Effects Of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

In 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, causing millions of Jewish people to fear for their lives. First, every citizen, German, and Jew, had to complete a census, which included their race, ancestry, and religion. Second, each person was forced to carry ID cards everywhere they went, and the Jews were made to the star of David on their clothes.Lastly the Nuremberg race laws were created, which took all of the Jewish people's rights away. These laws also contributed to the Jews then being put in the ghettos and ultimately, concentration camps. The event of the Holocaust affected thousands of people by embedding a sense of fear due to the creation of the Gestapo, which lead to terror and destruction for many Jewish families, and by ultimately
the destruction of a poor ignorant boy and his family. In the article “The Gestapo is Born,” the author informs us of the fear that the Gestapo created. For example, Gestapo was not opposed to getting information out of someone at any means necessary, even if that means almost tottering a person to the brink of death:” Gestapo interrogation methods included: repeated near drownings… electric shocks… securing a prisonerś wrist behind his back, then hanging him by the arms causing shoulder dislocation… beating with rubber nightsticks and cow-hide whips;and burning flesh with matches or soldering iron,”(Paragraph 15). As we can see by looking at this quotation , the Gestapo were ruthless when it came to getting information that they desired, but these tactics were not just used to get information. After all, the purpose of the Gestapo was to have more power over the German and make them basically puppets, in the natzis hands. All though torture is not the only way the Gestapo would make citizens conform. They would create files on every single person's life, with information which they obtained from spies. These files would essentially be used as blackmail which the solders used as strategies for information, if the citizen was reluctant to talk. In all the gestapo was a ruthless, information, hungry, organization, that struck fear in two millions of citizens hearts by the threat of torture and the realization that they were always watching you. In “Parallel Journeys,”Eleanor Ayer informs the reader of details from the night of broken glass when Jewish people were discriminated by natis. For instance, many Jewish people were horrified and scared when a german man exclaimed,”Use it for toilet paper, Jews,”(paragraph 9).In this quotation the man was referring to the sacred, religious, Jewish, scrolls, named the rolls of Torah, and that he has absolutely no respect for the Jewish people and their religion. The night of broken glass was called this because of the destruction and vandalism committed to Jewish homes and businesses during this night. Even though all of this destruction was happening to these Jews many of them stayed, including the innocent german citizens, because this was their home and they believed that nothing could get any worse than it already was. This night was the one of the major contributors to the Jews getting moved to concentration camps. In the navel, The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, we are taken into the life of a poor boy named Bruno, whose life and his family is destroyed by the event of the Holocaust.
For example, John Boyne illustrates the story of a very young and naive boy, named Bruno. Bruno ends of getting muttered inside a gas chamber, will gripping on to the hand of his best friend, which happens to be inside the very concentration camp in which his father runs. Boyne wright's,”...Father was ordered to go with them, and he went without complaint and he was happy to do so because he didn't really mind what they did to him any more,”(page 216).This quotation is describing that Bruno's father is being taken away to a concentration camp, sent to his death sentence. This happens to the father because right before this quote is mentioned in the the novel, the father begins to treat his men that work inside the camp horribly and not doing his job because he was stuck with grief after the death of his son, and when he realizes that bruno's death was on his hands he feels no point in living anymore. Brunos father was not the only one in is family who was destroyed by his death, Bruno's mother went back to their old home all the way in Burlin hoping that e would be waiting for her. His sister gretel was very distorted with the lose of her little brother, so much so that she would rarely leave her room and would cry when she thought of him. So as we can see by the example of Bruno's family, the holocaust ruined families and millions of lives, German and jew
alike. Adolf Hitler used many tactics and strategies during the holocaust to ultimately ruined people's lives. Frist, the Natzi party created the origization called the gestapo, which used spies and methods of torture to collect information they desired. Second, natizis were orderd to storm in to cities and to takeaway and destroy every single item Jewish people had, which was referred to as the night of broken glass. Lastly, concentration camps were built, which did not only desecrate Jews but the lives and families of many more. In all, because of the creation of the holocaust six-nine million Jews lost their lives, but sadly jews were not the only people to die. The estimated amount of total deaths during WWII is about 19,605,000. This is too many lives taken for us to just forget about it completely. As you learn during classes as a child, history has been recorded to repeat itself countless of times before, so with this understanding, and the knowledge of what happened to all of these people, do believe it is wise to forget all of this information and just assume an event like that could never happen now? If you answer no then you understand why can never forget the holocaust no matter how long ago it occurred.