Dehumanization Vs Holocaust

M.O.V. Holocaust Essay Project

In the Merchant of Venice, Shylock states, “He hath disgraced me and laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies- and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath now a Jew eyes? Hath not Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” (Shakespeare 110) This quote explains Shylock’s relationship with Antonio by stating that Antonio has laughed at his losses, made fun of his earnings, humiliated his race and turned his friends against him. Upset Shylock goes on stating that all of this is because he’s a Jew. He goes on claiming that Jews are just as human as anyone else. This statement exemplifies the idea of how Jews were treated,
especially during the Holocaust. The Holocaust had a highly significant impact to society now and society when the Holocaust occurred. A holocaust is known as the destruction or slaughter on a mass scale. However, the word has taken on a new meaning. One of the largest most known peevish genocides was the Holocaust, occurring from 1941 to 1945 in Germany. Killing approximately six million Jews by the Nazi Regime, the genocide was lead by Adolf Hitler. Hitler served in the German army during World War 1, blaming the Jews for the country’s defeat in 1918. There was several effects from the Holocaust. A few of these effects include dehumanization, outwardly resisting and enacting during the Holocaust, as well as learning a lesson.

To begin, the struggle of dehumanization and discrimination of Jews was a profound problem during the Holocaust.
In January of 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany, believing that Germans were "racially superior" and that the "inferior” Jews were an alien threat to the German community. German authorities targeted other groups because of their racial inferiority. For example, groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them were Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled and homosexuals were all targeted. During the era of the Holocaust, Jewish immigrants were denaturalized and native Jews were precluded from citizenship. Restricted, Jews were forbidden to live in marriage or to have extramarital relations with persons of German blood. Wistfully, Jews were denied the right to vote and the right to hold public office or civil service. Furthermore, Jews were relegated to an inferior status by the denial of common privileges and freedoms. Thus, denied access to certain city areas, sidewalks, transportation, places of amusement, restaurants, as well as the practice of law and the practice of medicine was forbidden. A reason for why dehumanization occurs is by the statement that Nazis thought of Jews as subhuman and not metaphorically. All of these statements are examples of how Jews and others were treating as being less than
one.

During the Holocaust, groups of people made resist efforts or outwardly resisted. Jews were resisting among other things like being isolated, dehumanized, starved and sickened from illnesses. In a situation regarding the camps, cultural and spiritual resistance took place in ghettos as one of the few ways to oppose nazi tyranny. Mostly secretive, the activities were held in underground organizations. The activities included literary evenings where works were produced and made in the ghettos by Jewish authors, directors, and poets. Other examples of resistance included creating schools, hidden libraries, printing and distributing underground newspapers, maintaining religious customs as well as drawing and painting. Frustrated Jews struggled for humanity, normalcy, and life by purposefully attempting to keep themselves clean, not showing emotion to their captures, helping others and fasting on religious holidays. A reason for why the workers had personal satisfaction in making defective products for the Nazis, is the workers believed it was stunting the German war effort. Overall, Jewish armed resistance was limited. The most known exception was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. A prodigious amount of poorly-armed Jewish fighters held the Waffen - SS at bay for four weeks. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Jewish partisans fought actively against the Nazis in Eastern Europe. Even though, the resistance wasn’t highly common, it still occurred and affected everyone around them.
To conclude, it’s vital to ask ourselves about what was learned from the consequences of the action and inaction during the holocaust.
It teaches us about prejudice by learning how cruel the Jews were treated for just being human. Learning about the Holocaust and what is caused can prevent future genocides like this occurring. In addition, it is important to be grateful for what the world has to offer. The Holocaust was highly impactful resulting in a slow healing process. Struggling, Germans had trouble with the Holocaust’s bitter legacy. In a situation regarding the German government in 1953, the government made payments to individual Jews and Jewish people, acknowledging the German people’s responsibility for the crimes committed. There were several results of the Holocaust. One of the effects includes several of the survivors finding shelter in displaced persons, camps administered by the Allied powers. As a matter of fact, between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews migrated to Israel. Other Jewish displaced persons moved to the United States and other nations. The last displaced person camp closed in 1957. A consequence of the Holocaust occurred in April-May of 1943 as Jews in the Warsaw ghetto rose in armed revolt after hearing rumors that the Germans would deport the ghetto inhabitants remaining to the Treblinka killing center. As the German police units entered the ghettos, the Jewish Fighting Organization and other Jewish groups attacked with Molotov cocktails, hand
grenades, and small arms. The Germans, shocked by the ferocity of resistance, were able to end the major fighting within a few days. In 1945, Anglo-American and Soviet troops entered the concentration camps discovering piles of corpses, bones, and human ashes. This was the aftermath of the Nazi mass murder. Suffered from starvation and disease, Jewish and non-Jewish survivors were found by soldiers. For survivors, the prospect of rebuilding their lives was flagrantly daunting.