our extended text: night by elie wiesel holocaust: from the greek word “olokauston”: a...
TRANSCRIPT
Unit II: Human Rights Around the World: Symbols of Alienation
Our extended text: Night by Elie Wiesel
Holocaust: from the Greek word“olokauston”: a destruction caused by fire or a burned
sacrifice
What can literature teach us about humanity and responsibilities to ourselves, our culture, our society, and our world?
How can taking notes and annotating a text aid my comprehension?
How can I use note taking to analyze details from a text to make inferences?
How does an author create tone?How does word choice and the use of literal
and figurative language inform and reveal an author’s purpose?
How does an author use rhetoric to support his point of view?
How can I develop parallel structure in my writing?
Some Essential Questions from Unit II
Be able to answer all essential questions
Complete a research paper.
Be successful on CDA #2
By the end of this unit you will . . .
Holocaust vocabulary and definitionsNight by Elie WeiselPerils of Indifference (speech)The Boy in the Striped Pajamas(film)Oprah Winfrey/ Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz
documentaryHolocaust poetryLetters to Holocaust victimsLife is Beautiful (film)Research PaperUnit TestCDA #2
Materials for this unit:
The Holocaust refers to a specific event in 20th century history:
The government-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933-1945.
Documentary LINK: http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search#selItemsPerPage=20&intCurrentPage=0&No=0&N=4294939055&Ne=&Ntt=holocaust&Ns=&Nr=&browseFilter=&indexVersion=&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode%252Bmatchallpartial
The Holocaust
Amon Goethe- was an SS Captain and the commandant of the a Nazi concentration camp. He was tried as a war criminal after the war. He was found guilty and hung. The film Schindler's List depicts his occasional practice of shooting camp internees for sport.
Anti-Semitism- is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage
Holocaust Vocabulary
The Aryan race- is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or subrace of the larger Caucasian race.
Auschwitz Dachau, and Buckenwald- a network of concentration camps and extermination camps of the Nazis in WWII.
Crematoria- the use of high temperature burning for the use of reducing bodies to dust. In death camps used to rid the Nazis of Jewish bodies.
Einsatzgruppen- were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting.
Enabling Act- which became a cornerstone of Adolf Hitler's seizure of power.
Final Solution- was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews
Gestapo- The Secret State Police of the Nazis.
Ghetto- is a part of a city predominantly occupied by a particular ethnic group that may be looked down upon for various reasons, especially because of social or economic issues, or because they have been forced to live there .
Hebrew- Culturally, it is considered by Jews and other ethnic or religious groups as the language of the Jewish people
Heinrich Himmler- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-S72707,_Heinrich_Himmler.jpg
Holocaust- known as “Shoah” by the Jews, was the systematic killing of over 6 million Jews and 4 million non-Jews during WWII.
Joseph Mengele- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mengele
Judaism- The religion of the Jewish people.
Kabballa- the study of mysticism as part of the Jewish religion. Questions like, “who is God?” “why are we here?” are discussed and searched for.
Kaddish- a prayer found in Jewish prayer services.
Krakow- one of the oldest cities in Poland.
Kristallnacht- “The Night of Broken Glass” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht
Mein Kampf- “My struggle” is a book written by Adolf Hitler while in prison. It contained many anti-semitic ideas.
Nuremberg Laws- of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rallyof the Nazi Party.
Oskar Schindler- an ethnic German that saved over 1100 Jews in the Holocaust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schindler
Star of David- A SYMBOL OF Jewish identity.
Sturmabteilung (SA) Schutzstaffel (SS)- functioned as the paramilitary branch of the Nazis. They played a key role of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s.
Swastika- the image used by the Nazis during WWII.
Third Reich- is the common name for Germany when it was a totalitarian state ruled by Adolf Hitler.
Torah- the spiritual book of the Jews.
The Treaty of Versailles- the peace treaty that ended WWI. This forced Germany to pay war fees to The Allies. This upset and disgruntled many Germans. Hitler took advantage of this general feeling and vowed that he would bring Germany back to them.
Yiddish- a part of the Jewish language that incorporates Hebrew and German into slang.
Zyklon B- a chemical used in concentration camps to kill Jews in mass. Jews were told to shower and instead of water, Zyklon B was pumped through the room, killing them within minutes.
PHASE I (1933-1939):Regulation and Isolation of German Jews
PHASE II (1939-1941):Totalitarian regulation of Polish Jews
PHASE III (1941-1943)Direct killing by Einsatzgruppen in USSR
PHASE IV (1941-1945):Bureaucratic killing across occupied Europe
A Four Phase Operation
Why did this happen?After the First World War, Germany
was in chaos, and Hitler was a strong leader who promised a better life for Germany.
European fascism merged with anti-semitism.
The western world was unaware of the true extent of Germany’s persecution of Jews and others.
FascismFascists believe that nations and/or races
are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in conflict against the weak.
advocate the creation of a single-party state.
forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the government and the fascist movement.
opposes class conflict, blames capitalist liberal democracies for its creation and communists for exploiting the concept.
Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards
because of who they were,their genetic or cultural
origins, or health conditions. Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, and
peoplewith physical or mental disabilities.
Others were Nazi victims because of what they did. Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, and other political enemies.
Who?
World War I ended in 1918 with Germany being severely punished for its aggression during the war.
Military and political leaders blamed left-wing politicians, communists, and Jews.
The new gov’t, Weimar Republic, tried to establish democracy but it could not handle the depressed economy or lawlessness.
The German Worker’s Party espoused a right-wing ideology. Hitler joined in 1919 and quickly rose to leadership
Why?
“it [Nazi philosophy] by no means believes in an equality of races, but along with their differences it recognizes their higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and demand the subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates the universe.” – Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler
1919 - Treaty of VersaillesCripples Germany
1920 - National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or NAZI) is formed
1925 - Volume One of Mein Kampf published
October 24, 1929 - “Black Thursday”
Holocaust Timeline
September 14, 1930Nazi Party wins 107 of
577 seats in ReichstagJuly 31, 1932
Nazi seats in Reichstag increases to 230 of 608
January 30, 1933Adolf Hitler appointed
Chancellor of Germany succeeding Paul Von Hindenberg ending the Weimar Republic
Jewish population of Germany 566,000
Polish children who will be sent to live in Germany
February 22, 1933 - Auxiliary Police40,000 SA and SS sworn in
February 27, 1933 - Reichstag burnsCrisis created
February 28, 1933 - Emergency powersMarch 22, 1933 - Concentration camps
begin opening throughout GermanyMarch 24, 1933 - The Enabling Act
Chancellor given absolute power
Phase 1
April 1, 1933 - Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses
April 7, 1933 - Law for Restoration of Civil Service
April 11, 1933 - First legal definition of who is a Jew
April 25, 1933 - Law Against Overcrowding German Schools
April 26, 1933 - Gestapo created
Moves Against Jews
Children smuggling food into the Warsaw ghetto
May 10, 1933 - Burning of “undesirable” books
July 14, 1933 - Outlawing of political parties
September 1933 - Jews excluded from the arts
September 29, 1933 - Jews prohibited from land ownership
October 4, 1933 - Editorial Law
A segregated streetcar in Krakow. The sign in German and Polish reads, "for Jews; for non-Jews." (Circa 1940)
January 24, 1934 - Jews banned from the German Labor Front
May 17, 1934 - Jews excluded from national health insurance
June 30, 1934 - “Night of the Long Knives”
July 20, 1934 - SS independenceJuly 22, 1934 - Jews prohibited from legal
professionAugust 2, 1934 - Hitler becomes Führer
1934
The Reich Citizenship LawOnly Germans or those with “German” blood
(“Aryans”) could be citizens of the ReichGerman Jews became “state subjects”
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and HonorProhibited marriages and extramarital affairs
between Jews and “Aryans”
The Nuremberg Laws
Prohibited the employment of German maids under the age of forty-five in Jewish households
Prohibited the raising of the German flag by Jews
Symbolically dramatized the exclusion of Jews from German society
Rationalized and legitimized actions against the Jews which were to follow
Passed during special session of the Reichstag on September 15, 1935
Naked Jewish women, some of whom are holding infants, wait in a line before their execution by Ukrainian auxilliary police. (October 14, 1942)
Ensatzgruppen before executing a Jewish youth
November 8, 1937 - Eternal Jew exhibitMarch 1938
- Austria annexed- Eichmann
April-July 1938 - further restrictions on Jewish property and professions
August 17, 1938 - Regulation requiring Jews to change their names
Later Actions in Germany
November 7, 1938 - German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath attacked by Polish Jew in Paris; dies two days later
November 9/10, 1938 - KristallnachtNovember 12, 1938 - Jews assessed one
billion deutchmarks for damagesNovember 15, 1938 - Jews expelled from
German Schools
The End Game
Jews from the Krakow Ghetto, who have been rounded-up for deportation, are crowded
onto the back of a truck. (1942)
December 3, 1938 - Law requires takeover of all Jewish owned businesses
December 14, 1938 - Reichsmarschal Hermann Göring put in charge of resolving the “Jewish Question”
January 24, 1939 - Reinhard Heydrich charged with emigration of Jews
March 15, 1939 - Nazis invade Czechoslovakia
September 1, 1939 - Nazis invade PolandSeptember 3, 1939 - England & France
declare war on GermanySeptember 17, 1939 - Soviet troops invade
eastern Poland
World War II
September 21, 1939 - Heydrich orders “Ghettoization” of Polish Jews
Throughout 1939 Polish Jews are subjected to the same systematic treatment that German Jews had during the previous six and one-half years.
December 1939 - Adolf Eichmann takes over Gestapo section for Jewish affairs
Phase 2
Two Jewish pupils are humiliated before their classmates. The inscription on the blackboard reads “The Jew is our greatest enemy!”
Burning of Books (Kristallnacht)
June - December 1941 - Invasion of USSRJuly 2, 1941 - Heydrich issues guidelines
on executions by Einsatzgruppen in USSRJuly 31, 1941 - Heydrich ordered to
prepare a plan for “the final solution of the Jewish question”
September 3, 1941 - Zyklon-B used as agent of mass killing on Soviet POWs
December 8, 1941 - Chelmno Death Camp
Phase 3
January 20, 1942 - The Wannsee Conference finalizes details of Final Solution
January 1942 - Killing of Jews at Auschwitz Birkenau using Zyklon-B
March 1942 - Belzec Death Camp becomes operational
March 24, 1942 - Slovak Jews to AuschwitzMarch 27, 1942 - French Jews to Auschwitz
Phase 4
An American soldier stands
above the corpses of
children that are to be
buried in a mass grave dug
by German civilians from
the nearby town of
Nordhausen. (April 14,
1945)
Young survivors behind a barbed wire fence in Buchenwald concentration campAmerican soldiers view a pile of human remains outside the crematorium in Buchenwald.
Holocaust MemoirsSome victims of concentration camps
survived to publish their memoirs.
Famous authors who wrote about their experiences include Primo Levi, Anne Frank, Simon Wiesenthal and Elie Wiesel.
Elie Wiesel addresses the U.S. Congress.
Elie Wiesel and the holocaustTaken from his hometown with his family in
spring 1944, when he was a teenager.Transported to Auschwitz, Poland with his
family.He never saw his mother or younger sister
again.His father died after a forced march to
buchenwald.
Liberation of Buchenwald
Wiesel is the seventh man from the left
on the second row.
April 16,1945
Elie Wiesel after the HolocaustBecame a U.S. Citizen in 1955Published his memoir of Auschwitz Teaches humanities at various universitiesWon the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for
speaking out against racism and intolerance around the world.
Night Study Guide NotesWhat is a motif (motive)?Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.Motifs to look for while reading Night:
Bearing Witness – Pay attention to which characters are witnesses and to what they bear witness.
Night Study Guide NotesMotifs (continued):
Father-son Relationships – Pay attention to how Elie and his father’s relationship develops; in addition, notice other father-son relationships in the book.
Loss of faith – Notice how Elie’s faith in God changes as the book progresses. Write on your study guides where these changes occur.
Night Study Guide NotesMotifs (continued):
Father-son Relationships – Pay attention to how Elie and his father’s relationship develops; in addition, notice other father-son relationships in the book.
Loss of faith – Notice how Elie’s faith in God changes as the book progresses. Write on your study guides where these changes occur.
Voice vs. Silence – Who has a voice and who chooses to remain silent? Why might Elie Wiesel title his novel what he did originally, and why did he no longer remain silent?
The Perils of Indifference
Let's listen to the speech
SymbolsThe Bible begins with God’s creation of the earth. When God first begins
his creation, the earth is “without form, and void; and darkness [is] upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2, King James Version). God’s first act is to create light and dispel this darkness.
To Eliezer, Darkness and night symbolize a world without God’s presence. Night always occurs when suffering is worst, and its presence reflects
Eliezer’s belief that he lives in a world without God.
Examples: • The first time Eliezer mentions that “[n]ight fell” is when his father is
interrupted while telling stories and informed about the deportation of Jews.
• Similarly, it is night when Eliezer first arrives at Birkenau/Auschwitz
SymbolsFire appears throughout Night as a symbol of the Nazis’ cruel power and
destruction. In the Bible, fire is associated with God and divine wrath. God appears
to Moses as a burning bush, and vengeful angels wield flaming swords. In Gehenna—the Jewish version of Hell—the wicked are punished by fire.
In Night, it is the wicked use fire to punish the innocent. Such a reversal demonstrates how the experience of the Holocaust has upset Eliezer’s entire concept of the universe, especially his belief in a benevolent, or even just, God.
Examples:On the way to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Madame Schächter receives a vision
of fire that serves as a premonition of the horror to come. Burning babies in a ditch. Most important, fire is the agent of destruction in the crematoria
From his Nobel Lecture:“For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope. Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.” - December 11, 1986
Acceptance Speech
What are your reactions?Think for a minute about your reaction to
these historical events.Then write a dialectical response in your
journal – please include questions, thoughts and emotions.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel, author of Night