You Don't Need To Be Superman To Be A Hero

The definition of  heroic/hero (according to dictionary.com) is "a man of distinguished courage or ability admired by his great deeds and noble qualities". To me, the definition is partially true, however I believe that being a hero does not necessarily mean that you have to have special abilities, like flight, or super strength like Marvel has the world believing (no offence Marvel). To be a hero in my book, you just have to muster enough courage to save people, animals, anything that you believe, even though there are cruel things that will bring you down. You need to be a savior. People will look up to you, but at the same time, you won't let other people get to you at all. You will do whatever it takes to take part in what you believe. This sums it up to being an up-stander. Average people do have dreams of saving the innocent and that can be thrashed by fear, deception and lies. These three meaningful words had wounded and killed millions of people, and not only in the Holocaust. Deception, lies and fear are everywhere; politics, relationships, work, etc. It's happening all around us. Actions are key in being a hero. Your decisions map out everything you do from now and the future, there are no wrong or right decisions though. They just have either a positive or negative impact of path you are leading and if you were a hero, you will have to make the decisions that will not only benefit you, but everyone else who is worth benefiting and everything just matters in the end. I strongly and whole-heatedly believe that Schindler was a true hero, by saving innocent people from horrific death just because of their religion. Many say that Schindler was just a bystander, he didn't have any impact on the Holocaust. Did those people realize that he had a major impact of hundreds of people's lives? He saved 1,100 men, women and children in the period of a few years. I believe that he was an extraordinary man. Though some of his decisions made his life go down into a sinkhole, his humanity was restored completely by standing up for what he wanted and believed was right.     

-R 

Sonia's Victory

Victory: By Sonia Weitz

"I danced with you that time only.

How sad you were, how tired, lonely...

You knew that they would "take" you soon...

So when your bunk-mate played a tune

You whispered: "little one, let us dance,

We may not have another chance."

To grasp this moment...sense the mood;

Your arms around me felt so good...

The ugly barracks disappeared

There was no hunger...and no fear.

Oh what a sight, just you and I,

My lovely father (once big and strong)

And me, a child...condemned to die.

I thought: how long

before the song

must end

There are no tools

to measure love

and only fools

Would fail

to scale

your victory."

Sonia Weitz, would be called lucky. She took 5 concentration camps; Auschwitz, Plaszow, Bergen-Belsen, Venusburg, Mauthausen, and the Warsaw ghetto, while she was still a young girl, and was standing until her passing on June of 2010. She was and always will be a survivor. When she was sent off to Mauthausen, a concentration camp in upper Austria, she sneaked off to see her father, who was sent there when she was in Auschwitz. Before the Nazi's "took" him, she did sneak off to the men side of the camp, and found her father. This poem was about the moment when she found him, and their final moment. Throughout the poem, the theme turned from desperation, to what the poem was really about; VICTORY! The poem itself was talking about how she shared the moment dancing with her father, and how she was truly happy for the first time when she was in the camps. There was one metaphor that I had found was in the second stanza: "The ugly barracks disappeared. There was no hunger... and no fear." It was saying that Sonia was living in the moment, that nothing could take her from her father right then and there. But really, barracks can't disappear out of thin air, and she was very hungry and fearful of when the Nazi's would take him away from her. In the second stanza, there was another quote: "My lovely father (once big and strong)". This shows that even though the camps made him weak and powerless, they could never take away his strength inside and his love for his daughters. Sonia Weitz, at the time, believed that she was destined to die, when she said: "And me, a child... condemned to die." But she didn't! She didn't have hope at the time, but when she danced with her father, she got hope, and thought that everything would be okay. My favorite part out of the whole poem, was at the end: "and only fools would fail to scale your victory. " The poem was about sharing this moment with her father, even though it was breaking the rules. Through her words, it was easy to see that this was something that the Nazi's, or anyone couldn't take away, and will last her forever.   

-R

Well, It Certainly Didn't Rain On Hitler's Parade

Adolf Hitler, you would say, was a very, very lucky man throughout his reign as leader of Nazi Germany. There were various conditions that benefited Hitler to his success from 1918-1933, but the the two that stood out to me were when Germany reached Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the Reichstag fire in 1933. On the date of June 28th, 1919, the treaty of Versailles (named after the building it was signed at) was signed. Years later, people lost their jobs and needed to spend millions of reichsmarks for just one loaf of bread. The economy faced a crisis and Hitler took this as an advantage. There were so many parts of the treaty that the people of Germany faced and hated with passion. They couldn't live life as they used to, and couldn't do anything about it. The Reichstag fire took place in 1933. It was originally the Nazi's who set the building on fire. In Hitler's elections, his motion was to go against the treaty, as well as blaming the communists and other parties. This heightened his fame by a huge increase. Lucky guy, huh?

Nuremburg laws

1. Who could now be defined as a "Jew"?


The Nuremburg Law states that "anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community". (Via this article: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007695). 


2. What was meant by "Aryanizing" Jewish Businesses?


Aryanizing would mean that the Nazis wouldn't have allowed any Jews to work without conditions such as non-Jewish Germans to buy shops owned by Jews, Jewish lawyers to practice law, Jewish doctors to treat non- Jews, etc. The Nazis took Jewish people's jobs away, as well as their income. 


3. How were jews who were professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc.) restricted?


As said in the previous question (and answer) the professionals were restricted by working on only Jewish patients and people. They weren't allowed to serve or work for any non-Jewish Germans. 


4. What did Jewish identity cards need to include now? 


The identity cards "that the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names -- "Israel" for males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify Jews easily."


5.What was the "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People" (sum up in your own words)?


The law is about the restriction of two people getting married if one of the people are carrying an infectious disease, the pair wouldn't be able to get married.  

Civil Rights in Nazi Germany

Throughout the period of time where the Nazis had taken over Germany, Nazi soldiers ignored the Civil Rights and went against them ultimately. Civil rights are the rights of citizens to "political and social freedom and equality". Knowing how the Nazi's propaganda showcased how their way of life was "benefiting" the people of Germany, it wasn't surprising when Nazi soldiers would march into houses unannounced and search through people's homes; privacy ceased to exist. A civil right could be the right to vote, once turned to a certain age. The civil rights don't discriminate through race, religion, skin, personality, gender or origin. However, it would be crazy to say that the Nazi's were kindly to Jews. Even more, since the Propaganda posters and the elections stretched the truth, people believed that the searching was just temporary and was just helping the country get rid of the people Germany as a nation could not trust.   


-R  

The Treaty of Versailles: Fair or Unfair?

The Treaty of Versailles, was made at the final end of World War I, or as known as the The Great War at the time. On the  28th of June, 1919, the treaty was signed. Coincidentally or purposely, that was the exact date five years ago when assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which was the main cause of why the war started. The Treaty of Versailles was directed at Germany for possibly the reason that a part of the "Big Three" (consisting of David Lloyd Jones, Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson) wanted Germany to be thrashed. The following treaty states the agreements that Germany had to make after defeat.

"Therefore the treaty contained the following articles:


80. Germany will respect the independence of Austria. 


81. Germany recognizes the complete independence of Czechoslovakia. 


87. Germany recognizes the complete independence of Poland. 


119. Germany surrenders all her rights and titles over her overseas countries. 


159. The German military forces shall be demobilized and reduced not to exceed 100,000 men. 


181. The German navy must not exceed 6 battleships, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers, and 12 torpedo boats. No submarines are to be included. 


198. The Armed Forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces. 


231. Germany and her Allies accept the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage to the Allied Powers. 


233. Germany will pay for all damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governments. [The figure was later set at $33 billion]. 


428. To guarantee the execution of the Treaty, the German territory situated to the west of the Rhine River will be occupied by Allied troops for fifteen years. 


431. The occupation forces will be withdrawn as soon as Germany complies with the Treaty."

(From Reading One: Treaty of Versailles)

In my opinion, around 60% of it would be fair, but the other 40% wasn't. I do agree from lines 80-119, 231,431 and 428. I do think that respecting and recognizing the independence of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, giving back the overseas countries that Germany had taken, and that the troops will go from Germany as soon as the treaty was signed was fair to Germany. On the other hand, I didn't agree with lines 159-198 and 233. The lines 159-198 clearly allows.. "159. The German military forces shall be demobilized and reduced not to exceed 100,000 men. 181. The German navy must not exceed 6
battleships, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers, and 12 torpedo boats. No submarines are to be included. 198. The Armed Forces of Germany must not include any military or naval air forces." That's just basically saying that Germany has barely any forces in case of a plot against other countries. However, the treaty should have stated that if Germany needed any troops in the event of an attack by a country, another country should have helped Germany. Though, the case of a country attacking Germany, then when Germany has more forces both Germany and another country turn against the Allied Forces and work together to create another war. That conspiracy would be a perfectly good argument against the thoughts of allowing more troops in case of war though. On line 233, it shows that.. "233. Germany will pay for all damages done to the civilian population and property of the Allied Governments. [The figure was later set at $33 billion]." The thing is that Germany wasn't the ONLY country that took part in the war against the Allied Forces. There was also Austria-Hungry, Bulgaria, and Turkey who took sides with Germany. Why would they only pinpoint this on Germany, when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was by a Serbian? The answer could either be that Germany was declared the leader of the war, or the possibility that people wanted revenge on Germany. The treaty only lasted around 20 years, and when that time was up, Adolf Hitler had plans already to conquer Europe.

"This is not peace, it is an armistice for twenty years." -Ferdinand Foch

Sources:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles

Reading One: The Treaty of Versailles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Foch

-R

So...What are the values of the major world religions?

What are the values of the major world religions? 


To me, it really does depend on what you believe in. All to do with the religion. If your Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist; we're not that different because we all believe in values. Personally, I don't really see what is up with war these days. It's like looking at a person and saying "Oh. Someone he might know died in war." It's just not phasing anymore, and I can't see why we're not doing anything. Okay, so maybe we are, but it's not affecting the world. Most of what previous wars has been about religion, and their main disputes are about values. I mean, I know everyone has different values as someone in a religion, or no religion at all, but  making wars about of it, I don't think that's the answer. Some values can be.....

• Cherish your life
• Be neutral- choose the "middle path"
• Treat others the way you want to be treated
• Help people, whether they're different skin colors or follow different religions
• Do want you think is right
• Go to other people for opinions, not direction 
• Push yourself to achieve the highest you can be
• Your family's always there, no matter what.
• Don't harm yourself, because there's probably a chance you'll change something for the better
• Always have self-confidence in yourself, because in the end, you're the only one who matters

So yea, these are basically what I believe in, sorta. Sometimes I doubt my values, but I know that this would be the same thing that keeps me going through the day. It's the same with religion. Values are how you live your life, if your kind or mean, harsh or soft, caring or inconspicuous. It's what  you believe in, and it's one of the things that no one can tell you to do. It's your own free will. 

-R