Transcript The Holocaust

THE HOLOCAUST
Presented by: Anne Incorporation
Facts about the Holocaust:
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“Holocaust” originates from a Greek word
meaning “sacrifice by fire.”
It was the systematic, bureaucratic, statesponsored persecution and murder of
approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi
regime and it’s associates.
Occurrence: During World War II, from
1941 – 1945 (However, Jews had been persecuted in
Germany since 1933.)
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The Nazis, who came into power in
Germany in 1933, believed that Germans
were “racially superior” to the Jews.
These German tyrants killed many other
social groups of people, such as gypsies
and the disabled, but their main target was
Jews.
The sole leader of the Nazi regime was a
twisted, horrific, German man named Adolf
Hitler.
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There were many concentration camps,
but some of the most well-known were
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buchenwald, and
Gleiwitz.
To transport the Jewish captives, Nazis
boarded them into cattle car trains.
Each car carried about 80-100 Jews at a
time, which made them overcrowded.
All the victims lost all of their own personal
belongings to the Germans.
NIGHT
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Author: Elie Wiesel
Point of View: Elie speaks in the first person and
always relates the autobiographical events from his
perspective.
Setting: 1941-1945 during World War II.
Eliezer begins the story in Sighet, Transylvania
(during Wiesel’s childhood). The book then follows
his journey through several concentration camps:
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald.
Protagonist: Eliezer
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Antagonist: The Nazis, Dr. Mengele (a cruel
concentration camp doctor), and Franek (a
foreman at a camp site)
Tone: intensely personal and intimate.
It depicts the extraordinarily personal and painful
experiences of a single victim, Wiesel.
Themes: Eliezer’s struggle to maintain faith in a
benevolent God; silence; and inhumanity towards
other humans
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Plot: Elie Wiesel, a Jewish teenage boy, and his family are forced
from their home by the Gestapo (a German secret police) and
crammed into cattle cars with many other Jews, a nightmarish
journey ensued. Once entering the concentration camp of
Auschwitz, Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and
sisters, never to be seen again. Following this, he and the other Jews
go through many tests and are then put to extreme work. Due to
unbearable sights and difficult situations, Elie, along with the others,
loses his faith both in God and the people around him. The Nazis
then evacuate Auschwitz, on account of Russian troops entering the
camp, and force all the prisoners to run to Gleiwitz, 50 miles away in
excruciating weather. Yet, only 12 victims survive and make it to
Buchenwald, where Eliezer’s father dies. Elie endures, an empty shell
of a man, until April 11, 1945, the day that the American army
liberated the camp.
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
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Author: John Boyne
Point of view: First person, A young boy
named Bruno.
Setting: Berlin, Germany 1942
Protagonists: Bruno, Shmel
Antagonists: Nazi soldiers
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Tone: Intense, personal, deep, on edge.
The book portrays the terrors and hardships
people went through in the concentration
camps.
Mood: Devastating, depressing.
Themes: That every human being is a
person, no matter what race. People will
go long lengths to save and stand with
their friends.
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Plot: The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a novel that takes place in Berlin in
1942 during the time of the Holocaust. It is about a young boy named Bruno who
comes home one day to find that all his belongings have been packed. His father
has recieved a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house
way out in the country, with no one to play with and nothing to do. The only thing
he can see is a fence that completely surrounds his house. However, one day while
Bruno is looking out of his window he notices a bunch of people all wearing the
same striped pajamas. As a curious child, he asks his father who these people are,
but gets an unusual answer. His father tells him that these people are not people at
all, and tells Bruno he is not allowed to explore the house or its surroundings. Due to
sheer curiosity and boredom, he is forced to explore. He spots a dot in the distance
on the other side of the fence and as he gets closer, he sees it's a boy. He learns
that this boy's name is Shmel, and his life is very different from Bruno's and with this
strong friendship comes some very devastating consequences. Bruno agrees one
day to dress up in striped pajamas and crawl under the fence with Shmel to find
Shmel’s father. When Bruno is ready to go home it starts raining, and some soldiers
round up a bunch of people, including Bruno and Shmel. They put them in a gas
chamber and both young boys are killed. Eventually Bruno’s family finds out about
the death of their son. Devastated, his father does not want to continue his
profession of being in the Nazi army.
After the War
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Author: Carol Matas
Point of view: third person, a fifteen year
old girl, Ruth Mendenburg
Setting: a small village in Poland
Protagonists: Ruth
Antagonists: Nazi soldiers
Theme: Be thankful for what you have,
because you don’t know what you have
until its gone.
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Tone: The tone of this book is very
depressing and is full of terror. It takes you
on a journey of the Jews life in the
concentration camps and their struggles
to survive.
Mood: terror, depression, and horrific
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Ruth Mendenberg has just been released from Buchenwald, one of Hitler’s concentration camps.
World War II is over, but Ruth returns to her hometown in Poland to learn that both her home and her
family are gone. She is fifteen, alone, and has nowhere to go. Worst of all, she lives with the guilt of
having survived when no one else in her family has.
She meets a man named Saul from Eretz Israel, who encourages her to travel toward freedom in
Palestine with him and other Jewish refugees. He takes her to a place where the other refugees are
housed. Although Ruth believes there is no hope, she agrees to accompany the refugees on the
journey. After all, she has nothing or no one else. When an angry mob attacks the house, killing many of
the refugees inside, Ruth must once again hide to survive. After soldiers stop the mob, the survivors flee.
Ruth is put in charge of twenty orphans. It is her job to lead them safely to Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy,
and then to Palestine. She hopes that this duty will help her forget everything that has happened.
The group survives both an ambush by Poland and Czech border guards and long train trips to cross
the border into Austria. There, Ruth meets a sixteen year old boy named Zvi who tries to get her to open
up so that she does not lose her heart to the Germans along with everything else they have taken from
her. Ruth continues to feel numb.
When the group enters the French occupied zone of Austria, they are forced to fight their way through
the guards. Ruth finally feels some emotion –anger—and takes part in the attack. Later, disguised as
British soldiers, the group manages to pass by the Italian border guards. Once in Italy, they are taken to
a children's camp run by a man named Mayer. Mayer puts all the older kids, including Ruth, in charge
of teaching the younger ones, as well as learning their horrifying stories about the war. Ruth is reluctant
to do this because it will dredge up her own memories. Slowly, however, their stories, and Zvi’s support,
help her cope with her own sadness. On the ship to Italy, Ruth learns that her brother Simon and her
Aunt Sophie have also survived the war. Her joy is short-lived because the ship is attacked by British
warships and Saul is killed. Realizing that she has a lot to live for, Ruth helps fight off the British onslaught.
The refugees manage to reach Eretz Israel, but are picked up by the British and sent to a camp in
Cyprus. Simon, who managed to avoid the British, helps Ruth, Zvi, and Rivka escape. They return to
Palestine, and Ruth opens up her heart to allow her true feelings for Zvi to surface.
Number the Stars
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Plot: Number the Stars is told from the point of view of ten-year-old
Annemarie Johansen. The story is set in the city of Copenhagen,
Denmark in September 1943, the third year of the Nazi occupation
of Denmark. Annemarie and her best friend Ellen, who is Jewish, are
stopped by soldiers on their way home from school. The two girls,
who go to the same school and live in the same building, are
unsettled by their first direct encounter with the Germans. Mrs.
Johansen and Mrs. Rosen are concerned and ask the girls to take a
new route to school. The encounter makes Annemarie reflect on what
her father has taught her about Denmark and also about her older
sister Lise's death a few years before the start of the novel. Later in
the fall, Annemarie and her younger sister Kirsti discover that Mrs.
Hirsch's neighborhood shop has been closed. This event further
alarms Mrs. Johansen, though Annemarie does not understand why.
full title · Number the Stars
 author · Lois Lowry
 type of work · Young adult novel
 genre · Historical fiction; war novel;
coming-of-age novel
 narrator · Third person omniscient
 point of view · The story is told from
Annemarie Johansen's point of view
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tone · Introspective; serious; matter-of-fact
tense · Immediate past tense
setting (time) · World War II, from September 1943 to May 1945
setting (place) · Copenhagen, Denmark, and Gilleleje, Denmark
protagonist · Annemarie Johansen
climax · Ellen and the others escape as Annemarie races against time and
bad odds to her uncle's boat to deliver the crucial important packet
falling action · Uncle Henrik delivers his passengers to Sweden safely; Mrs.
Johansen and her daughters return home; the war ends; Annemarie
anticipates Ellen's return
themes · The difficulty of growing up; voyage and transformation; fairy tales
motifs · Truth-seeking versus self protection; the deceit of appearances;
acting in wartime
symbols · The seashell, the Star of David, the woods
foreshadowing · Often, whatever Annemarie hopes will not happen is what
occurs. Little Red Riding-Hood foreshadows Annemarie's own trip through the
forest