Saturday, April 19, 2008

Chapter 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVrSmNXZYYg

One of the many reoccuring themes in the book is Eliezer's doubt in God. In the begining of the book Eliezer is as faithful to God as is father is but as he begins to find out the horrors of the Nazi Final Solution he begins to question if God really exists. Another theme in the book is the is ignorance. The first example is when Moshe comes back to Sighet and is telling the Jews about the horrors he saw and yet the Jews are bearly phased by this and continue with thier lives.

The Final Solution to the Jewish Question refers to the German Nazis' plan to engage in systematic genocide against the European Jewish population during World War II. The term was coined by Adolf Hitler as “Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe.” The implementation of the Final Solution resulted in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust. Mass killings of about one million Jews occurred before the plans of the Final Solution were fully implemented in 1942, but it was only with the decision to eradicate the entire Jewish population that the extermination camps were built and industrialized mass slaughter of Jews began in earnest. This decision to systematically kill the Jews of Europe was made by the time of, or at the Wannsee conference, which took place in Berlin, in the Wannsee Villa on January 20, 1942. During the conference, there was a discussion held by a group of German Nazi officials to decide on the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". The records and minutes of this meeting were found intact by the Allies at the end of the war and served as valuable evidence during the Nuremberg Trials. By spring of 1942, Operation Reinhard began the systematic extermination of the Jews, although hundreds of thousands already had been killed by death squads and in mass pogroms. In Heinrich Himmler's speech at the Posen Conference of October 6, 1943, Himmler, for the first time, clearly elucidated to all assembled leaders of the Reich, in frank and brutal terms, what the "Final Solution" referred to.

Pedia, W. I. Final Solution. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 19, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution

3 comments:

tgrue3 said...

Steve,

I think that when we read this chapter we both thought about Wiesel's immediate mention of God. It shows his obvious devotion to God. This clip from Schindler's list was a nice touch. I also liked the fact that you provided some additional background information of Hitler's Plan. Good job so far, keep up the good work.
Tre

Sonic teh Hedgeblog said...

Nice Blog Boss Blog. Yea I agree with what you wrote and I like what you did with adding additional information.

Albert Clarke said...

Good job Steve. I think you wrote a very good entry that had several external links that were also interesting.