How Did The Events of The Holocaust Impact The Identity and Culture Of The Jewish People Of Europe
The identity and culture of the Jewish people was affected greatly in the years of isolation and oppression (1938-1940) when almost all of the Jewish population of Czechoslovakia were taken from their homes without consent and forced into large, overpopulated areas called ghettos. These ghettos were designed to keep the Jewish population away from other more ‘important’ races, as they believed at the time. This separation left impacts on the Jewish population, they felt separated and disconnected from the world and stuck in a town watching people slowly starve to death.
As well as the ghettos, most Jewish kids were separated from their parents quite early on often, and in the case of Eugene black, without even being able to say goodbye. Eva Ginzova's diary entry shows us how some kids were taken from their families without the right send off. There is evidence of this as she decides to write in her diary saying that it has been a really long time and that she is sending her parents a good-night kiss. This act of taking someone away from loved ones is destroying a basic human right and greatly affected the Jewish identity as now kids could not be with their family and celebrate with them, instead they feel as though their Jewish bloodline is a ‘disgrace’ simply because of the views of another.
The photo of the children playing in theresienstadt ghetto shows us how the kids in the ghetto acted, like there was nothing different going on around them. They seem to be perfectly happy just to play their game in peace. This would have had an impact of how their parents acted in the ghetto, trying to be brave and happy so there kids would not have to worry about anything but their little game. From Hana Muellers source we can gather what exactly the ghettos were like in Czechoslovakia and how the people were treated. They were obviously starved with no recreation and the air of gloom would have been very prominent. She talks about how on the day the Red Cross came they were treated slightly better, being feed a little more and being allowed a little more freedom. We can infer from this that this behaviour was not to last and that after the Red Cross leaves they would be under the same conditions.
When the Jewish community live in these conditions for as long as many of them did; constantly listening to the Nazi’s insult them and their identity, being denied freedom and the right for privacy. It really starts to affect their culture and identity and not in a good way, they start giving up and stop resisting, stop fighting back and once they stop doing that they have almost given up on life and accepted that this is okay even when they know it’s not. The years of isolation and oppression during the holocaust had a horrible impact on the Jewish community affecting both their culture and identity in many devastating ways.
As well as the ghettos, most Jewish kids were separated from their parents quite early on often, and in the case of Eugene black, without even being able to say goodbye. Eva Ginzova's diary entry shows us how some kids were taken from their families without the right send off. There is evidence of this as she decides to write in her diary saying that it has been a really long time and that she is sending her parents a good-night kiss. This act of taking someone away from loved ones is destroying a basic human right and greatly affected the Jewish identity as now kids could not be with their family and celebrate with them, instead they feel as though their Jewish bloodline is a ‘disgrace’ simply because of the views of another.
The photo of the children playing in theresienstadt ghetto shows us how the kids in the ghetto acted, like there was nothing different going on around them. They seem to be perfectly happy just to play their game in peace. This would have had an impact of how their parents acted in the ghetto, trying to be brave and happy so there kids would not have to worry about anything but their little game. From Hana Muellers source we can gather what exactly the ghettos were like in Czechoslovakia and how the people were treated. They were obviously starved with no recreation and the air of gloom would have been very prominent. She talks about how on the day the Red Cross came they were treated slightly better, being feed a little more and being allowed a little more freedom. We can infer from this that this behaviour was not to last and that after the Red Cross leaves they would be under the same conditions.
When the Jewish community live in these conditions for as long as many of them did; constantly listening to the Nazi’s insult them and their identity, being denied freedom and the right for privacy. It really starts to affect their culture and identity and not in a good way, they start giving up and stop resisting, stop fighting back and once they stop doing that they have almost given up on life and accepted that this is okay even when they know it’s not. The years of isolation and oppression during the holocaust had a horrible impact on the Jewish community affecting both their culture and identity in many devastating ways.
Sources
Source 1: children in theresienstadt ghetto photographed by the Red Cross On June 23rd, 1944 during their visit to the ghetto- Yad vasham photo archive
|
Source 2: Hana Muellers testimony |
Source 3: Entries from Salvaged pages in Eva Ginzova's diary June 24 [1944]
On Wednesday, it will have been six weeks since I first arrived here. We came here by train where we had the whole carriage to ourselves. [. . .] Our bags, large and small, were with us in one carriage and were also transported with us to Terezín by truck. As we were going through Boušovice (a large village with clean houses), people stopped and looked at us. We could already see Terezín in the distance with its church tower rising above it. I was already looking forward to seeing Petr, Uncle, Pavel, and Hanka and all those I knew . . .We actually arrived just as transports were leaving for Birkenau. Seventy-five hundred people left this time—the poor things. They took us to the Hamburg barracks where we were held for three days. They took our bags from us and didn’t give us any food. We suffered from extreme hunger. Were about able to look out the window and when Petr came there to see me and talk to me through the window, he brought me something to eat. [. . .] I must just add a couple of lines. This writing makes me feel a lot better since I’ve felt all the time that I have been writing a letter to you, dear Mummy and Daddy. It seems such a long time since we saw each other last when we parted on Dlouhá Avenue. [. . .] I’m sending you a big good-night kiss, Mummy and Daddy. https://www.facinghistory.org/teaching-salvaged-pages/learn-history-life-theresienstadt-eva-ginzov-s-diary |
Testimony Analysis: This testimony is from the perspective of a old man looking back at the horrible events of his past and reflecting on what he did and said in the time period. He was 16 when the horrible events happened and therefore was old enough to understand what was going on around him, such as the death and discrimination. The source is a primary source and is reliable as it is a testimony of someone who experienced the holocaust first hand and is talking about it now. It is also recorded by a reliable safe site and therefore more likely to be trusted. This source tells us many things about what was happening to Jews in Czechoslovakia. The source states “Immediately all Hungarian Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David and within ten days the Jewish population was moved into ghettos” this shows us the lack of freedom the Jews had and the idea that all Jewish people had to be immediately recognised by The Star of David. This also means that from that point onward the Jews had lost some of their basic human rights, this quote also tells us that the Jews had no opportunity to escape or prepare before they were forced into ghettos against their wills. Eugene himself was already living in an area that became a ghetto, because of this he had to accommodate for others meaning he was living in quite a cramped house with not much room to do anything, once again taking away his rights for privacy. Soon after the ghetto was created Eugene was taken from his home and forced on a train which took him to Auschwitz, where when arriving he was ripped apart from his family almost immediately and was never to see them again. In the testimony he talks about how he felt distant and lonely at the age of 16 simply because he was a Jew. This source is useful for all historian as it takes you through his whole story from start to end and anyone looking to study the holocaust would find it interesting.
Source 1 Analysis:This source was taken in theresienstadt ghetto in 1944 when the Red Cross visited, it shows us how children in ghettos in Czechoslovakia acted and how they were treated and the time of the photo, it is from the perspective of a Red Cross member looking in at life in the ghetto. This source is reliable and a primary source as it was taken in the time period studied and has been used in a reliable archive (Yad Vashem).The picture shows children doing what they do best, having fun even despite the troublesome times they must be in considering it was taken in 1944. In the source you can see smiles on the children's faces and enjoyment in their eyes even though around them such horrible things are happening in the ghetto. This happiness and hope from the children despite the situation was probably the reason many parents kept fighting in their own way in the ghetto and the reason some others may not have given up entirely. There is evidence in this in Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” where he talks about how if a man has a why to live, in this case the children in the photo, they can bear almost any how, meaning the awful living conditions of the ghetto. This source is useful for historians and students alike as it shows us what the ghetto must have been like for children and what they had to do to keep from becoming sad and lonely like so many other children who lost their parents felt like.
Source 2 Analysis: Hana was 18 years old when she was taken from her home in Czechoslovakia and taken to theresienstadt ghetto, this source is from the perspective of a person recalling the events of the past most likely to share information and educate the people. This source is reliable as she experienced everything she talks about and is used on a safe educational website. Hana’s testimony talks about theresienstadt ghetto and how it was used to promote an image that at these ghettos nothing bad was going on, “The Nazis used Theresienstadt as a "show camp" to convince people that Jews were really being treated well.” However from this source and others, we can tell that that is not the case. This source states “When the Red Cross came...the Nazis put up dummy stores, a café, kindergarten and flower gardens…and the Nazis gave us extra food--one extra dumpling each.” We can infer from this that before the Red Cross arrived and after they left the Jews in theresienstadt were treated like any other and that there was really nothing special about it, except for that one day in 1944 when the Red Cross came.
Source 3 Analysis: This source is from the perspective of a Jewish girl who was taken from her home and forced onto a train which took her to the theresienstadt ghetto. As of the start of the diary entry you can already tell she is quite young and naïve as she says “I was already looking forward to seeing Petr, Uncle, Pavel, and Hanka and all those I knew” meaning she didn’t have an understanding of what was happening to her and she simply thought, like a child would, that she was going to see her family. This source is a primary source is and is reliable as it was written and created in the time period and has been used in a bunch of educational sites suggesting it is not a fake account. This source show us many things about ghettos and how Jews were treated, firstly the quote “As we were going through Boušovice (a large village with clean houses), people stopped and looked at us.” tells us that Jews were looked down on by the larger and more ‘important’ towns such as the one mentioned. It also tells us that this must have been a regular thing for the town as there was no act of defiance by the citizens and the only thing they did was look at them and in no way try to help them, so they must have been used to the idea of Jewish people coming through their town. Secondly the quote “I’m sending you a good-night kiss mummy and daddy” tells us that this is obviously a very small child as normally kids over the age of 8-9 stop kissing their parents good-night and therefore the nazi’s felt no remorse from taking this child away from their family, when there is almost 0% chance of them meeting again. Thirdly the quote “I was already looking forward to seeing Petr, Uncle, Pavel, and Hanka and all those I knew” shows that people from her family were taken before and that this was not a knew thing, however it also tells us her parents were most likely trying to protect her by either hiding her if the Nazi's came around or not telling her were the rest of her family was going so as to protect her innocence. All this information makes this source a very useful one to historians wanting to study how children were affected by the holocaust in Czechoslovakia.
Source 1 Analysis:This source was taken in theresienstadt ghetto in 1944 when the Red Cross visited, it shows us how children in ghettos in Czechoslovakia acted and how they were treated and the time of the photo, it is from the perspective of a Red Cross member looking in at life in the ghetto. This source is reliable and a primary source as it was taken in the time period studied and has been used in a reliable archive (Yad Vashem).The picture shows children doing what they do best, having fun even despite the troublesome times they must be in considering it was taken in 1944. In the source you can see smiles on the children's faces and enjoyment in their eyes even though around them such horrible things are happening in the ghetto. This happiness and hope from the children despite the situation was probably the reason many parents kept fighting in their own way in the ghetto and the reason some others may not have given up entirely. There is evidence in this in Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” where he talks about how if a man has a why to live, in this case the children in the photo, they can bear almost any how, meaning the awful living conditions of the ghetto. This source is useful for historians and students alike as it shows us what the ghetto must have been like for children and what they had to do to keep from becoming sad and lonely like so many other children who lost their parents felt like.
Source 2 Analysis: Hana was 18 years old when she was taken from her home in Czechoslovakia and taken to theresienstadt ghetto, this source is from the perspective of a person recalling the events of the past most likely to share information and educate the people. This source is reliable as she experienced everything she talks about and is used on a safe educational website. Hana’s testimony talks about theresienstadt ghetto and how it was used to promote an image that at these ghettos nothing bad was going on, “The Nazis used Theresienstadt as a "show camp" to convince people that Jews were really being treated well.” However from this source and others, we can tell that that is not the case. This source states “When the Red Cross came...the Nazis put up dummy stores, a café, kindergarten and flower gardens…and the Nazis gave us extra food--one extra dumpling each.” We can infer from this that before the Red Cross arrived and after they left the Jews in theresienstadt were treated like any other and that there was really nothing special about it, except for that one day in 1944 when the Red Cross came.
Source 3 Analysis: This source is from the perspective of a Jewish girl who was taken from her home and forced onto a train which took her to the theresienstadt ghetto. As of the start of the diary entry you can already tell she is quite young and naïve as she says “I was already looking forward to seeing Petr, Uncle, Pavel, and Hanka and all those I knew” meaning she didn’t have an understanding of what was happening to her and she simply thought, like a child would, that she was going to see her family. This source is a primary source is and is reliable as it was written and created in the time period and has been used in a bunch of educational sites suggesting it is not a fake account. This source show us many things about ghettos and how Jews were treated, firstly the quote “As we were going through Boušovice (a large village with clean houses), people stopped and looked at us.” tells us that Jews were looked down on by the larger and more ‘important’ towns such as the one mentioned. It also tells us that this must have been a regular thing for the town as there was no act of defiance by the citizens and the only thing they did was look at them and in no way try to help them, so they must have been used to the idea of Jewish people coming through their town. Secondly the quote “I’m sending you a good-night kiss mummy and daddy” tells us that this is obviously a very small child as normally kids over the age of 8-9 stop kissing their parents good-night and therefore the nazi’s felt no remorse from taking this child away from their family, when there is almost 0% chance of them meeting again. Thirdly the quote “I was already looking forward to seeing Petr, Uncle, Pavel, and Hanka and all those I knew” shows that people from her family were taken before and that this was not a knew thing, however it also tells us her parents were most likely trying to protect her by either hiding her if the Nazi's came around or not telling her were the rest of her family was going so as to protect her innocence. All this information makes this source a very useful one to historians wanting to study how children were affected by the holocaust in Czechoslovakia.
Bibliography
Title of article
Learn the History: Life in Theresienstadt in Eva Ginzová’s Diary Hana Mueller Holocaust history- Theresienstadt |
Date created
24/6/1944 1933-1944 23/6/1944 |
Date accessed
30/4/16 30/4/16 30/4/16 |