Valle 1

The Genocide Survivors

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were a Jew and lived during the

Holocaust? The Holocaust is a mass murder or a genocide of European Jews that was led by

Adolf Hitler and effected many, it killed up to 6 million jews. The Holocaust began in January

1933 when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had power in Germany, they thought about it as the

“Final solution.” It ended in May 1945, when they were defeated in World War II. Amalia

Dembitzer and Vladek Spiegelman were jews during the Holocaust, and this essay will explore

how their lives were before, during, and after the Holocaust.

Amalia Dembitzer and Vladek are similar in that they were both born in Poland, and were

somewhat rich before the Holocaust. They each had someone relatively close to themselves who

owned a business before everything had happened and before they lost it due to the Nazis. Also

for the fact that they were both Jews and they had someone that went through it with , whether it

was an in-law, sibling, or wife. Amalia and Vladek both had constantly moved from one hiding

place to another, they shared the fact that they were both survivors of the holocaust.

Though Vladek and Amalia share similarities, there are also some differences between

the two, as for the fact that they were both different ages during the Holocaust because Vladek

was an adult while Amalia was just a little girl. Also because of the fact that Vladek was sent to

war, got captured, labeled as a war prisoner and sent to concentration camps. Amalia could not

go to war, and was never sent to a concentration camp, but sent away to hide while her parents

tried to get to safety, her parents would hope to come for Amalia and their other children after

escaping. They were born in different parts of Poland, Amalia being born in Cracow, Poland and

Vladek was in Czestochowa Poland, a city not far from the border of Germany.
 Valle 2

Unlike Vladek, Amalia had to go through the struggles of constantly moving and not

knowing where her parents would be, and the tragedy of her being under the age of 5 during

these times. Amalia also was given another name, she was given a more christian name Maria, as

she was living with a christian family, her parents left not only her but her siblings with. Amalia

used that name until she forgot her real name. Also Vladek stayed with his family as a group, his

in-laws, wife, and kids, while Amalia was only living with her older brother and baby sister all

under the age of ten. Vladek survived his Concentration camps, but Amalia just moved from one

hiding place to another, both making it out of the Holocaust alive along with very few others.

Ultimately, the Holocaust was a horrible time for many jews including Vladek and

Amalia, it was a time of despair. The Holocaust affected many, even those that survived it. It was

a traumatizing period of time and had an effect all over the world, by European jews trying to

immigrate just to escape the Nazis. Even after the war people still had to live with the fact that

during the Holocaust they might have lost their families and loved ones because of the Nazis

since they were the ones targeted, this was also known as the “Final Solution.” The Holocaust

was made to get rid of jews in Germany and other places, and they did accomplish that to an

extent because they killed many but not all. It is important that we learn these things about the

Holocaust so we can inform ourselves about the things people had to go through, and how they

still managed to survive through this traumatizing event.