Helen And Alfons example essay topic

Eleanor Ayer's Parallel Journeys is an informative story of how two individuals survived and fought through the dreadful time of the holocaust. The holocaust was a time in history where Adolf Hitler wanted to rule the world. He forced the country of Germany to believe they could rule the world if they didn't have certain races and or religions of people living amongst them. He disliked anyone who wasn't the "perfect" Aryan race. Aryan Germans have blond hair and blue eyes. The races and religions Hitler didn't like the most were Jews, Gypsies, communists, Gays and Lesbians, and basically anyone who wasn't exactly like him in every way.

Adolf Hitler was admired by most, hated by many, and obeyed by all whether you liked it or not. Eleanor Ayer alternates chapters in the book by telling the life stories of Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck. Helen and Alfons both grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, only a few miles from each other. They weren't acquaintances, but they were both small children growing up in the holocaust at the same time. However, the major difference between them was that Alfons was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth, and Helen was a German Jew.

Alfons Heck was a boy of French ancestry, with dark wavy hair and dark brown eyes. His family had a farm near the town of Witt lich, Germany. The farm raised grapes for the Rhineland's famous white wine. When Alfons was only six weeks old, his parents took his twin brother, Rudolf, and moved to Oberhausen, a large, industrial city. His grandmother talked his parents into temporarily keeping Alfons with her at her home near the Mosel River. Well, the "temporary" situation turned into one year, then two, then most of his childhood was spent living with her.

All of the German boys including Alfons that went to his school were joining the Jungvolk, the junior branch of the Hitler Youth. They had to take a test of courage, known as a Mut probe, before they were allowed into their S char, a unit of forty or fifty boys. The test for Alfons' particular unit was to dive head first off of the three meter board into the town's swimming pool. If they then passed the test, they received a dagger with the words, "Blood and Honor" engraved in it. The dagger symbolized their full acceptance to the Jungvolk. At age fourteen, Alfons Heck was asked to try flying an airplane for the Hitler Youth.

At age sixteen, Heck was such an amazing pilot, that his commander named him Gefolgschaftsfuhrer of Flinger Gefolgschaft 12. That rank was equal to an army captain in the United States Army. He was put in charge of 150-190 boys. He was chosen because his commander told him he knew how to get out of "ticklish situations", and that he was very clever. After he mastered that, he became Unterbannfuhrer. That position is equal to a brigadier general in the United States Army.

The third and final position that Alfons Heck achieved, was Bann fuhrer, a rank equal to a U.S. major general. This was incredible to accomplish at age sixteen. Helen Waterford was a young German Jewish girl growing up in the time of the Holocaust. She lived in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1900's.

Her mother was German, and her father had come to Germany over the Baltic Sea from Lithuania. Helen was a happy teenager with a bright future ahead of her. Her mother wanted her to marry early to a wealthy man, but Helen had other plans. She attended a University, and there she met her husband, Sigfried Wohlfarth.

Sigfried's mother didn't approve of Helen because her father was Lithuanian. Helen responded to her thoughts by claiming, "I'm going to carry the Wohlfarth name until I die no matter what you say". Helen was living with Sigfried and had a young daughter, Doris, when she became affected by the results of the Holocaust. She and Sigfried didn't know what to do at first when a lot of the Jews were forced into hiding. They had heard rumors that all Jewish families with children were killed first, so Helen and Sigfried sadly boarded their beloved Doris with a couple they didn't even know the name of. They moved around quite a bit within the first year of hiding.

Life for the Jews unfortunately hadn't gotten any better. Every time Helen and Sigfried would find a suitable place to hide, it seemed the person hiding them would get scared and kick them out. If anyone was caught hiding Jews or Gypsies or anyone they weren't supposed to, they were killed just like the Jews. In Hitler's eyes, all Jews were seen as "Unter menschen", meaning "low class citizens". They finally found a place to hide with an elderly woman who fed them and kept them hidden for a little over a year. When she found out that you could turn Jews in for "head money", she told some SS soldiers where to find Helen and Sigfried.

Head money was paid to anybody who turned in Jews, the amount determined by how many people were reported and found.