2010/07/22

This Day in History July 22

During World War II, Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for the bad things happening to Germany and the world. After Hitler took control of Poland, a special place was made to house all the Polish Jews. This place was called the Warsaw Ghetto and the situation was bad. The Jewish people had very little food, it was dirty, and they got sick easily. Then, they began dying in large numbers, but Hitler did not think they were dying fast enough. On this date in 1942, the first Jews were moved from the Warsaw Ghetto to Hitler's death camps. This was an important part of the Holocaust, one of the darkest times in history.

歷史上的今天 7月22日…

第二次世界大戰期間,希特勒把發生在德國和全世界的壞事都歸咎猶太人。在希特勒掌控波蘭後,他建造了一個特殊的地方來容納波蘭籍的猶太人。這個地方被稱為華沙猶太人區,而且當時環境很糟。猶太人僅有少量的食物,容身之處又相當髒亂,很容易染上疾病。於是猶太人開始大量死亡,但希特勒並不認為他們死亡的速度夠快,於是在1942年的今日,第一批猶太人從華沙猶太人區被移往希特勒的屠殺場。這是大屠殺事件中很重要的一部分,也是歷史上最黑暗的時期之一。

知識大補帖

當身困在華沙猶太人區的猶太人得知第一批被送去屠殺場的人都全數喪生後, 有些人決定起身反抗。1943年,當納粹(Nazi)要遣送剩餘的猶太人時,爆發了華沙猶太區起義(Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)。不過這場起義最後以悲劇收場,德軍幾乎燒毀所有猶太區的建築物,殺了每個被捕的猶太人(圖,資料照片),總計5萬多人死亡。1970 年,在一場悼念當時罹難的猶太民眾的典禮上,當時戰後西德的總理威利.勃蘭特(Willy Brandt)下跪默哀,成了聞名後世的「華沙之跪」(Warschauer Kniefall)。而關於華沙猶太區和起義的相關歷史,也被國際大導演羅曼.波蘭斯基(Roman Polanski)拍進電影《戰地琴人》(The Pianist)中。

單字片語

◎Jew n. 猶太人
.Jewisha. 猶太人的;猶太教的
◎take control of... 掌控/掌握……,控制……
例:Mr. Lin took control of the class in less than a minute.(林老師不到一分鐘就控制了班上的秩序。)
◎house vt. 供給住所,收容 & n. 房子
例:The government decided to house the flood victims in the school temporarily.(政府決定暫時把水患災民安置在學校裡。)
◎ghetto n.(舊時在歐洲的)猶太人居住區;貧民窟
◎camp n. 拘留營
◎Holocaust n.(二戰時納粹對猶太人的)大屠殺

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