Aggression towards children in Nazi Germany
Introduction
The work presented below is the reading and analysis of the novel El Niño with the striped pajamas. This novel written by John Boyne in 2006 presents the history of two children at the time of the Holocaust in Germany. John Boyne is an Irish writer, author of several novels and stories. This novel is contemporary and presents one of many possible stories lived at that time. His success has been so great that he made a film be made in 2008.
In this monograph, the theme that I am going to study is the aggression towards the children at that time. The child abuse in World War II. For that, I will not analyze not only the novel, nor the characters, but also study the historical moment and the place where it was developed; To understand the context of this work.
World War II began in 1939. There were two ends, the forces called the axis: Germany, Italy and Japan and the allied forces formed by the United Kingdom, France, states and the Soviet Union. The main causes of the war was Germany’s denial to accept the borders established in the Treaty of Versailles and the want to dominate in Europe, and the expansionism of Japan. The Germans were not satisfied with the situation they had since World War I and in 1933 Adolf Hitler wins the elections. At that time Nazism begins, and a dictatorship based on the supremacy of the Aryan race begins. That regime that Hitler began is what causes World War II to begin. The regime imposed an extermination policy if the people who were not of the Aryan race, especially the Jews, which was called the Holocaust. In the fields of extermination more than six million people will die.
In the novel, many of these situations can be described, where you can have a clearer image of what these Jews happened. In this case it can be said that children had no rights. They were obliged to a life that was not theirs, and they saw the abuse of the Nazis against their parents. Of course also of direct abuse towards them.
Developing
The main character of this novel is Bruno, a 9 -year -old boy, son of a Nazi commander who moves from his house in Berlin, to Poland, next to a concentration camp. The novel begins already showing a child traumatized by home change because he has to leave his grandparents and friends. Not being able to understand the reason for that situation also creates a courage against his head of his father (Hitler) for forcing them to have to move from Berlin. Bruno lives under the lie because his father makes him believe that the concentration camp is actually a field of farmers. If this is analyzed, the fact of living under a hoax as horrible as hiding who are the people who live near yours, it is an act of abuse of the child. Another point is that the father at all times is cold and distant with him, the love and love that corresponds to a father to a child of that age is not seen. Bruno dies alienated for not knowing that he was actually entering a gas chamber where men, women and children were killed. As investigated it is estimated that in Poland (the country where the novel develops) more than one million Jews died using gas cameras. Being a total of 3 million Jews who were murdered in Poland.
Shmuel, is the other child of the novel he shares with Bruno, lives totally different from Bruno. He is Jewish and is always sad. He is aware of his reality and that he is there by obligation and that his death is inevitable. In the case of this child, the other face of child abuse is shown, because it is directly, since he receives physical violence, psychological violence and lives in deplorable conditions.
It is estimated that from 1939 to 1945 about 6 million Jews died, which 1 and a half million were children.
Investigating the issue of children who lived this situation of the Holocaust, I found many cases that like Shmuel lived a heartbreaking and horrible childhood. Child abuse is seen at all times; For example, a very famous case is that of Annelies Marie Frank, better known as Ana Frank. She was a Jewish girl born in Germany, who receives a newspaper as a gift and writes in that newspaper all the experiences she had of her while she hid with her family so she wouldn’t kill them. She in her diary told in the miserable conditions she lived with more people in a hiding place. How were they fed on rotten vegetables, poor hygiene, and diseases. It was not a dignified life for an adult, much less for a child who does not clearly understand what is happening in his country.
Another person who lived the same conditions as thousands of children was Elie Wiesel, he was captured and taken with his family to Auschwitz, the same place where the novel that I am analyzing takes place. Just like Shmuel, Elie lived in the concentration camp and in an interview these were his words:
"I will never forget that smoke. I will never forget the little faces of children, whose bodies I saw becoming spirals of smoke under a blue sky in silence. I will never forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. I will never forget the night silence that deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. I will never forget those moments that murdered my God, my soul, and my dreams into dusty dusty. I will never forget that, even if I am condemned to live as much as God himself. Never".
Wiesel dedicated himself to giving lectures, writing books and talking to everyone about the massacre that he was exposed when he was only 15 years old. In 1986 he won the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2016 he died.
To try to understand the ideas of the Nazis a little, we must bear in mind that they thought that the Jews should not live, that they damaged the human race, and that had nothing to do with gender, if it was a woman or man, or With age, all discriminated against them equally. That is, everything that adults were also living by children. They obviously had no freedom, mistreated them, beat them, forced them to work and live in small places where they then murdered them.
Just as Ana Frank’s diary was found, documents from adults and children who wrote in newspapers have been found perhaps to calm anxiety and let off steam in writing. Some of these children who wrote newspapers have been part of what they wrote, I think this data is very important because it helps us to understand Shmuel’s reality and understand how child abuse existed at that time. These children that I am going to mention now, were found written from their newspapers, pages that are now evidence of the conditions that lived before and after the holocaust was called Moshe Flinker, he was born in Holland, Eva Heyman born in Hungary, this fragment He found himself after the war and shows us an image of the terror with which they lived:
“March 19, 1944:
‘Dear newspaper: you are the luckiest in the world, because you cannot feel. You can’t know what so terrible it happened to us. The Germans have arrived!’
Another fragment found by Eva Heyman of Hungary and with 13 years said:
“April 7, 1944:
‘Today they came for my bicycle. I almost caused a great drama. You know, dear newspaper, I was very afraid for the mere fact that the police entered the house. I know that wherever they go, they only bring problems. […] So, dear newspaper, I threw myself to the ground, I clung to the rear wheel of the bicycle and shouted all kinds of things: ‘I should be ashamed! That is stealing![…] One of the police was very angry and said: ‘The only thing that is missing is for a Jewish girl to make such a scandal when they get the bicycle. Jewish boys are no longer allowed to have a bicycle. The Jews either have the right to bread and should not be engulfed everything but to leave food for soldiers.’
As well as these examples, more daily and documents have been found that for some reason the victims wanted to let the situation they were living. It is for those documents that the different ways they had to mistreat them have also been known, not just deprive them of food, or get away from their parents, worse than death itself, although, they passed minutes of pain and despair in the gas chambers , death was more "soft" than the cruel abuses that children had to receive. Many of these abuses were made by Dr. Josef Mengele. a German to which the angel of death told him, because he selected those who should live and those who passed to the gas cameras to die. Mengele was obsessed with the twins, because it was considered that because of their genetics they could serve for many evidence against diseases and their cure. In addition, the most important thing for him was to find the perfect race and be able to fill the whole country with that race. He tried to create blond boys with blue eyes, for that, children are injected chemicals into their eyes, leaving them blind. He made amputations, his body took part to add them to the other brother. Even for him he asked to be sexually abused to study their mental abilities, when some of the twins died, the other was immediately killed to compare them in the investigations.
If at present, there are still some people who lived the holocaust in their childhood and today they can tell us and explain everything they lived, it was thanks to people who were against the Nazi movement, and risking their lives, they did everything possible to save human lives. Nicolás Winton, a British who saved 669 Jewish children, Irene Sendler, helped save 2500 children, cost her almost life because they gave her order to execute her, and she had to live hidden for the rest of the years, but still continued saving more children Jews. Another case of people who did everything within their reach to save more lives of children was a Japanese named Chiune Sugihara who was a consul and managed to save more than 6,000 Jews giving them visas to Japan.
conclusion
After having read this novel, having analyzed it and studied the issue of child abuse for the time of the Holocaust, I think the book unfortunately reflects that if there was abuse for Jewish children who lived at that time. The novel shows how all the children were affected because, even if they were children of Nazi Germans with comfort and economic abundance, they went through a mistreatment, although they did not seem like it. For example, Bruno, his protagonist, and his sister, live with a battle in their minds for what they see and what their parents explain to him. When you have the innocence of a child it is impossible to understand the evil of man, and that many children lived just like Bruno.
On the other hand, Shmuel represents all thousands of children who had to live in horrible conditions, who went hungry, and lost their parents. While investigating this issue, it can be said that the author was not as detailed in the aspect of torture as the documents, the sexual abuse of the children, and the atrocities that were made. Similarly, he lets us see how unfortunate these experiences.
It is a book that teenagers and adults can read, although it is sad that these works exist to never forget that massacre and so that man does not allow it to happen again. Several of the survivors say that they have written books, works, and travel throughout the world because he does not want this story to forget, to remain in the memory of human beings because they were millions of people who were killed only by their race.
In my opinion, I liked the book because it is very different from others, knowing that it is based on a true story and that a 9 -year -old boy tells you, it makes you want to know more about the subject. Something important that is also the issue of values, as situations can be avoided only by the fact of putting themselves in the place of the other and talking. At the time Bruno knows that he makes an error in deny They remain at peace and leave that in the past to worry about what they considered most important at that time. The striped pajamas boy shows the reality that was lived in the extermination fields directed by Adolf Hitler, the most important themes is the innocence of children and the violence with which they lived. Two totally different aspects but that are part of the story.
Today this issue is very important, although it does not touch us directly, what is happening in Syria can be compared. It is an adult war, and children get the worst part, today they can be seen by all social networks as children lose their families, as life is completely changed. Children who lose part of their bodies for explosions, come to their parents to die. Looking for more information, I also found that since the civil war occurs in Syria, children of sexual violence to children have increased, children’s marriages have increased much more. Poverty, hunger and exploitation in child labor is what is being lived at this time. Books like that, make us reflect and become aware of what we are living, and of the events that we should not repeat.
Bibliography
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