Concentration Camp Rhetorical Analysis

When people think of music, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not Nazi Concentration Camps. Most people think death, brutal, and inhumane when they think of concentration camps. Music does not seem like it would play a big part in a place where millions were brutally murdered day in and day out. This is why music in concentration camps is considered paradoxical; in other words contradicting. The music was paradoxical in concentration camps because music helped prisoners remember who they are and what they came from; music helped them survive when they thought the end was coming, and it helped them get out of doing harder jobs. Prisoners were beaten and brainwashed day in and day out. Therefore, often time they would forget who they really were and where they came from. Music helped with this. Since the prisoners were brutally worked they forgot their self worth, so “music helped inmates retain their identity and tradition”
(Music in the Holocaust). Music would help the prisoners regain their confidence and instore their culture back into them. Nazis were not only physically bashing the people but they were also bashing their culture. The music helped the prisoners which was “counteracting the SS’s destructive intention. It was directed not only towards the prisoners’ physical existence, but also towards their culture” (Music and the Holocaust, Death Camps). This goes to show just how paradoxical music was in the concentrations camps. The Nazis wanted to torture the prisoners and make their lives miserable to forget who they really were. Music helped the prisoners remember who they are and the culture that they came from.
Everyday the prisoners feared their lives; they never knew if that day was going to be the last. One thing that kept them alive when all they were put there to do is die, was music. According to prisoners, “the music could save you: if not your life, then at least the day...we played music to them, for our basic survival. We made music in hell” (Music and the Holocaust, Auschwitz). Music brought joy to a place where joy really did not exist. By singing and playing music, it helped many prisoners survive and live many days longer. The Nazis had one goal to kill the prisoners, “...the site of the murder of millions, through gas, beatings and shootings, illness, medical experimentation, exhaustion and starvation”(Music and the Holocaust, Auschwitz). Although the Nazis were rapidly killing people, they gave some a way out: Music. This is paradoxical because while all the Nazis were trying to do was work the prisoners to death, some of them were still surviving because music kept them alive.
Prisoner were forced to work hard, brutal, and tiring jobs seven days a week.
Although, some may have gotten out of doing the aggressive and tiring jobs. Some prisoners while in the camp served as musicians. This saved them from doing brutal jobs and helped them survive. According to Elie Weisel, “We had left the tents for the Musicians’ block… (Hans) You’re lucky son. You've landed in a good unit”(Weisel 58). Some prisoners were lucky and were saved by being able to be musicians in the camps. Nazis wanted to constantly work the prisoners and wear them down. It had got to the point where “tens of thousands of prisoners were killed here” (Music and the Holocaust, Auschwitz). Being able to be in the musicians block sometime meant that they were not worked as hard or as brutal. This is paradoxical. The Nazis wanted to work the prisoners to death, but they gave them an escape route when it came to music. Music had given the prisoners a way to survive when all the Nazis wanted to do was kill them off; that is why it is
paradoxical.
When people think of concentration camps, they often do not think of music. However, music played a big role in the Nazi Concentration Camps. Nazis were out to kill the prisoners and make their lives awful. This is why music in the camps was paradoxical. The music helped prisoners remember who they really were, when all the Nazi were trying to do is brainwash them and make the feel worthless. Another reason why music is paradoxical is it helped the prisoners stay alive, when all they were put there to do is die. A final reason is it helped some prisoners get out of doing harder jobs. This saved their lives because Nazis were forcing them to work to death in other jobs. Paradoxical means contradicting. So, why was music in concentration camps paradoxical? Over all music in the camps saved lives, instead of killing them like the Nazis wanted.