The Holocaust: A Literary Analysis

Around 7 million Jews were killed from 1939 to 1945, that’s about two thirds of their total population in Europe. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness.” (Elie Wiesel). There is a lot of great literature written about the Holocaust, biographies of heroes and dictators, analyzations of its reasons, but the most powerful genre are stories of people who actually survived the holocaust. For example, “Run boy run” by Uri Orlev. It tells the story of an eight-year-old boy - Srulik Frydman from Warsaw who was separated from his parents and survived the Holocaust on his own. He grew up in the time when Jews were being killed, tortured and discriminated all around Europe. Srulik faced many obstacles, and even lost his arm, but survived. …show more content…
One of the most popular versions is that the reason of the hatred for Jews takes back 2000 years ago when, according to the bible, Jesus Christ, was in fact killed by the people from his own nation. Because of the fact that almost every person living in Europe at that time was religious, anger at Jews was common in Europe up to the 17th century when the Age of Enlightenment started it’s existence. But the only thing that changed was the reason for the racial discrimination of Jews. The new reason was gained from the theory of Social Darwinism, which applied studies of Darwin about evolution to social groups and nation. Jews were considered a previous step of evolution. So according to this version, Hitler used part of this theory in his ideology. He chose the nation that was the most hated in Europe at that time and turned it in some sort of a “scapegoat”. Which was a profitable move for him, because in this way Nazis blamed every failure of the German nation (such as the loss of the first World War) on Jews, also his decision was supported by his own enmity to Jews. “It is impossible to understand the life of Hitler Youth members without first understanding the unique way that they were taught to view the world” (Kelly, 25). They were taught that there are superior races and non-superior ones. As previously stated, this idea was partly gained from social Darwinism. This idea was that the white race was superior to the rest of the religions. Members of The Hitler Youth were convinced that there is a race war going on. So when members of The Hitler Youth were organizing the Holocaust they were deeply convinced that by torturing and discriminating the Jews they were doing the right

Show More

Suffering During The Holocaust: A Literary Analysis

Night Dawn And Day Elie Wiesel Analysis

Touching Spirit Bear Literary Analysis

Belonging: Run Lola Run and Feliks Skrzynecki Essay

TKam vs LOf Essay

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essay

Cathedral Raymond Carver Analysis

Gp Essay Mainpoints