The Holocaust was a horrific time in history that has continued to impact the world still today. During the years between 1933 and 1945, an estimated six million Jews and others were executed by Hitler and the Nazis. Some people during this time chose to handle the situation differently; some were completely destroyed and others became stronger due to trial and error of everyday experiences. Teghan Vogt: Tragedy is defined as an event causing extreme suffering, destruction, and distress which does not even begin to describe what the Jews and those who suffered through the Holocaust experienced.
Treated like animals, completely inhumane, it is not difficult to believe that some of the victims of these concentration camps, and even those that survived it, were completely and utterly destroyed by what they experienced. Many went in with the utmost faith in their God and most left with none at all. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust and the author of the book “Night”, tells how such faith can be lost during terrible events. At fifteen years of age, Elie was studying his Jewish faith and was exceedingly involved with his religion. For example, at the beginning of the book Elie
Wiesel says, “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple”(1). After experiencing the concentration camps and suffering through an unimaginable amount of horific experiences he says, “For God’s sake, where is God? ” And from within me, I heard a voice answer: “Where He is? This is where- hanging here from this gallows… (Weisel 65). Here, Elie is explaining that he feels as if his God is gone and therefore has totally lost his faith and was destroyed by what the Germans had done to him.
The Jews had to learn to survive every single ay while still being manacled to the interminable horrors that they had to call life. They learned from their mistakes and could do nothing more than try and survive long enough to correct it. For example, if they spoke incorrectly or did not do something quick enough, they were susceptible to beatings or even shooting. Even random decisions could affect their lives such as when Elie and his father choose to leave their infirmary for fear of being killed due to being sick.
In reality, those Jews in the infirmary were simply liberated which could have saved Elie’s father’s life. These decisions just destroyed the hope and faith of every victim more. Countless Jews experienced extremely similar things happen to their faith. “Whereas some found faith and a spark of hope amid the carnage, others lost religion entirely. “(Publishers Weekly 73). Although every victim handled their situation differently, innumerable found it extremely difficult to preserve their will to live, much less their faith in their God which did not seem to be with them any longer. nd body: Taylor Prough Although the Holocaust was a horrific event full of people being anti-semitism that caused thousands upon thousands of eople to lose faith in their God, some people were able to come out of the holocaust stronger and with more faith in God. Some people thought of it as their God testing them to see how faithful they really are, while others thought of it as a draining situation. Most of the deportees had the mindset that a God they had devoted so much of their lives to would not put something like this in their life, which in turn caused them to lose their faith in their God.
Some people have to ability to pull positive things out of any situation, no matter how bad it may be, and that is what was really important during the Holocaust. We who lived, in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”(Frankl).
Here, Viktor Frankl is explaining that even though men can take everything from you, your clothes, your family, everything you have previously known, they cannot change how you treat others and how you think. The Nazis were capable of taking and changing every single thing except the most important thing, your values. It was like the Gestapo enjoyed wallowing in the Jew’s hunger and misery. “We’re not in a position to pass judgment because we’re not in their shoes — this is such an extreme human situation” (The hidden ‘heart of the Holocaust’,3).
Being able to maintain a relationship with God throughout the entirety of the Holocaust would have been really difficult, but at the same time, their relationship with God is what gave them the strength to fight their way to survival. Sydney Lang 3rd Body Paragraph: Through the times of ups and downs, thin and thick, people seem to find the inner will to keep pushing through everything that life throws at them. Then others, not so fortunate, soon lose that willpower and find themselves in a deeper tenebrous place than they were before.
In reality, life gives you two choices; fight or flight. Nearly every situation people find themselves in, large or not, we are forced – as one or as many – to make a verdict. Some leading to better fallouts than others, giving others more ambition, and revoking it from others. Between the two, forgetting about the immense amount of eviations, they have slight a bit more similarities. than most people would give credit to. For example, they both involve decisions, such as that of the people during the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel.
He had to make many decisions while he was in the camps – as did many other Jewish-inmates, in which initially seemed like decent selections, yet in the end, still pronounced that he was but a “corpse in the mirror staring back at himself” (Wiesel 115). The biggest lesson to learn during a life is that life is either going to make you, or it’s going to break you. Everyday choices and behaviors play a vast aspect in the future of people’s’ lives. For example, an additional survivor of the Holocaust was a man named Viktor Frankl.
He stated many a time that there had been always a reason for rationalism, even in the worst of bearings. As once said by Frankl himself, “when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves” (Frankl). This shows that there can be a harmony between the two, and that no choice is indefinitely suitable or right. That the human instinct to withstand may be incredibly powerful, but the conditions and footing around it ay sway a person’s decision immensely.
Conclusion: Amanda McDermott In conclusion, during the Holocaust, many people because weak and lost hope in everything while others were physically weaker but had a stronger faith when they were liberated. This essay portrayed many times that these situations occurred. It illustrated that even in the roughest times, there can always be hope. If you keep a positive attitude then you can learn from the situation and use it as a way to influence other people and try to prevent this kind of dehumanisation for people in the future.