Heda Margolius Kovaly’s Under A Cruel Star is a captivating memoir that provides historical accounts during the time period when Czechoslovakia was under Nazi control and faced with Stalinism. Kovaly gives her personal first hand accounts on experiences in concentration camps, post-war struggles, and the life that she lived while under Communism. Contrasting with Under A Cruel Star, John Merriman’s A History of Modern Europe uses clear and concise mundane facts to provide the accounts of history during this era. Presenting history in a memoir makes the read effortless and alluring but it also takes away some of the factual significance that the textbook offers. History presented in this form differs from accounts during this time era written…
In the book “Bread Givers” by Anzia Yezierska a young girl from poland grows up in america. Set in the 1920s conditions for immigrants living in the United States were tough, not to mention living in the lower East side of Manhattan, New York. Reb Smolinsky the father of Sara in this book really tries on impressing his beliefs onto his children for he is very set on his traditional ways. This becomes a very prominent underlying to the story as Sara grows throughout the book moving from her fathers beliefs to her own. This clash between the “old way” of doing things and her new american life style Sara breaks free from this conflict in finding her own identity in this new world. By doing so Sara really connect and Identifies with three main factors in her life independence, education and hard work. With these three basic elements in Sara’s life she really transitions into her own being and self identity.…
When the Germans occupied Cracow, Bronislaw, the son of Rose and David Honig , was four years old. His father David was a hardware store salesman and his mother Rose was a dressmaker. With his parents working, Bronislaw’s grandmother stayed home to take care of him.…
| Relevant Biographical Information About the Author: * White * Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1903 * Father was Scottish and mother was South African of English heritage * Worked at a reformatory with black youths…
This essay is a multicultural book-report. It includes page number references. The book takes place in South Africa during World War II and apartheid.…
[4] Robert Gildea, Olivier Wieviorka, Anette Warring, Surviving Hitler and Mussolini: daily life in occupied Europe, (New York: Berg 2006) p. 95.…
It is easy to infer that there are inevitable differences in culture between a European woman in her seventies and a fifteen-year-old African girl living in apartheid-ruled South Africa. In the introduction of the book, editor and expert in the field of South African studies Shula Marks articulates that the cultural differences between Lily and Dr. Palmer make for a difficult understanding of correspondence…
Not long ago, with only a few weeks between them, I took two voyages into my past. On the first I toured Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany with 27 professors of the Holocaust. On the second I returned to my hometown in cen-tral Pennsylvania to see my parents and to show my children where their fa-ther grew up. I returned from these trips a changed man.…
Williams, Sandra S. (1993). The impact of the Holocaust on survivors and their children. Florida, University of Central Florida.…
Ostensibly the story of a son’s attempt to access and narrate his parents’ fragmented Holocaust biographies, Mark Raphael Baker’s The Fiftieth Gate also subverts the convention of second-generation memoir writing. A composite of detective story, love story, tales of hiding, and vignettes of discovery, The Fiftieth Gate has themes that are synonymous with the difficulties of the narrative construction of the Holocaust as an event “at the limits”: the search for appropriate interpretive vessels sensitive to the expression of often unspeakable memories of first-generation survivors, the traumas of intergenerational transmission, and the child’s adoption of a vicarious Holocaust identity as one of many complex responses. Baker’s relentless subjection of his parents’ memories to forensic historical analysis based on empirical evidence also revisits the vocabulary of speaking the unspeakable commonly associated with the long-standing debate about the Holocaust and its preferred modes of representation.…
Doctor Mark Raphael Baker’s narrative text, ‘The Fiftieth Gate’, reveals the nature of history and memory through his attempts to record his parents’ stories and experiences, as Holocaust survivors, in order to allow a better understanding of his identity and experience in human history. His particular profession as an historian, lecturing in modern Jewish history at the University of Melbourne, was responsible for his desire to explore the past of his parents, Yossl and Genia. It is also through this profession that allows us to see the connection between history and memory, as well as the tension and conflict that may arise as a consequence of this connection.…
In the nineteenth century, families of all different kinds of races resided in tenements. The tenements I will be writing about are located on 96 Orchard Street in the lower east side of New York City. Every room tells a remarkable story of the lives of many who endured struggle and the means of survival. In this specific tenement, we as visitors were given a tour of two particular families who dwelled here all those years ago. The two families were known as the Gumpertz and the Baldizzi family. As you will read, the lives of these families are great examples of how hard it was to survive, with the difficulties of providing basic needs for the family.…
Susan Griffin’s main focus in her essay “Our Secret“ is on Heinrich Himmler’s life. She hopes to better understand how people come to be who they are as a product of childhood and adolescent experiences. Through this process she hopes her readers can become conscious to the truths of their upbringing and not only find their true identity, but have the strength and courage to change their destiny. Griffin is ultimately interested in finding her own identity but has been oppressed by her grandmother to not search inwardly. She therefore uses Himmler as a mask by examining what experiences shaped him as a child to understand what may have molded her. Griffin concentrates on connections between people, childhood, and objects to Heinrich Himmler’s life to better understand social and personal identity, and oppression. Although Griffin writes an excellent account on the connections and metaphors that define Himmler, she leaves the reader feeling lost and unfulfilled by her lack of connection to her own personal search for identity.…
The Holocaust and events in present day South Africa can help us identify injustices within society. By utilizing examples from these two important events I will show why it is significant to resist uprising injustices within a society.…
The role of men and women in the termination of Apartheid is a heavily discussed topic amongst historians and intellects today. Some believe that women had a very similar role to men, whereas others believe that in fact the role of women in Apartheid was of no correlation or magnitude to that of men, and that the women’s role in the termination of Apartheid was far more significant and effective – in other words, completely different to the men’s role. In my opinion, I believe too that the women’s role in Apartheid was very different to men. I plan to clearly state the type of roles women played in the abolishment of Apartheid, and how influential and significant their role was.…