“Mr. Milgrom told him,'You cannot stop being a Jew,' Uncle Shepsel said, 'I’ve already stopped. I’m a Lutheran.' (Misha and Janina, Milkweed, p. 116).
To me this is a big disappointment.Not only the way he is trying to change who he is deep inside. Knowing that it’s not possible,but also thinking that reading a book about another religion is good enough to get out of the current situation at hand. It is also very disappointing that he did not show any sign of hope through his religion.He was ready to denounce any signs of him being a Jew. Unfortunate for him that's not how Hitler saw it, he thought being a Jew was a race not a religion.So it's too late for Uncle Shepsel to try and change his religion thinking he would be able to get out in a snap of a finger. On the other hand even though I was against him denouncing his religion.I think it was quite wise of him to have the thought that maybe if he changed his religion he could make it out of the ghetto and hopefully be able to smuggle out whats left of his family.
Reading that particular quote made me immediately think about the series Twilight.The Cullen family tries to blend in with the Forks civilization as typical humans and tries to change the fact that they are vampires.By being “vegetarians” this meens that they do not suck regular human blood but instead go out and prey on animals.This of course was not an easy task for them but they found the strength to survive.Even though they try their best to be typical humans deep down inside they are vampires and they’ll always have some type of craving for some fresh human blood.The way that Mr.Shepsel and the Cullens are alike is that they are both trying to change something very big about who they are.The Cullens are doing a great job with it but Uncle Shepsel just has it in his mind that if he slowly starts practicing Lutheran the Nazi’s or should I say Jackboots would let him go. What are your thoughts, do you think Uncle Shepsel would be set free if he entirely changes?
I don't think he would be set free. The Nazi party and Hitler believed that being Jewish was a race not a religion. Even if someone had converted to Christianity if one of there family members were Jewish they would be persecuted as if they themselves were Jewish.
ReplyDeleteRachel - very cool connection to Twilight. You know I JUST saw this interesting movie about the Rosenstrasse protests (something I knew nothing about) it was about "Aryan" women that had married Jewish men in Germany. Check this out and see what you think about these men? Were they also like Shepsel because some of them tried to marry out of their religion? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenstrasse_protest
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