Refugee blues

As you read in the introduction, the poem was written half a year before the outbreak of World War II. However, the reader can pinpoint the three major protagonists whose paths will cross tragically in the course of the war.
Complete the following sentences:

The victims are the Jews, clearly.
The perpetrators are the Nazis with the followers of the ideology/movement.
The bystanders are the rest of Europe, rest of Germany specially

What particular factors led an individual to be defined as belonging to this or that group?
Jews were murdered because they wern't part of the "Aryan race", this was the "perfect" race, that was the one the Nazis wanted to mantain. To be killed by the Nazis you also could be a black person or an homosexual. There was nothing to do if you were part of a group that was discriminated by the Nazis.

Of the three groups, which was the largest? Is their any connection between your answer and the term ‘The Silent Majority’?
The largest of these groups were the civilians or bystanders. The connection with the term "The Silent Majority" is direct, as they were "The Silent Majority", because eventhough they knew exactly what was happening, they didn't do anything to prevent the genocide applied to the million Jews during Second World War.

What possible relationships could have developed between the victims and the bystanders?
The relationships between the bystanders and the victims was really important, many times it was a thing of life and death, as Jews could be helped by the bystanders by being hidden on some place gaven by the civilians, along with food, clothes and other things. On the other side, Jews were many times betrayed by the bystanders, as they told the Nazis they had contact with Jews or something similar, this was, Jews were just murdered because of the bystanders.

Auden presents different situations in which prohibitions against the victims multiply and effectively turn them into refugees. Identify and list some of these prohibitions. What does it mean to have these things taken away from you?
Jews wern't free people during the Holocaust, many privileges were taken away just because they were Jews, and they had nothing to do against this, because they were going to be pursued by the German army and by consecuence, they were going to be taken to concentration camps. They couldn't go to any other place.

State bureaucracies are crucial in the lives of ordinary citizens, not to mention threatened population groups like the homeless or people evicted from their homes. Identify the different functionaries or objects that represent bureaucracies for Auden.
People who lived in mansions, the yew, the consul, the committee, the speaker of the public meeting, the birds, the buildings, the fish, the soldiers.

In your opinion, who is a refugee? Can one become a refugee in one’s own home?
A refugee is somebody that doesn't have a place in his own country or surroundings, just like Jews during the Holocaust, society didn't accepted them, they were not free. Yes, you can be a refugee in your own home, just like Jews were pursued in their own places.

How can state bureaucracies help refugees or hinder efforts to help?
State bureaucracies can help in some ways refugees, by the creation of laws that can help refugees with work, food or important needs in order to survive. They also can help by integrating them on any way to the society, in the end, a sense of protection.

In your opinion, should governments today have the responsibility to take care of refugees in their country?
Alternatively, what is the role of society in absorbing refugees? Think of schools, sports clubs, the scout movement and other organizations in your country.
Absolutely yes, refugees can't be hidden by the government, they deserve a chance of a better life, refugees aren't good for any country in order to grow, in order to grow, countries need a free society with people working on a decent way, not with a miserable life.
The role of society can be determinant on absorbing refugees, as they may help on a very good way, but the big majority helps in nothing, nobody likes a place with refugees, but also nobody does anything to take them out of his miserable life and give them a new opportinity.

Oral activity

The oral activity I had to do was about chapter 7, and I mixed elements from chapter 7 with elements of the Second World War, this way we were able to contextualize what was happening in the historical time compared to the novel, using quotes from the chapter.

Well, to start, in chapter 7, Georg tells the readers about Buchenwald concentration camp, how it was like, the quote "Cold, damp, wind, or rain were no longer able to bother me, they did not get through to me, I did not even sense them" tells us more or less everything was happening with the protagonist in that moment, even though he suffered inhumanly because of the Nazis, he couldn't feel anything now, because he already suffered everything he could. Buchenwald was the "least worst" camp Georg was(Others were Auschwitz and Zeits), as there he had hot water, better food compared to the other camps and he was treated on a better way.

It is necessary to describe what what the Holocaust, because all the things that happened in the book were during that period, the Holocaust was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, throughout Nazi-occupied territory.

As a summary, Jews were treated horribly just because they weren't part of the denominated "Aryan race", but the truth is that they were great for bussiness and hard workers, and they were getting more power slowly in Deutschland. This is the context of what was happening during the novel, and its important to say that it is a semi-autobiographic novel, this means that the author, Imre Kertesz, suffered some of the things that happen in the novel.

Nazi propaganda

What political message(s) are these pictures trying to convey?
Mainly, the Nazi propaganda were to spread the ideology of the Reich, they were used to persuade the German population to be part of the Nazi movement, these images gaved them a good image of the Nazi's, this also shows the kind of leader that Hitler is, charismatic(able to persuade and a good leader, that represented eveybody) and an influencing leader among his people.


What image of Germans are these pictures trying to convey?
An image of a charismatic and powerful leader that was able to guide the full country into prosperity


How do they portray this image?
Using an image of a powerful leader and using also a lot of symbolisms, for example a growing nation, represented by seeds, or the whole nation, represented by the Nazi flag, there was a Nazi symbol in every part of the cities.


What colors are used?
Bright colors for the things related with the Nazi ideology or his leader. Dark colors for the enemy related stuff and for Jews.


How do the people look?
Nazi militaries look serious and straight. German people(always represented by a person considered Aryan) looked happy and joyful. Jews looked sad.


What characteristics of these men are similar?
Everybody look serious, but also satisfied with the government of Hitler, convinced.


How do the artists convey these characteristics?
Nazis were very clever in terms of propaganda, they used a lot of different colors, the ones that were most accurate for the situation, also the emotions that transmitted the image of the propaganda was really important.

Fatelessness chapter 7 summary.

In this chapter, the protagonists tell us about Buchenwald concentration camp, what are his feelings, emotions, and thoughts about his experience in this conentration camp. Basically he is not feeling anything, he says that "Cold, damp, wind, or rain were no longer able to bother me, they did not get through to me, I did not even sense them." This can be explained because he suffered too much before to sense anything now, he already felt everything he could have felt to feel anything now, he also states that he found peace and tranquility inside the camp, reffering that what he is living inside the concentration camp is much better than what he lived outside of it. He also explains that the smell of quimicals can be smelled in some tubes and parts of the camp, he talks about the ways jews die inside the camp, that there are many ways to die. He talks that people inside the camp have a lot of injuries, broken arms, legs, amputation of some parts of the body, etc., because they were treated very bad.
To finish the chapter, the proteganist says a really ironic and important thing, that is "I could not fail to recognize within myself the furtive and yet-ashamed as it might be, so to say, of its irrationality-increasingly insistent voice of some muffled craving of sorts: I would like to like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp". This quote explains more or lees everything the protegonist feels, it means that eventhough he is suffering and treated bad, eating almost nothing, and in the end living in very poor conditions, sometimes he thinks that he still want to live, in the concentration camp, a little longer, because as he stated before he doesn't feels anything.