AnneJeonNF

AnneJeon Anne Jeon Mrs. Laurençot Nonfiction Essay Assignment In my book, __Hiding to Survive- Stories of Jewish Children Rescued From the Holocaust__, by Maxine B. Rosenberg, the main idea of it was that, Jewish children were separated from their families, put into hiding to stay alive, and suffered greatly. Almost every story mentions how that child misses their family. For example, in Kurt Datner’s story he says, “Then more than ever I wanted my mother” (pg 20). That was when Kurt had developed asthma and needed the comfort of his mother as a lot of children do. Every child in this story was put into hiding to stay alive and had to encounter some terrible things. Another child named Jacques Van Damn was placed with strangers and was almost caught and shot by the Germans. He says, “I would have done anything to survive.” (pg 63). That shows how dangerous those times were and how they were willing to do anything to survive. Other children had it worse, one child had to live in a chicken coop, others at church orphanages, and a lot of them never had enough food to eat. All of these children had to endure suffering from being in grave danger of being killed.

This book relates to society because people hated and killed the Jewish people because of their religion. People discriminated against them for something that made them no different than anyone else. They were still human and just like how people with different ethnicities were and still are discriminated, the Jewish people were too. For example, being Asian makes me look different from other Americans. People would assume I am stupid just because I don’t look like I speak the same language and would show it by saying something insulting right in front, of me thinking I wouldn’t understand when I do. Today in society people still discriminate against race, age, gender and more. People will treat other people who are different, differently when there isn’t much of a big difference in the first place and it is ridiculous. Another example from my book is in one of the chapters, Rose Silberberg-Skier says, “This woman, Mrs. Dudwalka, hated Jews. If she had known we were in the coop, she gladly would have turned us in.” (pg 31) As you can see people were willing to get other people killed because they weren’t the same as that person or everyone else, but not all of the people in Germany at the time were bad. Even though most of the people hated the Jews, not everyone did. Most of the people who hid the children in this book did it because they knew it was right and volunteered to help the Jews. People today are volunteering to help others like at the soup kitchen or just around the house.

This book relates to history because it is history. All of the events that happened in this book are a part of the past and of World War II. It has a lot to do with American history because we had the bombing of Pearl Harbor during that time and allied the countries that were fighting against the Germans. The bombing of Pearl Harbor relates to the 9/11 attack because they were both terrorists attacks. America was attacking back at Germany during the war which helped them win. For example, in one of the chapters it says, “Then, one afternoon while I was outside, Americans began bombing the area.” (pg 24) That lead us to America’s victory because after the bombing, the book says, “The soldiers told Titine they couldn’t wait for the war to be over, and said they felt that Hitler was finished. We believed them because in the distance we could see defeated Germans in trucks and tanks coming back from France.” (pg 24) Children all over Germany and other European countries had to suffer harsh living styles to stay safe from the Nazi soldiers even if they weren’t Jewish. The treatment the Jews endured were horrible and was all because of their religion and how people thought they were different. Another way this book relates to history is that it shows us how the Jews were discriminated against and just like them, the Blacks had to tolerate a lot of inequity too. When the Blacks were slaves, they were treated horribly just because they looked different and weren’t the same as everyone else when there was really nothing that different about them. After slavery was abolished they were still not being treated equal.

This book offers the reader knowledge. It shows the reader part of our past and what they can gain from reading this book. They learn a little about the world’s history and important events that occurred. They can discover that people who aren’t the same as them are not necessarily so different than they think. The Jews weren’t as different as the Germans believed because the only different thing that was different was their beliefs and that’s almost saying that everyone has to think and believe the same thing or way. The reader can also learn that you should stick with your beliefs and do what’s right even when almost everyone else isn’t. Not enough people are leaders and if the people stood up and rebelled against Hitler, the Holocaust would have never occurred and over five hundred thousand lives could have been saved.