From a Millionaire to a Broker

Anti-Semitism arose in Germany in the early 1930’s, and continued until late 1940’s. Hitler has blamed the Treaty of Versailles, the Depression, and Germany’s loss in World War I on Jews in Germany. Starting in early 1940’s, Jews were being put in concentration camps so they could slowly pass way on their own. Young and healthy men were kept for work, while the old, the wimpy, and the ill, were taken off to the forests and shot. These horrors were inevitable because of Germany’s power over her citizens. It was in those darkest times of the human history where the real heroes and the real saviors are born. Oskar Schindler was just another German citizen born on April 28th, 1908. He lived just like any other German person would. He would go have a beer at a bar, he would talk to his friends at restaurants, he would follow rules just like others would. Schindler was a millionaire that only cared about his own well being. Even though Oskar was married, he has cheated on his wife multiple times with other ladies. What many people did not know was that Oskar Schindler was different. His noble acts stood out because he has saved over a thousand Jews from the concentration camps. But why risk his life? Oskar was rich. He was a millionaire at that time, yet he still insisted on helping the Jews get through this. As Oskar Schindler said in his own words: "I hated the brutality, the sadism, and the insanity of Nazism. I just couldn't stand by and see people destroyed. I did what I could, what I had to do, what my conscience told me I must do. That's all there is to it. Really, nothing more." People have asked Schindler why he did it. Why did he risk his life for so many people. He replied: "I knew the people who worked for me. When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings." He has stayed to save his children because he hated intolerance. He hated how the Nazis treated the Jewish people. Schindler would not just sit around and watch like others did when millions of Jews were executed through a shootout or gas chambers. He would take action. He would risk his life just to save his children, his Schindler-Jews. Close to the end of his life, Schindler had spent all his money to save his Jews. He went from a multimillionaire to a completely penniless man in the span of about four years just because he wanted to save as many as could be saved. His attitude changed throughout the course of the war. When he started, he only thought about himself, and nobody else. Later on, Schindler was changing, but the main reason why he let the Jews work at his factory was because it benefited HIM the most. He did not have to do any dirty work because the Jews would do it for a low payment. Later on, Schindler did notice that he was helping these people, and he continued until the end of the war.

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Why Didn't Nonviolence Work Against the Nazis?

Where it all began was with a simple man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi’s belief was that accepting non-violence would get rid of the hatred and animosity in the world. His belief is, and was, NOT passive. It’s important for us to be clear about this: There is nothing passive about Gandhian nonviolent action. After Mohanda has become the Indian Independence Movement leader, his belief was heard and passed on by countries all over the world. Many of them have accepted it, and have actually tried them out against their tyrants and ruthless dictators with shocking success. Some examples are: The Americans that lived in the early colonies stopped the British with nonviolence in many different situations. Some examples are the colonists against the Stamp Acts of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767, and the Coercive Acts of 1774). All these, and many more, helped nine colonies gain independence by the year 1775. Another good example is the German resistance of the Ruhr. The French and the Belgums wanted to take over and occupy the Ruhr, which belonged to Germany. Germany resited with non-violence, making it really hard for French and Belgums to get in. After a while it got so costly, the French and Belgums retreated. The Russian revolution that occured in 1917 also was nonviolent. most of the fights that went on were nonviolent, which lead to the fall of the czarist system. If the Jews at the concentration camps would have reacted earlier than right before they faced the gas chambers, or before they had actually gone into the carts that would take them to certain death, they would have accomplished what others have and maybe there would never be a Holocaust in the first place. What Jews should have done is right when Hitler gave commands about anti-semitism and hatred, they Jews should have reacted. When the government told the jews to give the German government the guns, they should have acted against it, and the moment Hitler ordered all the Jews to get registered and move to the ghettos the Jews should have started nonviolence against it. If people actually found out about the 500 jews that got killed because they would not follow what Hitler did, or that the Jews were killed by thousands just because they would not turn in their weapons when asked upon, even thought they were part of the army, or that German soldiers would just normally walk into the Jewish houses and kill more than twenty families just because they did not want to leave their house, BEFORE the end of the war, this would have uncovered the truth of the Nazi Germany. Many people did not even know about the holocaust until after the war. If people in Germany would have heard about the animosity that the Nazis showed towards the Jews, they would for sure try to do something that would help save that race. Gandhian philosophy is not used right before the certain death that the Jews had when standing in front of the gas chambers or the firing squad. The correct application of Gandhian philosophy is when the German government actually started hating Jews, when they started sorting the Jews in the ghettos, when the government took away their guns and sent them to concentration camps.

Word Count: 556