Schindler's List

What makes a person "heroic"? Does a hero possess certain qualities? Or is a hero defined by his or her actions? Was Schindler a hero?

A person is "heroic" when they put themselves at risk so that they can save others, or if they just help people in a big way, which usually involves them putting themselves at risk.

For the most part, heroes have good morals and have been do-gooders, however, sometimes, people who are successful businessmen who are in a fine position themselves do good things, as did Oskar Schindler. Heroes are also defined by their actions, because they do great things, which is what makes them heroes. I don't think you can actually BE a hero without doing some great things.

Personally, I think Schindler was a hero, and I highly doubt that his motives for hiring the Jews were purely for his profits. I say this because after the war had ended, Schindler felt that he could have saved more Jews from dying, and actually felt bad about his not hiring more than the 1,100 Jews he did manage to get. Schindler did not disagree with what the Nazi's were doing, so he made a stand and managed to save 1,100 Jews, who now have over 10,000 living descendants. I personally think that Schindler actually helped increase the Jewish population by saving those Jews, so now, there are more Jews thanks to him than there would be if he was like most other Germans and didn't bother to save them.

Sonia Weitz: My Black Messiah

The poem of Sonia Weitz's that I chose was called "My Black Messiah", and it was about Ms. Weitz's experience of seeing a black GI who was one of the troops who liberated the camp she was held in.

I annotated this poem by simply writing down what I thought some of the metaphorical sentences meant. I also found a possible theme for the poem, and that theme was "confused", mainly because the GI seemed shocked and confused at what he saw before his eyes, as anyone who didn't know what was happening to the Jews would.

One part of the poem that stood out to me a bit more than the rest was this small section: " He didn't weep, he didn't cry

But deep within his gentle eyes

... A flood of devastating pain,

his innocence forever slain."

Now, the reason this part caught my eye was that it was a particularly touching part of the poem, which described how devastated the GI was when he saw the camp, and that that would be a memory forever stamped into the man's mind, and also, it is saying that his naivety would disappear, and that he would have a new, possibly worse, outlook on the world.

You may be wondering why I say that he might have had a worse outlook on the world, so here's why I think that. I said that because this GI might have come to realize how cruel and merciless some humans can be if they get the chance, and it may have scarred him permanently and even made him ashamed to be part of a species that could do something so horrid to a minority group.

In all honesty, I cannot make a personal connection to this poem other than that when I first learned of the whole Holocaust thing, I felt just as shocked and surprised as the GI did.

This poem made me feel quite sad, because it is meant to be a sobering story of how Ms. Weitz was liberated from the camp, and the reaction of the GI and how he was crushed by what he saw. I must say, I feel quite sorry for the poor GI (and all the Jews and other people affected by the Holocaust, of course), because before he liberated the camp he was probably a carefree late-teens or early 20's guy, but after seeing the camp and the people held within and the conditions they had to live in, he was scarred for life, and would never forget the awful things he saw that day.

What Allowed Hitler to Gain Power?

There are a bunch of factors that allowed Hitler to gain power of Germany; the economic crises, the Reichstag fire, and a couple more things. Firstly, there was the Treaty of Versailles, which gave the Nazi party a goal that would catch the interest of the general population. What I mean is that Hitler could gain some following by saying that if the Germans voted for him, he would abolish the Treaty and bring Germany back to its former glory. Then, along came the hyperinflation crisis in 1923, which gave the Nazi party and even better political foothold, because they could say the same thing "vote for us and we'll fix the economy!" Next, in 1929, there was another, and even bigger economy crash, which gave Hitler even more leverage, because Germany was floundering, the Weimar government wasn't doing anything that was going to help the country out anytime soon, so the Germans were beginning to get mad at the Weimar government, and the Nazi's seemed to offer a quick way out. Then, when Hindenburg croaked, the current government had no choice but to appoint Hitler chancellor, so they did. And then came along the final nail in the coffin: the Reichstag was set alight. This gave Hitler a massive chance to gain complete power over Germany, so he blamed the fire on his biggest political enemy: the communists. Due to the fact that he was already Chancellor, the German people believed him and agreed with him, so they elected him to be Fürher of Germany, and he threw all the communists in jail. This marked the beginning of the end for the Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws

1. Who could now be defined as a "Jew"?

According to the laws, anyone who had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents was declared a Jew, regardless of what religion that person was.
2. What was meant by "Aryanizing" Jewish Businesses?

The Nazis Aryanized Jewish businesses by replacing Jewish shop or business owners with non-Jewish Germans.
3. How were Jews who were professionals (lawyers, doctors etc.) restricted?

Jews who were doctors were prohibited from treating non-Jews, and Jews that were law students were not allowed to practice law anymore.
4. What did Jewish identity cards need to include now?

The government made it so that all the Jewish identity cards had a red J stamped on them (for Jew), and if they did not have a Jewish sounding first name, they had a middle name that sounded more Jewish put into their names, "Isreal" for men, and "Sara" for women. This enabled German police to identify Jews far more easily than before.
5. What was the "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People" (sum up in your own words)?

The "Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health of the German People" made it so that any two people who wanted to get married had get a certificate from the public health authorities that stated that those two people were fit to marry. These certificates were not given to people that had hereditary illnesses or contagious sicknesses or were trying to marry, but were violating the Nuremberg Laws in any way, like a Jew wanting to marry and Aryan.

Hitler's Taking Control

Civil rights are the rights that people have all around the world. They are the guidelines which state how everyone should be treated. Some of these rights are the right to vote, the right to freedom of speech, and the right to protection from wrongful discrimination.

Why might some of Hitler's measures in abolishing personal freedoms and Civil Rights be seen by some as as a positive, or necessary move?

Because when the Reichstag was burned down, Hitler blamed it on the communists, whom he disliked, so the German people thought that they should be punished for what they did, and that the punishment should be the abolishment of the freedoms and Civil Rights of the communists. They believed that the ones like the tapping into phone calls was necessary to prevent enemies like the communists from communicating with eachother and rising against the government.