Leon Ginsburg The Ordeal Analysis

Improved Essays
A world without literature would be one stuck in constant reoccurrence, ignorant to others collective advancement and defeats. Telling a story whether it be a first or second hand account always has an underlying purpose for writing. This elemental component of writing allows authors to reflect and evaluate their personal accounts and decisions, it prevents readers from making the same mistakes as their past ancestors, and educates those in forthcoming centuries what trials and tribulations have led them to their current liveliness. Literature is the integrating mechanism that keeps all educational subjects at a progressive pace. When studying such topics as mathematics, science, health, art and music one must first analyze past literary works …show more content…
This is where literature is essential in presentation of facts to the public; an instrument countless survivors of the holocaust have been taking advantage of in support for global awareness. Leon Ginsburg illustrates his journey and success at “outsmarting the bully” in The Ordeal and further demonstrates the importance of not forgetting history. His story opens in parallel with the beginnings of the war, at this time he is a very young boy whose normal life quickly turned into a constant daily fight for food, water, protection and concealed shelter in fear of captivation by the German soldiers. Among the first of many hideaways, Ginsburg is exposed to an astonishing event of mother abandoning her ceaselessly crying baby, he proclaims “it was certain death for that little girl… of course if she’s stay below with us, we’d all have been caught” (382). This event explained in the text so nonchalantly truly shows how death defying the atmosphere was among all the targeted individuals at the time of war. Literature not only shows how malicious the German soldiers where, but also how quick people lost all sense of moral judgment, both equally important to reflect on years later. There is no logical way to justify the mistreatment of other people in retaliation because someone at the time is mistreating you. When reflecting back on World War II, most people only recognize the exploitation of the Jewish community by the Germanic Nazi’s, a one-sided view not beneficial in effort to fully sanctify the acts of the war. This reiteration of facts to the public would not be possible without literary works such as the one revealed by Ginsburg, and other Holocaust survivors. Being absent-minded and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Jewish people were treated unimaginably brutal during this time. The Germans main goal was to make the German race the superior race and they did not care how far they had to go to achieve this goal.Wiesel can neither explain nor understand the reasons for human cruelty that he witnesses and endures during the Holocaust, but learns that cruelty breeds more of the same and in the end survival and self-preservation is all that matters. Before the Jews were sent to concentration camps, life was still very unfair for them. Before the Holocaust even started Jews were…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This was a very eventful and scary thing that Ben and all the Jews had to go through. With Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler it was hard to survive. This is because Adolf did not like the Jews at all and was plotting his annihilation. Even himself said “Eliminate the Jews, and you will eliminate all of Germany’s problems!” (6) With Jews living in Germany and having this scary, and horrific guy as a leader was terrifying. Hitler did not like the Jews because of how they lost the war in World War 1.…

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hitler Portrayed Germany as a victimized nation because of the Versailles Treaty. So when he decided that he wanted to take over Poland, he used media to disguise the fact that Nazi Germany had attacked first. This caused many Germans to join the Nazis to protect Germany from the attacking Polish (Deceiving the Public 1-4). The german people were desperate to get rid of the overwhelming depression from the cost of the Versailles Treaty. Millions were unemployed and thousands of small businesses had failed.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    His hatred runs so deep that “whenever [Eliezer] dreamed of a better world, [he] could only imagine a universe with no bells” (69 & 70). By striping the Jews of a need as simple as independence, the Nazi’s are dehumanizing them to a point where they do not remember what life was like before Auschwitz. By this point in the novel, Eliezer does not care wither he is alive or dead. The final way in which the Jews lose their dignity and esteem is when they are forced to be naked and exposed. Having people on an equal level is not a bad thing, but the Nazis took it to the extreme, “for [the Jews] it meant true equality: nakedness” (32).…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Death Camp Dehumanized Essay

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages

    To dehumanize is to “deprive someone of positive human qualities” or at least that is what the literal definition is. However, the significant meaning behind it is to treat someone as though they are not human, rather lower ranking or like an animal. What do most people think of when hearing about the Holocaust? The simple answer to that is, the Jewish population. Most people know that many terrible things happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust, however, very few know how poorly they were treated and how each individual was the bane of some of the Germans existence, including Adolf Hitler.…

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Indifference to other people's struggles is a particularly difficult issue to combat in mankind. Wiesel shows the indifferent nature of mankind when describing his account of Moishe the Beadle. Moishe is a citizen of Sighet and is captured and manages to escape from Nazis. Moishe returns to Sighet to warn of the massacre of foreign Jews he witnessed but no one listens to him; some even go as far as to accuse him of insanity (Wiesel, 7). This tragic ability mankind has to ignore the struggles other people experience is the root of racial prejudice and the root of the indifference to racial…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This expresses total societal domination so well because the nazis were literally killing people because they were tired and couldn’t walk anymore and they were doing so without any negative repercussions at all. Elie expresses this hardship looming over the jews with a quote “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live”. I Deciphered this quote to mean the view Elie has on this submission in others such as his father or the…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    His words appealed to those living in poverty and also the middle class. He wanted His racial policies included the removal of anyone not of Aryan blood, but his largest target was the Jews. “To them he ascribed the blame for all of Germany’s misfortunes, especially the loss of World War I” (Brockington). He successfully removed a large portion of the Jewish population through the brainwashing of his Nazi followers. However, he was unable to win World War II because of his failed attempt to take over Russia.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Jews disrespected the Germans; The Jews went against the Nazis and the Nazis Killing Machine. How did the Jews disrespect the Germans? The Germans followed Hitler’s rules as to why they treated the Jews the way they do. “The Jews disrespect the Germans because they felt like they were being neglected and attacked by the Germans which in reality they were. Because at the end of World War 1 of November in 1918 Hitler became involved in German Politics.” After World…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Germans had a great sense of national pride; they were told that people of inferior backgrounds were harmful to society. In order to have a perfect German nation, German citizens rallied around Nazi teachings; they killed their enemies for the betterment of their country. What the Nazis objected to most in All Quiet on the Western Front was that Paul saw the dignity of human life in his enemy. An example occurs when Paul is out in No Man’s Land and he kills a Slavic soldier, who ricocheted into his foxhole: ‘Comrade I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics