Rhys

=
   **WWII **         World War II began in late 1930’s and continued right through until September 2, 1945. The conflict divided the whole developed world, and was the most deadly conflict ever. In total over 70million people died, the majority being civilians. The conflict also came at an enormous economic cost, in total, over a trillion american dollars. During World War ll, Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, commited genecide on all Jews living in Germany. It was known as the Holocaust. The holocaust involved the slaughter of approximately six million Jews, and others deemed unfit for life - the mentally ill, disabled or homosexual. Jewish citizens of Germany were transported to various camps around Germany known as concentration camps. It was here, that the Jews were starved, tortured, burned, shot or gassed. The group of countries opposing Hitler's reign were known as the Allies. The allies led by the Big Three (Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill) formed a large following known as the United Nations. This included countries powers such as USA, Britain and USSR. =====

 **Map of Nazi Concentration and Death Camps**  After 1939 with the beginning of the 2nd World War, concentration camps increasingly became places where the enemies of the Nazis were killed, enslaved, starved, and tortured. During the War concentration camps for “undesirables” spread throughout Europe. New camps were created near centers of dense “undesirable” populations, often focusing on areas with large communities of Jewish, Polish intelligentsia, Communists, or Roma. Most camps were located in the area of General Government in occupied Poland for a simple logistical reason: millions of Jews lived in Poland. It also allowed the Nazis to transport the German Jews outside of the German main territory. In most camps, prisoners were forced to wear identifying overalls with colored badges according to their categorization: red triangles for Communists and other political prisoners, green triangles for common criminals, pink for homosexual men, purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses, black for Gypsies and asocials, and yellow for Jews.



 **Adolf Hitler** (20 April 1889 - 30 April 1945), was an Austrian born German polititian who led the National socialist german workers party, more commonly known as the Nazi party. He was Chancellor of Germany(1933–1945). The Nazi parties aim was to exterminate all the jews. On 5th January, 1919, not two months after the conclusion of the Armistice which ended the first World War, and six months before the signing of the Peace Treaties at Versailles, there came into being in Germany a small political party called the German Labour Party. On the 12th September, 1919, Adolf Hitler became a member of this party, and at the first public meeting held in Munich, on 24th February, 1920, he announced the party's programme. That programme, which remained unaltered until the party was dissolved in 1945, consisted of twenty-five points, of which the following five are of particular interest on account of the light they throw on the matters with which the Tribunal is concerned: " Point 1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany, on the basis of the right of a self-determination of peoples.
 * Nazi party and their aims.**

Point 2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain.

Point 3. We demand land and territory for the sustenance of our people, and the colonisation of our surplus population.

Point 4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race....

Point 22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army."   ** The Holocaust **, is the term generally used to describe the deliberate and systematic destruction (** genocide **) of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National socialist germanworkers party regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.


 * Ghettos **, During World War II, ghettos in Europe from 1939-1944 were established by the Nazis to confine jews and sometimes gypsies into tightly packed areas of the cities of Eastern Europe, turning them into de-factoconcerntration camps and death camps in the Holocaust.ghettos were places of terrible poverty and during periods of population growth, ghettos had narrow streets and tall, crowded houses. Residents had their own justice system.


 * <span style="COLOR: #168311; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif">Persecution **is the systematic mistreatment of an individual/group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms


 * Kristallnacht **, pronounced 'crystal night' ;) or referred to as The Niht of Broken Glass was a pogrom (form of riot against a certain group) in Nazi Germany on the 9th and 10th in November 1938. One that single night 91 jews were murdered, and 25,000-30,000 were arrested and deported to concertration camps. The Nazi's coordinated an attack on Jewish people and their property in Germany-controlled landsas part of Hitlers anti-semitic ( prejudice and hostility toward Jews) policy.


 * //"//**//One day whenIdek was venting his fury, I happened to cross his path, He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, hrowing meto the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood. As I bit my lips in order not to howl with pain, he must have mistaken my silence for defiance and so he continued to hit me harder and harder.**"**// PG 53

This paragraph of writing really helps the reader to visualise the brutality and inhumain conditions the Jews were forced to live in, and how at that time and place how defenceless he was, and his father, sitting back and having to watch his son get beaten so violently he was covered in his own blood.


 * "**//The jews were orderd to get off (the train) and ontowaiting trucks, The trucks headed toward a forest, There everybody was ordered to get out.They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they were finished their work, the men from the Gestapo (the official secret police of Nazi Germany) began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisioners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for machine guns.**"**// PG 6

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif">

These people literally had to dig their own graves, thats a bit ruff. This bit of writing i remember because it is the first of many acts of dehumanisation we see in the text, it depicts a very vivid image that helps readers visulise the sheer torure these people were faced with, how all their rights were taken away from them ultimatly because of one person wishes, watching infants being shotat and killed, like shooting targets has large potential to psychologically damage someone permanently. Just trying to imagine what being forced to dig your own grave is beyond me and makes me really appriciate life a bit more.

FIRST IMPRESSION; that it would suck to be a jew. Elie must have been prety lucky to survive to tell his story, seeing as he could have died on a number of differnt occasions.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 110%; COLOR: #5a94e7; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif">**Night and Darkness Quotes**

//"NIGHT. No one was praying for the night to pass quick. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us, Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothin would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes"// PG 21

After seeing babies, children and adults being burned alive. //"I pinch myself: was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and thattheworld kept silent? No. All this could not be real. A nightmare perhaps . . . Soon I would wake up with a start, my heart pounding, and find that I was back in the room of my childhood, withmy books . . . My fathers voice tore me from my day dreams"// PG 32 **Themes** 1. Night & Darkness. 2. Faith. 3. Dehumanisation. 4. Relationships.