a deeply religious and intelligent person.

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Joe Shmoe Mr. Dai English 10H Period 5 17 February 2023 2 Body Paragraphs + Introduction In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that “a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” This powerful observation resonates with the darkness interwoven in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, in which he recounts his experiences as a Jew who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Throughout the autobiography, Elie displays prominent psychological patterns to explain how Jews allowed human atrocities to occur, using characters such as Akiba Drummer to make the intent of Jewish genocide clear. In Night, Wiesel explains how learned helplessness and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can explain human atrocities, using Akiba Drummer’s death and Elie’s downfall as examples.

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In an interview with Paul Bloom, a Canadian-American psychologist, he explained that it was actually easy for people to act cruelly. During the Holocaust, for example, the Nazi Germans were able to kill millions of Jews by dehumanizing them or, as Bloom explained, by thinking of them as Sub-Human. Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, provides a harrowing description of his experiences as a young boy during the Holocaust. Wiesel conveys a powerful message about the innate cruelty of humans by vividly describing the crimes committed and the inhumanity he witnessed. In this essay, I will explore Wiesel’s portrayal of human cruelty and argue that humans are inherently cruel, rather than kind, through the actions of Rabbi Eliahu’s son, the prisoners on the

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Sharing these bits of his history, his life within the confines of Nazi imprisonment, he is able to seamlessly combine a sense of pathos and ethos all while preparing his audience for a line of logical moral

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660 Words | 3 Pages

In his 1986 speech he says, “ Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. ”(118) When he talks about this idea he refers to what happened in the Holocaust. With the multitudes of German towns and cities knowing of the existance of the camps, and a general idea of who, and what was inside them.

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960 Words | 4 Pages

After an excruciating journey, Wiesel and his father arrive in Buchenwald, another concentration camp. His father has become extremely weak from months of malnutrition and abuse. During the first night at the camp, there is an alert, that separates Wiesel from his father. In the morning, he goes to look for his father; however, a thought occurs to Wiesel, “If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself”(106).

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Though The Nazi Hunters is entirely based around Adolf Eichmann and his capture, we don’t get a chance to look into his character until the end of the story. At the end of the story, we are able to see what he thinks of himself and how he feels towards his actions during the Holocaust. “I was just following orders” is his go-to answer for any accusation held against him. He never denies committing the crimes but tries to deter the severity of them by relating himself to a soldier trying to do right for his country. Almost everything he does or says reveals something about him since he seldom interacts with other characters.

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885 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the film, he came to be known as this famous Nazi, but he becomes even more ignorant, tyrannical, and immoral throughout the meeting. At the very end of the film, he portrays himself as an intelligent man who even thinks about what they may have to do after exterminating all

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661 Words | 3 Pages

He knew he was dying and he wanted to confess to a crime he had committed to a Jew (Wiesenthal, 1998). Wiesenthal does not call him by his name in the book when he speaks or thinks of him; however, for the purpose of this book review his birth name will be used. He had grown up in a religious household, however, when he joined Hitler’s Youth that was the end of the significance of the church for Karl. His parents never accepted his decision, but dared not to speak against it. Karl spent much of their time

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1048 Words | 5 Pages

Born to a rich Czechoslovakian family that went bankrupt in the depression, Oskar Schindler joined the Nazi party, desperately in need of money. Many look at the people of the Nazi party with disgust, but what some do not know is that their was a resistance. Schindler played a big role under the radar and showed courage while saving many lives without thinking of his own consequences. One could say Oskar Schindler meets the standards, or is the definition of moral courage. As a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler undermined Hitler’s

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