Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Chapter 3 (pages 29-46) -- Arrival

Why was age and occupation so important upon arrival?

7 comments:

  1. The age and the occupation were very important in the arrival. This was so because depending on age and occupation were decider where the Jew would go. For example if the Jew was eighteen and was a soldier, he would go to the left side. On the other hand, if the Jew was eighteen and was a farmer he would go to the left side. These two sides defined whether Jews went to the crematorium, the left side, or to the labor camps, the right side. In the labor camps the strongest Jews would e located. Then, the weakest or the not too strong Jews wouldbe sent to the crematorium

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  2. This was important to the SS officers because it told them who could handle the hard work they were about come into the concentration camps. They didn't want people too young or too old. They were smart enough to realize that if the Jews worked in a hard labored job, they could handle all the hard work that was coming ahead of them. If they were not in the right shape or size, they would be sent to the crematory, where they would be burned because they would not be a huge help at the camps. It was like the survival of the fittest. The strongest would advance, and the weakest would be killed. It was as simple and as cruel as that. -Nalleli

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  3. The age and occupation was important because it let the officers know who could do what. It let them know where people could go work. If someone was too old or too young then they wouldn't be able to go to a labor camp that was too hard for them. The officers didn't want people who were incapable of doing the work. They would find out the ages of the Jews and what they could do to see if they could wrok. If a Jew was too young, old, or couldnt work, they were killed. The Germans had no need for a weak Jew. It gave them the excuse to kill them. Like Nalleli said, it was survival of the fittest. That is why Elie and his father lied about their age. That is also why Elie told the officers that his occupation was farming. He was smart and lied so he wouldn't be sent to the crematory. He lied so that he wouldnt be killed. - Vanessa

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  4. The Germans are an oppressive government - controlling, greedy, and similar to corrupt corporate bosses. They want efficiency to the point of perfection. The reason they asked for their age was similar to the scenario in The Giver by Lois Lowry. In The Giver, when people are too old, they are "released" - in reality, executed by lethal injection. The Germans and the government in The Giver are happy to loose those who can't carry their own weight, but the Germans are happy to kill both those too young and too old to work for them. And no doubt, in the end the fate of those surviving workers is to die in an incinerator or be shot. It's simply the way the cookie crumbles with the Germans. Well, the sugar-free, rotten, and disgusting cookie, anyway.

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  5. The younger, stronger, healthier, and more experienced the person was the more than likely chance the Germans were to let them survive. They needed them for labor. One job in particular is the person that puts that dead bodies in the crematoria. A person needed to be in good health and they also needed to be strong enough to lift all of the bodies. If the person did a good enough job on whatever they were assigned they had a possible chance of surviving The Holocaust. It was mainly a person's age/health that kept them alive through this horrible event. If a person is too young or too old then they cannot work which means they have no use to the Germans. And if you have no experience with any work then you won't know what to do when you are assigned a job.

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  6. The age depend because if the Jew looked really old he would go to the left which was the crematurium, but if the jew went to the right it was the working camp. That is why the man who told Elie and his father the ages was to save them from being killed. The occupation was also a very impotant thing because it would help the Nazi soliders now what the person can do and can work for in labor camp.

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  7. The only way to survive was to be an very stong and healthy person, who is capable to survie mental and physical problems and survive anyway

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