“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
- Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was 15 years old when he was deported into the concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the first camp he was sent to and Buchenwald was his second. This is related to the Holocaust and World War II because it mentions neutrality. Neutrality plays a role in WWII because the U.S. tried to stay neutral but when Pearl Harbor got bombed it just helped Japan, not the U.S. Also, the Jews were neutral and they never did anything wrong to the Germans specifically, but being neutral only hurt them. They went along with it in silence and that just made Hitler more successful. If they tried to speak up, it would only harm them more. So, really they had no choice or no say in anything.
- Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was 15 years old when he was deported into the concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the first camp he was sent to and Buchenwald was his second. This is related to the Holocaust and World War II because it mentions neutrality. Neutrality plays a role in WWII because the U.S. tried to stay neutral but when Pearl Harbor got bombed it just helped Japan, not the U.S. Also, the Jews were neutral and they never did anything wrong to the Germans specifically, but being neutral only hurt them. They went along with it in silence and that just made Hitler more successful. If they tried to speak up, it would only harm them more. So, really they had no choice or no say in anything.
“For me the Holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy, but also a human tragedy. After the war, when I saw that the Jews were talking only about the tragedy of six million Jews, I sent letters to Jewish organizations asking them to talk also about the millions of others who were persecuted with us together – many of them only because they helped Jews.”
- Simon Wiesenthal
After being forced to work as a slave laborer in Nazi concentration camps such as Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen during the war, Wiesenthal dedicated most of his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminals so that they could be brought to trial. This quote explains how people only looked at the 6 million Jews who died, and didn’t pay attention really to everyone else who died. He wanted all the homosexuals, gypsies, poles and other slaves, and people with physical or mental disabilities to not be around anymore. Simon wanted the others who died, to be recognized for what had happened to them, mainly because they helped the jews. Some hid the Jews in their own homes, some helped them escape the country and go somewhere else.
- Simon Wiesenthal
After being forced to work as a slave laborer in Nazi concentration camps such as Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen during the war, Wiesenthal dedicated most of his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminals so that they could be brought to trial. This quote explains how people only looked at the 6 million Jews who died, and didn’t pay attention really to everyone else who died. He wanted all the homosexuals, gypsies, poles and other slaves, and people with physical or mental disabilities to not be around anymore. Simon wanted the others who died, to be recognized for what had happened to them, mainly because they helped the jews. Some hid the Jews in their own homes, some helped them escape the country and go somewhere else.