A Group Without Rights

The film, Europa Europa, is a heart wrenching story showing how horribly the German Nazi’s treated the Jews. I like the film in the sense that it is based on a true story; however, since it is based on a true story, it is difficult to watch out of disbelief. Treating someone inhumanely just because they differ from you in one small aspect of life is nearly impossible to imagine. The Nazi’s take many rights away from the Jews. A major right they take away is freedom of religion. They persecute the Jews because their religious beliefs differ from Hitler’s. Since the Nazi’s believe the Jews are inferior, the only way to better the world, in their opinion, is to eliminate the entire Jewish society. This leads to the next right the Nazi’s take away, the right to live. The Nazi’s kill many Jewish people in horrific ways simply because they are Jewish. Hitler believes in the Eugenics, or the study of race. The Jewish people did not encompass all the same physical traits of the “superior Aryan race” leading to Hitler’s belief that the Jews are inferior.  The Jews endure cruel and unusual punishments, even though many documents prevent such occurrences. In the film, as Solly is riding through the ghetto, he sees out the trolley window how badly the Jews are treated. The reality disgusts him. Out the window, he notices how frail many Jews have become from lack of food and water. He witnesses a woman get pushed down and kicked by a few young boys. The Nazi’s also take away the right to a trial. They imprison millions of Jews and kill them without the single thought of a trial to share their side of the story. The right to bear arms is taken away, because as Solly found out, no Jew obtains a gun in the army. 

In addition to taking away basic rights, the Nazi’s dehumanize the Jews by their tone of language towards them. The Nazi’s use slang names and show disrespect to the Jews. Often times, the Nazi’s call them cruel curse words. The words chosen by the Nazi’s show how much hatred they have for the Jews. Hitler wants to “re-educate” the citizens, beginning with the children. He requires each girl to bear one child to give to him to help in his plan. Leni decides that Solly is not Aryan enough and chooses a boy who looks more Aryan to produce the child to give to Hitler. When Solly discovers this, he is crushed to find out the girl he likes has the same immoral concept of Jews. The movie as a whole clearly shows the countless number of rights taken away from the Jews in a drive to dehumanize and exterminate the race. It is a shocking truth about a corrupt past.

Europa Europa and Human Rights Infringements

Beginning with the first scene, Europa Europa captivated my attention, and no matter how graphic or explicit the movie became, I was unable to peel my eyes away from the screen. World War II is a historical even that has always fascinated me: it was a major turning point in world history; my grandfather was an officer in the military during this time; and the human rights violations were astounding, and worth further investigation.
Coincidentally, the other class that I am taking this summer is called "Social Movements." Over the course of this semester, we will study different social movements during the 20th Century: the Civil Rights Movement, Workers Movement, Gay Rights Movement, etc. All of these topics intrigue me because the social movement is sparked by oppression of a people and the stripping of their rights. My point is, human rights, and specifically violations of these rights, is a topic by which I am incredibly fascinated and in which I am quite interested.
It seems as though every movie, film, or documentary about the Holocaust and/or World War II includes videos and pictures of Jews and other groups (gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally impaired) suffering in concentration camps. This is done in an effort to raise awareness about the cruelties of the war. Europa Europa did an outstanding job of depicting the horrors of World War II, but in a way that was quite contrary to the other films that I have seen about this time period. Only briefly were we shown images of Jews that had been living in concentration camps, yet I found myself more moved by the end of the film than I had ever been before by a film regarding this topic.
Europa Europa presented the audience with a completely different viewpoint of the War than we were accustomed to seeing. Instead of viewing the happenings from the eyes of the oppressed, we saw everything through the eyes of the oppressors, the violators of the human rights. It was interesting to see the Nazi's, and even at points, the Russian's justifications for their actions.
In the movie, I think that the most prominent human rights infringement regarded the freedom of religion. Over the course of World War II, there were many groups of people that had their rights taken away, but the group on which there was the most focus in Europa Europa was the Jews. There were two moments in the movie that stuck out to me as the two biggest violations of the freedom of religion. The first occurred in the Russian school where Solly lived for two years. The Russians were of the philosophy that God did not exist, and religion was banned from the school. The Russian people have the right to believe what they want, but it becomes a violation of human rights when beliefs turn to Antisemitism. In the same way, the Jews should have the right to believe what they want to believe, and to have the freedom of religion. The Russian leaders of the school were instilling their beliefs into the minds of children that had no choice but to conform to these Antisemitic beliefs. The second violation was similar to the first, but it occurred in the Hitler Youth Academy which Solly attended for a period of time. Solly's first experience in this academy was listening to the rest of the boys sing a song about the murder of Jews. Just as I stated before, each one of those boys has the right to believe what they want, but the second that they impose their beliefs on someone else, it becomes an infringement of human rights.

The Power of Propaganda

Europa, Europa is one of the few Holocaust and WWII movies that gives a truly unique perspective of the War and beyond. The story of Solly and his deception of the German government shows the difficulties of staying safe in Nazi occupied Europe. However, unlike many other Jews who just went with what the Nazis forced them to do, Solly struggled to survive by becoming a Nazi himself, brilliantly immersing himself in the Hitler Youth. The camouflage of Nazi support allowed him to be safe throughout his life as a Hitler Youth. This excellent movie showed me that the best way to throw an enemy off your tracks is by becoming exactly like him. Walking his walk, talking his talk. However, the moral implications of this assimilation may be too much for many people, as it almost was for Solly. Solly saw himself becoming the exact entity that had tormented and separated his family. The pain of listening to the onslaught of Anti-Sematic propaganda tested Solly throughout his stay as a German soldier and Hitler Youth. His urge to defend the honor of his people boiled up until the moment when he hit Leni for her Anti-Sematic attitudes. Leni was the perfect German citizen in the eyes of Hitler. She was a loyal Nazi, a staunch Anti-Semitist, and a fierce supporter of furthering the cause of her Homeland. She was so loyal that she was willing to procreate with another man of pure German ancestry and give up her only child to the country that she supports so fervently. She was even quoted to say that she would cut the throat of the next Jew she saw. She is a prime example of how the Nazis have desensitized the German population by dehumanizing the Jews. Hitler successfully created a community that could remove the rights of an entire people without a second thought towards the fact that the Jew are people too. The Jews were stripped of their rights on many occurrences throughout the movie. They lost their businesses and livelihood like when Solly’s father. They lost their right to live where they wanted when they were placed in the ghettos. Then they finally lost their right to their livelihood as Hitler put the Final Solution into effect.

The Human Rights Horrors of Europa Europa

Astonishment is a feeling that people get when they see something that truly surprises them. After watching the movie Europa Europa, the feeling of astonishment overcame me, and it was definitely not for good reason. This movie focused on the monstrosities that Nazi Germany carried out as well as the tragedies that the Jewish population of Europe endured during World War II. As a viewer, I received a firsthand look at what Jews went through at the time. Sickened is one of many words that could be used to describe what I felt. The Jews were targeted, beaten, starved, killed, and made a national enemy. In the movie I saw bodies hanging along the road as Solek marched with the Nazi army, people shot because they were Jewish, mass graves when Solek was with Leni, and degrading language used towards the Jews throughout the movie. This really affected me and allowed me to see how horrid people can get when the wrong leader is in charge. I really did love this film. After viewing it, I received a greater appreciation for the life I am able to live today. 

In the movie Europa Europa, human rights were nonexistent for the Jews. Hitler was able to get inside the minds of his citizens and made them view Jews as monstrous creatures who were ruining the genetics of the German population. I really got to see this in Hitler’s youth academy. In the beginning of the movie, Jewish businesses and households were specifically targeted. There were people beaten in the streets, windows shattered by bricks, and people such as Solek’s sister killed. Solek was very lucky to have escaped to the Soviet Union. Back home, his Jewish peers were gathered and put into forced labor camps and ghettos. During Solek’s travels in the Nazi army, I saw how the Jews’ basic human rights were taken away. They lost their right to live at home, to partake in their religion, to basic necessities, to do what a human should be able to do, and, in many cases, to their own life. The Nazi army depicted Jewish people as inhuman and different. I could not believe how horrible the Nazis were. People did not care about the Jews whatsoever. A great example of this was when Leni talked about how she would love to slice any Jews’ throat. This became too much for Solek. Solek went through a very rough time. In order to save himself, he had to disguise who he truly was and join those who were destroying his race. Eventually he actually became friends with some of the Nazis which only confused him more. They were such awful people, but they were being friendly towards him. This internal conflict had a deep effect on Solek. He came to hate who he was for a while and demonstrated this by using thread to try to hide the fact that his penis was circumcised. Eventually he broke down and told Leni’s mother everything. I cannot even imagine the pain he went through. This movie truly did a great job of depicting the life of a Jew at the time.

 Thank you for your time.

Garrett Gresham

Europa Europa - A Film to Remember

I simply loved this film. It gives insight to the horrifying life the Jews faced while evading the Germans in World War II, yet also, shows the outstanding courage and wit of a young boy and his drive to survive. I think the film is brilliant all around, from the colors, the actors, the plot line- all cleverly crafted in order to engage the audience, while still educating and raising awareness of the Holocaust-era. For example, the movie uses natural plot twists that convey the differing personalities of German versus Russian soldiers. Germans give empathy and support to other "Germans" such as Solly, yet despise any other race, while the Russians would have killed Josef on the spot, being "German," if it were not for Isaac, the brother and refugee that the Russians liberated, that recognized his brother as a Jew. The movie also does a fantastic job of sharing the atrocities of concentration camps, and the rights that were taken from all Jews that were within Germany's reach. One example (or rather a few examples), would be the right to property and privacy that was violated at the mere beginning of the war. Solly and his family were raided in their home- property destroyed... along with Solly's sister. The story continues, taking more rights as well as ultimately ostracizing and dehumanizing Jews. The Jews' right to freedom of, well, anything was stripped from them. Living in camps with no running water, no food to be seen, beaten, segregated from society, crumbling buildings for "shelter", Jews oftentimes shot automatically when they were found to be Jewish- all tortures of the Nazi regime seen by Solly. However, not only was there Jewish dehumanization, but also German as well. The German youth was taught to behave as if Hitler were a god- all life was because of Hitler, and all life should be devoted to him. For example, women saw Hitler as some sort of goal to be attained- a being to be worshiped. Josef saw firsthand of this brainwashing, when his new mother was beside herself with the similarities between Solly and the Furher. Women's minds had been contorted into this mode of "Furher-is-all-I-live-for" state. The ultimate goal was to please and become more like him, at the cost of being oneself, maybe another right taken from both Jews and Germans. In hindsight, Europa Europa accurately and flawlessly displays the atrocities of the Nazi take over, through the life of an inventive Jew whom tricks many to save his skin. The detail and exaggeration of the rights taken from the Jews, and sometimes Germans, that this film exhibits is awe-inspiring. I wouldn't hesitate to watch its insightful story again and again.

Human Rights need to be Enforced

     The film Europa, Europa was a very captivating film that opened my eyes to some of the horrific events that took place during Hitler’s reign. I enjoyed the film because it displayed many things I never knew about the Holocaust. An example was the Nazi school that Solly attended while pretending to be a pure bred German by the name of Josef Peters. It amazed me that they had entire schools that trained young boys and girls to ‘worship’ Hitler, as well as, how to be a great Nazi. In the school they talked about how to identify a Jew, why Jews were bad people, and even sang a song that talked about shoving a knife deep in Jews’ flesh. All of these activities and lessons helped them corrupt the minds of young kids and led to major human right violations. Article two of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." This article clearly states that the race or religion of a person should not be involved when discussing human rights, or who receives human rights. By grouping all Jews together and trying to eliminate them from earth, the Holocaust was one of the most horrific human rights violations in the history of mankind. They forced Jews to move to ghettos or concentration camps were they could “herd” them together like cattle. They fenced in these places as if they were trying to keep livestock from escaping its pen. Then they proceeded to try and eliminate all of the Jewish people by using multiple forms of execution. The references to cattle and livestock show how far the Nazi people took the dehumanization of Jewish people. It was an absolute atrocity that can never be repaired. However, all of this could have been avoided if human rights were actually enforced. Human rights are listed in many different places and are laws in many different countries. The Nazi people knew what they were doing was wrong and that they were violating human rights, yet they still did it. No one stopped them for many weeks, months, and even years. Human rights are very important and need to be addressed by all people throughout the world, but most importantly, they need to be enforced by all people throughout the world.

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