erikb

toc =Erik B. //Night// Assignments=

Assignment 1: Reasons for Writing
A Surviving Memory

In the autobiography //Night//, author Elie Wiesel believes he is to tell his story so that he can justify his survival and have nobody forget about the holocaust. Wiesel, being a Jew, was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, during the holocaust. Unlike a million of his peers, Wiesel was lucky enough to not be killed at the concentration camp. When explaining this book’s meaning, he states, “I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for others more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than chance” (Wiesel VII). He believes he got extremely lucky and that by surviving, he had an obligation to share what really happened. Another reason he wrote the novel was to make sure this event was never forgotten. He believed that the Germans wanted to erase this event from human memory, which he would not let stand. He also needed the Holocaust to have some emotion, not to just be an event people read about.

Assignment 2: Holocaust Web Search

 * Topics to Know || Questions || Answers ||
 * ** Nazi Propaganda ** || Who is Joseph Goebbels?

List three things the Nazis did to ensure that their views were shown/heard in the most persuasive manner possible.

[] || Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. The Nazis did many things to make sure they were shown in a positive light including controlling film sets so that the films would not be derogatory towards them. They also hunted down people who would write articles that are negative toward the party. They also created the Reich Chamber of Commerce in which if you wanted to produce any literature, art, music, radio, film or newspaper, you would have to be a member. || []
 * ** Kristallnacht/ The Final Solution/ **
 * Wannsee Conference ** || What is Kristallnacht and what does the word mean? When did it happen?

Who attended and what was decided at the Wannsee Conference?

What was the Final Solution?

[] || Kristallnacht was an event in November 1938 in which the German government hosted Anti-Jewish riots. The term translates to night obf broken glass.

15 Nazis and Germans attended the conference in which they decided the best way to exterminate the Jews known as the Final Solution. The final solution was just a plan to complete wipe Jews off the face of the Earth, or at least Germany. ||
 * ** The Victims ** || Besides the Jewish people, list seven other groups were also targets/victims of the Holocaust?

Briefly tell the fate of each group under Nazi rule.

[]

CLUE: Begin reading at “Targeted Groups” || Besides Jews, the Nazis tried to exterminate gypsies, people with disabilities, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Afro Germans, Jehovah’s witnesses and homosexuals. Each group lost a lot of members but all of these groups overall survived. ||
 * ** The Ghettos ** || Describe the three types of ghettos, their purpose, and locations.

[]

What was life like in the ghettos? [] || The three types of ghettos were closed ghettos, open ghettos, and destruction ghettos. These ghettos were made so that the Jews could isolated into different areas. Closed is the most often which is total isolation in which the prisoners are held in by fences or barbed wire. Open ghettos didn’t have fencing but entering and exiting was controlled, this was popular in Romanian countries. Destruction ghettos was basically a place for the Jews to stay until they were shot ruthlessly leading to a terrible, terrible death. || []
 * ** The Camps ** || There were two kinds of camps: labor camps and death/extermination camps. What is the difference between the two?

What were the conditions?

What different types of extermination were performed?

[] || Labor camps was where the Jews were kept to work for the Nazis. Once they got weak they were sent to the death camps.

The conditions were basically the Jews were sent then killed. They were killed in gas chambers or by shooting || []
 * ** The Liberation & The Nuremberg Trials ** || Who liberated the camps?

What did Hitler do near the end of the war?

How many defendants were charged during the Nuremberg Trials? What did they represent? []

What did the International Military Tribunal decide was not a legitimate defense? [] || The soviets liberated the concentration camps. Near the end of the war, Hitler committed suicide. 24 defendants were charged in the Nuremberg trials and they represented German diplomatic, economic, political, and military leadership. The tribunal decided that following orders wasn’t a legitimate defense. ||

=Assignment 3: Images of Night=

Camps Dreary and sad Working, killing, screaming Lika a pizza in the oven screaming to death Pizzas going to heaven Baking To die for their own kind