Grace Holley

Professor Tonya Wertz-Orbaugh

UWRT 1103-007
January 11, 2016
The Holocaust was and will always be seen as one of the main turning points
throughout the history of time. It forced the world to question exactly what was
occurring around them. Members of the free world began to wonder the intentions of
those leading him or her, protecting and defending them, and above all else throw the
world into a state of disbelief.
I first heard the word Holocaust in middle school. I can still recall the horror
that I first discovered in my seventh grade history textbook. I could not fathom the terror
the Jewish people went through just because of their religion, and I do not think I will
ever understand it.
This seventh grade history book is where I discovered the iconic yellow star
symbol. Having to wear the symbol on the Jewish peoples clothes was only the
beginning if the torture I was about to learn about. My teacher spoke to us about the hate
the Nazis had for the Jewish people. They wanted these innocent citizens tortured and as
they felt the Jews to no longer be of use, sent to death.
As my Holocaust education was beginning, I read Night by Elie Wisel my
freshman year of high school. As most would say in response to the Holocaust, I was
immediately taken aback by the treatment the helpless Jews endured. In the book, Wisel
describes the physical suffering but also the emotional trauma experienced. The Nazis

used every tactic to tear the human soul apart. Strong and powerful from a young age,
Elie Wisel survived the work camps and is still alive to this day.
In 2008, I saw The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. At the young age of eleven, the
pictures of the movie have remained in my mind to this day. The savagery the Nazis
showed is incomprehensible. The actors depicting the Holocaust prisoners were skin and
bones. Similar to the movies name, each prisoner wore a jumpsuit of striped pants and
shirt. The movie brought to life the starvation, living conditions, methods of abuse, and
the ways the Nazis would use to exterminate the Jewish people.
With movies and books being the extent of my Holocaust knowledge, I am most
curious about how children and young adults were treated differently in regards to work
camps. When Jews were forced from their homes and to work camps, the adults, seniors,
and children all were separated. I have never understood the rationale to that. I know
they utilized the younger generation because the Nazis knew they were in the best shape,
therefore the most able to work. Even with this reasoning, my heart breaks for the little
kids that were taken from their families at such a young age. I wonder how the parents
explained this in terms that a child could comprehend.
Another aspect about the Holocaust that sparks my interest is how something like
this could ever happen and what are the theories out there. What did the European people
think while this was happening?
In most theories I have seen, there is no single trigger or reason for the Holocaust;
it was a combination of things all occurring at once. As the clich expression goes, we
must understand history in order to not repeat it, I am eager to build my knowledge in this
field.