Ben Kamm Character Analysis

Greetings, everyone! On this day, we honor a man who demonstrated brave and heroic skills, as well as a caring loving man. This monument will reflect a story, a life, during the devastating Holocaust. And this man was not at all different from any of us. However, he symbolized the attributes of a true hero.

Ben Kamm began his life in Poland. He was like any other kid in Warsaw; strong, adventurous, humorous. He played with friends and ate ice cream. But, one thing, just one, that separated him from others: he was a Jew. That was it, nothing else. However, one man believed just that one trait brought destruction and misery to everyone across Europe. This man believed that the only solution to this mythical conflict was to wipe out the Jews.
This man Adolf Hitler, resembled Germany’s humiliation and bitterness from their loss of World War I. To aid them from their depression, he offered them the Jews as a scapegoat. With no better solution created, the Germans took it in.

Ben’s life starts to roll downhill. He was ignored by his friends, people gave him dirty looks as he walks by. He was like a ghost; ignored by some and frightening others. He tries to recall anything, any word, any action, he has committed to become into the state he was now. When Ben became a teenager, German troops began to invade his home country. With shocking swiftness and brutal efficiency, the Nazis and Polish police persecuted Warsaw’s Jews. Still, things get deleterious. Ben and his family, with all the other Jews in his town, are rounded up and forced into a ghetto, like sheep into a barn. The area was surrounded by a towering wall, topped with electric barbed wire and shards of glass as sprinkles on top. Now he realized that the Nazis did not envisioned them as humans, but like logs that feed a fire of revulsion.

Rage at the Nazis boil inside Ben as the conditions in the ghetto became increasingly deplorable.
Despite his irritation, Ben would soon realize that there is a slimmer of hope that he can cling on to: the partisans. These rebellious Jews were fighting back against the Nazis and Hitler. They are grouped into bases, some hardened fighters on savage missions, others protecting large numbers of Jewish refugees. Determined to help the partisans and his family, he ventured out into the wilderness to fulfill his destiny. However, Ben struggled to adjust to life with the partisans. He had to learn to shoot, to fall asleep on the cold forest ground, to endure days in rain-soaked clothing, and to ambush Polish policemen and steal their weapons. Danger lurked around every corner, but Ben was persistent. His rage had toughened him. His bravery and skill soon earned him the respect of the most experienced fighters. As time went on, Ben fought with a legendary band of partisans and volunteered for the most dangerous missions. By the time the war ended, Ben was a young adult in his mid-twenties. A few years later, he married and moved to America, where he supported a cheerful family.

This story was from a man not any more similar than anyone else. Becoming a hero does not require any special power or ability. Remember that a person wouldn't be put on this Earth if he didn’t have a purpose. When Ben was asked if he was a hero on account of all he did during the war, Ben answers simply, “No,
not a hero…. I was lucky I’m alive and can tell the story.” Your story, your life, makes you who you are. Your legacy is etched into the minds of others and stories they share about you.

We are all stories, in the end, waiting to be told.