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.