Survival In Auschwitz: A Story About The Holocaust
Zahria Sanders
Ms.Hamilton
CP LIT
26th, October 2014 The story Survival in Auschwitz is about the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi government and its collaborators. It’s strange that the word holocaust itself means “Burned whole”, yet I understand. During World War ll the Nazi’s collected Jews and killed them or shipped them to different concentration camps. A sign on the door in the text displayed, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which meant “Work gives freedom”. It was ironic because they all worked until they were free- by death! To begin with, I feel like living through the Holocaust is not like living through a meal or a job interview in that, when
the actual events are finished, the experience does not stop. Like other kinds of extreme trauma, it stays with a person for the rest of their life. In the words of Jean Améry, who was interrogated at the hands of the SS, "He who was tortured stays tortured." The structure of the text itself bears this out: it does not have an ending, a stopping point, but simply ceases in mid-story, while relating some postwar events in Levi's life. It does not allow us the luxury of seeing Levi's story as a discrete suggestion of experience, but rather as a segment in an ongoing whole. I do not agree with the actions but I see today that it still occurs as discrimination, isolation, alienation and segregation. Honestly, this story made me think as if I was truly there, and it was sorrowful. The author’s purpose for writing it was to inform us on what went on and what those people lost-they’re hope, privacy, and prize possessions. I did enjoy the story though because I have knowledge on the past and it made me realize that these things are still occurring. I give all sympathy because it was neither deserved nor right of them. It was so bad because it took away the Jews freedoms and made them seem like people that don't belong and no one deserves to feel that way. It is unfortunate but when reflecting on the Holocaust we have to use the Nazis definitions, as it was they who decided who lived or died and those people's individual beliefs, or the strength of them could not condemn or save them.
Ms.Hamilton
CP LIT
26th, October 2014 The story Survival in Auschwitz is about the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi government and its collaborators. It’s strange that the word holocaust itself means “Burned whole”, yet I understand. During World War ll the Nazi’s collected Jews and killed them or shipped them to different concentration camps. A sign on the door in the text displayed, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which meant “Work gives freedom”. It was ironic because they all worked until they were free- by death! To begin with, I feel like living through the Holocaust is not like living through a meal or a job interview in that, when
the actual events are finished, the experience does not stop. Like other kinds of extreme trauma, it stays with a person for the rest of their life. In the words of Jean Améry, who was interrogated at the hands of the SS, "He who was tortured stays tortured." The structure of the text itself bears this out: it does not have an ending, a stopping point, but simply ceases in mid-story, while relating some postwar events in Levi's life. It does not allow us the luxury of seeing Levi's story as a discrete suggestion of experience, but rather as a segment in an ongoing whole. I do not agree with the actions but I see today that it still occurs as discrimination, isolation, alienation and segregation. Honestly, this story made me think as if I was truly there, and it was sorrowful. The author’s purpose for writing it was to inform us on what went on and what those people lost-they’re hope, privacy, and prize possessions. I did enjoy the story though because I have knowledge on the past and it made me realize that these things are still occurring. I give all sympathy because it was neither deserved nor right of them. It was so bad because it took away the Jews freedoms and made them seem like people that don't belong and no one deserves to feel that way. It is unfortunate but when reflecting on the Holocaust we have to use the Nazis definitions, as it was they who decided who lived or died and those people's individual beliefs, or the strength of them could not condemn or save them.