Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Sol Berger
Holocaust survivor Sol Berger: Embodying American values
Despite -- or because of -- his experiences as a Polish-born Jew, Holocaust survivor Sol Berger embodies the American experience. Berger, like virtually every American today, is part of the nation's immigrant legacy. Berger came to America seeking freedom, after fighting for freedom when he lived in Europe. Forced to hide his Jewish identity during World War II, he took on many personas, including a "Polish partisan fighter and a Russian lieutenant" (Abdollah 2009: 1).
Like so many Jewish people for centuries in Europe, Berger lived in a constant state of fear and was forced to conceal his true self and faith. His parents and two of his sisters died during the war, but he was determined to survive. He escaped on false papers under the name of Jan Jerzowski and had learned enough about Christianity from a priest he had been jailed with (when he refused to report to a work detail earlier during the war) to pretend to be a Christian. Unlike his siblings who had...
Not only was he afraid that his mannerisms and his accent would give him away, even when "Jan teamed up with Polish partisans who fought the Germans by planting mines on railroad tracks and committing other acts of sabotage. One time he heard one of his comrades say that, although the Nazis were horrible, 'they killed the Jews for us'" (Abdollah 2009: 2). In contrast to the diversity celebrated in the United States, in Poland, identity was viewed in a homogeneous fashion. To be Polish meant to be Catholic, and Jews were widely persecuted even before the Nazis invaded the country.
In contrast to the ability to decide one's fate and destiny, a fact taken for granted by so many Americans, 'Jan' was at the mercy of fate. "In March 1944 the Russians arrived in Poland, and Jan was forced into the Soviet army" took a Russian name (Abdollah…
Works Cited
Abdollah, Tami. "Living under many names." The Los Angeles Times. 16 Feb 2009.
[27 May 2012]
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-survivor-holocaust16-2009feb16,0,4979743.story?page=4
Holocaust The sheer scale of the Holocaust can make it difficult to understand, because while human history is rife with examples of oppression and genocide, never before had it been carried out in such an efficient, industrialized fashion. The methodical murder of some six million Jews, along with millions of other individuals who did not fit the parameter's of the Nazis' racial utopia, left a scar on the global consciousness and
Holocaust is a catastrophe orchestrated by Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. It was an organized and systematic murder with the outcome being the brutal killing of approximately six million innocent Jews during the Word War II (Longerich 2007 p. 29). State involvement in the murder complicates the whole affair as it was contrary to expectations. This was in deep contrast by all standards given the reality among
Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. is a place that is both dark and light, from the perspective of a visitor and the emotions that one feels on being in a place like this. The darkness results from the facts and photographs that are on display. It is very difficult to believe that these events took place just over seventy years ago in Europe, and that Adolf Hitler's Nazi party conducted
Holocaust and Genres The Holocaust is one of the most profound, disturbing, and defining events in modern history. As such, stories of the Holocaust have been told by a wide variety of storytellers, and in a wide variety of ways. The treatment of a specific theme such as the Holocaust can be profoundly different both between different and within different genres. As such, this paper describes the treatment of the Holocaust
For example, the essentially female nature of the author's suffering is embodied in her tale of Karola, a woman who cleverly hides the age of her daughter, so she will allow the child to be admitted through the gates of Auschwitz by her side. Sara Nomberg-Przytyk implies that a woman will have a special reason, as a mother, to be clever and devious in avoiding the horrors of the
Holocaust The name "Holocaust" has its root in a Greek word that means burnt whole or totally consumed by fire. Between 1939 and 1945, approximately six million Jews and five million non-Jews died in the Holocaust as Adolph Hitler sought to create a "perfect nation." All of these deaths were premeditated mass executions. In September 1939, Hitler started World War II with a rapid air and land attack on an unprepared Poland.