Holocaust Research Papers
The holocaust is undoubtedly one of the most written about events of the twentieth century. Basically, the Holocaust extended from the 1930’s to 1945 when, performed by the National Socialism Party), peoples considered to be inferior by blood and ancestry to the Aryan’s were deprived of their rights, their houses, their families and their lives. While engaged in the process of exterminating Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholic priests, prisoners of war, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Russians, Poles, and others were methodically killed as the Holocaust carried forward. By the end of the war about 12 million people had been murdered, a full half of them Jewish. At first, these people were put into Ghettos, prisons, and concentration camps. However, in 1941, Hitler issued a dictum that all Jews should be exterminated. Such places as Auschwitz and Buchenwald were designed to eradicate life in as great a volume with as little a cost as possible. The blacklisted populations of people were also forced into seeking refuge, disguising themselves, denying their identities in order to stay alive. Two writers, Elie Wiesel (Night) and Ahron Appelfeld (The Iron Tracks), have recalled these experiences in their works which give an insight into the various aspects of the Holocaust experience. These two works are phenomenally different in style, content, and emotion. In analyzing both works, it is easy to notice that there were similarities of experience not just in being held prisoner, but in the emotional, mental, and spiritual changes that took place.