Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Do what you believe is right

Is it right to risk bringing such danger on one's relatives and friends by challenging the forces of law and order?



I believe the answer to this question is yes, but that was not what everyone did, when law and order was corrupted by Nazis. Even I'm not too sure what I would do when in this situation, since if I tried to stop what I think was wrong, I would be in a gas tank with hundreds of Jews. A few days ago, our teacher asked me and my classmates an interesting question. She asked if we were living in times of World War 2, would we stand up against Hitler and try to stop him? If we had a Jewish friend, would we stand up for him and save him from agonizing death, risking our own lives. I would try to make my self do it, but I think I would fail at it. Every life, human, animals, and plants, have natural instincts, and surviving is a part of it. Everyone wants to live and at that time of the history, helping Jews meant death. Since putting themselves in to danger was going against their natural instincts, most people refused to do it, knowing that was wrong. But people were able to overcome their fear for death and do what they thought was right. They were the villagers of Le Chambon. Most people in the village sheltered at least one Jew in their house, without asking them about anything. They just gave protection to them. Some of the villagers even managed to help some Jewish people across a mine field of Anti-Semitism, in to Switzerland, where Nazi's power did not prevail. When Nazis were gone from Germany and the new young people poured out their anger towards the embarrassing past to their parents who only watched the Holocaust and did nothing knowing that it was wrong, the parents would have felt guilt. This could also have contributed to contrast between the young and old, causing chaos and dis order. People who let their friends die in Holocaust would have more pain. Anger of their sons and daughters would bring thoughts about the friend, which made them agonize in pain.

There are two stories about people who stood up against the Nazi rule and helped Jews. One is "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne, and the other is "Rose Blanche" by Roberto Innocenti. In "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", the protagonist is the son of a Nazi official, named Bruno. He was only 9 when his father had new assignment and had to move to a new hose called Out With, which actually was Auschwitz, one of the largest death camps built by the Nazis. There were no neighbors around but Jews, so Bruno make friend with one. The friend's name was Shmuel. Bruno always took food with him and gave it to Shmuel, saving him from hunger. All they could do was to talk to each other due to they electric fence between them, but they made good friends, and Bruno was not lonely. One day, Shmuel came to Bruno's house for some labor, and Bruno offered Shmuel food, which was gobbled down in a seconds. But when a soldier came in, he noticed that Shmuel ate something. Shmuel said Bruno was his friend, but in his terror, Bruno denied it. Because of this, Shmuel received beatings, and Bruno felt extreme guilt. He apologized and Shmuel accepted it. A year later, Shmuels's father was taken to the gas tank and was killed. But Shmuel did not know this, and thought he went missing. He asked for help from Bruno and a day later, Bruno got dressed like other Jews, crawled under the fence, and went to look for Shmuel's father. But both Shmuel and Bruno was trapped in a room where poisonous gas came out and killed everyone in the room.
Rose Blanche is about a plain girl named Rose Blanche, who was living in Germany when it was controlled by Nazis. One day, she saw a boy trying to run away from a military truck, who got caught and was put in to the truck. She followed the track of the truck and found herself in front of a forest. She walked in and found Jews on the other side of a electric wire fence. Every day after that, she returned, and gave food to those people. The Germany started running out of supplies, and her self could not eat very much, but she kept on doing what she did. But one day, the Russians came and freed the camp. Rose did not know this and went to the camp, where she was shot in a crossfire.
These two stories have many things in common. They are about children who tried to help people who were in pain, and was killed because of it. They both brought food from their house and gave it to the Jewish people. I believe that this action gave the Jews hope, that they might be able to be saved. The difference is that Bruno's work had no impact what so ever to the world, but Rose's work saved many people, by giving them hope and keeping them alive with food she brought.
Even the smallest resistance, such as done by Rose Blanche was able to make a difference. If many people are to stand up against a infested government, they will be able to make a big change to the world.



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