Critical Analysis Of Heart Of Darkness - 1107 Words

Steven Serrano Ms.Leblanc AP Lit 2 25 September 2017 Heart of Darkness Inner evil Heart of Darkness, a novel written by Joseph Conrad, tells the story of a character named Marlow, who is recalling his journey to Africa down the Congo River to a group of seamen on a boat. Joseph Conrad’s characters are constructed around the ideas that were present in society when the novel was written. Kurtz and Marlow are created to be naive and to allow action to be the truest medium to characterize the cast in Conrad’s novel. As Marlow poses a inner darkness that is discovered on journey looking for kurtz. As kurtz has already revealed who he is by discovering himself. Marlow can be read as an extreme of Kurtz, as they share the same†¦show more content†¦As Marlow talks about kurtz s he describes it to similar view of inferno â€Å"You should have heard him say, My ivory. Oh, yes, I heard him. My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my - .. many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. It was impossible — it was not good for one either - trying to imagine. He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land - I mean literally (49). As this falls in the category of avarious. Avarious is the fourth circle of hell. Basically saying their is a part that makes us desire even though our heart is not glowing bright and is instead in dark. Showing contrast darkness against light. Basically their discovering another part of their darkness. As kurtz discovered he was avaricious now marlow is seeing and hearing reactions of the others as ivory is spoken of. Through the novel kurtz and marlow mention ivory allot. As kurtz is one best agents employed at ivory station in center heart of congo. That is said he has an unrivaled ability to obtain the ivory. As Marlow meets kurtz he is considered notable man because kurtz is savvy knows that darkness and evil is within him and the rest of the work. As restated in the novel by Dowden â€Å" Depth to which man is capab le of sinking†(159). Finding one true self is basically one sinking in the darkness around him and giving into the darkness. During the time living what they callShow MoreRelatedHeart Of Darkness Critical Analysis1409 Words   |  6 Pagesof his kids and ill wife with. Information about the literary period: The literary period was early modernism. Modernism refers to the forms, concepts, and style of literature in the early decades of the 20th. Characteristics of the genre: Heart of Darkness is a frame narrative, which means a story within a story. The story is seen from the Conrad’s perspective. To some, this story is said to be more symbolic than realistic. Plot Summary: The story starts off with Marlow, a mariner, goes off onRead MoreHeart Of Darkness Critical Analysis1980 Words   |  8 PagesThe legacy of Heart of Darkness is credited more to Joseph Conrad’s ensnaring form than his message. Readers enamored with the first few pages of â€Å" still and exquisite brilliance† as an unnamed Narrator drifts down the Thames at the helm of a yacht are unceremoniously thrust into a framed narrative of a man who ventures in and out of the heart of the Congo (Conrad 4). Marlow begins his tale by suggesting that England too, was once a dark place to be conquered. â€Å"The conquest of the earth is notRead MoreThings Fall Apart, And The Heart Of Darkness1518 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The following essay will contain a critical analysis of two passages from Things Fall Apart, and the Heart of Darkness. I will compare and contrast the narrative structure, the language used and the themes explored. Through this critical analysis, we can gain a better understanding of the two extracts, each one helping to illuminate the other. The passages I will be analysing are: Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, Page 124 Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Page 116-117 Narrative StructureRead MoreGender Role In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Essay1430 Words   |  6 PagesGender Role In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness For the most part people who read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad may feel that the novella is strictly a story of exploration and racial discrimination. But to Johanna Smith who wrote â€Å"’Too Beautiful Altogether’: Ideologies of Gender and Empire in Heart of Darkness† it is much more than that. Johanna Smith along with Wallace Watson and Rita A. Bergenholtz agree that throughout Heart of Darkness there are tones of gender prejudice, but the wayRead More Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India1683 Words   |  7 Pagesis best to analyze the works, Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India, applying the historical and cultural conditions of the society in which they were produced. The relations between groups and classes of people that imperialism sets up, and that these two works explore, starkly reveals the contradictions within capitalism in a way that a similar piece of fiction set within one culture and dealing with chara cters from that culture alone cannot. Prior to the analysis however, I would like to giveRead More Light and Dark in Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness Essay1677 Words   |  7 PagesNow and Heart of Darkness    In Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, Marlow chooses a brighter path than his counterpart in Francis Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now, Capt. Willard. The two share in the duty of searching for and discovering Kurtz, as well as taking care of his memory, but their beliefs before encountering him place the characters at opposing ends of a theme. These opposing ends are light and dark, representing good and evil. In the opening pages of Heart of Darkness, Marlow beginsRead More Ambiguities Explored in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay1458 Words   |  6 PagesAmbiguities Explored in Heart of Darkness   Ã‚  Ã‚   Literature is never interpreted in exactly the same way by two different readers. A prime example of a work of literature that is very ambiguous is Joseph Conrads, Heart of Darkness. The Ambiguities that exist in this book are Marlows relationship to colonialism, Marlows changing feelings toward Kurtz, and Marlows lie to the Intended at the end of the story.    One interpretation of Marlows relationship to colonialism is thatRead More Humanity of the Primitive in Heart of Darkness, Dialect of Modernism and Totem and Taboo1593 Words   |  7 PagesHumanity of the Primitive in Heart of Darkness, Dialect of Modernism and Totem and Taboo   Ã‚  Ã‚   The ways in which a society might define itself are almost always negative ways. We are not X. A society cannot exist in a vacuum; for it to be distinct it must be able to define itself in terms of the other groups around it. These definitions must necessarily take place at points of cultural contact, the places at which two societies come together and arrive at some stalemate of coexistence. ForRead MoreInternet: A Cancer to the Brain926 Words   |  4 Pagespotential. As media evolves, people are better off at acquiring materials easily and effectively. However, even with access to materials that are difficult to attain in most libraries, students are becoming mere decoders of information rather than critical thinkers ready to learn something new. Just like Pinker states in his passage, â€Å"If you train people to do one thing, they get better at doing that thing, but almost nothing else† (526, par. 7) Since the internet provides what we are looking for inRead MoreAnalysis of Sylvia Plaths Mirror1281 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Analysis of Sylvia Plath’s â€Å"Mirror† Sylvia Plath is known as the poet of confession. Her life is strongly connected to her works. She uses poetry as a way to confess her feelings, to express and release her pain in life. â€Å"Mirror† is one of her most famous poems. Sylvia Plath wrote the poem in 1961, just two years before her actual suicide. After suffering a miscarriage, she realized that she was pregnant again. She and her husband moved to a small town and their marriage began going worse. The

Analysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s The Sun Essay

Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry was one of the most poetic voices in American theatre. She was a playwright and an activist who wrote the incredibly successful play, A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout her short life she was deeply involved in civil rights. She was the first African American playwright and the youngest American to win the New York Critics’ Circle award. Raisin in the Sun was the first of many that she envisioned challenging the limits of American political discourse in the postwar period. Hansberry represented the life, experiences and dreams of the African America working class in the 1950’s. In the Oxford American Dictionary, ‘American Dream’ is defined as, â€Å"the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.† Realistically everyone’s definition of the American Dream is different, but they all have one thing in common which is to live a better and easier life. The poem â€Å"Harlem† by Langston Hughes starts off by saying, â€Å"What happens to a dream deferred?† is this question is exemplifying the black experience of the American Dream. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?† Hansberry answered this question by â€Å"fashioning a playa bout the struggle and frustrations of a working-class black family living in Chicago’s south side ghetto during the 1950’s.† (Wilkerson, Margaret). This is how the title â€Å"A RaisinShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s The Sun Essay1723 Words   |  7 Pagesraisin in the sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, who was one of the very first African American ever to have her play performed on Broadway, during the civil rights movement. The play takes place in an uncomfortable small two bedroom apartment which the Younger family stays in. Throughout the play the fam ily faces money, as well as family problems, but when they receive a large check the oldest son lets it get the best of him. According to Frank Ardolino journal article of Hansberry’sRead MoreAn Analysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun 914 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† is an autobiographical play written in 1950 by Lorraine Hansberry, an African American writer. The main characters are the Younger family, Mama, his son Walter and her daughter Beneatha. The play dramatizes a conflict between the main characters’ dreams and their actual lives’ struggles in poverty and racism. The main characters’ lives as African-Americans contribute to their feeling of entrapment by poverty and racism. The play predicts the black society struggles in the yearsRead MoreAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun 1343 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† is play written by Lorraine Hansberry about a struggl ing African American family. Set in the nineteen-fifties, the play explores the dynamics of how the family operates in a time era Chicago that challenges the family with poor economic status and racial prejudice. Hansberry uses dreams as one of her main themes in this play. Three of the characters, Walter, Beneatha, and Mama, all have a similar goal in their respective dreams, to improve the life of the whole family, butRead MoreAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin And The Sun Essay2363 Words   |  10 Pagesis always a great place to start a story, yet is there a lesson to be learned if the characters ends up right where they started? That is one of the several predicaments in the story â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† by Afro American writer Lorraine Hansberry. The story takes place in Chicago during the late 1950’s the civil rights era, and the most prevalent question is what makes an African American different to any other person. The story dives deep into what t hat is through the use of money, as the familyRead MoreAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun 1876 Words   |  8 PagesA Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959. This is a story about an African American family striving to reach the American Dream despite significant financial difficulties and a racially oppressive environment in the postwar era. The passage I chose was from Act 2, scene 3 of the play. This is when the chairmen of the neighborhood committee in Clybourne Park, Mr. Lindner comes to speak with the Younger family about their future presence in the neighborhood. This passageRead MoreAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun 1854 Words   |  8 Pagesdrink from the same water fountain. Schools being desegregated has helped young American people grow together in an educational environment, where they can build friendships with students of other races. Throughout the play, â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun†, Lorraine Ha nsberry vividly portrays the racism and discrimination of white people towards African-Americans in the fifties, as well as similarities to her own childhood. Walter Lee Younger, husband of Ruth Younger, works as a chauffeur for a rich white familyRead MoreAnalysis Of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin Of The Sun 1797 Words   |  8 Pages Worthless money itself All money brings is nothing but dreams and evil. Where there is money there is also dishonesty or corruption.. In a play called â€Å"A Raisin In The Sun† by Lorraine Hansberry, she focuses on the struggle that was faced by one African American family from late 1950s. As the play opens, the family are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. This money comes from the death of Mr.Younger’s insurance policy. Everyone was very excited and were waiting for the money to beRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Beneatha In A Raisin In The Sun1487 Words   |  6 PagesCharacter Analysis â€Å" A Raisin in the Sun† is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry about the life of an African American family during the era of segregation. The play starts off with the Younger family receiving a 10,000 dollar check from Mr. Younger’s insurance policy. The family argues over what they are going to do with it. Mama wants to buy a house with it, Walter wants to invest in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to use the money to go to medical school. The contrast of the characters’ personalitiesRead MoreThe American Dream By Lorraine Hansberry1570 Words   |  7 Pagesabout it their whole lives? Many families struggle to even get close to the American Dream. In Lorraine Hansberry’s â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun†, the Younger family struggled for money, despite having numerous jobs, and a descendant living space. Being African American in the 1950’s made it difficult for the family to move up in class to achieve the American Dream. In â€Å"A Rai sin in the Sun† by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger’s cannot fully achieve the American Dream due to societal obstacles they experienceRead MoreA Raisin In The Sun Archetypal Analysis1452 Words   |  6 Pagesarchetypal analysis that enables one to gain insight into the conventional and universal experiences within the society of which that form of literature is based upon. These repeating and shared experiences are especially prevalent in the literature of the 1950s, as it is a period of time characterized by social injustice and prejudice targeting not just individuals but entire groups such as blacks, women and other disenfranchised communities within American society. Accordingly, Lorraine Hansberry’s

Ode To the West Wind Essay Example For Students

Ode To the West Wind Essay In Ode to the West Wind, a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the speaker expresses his fascination with power and with those forces- both destroyers and preservers- that inspire the same powers within the speaker. The author uses imagery, metaphors, and rhyme scheme to add to the poems meaning. Through word choice, sentence structure, and alliteration Shelley shows that wind brings both good and evil. The speaker uses his vivid imagery in the poem to paint a picture in ones mind. He uses this imagery as a way to open, or start his poem. From the very beginning the reader can identify with the speaker. The reader knows the speakers feelings and can relate to them. Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed. (1.4-6) In these few lines the reader can almost be in the scene that the speaker has created. The words used to describe the leaves are vivid words, which makes one think to look for a deeper meaning. The wind can be calm and peaceful, or wild and raging, just like our human emotions. In that sense the wind is personified. This personification helps us humans to relate to the wind, so that we may gain more from this poem. Shelly also uses many metaphors in this poem to reveal the theme. The overall metaphor in this poem is the representation of a prayer to God by the wind. Shelly personifies the wind. The wind comes and goes. The wind brings new beginnings and takes away the old and aged. The wind is a very important part of this poem, but one must look closer to realize what the wind actually symbolizes. The speaker wishes for the wind to come in and comfort him in lines 52 54. As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! The speaker is crying out. He is asking for help, he does this in the form of a prayer which is represented by the wind. The author also uses the rhyme scheme to advance the flow of this poem. The rhyme scheme used in this poem is a special rhyme scheme called terza rima. Personally the rhyme scheme makes the poem harder to read. I would prefer it if the poem was in the typical ABAB form, but the author chose this rhyme scheme for a reason. This rhyme scheme adds a sense of uniqueness to the poem. It is a change from the usual. This scheme makes the poem a very memorable one. Shelly consistently develops the theme of his work throughout this entire poem. He uses the imagery, metaphors, and rhyme scheme to add to the poems theme, which is forces of power- both destroyers and preservers- that inspire the same powers within the speaker. The speaker is moved and condemned by the wind, much like we are inspired and corrected by God. This theme is portrayed through out the entire poem.

The National Socialist German Workers Party Essay Example For Students

The National Socialist German Workers Party Essay The National Socialist German Workers Party almost died one morning in 1919. It numbered only a few dozen grumblers it had no organization and no political ideas. But many among the middle class admired the Nazis muscular opposition to the Social Democrats. And the Nazis themes of patriotism and militarism drew highly emotional responses from people who could not forget Germanys prewar imperial grandeur. In the national elections of September 1930, the Nazis garnered nearly 6. 5 million votes and became second only to the Social Democrats as the most popular party in Germany. In Northeim, where in 1928 Nazi andidates had received 123 votes, they now polled 1,742, a respectable 28 percent of the total. The nationwide success drew even faster in just three years, party membership would rise from about 100,000 to almost a million, and the number of local branches would increase tenfold. The new members included working-class people, farmers, and middle-class professionals. They were both better educated and younger then the Old Fighters, who had been the backbone of the party during its first decade. We will write a custom essay on The National Socialist German Workers Party specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The Nazis now presented themselves as the party of the young, the strong, and the pure, in opposition to an establishment opulated by the elderly, the weak, and the dissolute. Hitler was born in a small town in Austria in 1889. As a young boy, he showed little ambition. After dropping out of high school, he moved to Vienna to study art, but he was denied the chance to join Vienna academy of fine arts. When WWI broke out, Hitler joined Kaiser Wilhelmers army as a Corporal. He was not a person of great importance. He was a creature of a Germany created by WWI, and his behavior was shaped by that war and its consequences. He had emerged from Austria with many prejudices, including a powerful prejudice against Jews. Again, he was a product of his times for many Austrians and Germans were prejudiced against the Jews. In Hitlers case the prejudice had become maniacal it was a dominant force in his private and political personalities. Anti-Semitism was not a policy for Adolf Hitlerit was religion. And in the Germany of the 1920s, stunned by defeat, and the ravages of the Versailles treaty, it was not hard for a leader to convince millions that one element of the nations society was responsible for most of the evils heaped upon it. The fact is that Hitlers anti-Semitism was self-inflicted obstacle to is political success. The Jews, like other Germans, were shocked by the discovery that the war had not been fought to a standstill, as they were led to believe in November 1918, but that Germany had , in fact, been defeated and was to be treated as a vanquished country. Had Hitler not embarked on his policy of disestablishing the Jews as Germans, and later of exterminating them in Europe, he could have counted on their loyalty. There is no reason to believe anything else. On the evening of November 8, 1923, Wyuke Vavaruab State Cinnussuiber Gustav Rutter von Kahr was making a political speech in Munichs prawling Brgerbrukeller, some 600 Nazis and right-wing sympathizers surrounded the beer hall. Hitler burst into the building and leaped onto a table, brandishing a revolver and firing a shot into the ceiling. The National Revolution, he cried, has begun! At that point, informed that fighting had broken out in another part of the city, Hitler rushed to that scene. His prisoners were allowed to leave, and they talked about organizing defenses against the Nazi coup. Hitler was of course furious. And he was far from finished. At about 11 oclock on the morning of November 9the anniversary of the founding f the German Republic in 19193,000 Hitler partisans again gathered outside the Brgerbrukeller. To this day, no one knows who fired the first shot. But a shot rang out, and it was followed by fusillades from both sides. Hermann Gring fell wounded in the thigh and both legs. Hitler flattened himself against the pavement; he was unhurt. General Ludenorff continued to march stolidly toward the police line, which parted to let him pass through (he was later arrested, tried and acquitted). Behind him, 16 Nazis and three policemen lay sprawled dead among the many wounded. The next year, Rhm and his band joined forces with the fledgling National Socialist Party in Adolf Hitlers Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Himmler took part in that uprising, but he played such a minor role that he escaped arrest. The Rhm-Hitler alliance survived the Putsch, and hms 1,500-man band grew into the Sturmabteilung, the SA, Hitlers brown-shirted private army, that bullied the Communists and Democrats. Hitler recruited a handful of men to act as his bodyguards and protect him from Communist toughs, other rivals, and even the S. A. if it got out of hand. .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .postImageUrl , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:hover , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:visited , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:active { border:0!important; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:active , .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u91897ff57925923203de53a8a7ee813e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: 1984 Book Report EssayThis tiny group was the embryonic SS. In 1933, after the Nazi Party had taken power in Germany, increasing trouble with the SA made a showdown inevitable. As German Chancellor, the Fhrer could no longer afford to tolerate the disruptive Brownshirts; under the ambitious Rhm, the SA had grown to be an organization of three million men, and its unpredictable activities prevented Hitler from consolidating his shaky control of the Reich. He had to dispose of the SA to hold the support of his industrial backers, to satisfy party leaders jealous of the SAs power, and most important, to win the allegiance of the conservative Army generals. Under pressure from all sides, and enraged by an SA plot against him that Heydrich had conveniently uncovered, Hitler turned the SS loose to purge its parent organization. They were too uncontrollable even for Hitler. They went about their business of terrorizing Jews with no mercy. But that is not what bothered Hitler, since the SA was so big, (3 million in 1933) and so out of control, Hitler sent his trusty comrade Josef Dietrich, commander of a SS bodyguard regiment to murder the leaders of the SA. The killings went on for two days and nights and took a tool of perhaps 200 enemies o the state. It was quite enough to reduce the SA to impotence, and it brought the Fhrer immediate returns. The dying President of the Reich, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, congratulated Hitler on crushing the troublesome SA, and the Army generals concluding that Hitler was now their pawnswore personal loyalty to him. In April 1933, scarcely three months after Adolf Hitler took power in Germany, the Nazis issued a degree, ordering the compulsory retirement of non-Aryans from the civil service. This edict, petty in itself, was the first spark in what was to become the Holocaust, one of the most hastly episodes in the modern history of mankind. Before he campaign against the Jews was halted by the defeat of Germany, something like 11 million people had been slaughtered in the name of Nazi racial purity. The Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust. Millions of Russians, Poles, gypsies and other subhumans were also murdered. But Jews were the favored targetsfirst and foremost. It took the Nazis some time to work up to the full fury of their endeavor. In the years following 1933, the Jews were systematically deprived by law of their civil rights, of their jobs and property. Violence and brutality became a part of their everyday lives. Their places of worship were defiled, their windows smashed, their stores ransacked. Old men and young were pummeled and clubbed and stomped to death by Nazi jack boots. Jewish women were accosted and ravaged, in broad daylight, on main thoroughfares. Some Jews fled Germany. But most, with a kind of stubborn belief in God and Fatherland, sought to weather the Nazi terror. It was forlorn hope. In 1939, after Hitlers conquest of Poland, the Nazis cast aside all restraint. Jews in their millions were now herded into oncentration camps, there to starve and perish as slave laborers. Other millions were driven into dismal ghettos, which served as holding pens until the Nazis got around to disposing of them. The mass killings began in 1941, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Nazi murder squads followed behind the Wehrmacht enthusiastically slaying Jews and other conquered peoples. Month by month the horrors escalated. First tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of people were led off to remote fields and forest to be slaughtered by SS guns. Assembly-line death camps were established in Poland and train loads of Jews were collected from all over occupied Europe and sent to their doom. At some of the camps, the Nazis took pains to disguise their intentions until the last moment. At others, the arriving Jews saw scenes beyond comprehension. Corpses were strewn all over the road, recalled one survivor. Starving human skeletons stumbled toward us. They fell right down in front of our eyes and lay there gasping out their last breath. What had begun as a mean little edict against Jewish civil servants was now ending the death six million Jews, Poles, gypsies, Russians, and other sub-humans Uncounted thousands of Jews and other hapless concentration-camp inmates were used as guinea pigs in a wide range of medical and scientific experiments, most of them of little value. Victims were infected with typhus to see how different geographical groups reacted; to no ones surprise, all groups perished swiftly. .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .postImageUrl , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:hover , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:visited , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:active { border:0!important; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:active , .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92 .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud242ce04a56573ce3e660946e3c29a92:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Making Personal Decisions EssayFluids from diseased animals were injected into humans to observe the effect. Prisoners were forced to exist on sea water to see how long castaways might survive. Gynecology was an area of interest. Various methods of sterilization were practicedby massive X-ray, by irritants nd drugs, by surgery without benefit of anesthetic. As techniques were perfected, it was determined that a doctor with 10 assistants could sterilize 1,000 women per day. The experimental people were also used by Nazi doctors who needed practice performing various operations. One doctor at Auschwitz perfected his amputation technique on live prisoners. After he had finished, his maimed patients were sent off to the gas chamber. A few Jews who had studied medicine were allowed to live if they assisted the SS doctors. I cut the flesh of healthy young girls, recalled a Jewish physician who survived at terrible cost. I immersed the bodies of dwarfs and cripples in calcium chloride (to preserve them), or had them boiled so the carefully prepared skeletons might safely reach the Third Reichs museums to justify, for future generations, the destruction of an entire race. I could never erase these memories from my mind. But the best killing machine were the shower baths of death. After their arrival at a death camp, the Jews who had been chosen to die at once were told that they were to have a shower. Filthy by their long, miserable journey, they sometimes applauded the announcement. Countless Jews and other victims went peacefully to the shower roomswhich were gas chambers in disguise. In the anterooms to the gas chambers, many of the doomed people found nothing amiss. At Auschwitz, signs in several languages said, Bath and Disinfectant, and inside the chambers other signs admonished, Dont forget your soap and towel. Unsuspecting victims cooperated willingly. They got out of their clothes so routinely, Said a Sobibor survivor. What could be more natural? In time, rumors about the death camps spread, and underground newspapers in the Warsaw ghetto even ran reports that told of the gas hambers and the crematoriums. But many people did not believe the storied, and those who did were helpless in any case. Facing the guns of the SS guards, they could only hope and pray to survive. As one Jewish leader put it, We must be patient and a miracle will occur. There were no miracles. The victims, naked and bewildered, were shoved into a line. Their guards ordered them forward, and flogged those who hung back. The doors to the gas chambers were locked behind them. It was all over quickly. The war came home to Germany. Scarcely had Hitler recovered from the hock of the July 20 bombing when he was faced with the loss of France and Belgium and of great conquests in the East. Enemy troops in overwhelming numbers were converging on the Reich. By the middle of August 1944, the Russian summer offensives, beginning June 10 and unrolling one after another, had brought the Red Army to the border of East Prussia, bottled up fifty German divisions in the Baltic region, penetrated to Vyborg in Finland, destroyed Army Group Center and brought an advance on this front of four hundred miles in six weeks to the Vistula opposite Warsaw, while in the south a new attack which began n August 20 resulted in the conquest of Rumania by the end of the month and with it the Ploesti oil fields, the only major source of natural oil for the German armies. On August 26 Bulgaria formally withdrew from the war and the Germans began to hastily clear out of that country. In September Finland gave up and turned on the German troops which refused to evacuate its territory. In the West, France was liberated quickly. In General Patton, the commander of the newly formed U. S. Third Army, the Americans had found a tank general with the dash and flair of Rommel in Africa. After the apture of Avranches on July 30, he had left Brittany to wither on the vine and begun a great sweep around the German armies in Normandy, moving southeast to Orleans on the Loire and then due east toward the Seine south of Paris. By August 23 the Seine was reached southeast and northwest of the capital, and two days later the great city, the glory of France, was liberated after four years of German occupation when General Jacques Leclercs French 2nd Armored Division and the U. S. 4th Infantry Division broke into it and found that French resistance units were largely in control.